The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 55

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 55
Chapter 11
While Han Eol spent his time in Ju Hyung-sun’s study, Ju Yeon-hee entered her parents’ kitchen and carefully prepared abalone stone-pot rice.
In life, Ju Hyung-sun had loved the abalone stone-pot rice his daughter made more than any fine cuisine in the world.
Though he never said it aloud, Lee Myung-woo also preferred his wife’s stone-pot rice cooking.
In truth, the number of people she cooked for directly was quite small—only her late father-in-law who had passed in the Highland, her husband, and her parents-in-law.
And today, one more name was added to that list.
“How do you like it? I made it myself.”
Ju Yeon-hee waited anxiously for Han Eol’s verdict.
The fluffy white rice was crowned with plump slices of abalone—the kind of dish that made your mouth water just looking at it.
Han Eol first tasted a piece of abalone with his chopsticks, then spooned seasoned soy sauce over the rice, mixed it quickly, and stuffed a full bite into his mouth.
‘Ahh~.’
Admiration escaped him unbidden.
Han Eol gave an unconscious thumbs up.
“It’s really delicious. Really.”
“Really?”
Ju Yeon-hee broke into a bright smile.
“Try wrapping it with grilled Japanese seabream and roasted seaweed on the side. Both the abalone and the seaweed were sourced from the South Coast of Old Earth Korea, the Japanese seabream is from Jeju, and the crabs for the soy-marinated crab came from the mudflats of Taean.”
Han Eol experimented with different combinations—stone-pot rice with Japanese seabream, stone-pot rice with soy-marinated crab.
“Mm-hmm. It’s delicious. All of it is delicious.”
“Hehe. It’s so nice watching you eat so well. Your grandfather used to enjoy his food just like that.”
Ju Yeon-hee murmured this unconsciously.
The word “grandfather” made Han Eol stop chewing.
Ju Yeon-hee started, horrified.
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
…….
An awkward silence hung between them for a moment.
Ju Yeon-hee hurried to sweep up the spilled words.
“I misspoke. I’m truly sorry. I had no intention whatsoever of burdening you. Not at all. It’s just that seeing you eat so happily made me… oh….”
She stopped mid-apology and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Please, don’t cry like that. And you don’t need to apologize to me. There’s nothing to apologize for, really.”
Han Eol fumbled awkwardly to console her.
In truth, Han Eol had never thought of Lee Myung-woo as a father, which made it equally impossible for him to regard Ju Yeon-hee as a mother.
Han Eol was certain he was an orphan.
This was true now, and it would remain true going forward.
‘And yet…….’
Something strange persisted in touching a small corner of his heart, delicate and insistent.
That evening, Han Eol and Ju Yeon-hee finished dinner and returned to Hannam-dong.
Throughout the drive, an odd awkwardness hung between them.
Ju Yeon-hee kept glancing at Han Eol nervously.
Han Eol, having pondered something quietly during the drive, spoke his mind the moment they pulled into the garage of the grand Hannam-dong residence.
“I’m just mentioning this to be clear, but you shouldn’t worry about what happened earlier. I’m fine. I’m simply not emotionally ready yet.”
“Han Eol…….”
“But there is one thing I can say for certain.”
“What is it?”
Han Eol spoke clearly to the cautious Ju Yeon-hee.
“I don’t know when it will be, but if a day comes when I call you both my parents, I think I’ll call your wife ‘Mother’ before I call you ‘Father,’ Director Lee.”
What this meant was that Han Eol currently felt closer to Ju Yeon-hee than he did to Lee Myung-woo.
In truth, it was enough. The moment Ju Yeon-hee heard those words, something warm surged from deep within her chest.
“Sob….”
Unable to contain her emotions, Ju Yeon-hee covered her face with both hands and tears streamed down her cheeks once more.
Han Eol was startled again.
The next morning.
Han Eol descended into the underground garage and climbed into his car.
It was a large SUV released by Shinseong Automobiles, a subsidiary of the Shinseong Group. Powered by Highland-sourced Majeong Stone as its energy source, the SUV could operate in both manual and autonomous driving modes.
Since Han Eol was unfamiliar with Seoul’s geography, he selected the autonomous driving mode.
His destination: Ju Hyung-sun’s residence in Jangchung-dong.
As Han Eol’s SUV began to move slowly, the garage door sensed it and opened automatically.
The SUV descended silently down the Hannam-dong slope, then crossed the road between Namsan and Maebong Mountain before arriving at Ju Hyung-sun’s grand estate.
Han Eol had notified the residence in advance of his visit.
Thanks to this, the household staff—including the elderly butler—came out to greet him in front of the garage.
“You’ve returned, sir.”
The butler addressed Han Eol as “sir.”
Han Eol found the title strange, yet it was something he had to accept.
“I’m just stopping by the study for a moment. Please don’t trouble yourselves.”
After reassuring the staff, Han Eol went straight into the study and examined Ju Hyung-sun’s watch collection carefully.
Chapter 12
The dozens of elegant watches had been made in different eras.
‘Ju Hyung-sun must have been quite meticulous. He’s arranged the watches in perfect order by year of manufacture.’
As Han Eol made this assessment, he formulated a hypothesis in his mind.
1. Ju Hyung-sun’s watches must be related to the Highland region he visited. In other words, the watch hands are made of Child Metal.
2. Ju Hyung-sun was a visionary. Like an explorer who lived with constant danger, he must have prepared a way to pass down his Highland inheritance to his only daughter in case something happened to him.
3. To do this, it’s likely that Ju Hyung-sun split the Child Metal into two pieces and had two watches made. Then, whenever he entered Highland, he would wear one watch and leave the other in the study. That way, his daughter could later claim the inheritance he left behind in Highland through that watch.
‘If my hypothesis is correct, then Ju Hyung-sun must have worn a watch identical to this one when he entered Highland.’
Han Eol removed the most recently made watch from Ju Hyung-sun’s collection from its display case.
The display case was designed to open only with fingerprint authentication, and yesterday Ju Yeon-hee had registered Han Eol’s fingerprints in the system.
Therefore, Han Eol could retrieve Ju Hyung-sun’s watch whenever he wished.
‘Well then, shall I go verify whether my hypothesis is correct?’
Han Eol planned to put on the last watch displayed in the case and make a trip to Highland.
Was he after Ju Hyung-sun’s inheritance?
No. Han Eol had no such intention.
He didn’t know how much wealth Ju Hyung-sun had carefully accumulated within Highland, but one thing was certain.
‘Compared to the inheritances of the Spirit Clans across five continents, what he left behind would be paltry.’
Therefore, the true purpose of Han Eol’s sudden trip to Highland today rested not on claiming Ju Hyung-sun’s inheritance, but on recovering his body.
Yesterday, Ju Yeon-hee had given Han Eol much. She not only opened her most precious place—the study in Jangchung-dong—to him, but also prepared a warm abalone rice bowl with her own hands.
Han Eol wanted to repay Ju Yeon-hee.
‘Even if I can’t give her a grand gift, I should at least help her recover her father’s remains. Well, assuming Ju Hyung-sun hasn’t already become food for the Demon Beasts.’
Beyond that, Han Eol wanted to verify one more thing.
‘There’s something in the basement of the study.’
Ju Hyung-sun’s study had been carved out of the entire space from the second basement level to the third floor of the mansion, giving it a long, vertical shape.
Moreover, the study’s entrance existed only on the second floor of the mansion.
At least, that’s what Ju Yeon-hee believed.
‘But when I looked closely, there was another door in the study.’
A door Ju Yeon-hee didn’t know about.
Since this study was a restricted area accessible only to Ju Hyung-sun and his daughter Ju Yeon-hee, the other staff—including the elderly butler—naturally couldn’t know of this door either.
Han Eol had discovered that secret door immediately upon first examining the study yesterday.
It was thanks to the eye of the Dragon Clan member Akin, which protruded like a pimple on his palm of natural colors.
The Dragon Clan possessed eyes that could pierce through truth and falsehood.
Although Akin’s spirit and soul had perished and been absorbed into Han Eol’s palm of natural colors, the refined essence of his accumulated knowledge and talent had solidified separately into the form of an eyeball marking.
That eye had discovered the secret door left by Ju Hyung-sun.
More precisely, what Akin’s eye had detected was not the door itself, but the traces of Highland connected to it.
‘Shall I begin?’
Han Eol summoned the hand within his mental realm into this world.
From the palm of natural colors that descended from the Higher Dimension into Ju Hyung-sun’s study, a slender dragon eye unique to the Dragon Clan protruded.
This was Akin’s eye.
That eye penetrated all objects unobstructed and scanned their interiors thoroughly.
The information obtained flowed into Han Eol’s mind.
‘Here it is.’
Han Eol approached the bookshelf marked A1-13, pulled out several file folders, and rearranged them before replacing them.
Then, with a click and the sound of gears meshing, the bookshelf split left and right. Immediately after, a circular disk rose smoothly from the floor.
Since the disk had a palm-shaped outline drawn on it, its purpose was immediately obvious.
Han Eol aligned his right hand to match the palm shape and pressed it against the surface.
‘So that’s what registering my palm yesterday was for.’
Han Eol finally understood the registration procedure from yesterday.
At the time, Ju Yeon-hee had entered not only his fingerprints but his entire palms into the system.
However, when Han Eol entered the study or opened the watch display case, only his fingerprints were used; palm and palm-line information were never required.
Han Eol had found that suspicious, but it turned out the palm information was needed to open the study’s secret door.
‘User verification complete.’
After a moment, those words appeared on the disk.
Then, with a grinding sound like a millstone turning, the entire floor beneath Han Eol began to rotate slowly and descend underground.
What Han Eol discovered in that underground chamber was five Highland Exploration Backpacks and various weapons.
‘Each backpack has a slightly different configuration. This one’s suited for arctic regions, this one for desert climates, and this one for jungle terrain.’
Han Eol examined all five varieties of backpacks, then selected a versatile pack that could be used across multiple environments.
Next, Han Eol chose the Vibration Sword from the weapon display.
After completing his preparations for the expedition, as Han Eol opened the underground exit, a Tube Transportation System came into view—a transit system that moved between Old Earth and Midland, resembling a hollow cable.
‘Wow, they installed a Tube here?’
Han Eol had scanned the underground structure moments earlier through Akin’s eye, but he’d assumed the long underground conduit connected somewhere was merely sewage infrastructure; he’d never imagined it was a Tube.
As Han Eol failed to hide his surprise, a palm-shaped plate jutted outward from the side of the Tube.
This time, the palm-shape was not a right hand but a left hand.
‘The old man certainly is thorough.’
Han Eol placed his own left palm against the plate with a wry smile.
Zing—
Crimson light burst forth from the plate, scanning Han Eol’s left palm.
A moment later
“Registered user confirmed”
With that message, the Tube’s door slid open smoothly.
Inside, a single capsule waited, traveling at high speed through the cylindrical chamber.
As Han Eol watched, the capsule’s door opened automatically.
‘Where does this take me? Based on the aura connected to Highland I’m sensing, I can make an educated guess about the destination.’
Han Eol entered the elongated, pill-shaped capsule and reclined in a semi-prone position.
Whoosh—
The capsule shot forward like a bullet, delivering Han Eol to his destination in moments.
The Puppet Master Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Juno
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
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UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703071
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blog.naver.com/dreambookss
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@dreambookss
Submissions |
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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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