The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 64

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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 64
Rihanna gazed at the belt Han Eol wore with affectionate eyes, then raised her pinky finger with a snap.
“So you have to promise me something.”
“What kind of promise?”
“That you won’t damage that belt carelessly and you’ll take good care of it. That’s all I need.”
Rihanna’s request wasn’t unreasonable.
It was simply a measure of how much affection she had for her own creations.
Han Eol nodded vigorously at once.
“Of course I’ll treat it with care. This thing is tied to my life.”
Han Eol’s answer was flattery meant to please the listener, though it held a grain of sincerity.
“And there’s one more thing.”
Rihanna added another condition.
“What else?”
“From now on, whenever you bring Demon Spirit Stones from Highland, and whenever you receive some as rewards from Shinseong Group, you have to bring them to me first. Keep giving me your commissions. I’ll put my very best effort into making your pieces.”
Rihanna tapped her chest proudly.
Han Eol agreed readily.
“Sure, of course. Master Craftsman Rihanna, I look forward to working with you in the future. Ha ha ha.”
“Hoo hoo hoo.”
Pleased, Rihanna laughed with her head thrown back, exposing her throat.
After that, Rihanna drank like water and eventually got completely drunk.
“Sigh.”
Han Eol, watching Rihanna who could barely walk, covered his forehead with his palm.
Chapter 9
About an hour later.
“Master Craftsman, are you all right? Come on, snap out of it. Snap out of it.”
After supporting the limp Rihanna, who hung like a squid soaked in liquor, out of Sushi Zen, Han Eol gently tapped her cheeks.
Rihanna was taller than Han Eol and had broader shoulders.
But Han Eol had upgraded the muscle density of his entire body through the Spirit Clan’s Grand Method, so taking care of her wasn’t burdensome.
“Ngh, ngh.”
Rihanna thrashed about, still out of it.
“Ugh, this is driving me crazy.”
Han Eol sighed repeatedly.
‘I’m still underage, for crying out loud. So why do I have to put up with this drunk rambling?’
First, this sense of injustice seized Han Eol.
Then came practical concerns.
‘I don’t even know where this person lives. It’s awkward—should I just take her to the 1st Division? Or would it be better to go to Shinseong General Hospital?’
It was while Han Eol was wrestling with these thoughts near the Gangnam Commercial District.
“Huh? Wait, isn’t that woman there Rihanna the Master Craftsman?”
Someone recognized Rihanna.
When Han Eol turned around, he saw Jung Min-jun, his colleague from his cohort.
Jung Min-jun was an Ability User in the inspection division—someone who had shown jealousy and hostility toward Han Eol before.
But Jung Min-jun wasn’t alone.
“Rihanna the Master Craftsman? You mean that half-blood beauty from the manufacturing department?”
“Yeah, I know her. She’s got that killer figure, for real. What a coincidence—should we invite her to join us for a second round?”
The voices of rowdy, tipsy men followed.
Han Eol scanned the area and saw that several of his colleagues appeared to have been drinking with Jung Min-jun.
There were also a few senior Ability Users among them.
In particular, Kim Hyu-in, the red-haired Flame Mage, caught Han Eol’s attention.
‘That senior’s here too.’
Kim Hyu-in was an Ability User who had once gone drinking with Han Eol and was later kicked out by the Artemis Knights.
‘Looks like there was a 1st Division dinner today. Tch. This is going to be a headache.’
Han Eol’s lips twisted bitterly.
And as bad omens go, his premonition was never wrong.
“Hey, hey hey, you.”
Jung Min-jun pointed at Han Eol and widened his eyes.
“What? What is it?”
“What’s going on?”
“Did someone mess with our 1st Division’s star player Jung Min-jun? What’s up?”
“If anyone’s got a problem with us, we should beat the crap out of them.”
“That’s right. Who the hell would dare pick a fight with the 1st Division, huh?”
Jung Min-jun’s classmates stared at Han Eol with flushed, intoxicated faces.
Han Eol made no effort to hide his face.
He didn’t slip into stealth mode either.
There was no reason for him to shrink away like a guilty man.
When he fixed them with a steady gaze, Jung Min-jun’s pupils dilated further still.
“You—it’s Han Eol, isn’t it? It has to be. But you’re dead. I definitely saw your name on the casualty list at the First Base Camp…….”
Jung Min-jun muttered like a man possessed by a ghost.
“Han Eol, you said?”
Kim Hyu-in, who had a cigarette wedged in his mouth, reacted to the name.
“Hey. Move aside.”
Kim Hyu-in shoved his juniors roughly out of the way and stepped forward.
‘Sigh.’
Han Eol let out another heavy breath.
In truth, his feelings toward Kim Hyu-in were no warmer than those toward Jung Min-jun.
Both men had shown him jealousy or outright hostility in the past.
‘Should I eliminate them?’
In that moment, a sinister impulse took root in Han Eol’s mind.
Sensitive to anything that threatened his safety, Han Eol had no patience for leaving those with ill will toward him unaddressed. The instant murderous intent blossomed in him, a prismatic hand that had hovered in some higher dimension descended without warning to Gangnam Intersection, hovering above Kim Hyu-in and Jung Min-jun’s heads like a reaper’s scythe.
Whether they sensed the presence of death hovering above their napes or remained oblivious, the two men blinked repeatedly, their eyes fixed on Han Eol.
“So it really is that bastard from back then. Hey, come here.”
Kim Hyu-in snapped his fingers with arrogant swagger.
‘I should eliminate him after all.’
Just as Han Eol reached out with his prismatic hand to seize Kim Hyu-in’s soul—
Men in tailored suits materialized from nowhere, encircling Kim Hyu-in and Jung Min-jun’s group.
“Who the hell are you guys? Huh? Do you even know who I am?”
Kim Hyu-in raised his voice.
He didn’t merely shout—bright crimson flames flared up from his palms with a whoosh.
But the moment the suited men extended their hands horizontally, Kim Hyu-in’s flames hissed and snuffed out.
“Huh? A Dispel Ability User? One who cancels magic?”
Kim Hyu-in’s eyes widened in shock.
“Who are these guys?”
This time, Jung Min-jun stepped forward.
Jung Min-jun attempted to subdue the men by force. As a sword-wielding Ability User, his martial arts prowess was formidable.
But that approach failed as well. The suited men twisted his arm behind his back in a heartbeat and forced him to his knees.
“Huh—huh?”
As Jung Min-jun stammered in confusion, Kim Hyu-in and his associates fell to the ground one after another.
The suited men pinned them down, subduing each with overwhelming force.
Red Team Dispatch
Chapter 1
“What’s going on over there?”
“Those people are getting arrested, I think.”
Passersby cast glances toward Kim Hyu-in’s direction.
“Don’t stare. You bastards.”
Kim Hyu-in’s face turned crimson as he bellowed and cursed.
At that moment, something cold pressed against the back of his neck.
Simultaneously, one of the suited men crouched before Kim Hyu-in and thrust an identification card with a red border under his nose.
“Sir, the Headquarters Red Team! But why are you targeting us?”
Kim Hyu-in’s voice trembled as he spoke.
The Ability Users under each division of the Pioneer Division boasted that they feared no one within Shinseong Group—with two exceptions.
The Audit Department, which rooted out those who posed a threat to Shinseong Group.
And the Red Team, which guarded the Group’s VIPs and eliminated spies from other cities.
The suited man tapped Kim Hyu-in’s cheek lightly.
“Kim Hyu-in from the 1st Division, correct? We have some questions for you. Come with us for a moment.”
“No, wait—why is the Red Team doing this? I’m not a spy from another city. I’m Kim Hyu-in, a rising star of the 1st Division.”
Kim Hyu-in appealed earnestly, but the Red Team remained unmoved.
By that point, his bravado had already crumbled.
Jung Min-jun and his colleagues trembled like aspen leaves at the Red Team’s appearance.
The suited man whispered ominously.
“Now then. Let’s go quietly while we’re still being polite. Slicing off wrists and ankles isn’t something we want to do in a busy commercial district like this.”
“H-huh? Slicing off wrists and ankles? But what did I do to deserve this? Uhhhhh. Sob.”
Kim Hyu-in tried to resist until the very end, but before he could, another Red Team operative covered his face with a handkerchief from behind.
Within seconds, Kim Hyu-in’s head went limp.
Jung Min-jun met the same fate.
Shortly after, a black van glided silently forward and opened its doors.
The Red Team operatives loaded Kim Hyu-in and his companions into the van and vanished.
Before departing, one of the Red Team operatives bowed respectfully to Han Eol.
‘Good grief.’
Han Eol had never imagined that bodyguards of this caliber would be attached to him—the whole affair struck him as both absurd and ridiculous.
Yet when he thought about it more carefully, this wasn’t entirely unwelcome.
‘If they’re going to handle the cleanup for me, I have nothing to complain about.’
Then his gaze suddenly settled on Rihanna.
‘Damn. Since they’re already here and working, it’d be perfect if they’d take her along too. Sigh.’
Rihanna remained unconscious, sprawled half-prone on the ground and muttering incoherently.
‘Ugh. This is awkward.’
Han Eol dragged his palm slowly down his face.
The next morning.
A broad-shouldered 1st Division Commander visited the Pioneer Division and requested a meeting with Division Commander Lee Sung-woo.
“Come in.”
Lee Sung-woo’s deep voice sounded from inside the office.
The 1st Division Commander swept the office door open with authority and stepped inside.
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
Lee Sung-woo regarded the 1st Division Commander with his lone eye.
Despite his initial swagger, the 1st Division Commander’s knees buckled the moment he met the Division Commander’s piercing gaze.
Still, he steadied himself and pressed forward with his business.
“Division Commander, sir. Last night, multiple personnel from the 1st Division disappeared. By all accounts, they were taken by the Red Team.”
The 1st Division was Lee Sung-woo’s direct command, while the Red Team served as the left hand of Strategic Planning Division Chief Lee Myung-woo.
‘The Division Commander and Chief Lee don’t get along. So he’ll definitely stand up for us.’
This was the 1st Division Commander’s firm conviction.
Yet Lee Sung-woo’s response was lukewarm.
“I’ve heard about it already.”
“Sir? You were aware? Then it’s confirmed—the Red Team took men from the 1st Division. This proves those arrogant bastards are treating you with contempt, doesn’t it? What shameless dogs.”
The 1st Division Commander grew visibly agitated.
Lee Sung-woo, meanwhile, remained composed.
Crack.
Lee Sung-woo cracked a walnut shell between his thumb and forefinger and popped the kernel into his mouth.
“Commander.”
Just as the 1st Division Commander was floundering at this casual display, Lee Sung-woo unveiled information he hadn’t yet grasped.
“Do you know that one of the Red Team’s most critical duties is protecting VIPs?”
“Sir?”
“Last night, at Gangnam Intersection, men from your 1st Division—Kim Hyu-in, Jung Min-jun, and the like—were dead drunk when they laid hands on the Owner’s Direct Bloodline.”
“W-what? The Owner’s Direct Bloodline? You don’t mean…”
The Owner’s Direct Bloodline numbered only a handful.
Chief Lee Myung-woo, who was Chairman Lee Kang-hyun’s biological son, Division Commander Lee Sung-woo, and Knight Commander Lee Byul-ha.
Add Lee Min-chul and Lee Min-seo, Lee Sung-woo’s own children, and that was the complete list.
Five people—that was the sum of the Owner’s Direct Bloodline as far as the 1st Division Commander understood.
‘Wait. Didn’t Chief Lee Myung-woo recently find a son? So that makes six?’
Kim Hyu-in’s group, it seemed, had been drunk enough to lay hands on one of these six.
‘These goddamn idiots.’
The 1st Division Commander’s face went ashen.
‘If they wanted to die so badly, they should’ve just walked into Highland themselves. Why did they have to cause such a catastrophe?’
Lee Sung-woo’s cold voice cut through the commander’s rising panic.
“How do you manage personnel in the 1st Division? How dare they even think of laying a hand on my family?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Lee Sung-woo himself was taken aback.
‘What? Am I really calling my brother’s son family?’
But as he thought it over, it didn’t seem wrong at all.
‘A nephew is family, isn’t he? And not just any nephew—a Sovereign who reverses Demon Beast Mana! Incredible. For such a cheat of an ability to emerge from our house. Perhaps that monster will become the strong wall that protects our Seoul and Shinseong Group from the jackals of other megacities.’
Now Lee Sung-woo had abandoned his ambition to stand at the apex of Shinseong Group.
And with that, Han Eol naturally began to take shape in his mind—not as a rival, but as a formidable guardian who would protect Seoul, Shinseong Group, and by extension, Min-chul and Min-seo.
It was a remarkable shift.
Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer
Author |
Juno
Publisher |
(주) Samyang C&C
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
(주) Samyang C&C – Dream Books
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7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703071
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of (주) Samyang C&C – 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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