Chapter 261.1

Chapter 261.1

If he kept digging, digging deeper like this, he would find Seoryeong’s face. He would find her hair. At least he would find clothes that still carried her scent. He had to.

Lee Wooshin did not stop. He had to find something and pull it into his arms. Only then would he be able to breathe.

As if possessed, he shoved Jin Hojae aside and continued clawing through the ashes. He moved faster, tearing through the wreckage as if he meant to destroy everything in his path.

Stones and dirt scattered in all directions. Slick oil smeared his fingertips black. Still, he did not stop. The team members exchanged silent looks and lowered their heads.

His fingernails split and bled, but Lee Wooshin paid no attention. From the moment he saw the ash drifting like snow, he had been trapped in a nightmare of his own.

“Seoryeong. Seoryeong…”

His movements were firm, his expression eerily calm. Anyone other than his team would have struggled to see that he had lost his mind. Jin Hojae grabbed him again.

“Team Leader, please. The rescue team already cleared the site once. She is not here. Please, get a hold of yourself…!”

Cleared what in the middle of a war zone? What could those bastards possibly have done right? Lee Wooshin pushed Jin Hojae away as if they were grappling. His face remained strangely composed.

His reason had already slipped away. Even he felt the dissonance, as though his body and mind were no longer connected.

Nothing else mattered. He only needed whatever trace his wife had left behind. His fingers scraping through the debris grew increasingly stained with blood.

Then something long and pitch black caught at his fingertips.

“!”

He frantically brushed away the ash. A blackened mass slowly revealed itself.

His soot darkened hand froze. His heart dropped a beat too late with a heavy thud. He saw a familiar ring. It was a severed arm, burned until it turned black and brittle.

He found it.

It was the ring he had slipped onto her finger himself, the one he had repeatedly told her never to remove. The explosion had been so violent that the remains barely looked human. It resembled nothing more than a charred lump of coal.

Jin Hojae clamped his lips together and quickly turned his head away, unable to stomach the sight. Lee Wooshin, however, pulled it into his arms. Under his trembling grip, the charred flesh crumbled and fell apart like ash.

The man who had stood so rigid slowly began to collapse. It was as if the final thread holding his heart together had snapped. He buried his face into the ashes.

It is enough. Let us go home now.

The burning ash brushed against his skin and bit into it.

‘I failed to protect you. The powder that entered his nose left a searing trail as if it burned. I was a failed husband.’

Lee Wooshin lowered his face even further in desperation.

After a moment, he stripped off his outer coat with trembling hands. As though handling something precious, he carefully wrapped the fragment and secured it, then held it against his neck and arms.

The sight was strangely reminiscent of someone cradling a baby. None of the team members could bring themselves to say a word.

*

“This is the body transferred from a temporary burial site. It is currently being stored in the hospital morgue, but due to the war, the facility is not operating properly. So I ask for your understanding in advance that the condition is not… perfect.”

At the end of the hospital corridor, cold air lingered.

A man wearing a doctor’s coat stained like a rag let out a long sigh. He held out the paperwork and took out a pen. Then he cleared his throat, glancing at them cautiously.

“Since this is a wartime situation, we have drastically simplified the procedures. Under normal circumstances, we would never release a body to someone whose identity has not been fully verified. Unless you are the husband, a sibling, or a parent, we would not hand it over so easily…”

Lee Wooshin snatched the pen without expression. His hand moved quickly and roughly as he signed the document.

‘Seoryeong, this is almost laughable. No one else but me. I am your husband, your brother, your parent.’

“In cases of severe damage to the body, guardians often request DNA verification. However, given the situation in this region…”

“I will do it.”

“Pardon?”

“I will verify the identity myself.”

He replied in a fluent foreign language. The doctor frowned slightly, as if he had just heard something strange.

The two walked toward the morgue in uneasy silence. A nauseating stench hit them from the end of the stairwell. The doctor covered his nose with a grimace, but Lee Wooshin did not even twitch a brow.

The morgue was in chaos. The freezer units were not properly powered, and some doors did not even close. Beneath a loosely draped tarp, the doctor lifted a white sheet.

The team members behind him let out low groans. The charred corpse barely resembled a human being.

The skin had burned completely and split apart. The muscles had melted away. Lee Wooshin clenched his fist, yet his pupils moved slowly as he examined it.

With his emotions stripped away, he estimated the length of the legs by sight. Then his brows twitched. Without warning, he grabbed the corpse’s face. The doctor recoiled in shock and shouted.

“Why would you—! What are you doing right now—!”

Lee Wooshin shot him a cold look. Jin Hojae understood the signal instantly. He restrained the doctor from behind and clamped a hand over his mouth.

Lee Wooshin did not hesitate. He thrust his hand into the corpse’s mouth. He forced open the brittle jaw that crumbled at his touch and bent his head to look inside. The sharp line of his eyes glinted.

“No matter how I look at it, something is wrong.”

His voice fell low and cold. He turned his hand and felt along the molars.

The doctor struggled and let out a muffled sound, but Lee Wooshin continued speaking in a quiet murmur. Strength gradually returned to his voice.

“My wife’s second lower molar on the left tilts slightly inward. Every time we kissed, that tooth touched my tongue. But this body has perfectly aligned teeth. Do you not find that strange?”

He pushed his hand deeper into the mouth as he spoke.

“And there should be a crown around here. The wear is different too. The alignment alone is wrong. I have explored the inside of Seoryeong’s mouth enough times to know it at a glance. I would know even better by touch.”