“I want you to do this. No one else.”

About four years ago, in a private detention facility in Myanmar. Deputy Director Ju Seolheon had come to see him, holding a folder with something enclosed.

At the time, Lee Wooshin was deep undercover within the ruling regime—acting on intel that Myanmar’s military dictatorship was beginning to stir again.

His missions usually ended with him erasing all traces and disappearing. But between assignments, he’d holed up in the private prison, killing time until the next order dropped.

“She’s your next target. Temporary codename: Owl.”

It was the first time Deputy Director Ju had personally visited him since his recruitment. Lee Wooshin silently pushed back his shaved scalp and climbed into the car.

He tore the envelope open carelessly, and a flood of photographs spilled out—images of a woman he’d never seen before. With detached eyes, he read over her brief personal file without missing a word.

An orphan. A dropout. Ah—she’s young, too.

A blank face spending most of her time in a care facility. A stiffly ironed white uniform. Eyes that, depending on the angle, looked either sorrowful or completely numb.

Still reeking of baby fat, and yet there was no trace of life. She looked more like someone who should be crying than smiling. That thought crossed his mind unbidden.

“What exactly am I supposed to do with someone like this?”

“Marry her.”

The moment he heard that, he let out a dry laugh. He’d carried out countless operations, but never had he been ordered to get married.

As he laughed again in disbelief, the Deputy Director frowned.

“Even if you live like this, you still know what a husband is, don’t you?”

“Isn’t that just some mutt who shows up demanding food every day?”

“.......”

Ju Seolheon sighed and handed him another photo.

A man’s face. Wrinkled. Eyes filled with something dark and sunken.

Wooshin’s expression turned cold in an instant.

There was no way he wouldn’t know who that man was. An infamous figure—once the subject of endless gossip both in Russia and South Korea.

“Rigai Viktor’s been granted a special pardon in Russia.”

“......!”

The photo crumpled in Wooshin’s hand like it had no form to begin with.

The Solzhenitsyn Family Tragedy.

Even now, he sometimes had nightmares like a child.

The moment that magnificent estate shattered into flames and rubble. The guests’ screams were swept away in an instant.

Seventy Russian politicians. Thirty-eight of the Solzhenitsyn family’s relatives. Over forty employees. All burned alive in a hellscape.

As he clawed through black ash, torn limbs surrounded him—his grandfather’s flesh, his uncles’ heads, his cousins’ shoes.

And yet, the boy didn’t cry. He didn’t stop. Only the wild hammering of his heart below his neck kept him crawling forward.

He crawled with everything he had. Over corpses, over more corpses, checking the faces of everyone invited to his birthday party. The baby—where’s the baby...

The worst bombing attack to ever occur at a birthday party. The Winter Castle—pride of the Solzhenitsyn family—was utterly destroyed that day.

His grandfather, known as the "brain of Siberia," and his Korean grandmother. The love they had barely protected turned into a tragedy beloved by scandal-mongers.

The once-noble house that once supported the Russian monarchy vanished as ash.

Only one survivor.

The grandson of the Prime Minister—the boy whose birthday it had been.

“Once that bastard gets out, the first thing he’ll do is start looking for his daughter.”

“......!”

He had a daughter? The thought made his gut churn.

After the bombing, the fact that the only heir to the Solzhenitsyn family was still a minor—that was practically a curse.

His life as a drifter began that day. To escape the constant threats, he had willingly crawled into the hands of South African mercenaries, offering his life in exchange for protection and training.

Ever since fleeing Russia, Wooshin’s life had been nothing but bloodshed and survival. But the unfinished business that kept resurrecting him from the brink—this was it.

“――.”

His frozen gaze returned to the girl’s photograph.

The elite terrorist who destroyed Winter Castle. Responsible for over a hundred casualties. Now on death row. A second-generation Koryoin, a top research scientist from Moscow University—Rigai Viktor.

And this girl ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) was the daughter that genius monster was looking for?

Only now did Lee Wooshin realize why this operation had come to him, of all people—and he laughed.

They needed someone who could approach Rigai’s daughter with a mask of affection—and abandon her in an instant. Someone who wouldn’t falter with pity or sentiment.

Wooshin was perfect for it.

“Listen to me, Lee Wooshin. You must never—under any circumstances—allow those two to meet.”

“.......”

“Not even a glance. Not even for a second. No eye contact. Nothing.”

The gravity in her warning made his brow twitch faintly.

“We’re even considering temporarily paralyzing her optic nerves—inducing short-term blindness.”

“......!”

Wooshin whistled. The sound was half awe, half contempt. But Ju Seolheon’s expression remained cold—her face full of certainty, completely free of guilt.

“What do you think will happen if they meet, that you’re making this such a big deal?”

He asked with a mocking lilt.

The Deputy Director stayed silent.

When she finally spoke, it was after a long pause.

“The world will be even more of a disaster than it already is.”

When she turned her head, it was clear she had no intention of explaining further.

Wooshin leaned his head against the seat, his expression already bored. When you spend half your life crawling through the bottom, your mind wears thin—and you stop caring about the world.

Within a system run by HUMINT—human intelligence—he was just another cog. He received orders. He executed them. That was all.

He simply let himself recall the final moments at Winter Castle.

“Rigai Viktor is pathologically paranoid. Even when Russia locked him in solitary confinement and watched him like a hawk, he refused to eat out of sheer suspicion.”

“.......”

“If Rigai really starts moving to find his daughter, it’s only a matter of time before the U.S. or Russia catches wind of it. But I have no intention of letting Owl fall into anyone else’s hands. We’ll secure them first.”

There must be something about this father and daughter...

Wooshin stared at the woman in the photo.

But no matter how long he looked, she seemed too dull to be that Rigai’s daughter.

Nothing about her stood out. Her background screamed ordinary. So ordinary, it was almost boring.

Her father had blown up a castle, murdered hundreds, been sentenced to death—and she was out here tending to people who were barely alive?

What the hell was this setup? He scoffed.

“We don’t know when or how Rigai will appear. That’s why we’re forming a separate team to completely surround and monitor Owl... Wooshin, are you listening to me?”

“.......”

Owl. Just like her codename, she blinked wide eyes toward the lens.

A peculiarly pale and slender face. Translucent wrists showing veins. A composed cheek that didn’t seem easily startled or impressed. A thin nape with flyaway baby hairs.

Wooshin ran his tongue lazily over his lower lip.

His gaze naturally lingered on that already exposed place.

The Deputy Director snapped her fingers sharply at his wandering attention.

“Staying close to Owl, and having access to Rigai—there’s no one more suited for that role than her husband. This might be a long-term mission. You need to prepare yourself.”

“Are we fucking too?”

“...What?”

“You’re telling me to be her husband.”

He tapped the photo of the girl—barely out of adolescence. Her white teeth looked out of place against the blotched surgical mask. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Ju Seolheon didn’t speak for a moment, then nodded.

Wooshin kneaded his stiff shoulders and muttered lowly,

“At this point, I don’t know who to feel sorrier for—Owl or me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“One of them doesn’t even know who her father is. The other... has to wag his dick at the daughter of the man who ruined him. You tell me—which one of us has it worse?”

The husband role felt unfamiliar—but this kind of manipulation? He’d done it countless times before.

Still, even before the mission began, something bitter and poisonous crept up like a weed.

If he really had to sleep next to this woman... it would feel like lying down in the ruins of Winter Castle.

And yet—

If he got to meet Rigai himself, maybe he could recover something from the ashes of that fire.

Just then, Ju Seolheon’s voice rang again.

“Eliminate any forces approaching Owl. And protect the daughter—from her own father.”