"Even executioners fear their own reflection."
The world vanished in a blink.
No sky. No sound. No time.
Just blackness—fluid, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Jiwoon floated in the dark, limbs heavy, senses dulled. He tried to move, but the space wasn't physical.
Then a whisper came.
"Executor Jiwoon, Contract 11-A. You have breached the First Law."
"Per directive: All violators must undergo Inner Judgement."
"Initiating Soul Mirror Sequence."
A flash.
And suddenly… he was standing. Barefoot. In a white room with no ceiling. No floor. Only infinity.
Before him stood a mirror.
But it didn't reflect him.
Not as he was.
It showed the boy he used to be — before the contract, before the debt, before the system.
The reflection spoke first.
"You killed them," the boy said. "All of them."
Jiwoon stared, jaw clenched. "They were guilty."
"Were they?"
"Or did you just need them to be?"
The mirror flickered.
Now it showed flashes—faces. People Jiwoon had judged.
Some screaming.
Some begging.
Some smiling, as if thankful to die.
Each one looked into the camera of his memory with one shared question:
"Who gave you the right?"
Jiwoon staggered back. A thousand voices echoed in unison.
"You loved the power."
"You needed the order."
"You believed judgment was purity—because mercy scared you."
The mirror cracked.
"You didn't kill for justice."
"You killed because it was easier than understanding them."
Blood began to leak from the cracks.
Jiwoon fell to his knees, clutching his head. The voices grew louder.
"Sin didn't make you strong."
"It made you empty."
Then—silence.
A single voice whispered.
"So… will you judge yourself now?"
He looked up.
The mirror had become a door. And his own reflection stood within it—older, covered in ash, eyes hollow.
"You judged the world, Jiwoon.
Now… accept the one sin you always denied."
Jiwoon stood. And for the first time in his life, he whispered:
"I was wrong."
The mirror shattered.
Not into shards—
Into light.
[INNER JUDGMENT COMPLETE]
[RESPONSE: ACCEPTANCE DETECTED]
[NEW STATUS UNLOCKED: FORBIDDEN CONTRACTOR – NINTH SEAL BREACHED]
When Jiwoon awoke, his eyes burned with black flame.
And etched into his palm… was a new symbol:
The Ninth Seal — Authority Over Guilt