My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 147

“Orders from the East often draw from Sanskrit. Conversely, Western orders often use runes.”

So, Park Do-joon asked Jung I-yeon to find a rune expert to examine the symbols that appeared to be commands.

Asking the police for such a thing would be pointless; they wouldn’t know who to ask, and even if they did, they wouldn’t cover the expenses, dismissing it as nonsense.

“But the rune expert couldn’t decipher it.”

“Yes, it probably isn’t runes.”

“Could it be another language?”

“That’s unlikely, considering the origins of demon worship.”

In religious matters, the original text is crucial. Even ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ [a Buddhist mantra] is read and written as is in Korean religions.

“Religious texts aren’t invented, are they?”

Religious traditions are passed down over generations. It doesn’t make sense for someone to create a new word and use it as a religious term.

“And I’ve analyzed the symbols used, and there’s almost no overlap.”

“Almost no overlap?”

The team leader didn’t understand. Park Do-joon explained it simply.

“Korean has 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels. Most languages are like that, except perhaps Chinese.”

Most writing systems create meaning by combining forms according to set rules. This is usually called an alphabet. People think of English when they hear the word alphabet, but strictly speaking, Korean also falls into the academic definition of an alphabet.

To be precise, English is classified as the Latin alphabet.

“If the symbols used are real letters, there must be overlapping parts.”

In Korean, the ‘go’ in ‘gogi’ (meat) and the ‘go’ in ‘gochu’ (pepper) are the same ‘go,’ but their meanings change depending on the letters that follow.

“But there’s almost none of that.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means they just drew lines that looked plausible without any consistent structure.”

It’s impossible to create a sentence without any repeating elements. Moreover, these magic circles are a form of prayer, and in that long sequence, not a single symbol repeats?

“I’ve looked everywhere, but there’s no such form of magic circle. Neither is the hexagram inside.”

The magic circle also looked like something he had seen before.

“Is that bad?”

“It’s bad. Have you ever looked at books or internet pages about magic circles for summoning demons?”

“No.”

“Exactly. That’s the problem.”

Ultimately, it means they created it based on a fake magic circle seen somewhere, but a real demon worshiper would have no reason to do that.

“There are many fabricated magic circles on the internet.”

“Does that mean the magic circle drawn there is a fake?”

“Probably.”

At that, the team leader was silent for a moment. Then he frowned.

“So, someone drew a magic circle to conceal the real motive for the murder.”

“Yes, I think so.”

“That’s the opposite of what the others think.”

“What are the others saying?”

At that, the team leader shook his head.

“Everyone thinks it’s a murder by a religious demon-worshiping group. So, they’re pushing to be assigned to that investigation.”

Well, that’s probably it. They’re agitated because they’re excitedly discussing it online.

‘In the end, even profilers are human.’

You’re not human if you’re not affected when people around you are making a fuss. Park Do-joon also had such moments. To work without being swayed by that, you have to learn to ignore those around you, but unless you’re a real psychopath, is that possible?

“Let’s anticipate when the next incident will occur.”

“It sounds like you think the next incident will occur.”

“It would be fortunate if it didn’t happen, but… well, will it not happen? Maybe it already has.”

“Well, if the death was two months ago…”

Now, the police are so focused on performance that they sometimes manufacture crimes and frame people, but there is a saying in the legal profession.

Even if you miss ten thieves, don’t create one innocent victim.

It means don’t falsely accuse someone, but frankly, Park Do-joon thinks it’s unavoidable if the criminal escapes, but he doesn’t want other victims to occur.

“But that doesn’t seem very likely.”

The team leader could only smile wryly at Park Do-joon’s honest words.

***

Not long after, the second victim appeared. Then, a huge number of reporters flocked.

“The secret is out, plain and simple.”

“We should have imposed a news embargo.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue, watching the reporters buzzing and looking this way from beyond the police line.

If they had imposed an embargo, the news desks would have filtered it out, but only controlling the police’s statements meant there was no restraint at all.

Once one person breaks the story, others start copying [a Korean slang term, 우라까이, for plagiarism or copying], and they contact their informants to get even one more piece of information.

“The important thing is to catch the criminal first, so let’s focus on that.”

“Let’s.”

The team leader nodded at Park Do-joon’s words and went inside. The place where the incident occurred was an abandoned factory. Usually, the entrance was locked with a large padlock, but it was cut off.

“It’s strange to have a factory in a place like this.”

Usually, factories are built in factory-dense areas or close to roads. That way, it’s easy to make and ship goods. But this place doesn’t meet any of those conditions.

It’s not in a factory zone, and there’s no paved road for access.

That question was answered as a man wearing a mask approached.

“This used to be an illegal factory.”

Park Do-joon recognized who he was when he heard the voice.

“Agent Seo, you came all the way here?”

“Everyone else hates it. I got pushed back due to seniority.”

Seeing him wearing a white hazmat suit [방역복 in Korean] with a mask and goggles, it seemed the inside was similar to the last situation.

“I heard this used to be an illegal factory.”

“An illegal factory?”

“Yes, but I heard it went bankrupt after being caught in a crackdown.”

“Ah……”

It would be nice if the world only operated legally, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Of course, there are illegally made goods, and sometimes there are legal goods, but the process puts a heavy burden on the environment, and the purification process costs a lot of money.

Of course, there are guys who make and sell that in places without proper facilities.

If you make such things in a place where there are many people, you’ll get caught right away, so you usually make and sell them in these secret places.

“People who came to demolish it found it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, the landowner is in jail.”

“Hmm.”

The landowner would have been running an illegal factory, and if he’s in jail, someone has to demolish this place. In that case, the government has no choice but to step in.

It’s no use telling them to get rid of it. In such cases, the government does the demolition and later seizes the costs.

“Let’s go inside.”

The team leader, who had approached at some point, was already wearing a white hazmat suit [방역복]. Park Do-joon saw that and hurriedly put on a hazmat suit [방역복] and went inside.

And he frowned inside.

“It’s similar.”

“Similar? It looks the same to me.”

“It seems so, but……”

It was a scene that looked almost the same as the last one. The same composition, the candles in the same position, the portrait of the devil hanging on the wall, and even the victim’s body scattered in pieces…….

“First of all, the composition is similar. That’s why it’s more of a problem.”

“Yes?”

Leaving Seo Joo-won, who didn’t understand, Park Do-joon took something out of his pocket. And holding it, he looked at the magic circle drawn on the floor and circled around.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m comparing it to the magic circle drawn last time.”

“Comparing it to the last magic circle?”

“Yes.”

At those words, the team leader and Seo Joo-won just watched without saying anything. After a long time, Park Do-joon put the paper in his pocket.

“What’s the time of death?”

“Uh, about two weeks.”

“Two weeks?”

“Yes, the victim’s identity is still unknown.”

“I see.”

“So, how is it?”

The team leader asked when Park Do-joon seemed to have examined everything.

Park Do-joon shook his head at the question.

“It’s completely different. There are no similar parts at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“This magic circle. The overall composition and style are the same, but the metaphysical symbols drawn inside are completely different.”

It’s clearly a scene that looks the same. The shape and position of the magic circle, the position of the candles, etc., are mostly similar, but the unknown drawings [그림들 in Korean] in the form of symbols drawn inside were drawn in completely different forms.

“Then……?”

“People can remember the big picture, but it’s not easy to remember it in detail.”

You can easily remember the shape of a circle, but you probably can’t remember the symbols written inside. No, if it was really symbols, you would have remembered it. Because it would be a sentence.

But what if it wasn’t and he just drew a picture arbitrarily?

Most people probably won’t remember it exactly.

“Looking at it, it’s definitely different.”

There were sections that looked similar, but that was only coincidental. If you look at it in detail, it’s a completely different shape.

“So, at least it’s not the same sequence of symbols.”

“Yes.”

The team leader frowned as he listened to Park Do-joon’s words. It’s definitely harder to see him as a demon worshiper.

“Is there a possibility that the symbols look different because the sequence is different?”

“You can say there’s none.”

“Why?”

“No matter how different the sequence is, it doesn’t make sense that there isn’t a single overlapping symbol. At least the proper nouns should overlap.”

Even the unique names of demons like Satan and Beelzebub should overlap, but there’s not even that.

Offering sacrifices means wanting the power of the subject [대상 in Korean]. Of course, if you don’t include a clear explanation symbolizing the subject [대상], there’s no point in offering sacrifices.

“So, as you say, there’s a high possibility that it’s a murderer disguised as a demon worshiper.”

“Yes.”

While listening to Park Do-joon’s words, the team leader glanced outside. If they tell the gathered [몰려든 in Korean] reporters this fact, it will only increase the confusion.

“Let’s go out and talk.”

In the end, the two went to a place where there were no people. The team leader offered Park Do-joon a cigarette, but Park Do-joon shook his hand and refused.

“You don’t smoke?”

“I quit.”

“Ah, that’s right. Anyway, what do you think?”

“The perpetrator [범인 in Korean] is probably not particularly intelligent.”

“You said he was intelligent before?”

“To be precise, that’s in the context of demon worshipers. And this word intelligent is a bit ambiguous.”

“What do you mean, again?”

“Doesn’t intelligent generally refer to the intellectual class or social leaders?”

“That’s right.”

“But isn’t there a somewhat ambiguous aspect in this classification of social leaders?”

“For example, let’s say there’s a famous artist. He puts out a lot of works, and the works he creates are worth over 1 billion won each.

He will probably be classified as socially intelligent.