Chapter 790: Fog and Sea and Memory (4)
Boom!
An explosion rolled through the mist. The dense fog was shoved violently aside, and gunshots rang out in rapid succession.
“Set off the flashbangs and draw them in!”
“If they get out of the park, they’ll be in the residential area!”
The acrid sting of tear gas bit at his nose. Seong Hyunjae lightly covered his nose and mouth with one gloved hand and turned his gaze toward the park in broad daylight.
– Skreeee!
– Kek! Kek!
Birds the size of large dogs were tearing through dirt and grass with their razor–sharp talons. Seong Hyunjae soon recalled what they were. Scale Groundrunner Birds. Small as monsters went, but their scaled bodies were sturdy, and they were fast. E–rank monsters.
‘A dungeon break.’
Apartment buildings rose all around them. Barricades had been set up around the park, and special forces were driving the monsters inward, setting off tear gas to keep them from escaping.
‘This is quite early.’
Less than a year had passed since Dungeon Shock. The Awakener Management Office and the Hunter Association had not yet fully settled into place, and with hunters still in short supply, the military had been helping handle dungeon breaks.
“Their attack power isn’t that high, so keep those shields up!”
A man who appeared to be a hunter shouted to the soldiers.
“If they get a clean peck in, it’ll punch through, but it won’t kill you.”
The special forces units facing monsters were, surprisingly, fairly safe. Intermediate–rank and higher dungeons had not started breaking open yet, modern weapons still worked to some degree on low–rank monsters, and the hunters accompanying the troops handled most of the direct combat. Even so, that did not mean no one was ever injured. Dungeon breaks were frequent enough then that civilian casualties were a serious problem, so injuries among soldiers were not something they could easily complain about.
“They’re too fast! Clearing them out will take time!”
“Request additional support. Yes?”
The commanding officer wearing an earpiece stiffened and backed away in confusion.
“Ah, yes. Understood. Everyone, fall back! Pull back!”
It was an absurd order with monsters right in front of them, but the soldiers all retreated at once, keeping their shields raised before them. The moment enough distance opened between them—
Chrrring—
A metallic sound rang out. A golden chain dropped into the middle of the monster pack.
Krrr–boom!
Light erupted. A storm of electricity swallowed the monsters in an instant and tore them apart. The blast of wind that had shot upward died down, leaving behind only blackened scraps where the monsters had been. Everyone stared blankly at the sight. The familiar face among the soldiers was no exception.
Seong Hyunjae’s gaze shifted to Han Yujin in military uniform. Han Yujin lowered his large shield and stared dully over it at the spot where electricity had just raged.
“Sesung Guild Leader!”
The hunter supporting the military hurried over to the man retracting the chain and bowed his head. The Seong Hyunjae of that time wore a gray coat.
‘It wasn’t an item.’
This had been an era when high–rank equipment almost never appeared. Items that suited his tastes were even rarer. The gear Seong Hyunjae liked to wear, including Silekia’s wings, had been obtained much later than this. The past Seong Hyunjae did not look back at the hunter. Without so much as glancing at the soldiers, he walked away as though he had merely stepped out for a short stroll. Han Yujin’s eyes followed Seong Hyunjae’s back. The others, too, watched Seong Hyunjae as if spellbound, but Han Yujin’s gaze was different.
There was no admiration in it. No fear.
Wariness, and—
‘Anger.’
A faint flare of fury dwelled in those black eyes. It wavered this way and that like a small flame. Seong Hyunjae stepped forward. With long strides, he approached Han Yujin. The soldiers around them scattered into mist, and Han Yujin turned to look at him.
“…S–Sesung Guild Leader?”
“So this was our first time.”
Most likely, this was the memory of the first time Han Yujin had ever crossed paths with him.
“I had no idea.”
This had been from a time before Seong Hyunjae had taken any interest in Han Yujin. He had not yet developed any interest in Haeyeon or Han Yuhyun either, so there was even less chance that an unawakened nobody, one who had not yet become the subject of public talk, would have caught his eye. Besides, at the time, he had been preoccupied with prodding Song Taewon.
“What are you talking ab… ah!”
Han Yujin’s eyes went round, and he stared at Seong Hyunjae. His military uniform vanished, and the present Han Yujin, a little older, looked around.
“This place.”
“The commemorative site of our very first meeting, Han Yujin–gun. Though I only just learned that myself.”
“…I’d forgotten all about it too, you know?”
“For someone who forgot, you were looking at me with terrifying eyes.”
Han Yujin turned his gaze away, looking embarrassed. Then he immediately started making excuses.
“Well, that was when I hated high–rank hunters the most. Acting all high and mighty while shoving children into battlefields… and I was furious that I had to drag Yuhyun home somehow, but I was stuck in the army. …There was probably a tiny bit of jealousy in there too.”
If I were that strong, I never would have let them shove a kid who hadn’t even graduated high school into dungeons.
That feeling had come out as jealousy and anger. Han Yujin looked faintly apologetic for a moment, then abruptly glared at Seong Hyunjae.
“You didn’t even know I was there anyway.”
“At the time, I was indifferent even to Haeyeon.”
“I know. You said you didn’t pay attention because you thought Yuhyun would leave the guild soon.”
Han Yujin let out a quiet sigh and stared at the disappearing park.
“Looks like my buried memories are coming back. And yours are returning properly too. This puts me at a loss. To make it fair, you should forget about a month’s worth too.”
“Even that brief while hurt my feelings.”
“Oh, please. You erased the feelings yourself, and now you’re saying that? The way you kept poking at me after I lost my memories was different from before, so—wait!”
Thwack. Han Yujin kicked Seong Hyunjae’s leg. Even as he grumbled that his foot hurt, he kicked him hard a second time.
“You started scamming me the second I lost my memories. Don’t expect so much as a single magic stone from me.”
“And here I thought you had offered to treat me. Telling me to starve is terribly cruel.”
“Take this chance to go on a diet. I don’t need much. Just cut off about three inches and give it to me.”
“Not to young master?”
“Yuhyun is growing perfectly well on his own. Twenty–six–year–old Yuhyun was about the same height as you, maybe because his rank was high. Or was he a little taller? …Then again, it might not have been because of his rank. Maybe he was originally supposed to grow that much.”
Han Yujin’s voice turned bitter.
“Even Liette is a natural–born S–rank damage dealer like him, and she’s a woman from the West, but she’s almost six–three. Does it make any sense that Yuhyun didn’t pass six–three? If he hadn’t been suppressing himself because of me, he would’ve grown at least four more inches.”
At least now, despite having only just turned twenty–one, he had grown close to six–three. At this rate, before long, he would likely reach the height Han Yuhyun had been at twenty–six.
“Still, getting over six–six would be too tall. Even now there are subtle inconveniences. So just give me those three inches instead. Let me get past five–eleven for once.”
Han Yujin rose all the way up on tiptoe as he spoke. If three inches were added, and his body grew as much as it had before the regression, he would end up around six–one. Just imagining it made him feel satisfied.
At that moment, Han Yujin’s figure began to blur. He hurriedly spoke to Seong Hyunjae.
“Find your memories again and approach me! This thing pulls out the memories of people caught in the skill too. Even ones that were forcibly buried. There’s a lot I want to ask you—!”
Han Yujin disappeared completely. The mist that had been pushed back settled thickly around him once more. Seong Hyunjae stared for a moment at the place Han Yujin had vanished, then turned away. With every step he took, shallow water rippled around his feet.
“Mister, what do you think of this?”
Park Yerim’s voice reached him. She held her phone out to Han Yujin while sneaking a glance toward the living room. It was the house at the Dodam Breeding Facility.
“Cute, right?”
On the phone screen was a large dollhouse. Park Yerim enlarged the photo and showed it to Han Yujin.
“It has a bed, and a dining table, and a couch, and a bathtub~.”
“It is cute.”
“Right? They have a garden set too. It’s exactly Sesung Mister’s size.”
Park Yerim laughed, heh heh heh, and whispered to Han Yujin. Han Yujin’s eyes looked fairly tempted too.
“Still, giving him something like a toy house is kind of…”
[I do want to see it, though.]
A little of Han Yujin’s true thoughts slipped out. Just then, the small Seong Hyunjae fluttered in from the direction of the kitchen. Park Yerim hurriedly closed her phone.
“I was thinking of preparing some snacks.”
“The kids—Mr. Seong Hyunjae?”
Han Yujin spotted Seong Hyunjae towering beyond the little Seong Hyunjae. He seemed startled for a moment, but soon took off his apron and ran over.
“Before I disappear again! Uh, first, try thinking back on your past, Mr. Seong Hyunjae. You never know. The moment you made the contract with Crescent Moon might appear.”
If they learned the details of the contract, they might be able to find a loophole. At Han Yujin’s urging, Seong Hyunjae tilted his head slightly.
The past.
The mist trembled. Wide, circular ripples spread across the surface of the water. It was night. He stood beneath a window seeped in moonlight.
“…That is you, right, Mr. Seong Hyunjae?”
He wore a thin shirt, and his half–lidded golden eyes looked strangely unfocused. Seong Hyunjae stared at his past self. A memory surfaced faintly.
“Hijo de la luna.”
“Sorry? What did you just say?”
“Child of the moon.”
A low fragment of song slipped briefly past Seong Hyunjae’s lips. Han Yujin, who had not understood it, tilted his head.
“In any world, people often make wishes to the moon.”
“In other worlds too?”
“Worlds without moons are rare. And always, it wanes and waxes again.”
Was it because the sun was light so bright it was difficult even to look at? People entrusted their wishes to that gentle light floating quietly in the night sky.
“But do not make wishes to Crescent Moon.”
“…I have no idea what that means. Explain it in a way I can actually understand.”
“This memory is…”
The mist swept broadly past like a stage curtain, and the scene changed. Seong Hyunjae was sitting buried in an armchair by the window. His face still looked vague and blurred. It felt as though not only his hair, but his very existence itself had not yet settled into place.
“Unfortunately, it seems to be from this world’s past.”
“Our world? Is this from when you were young?”
“I am still in my prime.”
“You know what I mean. But why are you like that?”
“This must be soon after I was planted. It is not easy to plant a being who does not belong to that world. Crescent Moon always chose worlds before Awakened appeared. That was the only way she could reduce my presence as much as possible before planting me.”
It was far easier to push in an unawakened person, not even an F–rank, than to shove in an S–rank hunter. The difference was between trying to pass a whale through the eye of a needle and trying to pass through a minnow. Of course, even the minnow could not simply slip in as it was.
“The conditions must have differed slightly each time, but this time, it was a child.”
“A child?”
“Someone wished to the moon for a child. That created a point of connection, and Crescent Moon carved me down and pushed me through.”
Knock, knock. The sound of knocking came. The door opened, and a much younger Vantes entered the room.
“Young master, how are you feeling today?”
“Mr. Vantes? He’s been with you since back then? The scenery outside doesn’t look like Korea either.”
“I was recuperating overseas. My parents hired Vantes to look after me.”
“Your parents?!”
Han Yujin looked at Seong Hyunjae in horror, as though he had just heard something he was never meant to hear.
“P–parents. I mean, of course you would’ve had them. Yes. But the Sesung Guild Leader’s family relationships were never really made public…”
“I was planted as their biological child, but my parents felt a powerful sense of wrongness. On top of that, my condition was poor, so they hid me away and treated me as if I did not exist.”
This is not my child.
Every time they faced Seong Hyunjae, they felt unease and fear. Their memories told them he was their child, but every sense in their bodies screamed that he was not. Facing the bewildered Han Yujin, Seong Hyunjae smiled softly.
“She grants what is desired. In all kinds of worlds. It would not have been only children. Wealth, power, revenge, knowledge—countless wishes must have been made.”
If they protected the sprout Crescent Moon had bestowed and allowed it to Awaken safely, they would have been able to obtain what they wished for.
Whatever ending that might have led to.
After all, the being who had been piled up, layer by layer, into something close to perfection could accomplish anything. In this world, too, the wish had been granted. Though they rejected him so intensely they hid him away, and in the end the family itself broke apart and drifted away.
Han Yujin stared silently at Seong Hyunjae, and at Seong Hyunjae. After asking a few questions about his condition, Vantes said he would prepare breakfast and left the room.
“Then, your parents now…”
“There is no need to concern yourself with them. My own recognition of them as parents is faint as well.”
“…So that was how Crescent Moon transplanted you.”
The Seong Hyunjae sitting in the chair slowly rose. His emotionless eyes turned toward the window. Han Yujin made an “Oh?” and deliberately brightened his voice as he approached the past Seong Hyunjae.
“Look at this. You’re smaller than the current you, aren’t you? About five–eleven? Maybe six feet? There isn’t even that much difference between us. What, about two inches?”
“I had been carved down.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe your current height is from Awakening, and this is the real one. Our Yuhyun hit five–eleven in high school before he Awakened and was still growing~. Even if he hadn’t Awakened, he probably would’ve gotten close to six–three.”
“Rather than that.”
Seong Hyunjae approached Han Yujin. The Seong Hyunjae of the past faded into the mist.
“It is more likely that the current me was the first me. The first and last form. So, regretfully, it seems impossible for me to fulfill Han Yujin–gun’s wish for six–six.”
Even after he was carved down and changed to be planted in a new world, he always arrived at the same result. A predetermined end.
Han Yujin looked back at Seong Hyunjae.
“…It’s not like I’m especially fond of six–six.”
“You did seem quite fond of large builds.”
“Well.”
Han Yujin shrugged, then continued.
“When you’re small, it’s harder to survive.”
– Grrrrrr.
A low growl came from somewhere. A monster burst through the mist, and Seong Hyunjae seized it with his bare hands. He hurled the calf–sized beast away as it was. With a yelp, the monster scattered apart.
“Low–ranks don’t get much in the way of stats, you know. And since those stats are added on top of your basic physical ability, the original body still matters in the end. Even for mid– to high–ranks, the better your build, the more advantageous it is, right?”
“You can compensate with Magic, so it matters less than it does for low–ranks, but generally, the higher the rank, the better the build becomes.”
“Exactly.”
Something red seeped through the rippling water beneath their feet. Perhaps because this memory belonged only to Han Yujin, beyond the mist that hid it from Seong Hyunjae’s view, someone screamed. Han Yujin’s brow twitched in a frown. He let out a short sigh, smoothed out his expression, and looked up at Seong Hyunjae.
“I like big people. I want all my kids to grow up tall and strong too.”
“I see.”
“To think the once–frail Mr. Seong Hyunjae grew up so splendidly. I’m moved~. More importantly, what about the contract with Crescent Moon? It still won’t work, huh?”
Was it too much to pull up memories from a past so ancient there was no telling how much had accumulated there? Han Yujin looked around, disappointed.
“Before I disappear again, hurry and try another memory—”
“This way, please.”
Kang Soyeong’s voice reached them. The mist drew back, revealing two people in front of a mini portal. Han Yujin was using crutches. Kang Soyeong continued.
“The Guild Leader is waiting for you inside. Please follow the hallway straight down.”
It was a memory from before the regression.
One Han Yujin had forgotten.
–TL Notes–
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