Chapter 254

There had been a group of students who were very fond of a teacher named Seo Jio.

'Two boys and two girls.'

Their personalities had all been different. One was taciturn, one a delinquent, one cheerful, and one composed. They were polar opposites, yet they got along wonderfully.

'If anyone asked which students I remember most, they would certainly be the first to come to mind.'

As Jio sat in a chair in the lounge, the man asked him, "Is coffee all right?"

"Of course."

Seo Seohui was one of the boys Seo Jio remembered.

"I'm personally fond of instant coffee like this. It's sweet."

"That's a relief. You don't look like someone who would enjoy it, so I was a little nervous."

Jio tilted his head at the joking remark. "What do I look like I would enjoy, then?"

"Hmm, coffee brewed by a professional barista, or some fine floral tea?"

"I enjoy those too, of course."

"Then I'll take that to mean you're not picky."

"Every food has its merits. You're quite right, Mr. Seo."

As he spoke, Jio thought, 'His childish palate hasn't changed, even now that he's grown up.'

Apparently, he still hadn't learned to appreciate the true flavor of burnt-bean water. Back then, with the deadpan face of a model student, he had asked why anyone would bother drinking bitter coffee when there were so many delicious things in the world.

Jio wasn't sure whether that preference was why he was serving instant coffee now, or whether it was simply because they were sitting in the Association's lounge...

"..."

Either way, he was glad for this rare chance to revisit old memories.

'So much has changed in this world, but some things are bound to stay the same.'

It felt rather nice.

"What made you want to speak with me?"

"I've personally taken quite a liking to you, Hunter Seo Jio."

"I understand exactly what you mean."

"Am I that predictable?"

"What I do is rather to Justitia's taste, after all. Though I hadn't expected to catch your eye, Mr. Seo."

"It's a little embarrassing when you put it so bluntly... But yes, you're right."

Seo Seohui sat before him, fully grown. In the past, Seo Jio had sat before him as his teacher. Their roles had reversed.

Looking like a man in his late twenties, Seohui continued, "By the way, you don't seem particularly afraid of me, Hunter Seo Jio."

"Would you like me to be? I could oblige, if you wish."

"Of course I wouldn't want that. I only mentioned it because most Hunters I meet won't speak freely with me. I've had this grand title of Symbol of Eternity or whatever attached to me..."

"That must be a nuisance."

"..."

Seohui blinked, then answered a beat late. "... I think you're the first person to say that to me."

"Why is that? I heard the Association President was a friend of yours."

"Ah, I mean... no one other than my peers has said that."

"I mentioned it because you didn't strike me as someone particularly fond of such grand titles."

"To be honest, I'm not. It's not a name I particularly welcome."

"Yet it must be worth holding on to, or you would have discarded it."

"Oh..."

Seohui gave a deliberately exaggerated shrug. "You're more forthright than I expected. I thought you would be the type to observe from a distance rather than speak directly."

"I didn't think you were someone who would sulk over a few frank remarks, so I said what I thought."

"Ah, certainly. I like honest people."

"Because they spare you the mental effort?"

"You know me very well."

Rubbing his chin, he asked, "I'm working up the courage to ask this, but did we know each other?"

"Hmm..."

Jio mulled over his question, then smiled. "What an unusual kind of courage."

"The more I think about it, the harder I find you to read, Hunter Seo Jio."

"So you decided to ask me outright?"

"I've often been called an unusual man myself, but I doubt I can compare to you."

"As you suspect, I hear that often."

"So you don't intend to answer my question?"

"Don't you already know the answer?"

"..."

After a silence, Seohui smiled. "... I'm sorry."

He looked tired. More precisely, he had already been tired, and it felt as though he had peeled away a layer of the mask he wore to hide it. With a sheepish smile, he said, "It seems we were very close."

"We were."

"You didn't seem well known within Korea. Did we meet overseas? Or, if you really did stay exclusively within Collector, perhaps when I visited... we might have met..."

"..."

"... I'm truly sorry. Considering your age, we must have become acquainted when the world was more chaotic. The Association President had plenty of reasons to use Promise indiscriminately back then. You seem to know this already, but... this Promise is, well, so far-reaching..."

He looked utterly worn out.

"Are you sure it's all right to show me a side of yourself so unlike Justitia's Guild Master?"

"... Are you teasing me? Well, I don't see much point in putting on an act for someone involved in Promise. And I don't think you would exploit this, Hunter Seo Jio."

"You seem quite used to strangers claiming to know you. You look more tired than flustered, and you don't seem terribly surprised. You must have forgotten people like this often."

"It seems to happen less often these days, but yes. Though, honestly, I can't even be certain of that. Sometimes the very existence of someone caught up in Promise is erased..."

"Are you saying you've forgotten even what you've forgotten?"

"Yes. Again, I'm truly sorry."

Seohui asked cautiously, "... Could Promise be the reason you only recently began making a name for yourself in Korea...? If so, my friends and I will do everything we can to compensate you. And Collector too, of course, for the misconceptions it's been saddled with..."

"It isn't."

He seemed to have grown much more prone to blaming himself while they had been apart.

"I really was keeping myself hidden."

"... Then I must have stumbled upon a wonderful connection by sheer chance. To have been that close to someone so talented, whom Collector keeps so tightly under wraps."

"It truly was a wonderful connection. At least, I believe it was to me."

"I'm ashamed to have erased such a bond."

"You can speak more freely with me."

"... More freely? Ah, even more freely than this...?"

For the first time, he looked surprised. "... Were we that comfortable with each other?"

"Comfortable enough to dispense with formalities."

"No way."

"It's true."

More precisely, Seo Jio had been the one dispensing with formalities.

"Would you believe me if I said we were close enough that I knew about your families?"

"... That? We told you about that? No, wait. When you say 'your,' how many of us do you mean...?"

"Unless my memories have changed too, four in total, including you. You were always together."

"..."

Seohui seemed dumbfounded. "... We forgot someone that precious to us?"

"That surprised me a little too."

He had thought they had made quite a few memories too precious to forget. He had never imagined they would forget everything about their teacher.

"But I'm sure they were put toward something more worthwhile."

That was why he felt sorry for them.

"You've been through so much."

"... Uh..."

"I don't enjoy going out, and I struggle to interact with strangers, so I only learned quite recently that you were in this situation. It must have been hard all this time."

"..."

"It saddened me to think how much you must all have suffered without my knowing."

After a long silence, Seohui gave an awkward smile. "... I have no idea where it began, which memories... or how much we offered to Promise."

He seemed a little excited, too.

"... I'd like to speak in more detail. What you were to us, what sort of life you've led, why you've only revealed yourself now... There's so much I want to ask."

"There's no need to hurry."

There was no reason to.

"Haven't you lived perfectly well without me until now?"

"Hearing that only makes me more curious. You speak as though you were someone quite important to us."

"No. Perhaps I'm the only one who remembers ours as a deeply personal, intimate connection. Memories don't return easily once they're gone, so I think things aren't so bad as they are."

"It eases my mind to hear you say that. Still, aren't you hurt... that we forgot you?"

"A little. I'm human too, and we were fairly close."

But he understood.

"Even so, I'm not someone you necessarily need."

"Are you drawing a line between us? Now I'm the one feeling hurt."

"I'd appreciate it if you took it as a small, petulant complaint. You may not know this, but I never agreed to have your memories of me erased..."

"..."

Seohui's expression stiffened slightly. "... Have you ever died?"

"You don't seem to have remembered anything. I wonder what prompted that question."

"We would never have offered our memories of a living friend to Promise without their consent. Someone dead, who had become a memory, might be different. But otherwise, it would be too cruel to everyone involved... We promised we wouldn't do that."

"Oh dear. I let that slip."

"..."

Seohui rubbed his face, then put on his usual smile. "... Could we move somewhere else to discuss the details? I only wanted to find out how deeply Promise connected us, but you're a far more distinguished guest than I imagined. This isn't the place for such a conversation."

"I'm sorry, but my companions are waiting. Guild Master Bi Sabeol in particular takes such great care over my safety that I wouldn't want to worry him. More importantly, don't you think we should both gather our thoughts before speaking again?"

Jio blinked as he looked at Seohui. "Ah, and..."

A thought had just occurred to him.

"Was it only your memories that you offered?"

"... Pardon?"

"I suppose that's something I need to think about too."

Jio stood. "I'll see you another time."

"Then... may I arrange a meeting when you have some time?"

"I doubt I'll have any time until we've dealt with this dungeon, at the very least."

"That's one more reason to subjugate the dungeon quickly."

"I'm most grateful to hear you say so."

Giovanni personally disliked that dungeon. Help from someone as capable as Seo Seohui would be welcome.

"Have a safe trip back."

"You too, Hunter Seo Jio."

Jio left the lounge and found Ju-hyeon waiting.

"Did your conversation go well?"

"Yes, it was very enlightening."

"You look happy."

"I met someone I was glad to see again after a long time."

Then he asked the bright red snake draped around Ju-hyeon's neck, "Is there a hole in me?"

"..."

The snake tilted its head. "I don't know."

"Then this really is something I'll have to think through myself."

"Is there a hole? That would be difficult for a human to accomplish."

"Couldn't anything be dug into in the process of reshaping fate?"

"Fascinating."

"I think so too."

Jio looked at Ju-hyeon. "Let's head back to Collector."

"Shall we?"

They had to make plans for the dungeon, after all.

* * *

"..."

Left alone, Seohui finally spoke. "... Did you hear?"

["I heard."]

Association President Dan Haera appeared beside him as a translucent hologram.

["There are plenty of possibilities."]

"He didn't look like someone who would exploit it."

["If Haeun heard you, he'd lecture you again about your lack of concern for safety."]

"You felt the same way. That's why you're reacting like this."

["He's one of Collector's people..."]

Haera continued slowly, ["So it occurred to me that he really might have been dead."]

She still remembered the portrait the Collector had snatched away from her at the auction.

Yes, that moment was not easily forgotten. The sight of it had caught her breath in her throat and set the muscles around her eyes trembling. Dan Haera had been unmistakably shaken.

["I first saw him at the auction."]

"... So it really could be that portrait? Black Cloak?"

["There's no certainty. He might be Black Cloak himself, or he might be an accessory to Black Cloak."]

"Black Cloak's mystery is too vast for something that used to be human to contain. The latter seems more likely."

["He might have taken in the dead Hunter Seo Jio and given him the form of a portrait. Black Cloak's heaven has already shown us that he can manipulate souls."]

"That would also explain why Hunter Seo Jio and Black Cloak appeared at roughly the same time. Their stature and persuasiveness would be on different levels, so we should treat them as separate beings after all."

["He might be partially assimilated. If Hunter Seo Jio truly is Black Cloak's agent, that is."]

"It never occurred to me that he wasn't human. Maybe his mimicry is that good..."

["Or he could simply be human."]

Haera continued, ["When I saw the portrait, I definitely sensed fate, however faintly. I knew instinctively that he was someone I had promised to erase. That's why I wanted to buy it..."]

"But Guild Master Bi Sabeol took it from you."

["That's all that made me think he might really have been dead. The methods are bizarre and it's rare, but people coming back from the dead isn't entirely unheard of in this world."]

"Are you sure that portrait is Hunter Seo Jio himself?"

["Yes, of course."]

She could recognize that much.

["He's a connection I erased, after all."]

It was instinct.

But why? At some point, she had forgotten the face in the portrait. No, she had even forgotten that fact. Still, if she knew a certain portrait had shaken her but didn't know its face, surely that meant she had forgotten what it looked like.

["Hmm. Thinking back, I do feel it might have been that face..."]

"From the way you put it, it seems we weren't the ones who erased the memory of his appearance. You said none of the auction's participants remembered the face in the portrait."

["That's right. Everyone remembers the piece as a portrait painted in black. Yet no one knows whether the hair was black, blond, or red."]

"I think there was talk of Collector taking measures too."

["So I don't think I was the one who offered the memory of the portrait's face to Promise. No, could there be a connection? Perhaps he realized he'd been erased from us and erased everything about himself..."]

"The more I hear, the more unusual he seems."

Seohui smiled. "If he really did come back from the dead, I can understand why the Collector dotes on him so much. If the son he cherished enough to keep secret from everyone became a portrait, combined with his existing tastes..."

["It would be enough to drive him wild."]

"But I wonder. How did we come to meet Hunter Seo Jio? It must have been when he was alive, not after he died. The four of us rarely got together, so it would most likely have been during some major disaster. Was Eunhye still an ordinary civilian then?"

["Maybe he met one of us first, and the connection spread from there. In that case, you or Haeun would be more likely than Eunhye or me, since we rarely travel."]

"Even if he awakened as a trainer, he had the air of a priest. So perhaps Haeun...?"

Yet Hunter Seo Jio hadn't seemed particularly attached to their connection.

"..."

["You seem hurt."]

"... We must have chosen to erase it. What right do I have to feel hurt?"

["You certainly don't look happy, at least."]

"It's been a long time since I enjoyed a conversation that much."

It had made him think that this must be a good person.

"Thinking that someone like him has been pretending not to know us... does sting a little."

Selfish as that was.

(To be continued)