Chapter 255

"The Symbols of Eternity were your students?"

Jio nodded inside the portrait at Yu Seongun's question.

"Yes, they were."

"See? You weren't remotely ordinary back then, either."

"My students weren't Symbols of Eternity before the Great Catastrophe."

"I'm not sure I should say this..."

"Go ahead."

"Birds of a feather really do flock together."

"Stop that."

"You'd definitely have made something of yourself even if you hadn't become a portrait."

At yet another of their regular hallway meetings, Yu Seongun gave his usual easygoing smile.

"Let me guess. Even back then, you were the only one who thought you were ordinary, weren't you? The Great Catastrophe was just the catalyst. Maybe you ended up as a portrait because you were already quite something yourself."

"Would you kindly refrain from insulting the portrait?"

"I have no idea which part of that you found insulting, but all right."

He had no wish to see the Root's eye angry. It would probably only imitate anger rather than genuinely feel it, but even that would clearly be too much for humans to handle.

"Still, that really is astonishing. You mean when the Symbols of Eternity were in high school, right? You said you taught high-school art. Eternity back then..."

"They were ordinary students."

Seo Seohui, the taciturn model student. Jeong Haeun, who teased him for being such a stuffy scholar. Cha Eunhye, the aspiring idol who joined in the teasing. And Dan Haera, model student number two, who had risen above it all amid those friends.

"Hmm."

Ordinary, even on reflection.

"The sort of students you could find anywhere."

"I can't tell how much of that is true, so I'm not convinced..."

"Now that I've seen them in person, their personalities seem to have changed a great deal."

"... They must have been through a lot?"

"Yes, I imagine so."

Seo Seohui, once teased for taking everything seriously, had learned to put on quite a passable social smile. And Dan Haera, always composed but occasionally capable of making a fool of herself, had grown into the very embodiment of perfection.

"The other students are probably much the same."

"I don't think you've mentioned Guild Master Jeong Haeun. The head of Korea's second-ranked guild."

"I haven't met him in person, so I don't know how he's changed."

"... What was he like as a student?"

"A delinquent."

"Wow."

"He was a handful."

Drinking, smoking—he did it all. Though the things that worried Jio or demanded his attention had improved over time. His other three friends were so upright that even a delinquent would have had little choice.

"They meant a great deal to me, but I may not have meant as much to them. I respect that, too. However special I was to them, could I compare to the classmates who shared those years with them? I was only a teacher... I don't think forgetting me presents much of a problem."

Besides, wasn't he effectively considered dead?

"They're grown adults now. I wonder if it would be unseemly to turn up at this point and claim familiarity as their former teacher."

"I never went through compulsory schooling, so it's hard to offer any useful perspective."

Yu Seongun turned to Ju-hyeon, who was older than him.

"What about you, Ju-hyeon? I think you had compulsory schooling?"

"Well, my memories of it have grown quite hazy, too..."

It was difficult for him to offer his impressions of the high-school teachers Seo Jio was talking about.

"But there certainly does seem to be a distance when it comes to teachers. How should I put it? Someone you forget once you leave the school...? I think the simple fact that they were adults made it hard to feel close to them."

"As I thought. Nice to have around, but no great loss if absent."

Best not to go claiming old ties for no reason.

"Bringing up our past connection would only leave everyone confused."

"Are you all right with that, Jio? You said they meant a great deal to you."

"I'm still perfectly capable of living well on my own, but they aren't. They looked tired enough already. I don't want to give them another exhausting assignment."

"An exhausting assignment..."

Leaving the uneasy-looking Ju-hyeon aside, Yu Seongun asked,

"What if they ask how they knew you?"

"Are you asking whether I'd evade the question or tell them the truth?"

"I'd ask for more details if it were me."

"I don't think they will."

Seo Seohui had certainly said he wanted to talk in more detail, but that had been closer to a polite gesture toward a victim caught up in Promise. His students had become cowards in his absence.

"They have so much on their shoulders, so much to watch over and hold on to. People in their position won't welcome reversing a major decision, or the variables that come with it. I imagine they've already seen plenty of the bad outcomes that can bring."

What was so special about time spent with a high-school teacher that they would welcome it? They would avoid digging through forgotten memories if they could. Most likely, they would build a new relationship over those lost memories.

Yu Seongun smiled easily.

"But suppose they do ask."

"I'll let them think what they like."

"What they like? How do you know what they'll think of you?"

"Won't they think I'm someone they had a reasonably good relationship with, who died one day and became the subject of memories sacrificed as payment for Promise?"

"You really do have a way of making things sound complicated."

"I thought that was a good summary."

It wasn't wrong, either. The only differences were before or after the Great Catastrophe, and older or younger than them. Someone who had shared some fairly good memories with them, then died first and become a concept rather than a living being...

That was precisely who Seo Jio was.

"Setting aside how it could be possible, they'll ultimately think I died and was resurrected as a portrait. Then Guild Master Bi Sabeol bought it, bringing us to the present situation."

"Things would have been less complicated if the Guild Master hadn't stepped in at the auction."

"I'm grateful I ended up in the gallery rather than a laboratory. Though the misconception that I'm the Guild Master's son may persist. The story works just as well if he bought the portrait after seeing that his son had been resurrected in it."

"That's for the Guild Master to deal with."

Yu Seongun didn't concern himself with such trifles. Above all, worrying about Bi Sabeol would only cost him. Why make needless trouble for himself?

"So here's the story? Guild Master Bi Sabeol had a son he raised in secret, but the boy died in some incident. Then his dead son was resurrected as a portrait, of all artistic things, and he went wild, bought it, and shoved it in the gallery..."

"I think that is a possibility."

At Jio's agreement, Ju-hyeon couldn't help interjecting.

"Hasn't that made it even more bizarre?"

Yu Seongun shook his head.

"He's always been a pervert. It's fine."

"Ah..."

"Still, as his employee, I can at least offer a defense. That's a small comfort."

"What defense do you have in mind?"

"It's common for famous Hunters to protect their partners or children by keeping them secret."

"That's true. Otherwise, someone with a grudge or other malicious feelings and intentions might harm them. I've heard about it often myself."

"And above all, our Guild Master is squishy."

He wasn't someone who would fall prey to others easily, but that only applied to himself. It was one reason Bi Sabeol had never started a family. Because he himself was weak, he wasn't confident he could protect them while 'treating them like human beings.'

"So he raised his son in secret out of concern for him, but some incident happened... or a disaster killed the boy. And then his son came back alive, even if only as a portrait? Wouldn't that drive anyone wild, pervert or not?"

Jio objected.

"Does being reborn as a portrait count as coming back alive?"

"Uh, well, that depends on the person? It would for our Guild Master, at least."

And other people would find it far more convincing, too.

"Yes, it's easier to accept that his son coming back as a portrait sent the Collector wild than that he'd kept the boy locked up in the gallery from the start, going, 'Wow, my son looks fucking amazing.'"

"I still find it a little creepy..."

"You might, Ju-hyeon, but Awakened people would probably get the feeling."

Most Hunters would understand. Encounters with impossible phenomena and monsters were as natural to them as breathing. Faced with the uncanny, they would feel elation and understanding before fear or estrangement.

'Especially when it involves a family member coming back alive.'

Well, not that they were actually family.

"... Do you think the Symbols of Eternity will see it that way?"

"As you said, Mr. Yu Seongun, isn't it the more readily believable story?"

"We can't be certain."

"I believe they will."

His students had become leaders through the Great Catastrophe. They would think more of what came after it than before. There would also be more memories from after the Great Catastrophe significant enough to sacrifice as payment for 'Promise.'

'So it would be hard to guess that the Seo Jio they forgot was someone from before the Great Catastrophe.'

Above all, his official age was twenty-nine, and he looked about that old. Add the theory that he was Bi Sabeol's son, and the truth would be even harder to uncover.

Seo Jio was satisfied with that.

"I'm glad I can avoid giving them something else to trouble their minds."

"I can never tell whether you're coldhearted or kind."

Yu Seongun rubbed his neck.

"I'd have felt a little hurt."

"In my position? Or theirs?"

"Both."

They had been a teacher and students who were close, yet they had forgotten each other—and afterward, he wouldn't acknowledge their past. Forgotten or not, a connection was still a connection.

"Of course, this is your choice, too..."

There was something chilling about how decisively he could form and sever ties.

'I suppose he was never an ordinary human to begin with.'

And that must have been what allowed him to become the Root's eye.

Yu Seongun didn't know whether Jio had become its eye because he had been the Root all along, or whether, as Jio claimed, he had been an ordinary human who became a portrait. But not just anyone could bring things to such a clean, decisive close.

"... If you're all right with it, I don't mind."

"Yes, I'm fine. Forgotten or not, I'm their teacher. If I can't help my students move forward, surely I shouldn't hold them back?"

"Anyway, it's surprising to be reminded that even the Symbols of Eternity were students once. Don't you think so, Ju-hyeon?"

Ju-hyeon answered Yu Seongun's question with his usual amiable smile.

"It certainly is. One of them used to be a superior so far above me..."

"What was the Association President like, as you knew her?"

"Perfect, I suppose? She always wore a kind smile, but she never felt kind at all. I think a lot of people called her frighteningly machine-like."

"It would be hard to feel at ease around a Symbol of Eternity..."

Jio felt this was unfair.

"She's not frightening."

"Yes, Teacher. I'm sure she isn't."

Perhaps not to the teacher who had taught them as children, but it was different for people today. They were living, breathing legends, achievements made flesh. It would have been strange not to feel fear or awe.

Jio grew melancholy.

"They can't even relax and have fun. It's a shame."

"I'm not even sure they'd be interested in that...?"

"You can't know until you've tried having fun."

"The mercy bomber strikes again."

"Would you care to repeat that?"

"That came out wrong."

He didn't want a scolding from the Root.

"Then couldn't you help them feel a little more at ease, Jio?"

"Wouldn't it be difficult to become involved with them again like that?"

"But if Justitia's Guild Master went so far as to have a private conversation with you, he must be very interested in you..."

"Everything else will come after the 'Amusement Park of Dreams' is dealt with."

"Ah, right."

Yu Seongun asked,

"What happened to the saintess? The religious community is in an uproar about you kidnapping her."

"Come to think of it... is that champion all right? The man called Ater."

Jio nodded.

"The two of them will make good friends."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Champions and saintesses have always made close partners. It's a common cliché."

"You like that sort of thing...? Clichés?"

"Doesn't this project alone make my tastes quite obvious?"

A Demon King and a dungeon. A champion who meets a strong-willed saintess. A religious community outraged by a saint's abduction. A bishop turned corrupt. People descending into depravity. The value of dreams and reality. Pleasure and responsibility. And so on...

"I drew heavily on pre-Catastrophe subculture."

"You even did research?"

"I'm not very familiar with this sort of thing."

Seo Jio went without saying. Giovanni had only memories of toiling as a saint, and while Arjio was good at turning schemes against their makers, he didn't know how to devise evil schemes himself.

"Despite that, it seems to be progressing well."

Wasn't saving the world what made someone a hero?

Since that was what they wanted, there was no reason not to make it happen.

* * *

And around that time.

"..."

"..."

Saintess Aram and the champion Ater met.

"... A hero...?"

"... A saint...?"

They recognized each other for what they were at a glance.

Because, just as Jio had said, the two had been close partners since time immemorial.

(To be continued)