Chapter 107 - A Small Favor

The interior was so very like him, too.

I let out a dry laugh as I surveyed the kitchen and living room, furnished with only the bare essentials. It felt like a model home or a vacation condo. The spacious rooms were so empty that the air felt chilly.

A book with a bookmark tucked inside was the only sign that someone lived here.

Lee Seunghyeon served me tea.

“There's no need for preliminaries.”

He sat down across from me, his face utterly unchanged. So much so that I couldn't understand how I had failed to remember him immediately.

Even among soldiers, he had been particularly taciturn and stiff. He had disliked preliminaries back then, too.

“Surely I can at least ask how my pupil has been.”

“You didn't even remember me at first. Spare me the nonsense.”

Caught me out...

There was nothing I could say to that. I'd recognized Colton on sight, but not Lee Seunghyeon.

I smiled sheepishly and averted my gaze.

“Sorry. But I'd even forgotten I wasn't human.”

“So I've heard.”

“I still don't remember everything.”

Lee Seunghyeon didn't move.

His piercing eyes blazed. Under that gaze, which seemed never to have yielded to anyone, I sank into my memories.

[“Why don't you train them separately?”]

A familiar voice rang in my head, though I couldn't quite remember its owner's name. Someone close to me had made the suggestion. Why not train this group of soldiers standing before me?

The soldiers had been handpicked from various countries.

[“What else can we do right now?”]

It hadn't been Colton.

Who could it have been? Neither Kyle nor Ray. They would never have made such a suggestion to me.

But it wasn't Eve, either.

Eve.

The scent of barley tea tickled my nose.

“Do you remember Eve?”

Lee Seunghyeon's brow furrowed.

“I only recently remembered her, too.”

She used to say blue hair was her perfect look.

So she always dyed her roots blue, but would dye the underside another color to keep things interesting. Purple was her favorite.

Something about liking the subtle way it went with the blue.

Eve had been a brilliant genetic engineer.

“You really do seem to have forgotten everything.”

The reply was chilly. Lee Seunghyeon glared at me with his arms folded.

“I have never met that scientist.”

“Haven't you? Now that you mention it, I think you're right.”

“And I'm sorry, but there's not much I can tell you.”

My pupil's voice was strictly businesslike.

“I haven't been given permission.”

“By Sukhoi? They wanted me to recover my memories.”

“I have received no orders to help you recover them.”

A soldier to his fucking bones.

I drank my barley tea and regarded my pupil sullenly.

He'd readily agreed to my visit and even given me his address, so I'd thought we might manage a decent conversation. But, as expected, this wasn't going to go smoothly.

When I asked, in so many words, why he'd invited me if this was how he meant to talk, he unfolded his arms.

“I have something to return to you.”

“A game?”

At my reflexive reply, he gave me a look that asked what sort of idiotic nonsense I was spouting.

“Do you still play those?”

“... You lot really can't stand me playing games, can you?”

Stuck-up old bastards.

At this point, perhaps I ought to print out studies on how games improved brain function, bind them into a book, and distribute it among the elders. Though people who went to the ballet or opera for fun obviously wouldn't even leaf through the papers.

Hmm?

But wait a minute.

“So you never bought Yehyeon a single game?”

Lee Seunghyeon stopped in the middle of pushing back his chair to stand.

He looked at me as though I'd said something offensive.

“I don't wish to discuss personal matters.”

“You said you weren't allowed to discuss official matters.”

“Then let me say I don't wish to discuss my family.”

“Well, I'm hardly in a position to comment.”

I'd never shown the slightest interest in his private life back then.

But I had no intention of backing down just because I had no right to interfere. I intended to get what I wanted before I left.

Of course, pressing the issue now would only backfire.

I waved for him to get up.

“What is it you need to return?”

He glanced at me and stood.

He disappeared farther into the apartment. Apparently whatever it was was in there.

I waited for him to return, drinking the pleasantly cool tea.

The apartment was astonishingly quiet.

Before long, Lee Seunghyeon returned with heavier footsteps.

Heavier by the weight of a sword.

“Ah.”

A familiar short sword.

Not one I'd used, but one my comrade had carried. Its scabbard failed to hold the blade securely, so it was tightly bound in old cloth.

I'd told him it was a good sword, and that he ought to repair the scabbard before carrying it around. But its owner had been an archer, not a swordsman. So the short sword had rarely been used, and he had never fixed its scabbard.

Nol. You idiot.

“I received this from your subordinate. Please take it.”

Lee Seunghyeon set the sword down before me.

“I kept it because I never found an opportunity to return it.”

“Is Nol dead?”

He didn't look away.

“Yes.”

The blunt, clear answer punched a hole through my heart.

I blinked as I slowly lifted the sword. Every time I came face-to-face with something like this, the memories that surfaced were sharp.

All the more so because, disobedient as he'd been, he'd followed me devotedly...

“Did I betray him, too?”

Lee Seunghyeon's eyebrows arched at my murmur.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lower his head to peer into my face.

My rigid pupil's black eyes were full of puzzlement.

“No.”

A faint note of puzzlement entered his voice, too.

“Surely you don't think I'd keep an enemy's sword.”

I looked up at him for a long time.

All the while, I tried to sort out the memories swirling dizzily in my head. Nol had definitely been a Titan. I'd stood on the battlefield beside him. He'd been a stubborn, skilled archer.

He'd also nodded his agreement to plunge with me into darkness like a bottomless pit.

But he wasn't someone Lee Seunghyeon regarded as an enemy.

Which meant...

I wanted to test the theory turning my stomach right away, but I still lacked the courage to hear the answer.

So I asked a slightly different question.

One I'd meant to ask anyway.

“About my sword.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you give it to Yehyeon?”

My pupil straightened from where he'd been peering at my face, his head slightly lowered.

He folded his arms, once again cloaking himself in his usual irritable, authoritarian air.

“Did Lee Yehyeon fail to wield it properly?”

Good God.

My mouth fell open at the disapproval that colored his pronunciation of Lee Yehyeon's name.

“Hey, no.”

I hurried to correct the misunderstanding.

“You must have seen that video, too. His swordsmanship was perfect. You taught him more than well enough.”

“His draw is a little slow.”

“That's because the sword's a little heavy for him! And it wasn't slow enough to matter.”

This was maddening.

That video had turned the unknown Yehyeon into the Hero of a Troubled Age, and he was nitpicking over it. I knew exactly what he meant. But it hadn't been a problem at all. The attack had succeeded perfectly in the end.

Because Ray had hesitated at the sight of my sword...

For a moment I couldn't breathe, but Lee Seunghyeon filled the silence.

“If I or my colleagues—those whose faces the Titans knew—had carried that sword, it wouldn't have worked.”

“... Well, most likely not.”

“So we selected and trained several candidates. He simply happened to be the best of them.”

“Yehyeon?”

“Yes.”

So Lee Seunghyeon hadn't chosen on his own to put the sword in Yehyeon's hands and send him into mortal danger. Yehyeon had simply offered the best chance of success.

After staring blankly into space, I apologized.

“I'm sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“For sending your son into mortal danger.”

Lee Seunghyeon didn't answer immediately.

He looked down at me with an unreadable expression, unfolding his arms only after I dragged a hand down my face and sighed.

“We were all facing death back then.”

He wasn't wrong.

“If anything, receiving your sword guaranteed that he would survive until the decisive battle.”

He wasn't wrong about that, either.

“Everyone was risking their lives. You yourself intended to take Kyle down with you, didn't you?”

Huh?

I did?

“You went out prepared to do so, and afterward your whereabouts became unknown. But the same was true of Kyle.”

His gaze struck me and held, unwavering and painfully sharp.

The same sharp gaze I had faced, wooden sword in hand, in a spacious training area.

If Lee Seunghyeon had been a resident of my old world, Kyle would certainly have taken him into his service. The man who was like a black lion had favored those with brilliant talents like Lee Seunghyeon's.

“Had Kyle joined the battle, we would have lost.”

I remained motionless for a long time.

Trying to contain the emotions bursting out of me. Even after hearing all this, I still couldn't remember what I had done.

Other memories surfaced instead. Memories of teaching Lee Seunghyeon and the other soldiers. Colton showing me the soldiers. Jaeyeon standing beside Colton, sneering at them.

Ah, Jaeyeon.

I'd check the facts on the twenty-sixth.

I slowly closed my eyes, opened them again, and looked up at Lee Seunghyeon.

“My dear pupil.”

“... What is it?”

“Actually, I have a favor to ask.”

He'd scowled deeply at the way I'd addressed him, and now his eyes narrowed at what followed.

He scrutinized my face suspiciously.

His answer came belatedly.

“Go ahead.”

I stated my request briefly.

And, just as Yun had warned, I very nearly suffered the indignity of a beating from my former pupil that day.

A furious barrage of fists.

* * *

“Year-end party!”

Ami's clear voice rang through the corridor.

“It's the year-end party!”

So it was.

I was glad I'd survived to attend it.

I was walking down a chilly corridor at headquarters.

The reason was simple. The year-end party was being held near the very top of the building.

That's right. The Black Badgers didn't hold their year-end parties at ordinary establishments. They had a catering service set up a buffet on a vast, empty floor, dismissed the caterers, and then began the party.

The reason: drunk Badgers were dangerous.

Apparently, this would be Tom and Heshy's first time drinking since receiving their enhanced bodies.

“What if we break something?”

Tom sounded worried.

Ami looked up at him, her face brimming with happiness.

“It's fine! Everyone thinks a new recruit's mistakes are cute!”

Then her smile vanished completely as she added,

“Anyone who doesn't is trash, so tell me about them.”

To my surprise, Yun was coming, too.

He'd said he would finish his research and come straight from the research building. I was surprised he would attend an event like this.

When I asked why, my training officer's answer was brief.

[“I have to retrieve Choi Ami.”]

I didn't ask any more questions.

It was nearing evening. I boarded the elevator with Ami and my fellow recruits. The senior leadership was due to arrive in half an hour. Apparently, it was customary for them to make appearances at all sorts of cores before returning to headquarters for their last stop.

DING!

The elevator doors opened.

Noise poured in.

“Ami!”

“Shorty!”

“Oh, the new recruits are here.”

Everyone who had arrived before us turned their heads at once.

A dizzying number of people looked our way and called out comments. Attendance at the year-end party wasn't mandatory. Some people were on duty today, and others couldn't come because of injuries, so naturally it wasn't compulsory.

Even so, there were so many people.

So many unfamiliar faces that it made my head spin.

“Hey! That white-haired kid everyone's talking about is here, too!”