Baiheron’s expression grew darker as he fell deeper into thought. Muttering again, he said it was strange. Why is that? he mumbled, before lifting his face, now stiff with realization.
“……Hyung.”
With a voice thick with tension, Baiheron spoke each word slowly, as if chewing on them.
“Those two. They’re almost the same.”
Correct.
The moment Banteon confirmed his hunch, he flung the neatly stacked documents aside and stood up. Picking up his terminal, he quickly gave instructions to summon someone. Startled by the rare urgency in Banteon’s movements, Baiheron also stood up in response.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to meet Delroz… no, Petern.”
From the start, these documents were useless. The answer had been right beside him all along.
Responding to Banteon’s summons, Petern hurried into the study with a puzzled expression. Unlike the shared spaces, the room was lavishly decorated with luxurious furniture and ornate trinkets. Petern glanced around in awe, clearly captivated.
Hadn’t he mentioned that he and Delroz became mercenaries together before enlisting? Being a D-rank Esper with no obligation to serve the kingdom, he’d simply registered and then continued working as a mercenary. It seemed he had been with the Center for quite some time now, but unlike Delroz, who had been confident from the beginning, Petern’s demeanor was starkly different. Understandably so—mercenaries, especially from common backgrounds, had likely wandered through the roughest places. Just thinking back to the mountain village Banteon had visited after being stranded, it was clear Petern’s past life had been worlds apart from the elegance of this place.
“I heard you called for me urgently, sir…”
“Please, have a seat.”
On the table sat two steaming teacups and a modest assortment of refreshments, freshly prepared. Clearly unfamiliar with such formalities, Petern sat down hesitantly, his back ramrod straight and fists resting on his knees.
“There’s no need to be so tense.”
“Ah, no, sir. It’s just that I’m not used to this kind of thing…”
“It’s nothing special. Just a drink.”
As Banteon lifted his cup and sipped the tea, Petern followed suit, awkwardly taking a sip. A slightly bitter aroma lingered in his mouth, and his expression twisted subtly. It didn’t seem to suit his taste.
“I called you today because I wanted to ask about Delroz.”
“Our captain?”
“I heard you worked together as mercenaries.”
Petern gave a sheepish smile, his expression shifting from discomfort to slight unease.
“That’s true, but honestly, I don’t know much either.”
Coming from someone who had always stayed by Delroz’s side, this was unexpected. Before any specific question had even been asked, he had already distanced himself with a disclaimer. Banteon narrowed his eyes, wondering if Petern was being cautious around him—but the man continued right away.
“We were together for about seven years before coming here, but he’s always been a quiet one…”
“I heard Delroz has no memories from before his awakening as an Esper.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s right.”
“Then any story you do know is fine. Could you share anything about him?”
“I-I’m not sure if what I know will be of much help…”
Petern began recounting the past, slowly. Most of his stories revolved around their time as mercenaries—what kinds of requests they’d taken on, and the miraculous feats they’d accomplished that others thought impossible. Tales of how their group grew, how they traversed the kingdom, gaining renown.
Although the stories themselves didn’t seem particularly useful, Banteon listened with interest, silently noting every detail in case there was something he’d overlooked.
“So compared to when we first met out west, he’s a lot more… normal now…”
“You met him in the west?”
“Yes, at the farthest edge of the western region. Deep in a forest where no one lived.”
Delroz had once casually mentioned that he’d met Petern while wandering with no memories. So he’d lost his memory in a desolate forest? What could have happened before that?
“When I first saw him, I thought, What kind of weirdo is this?”
“Must’ve been pretty unusual.”
“Yeah, not just the memory loss… he acted like he’d never seen another human being before. I even had to teach him how to use a spoon. He broke so many tables and chairs…”
“…You mean, even basic things like that?”
“Well, I figured it was just some side effect from awakening. I mean, it happens sometimes. Though it’s odd he still hasn’t gotten his memories back.”
Petern spoke as if it were no big deal.
“After an Esper awakens, they sometimes can’t control their powers and hurt others or destroy things. Since our captain’s SS-rank, I guess his case was worse than usual.”
That made Banteon pause. Amnesia as a post-awakening side effect was common, but that typically referred to memory. He’d never heard of anyone struggling with basic functions like using utensils.
“He’s an incredibly smart man. He struggled a bit at first, but adapted quickly. After that, more and more people fell for him, the mercenary group expanded…”
“Was there a village near where you met Delroz?”
“A village?”
Petern furrowed his brow, trying to recall the distant past. After a long moment of thought, he shook his head.
“I also went there because I heard rare herbs grew in that area. Got paid quite a bit for the job, but the forest was so deep we had to camp for over three days.”
“Hm…”
It wasn’t even a remote village—so what had Delroz been doing in such a desolate place?
“Then when you first found Delroz, were there any signs of destruction nearby? Broken trees, disturbed earth, anything like that?”
At Banteon’s continued questions, Petern, still unsure of where this was going, shook his head with a dazed look.
“The area was untouched. I remember clearly because, even as a mercenary, checking my surroundings is second nature. Now that I think about it… that is a bit strange.”
He’d said that even after meeting Petern, Delroz had trouble handling cutlery, yet there hadn’t been a single broken tree before that? But even though the timeline didn’t quite add up, Petern wasn’t lying. There was no reason for him to lie—and he himself seemed puzzled by the contradictions in his own recollection.
“I see. Thank you for your cooperation, especially on such short notice.”
“Think nothing of it. The Captain told me that if it’s Banteon-nim asking, I should answer everything. If he ever asks how I did, please say I was helpful.”
“…Understood.”
Petern bowed again, then glanced around the room one last time before taking his leave.
Left alone in the study, Banteon leaned back into the deep couch.
He took out a cigar for the first time in a while. After slicing the cap and lighting it, the sharp smoke coiled around his nose. Petern’s story, though unexpected, was packed with revelations.
The existence of Rohan, who radiated a pressure similar to Delroz’s. Delroz, who behaved like a newborn when found in an uninhabited forest. Rohan’s manner of explaining himself as something utterly separate from humans. What did all this mean?
Rohan had always dismissed the people of the kingdom—and humanity as a whole—with disdain, as if they were insignificant creatures completely different from himself. If Rohan and Delroz were the same kind…
Then…
“Ha… hahaha…”
He buried his face in his hands and laughed like a madman.
Piecing together fragments of the past that even Petern hadn’t fully grasped himself, Banteon saw a massive image take shape—one that diverged completely from his prior assumptions.
Why didn’t I see it? The evidence had been there all along. Instead, he’d been wasting time digging through ancient tomes, even acquiring forbidden texts for nothing.
“With this level of intelligence, there are things you come to understand whether you want to or not. Tell me—how exactly are Espers born? Even at S-rank, their limits are hard to define. But at SS-rank… can we truly still call them human?”
The words the Center Director had once uttered, shrouded in mystery, came flooding back.
Now, he finally had an answer.
The answer was no.
***
The sunlight stung his eyes.
Still reeling from the shock, Banteon had stayed up through the night in the study, poring over more data. It wasn’t until the sun rose that he managed a few hours of shallow sleep, and now his body felt weighed down with exhaustion. He couldn’t be sure whether the fatigue was from lack of rest or from the sheer weight of the truth he’d uncovered.
Staggering to his feet, Banteon tried to organize the chaos in his mind—where to begin, who to tell.
In truth, it might have been obvious all along. Why did Espers only appear through heredity? That reason was so clear now, he wondered how he hadn’t realized it sooner.
‘Because Espers were an entirely different species from humans.’
They had human forms—but they weren’t human. That was why Espers only emerged among their descendants, through genetic throwbacks. Like a hybrid.
If not for Rohan and Delroz, this truth might never have surfaced.
They weren’t born in human wombs. Every recorded case of a naturally occurring Esper in history had been “found” among the common people—there was never a record of their birth. Just like when Petern had met Delroz, they simply “appeared” from somewhere, already in their adult forms.
And that wasn’t the only pattern.
Reflecting again on everything he’d mulled over through the night, another eerie question surfaced—if this was how Espers were born, then what about their deaths? Do naturally occurring Espers age and die like humans? Do they even have the same lifespan?
