Chapter 28
“Hanyeong.”
When Eunseong mentioned Hanyeong’s name, Mujin’s hand stopped abruptly.
At that moment, he realized his own shamelessness. Let’s say Baek Mujin knew him. Why was he, who had no memory, silently accepting him washing his feet?
When you thought about it, the reason Eunseong was accustomed to offering his feet was all because of Hanyeong. Whatever had made him so anxious, Hanyeong had always wanted to be a necessary presence to Eunseong. One of the things Hanyeong did for his own sense of efficacy was washing Eunseong’s feet, so silently accepting it had become a habit.
That’s why Hanyeong’s name had suddenly come out. While he was at it, Eunseong decided to be a little more shameless.
“Hanyeong. Couldn’t we get help from another guild? By inquiring at places famous for support-type buffs… Since the power of healing-type hunters or items don’t have much effect.”
“Are you talking about Jeongso Guild?”
“Yes, well. That would be the best. Though it might be expensive… Ah, I can work to pay the commission fee myself.”
Jeongso Guild was a guild famous for support-type buff skills. While buffs were broadly similar to healers, their operating principles were distinctly different. Among hunters skilled in mental-type abilities, there would surely be someone who could help wake Hanyeong from his coma state.
He didn’t know how much it would cost to make a request, but thinking to save him first and see later, Eunseong continued speaking. Mujin, who had always shown signs of his mood souring strangely whenever Hanyeong was mentioned, unexpectedly gave an answer with a plain expression.
“It’s a good idea… but seeing that you know about that guild, should I assume you have scattered memories?”
“I didn’t forget everything in the world. It’s just that only things about myself won’t come back, like there’s a hole punched through them. I can’t be certain why that is, but… maybe I wanted to erase everything about myself…”
For example, the memory of eating chocolate for the first time as a child was vivid. The memory of the bitter-sweet taste being shockingly delicious, the memory of being surprised by the sweetness that made his eyes pop out when he sucked all the coated chocolate and chewed the blueberry-flavored jelly inside, that joy—he remembered it.
It’s just that the person who gave it to him couldn’t be seen, as if painted over in black. Probably mom? Eunseong could only vaguely guess.
Come to think of it, do I have no family? The curiosity he had blindly ignored for three whole years while living in the Bottom was gradually growing larger.
Then, Eunseong, who had been looking down while gripping the chair, suddenly grabbed his nose. It was a reflexive move to stop something that felt like it was flowing down, but it was already too late. Bright red blood had already dripped onto the back of Mujin’s hand.
“Uh…”
“Don’t tilt your head back.”
Mujin hurriedly wiped his wet hand and grabbed Eunseong’s nose. With his other hand wrapped around the back of his head while pressing his nose firmly, Eunseong felt like his entire face was captured in his two hands.
“I guess it’s because I suddenly ran earlier.”
“How are your eyes?”
“Eyes? My eyes are the same…”
He wondered why he was asking about his eye condition when he had a nosebleed, but since his subdued voice was threatening, Eunseong answered obediently. Though the nasal voice was a bit funny, he couldn’t even laugh because Mujin’s expression was fierce.
“You had a nosebleed when you fainted too. I think this is because of Hwanghwa.”
“Hwanghwa?”
“The power that melted the locking device.”
Mujin’s voice cracked. He had clearly seen Hwanghwa settling into Eunseong’s body when the Huiseon building collapsed. As soon as he saw Eunseong wielding fire, he had recalled that moment. But it seemed like it was only putting strain on his body without being able to use it properly.
Mujin knew better than anyone the sensation of Hwanghwa gnawing at the body from the inside. He let out a deep sigh.
“It’s like you only took away the curse.”
Eunseong just listened to the incomprehensible words. Mujin rolled up tissue and plugged Eunseong’s nose, then suddenly lifted him and moved him back to the bed. There was no hesitation in his actions, even wiping his dripping wet feet with a towel.
Mujin placed his hand on Eunseong’s chest.
“What are you doing?”
“You used to say that by doing this, you could tell what my condition was like. You said you could feel my energy.”
Mujin’s palm pressed into Eunseong’s chest.
“I can’t tell.”
Listening to Mujin’s complicated voice, Eunseong briefly considered whether he should tell him about Curry. How should he explain this strange bird that he could see clearly even now while wearing thick eye patches? It seemed like the ‘Hwanghwa’ he was talking about was probably Curry.
Curry turned his head away sharply as if he had complaints. Don’t tell? When he thought about it, it cried out long and high—peee.
“Eunseong.”
Mujin called to Eunseong, who was distracted by Curry. He was holding Eunseong’s hand. More precisely, he was fiddling with his right ring finger.
“Did you know there’s a strange mark left here?”
“Ah, yes. You mean something like a ring mark? Hanyeong used to complain that no matter how much he scrubbed, it wouldn’t disappear. He said the shape of the mark was different from a tattoo…”
“This looks like a mark made by an item I gave you as a gift.”
“Oh. A gift?”
A ring?
Eunseong’s mouth formed a circle.
Mujin swept the disheveled hair over Eunseong’s forehead. Eunseong, who was making nasal sounds because of the tissue stuffed in his nostrils, was cute. At times like this, he could see his childhood appearance, making him feel like memories were flooding in.
Seeing that he couldn’t remember the ring’s existence meant that when he lived in the Bottom, the ‘Rift of Fate’ had already exhausted its power and disappeared. Had the ring saved him when he was falling? If so, it meant that the one remaining valid miracle had kept Eunseong alive.
With sunken eyes, Mujin mentally rewound the moment when Hwanghwa exploded from Eunseong’s body.
That day, that scene, which seemed engraved in his mind from thinking about it so repeatedly. He definitely hadn’t seen Eunseong escaping from the collapsing building.
“The one who kidnapped you at that moment must have been hiding near us… in the Huiseon building from the beginning.”
Maybe he had been following you around for much longer, waiting for an opportunity. He would have waited for a certain gap, a moment when he could definitely drive you to death.
An ability user capable of breaking through that scene at the moment of explosion. At least A-grade or higher, maybe a hunter stronger than Baek Sangyeon. Was the benefit gained from killing Yoo Eunseong the certain destruction of Baek Mujin?
“I want to regain my memory.”
Eunseong said to Mujin, who was lost in thought.
A life where it was okay not to know anything no longer existed. Hanyeong was sick, and he had been thrown into unfamiliar territory once again. Mujin said that everyone around was his enemy. Eunseong thought that entrusting everything to him wasn’t the right path. Whatever it was, he thought he needed to know about himself properly first to save Hanyeong too. The vacation was over.
“So I’d like Hunter Baek Mujin to help me.”
Eunseong lifted his eye patch up and hung it on his forehead. He rubbed his aching eyes open and stared directly into Mujin’s eyes. He even pulled out the tissue blocking his nose and tried to make a determined expression. Thinking about moving forward made him somewhat excited.
However, Mujin’s expression sank in the opposite direction. He shook his head. Because he knew how much the memories Eunseong would learn would torment him. They say there’s no paradise where you run away to, but do you know… that for you, this place you’ve returned to is hell itself?
“It might be better not to know anything.”
“I can’t keep depending on you like a fool forever.”
“…Do you dislike me doing everything for you?”
“Actually, I don’t even know what our relationship is, so just accepting everything blindly is a bit…”
Burdensome. When Eunseong said it bluntly, Mujin wiped all expression from his face. His cool impression was quite useful for intimidating people.
“I told you we’re friends.”
For just simple friends though.
“I still don’t like it.”
Eunseong faced him without being scared. He didn’t bend his meaning that he couldn’t fully trust because it didn’t make sense.
“I don’t know what abilities I have at all either, so that’s also frustrating. I’d like to hear some explanations. And if various memories come back while doing that, that would be even better.”
“Your abilities?”
“Yes.”
Not the detoxification ability he used instinctively or his sensitive five senses. Not Curry.
His real abilities, his family, what kind of being he was as a human. He wanted to know all information besides those three letters of his name. Once he made up his mind to know, desire flooded over him.
Looking at Eunseong’s eyes, Mujin had a gaze lost in reminiscence. His eyes recalling something seemed to be looking somewhere far away even while facing him.
He reached out and pulled Eunseong’s eye patch back down. After stroking and arranging his disheveled hair, he whispered softly.
“I do know all your abilities.”
When his finger pressed firmly on his lips, Eunseong was a little flustered.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
