Chapter 255

Chapter 255

“So the Symbols of Eternity were your students?”

At Yoo Seongun’s question, Gio in the portrait nodded.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“So you really weren’t ordinary at all back then either.”

“My students were not Symbols of Eternity even before the Great Catastrophe.”

“I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but...”

“Go ahead.”

“Birds of a feather flock together.”

“Stop it.”

“You definitely would’ve made a name for yourself even if you hadn’t become a portrait.”

At the hallway meeting that proceeded as always, Yoo Seongun smiled as unruffled as ever.

“Let me take a guess. Even back then, you were probably the only one who thought you were ordinary. The Great Catastrophe was just the trigger—maybe you became a portrait because you were that kind of existence to begin with?”

“Could you refrain from insulting the portrait?”

“I don’t know what part felt like an insult, but fine, I got it.”

He didn’t want to see the Eye of the Origin get angry. It would probably stop at the level of imitation rather than genuine anger, but from a human standpoint, even that would obviously be too much.

“Still, it really is an amazing story. You mean when the Symbols of Eternity were high school students, right? You said you were a high school art teacher. The Eternity back then...”

“They were ordinary students.”

Seo Seohui, the taciturn model student. Jeong Haewoon, who teased him by calling him a scholar. Cha Eunhye, an idol hopeful who joined in the snide backtalk with him. And Dan Haera, the second model student, already detached and serene among those friends.

“Hm.”

Even thinking back, they were ordinary.

“They were students you could see anywhere.”

“I can’t really tell whether what you’re saying is true, so it doesn’t feel very trustworthy, but...”

“Seeing them in person, it felt like their personalities had changed a lot.”

“...A lot must have happened?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Seo Seohui, who used to get teased for being serious about everything, had learned to wear a proper ‘social smile.’ Dan Haera, who was always calm but occasionally fell apart, had grown into something like a synonym for perfection.

“Probably the other students are the same.”

“It doesn’t seem like any talk came up about Guildmaster Jeong Haewoon. You know, 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?”

“He was a delinquent.”

“Wow.”

“It was troublesome.”

He drank and smoked and did a bit of everything. As time passed, the things that worried you or that you paid attention to got better, but still. With the other three friends being so upright, even if he was a delinquent student, there was only so much that could be done.

“They were special connections to me, but they might not have been to those students. I respect that as well. No matter how special it is, can it compare to classmates who shared the same time? I was only a teacher, so... I believe it wouldn’t be a big problem even if they forgot.”

Besides, in practice, wasn’t he being treated like a dead person?

“I also think it would look unseemly for me to go up to grown adults now and act like I know them, saying I was their teacher back then.”

“I’ve never received compulsory education, so it’s hard for me to tell you something you could use as a reference.”

Yoo Seongun looked over at Juhyeon, who was older than him.

“What about you, Ms. Juhyeon? I think you went through compulsory education?”

“Mm, my memories of compulsory education have become pretty vague too...”

It was hard for her to recount any impressions of a high school teacher like Seo Gio was describing.

“But it does feel like teachers are someone you have distance from. How should I put it. Once you leave that institution, they become someone you forget...? From the fact that they’re an adult, I think it was hard to feel intimacy.”

“Seems like an existence you can take or leave.”

Don’t act like you know them for no reason.

“Bringing up old connections would only confuse both sides.”

“Is that enough for you, Gio? You said they were connections you held especially dear.”

“I can still eat well and live well on my own, but they can’t. They already looked tired— I don’t want to hand them an even more tiring assignment.”

“A tiring assignment...”

Leaving the uncomfortable-looking Juhyeon behind, Yoo Seongun asked.

“If they ask you what kind of connection it was, then what?”

“Are you asking whether I’d dodge it or tell them honestly?”

“If it were me, I think I’d ask in more detail.”

“I don’t think they will.”

Seo Seohui certainly said, ‘I want to talk in more detail,’ but that was closer to something he said out of courtesy for a victim entangled in a promise. In the time he hadn’t seen them, his students had become cowards.

“They have a lot of burdens on their shoulders, a lot they have to see, and a lot they have to hold in their hands. Children like that won’t welcome reversing a major choice and the variables connected to it. It seems likely they’ve already seen many ugly outcomes that come from that.”

Why would they welcome it, like the time with a high school teacher was something special? If possible, they wouldn’t want to stir up forgotten memories. The most likely thing would be to build a new connection atop forgotten memories.

Yoo Seongun wore an easy smile.

“But if they do ask.”

“I’ll let them think whatever they want.”

“Whatever they want? What do you think they’ll think about you?”

“Wouldn’t they think I’m the protagonist of a memory offered up as the price of a promise, because we built a decent connection and then one day I died?”

“I always feel it, but you talk in a really complicated way.”

“I think that was a good summary.”

It wasn’t wrong. The only difference was whether it was before or after the Great Catastrophe, and whether he was older or younger. They built pretty good memories, then he died first and became a concept rather than a living being...

That was Seo Gio.

“Setting aside how it’s possible, they’ll think that, in the end, I died and revived as a portrait. That Guildmaster Bisavol bought it, and that’s how things led to the current situation.”

“If the guildmaster hadn’t cut in at the auction, things would’ve been less complicated.”

“I’m grateful that I ended up in a gallery instead of a laboratory. However, the misunderstanding that I am the guildmaster’s son may not be cleared. It’s a story that still works, even if you say he bought it because he saw his son revived as a portrait.”

“That’s something the guildmaster will deal with himself.”

Yoo Seongun didn’t concern himself with such trivial things. Above all, worrying about Bisavol would only be a loss to himself. There was no need to tire himself out on purpose.

“So it goes like this? Guildmaster Bisavol had a son he secretly hid and raised, then some incident happened and that son died. Then that dead son, artistically enough, revived as a portrait, so his eyes rolled back and he bought it and stuffed it in the gallery...”

“I think that could be the case.”

At Gio’s affirmation, Juhyeon unconsciously cut in.

“Hasn’t it gotten even more bizarre?”

Yoo Seongun shook his head.

“He was a pervert to begin with, so it’s fine.”

“Ah...”

“As his employee, I can make an excuse for him, at least. It’s kind of comforting.”

“What excuse are you going to make?”

“It’s common for famous hunters to hide the existence of a lover or a child to protect them.”

“That’s right, because they could be harmed by someone with bad feelings or malicious intent, like resentment. I’ve heard that story often too.”

“More than anything, our guildmaster is a weak-bodied type.”

He wasn’t someone who could be easily taken down, but that was only for himself. One of the reasons Bisavol had never made a family until now was exactly that. Because he himself was weak, he didn’t have confidence that he could protect them ‘while treating them like humans.’

“So he worried about his son and raised him in secret, then some incident happened... or a disaster killed his son. But then his son comes back alive, even if only as a portrait? Even if you aren’t a pervert, isn’t that something your eyes would roll back over?”

Gio poked back.

“Does being reborn as a portrait count as coming back alive?”

“Uh, well, it depends on the person? But at least our guildmaster probably would’ve thought so.”

And it sounded much more persuasive to other people too.

“Yeah, from the start, it’s more believable to say the collector’s eyes rolled back over a son revived as a portrait... rather than him locking him up in the gallery going, ‘Wow, my son’s color is insane.’”

“I still think it’s kind of creepy...”

“Ms. Juhyeon might, but from an awakened person’s perspective, you can get what it feels like.”

Most hunters would accept it. They had faced irrational phenomena and monsters as naturally as breathing. Rather than fear or distance toward the uncanny, they would feel exhilaration and understanding first.

‘More than anything, if it’s something related to a family’s return.’

Well, it really isn’t a family matter, though.

“...Would the Symbols of Eternity think like this too?”

“Isn’t it a story that’s easier to accept, as Yoo Seongun said?”

“I can’t be sure.”

“I think it will turn out that way.”

His students had already become beings who led the Great Catastrophe. They would recall after more than before. The memories big enough to be offered as the price of a ‘promise’ would mostly be after the Great Catastrophe, too.

‘So it would be hard for them to guess that the person named Seo Gio that they forgot was an existence from before the Great Catastrophe.’

Above all, his official age was twenty-nine. He also looked around that age. Add in the theory that he was Bisavol’s son, and it would become even harder to discover the truth.

Seo Gio was satisfied with that.

“I’m glad I can avoid giving them something that would make their heads complicated.”

“I can’t tell if you’re cold or kind.”

Yoo Seongun cleared his throat.

“If it were me, I’d feel a bit hurt.”

“Me? Or them?”

“Both.”

That they were a teacher and students who got along well, and yet they forgot each other—and that after that, they didn’t act like they knew each other. Even if they forgot, a connection is still a connection, isn’t it?

“Well, this is your will too, but...”

It feels eerie how cleanly you tie and cut things off.

‘It means you weren’t an ordinary human from the start.’

That must be why he could become the Eye of the Origin.

He didn’t know whether he became the eye because he was the Origin from the beginning, or whether, as Gio claimed, he was an ordinary human and became a portrait. But not just anyone could make such a razor-sharp knot.

“...If you’re fine with it, then I don’t mind either.”

“Yes, I don’t mind. Even if they forgot, I can’t become a teacher and then, instead of helping my students move forward, end up holding them back.”

“Anyway, it’s still surprising that even the Symbols of Eternity had a time when they were students. Don’t you think so too, Ms. Juhyeon?”

At Yoo Seongun’s question, Juhyeon, as always, smiled roundly.

“I suppose so. They were also, at one time, a boss who was unimaginably high above me...”

“What is the Association President like, as you know them?”

“Should I say perfect? They always smiled kindly, but I never felt that way. People often said it was scary how machine-like they were.”

“It would be hard to treat a Symbol of Eternity comfortably, no matter what...”

Gio felt wronged.

“I’m not scary.”

“Yes, Teacher. Of course you aren’t.”

Maybe for the children he taught when they were young, but not for modern people now. They were living, breathing great figures and achievements. It was strange if you didn’t feel fear or awe.

Gio felt sad.

“It’s unfortunate—they won’t even be able to relax and have fun.”

“I’m not sure you’d even be interested in that, though...?”

“That’s something you only know after you try having fun.”

“As expected, the mercy bomber.”

“Say that again.”

“That was a slip of the tongue.”

She didn’t want to be scolded by the Origin.

“Then wouldn’t it be enough for you, Gio, to make them feel more comfortable?”

“Wouldn’t it be difficult to get entangled again like that?”

“But if you even had a one-on-one conversation like that, it means Justitia’s guildmaster is very interested in you too...”

“Everything will continue after the ‘Amusement Park of Dreams’ is finished.”

“Ah, right.”

Yoo Seongun asked.

“What happened to the saintess? The religious world was in an uproar saying you kidnapped her.”

“Now that I think about it... is that hero guy okay? That Ather person.”

Gio nodded.

“The two of them will be able to become good friends.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Heroes and saintesses have always been close partners since ancient times. It’s a common cliché.”

“You like that kind of thing...? Clichés?”

“Doesn’t this project already show my taste clearly?”

The Demon King and the dungeon. The hero who meets a saintess with a strong heart. The religious world enraged over the kidnapped saint. A bishop corrupted unjustly. People falling into corruption. The value of dreams and reality. Pleasure and responsibility. And so on...

“I referenced a lot of subculture from before the Great Catastrophe.”

“You even researched references?”

“I didn’t know much about this field.”

Seo Gio didn’t need to say it, Giovanni only had memories of living as a saint, and Argio was good at turning schemes back on others but didn’t know how to devise wicked schemes.

“Even so, it seems to be progressing well.”

Isn’t that what makes them heroes, saving the world?

Since they wanted it, there was no reason not to do it that way.

* * *

And around that time.

“...”

“...”

Saintess Aram and Hero Ather met.

“...Hero...?”

“...Saint...?”

At a glance, the two recognized each other’s identities.

Just as Gio said, the two had been close partners since long ago.

(Continued in the next part)