Chapter 125
Chapter 125
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: Eric Airheart (3)
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“I don’t have anything particular to discuss.”
When I spoke plainly, the HR Director smiled warmly.
“That’s what they all say.”
“No, I mean it.”
I replied, flustered.
But Joo seemed to let that answer go in one ear and out the other. He asked me to spare him a moment. He’d greet the Choi siblings who’d come just to see my face, then we’d head to his office.
Ami, who’d been listening quietly, waved her hand dismissively.
“Then I’ve seen your face, so I’ll be off!”
She brushed off my farewell lightly and vanished in a flash.
The petite senior departed as lightly as she’d arrived, scampering away.
Master didn’t follow Ami and stayed put.
“I’ll take him after the consultation.”
“Ah. So you didn’t just come to greet us, after all.”
Joo smiled affably but didn’t insist on taking me first.
Instead, he asked brightly.
“It might take a while. That okay with you?”
A vein seemed to throb at Master’s temple.
Eric aside, I couldn’t fathom why Yoon disliked the HR Director so much. Master had steadily despised Joo ever since we first met.
In any case, Yoon replied with a furrowed brow.
“It’s late. Wrap it up quickly.”
Joo smiled warmly.
***
But I really had nothing to say.
Even sitting alone with the HR Director in his office, I couldn’t come up with anything.
A consultation wouldn’t change a thing anyway.
If I said I had nothing to say, he wouldn’t let me go. So I’d have to dredge up something superficial. Claiming I couldn’t grasp my identity due to lost memories might work.
The moment the thought crossed my mind, Joo chuckled as he sipped his burdock tea.
“Badgers can get an assigned counselor anytime they want.”
“Ah, I see.”
“But I figured you couldn’t open up to a civilian.”
Joo chuckled and offered me some treats.
An array of baked goods boasted their sweet aroma.
I didn’t refuse and picked up a gorgonzola financier to eat.
“Thank you for your consideration. But really, I have nothing special to say.”
“I figured. You think spilling your guts won’t change anything.”
My eyes widened.
Joo’s eyes crinkled softly.
“You seem to think you don’t even deserve the time or right to agonize.”
Who had he heard this from?
I sat there speechless for a while.
Almost everyone had gone home. Yet the HR Director, who clocked out precisely at four, sat before me now. Dapper in his suit, he smiled silently, awaiting my response.
The man whose innate talent even Ye-hyeon couldn’t alter.
“You can’t even allow yourself the act of opening up and crying?”
The HR Director said something peculiar.
“Pardon?”
“Even if I said I’d hold you here until you pour out your emotions, you couldn’t do it?”
Joo fixed me with a piercing gaze.
Strangely, it felt like he saw right through me.
I quietly set down the financier I’d been about to eat.
“Yes.”
He wouldn’t fall for a lie anyway.
“I couldn’t.”
“Since when?”
“…I’m not sure.”
Truth be told, it started after hearing about the sword from Ye-hyeon.
But that was precisely what I didn’t want to confess honestly. Couldn’t confess it. Nor did I want word of my vague phrasing reaching Ye-hyeon’s ears.
Joo seemed to intuit as much and smiled wryly.
“Then tell me when the time comes?”
“Yes. If that day arrives…”
“Tell me after you’ve finished everything you set out to do.”
My eyes widened again.
Joo just smiled, offering no explanation for how he’d discerned it all.
Now he was starting to scare me.
“That means don’t make some foolish decision after you’re done.”
But that wouldn’t atone for anything.
“Dying never atones.”
Joo added as if reading my thoughts.
I fell silent, mulling his words.
I didn’t dismiss it as empty comfort. It was a valid point, one I might’ve made in a one-sided situation myself.
But my case was unique.
And in its uniqueness, the answer came easily.
“Then I’ll ask and decide.”
Joo blinked.
This time, I smiled.
Sorry I can’t explain it all, but talking with him helped sort my thoughts.
“At the final moment, I’ll do as the one who resents me decides.”
They’d likely wish for my death anyway.
The HR Director observed me at length.
He said nothing for the time it took his tea to cool. He didn’t ask who resented me or why I’d heed them.
Instead, he sighed upon seeing my bright smile.
A sigh tinged with quiet resignation.
“If that final moment comes, at least think of us for a bit.”
He said it as he rose from his seat.
“I hope that changes your decision at the last second.”
But HR Director, I have no choice.
***
Yoon had truly waited for my consultation to end.
I’d thought he’d gone ahead or returned to the lab.
Master turned as I emerged from the office and jerked his chin.
“Done? Let’s go.”
“Back to the cabin?”
“No. Lab first.”
After his curt words, he led me to the massive research building.
I didn’t ask questions. By now, I knew answers would come upon arrival. Probing now wouldn’t yield satisfying replies.
The research building was as usual.
The scientists, spotting me after so long, cheered.
“Hilde!”
Those familiar or we’d exchanged names approached Master and me.
“Long time! Doing well? Met Martin yet?”
“Martin’s busy helping another team with experiments.”
“Taking quests?”
“You haven’t done the promotion exam yet.”
“But the promotion exam’s soon, right?”
“How about doing quests after passing?”
Always such lively folks.
But our chat didn’t last. Yoon impatiently waved them back to their stations.
I’d thought so before, but the lab scientists really listened to Yoon.
The crowd dispersed as quickly as it gathered.
Once cleared, Master dragged me deep into the lab.
“Can I enter here?”
I asked as he flung open a massive door that looked like a restricted zone.
Yoon didn’t turn.
“Only you.”
Inside was bright.
No signs of life. The air felt crisp, perhaps deliberately controlled. I halted as the heavy door thudded shut behind me.
Master didn’t venture deeper either.
Instead, he turned, met my gaze, and scanned me appraisingly.
“…What’s wrong?”
“I brought that head.”
Impact.
The unexpected blow stole my breath. I paled, forgetting how to breathe.
Only after Yoon slapped my back did I gasp in air.
I panted like someone dragged from water.
“Wanna see it?”
Yoon watched impassively as I steadied my breathing.
“Sorry, but I can’t give him a nice burial.”
Fair enough.
Even asking like this was kindness. Better than I’d braced for.
Still, I had to suppress surging emotions for a while. My ragged breaths echoed in the chill room.
Faint air purifier hum in the space.
Fortunately, I recovered faster than last time.
“…I’ll see it. You haven’t opened it yet, right?”
“Yeah. Ye-hyeon said to get your permission.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
Thoughtful of him.
“Please… let me see.”
Yoon nodded quietly.
We proceeded deeper. Another door opened to a small white space, likely sterile.
There, I spotted my old comrade in a transparent case.
A head laid out like a pristine plaster statue in a museum.
I approached my comrade’s head slowly.
Yoon watched silently as I caressed the case.
“Shall I finish the old story?”
I said after gazing long at the face half-covered in wood.
Yoon replied without moving.
“I was about to ask.”
I let out a small laugh.
Eyes fixed on the well-preserved head, I delved into the past.
A world now faded in color. My homeland of blessings and curses, myths and heroic tales.
The ashen city.
Memories of crossing the ash-stained city to kneel before the World Tree.
“We of the 10th rank and above were called children of the World Tree.”
My voice echoed in the pale space.
“Those freed from the Curse of the Divine Tree by the World Tree’s blessing, who drew freakish strength and healing from devouring others—that’s what they meant. The emperor of the era’s greatest empire gathered us under him. Fine troops, after all.”
That’s where I first met Kyle in the empire’s training grounds.
He’d joined the empire’s knights four months before I arrived. His tribe had knelt to the emperor’s mighty forces.
News spread to every corner of the world.
His tribe boasted unmatched mobility, merciless enough that tales said only ashes remained in their wake.
Yet Kyle’s tribe knelt to the great power.
The moment defeat loomed, Kyle resolved to end his life with his own blade.
He’d even gripped the bloodied sword to do it, but the empire’s general who found him changed his mind.
‘Climb high for your tribesmen! Make sure they can hold their heads high in the empire!’
“That general spoke those words.”
I took in the cleanly severed neck.
Sliced by a sword? Kudo’s work?
Lost in thought over the ruined face, Yoon’s voice broke the silence.
“Why’s half the face covered in wood?”
“He drew power through Kyle. World Tree children can pass absorbed nutrients from other lifeforms to another.”
A technique I learned after Kyle joined the knights.
“Prolonged infusion covers the unblessed in dead wood like this, and they wither away.”
“They die eventually? Then why do it?”
“To strike the enemy, even at the cost of their life.”
The kind of man to choose that.
And the situation must’ve warranted it.
“He’d been unwell for a long time.”
His arm severed by the emperor he served loyally.
Not something Yoon needed to know, so I kept it simple, omitting details.
He’d just been unwell long-term. That’s why he chose this. To die heroically in the end.
Burning his remaining life.
“You might encounter more like him soon.”
Since Kyle had started moving.
“…If possible, I want to leave the Core often.”
I never wanted this again.
No more seeing kin slain by human hands. Hand on the case, I turned to Yoon.
The man who’d vowed to kill me himself if I betrayed.
Yoon spoke.
“You pass the promotion exam for that.”
“Yes. …Yes? Ah, yes. Of course… that’s how it is.”
“Few months left.”
Yoon approached slowly.
He gripped my shoulders and pulled me from the case.
“Since it’s come to this, let’s start your exam prep—whatever you want.”
No.
It’s not whatever I want, it’s obvious…
…Anyway.
And so my exam preparation began.