Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Elder (4)
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My hands felt idle.
Watching Colton, who sat across from me smoking a cigar, brought back memories of how we used to sit face-to-face like this in the old days, sharing cigars. Cigars were something Kyle quite liked too. They evoked that nostalgia from long ago, so whenever I received a box from Colton, I'd leisurely share them with my comrades.
Long ago?
Had there been a time before I met Colton? As I tried to recall, my head started aching again. I let out a faint sigh and gave up groping for memories that wouldn't surface.
Instead, I lowered my eyes halfway and offered a greeting.
“It's been a while. Good to see you.”
Your face, at least.
“Seeing a familiar face again feels strange. Just a few months ago, I didn't even know who I was.”
“And now?”
Colton asked slowly in return.
I barely suppressed the urge to raise one eyebrow.
That bastard. Asking lazily even when he knows the answer—nothing's changed there.
I replied sullenly.
“I don't remember.”
“Tragic news.”
“You tell me.”
I didn't beat around the bush. There was no point in dancing around it now; it wouldn't benefit me at all. The information asymmetry was too severe.
He hadn't called me here just to mock me to my face for losing my memories. He wasn't that inefficient. There had to be a purpose for seating me here.
The others in the room were just spectators to our conversation. Neither Eric nor Yekaterina showed any sign of breaking the silence, and I didn't pay them any particular attention.
Colton opened his mouth leisurely.
“I'm not sure how much you remember. You haven't forgotten me, at least.”
“Honestly, I had forgotten you too.”
I confessed frankly and shrugged.
I didn't feel sorry. I knew he wouldn't be hurt by it at all.
“The moment you walked into the reception room today, the memories came back. Not all of them, though.”
“Touching.”
“Yeah.”
I chuckled lowly as I replied.
It was ridiculous. The first familiar face I'd met since falling from the portal was none other than Colton Wise, not Kyle or any other human.
The rush of gladness, contempt, admiration, and revulsion that hit me the moment the memories resurfaced was absurd too. Emotions this contradictory? Well, come to think of it, I'd always felt that ambivalence toward him.
An connection I thought would snap easily had proven so tenacious.
Without wiping the faint smile from my face, I brought up a mutual acquaintance.
“I hear Kyle's awake.”
Colton slowly exhaled a puff of gray smoke.
“The problem is I can't properly remember things about Kyle either. I heard he's out to capture and kill me, the traitor to his kind, but I don't remember how or why I betrayed my own kind.”
“How did you learn he was awake?”
“From a Badger outside the Core.”
I wasn't sure how much to reveal, but Ye-hyeon didn't stop me, and Colton didn't probe deeply.
Instead, the man at the pinnacle of power asked a strange question.
“Did you only realize after hearing it?”
I didn't understand the question.
I lifted my head and blinked a couple of times. The room thick with the scent of mahogany. The people silently fixed their eyes on me, waiting for my answer. Feeling their sharp gazes, I racked my brain.
But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn't grasp the intent. Was it a reprimand for not anticipating it from the circumstances? Or something else?
He wouldn't phrase a reprimand like that....
Failing to find an answer, I decided to be honest again.
“Yeah, I only realized after hearing it. Why ask something like that?”
“You've forgotten so much.”
Colton's words sounded more like a murmur to himself than a reply.
“That was your greatest trait.”
“What exactly?”
“Being connected.”
His succinct answer jolted a fragment of memory back to life.
“You've even forgotten what you hid until the war broke out.”
They know nothing.
Look at that. Vitality on the verge of bursting. The sense of being connected. The vivid sensation of life flowing through the body.
Kyle's voice surged up, clouding my senses. I struggled to accept the flood of memories.
Right, we hid it to the end. No human knew about that trait until the war erupted.
But exactly how did we sense each other's presence?
A stabbing pain made me close my eyes and rub my temples with my fingers.
I wanted a cigar.
I foolishly brought my fingers to my lips, then realized they were empty and let my hand drop limply.
Eric chuckled softly from my left.
“You smoke, huh?”
“Cigars.”
The headache lingered, making my words shorter than intended.
As I kept furrowing my brow, Eric gestured to the red-haired man standing beside him.
“Shashinsky. Give him one.”
The red-haired man approached silently.
Right in front of me, the cigar case he held neatly clicked open. A kind gesture. The cigars lay aligned like slender chocolates. The man called Shashinsky expertly cut the one I selected and even lit it with a match.
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
Eric acknowledged the greeting with an elegant smile.
“Have a pleasant conversation.”
Right. We were in the middle of one.
I rolled the cigar smoke in my mouth and turned my gaze forward.
The heavy aroma overwhelmed the headache as I retraced the fact that had just surfaced. There was a reason the Creatures kept pinpointing my location. A reason they knew I'd returned.
I'd just forgotten how to feel that connection.
“Strange trait. I can't quite remember what it felt like.”
“Then I'll do my utmost to help you recall that part.”
“Huh?”
His unexpected words made my eyes widen.
“Possible?”
“I'll make the effort.”
“What kind of effort?”
Nothing good ever came from you saying that.
I shot him a distrustful look, and Colton smirked. But there was no explanation. I didn't bother hiding my incredulous expression.
Anyone with a conscience... well, you don't have one. But anyone with brains would tremble at such a proposal from you.
“Whatever kind of help it is, can I reject it for now?”
Colton wasn't surprised.
Without even glancing my way, he placed his cigar in the ashtray.
“You'll regret it.”
Damn it.
His arbitrary attitude was unchanged. Worse, he wasn't one to make empty promises. He didn't fabricate lies just to save face.
And he had no need to posture now.
“At least explain properly.”
The white-haired man obliged my request.
“Kyle will come for you soon. Probably in person. But we can't repeat the horrors of the First War.”
Ah. I could see where this was going.
But it was hard to believe. Not everything clicked perfectly yet. I put the cooled cigar back in my mouth and fell silent for a moment.
Then I asked.
“You want me to stop him?”
“If you don't want to die by your own kind's hand.”
“But is that possible? Was it ever? I don't even know how to shoot a gun right now.”
Eyes turned toward me. Jae-yeon, standing behind Colton, raised one eyebrow. Eric's subordinates blinked in surprise at my words. Yekaterina's subordinate—where had I seen him?—narrowed his eyes and glared.
Even Eric and Yekaterina looked at me as if questioning if it was true.
Only Ye-hyeon and Colton remained unfazed.
Colton replied calmly.
“You never could shoot one anyway.”
“Yeah? I figured as much.”
“What's your current skill level?”
This question wasn't for me.
Colton turned his head left toward Ye-hyeon. Ye-hyeon, who had been sitting with legs crossed and hands clasped on his thigh, met Colton's gaze.
My superior spoke in his husky voice.
“I haven't sparred with him directly, so I can't say precisely, but I've heard it's inconsistent. His body can't keep up with the returning memories, and the memories themselves aren't complete.”
“And his activity inside the Core?”
“I haven't assigned him any yet.”
“No training?”
Colton chided me casually, as if it were nothing.
His scolding didn't faze me, but Ye-hyeon's cool assessment hit hard.
It felt awkward addressing my boss, so I gave my friend an embarrassed grin.
“Yeah, yeah. I'll do my best.”
“Once the Supreme Commander's approval comes down for activity inside the Core, we'll discuss further.”
Colton set down his cigar.
Hearing words signaling the end of the discussion, I blinked.
The meeting's over? I still have so much to hear.
But as the other Elders prepared to leave, it was clear the meeting had concluded.
I could understand my old friend's attitude. What good would telling me the truth do when I couldn't even perform properly? Recovering memories wouldn't magically restore my skills overnight. Nor would it let me stop Kyle charging in to kill me. He'd explain later once the situation improved. Very pragmatic, just like him.
The man rose, straightening his pitch-black jacket collar.
Begging to continue here wouldn't change anything.
I sat still, watching Eric and Yekaterina rise leisurely. Kyle and Colton. The two names I'd recalled.
Kyle, who mocked human ignorance, and the man with cold blue eyes who had looked at me with clasped hands....
“You are my ace in the hole for victory.”
I broke the slow silence as people began to move.
“Colton.”
Everyone halted and looked at me.
“So, was I really your ace in the hole in the end?”
Colton looked down at me wordlessly.
I waited for his answer with a sly smile. I didn't remember why or how I'd betrayed my kind, but it was clear now that I'd ultimately sided with the humans. In the end, I'd chosen Colton over Kyle.
Not the comrade who smiled brightly at me, but the one who nagged me not to waste time on trivialities.
My old friend finally broke the silence.
“You were.”
A weighty answer.
“If you regain your true strength, you'll be someone's ace again.”
“Huh?”
“Like this....”
Colton dragged out the words as he took a step.
“As long as you don't remain in a state where you can't even sense things like this.”
KABOOM!
Three walls crumbled, and Creatures burst in.
Four of them. Creatures resembling horses with torn snouts. Their faces were massive enough to smash through walls, and the elegant wall indeed collapsed helplessly, revealing the bluish night view.
The intruders were quickly slaughtered.
I watched the Elders' subordinates dispatch the Creatures without batting an eye. Eric's moved in perfect sync, like mirror images. Yekaterina's turned her head indifferently and swung her right arm, stabbing a vital spot cleanly.
Jae-yeon drew her gun and shattered an eyeball.
But the casing ejections didn't stop. She kept firing until the pupil was pulped. Once it was, she thrust her hand into the socket and pulled the trigger several more times. I watched in dismay as flecks of flesh and blood splattered her pristine suit.
Finished venting, Jae-yeon removed her gloves and pocketed them. She brushed back her jet-black hair, unconcerned with her ruined attire.
Then Jae-yeon grinned at Ye-hyeon.
Ye-hyeon sighed, and Colton ignored her.
“Farewell, Prometheus.”
Eric, unflinching no matter what happened behind him, draped his coat over his shoulders and smiled.
All three Elders were terrifyingly detached. They sauntered along, facing the wind blowing in through the shattered walls.
I let out a hollow laugh with the cigar smoke and returned the greeting.
“Yeah. Thanks for the good cigars.”
“You liked them, I see. I'll send you a box as a gift. You're a dull one, but an important existence too.”
What a real pervert.
Eric and his subordinates left the reception room first. After exchanging bows with his greeting subordinates, I watched my old friend pass by.
Colton walked past indifferently, eyes forward, followed by Jae-yeon shooting daggers with her gaze.
As I started to bid them farewell, Colton murmured lowly.
“Welcome back to the living.”
I watched his retreating back with a faint smile.
“Yeah.”
“I'll provide appropriate help, so adapt quickly.”
I'll give you a call sometime. Colton replied lightly and exited the reception room. The crisp sound of his shoes faded away.
Sure, I was just about to ask for your number anyway. I replied casually, but only after the footsteps receded did I realize something.
Wait. Didn't he just say he'd help me recall that sense of connection? I said I'd refuse, but he ignored it?
Why hasn't that guy changed at all?
Unbelievable how consistent he is. Staring blankly at the door they left through, Yekaterina brushed past me from the right.
She glanced at me with her steadfast green eyes.
“I hope we can meet again as soon as possible. I trust you'll train diligently.”
Her subordinate followed the departing woman.
He glanced at me without smoothing his furrowed brow. Our eyes met briefly in the air, but the man turned away without a word.
Ah. Even this gesture feels so familiar. But since I can't recall it right away, we probably weren't close.
Where on earth did I meet him....
Ah.
There he was in a small memory fragment that surfaced. Across from me, dressed in the same black tactical gear as his comrades.
Familiar face, sure. But no name or details came to mind, and the odd déjà vu hadn't fully dissipated.
What is it?
The nagging feeling of a word on the tip of my tongue made me glare at where he'd vanished, furrowing my brow. It felt like the answer was right there, just a bit more thought away. Unlike other memories, this one seemed tantalizingly close....
As I pondered, someone stopped beside me.
“Hilde.”
It was my superior's voice.
“Let's go.”
I turned to look at Ye-hyeon.
At the same time, I pinpointed the source of the déjà vu.
“Did you have a brother, Commander?”
Yekaterina's subordinate bore an astonishing resemblance to Ye-hyeon.
“That guy who just left....”
But I couldn't finish.
Because I saw the businesslike mask slip from Ye-hyeon's face, his eyes clouding over with a depth of sorrow I'd never seen, his trembling gaze finally dropping under its weight.
Silence enveloped us.
A silence made of my shock, the seeping night breeze, and Ye-hyeon's grief lingered long before it broke.
“I have no siblings.”
His voice was faint, like a dying candle flame.
“That man is my father.”
Unable to find words to reply, I stared at Ye-hyeon for a long time.