Who... Are You...?
Who... who are you...?
Healing-type hunters were all required to complete basic medical training. The deeper their medical knowledge ran, the stronger their actual healing effects became—it was as simple as that.
Cha Yujin, formerly Rank 5 among S-Class hunters, had been one of them.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder has been spreading among hunters lately."
The lecturer pinned photographs and documents to the board as the explanation continued.
"When ordinary people awaken and find themselves thrust into extreme situations, a defense mechanism kicks in—their original self hides, and an entirely different personality takes its place. In most cases, whatever the original personality couldn't accomplish, the new one handles with startling efficiency and ruthlessness. What's more, there are even reported cases of memory sharing through a co-consciousness. That's a markedly different pattern from the typical case, where Personality B can't remember what Personality A did, and it's been drawing quite a bit of attention in academic circles. A fascinating subject."
The bespectacled lecturer seemed almost to be enjoying himself, pinning up photographs of dissected brains until everyone's expression soured.
Cha Yujin had been among them.
"Here's the interesting part: despite being a fully separate personality with a different temperament, the subject recognizes both as a single self. Hunters with this disorder almost always exhibit a trigger and a time limit. After doing whatever acts as their trigger, the chronic stress or headaches they normally endure simply vanish. And the precursor to reverting to the original self? A piercing headache returns, like a signal flare. As for duration—the shortest cases last an hour or two, the longest around a week. Sometimes even longer. The cases vary so widely that I can't give you an exact figure with any confidence. Do keep that in mind. It'll be on the exam."
Cha Yujin had never liked that lecturer's tone. But she was in no position to complain much—she was the one being taught.
Then, as if wrapping up, the lecturer delivered his closing point with deliberate weight.
"Hunters suffering from this disorder show a distinct physical marker: their eye color changes. In the vast majority of cases, it manifests as red. If you ever encounter a hunter like that, please report it immediately. If swift action isn't taken, there's no telling what kind of disaster they might cause~"
Why on earth was that old lecture surfacing now?
The answer lay in the reality standing right in front of her.
The sensation of the memory faded rapidly, and she found herself glaring at the man before her—Mumyeong, S-Class Rank 1.
Something's wrong...
It had felt off earlier, but now it was worse. From the very moment that voice called out to her, she'd sensed a deep wrongness.
Instinctively, Cha Yujin became certain: the being standing before her was not Mumyeong.
"You... who are you...?"
"What?"
He tilted his head as if to say, you don't recognize me? She glared harder. Not a single one of his movements belonged to that bastard.
For one thing, showing up with some woman clinging to his shoulder and a man who looked half-dead was nothing like anything she'd ever seen him do.
He had been a harmless man. No matter what was done to him, he would only smile and let it pass. In any situation, he never once got angry, never let anyone come to harm. The way he tiptoed around everything made him look positively cowardly.
So what was she supposed to make of the man in front of her now?
He looked far too rough. Far too strong. She could not possibly be facing the same person she'd always known. This was a completely different human being.
And decisively—the eyes of the Mumyeong before her were glowing red. Not his usual black.
"Well. I suppose there's no way you'd fail to notice something was off."
"...!"
What he'd just said amounted to a confession—that he was someone else entirely.
"Even if I explained, you wouldn't understand a word of it. So let's just move on. Go on, heal that man already. He's the Guild Master of [Baekya], after all."
"What!?"
Looking closer, he did wear the face of the man she knew.
In the meantime, the commotion was settling, the chaotic atmosphere of the scene slowly restoring itself. People's gazes began to gather.
Cha Yujin did as Mumyeong said, reaching out her hand toward the man presumed to be Yoon Sihyeon. Brilliant white light poured from her palm, mana suffused with warmth seeping directly into his body.
"O-Oppa..."
She looked up at the woman weeping as she clung to Mumyeong's shoulder. That would be Yoon Sia, the vice guild master of [Baekya], apparently.
She's insane—it's insane...!
So he'd actually demolished the [Baekya] guild tower. If the aftermath she'd witnessed earlier meant what she thought it meant, then maybe—just maybe—the power of the Mumyeong she'd always dismissed as trash really did befit the S-Class Rank 1.
But then why, all this time...?
How could anyone have lived like that—smiling and accepting everything in silence amid such absurd cruelty? It made no sense at all.
Something must have happened to him. It has to be.
As she worked her healing, Cha Yujin recalled the contents of that old lecture and decided to probe him first.
"Have you, by any chance... ever had headaches? Bad enough to make your head hurt, I mean."
"...Headaches?"
He tilted his head as though searching his memory, then frowned.
"Why would that matter to you? Right now, of all times."
"N-no, it's just... I thought if you were hurt anywhere, I could... heal you too..."
"You? Cha Yujin, healing me?"
His expression said the very idea was absurd.
Even to herself, it sounded clumsy and transparent. To speak as smoothly as she usually did, she would have needed an actual conversation, and she'd never bothered having one with the Mumyeong she'd ignored. Above all, the Mumyeong in front of her was, somehow, frightening. Her instincts screamed that he had become something entirely different from that idiotic man she'd known.
Mumyeong seemed to consider something, then spoke.
"Come to think of it, yeah. The headaches that used to torment me—they're gone."
"...Since when?"
He answered as if it were nothing worth mentioning.
"When I brought down the [Baekya] guild tower. Quite a lot of people died. By my hand."
"...!!"
She saw Yoon Sia's lips tremble, her teeth sinking into them at those words. So it was true.
The Mumyeong who flinched away from so much as hurting a single person, who was outright afraid of it—that Mumyeong had killed?
She couldn't imagine what circumstances could have driven him to it. But that might well have been the trigger. An overwhelming flood of guilt and stress crashing down all at once, and the original personality simply went into hiding, replaced by a new one. So completely that he himself had no awareness of it.
What do I do...!
Everyone around them was watching their exchange with bated breath. Even the broadcast cameras were still rolling. There was dedication to one's job, and then there was this.
But—this was an opportunity.
If I let everyone know Mumyeong's mind isn't sound...!
Her own lie would grow flesh upon flesh, edging endlessly closer to the truth.
Cha Yujin gazed at Mumyeong with careful calm and spoke.
"That's strange. The Mumyeong I know would never kill anyone! Do you even realize something's wrong with you right now?"
"...What is that supposed to mean?"
He frowned, feigning incomprehension.
If he had no self-awareness of it, then all she had to do was shake it loose. Plant the seed of doubt, pile on the stress, and provoke the headache.
The Mumyeong before her was terrifying and threatening—but Cha Yujin knew the harmless version of him all too well. She decided to gamble on it.
"I'm saying you're not right in the head right now. Dissociative Identity Disorder—ever heard of it?"
"Dissociative Identity Disorder?"
"You know—multiple personalities? It's famous from movies and dramas, come on!"
Steer the conversation naturally, then drive in the knife.
"The Mumyeong standing in front of me is not the one I know. So... try to remember. Doesn't something feel wrong to you?"
"You..."
Looking thoroughly displeased, Mumyeong sank into deep thought. He seemed to have noticed that something in himself, too, was off.
She could not let up now.
"Isn't your judgment, your behavior, completely different from usual? It was in this raid, too. You were never the kind of man who'd abandon everyone and charge off on his own like that. I know you. You're a harmless person. Someone who could never, ever bring himself to kill—"
"Shut. Up."
A strangled squeak escaped her. The sensation of something pricking through her entire body cut Cha Yujin's words short, forcing her mouth shut.
But the exchange seemed to have landed. Something in Mumyeong's bearing shifted. Most notably, he pressed a hand to his forehead, as though his head ached.
"...Fuck. So that's how it was."
He looked like a man who had found his answer.
Then, without ceremony, he dumped Yoon Sia off his shoulder and let her drop.
"Kyaah...!"
Every one of those moments was being broadcast live to the cameras. And Cha Yujin's smile deepened, inch by inch.
If things went on like this, she would no longer need to worry about her lie being exposed later. Mumyeong was, right now, visibly demonstrating that he was anything but sane.
I have to drive the wedge in deeper...!
Yoon Sihyeon's treatment had finished without her noticing. Footage of her personally healing the Guild Master of [Baekya] had been broadcast live, and that was unquestionably a win. Above all, with [Geobhwa] and [Baekya] locked in rivalry, the opportunities to leverage this in the future would be endless.
And then—a ripple shuddered through the portal.
What timing...!
Cha Yujin hid her smile.
What would happen if Mumyeong—clearly lost in confusion—came face to face with Seo Yeram?
One thing was certain: the shock would sear itself into his memory for good.