Am I Really a Guardian Knight?
I let out a low groan as my eyes slowly opened. It felt like I’d been asleep for an eternity. The first thing I saw was a stark white ceiling. The next thing I noticed was the splitting headache. It was as if every single brain cell had twisted itself into a knot. Still, I forced the pain down and pushed myself up into a sitting position.
“What’s that smell…?”
A sharp, stinging scent of disinfectant pricked my nose, accompanied by the steady beep-beep of machines echoing in my ears. I turned my heavy head and looked down. An IV line was taped to the back of my hand.
Hospital… right?
If this really was a hospital, why the hell had I woken up here out of nowhere? I opened my mouth to call for help, but all that came out was a weak, raspy wheeze. Had I been in an accident? Or maybe I was sick? No matter how hard I squeezed my aching brain for answers, nothing surfaced. It was like everything was shrouded in thick fog.
And that wasn’t even the worst part. Not only did I have no idea why I was hospitalized—I couldn’t even remember who I was. My name, what my face looked like in the mirror, whether I had family or friends… It felt like the basic database in my head had been completely wiped clean.
“Haa… what the hell happened to me?”
I let out a shaky breath and fumbled around the headboard until my fingers brushed against a hard plastic call button. After a brief hesitation, I pressed the red button with all the strength I could muster.
About ten seconds passed. Then, with a loud bang, the firmly shut hospital room door flew open.
“Sihyuk…! You’re finally awake!”
Short black hair filled my entire field of vision. Her black eyes, tinged with a hint of blue, seemed to shimmer with a mix of worry and relief. But before I could even process what I was seeing, the woman threw her arms around my neck and hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe.
The warmth of a woman I’d never seen before—one with an almost painfully beautiful face—felt completely foreign to me.
“Wh-who are you?”
“……Huh?”
My instinctive question made her freeze on the spot. The arms wrapped around me went limp, and her expression twisted slightly. Her eyes trembled with unease as they frantically scanned my face.
At that moment, hurried footsteps echoed from the hallway, and a swarm of doctors and nurses in white coats burst into the room. They gently but firmly pushed the dazed woman aside and immediately began examining me. A bright light flashed in my eyes, and the doctor’s fingers pressed against my wrist to check my pulse.
Once they confirmed there were no immediate physical problems, they moved on to the basics: asking my name, what day it was, and where we were. Of course, I couldn’t answer a single one of them.
I really don’t remember anything…
The doctor studied my chart carefully before diagnosing me with a mild concussion and dissociative amnesia of unknown cause.
The woman, who had been pushed into the corner of the room by the medical staff, stood there looking completely lost.
“Sihyuk lost his memory…? He forgot me? That can’t happen… it just can’t…”
The way she said what seemed to be my name so intimately suggested we must have been quite close. Maybe lovers? I wouldn’t have minded that. But when I glanced down a little, I saw her fists clenched so tightly that her palms were bleeding.
…Never mind. She looks like a total psycho. No way she’s my girlfriend.
I tried to grab one of the medical staff who was about to leave the room, sensing something incredibly creepy about the situation. But I was too late. The moment the doctors and nurses stepped out to prepare for additional tests, the woman approached the bed with quick steps.
She pulled up a chair and sat down, then abruptly grabbed my hand—the one without the IV.
“You really don’t remember who I am? I’m Seo Yura. Seo Yura of the Arzen Magictech Group.”
Arzen Magictech. The name meant absolutely nothing to me. But the woman called Seo Yura didn’t seem bothered by that and continued speaking.
She explained that it was a massive conglomerate that essentially monopolized the global mana energy and magictech weapon markets with its unrivaled magictech technology. She introduced herself as the sole heir to that very Arzen Group.
Her words kept flowing without pause. She told me we first met on the day of our middle school entrance ceremony, that I had been selected as her exclusive guardian knight, and that I had followed her like a shadow when she enrolled in the Academy this time as well.
“You got hurt trying to protect me. You’re my one and only bodyguard. It’s okay if you can’t remember. I’ll take responsibility for everything… with my money and my power…”
Seo Yura rubbed her cheek against the back of my hand and whispered softly. Deep within her blue-tinted black eyes, an indescribable, intense possessiveness flickered.
Hmm… so that’s how it is.
She didn’t seem to have any reason to lie. After all, why would the heir of a global corporation pour this much devotion on a random amnesia patient? Well… if the whole thing was a lie from the start, then there was nothing I could say, but…
Even so, it didn’t really matter.
Having a beautiful woman like her obsessed with me isn’t exactly a bad thing.
In conclusion, given my current situation, it felt far more natural to believe her desperate attitude was completely genuine. I slowly nodded and opened my mouth to say I understood.
Creak.
At that exact moment, the slightly ajar hospital room door opened once again.
“My guardian! You’re finally awake! I’m sorry—I should have come sooner!”
A clear, pure voice that made you feel happy just hearing it. When I turned my head, I saw a woman with long, flowing lemon-colored hair standing there, breathing heavily. Her sea-blue eyes radiated fierce joy as they locked onto me.
Completely ignoring the tense atmosphere in the room, she plopped down on the opposite edge of the bed. Then, as naturally as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, she grabbed my other hand—the one with the IV—and interlaced our fingers tightly.
“From now on, I’ll take responsibility… First, let’s get you proper treatment at our family’s facility.”
…Our family? Guardian? Treatment? Responsibility?
The left hand that Seo Yura had just been rubbing her cheek against while calling me her one and only bodyguard. And now the right hand being held by this tearful woman who was calling me her guardian.
“What the hell is going on?”
My brain completely short-circuited, and the words slipped out before I could stop them.
“Let go of his hand. Who the hell do you think you are, some stray mutt putting your filthy paws on someone else’s guardian knight?”
Seo Yura’s voice was ice-cold as she snapped at the newcomer. The affectionate, desperate way she’d been rubbing her cheek against my hand moments ago had vanished without a trace.
“Hah! Stray mutt? Just because the Arzen Group made some money with magictech, you think you’re actual nobility? How utterly vulgar. Sihyuk is our family’s guardian. Keep lying like that and you’ll be sorry.”
The lemon-haired woman snorted in response. Her voice was still bright and lively, but her sea-blue eyes burned with murderous intent that rivaled Seo Yura’s.
“Vulgar? That description fits the Hartfield family perfectly. Shall I remind you again how your family managed to climb to where they are?”
What followed was surprisingly interesting. Chloe Hartfield. Hundreds of years ago, during the first Gate outbreak, her family had rendered tremendous service and been granted the title of Count by the British royal family. They were now an absolute prestigious house known throughout Europe—if you didn’t know them, you were basically a spy. And this seemingly delicate girl was apparently the direct descendant of that proud Hartfield family.
Hmm… and what does that make me?
I stared back and forth between the two women, half in a daze. One was the sole heir to the Arzen Group, which dominated the worldwide magictech market. The other was the young lady of Europe’s most prestigious noble family. Why on earth were these two colossal figures fighting so viciously over someone like me—who couldn’t even remember anything—claiming I was their real guardian knight or bodyguard? I couldn’t understand it at all.
These were women who could make money just by breathing and get anything they wanted with a snap of their fingers. So why were they so obsessed with a nobody like me? Had I saved a country in the past? Or did I know some fatal secret about them?
Even as questions piled up one after another, no clear answer came to mind.
Is this situation even real?
In the meantime, the verbal battle between the two women was growing increasingly deadly.
“Are you done talking? How dare you speak the Hartfield name so carelessly?”
Chloe’s expression hardened completely. She released my hand—the one she’d been holding like it was a precious jewel—and brought both palms together in front of her chest.
Crackle—!
A sound like electricity surging through the air rang out. At the same time, something brilliant and golden—exactly the color of her lemon-colored hair—began to coil around both her hands.
…That’s lightning.
Can a person really control lightning just like that?
The unbelievable sight unfolding before my eyes nearly made me lose my mind again. But right at that moment—
“Hah! Fine. Let’s settle this properly today. I’ll show you what happens when you touch what’s mine.”
The moment Seo Yura saw the lightning, she gently placed my left hand back on the bed and quickly pulled something from her pocket. It was a silver-colored pistol that looked slightly different from a regular handgun. As she aimed the muzzle at Chloe without hesitation, pitch-black dark mist began to swirl and gather around the barrel.
“Say one more word. I’ll make sure that mouth of yours stays shut forever.”
Seo Yura shouted, her finger on the trigger.
“Go ahead. We’ll see whether that crude toy glove of yours breaks first, or if my hand reaches you first.”
Chloe didn’t back down either. She intensified the lightning concentrated in her hands and smiled.
It was a hair-trigger situation. One wrong move and the whole hospital room would probably explode. I swallowed hard.
If lightning and that unidentified black mist started flying around, the guy lying in a patient gown would obviously be the first to get turned into a meat shield. So, for the sake of survival, I desperately tried to intervene and stop them—
Bang!
With an enormous crash, the closed hospital room door burst open once again. At the same time, a bold, hearty laugh and voice rang out.
But the newcomer’s words didn’t get to finish.
“Uahaha! My bodyguard! I heard you were awake—”
The woman with purple hair who had kicked the door open took one look at the woman wielding lightning and the woman pointing a gun, then spat out a single short sentence.
“What the hell is wrong with these crazy bitches?”
Exactly. That’s precisely what I wanted to say.