Who Are You? (3)
"…I see. In that case… I'm sorry. Then what should I do about the organization? If you could just tell me that much…"
Even through her tears, the woman pressed on with what she needed to say.
It seemed that before I transmigrated into him, Baek Sejin had been something like the boss of an organization.
Don't tell me it's a criminal organization.
I couldn't swear it wasn't. I myself was a law-abiding citizen, but that hardly meant the Baek Sejin from before my arrival had been one too.
And looking at this face of mine…
Hmm…
I hated to say it, but this was the sort of face that would feel incomplete if it didn't belong to a villain.
I decided to talk with the woman. I was curious about this body's past. Baek Sejin, or his organization, might well have been characters from the original novel.
"I'm sorry, but I truly have no idea who you are."
"…Yes, I understand. Sniff. From now on, I'll make sure not to bother Master Sejin…"
"No, that isn't what I mean. I… right. Amnesia. Yes, amnesia. One day I woke up and my memories were simply gone.
Well now — where am I? Who am I? Everything was truly chaotic at the time, you see."
The moment she heard me, the woman's eyes went round.
"…Amnesia? I-is that true?"
"Yes, that's right."
She seemed to believe my roughly improvised story. Or perhaps she simply wanted to believe it. From her perspective, this was better than being abandoned.
"Why don't you come sit over there for a moment?"
I guided her to the dining table and sat across from her.
"So then — who exactly are you?"
Having already stopped her tears and collected her thoughts, she answered my question with one of her own.
"…When did you lose your memories?"
Her words made me cast my mind back. The day I first opened my eyes in this world…
It had been truly chaotic. I'd only gone out to buy beer, only to get hit by a car and transmigrate. Damn it. If I hadn't been looking at my phone while walking, I never would have died. Looking at your phone while walking is that dangerous.
"Around mid-January, I think? Yes, it was probably around then."
"Mid-January… I should have served Master Sejin better… Sob! Just thinking of Master Sejin alone after losing his memories is too much…!"
The woman burst into tears again. From my perspective it felt a bit overdramatic, but well — we must have been quite close. I let it slide for now.
"There, there. Dry those tears first. So, what is your name?"
"Ah, my name is Seo Jia."
I received a brief explanation from Seo Jia. Apparently I had been the leader of an organization. The organization's name was Heuksa — Black Thread.
Was I actually a villain?
An organization whose very name reeked of villainy turned out, as I'd expected, to be something close to a villain organization. It handled both legal and illegal work without discrimination. All the while it operated in secret beneath the surface, deftly straddling the line, surviving both the authorities and inter-organization conflicts. And it hadn't merely survived — it was a large organization with considerable influence in the underworld.
Seo Jia was Heuksa's second-in-command. She had been very close to me, and for the past year she had been running the organization in my place.
The previous owner of this body must have been quite capable. To grow an organization to this scale in a world ruled by ability users…
But what I was curious about was something else. If she'd come looking for me, something serious must have happened that required my help. Just what kind of trouble had arisen that she'd seek me out? This was a problem I needed to pin down clearly. If it was something I couldn't handle in my current state, I'd have to abandon this organization.
"I see. I more or less understand the situation from before I lost my memories. But what problem brought you all the way here?"
Seo Jia shook her head at my question.
"Nothing has particularly gone wrong. Everything Master Sejin ordered is proceeding smoothly, and the movements of other factions and the police remain stable."
"Then why…?"
Seo Jia's face flushed red.
"I-I just came to check on you… Yes, just to check on you."
Had the pre-transmigration me been close enough to Seo Jia that she'd come all the way to my house just to say hello? Well, that was possible enough.
But something in the middle of her words caught my attention.
"Things I ordered? Could you explain?"
"Ah, the amnesia… I'm sorry. I'll tell you what Master Sejin personally ordered before losing his memories. A deep investigation of the dungeon recently discovered by a survey team in Gangwon Province, gathering personal information on black mages and shamans residing in Korea, improving welfare for combat personnel…"
Seo Jia's words continued on and on. There were that many orders?
"Alright. That's enough. Just keep doing as you have been."
"Understood. Do you have any new orders?"
Even knowing I had amnesia, Seo Jia still treated me as the organization's leader. So even without my memories, I was still me?
"Even with amnesia, I'm still the leader, I see."
"To me, you are… But if you wish for a different life, I can arrange that for you."
"Hmm. A different life… I'll have to think about that, but there is one thing I want to order. Even if the organization is annihilated, make sure no harm comes to me. That will be enough."
"…Understood."
With those words, Seo Jia returned to the organization. Before leaving the house, she also told me to contact her if I ever needed help.
After Seo Jia left, I went into the bedroom. The dolls that had failed to subdue the intruder were lined up in a row.
"These dolls weren't particularly useful, were they? I've been thinking of putting them to better use somewhere else — what do you all think?"
The dolls that heard my muttering began to tremble.
"I gave you homeless lot a home and even bodies that can move, and yet you failed to meet my expectations. Well, it couldn't be helped, I suppose. So do better next time."
I sent the dolls away and lay down on the bed. Outside, the sun had already set and it was dark. Listening to Seo Jia's story had taken quite a while.
At this rate, today's plan of catching a few villains for bounty money was off the table. I had to go to the academy tomorrow as well. I received money from the academy, but going there itself wasn't exactly a welcome prospect.
Well now — me receiving money from an educational institution.
Something I'd never even dreamed of in my previous life. I felt a complicated mix of emotions. The surprising part was that, even so, I still didn't want to work.
I should find all those black mages quickly and rest.
I turned on my phone and accessed a video site. I went to a history channel that explained the history of various countries and played a video. Since coming to this world, I'd been steadily watching various videos to gain common knowledge.
This world had many differences from my previous life. If I'd told someone back then that people rode pterosaurs instead of cars and that summoners were having real-life Pokémon battles, the first thing I'd hear would be to go to a mental hospital. Same for a principal who controlled multiple clones to roam every corner of the academy. Things unimaginable in the original world were everyday life here.
Even when a terrorist attack suddenly occurred, people were merely surprised — there was little panic. That was why, even at the academy, everyone had been able to evacuate in an orderly fashion when monsters poured out in massive numbers.
The world is wide, and ability users are many.
Every person is born with mana. The only difference is whether the amount is large or small. During a person's growth period, their mana capacity grows along with them. As a baby, mana is scarce; as one approaches adulthood, mana increases. But most people, even as adults, can barely sense their mana. The majority possess only tiny amounts of it and are insensitive to it.
So ordinary people learn martial arts. By practicing martial techniques alongside internal cultivation methods, even the tiniest spark of mana can be awakened, and one's health improves dramatically. This applies to most ability users as well. Summoners learn martial arts. Mages learn martial arts. Spirit mages learn martial arts. Alchemists… learn a little.
There's no rule that learning magic means you can't use martial arts. Everything is accomplished through mana, after all. In China, mana was called qi, wasn't it? The energy used when casting magic and the energy used when practicing martial arts are the same thing. The only difference is the specialized domain. Magic primarily affects the outside of oneself. Martial arts primarily affect oneself. That's the only distinction.
So most people in this world learned martial arts. Mages use martial arts in close combat. Martial artists use magic in ranged combat. There are already fields where the boundary between martial arts and magic has begun to blur — things like qi techniques that fight primarily using mana, or Haste magic that accelerates the body's movements.
And I had transmigrated into this world, and I had to adapt.