Mother, and a Meeting with Hermes
My awakening.
"Ah, of course—the evolution of your trait was beyond my expectations. If that had been possible, I would have done it for you long ago."
Zeus shrugged.
At those words, Sunghyun thought,
It wasn't Zeus?
Then who?
He had assumed the "someone" who evolved his trait was Zeus. But listening to this, it no longer felt that way.
"I never went to the future myself, so I can't say for certain. It could have been me. It might not have been. All I can tell you is that the me standing here now is incapable of it."
So that was how it was.
In that case, Sunghyun decided not to dwell on the identity of that someone any further.
"That may well be the right call. When it comes to the unknown, setting it aside for later isn't a bad choice at all. It's very much like you. And once you hone your senses to their absolute limit, they'll sharpen into something like foresight—you'll figure out who it was naturally enough."
Zeus's mouth never stopped moving.
"Besides—being able to use coins, those things that were the exclusive domain of the gods… Hah! Your talent combined with the Coin Shop. A monster is about to be born."
Zeus laughed, sounding almost deflated.
"Your talent already reaches the heavens—I've been watching you myself from time to time. And yet even that talent has been transcended. Haha! Truly, an unexpected turn of events in the best possible direction."
Watching him?
No matter how gifted I am, is there really a reason to go that far?
The moment Sunghyun thought it, Zeus answered.
"Of course there is! In the not-too-distant future, dangers to Olympus and dangers to Asgard will arrive one after another. This is preparation for that time—and a chance to get an early look at a future hero. There's a little entertainment mixed in as well."
Zeus's body shone, and he transformed into the face of a young man. Something about the face was familiar.
"See this? This young body. When you come to Earth, things like this become possible. Judging by your expression, you recognize the face. Gods are scattered across Earth in considerable numbers, you know. Especially! In your case, quite a few of your acquaintances are probably gods. You, of all people—you, hahaha!"
Zeus kept clapping Sunghyun on the shoulder as he spoke.
How Zeus was able to touch him was a curiosity, but Sunghyun didn't bother thinking about it.
What mattered more was that word—acquaintances. Sunghyun began running through the people around him.
Wait.
A suspicious figure suddenly surfaced in his mind.
His ex-girlfriend from the past—the one who had seemed so polished, as if she had dropped out of nowhere, and who had left him without a single word of explanation. The moment he thought of her, his stomach turned.
Zeus, reading his thoughts, found himself staring at a face he had never expected to see.
"Wait—why her?"
Zeus broke into a cold sweat. The god who had looked so composed the entire time was suddenly flustered, and Sunghyun couldn't help asking.
Who on earth is she, that you're reacting like this?
Zeus's cold sweat poured freely.
"Ah… ahem! The Olympus council is almost upon us, you see! I really must be going! There isn't much time left, so enjoy yourself a little. Look upon some familiar faces! Farewell!"
No—at least tell me who—hey!
KRA-KOOM!
The crack of the thunderbolt Sunghyun wielded rang out, and Zeus vanished.
"Waaaaah!"
At the sound of the thunderclap, baby Sunghyun began to cry. At once, his parents rushed into the room to soothe him.
"Oh my! Did our Sunghyun get scared?"
The expressions on his parents' faces were unfamiliar, and Sunghyun felt awkward—but he did his best to take in every detail of those happy faces.
Mother.
That deep resonance.
In just a little while, Sunghyun would return to reality—to that forest crawling with magical beasts.
A thought struck him.
Come to think of it… what happened to my body?
The body here seemed to be nothing more than his spirit…
If his real body had been left abandoned in that forest, the situation could be quite dangerous.
I might need to get back sooner rather than later…
Still—facing his parents like this, the feeling was entirely new.
Perhaps that was why Sunghyun opened his mouth.
No sound came out, but he shaped the feeling all the same.
Haha… Mother. It's me, Sunghyun. Though you can't see me.
He began to pour out the long-buried stories he had kept locked in his heart.
It's been nearly twenty years since that day… At first, Father and I both had such a hard time. Father spent every day clinging to a bottle, and I spent every day staring at charts.
As if lost in the past, Sunghyun's eyes went hollow.
But thanks to that, I discovered my talent. Mother, did you know? I turned out to have an overwhelming gift for investing.
Like a child showing off to his parents, he wanted at least the feeling of speaking—and his mouth kept working soundlessly.
Even without a voice, the simple act of talking to his mother made Sunghyun's face grow steadily more like that of a pure child.
It was so hard at first, but as time passed, both Father and I got better little by little. Thinking of you that day still hurts my chest—but we're just living our lives. So please… don't worry about us too much.
Water welled in Sunghyun's eyes.
These days, do you know what Father says every time he looks at me? It starts with "When are you getting married?" and goes straight to "By the time I was your age, you were already in elementary school." Haha—my ears are about to grow calluses.
Every time he does that, I think how nice it would be if you were there beside us. If you were, you'd have smacked him right across the back, wouldn't you?
A tear that had no right to exist fell into the past.
Was it a miracle?
In that instant, Sunghyun's mother looked in that direction.
Their eyes met.
And something in Sunghyun broke open—tears poured out without restraint.
This was the truth he had been hiding all this time.
Mother… no, Mom… Honestly, things have been a little hard lately. I suddenly ended up in a strange place, fighting battles with my life on the line. And it's not just once. Kill one, and another appears. Kill that one, and another. But you know what creeps me out the most? That I'm starting to get used to killing…
A strange feeling came over Sunghyun's mother, and she took a step toward where he was.
A mother's instinct, perhaps. Who could say.
She now stood a single pace from him.
"Honey, what are you doing?"
Sunghyun's father called to his wife, but she stretched out her hand with absolute certainty in her eyes.
And then a miracle occurred.
Hwaaaaa—
The weeping Sunghyun appeared before their eyes.
Sound slipped from his lips.
"Ah… aah."
Sunghyun's father rushed forward, trying to pull mother and son apart.
But—
"Honey, just a moment. Just a moment, please."
His mother raised her hand to Sunghyun's cheek and wiped away his tears.
Her fingers slowly traced the contours of his face—as if a sculptor were engraving into her soul the texture of a great stone before beginning her work.
"I knew it… so that's how it was. You are Sunghyun."
His young mother spoke to him.
Sunghyun's father still couldn't make sense of any of it, blinking in bewilderment.
The young man who had suddenly appeared was the Sunghyun right here? Did that make any sense?
His head refused to accept it—but his heart already knew this was his son.
A handsome young man who looked exactly like him.
Sunghyun's mother must have felt far more than his father had.
"How…?"
How had his mother been able to recognize him?
She smiled.
"I'm your mom. Of course I recognize you, you little rascal. That dense husband of mine still looks completely lost, though. You wouldn't have known—but Mom wasn't an ordinary person either."
It was the first he had ever heard of it.
"Of course you didn't know. Mom was a Hero too. I don't have much power left now, but the memories and the instincts from back then never disappeared."
"Mother… I…"
"It's all right."
She simply drew Sunghyun into a warm embrace.
In that warmth, he closed his eyes.
And the moment he opened them again, ready to speak to her—
The effect of Audumla's Milk has ended.
Returning.
Sunghyun's form began to wrap itself in light.
His mother watched with sorrow in her eyes.
His father stood gaping.
There seemed to be just enough time for a single sentence.
Sunghyun hesitated over what to say.
He had meant to warn them to be careful of September in the year he turned twenty—
But the moment he opened his mouth, his mother shook her head.
Don't. That was the feeling.
As if she already knew, her eyes held only sadness.
In that case—
There was only this left to say.
"I'm home."
"Yes. Welcome home."
Yes. This was it.
Not anything grand—just this ordinary exchange.
The moment Sunghyun had longed for across more than a decade.
"I think it's time. I have to go."
His mother smiled a bright, fresh smile.
"All right, my son. Don't go around getting yourself beaten up. Mom will always be watching over you."
"Yes…"
As if this were truly the end, a radiance began to envelop Sunghyun's entire body.
He strained to commit even a little more of his parents' younger selves to memory.
Once more, Sunghyun's vision was cast into a brilliant light.
"Hah!"
He pushed himself up from the very spot where he had collapsed.
"Ugh."
His actual body had never gone anywhere—and yet the emotion of that moment still clung to him. Moisture clung around his eyes.
As he rose, a young man's voice called from nearby.
"Ah! Finally awake."
Sunghyun turned his head. Standing there was a man who could have been Zeus's spitting image.
If Zeus shaved his beard and grew a little younger, he would look exactly like this.
"Zeus?"
"Hey, hey—comparing me to that old man? I'm way too young for that, don't you think?"
The situation made no sense at all, and yet something about the atmosphere felt familiar. Sunghyun let out a short laugh.
"Oh-ho. Laughing in front of a god? Want a taste of divine punishment?"
The pose looked oddly familiar. Sunghyun smiled and let out a quiet chuckle.
"My mother told me not to go around getting beaten up. That would be a problem."
The old saying went that if you laugh after crying, hair will grow on your rear end—but there was nothing to be done about it now.
Sunghyun had already figured out who he was dealing with.
"Hermes."
"Huh? You know me?"
"Of course. You're famous. I just met your father, too."
"Huh? You drank a little Audumla's Milk and went to see my father? What kind of guy are you? Wait—is that even possible?"
At that endlessly lighthearted manner, Sunghyun smiled.
"Who knows. I don't even know what kind of guy I am myself."