First Mission and Domestic Bliss (3)
First Mission and Domestic Bliss (3)
Hypnosis to make her confuse me with her father.
The moment it took hold, the woman in front of me threw her arms around me.
She grabbed the back of my head and pulled it straight between her breasts.
—Squish.
"......!!!?"
'What the hell do you think you're doing to your dad?!'
No, wait. Excuse me, this young lady's father.
Did you... do this sort of thing with your daughter?
I was so stunned I couldn't even speak.
My Confucian values simply could not accept her sexual proclivities.
But then,
"You're too late, Daddy."
—Ding!
[The souls form a powerful connection!]
———An abrupt notification.
The sensation of hypnosis driving down into the deepest parts of her.
And more than anything...
the faint resentment I could feel beneath her emotionless voice.
Together with all of it, my vision shifted.
[Assimilating with the subject.]
'What... was this?'
The world before my eyes bled into faded sepia.
* * *
"Subject 47, success!!"
"......?"
'What was this?'
When I came to, a crowd of researchers stood before my eyes.
No. "Before my eyes" wasn't quite right.
I was looking up at them from far below.
As if I'd become a small child.
—Turn.
'My head moved on its own too... Ah, this was a memory. Right.'
It wasn't the first time I'd experienced something like this.
This was a form of reliving the past.
Back before the regression, when I reigned supreme.
It was a technique I'd often used when interrogating villains with hypnosis.
It was useful because it let me view memories even the person involved had forgotten.
'How was this happening? At my current level, there was no way I could cast hypnosis like this.'
The problem was that this technique was far too advanced for me to perform right now.
"Reading memories" sounded simple enough, but...
this was a technique that directly examined the soul.
It was an extremely difficult application, possible only when the target's soul offered no resistance at all.
For that, perfect hypnosis was a prerequisite.
Was it even remotely possible with my current stats?
Landing a critical hypnosis success on an awakener strong enough to shatter mana-suppression restraints?
I had no idea how, and it left me dazed.
But the scene before my eyes didn't wait for me to figure it out.
—Flash.
"This time, cyclobenzaprine... it's an overdose, but whatever. She's an awakener, she'll be fine."
"I don’t like it when it hurts..."
My view changed again.
A syringe hovered right in front of my eyes.
The petulant complaint in a child's voice came as a bonus.
That immediately told me what this was.
'Injecting a test subject... This must have been that: the Awakener Proliferation Plan.'
It was one of the game's setting elements: the Awakener Proliferation Plan.
A horrific experiment driven by the military roughly twenty years before the prologue.
Its goal had been the artificial awakening of ordinary people.
Taking advantage of the fact that an awakener's heart carried mana, they used the brutal method of implanting a 'Core' directly into each subject's heart.
...The kind of insane thing you could only get away with in the '90s.
The success rate was under two percent, and they fed civilians into it for those odds.
Mostly orphans.
—Flash.
"Subject 47. As a proud soldier of the Republic of Korea, you shall lay down your life..."
'Brainwashing too? This was horrific.'
The reason it targeted orphans was to brainwash them from childhood and wield them as convenient weapons.
The woman whose memories I was reliving had undergone the same thing: daily brainwashing disguised as ideological training.
What passed before my eyes as a result were scenes that made even me, a spectator, recoil.
It happened dozens, even hundreds of times—often enough to leave afterimages.
"Subject 47, this time a regeneration experiment..."
"You are a machine. Empty your mind and follow orders..."
"Who told you to talk back? Don't open your mouth until you're told."
"For the glory of Korea..."
.........
......
...
"———Is it good?"
Amid those days of brainwashing, one unique memory intruded.
A man crouched low, bringing himself to eye level with a girl.
Chocolate in his hand, his eyebrows were gently curved upward.
The sepia world bloomed into vivid color for an instant.
—Nod.
"I am glad. And you absolutely cannot tell anyone I gave it to you, okay?"
—Nod. Nod.
Understanding his feelings wasn't hard.
Here was a girl young enough to be his daughter, being subjected to human experiments every single day.
His conscience must have hurt enough to make him want to show her a little kindness.
'It was probably hypocrisy anyway. If he had truly had a conscience, he'd have exposed this to the public...'
—Murmur.
"Is it... very hard? Living here?"
"......"
"Just hold on a little longer. After a hundred more nights, Daddy will come."
'Huh?'
Both her head and mine tilted to the side in unison.
Daddy? She was supposed to be an orphan. What did that mean?
The researcher pressed a forefinger over his lips.
"I sent a letter to someone far away. About you. About this experiment."
"......"
"If we move rashly, that bastard Lee Wonho will cover his tracks. So let's hold on for a hundred nights. You and me, together."
"......"
"And then... Daddy will come to get you."
Daddy. The single most precious thing, embedded deep in her unconscious.
The girl, who had only listened in silence until now, opened her mouth for the first time.
"What is a dad?"
"A good person. Not like the bad people here—a good person who'll play with you."
"......"
"Someone who'll go to an amusement park with you, take you out for pork cutlets, and share chocolate like this with you. Someone who'll raise you."
'Whoa. My apologies for calling you a hypocrite, sir.'
So this mister had been planning to adopt her.
To expose the top-secret experiment to the outside world, ask for help, and then raise her.
At that age, wearing the insignia of a lieutenant colonel and being assigned to an experiment like this meant he was well-connected, on the fast track.
And he'd chosen to throw it all away and blow the whistle.
He was a saint in the truest sense.
It felt perfectly natural that he alone shone with color in those faded sepia memories.
———However,
"So, just a hundred more nights..."
—Krrrk. Bzzzt.
"Run...!!"
His color, the moment the memories intersected, was stained red.
The thick stench of blood filled the air.
"Heh. I knew you'd be running this garbage somewhere else too. I was right!!"
"Y-you're..."
"Me? I am the bitch you people called Subject 1~ Though I suppose these days you would call me a villain?"
A woman burst into mad laughter before him.
One of the mid-bosses from the game, and the leader of the group that had recently attacked the academy.
The first success of the Awakener Proliferation Plan.
It was the Grade 1 villain, Winterer.
"How—how did you get here?"
"Excellent question! Well, you see, I was over there trying to decide when to kill everyone. And then they started blabbing!! 'Oh no, it looks like Lab 2 might be compromised,' and all that!! So I killed them all and walked out~!!"
Ah, hell.
'It was because of the letter.'
A sigh escaped me on its own.
He'd sent out a letter to expose the top-secret human experiments.
That had stirred up a commotion at the main facility, and the villain, who'd been pretending to be brainwashed and waiting for the right moment to betray them, chose exactly then to explode?
It was pure tragedy.
The researcher's expression twisted.
"No... w-wait. I...!!!"
"Anyway! So death penalty for you too~!"
—Crack.
But he wasn't even given the chance to protest.
The instant Winterer waved a hand, his entire body froze solid.
One man's goodwill, his sacrifice for her.
Ended in futility, achieving nothing at all.
All that remained were the Grade 1 Villain, Winterer, and...
the girl who had witnessed it all.
Their eyes met.
"Heh~ Not even a twitch of an eyebrow, this one?"
"......"
"And since she is not talking, it looks like the brainwashing worked properly on her, unlike me."
"......"
"So what'll you do? Fight me? I killed the great lieutenant colonel you were supposed to obey so faithfully."
Winterer summoned her mana.
But the girl remained completely silent.
She was a machine that didn't move without orders.
An awakener broken by brainwashing.
"Hmm? Hmmm...? Aha! Look at this bitch’s eyes. Hilarious."
"......"
"Come with me. That's an 'order.'"
—Nod.
She silently followed behind Winterer.
Turning once to look back at the man who'd once given her chocolate, the man who'd shone alone in full color in a faded world.
Now frozen, preserved in hues of blue and red.
"...It has been a hundred nights. Liar."
Through her fading vision, that small murmur brought the tragedy to a close.
* * *
After experiencing that short flashback together.
My mind returned to the present.
—Squeeze.
"You're too late. Daddy."
"......"
My expression, buried against her chest, was scrunched up as if I were chewing on bile.
'How was I supposed to know that was what a dad meant to her!!!'
To her, Daddy wasn't simply a blood relative.
A hero who would rescue her from hell.
A hope she'd eagerly awaited, counting the days on her tiny, maple-leaf-like hands as a child.
In short: salvation.
Salvation that never came in the end. Salvation she'd given up on by now.
And what had I done?
I'd used the power of hypnosis to forcibly drag out a hope she'd abandoned in the distant past.
Even Satan would've shaken his head and said, "Isn't that a bit much?"
Horrified, I hurriedly tried to pull away.
This was a bit much...
'I needed to get away first!!'
—Grip. Squirm, squirm.
"Daddy, it tickles."
"Mmf! Mmph!!"
'Argh, this stat difference!'
Not that it did any good, thanks to the overwhelming gap in physical ability.
In the end, I didn't manage to escape that soft, squishy trap until the Association President lent a hand.
"Oh, good heavens. What kind of shameless behavior was that from a grown woman!!"
"...Puhaa!! Th-thank you."
"Think nothing of it. Anyway, what on earth is going on? And what's all this 'Daddy' business?"
"Well, actually..."
I quickly briefed her on the situation.
Her: a victim of the experiments. A pitiful kid.
Daddy: the existence she'd been waiting for.
Me: tried to briefly pretend to be Daddy, almost caused a catastrophe.
"This type of hypnosis typically breaks quickly, but..."
"Daddy, if you give me a piggyback ride, I'll forgive you."
"...As you can see, her mental age seems to have regressed to that period as well."
The biggest problem was that her psyche had been heavily affected in the process.
This was a woman brainwashed to do nothing without an order.
Her seeing me as her father was something impossible in her right mind.
To make the impossible hypnosis succeed, her mind seemed to have regressed to the innocent childhood she had once known.
"......Can you release it?"
"It's possible, but then she'll fall back into the brainwashed state."
"And releasing the brainwashing?"
"It would probably be difficult with my current ability."
If I released the hypnosis making her see me as her father, she'd return to a brainwashed state.
To release the brainwashing, I'd have to hypnotize her.
To hypnotize her, she'd have to see me as her father.
An infinite chain, one thing leading to the next.
Faced with a dilemma that even the Second-Round Hypnosis Breeding Guy couldn't solve, I furrowed my brow and—
'Even this old lady probably could not solve this...'
"It can't be helped. Act as her father for the time being."
"...Excuse me?"
What the hell were you talking about, you old hag?
"I'll formally issue the mission. Awakener Seo Yujin. For a while, you will act as this young lady's father."
"No, what—"
"There is no one suited for the role but you. My intuition is screaming it."
"......"
Take on a daughter? Me?
Even before the regression, I had never had children with my wives.
And on top of that,
'This looked like I was cheating...!!!'
No matter how regressed her mind was, her body was that of a full-grown adult woman.
And a woman like that was hugging me, calling me Daddy, Daddy?
Anyone watching would think it was an affair. Or some kind of sugar-daddy arrangement.
Thinking of my wives, it was absolutely not something I could do.
But...
[A hundred nights passed. Liar.]
'...I supposed I had no choice.'
She was just too pitiful to let go now.
A brainwashed girl, and one man who had tried to save her.
Since things had come this far, I wanted to lay at least a little of his lingering regret to rest.
'My wives would forgive this much.'
'Probably.'
"Awakener Seo Yujin. I accept the mission... Hey, you."
"What is it, Daddy?"
I slowly knelt down to meet her eyes.
Just as a lieutenant colonel had done, long ago.
"What's your name?"
"Name? Name. Name... Subject 47?"
"No. Your name isn't a number like that."
I brought a name to mind.
It came from the memories I’d glimpsed—the memories she herself had forgotten,
a name I'd heard in that sepia-toned world.
[Hey, I'm just asking, but...]
The name that man, who'd shared my surname Seo, must have settled on after endless deliberation.
He hadn't been her real father. Their blood wasn't even connected.
But it was the name that the person closer to being her father than anyone had intended to give her.
[What do you think of the name Haru?]
'Mister, your taste in names was impeccable.'
"———Seo Haru. You're Seo Haru."
Seo Haru.
The corners of her expressionless lips curved faintly upward.
"Yeah. I am Seo Haru."
It was the moment I, who had never had children even before the regression, came to have a fully grown daughter.
* * *
A short while later.
"Which one of you is my mommy?"
"WHAT!!!? What in the world are you—"
"Shall I do it? Hehe."
"And what are you talking about, you vixen!!!"
All hell broke loose.