A New Beginning (3)
"Um… hello?"
When the man collapsed into a crouch, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Judging by the reaction, he really was Baek Sowol's father.
He was reacting so intensely that I still didn't know how to handle it. I'd assumed he must have thought pretty poorly of Baek Sowol. Apparently not. Just what kind of family mess was this?
Maybe the one who'd hated her parents had been Baek Sowol herself.
"Sowol…? Is that really you, Sowol…?"
"Yes. I'm Baek Sowol."
After speaking to me, the man sank into thought for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the doctor.
"You said she has no memories?"
"Yes. According to the patient herself, her most recent memories are from around the time she Awakened. We've confirmed the timeframe—forty-eight days ago."
"Forty-eight days…"
So it'd already been forty-eight days since I reincarnated. That was surprising in its own right. Awakening a unique ability and getting right up to the brink of C-rank in only forty-eight days was pretty impressive, too.
"Ah, patient? Allow me to introduce this gentleman—"
"I'm your father."
The doctor had been about to introduce the man to me, but the man stole the words right out of his mouth. Father… so that had been right after all.
"Um… hello…?"
"…You really don't remember?"
"No… I, um… I don't really have any memories… hehe."
At that, the man's expression grew even more complicated. He looked lost, as if a tangle of emotions had knotted together so thoroughly that he no longer knew what to do with his own face.
So I made my own expression even more shamelessly bright. It's hard to spit in a smiling face. If I kept grinning like an idiot, it'd be that much harder for him to get angry at me.
I'd designed this so that losing my memory wouldn't be even slightly my fault, after all.
"No memories… no memories, huh…"
Father kept murmuring the words over and over. Look, sir. I'm pretending not to know right now, sure—but unless the original Baek Sowol was a complete idiot, acting like this would make it painfully obvious that the old relationship had been anything but normal.
Well. Maybe he was just that overwhelmed. Either way.
"Um… so there's one thing I'm curious about… may I ask?"
"…Hm? Ah? Yes… go ahead and ask."
"How did I… used to address you…? I don't have a single related memory…?"
"W-what…?!"
"What I should call you… Did I call you Father? Or Dad?"
"D…ad…?"
Hmm. Judging by the reaction, Baek Sowol had called him Father.
Or maybe she'd gone even further and hadn't called him anything at all. I didn't think she'd been that much of a delinquent, but then again, I'd never had a family of my own.
Father went rigid at those words. The way his eyes reddened, it almost looked like he'd been swallowed by longing.
But I had no memories, so of course I couldn't tell him what had happened.
"Dad… You used to call me Dad."
"Really? Then… Dad. Um… I'm sorry. For making you worry…"
"No. It's all right. It's all right…"
My dad pulled me into a hug, half in tears. Hmm. We were family, so being held like this was probably fine… right?
Even thinking about it like a mage, it didn't seem particularly strange. I couldn't even be sure the original me had held any bad feelings toward him.
Maybe those feelings had already been resolved.
Unlike with Baek Soae, I didn't feel any emotional turbulence stirring up. I'd thought the leftover emotions of this body were still lingering, but…
If that hypothesis was true, then the feelings toward Dad had most likely already been worked through. Why she never contacted him, though—that I still didn't know.
"Dad. Can I ask one more thing, then?"
"Hm? Of course! Ask your dad anything you want."
Looking at the way he treated me, he at least seemed like a total daughter-doting fool—though it was still a little ambiguous. Well. It didn't really matter. If he was going to treat me kindly, that was a good thing.
"Um… why was I attacked…? I just can't make sense of that part."
"What do you mean?"
"Well… that man was targeting me specifically. I managed to get through it somehow, but I never understood why he attacked me."
What I needed to dig up right now was information about the family. Baek Dohan. I needed a rough sense of what kind of person this man was.
To get that, I had to ask what he did. Now that he knew I held no ill will, he might actually tell me if I played it right.
"Dad doesn't really know either. I'll look into it later and tell you."
Hmm. His manner was calm, and his face genuinely looked like he didn't know. But thinking back to what that masked man had said…
He'd acted like there was no way I wouldn't know.
Even accounting for the fact that almost nobody is completely ignorant of their own parents' jobs, that man's reaction had been that of someone who thought it was perfectly natural for me to know.
In other words, Baek Dohan was famous enough that a third party knowing who he was wouldn't feel strange at all.
And yet he was still hiding it—which meant he probably had quite a few things he felt guilty about. Fair enough. He clearly cared about Baek Sowol a great deal, and anyone in a high enough position would have plenty of controversies hanging over them.
I understood the urge to keep quiet. I had no ill will, so there was no reason to create friction for no purpose. Besides, a quick search would give me the answer soon enough. I could do that later.
Before, I'd only known the three syllables of his name and not his face, so searching hadn't been much use. Now that I'd seen him, I'd be able to recognize him.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—
I spent a reasonable stretch of time with Dad, and then noise rose from outside again. The door opened, and a familiar face stepped into the hospital room.
"Unnie…?"
Baek Soae. My older sister.
The first family member I'd met after reincarnating into this body.
"Sowol, are you oka— Dad…?"
Baek Soae's eyes found me first, full of worry, then slid sideways. She looked at Baek Dohan—and shock washed over her face.
"You okay?"
She turned back to me. The shock had only deepened.
I knew why, of course—but I was playing the amnesia card, so I tilted my head.
"Huh? Okay about what? Why Dad?"
"Dad…?"
Baek Soae looked at Baek Dohan one more time. He didn't seem to have anything to say either; he cleared his throat and looked away.
"Sowol lost her memories. The doctor says it's uncertain whether they'll return or not. But she still has her memories from after she Awakened, so it shouldn't interfere much with daily life."
Dad poured out words that were basically an excuse—not aimed at me, but at Soae unnie.
Soae unnie seemed to grasp that there was nothing to be done about it, and let out a long, heavy sigh.
"So. What's going on here, exactly?"
"Well… I got a call, so I came. Given my position, it wouldn't look right if I didn't visit at all. And when I heard she'd lost her memories, I figured I should at least see her face before leaving…"
"Well. Yeah. That makes sense, but… ha. Seriously. What are you going to do if her memories come back…"
Baek Soae muttered under her breath after a string of frustrated remarks. I couldn't quite catch it, but she seemed to be fretting about the aftermath.
Honestly, even if the memories came back, I don't think it'd be that big a problem.
If I'd simply lost my memories, sure—but right now I still remembered the twenty-five years I'd lived as Heo Donghyun. Even if Baek Sowol's memories fully returned, would I really be completely Baek Sowol?
At the very least, I wouldn't have the exact same personality and values as the previous Baek Sowol. Whether they'd come back at all was still an open question.
And if I hadn't reincarnated into Baek Sowol's body so much as killed the original and taken it over… then the memories could never return.
Of course, fretting over something impossible to verify was distinctly un-mage-like behavior. Until I found Heo Donghyun's columbarium, all I could do was speculate—and even if I found it, there might be no information there at all.
"Still. Last time we met, we parted with you crying like that. I'm just glad that wasn't our final meeting."
Baek Soae sounded relieved as she said it—and something about those words sent a sudden jolt of déjà vu through me. I'd missed something.
Huh…? Then why are the emotions still intact?
I'd met Soae unnie before.
And when I did, whatever residual emotions were left in this body had made me break down crying on the spot. That part wasn't strange. I'd gotten jerked around by Lee Jihyeon the same way.
But… why was I fine now? Strictly speaking, it had only been about a week since I'd last seen Soae unnie.
Did something change…?
The only thing that had changed was… no way…!
Ugh. No. It couldn't be.
If it really was because of that day, then experimentation was impossible. There'd be no way to confirm anything until the next cycle rolled around. And if that were true, then my relationship with Dad might have been just as awful.
At least on Dad's side, he seemed willing to improve things.
"Still, thank you, both of you. I just got hurt doing hunter work, and you've been helping me like this."
"Hm? No, it's fine! These things happen. Being a hunter is an honorable job, right?"
"That's right, Sowol. Dad is… cheering you on."
As he said it, Baek Dohan gently took my hand. It was warm. Of course it was—he was a person.
Which only made the question sharper. Why had the relationship between Baek Dohan and Baek Sowol turned so bitter? Baek Dohan didn't hate Baek Sowol. If anything, he seemed to dote on her even more because she was the youngest daughter.
Putting together everything I knew so far, Baek Dohan had to be someone with plenty of power and money—same for my mother. For a relationship like that to sour… someone would have had to commit a serious wrong.
Just what had happened? Even a search wouldn't turn that up. I'd have to piece it together from the family's reactions.
And then… right at that moment—
"Assemblyman! An urgent matter has come up!"
"What is it?"
A man in a suit suddenly burst into the hospital room. Dad didn't scold him, so they clearly knew each other. And Assemblyman… a National Assembly lawmaker? That would actually answer every question I'd had.
"Young miss… the fact that she's your daughter seems to have gotten out…!"
Uh.
Why on earth was that getting out?