The First Memory (Complete)
An imperceptible touch.
To shake off Seowoo’s hand, Gunter twisted his wrist all the way to the joints, and his brows furrowed in shallow pain.
Crack.
Unlike the lower-class vampires, the broken part healed instantly.
“You bastard! Who told you to…!”
Seeming to buy time, he opened his mouth, but Gunter’s question never ended.
Thud!
He kicked Seowoo in the stomach, sending him flying into a tree.
He hadn’t been careless, but the speed wasn’t something easily noticeable.
The moment he vanished from sight, his body was already in motion.
Seowoo’s action was a silent declaration that he wouldn’t allow even one word.
‘…Different from the ones I’ve met so far.’
Gunter felt that at least he was equal to or above the opponent.
No need for identity—just suppress the guy first.
This was the perfect time to put the fighting skills he’d learned as a hobby to use.
“Kuh…!”
A bitter taste lingered in his mouth.
Step, step.
The guy was approaching.
Gunter kept his eyes on Seowoo and slipped the knuckle he always carried onto his hand.
If his physical ability was inferior, he could cover it with technique.
Fortunately, the opponent didn’t seem like someone who had trained in martial arts.
There was a chance.
No, there should be.
“Hah… hah…!”
His breath grew ragged from the relentless attacks.
Why?
How could he stand?
Surprisingly, after the first hit, Seowoo hadn’t landed any decent attacks.
Gunter pushed his concentration to the limit, catching the subtle movement of Seowoo’s muscles and predicting the next strike.
Beyond his burly build, he never forgot daily training, boasting a surprisingly solid defense.
One clean hit could crush bones with devastating force.
Flawless footwork and weaving.
Based on human boxing with perfectly balanced offense and defense, Gunter felt a chill at Seowoo’s unchanged gaze.
Torn side.
Even as fists flew toward his limbs, he protected only his heart, stepping forward one agonizing step at a time.
Just with the obsession of killing intent.
“…”Crazy bastard.”
The moment Gunter, who never tired, began to break was right here.
Thud.
Gunter’s back slammed into the mansion’s wall.
“Eh…?”
The backward step he hadn’t realized he’d taken.
When he came to his senses, he was quite far from where he had been standing.
By focusing all his senses on the opponent, his body had surrendered before his mind.
He had lost to the guy’s spirit.
The fact in front of him hadn’t changed.
“Damn…! Damn…! Damn!! Are you scared of this kind of bastard?!”
Gunter was a vampire filled with noble pride.
The fear he felt from someone below him should never exist.
Extreme rage could even make fear disappear.
Enraged at the man, Gunter pulled out three potions hidden in his pocket.
Potions that maximized strength, stamina, and regeneration.
The wisdom product of the Darjeeling family, masters of reinforcement magic—‘Doping’.
Gunter roughly unscrewed the cork and, without hesitation, poured it into his mouth.
Excessive use might cause side effects, but the victory in front was more important.
He discarded the rule that reinforcement potions could only be taken one at a time.
Glug.
Glug.
With rough breath, the effect surged quickly.
Crack!
The flask Gunter had casually thrown was stepped on and shattered.
Muscles swelling roughly and fangs sharpening.
Eyes filled only with whites without pupils sent a chill down the spine.
“Khhahaha! Yeah, this should finish it.”
Gunter, laughing wildly, approached Seowoo.
***
My whole body ached.
My body burned as if it had been scorched.
I knew the gap in skill.
I understood that the time lived and the experiences accumulated were different.
Still, I couldn’t stop.
The karma of the past had to be settled.
One step.
Two steps.
Steadily advancing toward Gunter.
To pierce that disgusting heart.
“…”Noisy.”
Seowoo told the arrogant Gunter who had gulped down the strange medicine.
The vision dyed red with blood flowing from his forehead was irritating.
The body, constantly regenerating, found even standing difficult.
“Living only with the mouth like a bastard changes nothing.”
“Yeah, you’re urging me to die.”
Gunter rushed at Seowoo.
The speed was instantaneous.
A movement completely different from before.
He twisted his body urgently to dodge the randomly swung fist.
But that was just a feint.
The real attack came from below.
Crack!
Seowoo’s legs shattered from Gunter’s rough low kick.
“Cluck…!”
Even as his posture collapsed, Seowoo, looking for an opening, tore his stomach.
The touch was there, as if he had judged in an instant whether to give bones or take flesh.
The intestines spilling from torn flesh and muscle looked fatal.
He thought his regeneration was superior, so it was worth trying.
Yeah, until Gunter’s lips twitched.
“Does my eye see the magic of the five families as easy?”
His body regenerated at an incredible speed, as if time were being rewound.
He had to prepare for the next move quickly.
‘…’Damn.’
He had consumed too much regeneration from the previous battle.
At the moment he tried to lift his upper body somehow.
“Kyaa!”
Gunter’s foot stepped on Seowoo’s back.
He struggled with all his might, but couldn’t move.
Even pushing the ground with both hands to stand up, the weight pressing from above was overwhelming.
Eyes with only whites curved like a crescent moon.
Crunch.
“Kyaak!”
As if he could crush the heart anytime, he ground his back mercilessly.
Worried that the broken ribs might pierce the heart.
At the same time, his lungs were compressed, making proper breathing impossible.
Oxygen wasn’t reaching his eyes, which slowly closed.
Was this how life ended without achieving anything?
No.
I can’t end like this.
There was someone who relied on me, the incompetent self, and people to protect.
The moment I burned my will to stand up even by eating my own flesh.
As if waiting, the boy’s voice came.
Player substitution
***
Plop.
The guy lying underfoot suddenly lost all strength, as if dead.
“What? Already dead? Lame.”
Pushing him this far and ending like this drained the blood from his face.
He had planned to play a bit more before killing, but if this was the outcome, maybe fighting without the potion till the end would have been better.
“…”Shall I return to the mansion now.”
The gentle breeze blowing was just right, as if telling him to cool the sweat he had just shed.
Thud.
“Hm?”
It sounded like something.
Before a natural disaster, animals sitting on trees, sensing danger and fleeing, all took flight at once.
Thud.
A suspicious sound rang out loudly again.
Gunter’s gaze, returning to the origin, pointed straight at his feet.
“…”
Thud.
The power wave felt again.
The hanging fingers twitched.
A creepy chill rose from the toes.
His senses were screaming at him to run away immediately.
“What…!”
The originally black head was turning gray.
Late in realizing, he tried to put strength in his feet, but it wasn’t just a matter of being late or fast.
The gray head flickered with the force oozing without restraint.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he stood up.
Even though Gunter was stomping with all his might.
“…”Who are you?”
The ease different from the desperate feeling just before.
In the changed atmosphere, Gunter’s mouth dried up.
“…”I was going to say that earlier? You don’t know.”
“Yeah? Then die again.”
Gunter struck Seowoo’s chest with the maximum power and fastest movement he could muster.
Just one move.
At the first moment of a fight mostly for scouting.
To finish with a one-shot kill.
A clean straight punch like a blade.
The posture was perfect textbook as if he had accumulated long experience.
“Was it like this?”
The boy acted exactly like Gunter had.
Before extending his arm, seeing the muscle movement, he poured the same technique.
Thud!
The fist that missed by an inch.
Gunter, eyes spinning with rage, unleashed the combination.
“Kyaa!!”
Thud.
Tchut.
Fists passing by the collar and hair.
The world was the same, but the felt time was different.
Perhaps because the boy’s emotions had already been expressed through Seowoo, it couldn’t be colder.
“…”Since I opened my eyes, I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“You bastard! What are you muttering alone?!”
Gunter, unable to do more, threw sand at the boy’s eyes.
Swoosh!
The boy, who had no intention of dodging, raised his nails.
The sand grains hitting the retina painfully, representing Gunter’s heart.
The desperation was lacking to close his eyes.
“Would it have been better if a senior like me had been there…”
The hand that tore skin and muscle went beyond the ribs and pierced the heart.
Puff!
The blood shower spurting from behind.
In Seowoo’s hand, the twisted heart was gripped.
Thud.
When he pulled out his hand, Gunter collapsed forward.
“…”I hope this brings some relief.”
Seowoo looked up at the sky.
A sense of the shadow twitching at his feet.
It seemed he was preparing to summon Esid for cleanup.
Was this kid one of the other masters?
“Ugh.”
Dizziness.
Seowoo sensed that the remaining time was little.
He repaired the body that defied his master’s will and reached the threshold of death.
There is no power without cost.
The price paid by squeezing life is only Seowoo’s life.
“What? Who are you?!”
Esid was startled by the clearly changed appearance of Seowoo.
Her appearance didn’t resemble Lucia either.
When she tried to argue, she closed her mouth after hearing the words from the boy’s mouth.
“…”Master, can you write an outing permit in the name of Twelve?”
If she knew Seowoo, she wouldn’t have used such embarrassing titles.
And the desperation in the voice was more than that.
***
The boy returned to the laboratory and hurriedly went to find Yuria.
“…”Sorry for the late hour.”
“Ah, no. More than that, it’s the uncle, right…?”
“…”Yeah, sorry. It wasn’t to trick you… It’s a bit painful to meet you in this state. If you’re scared, you can just go to bed.”
“No, it’s okay! As I said before, the uncle feels somehow comfortable…”
“Yeah…? That’s good.”
Since the task was completed, being able to talk like this was the last day.
In the end, it would melt into Seowoo’s memory.
Actually, Yuria wanted him not to refuse, and he was happy that his sincerity reached the sky.
“Then, shall we go outside and look at the night sky together…?”
“Really? Can we?!”
“Yeah, just a moment.”
Seowoo put an outing permit around Yuria’s neck.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes!”
Seowoo held her hand and walked in small steps.
They came out to Kamil with the help of Esid, biting the vampire guarding the portal.
Seowoo, who found a good place by tracing his memories, sat next to Yuria.
Seowoo’s fingertips reached towards the sky.
Yuria’s gaze following accordingly.
The galaxy spread out like a scene.
And the magitech train crossing the center.
It looked like a painting.
“How is it? Isn’t it pretty?”
“Yes! It’s really pretty!”
Seeing Yuria’s delighted expression, a smile spread on Seowoo’s face.
“…”Before. A long time ago. There was someone who said we should see something like this together.”
Yuria looked up at Seowoo.
“That person was really shining, and even in this muddy world, he was always bright.”
But he broke because he couldn’t do his job just because he didn’t like it.
“I thought that person lost his light, but it wasn’t.”
Yuria, who thought he was dead, was alive.
Although not complete, her purity remained here.
If Yuria that day had been with me now, what would she have said?
She slowly turned her head towards her.
Yuria, who had been staring blankly at Seowoo for a while.
…The atmosphere is different.
“Haha… Was the story not very interesting?”
“…”
Yeah, she wouldn’t happily accept her own story.
However.
Seowoo had overlooked it.
Just like Seowoo who first saw Gunter.
That a stimulus that wakes the brain sometimes comes like magic.
“Hah… Senior…?”
The quiet voice from beside the emotionally wet boy.
“Senior…?”
He turned to the side with wide eyes.
“Really a senior…?”
“…”Yeah, it’s been a long time. You survived after all.”
There, Yuria was smiling kindly like an adult.
“Really a senior?!”
“Yeah, it’s true…”
Checking if it’s a dream by pinching his leg, nothing changed.
Seowoo hugged Yuria tightly.
“Senior! I really… really wanted to see you…!”
“Yeah, me too…”
Yuria stroked the boy sobbing like a child.
You endured well so far.
You really survived till the end.
You reached the place to look at the night sky together.
The three years, long and short.
The meeting transcending time had something that didn’t need to be said in words.
The night where both of you are day-walkers.
The two who don’t exist tomorrow lean on each other’s shoulders.
“Senior, shall we go now?”
“Yeah.”
Wishing the time for the two to continue even in unseen places…
He took a long, long journey.