Chapter 65
“...”
Before anything else, Se-Hoon felt the soft sofa supporting his laid-down body and the sensation of the thin, slightly rough paper covering his face. Quietly laying there, amidst the vivid sensations as consciousness slowly awakened, he took stock of his body.
His body, though damaged in places, was still somewhat solid thanks to the various ways it was being forcibly held together. His mana circuits were also heavily damaged, but since they had been isolated using Soul Honing, they weren’t completely unusable. Within his body were also seven types of elemental mana and the blood that could pulsate under his will.
Finishing his assessment, he quickly arrived at a conclusion.
I’m in the past.
To be more precise, he had returned to the period when the war with the Harbingers of Destruction had just begun. Having figured out the approximate era, he slowly moved his body and removed the paper covering his face.
“Wait, this place is...”
He gazed at the room’s transparent glass ceiling and the vast Milky Way that was clearly visible beyond it. Then, lowering his gaze to what was beneath the stars, he saw bookshelves that seemed at least three times his height. The floor of the room was covered by a red carpet, and various books and documents were messily piled on top of it. In that room, where luxury and clutter coexisted, his eyes narrowed.
“Have you woken up?”
Suddenly, an astonished voice came from behind.
“Barging in and then sleeping for four hours straight. I knew you were brazen, but this is something else.”
Upon hearing the provocative tone, full of pure astonishment at how a human could do such a thing rather than sarcasm, Se-Hoon turned his head to look at the figure sitting at the elegant desk.
He had jet-black hair, brown skin, and silvery peculiar eyes that sparkled as he slightly lifted the corner of his mouth.
Seeing that face, which he wanted to punch so badly for reasons different than those for Sung-Ha, Se-Hoon slowly opened his mouth.
“Amir Singh...”
The person in front of him right now was the final of the Three Dogs—the Frost Dog. As Se-Hoon hadn’t seen the Frost Dog in a long time, he narrowed his eyes.
And upon seeing that, Amir quickly waved his hand in response.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I was just joking. It’s going to be problematic if you cause a scene in the office, right?”
His gaze right now seemed to consider Se-Hoon as a walking bomb rather than a person.
Feeling that gaze, Se-Hoon internally admired the vividly reproduced memory. However, at that moment, a reply filled with irritation suddenly shot out of his mouth, unwittingly.
“Dude, people might think I’m the Mad Dog because of you. I wasn’t even thinking about causing a scene in the first place.”
...Huh?
Surprised by the answer that had left his mouth without his consent, he became flabbergasted when it moved once again.
“Anyway, why did you ignore the summons? I told you to come.”
His voice, despite feeling bizarrely alien even though it was coming from his own mouth, flowed out smoothly.
Experiencing the situation repeatedly, he re-examined his body and only then realized what was happening.
Am I experiencing memories of the past in my own shoes?
Rather than simply dreaming about his memories of the past, he was vividly experiencing them. When that clicked into place, he finally understood why he couldn’t move his body freely.
So even if it definitely is my body, I can’t control it.
Well, he intended to view the memories of his past anyway; he just never expected that it would be done this way. He continued to examine his body, completely fascinated by the strange sensation.
“Ignored? I’m a bit disappointed that you would say that.”
Amir then pointed at the documents piled up around the desk with a wronged expression.
“Don’t you see all of these piles here? While you can just receive an order and start hammering away, I have to compile and analyze the information delivered by my subordinates from all over the world, and then come up with something new...”
“Cut the crap and just tell me your real intentions before I actually blow everything away.”
“Sigh. You’re being quite serious right now, aren’t you?”
Upon hearing Se-Hoon’s warning, Amir made a deflated expression and leaned back in his luxurious leather chair with his arms crossed.
“As I’ve said before, I acknowledge you since you won that bet with me, but when it comes to that rabble that talks about alliances or whatever, I don’t trust them.”
“After the Emperor of Ascension, the Pilgrim died too. Two Perfect Ones have died within a year, yet you think they’d still backstab you?”
“Ah... you genuinely don’t understand, do you?”
Amir sighed deeply, his eyes cold.
“This is the perfect time to backstab since the situation is so ripe.”
Hearing the deeply rooted distrust in his response, Se-Hoon was reminded anew of what kind of person the Frost Dog was.
He’s friendlier on the outside, but in some ways, he’s even more distrustful of humans than even the Mad Dog or the Blast Dog.
That fact was further proven by the fact that even though he had interacted the longest with Se-Hoon, he was the last to join the allied forces among the Three Dogs. Reminiscing about the vivid memories that resurfaced, Se-Hoon continued watching with interest.
“Se-Hoon.”
Getting up from his chair, Amir wore a serious expression.
“Do you know what percentage of the S-rank heroes that have appeared in the last twenty years are from Babel?”
“How would I know something like that?”
“Seventy percent. Including those who were expelled.”
S-rank heroes were those who were qualified to challenge a Tower of Heroes and had the power to change the entire landscape of the world, like natural disasters. They were humanity’s most formidable force, only overshadowed by the monsters known as Perfect Ones, and Babel had nurtured the majority of them.
“Isn’t it fascinating? You’d think that even fifty percent would be unbelievable, yet it’s way more than that...”
Walking to the back of the room, Amir lightly pushed aside one of the bookshelves, revealing hidden shelves behind it.
Continuing to push the countless shelves aside, he continued his story.
“But there’s something else that Babel produces just as good as S-rank heroes. Do you know what that is?”
“I said I wouldn’t know. Just get to the point.”
“Demons.”
Pausing, Amir took some books from the shelves and only then continued.
“Fifty percent of the currently identified S-rank demons are actually from Babel. And if we include the unidentified demons, the percentage probably increases. But that’s not known because those nobles tend to erase their mistakes because of sheer embarrassment.”
Amir then lightly set down the stack of books that accumulated in his hand in the empty air. At that moment, the moisture in the air froze, forming an ice tray—thin enough to be translucent—that effortlessly supported the books Amir had placed down. Floating in midair, it followed behind Amir.
“People think the Demon Force have only left Babel alone because they were afraid of the Emperor of Ascension... but that’s only half right.”
Finished with selecting the books he wanted, he walked over, leaned on the back of the sofa with his arm, and pointed forward with his finger.
Crack!
The ice trays, which had increased to five at some point, dropped from midair onto the table in front of the sofa, dissolving into the air and disappearing.
A blink of an eye later, piles of books and documents appeared in front of Se-Hoon. Scanning through them, a few titles caught his eye.
“Professors at Babel Suspected to be Part of the Watchers.”
“Report on the Unofficial Cooperation between Babel and the Demon Force.”
“Blueprints of Special Facilities Hidden Within Babel.”
“The demons had no real reason to attack. After all, Babel nurtured future demons for them.”
The paradoxical story of the hero academy Babel nurturing powerful demons brought back some of Se-Hoon’s hazy memories.
Right... I’ve heard of this before.
In the past, there were many suspicions about how Babel was considered just an ordinary educational institution despite being so abnormally large and advanced. Questions about its founding purpose and the Emperor of Ascension were endlessly raised.
Of course, without proper evidence, every single one ended as a conspiracy theory. However, the evidence that could support those theories was now laid out in front of him.
If only these were viewable to everyone...
He thought that, perhaps, this information could help him make future decisions in Babel. But, the moment he had that thought, a question arose as well: But why don’t I remember any of this?
Even if his memory wasn’t the best, if he had seen Amir’s organized materials, he should at least have remembered something.
Confused, he looked at the materials in front of him and tried to remember.
“So what?”
But then, his own listless voice interrupted him.
“Babel is a rotten place, but so what?”
“It means there’s also a possibility that they are colluding with the Demon Force...”
“They are colluding. But, so are you.”
The conversation ceased, and the surrounding air grew cold.
He couldn’t see Amir’s face as he had never turned his head in the past, but he could tell that Amir was very dissatisfied.
“Just be honest. You’re just afraid that you’ll lose the cash cows you worked so hard to get as an information broker by selling information to both sides.”
“You really are ignorant, talking like that without knowing anything.”
With his pretense stripped away, Amir revealed his cold, original tone. And hearing that response, Se-Hoon’s past self also snapped back irritably.
“I may not know everything that I need to know, but there’s one thing I’m certain about. Both the Emperor of Ascension and Babel, the ones that you're suspicious of right now, fought to the death against the Harbingers of Destruction, sacrificing everything they had.”
“...”
“Compared to someone like you who skulks in a corner, trusting no one and only harboring suspicions, wouldn’t they be more trustworthy?”
Without even looking at the documents in front of him, he uncontrollably stood up.
“You can sell your internal information, but try to cooperate at least a little. Those Harbingers of Destruction seem more dangerous than I imagined.”
Leaving behind those words, he walked toward the door. At that moment, the surroundings began to blur, a sign that the memory was fading.
Wait... it ends like this?
It was good that he was able to remember the suspicions about Babel thanks to this, but was that all he was able to gain?
Despite his desire, his body continued to walk forward. Completely unable to control the situation, twisted his expression in frustration.
Damn... even though it’s all right there...
It felt unfair that he wasn’t even allowed a single chance to grasp the evidence before his eyes. As his anger began to simmer due to the frustrating memory—
Fwoosh-
A purple flame flared up in his chest.
“Huh?”
His body immediately stopped, the strange constraint binding his body disappearing. Quickly realizing that he had regained control of his body, he immediately turned around without thinking.
“...”
And saw Amir biting his lip and looking down with a frustrated expression. A moment later, he realized the reason.
Now that I think about it, the reason he was trading information with the Demon Force was because of the Dream Demon.
The Dream Demon, one of the Ten Evils, was known as the owner of the pleasure quarters that were deeply entrenched in society’s shadows.
And it had completely subjugated Amir’s family, which had been information brokers in the underworld for generations. Because of that, he had no choice but to remain neutral even when the war with the Harbingers of Destruction unfolded.
He must have thought it was unfair every time was called sly and all that.
But what could be done? Even Se-Hoon had only learned of his circumstances long after the Dream Demon was killed and the alliance had started to crumble.
Ignoring Amir, since it was a memory of the past, he ran toward the books and documents.
“...Se-Hoon?”
Although he heard Amir’s puzzled voice, he pretended he didn’t hear and began quickly reviewing the materials.
There’s no way I’ll be able to remember all of the details right now.
Putting aside everything else, he only looked for the most significant, or at least relevant-looking, ones among all the documents. Leveraging his experience of skimming through numerous papers, he managed to find and remember all of the key points of the vast amount of information.
“The extinct Inoue family. Evidence of regular interactions with Watchers. Affiliated factions require further verification.”
“Lea Claudel, CEO of Galaxy Company. A creditor-debtor relationship with one of the Ten Evils, the Puppeteer. Details require further investigation.”
“Involvement of the Barmuth family with Watchers, using the now-closed Department of Blacksmithing at Babel Academy as a base. Additional investigation on the circumstances required.”
“Evidence of the involvement of the Demon Force in the death of the youngest archbishop of the Pilgrimage Church. Further detailed investigation required.”
.
.
.
Although many of the names he saw in the documents were unknown, there were quite a few that were recognizable. Meanwhile, in the midst of his examination of all of the documents, the space around him began blurring more and more until even the documents he was holding started to crumble away.
At that last moment, he turned over one more page of the document he was looking at, and one last headline caught his eye.
“Former Department of Blacksmithing Lead Professor Kim In-Cheol. Confirmed to have been a blacksmith affiliated with Watchers. Presumed dead after being involved in the Fire Sword Blacksmith Hunt.”
***
[Activating Awakening Dream]
Whoosh-!
With the activation of the skill, Se-Hoon’s mind was forcefully awakened, and he immediately sat up and covered his mouth.
“Ugh...”
He felt like vomiting; his body felt like it had been forcibly stuffed into a narrow hole. However, despite his condition, he was able to quickly identify the cause. Is my mind having a hard time telling apart my physical body from the one in my memory? I never expected something like this...
He guessed that the bodily dissonance was so intense since he had vividly experienced the past in the first person. If Awakening Dream had not woken him up, it could have led to severe issues, such as twisted internal organs.
“Huff... huff...”
Taking a moment to take deep breaths and collect his scattered senses, he slowly looked around.
Not much had changed since he used the Phantasmal Spyblade. Checking the time, he realized that not even a minute had passed.
It seems like it doesn’t take any time at all to review my memories. This could be pretty useful.
Assuming he had trustworthy people around him, diving into his memories while out and about didn’t seem like it would be much of an issue.
Pondering the potential uses of the Phantasmal Spyblade, he looked around for it.
“Hm?”
To his surprise, the purple dagger was nowhere to be seen. He became confused.
Did I drop it somewhere?
He looked under the sofa and the table, but it was nowhere to be found. His expression gradually stiffened.
“No way... is it a one-time use?”
He refused to believe that the dagger, which was forged from extremely rare materials like Dream Ivory and the Southern Flame Feather, only allowed a single use before it disappeared.
Still unable to find it, his expression hardened in disbelief. He turned his gaze toward the living room window.
“...?”
He was able to see the landscape of Babel, darkened even in the downtown areas, and his blurry reflection above it. Suddenly, after noticing something, his eyes moved toward his chest, where he had stabbed himself with the Phantasmal Spyblade.
[The equipment ‘Phantasmal Spyblade’ has been absorbed into your body.]
[Skill ‘Dream Storage (A)’ has been acquired.]
Fwoosh-
A purple flame proudly flared up within him, signaling the new skill he had gained.
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