The call came after he had finished his workout. Cheon Geon-young, with a towel draped over his half-dried hair, sat in front of his laptop. Thanks to the tightly wrapped bandage, no water had gotten into the injured area.

〈It’ll only make the wound open up.〉

The sharp warning from the person who treated him lingered in his ears. Cheon Geon-young unwrapped the wet bandage. It wasn’t a big wound by his standards. But she seemed to think differently.

It was morning, and the sunlight gently fell on the brutal wound. Yoon Tae-ha was away to get the map. As soon as he received the message that a call was possible, the phone rang.

— You’re still alive?

“Did you want me to die a sudden, unnatural death?”

— Of course not. You’re the boss who pays a lot. Did you check the map I attached to the email?

“I checked.”

It was a map with a small yellow dot near the second free city.

— That’s the base of the vice-chairman’s espers. It’s marked based on yesterday’s Green Sea map.

His cautious gaze rested on the yellow dot.

— And the second thing you asked for.

“Doctor Moon So-eun?”

— It was right under our noses. Among the projects sponsored by the Dawn Guild, there was one project that Dr. Moon participated in. We stumbled upon it while searching through our old paper records one by one.

Guild Dawn was the guild his mother had created. It wasn’t large in scale. Its known achievements were also nonexistent. This was because it was an organization specialized in underground intelligence warfare, rather than noisy public events like dungeon conquests.

His mother had handed over the guild to a colleague and stepped away just before marrying his father, so her time as the guild leader was short.

Recalling his mother’s face, who always told him fairy tales, he said dryly,

“My mother liked potential. Even projects that others thought weren’t worth sponsoring, she would invest in if she thought they were decent by her standards.”

— No need to say it twice. Anyway, the project isn’t anything grand. It was about creating a topical hemostatic agent from plants harvested in dungeons.

“Early sponsorship?”

— Very early. Back then, Dawn wasn’t achieving much as an information guild. Considering the level of sponsorship at the time, I suspect it was based on personal acquaintance.

“Evidence?”

— There’s one photo that looks related in your mother’s old phone. And there are two project proposals. They’re a bit damaged, but the main points are discernible.

Soon, the photo was sent via email first. A round number 1 indicating a new message. He took a short deep breath before clicking.

It felt like letters were filling a book that had previously been blank.

— You see four people, right? To the right of the guild leader is someone from the Dawn Guild. The two on the left were the project leaders.

Both researchers were women. One was Moon So-eun. And the other was a woman he had never seen before.

“The woman holding the bouquet, what’s her name?”

His mother had a generous nature. The huge blue bouquet she must have prepared was held not by Moon So-eun, but by the other researcher.

— That’s researcher Hyun YYi-jeong. She worked with Moon So-eun at ARC, but not anymore.

Researcher Hyun YYi-jeong. It was a name that felt familiar. But he definitely didn’t remember such a woman. His mother, standing right next to her, was smiling brightly. She even had her arm around Hyun YYi-jeong’s shoulder. Close friends. They seemed to have that kind of relationship.

“Is she alive?”

Since that name wasn’t among the researchers who had been silenced, it was the first question he had to ask.

— She’s dead. There was a fire at one of ARC’s research labs a while ago. Quite a few people died then, and Hyun YYi-jeong was said to have died there too. That was when you were nine years old, sir.

Chronologically, he would have had no chance to meet researcher Hyun YYi-jeong. He first visited ARC’s research lab after his parents died, when he was ten, because of his grandfather and his fire immunity. But it didn’t sit right with him to just dismiss it. He had a strong feeling that he had grasped a formless clue.

‘If there’s a problem with my memory...’

Cheon Geon-young hadn’t forgotten the suspicious déjà vu he felt at the hospital. Wasn’t it naive to assume there was no being capable of manipulating memories?

“Among the people who worked at Dawn, there might be someone who knows about the relationship between my mother and researcher Hyun YYi-jeong. Look for them.”

— It was a long time ago, so finding them will cost quite a bit. Many of the people who worked then have retired, and the computer network wasn’t fully restored at that time.

“Spend as much as you need. Just bring me solid results.”

— I was exaggerating because I wanted to hear that.

After the short call, he deleted all the records. He felt tired even though he was just doing something he considered natural. Much more so than when facing a variant monster.

Until when?

When he avenged the woman who killed his parents, when the other side of ARC was revealed to the world, and when the vice-chairman took responsibility for what he had done. Would he feel at ease then?

He unfolded his left hand, which had been clenched throughout the call. Blood was trying to seep out again from the whitened, gaping wound.

*

The red lake churned fiercely, as if sensing the unusual tension between the two.

Yoon Tae-ha, having calmed herself, tried her best to appear composed, straining her neck. However, her voice betrayed her and wavered in the end.

“Professor Yoon Jeong-hoon is not my family?”

“This is before the deal. The attempt is commendable, but I’m not one to fall for such tricks.”

“Tricks, you say?”

“Even if you probe, I won’t tell you.”

The man with the angel’s name mercilessly forced a choice. He also showed no intention of giving her time to process the new information.

“Cooperate so you can go to Lethe. If you do, I will tell you your mother’s name.”

Yoon Tae-ha looked down at the map in her hand. ARC’s logo was stamped on the back. She had lived considering every place with this round logo as her home.

It hadn’t been like that from the beginning. Once, she had been curious about her family. She had even imagined how wonderful it would be if she had such people. Especially when she suffered severely because of her powers.

Without even knowing what kind of people her family was, she had just vaguely dreamed. Unchanging affection. The foundation of life. A place to lean on in the end. Because she had been educated with words that were good for a young psychic to have illusions about.

If they were alive, she wanted to see their faces from afar, even if they might despise her. Without them knowing, from a distance.

But her thoughts changed after she received the mission. She made a decision alone. Even if she heard news that they were living happily, she wouldn’t go looking for them.

She had many enemies. She had clearly seen how enemies used the weaknesses of others. Even after seeing that, she believed that going to find someone weaker than herself was an extremely selfish act.

Whether she was born by mistake, or abandoned because they couldn’t handle her after giving birth, it didn’t matter. In any case, she didn’t want to interfere in the peaceful life of someone and create a situation where they could die. Creating more to be responsible for here was a foolish thing to do.

Some clicked their tongues, calling her heartless. Was she devoid of humanity because she was an S-class? There were even those who occasionally added malicious concerns.

Perhaps, as those people said, something twisted was her nature. She simply accepted it, and her decision remained unchanged.

The hand gripping the map slowly lowered. Yoon Tae-ha raised her head.

Raphael, noticing the more composed look in her eyes than before, gave a gentle smile. The surface of the lake was also calmer than just a moment ago.

“Tell me what you’re going to do after crossing over to Lethe.”

“Dare to set conditions?”

“I’ve lived for 23 years without knowing my family. I don’t think a few more years of not knowing will cause any major problems.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“If that’s how it looks, then that’s how you can think of it.”

Yoon Tae-ha’s ring vibrated briefly. As the blue light began to resonate with its owner’s will, Raphael raised his eyebrows as if intrigued.

“If you have other intentions, I won’t cooperate. Like opening a rift, or dragging a huge monster out of there.”

“What if that is my true purpose?”

“Then neither of us will get out of here.”

Her determination to obstruct him, even at the risk of her life, was resolute. Raphael stared intently at Yoon Tae-ha’s face.

“Even after seeing my power, should I take this as your intention to fight me?”

“You can always try.”

On her pale face, a light of vigilance was clear.

“You’re serious. I never thought... you really are serious...”

Suddenly, he burst into loud laughter. In contrast, Yoon Tae-ha cleanly erased the smile from her lips.

“You hit the mark. But the target was wrong.”

“Please explain in detail.”

“It’s not difficult.”

Raphael flicked his fingers lightly. Then, a sacred-looking arched gate suddenly appeared. The gate, which looked very old, floated in mid-air, awaiting its next command.

“I will. Explain in detail.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the doors swung open on both sides. Soldiers in black cloaks poured out from inside. There were also people on horseback.

Knights. They looked like valiant knights.

The knights charged blindly, but at some point, they lost their human forms. One soldier turned into dozens of crows. One of the knights riding at the forefront transformed into hundreds of birds.

Unbelievable. Yoon Tae-ha was aghast. With a serious face, she reached out to the flying crows. They passed through her hand and scattered in all directions.

“Is this the moment the Raven’s Garden opened?”

“That’s right. These were my loyal servants.”

Raphael, confirming her question, flicked his fingers once more. Immediately afterward, black hail poured down from the sky. No, upon closer inspection, it was crows.

Countless crows ended their lives by slamming their heads into the ground. The moment she had only learned about in writing was vividly unfolding before her eyes.

“I was the second prince of a nation, destined to play and eat my whole life with a beautiful face and abundant gold at my feet.”

Yoon Tae-ha looked at Raphael with a mixture of surprise and doubt. She could feel deep regret in his expression.

“But my elder brother was wary of me. He refused to acknowledge that his younger brother had no ambition for the throne.”

“So, did a war break out?”

“My elder brother was the kind of person who would only feel secure ruling the country after all of the second prince’s people were dead and gone.”

A fleeting look of sadness appeared and then vanished from Raphael’s face.