Since BM had some connection with the International Hunter Association, he immediately knew who they were.
“Ha… this.”
He clicked his tongue.
Yu Jitae threw the 30-man special force team and sat them down alongside the wall. They were all thrashing around on the way, so the ‘hands’ had to block their mouths, but they all seemed to have calmed down now.
Thirty people was a lot.
However, the circular shaped ‘inner room’ had a surface area that was similar to a soccer field, so there was no problem with keeping them all in this place.
“This place… what was I…”
The leader of the 30-man special force team was Bell Baryon, ranked 171st from the entire world. With a height reaching roughly 2.2 metres and a large build, she was a Mestizo woman from the Philippines.
Bell had a half-vacant look on her face.
“Are you awake?”
“Ah, uh…”
In response to Yu Jitae’s words, her blurry eyes regained its focus.
“Where, is this…?”
How should I explain this.
It was a place that isolated these guys who had a problem with their heads, and would accommodate them while having them stabilise their emotions.
He came up with a similar word.
“A mental hospital.”
“From now on, you guys have to stay in this place. From around three months to a year.”
Yu Jitae spoke to the agents of the special force team.
“You’re saying we need to stay in quarantine or something?”
“Yeah. You guys should’ve felt it yourselves, that your thoughts and emotions aren’t going the way you want. This is because of a contact with an unnecessary object or existence.”
“Ah.”
Their eyes were widened, as if they had an idea of the cause, but that was for later.
“If you go out, someone will definitely be killed or hurt by your hands, and the victims could be your own family members. So just stay put and follow your orders.”
“Who, are you?”
“Well, just think of me as a doctor.”
They weren’t in their right minds, evident from how they honestly accepted his words and murmured, “I see”, “A doctor huh…”.
Their current situation was similar to an ice being dropped into a cup of hot water. If it melted successfully and became room-temperature water, they would be stabilised, but currently their two statuses were greatly conflicting one another.
Thus, their thoughts weren’t normal.
“And this is the nurse.”
He pointed at BM.
“Hooh. To think that ‘BM’ was working as a nurse as his second job…”
Indeed, they weren’t in their right minds.
BM let out an empty laughter as if it was absurd, before swallowing a gulp of vodka.
“We’ll see how your symptoms go and do the rest in the future. For now, you can stay here and rest to your heart’s content.”
“…Wait.”
That was when Bell raised her hand up.
“Speak.”
“We are… soldiers.”
“And.”
“We can’t have a loss on our combat power. I understand that we have to stay in this place, but can we have access to training equipment?”
If it had been Yu Jitae from his sixth iteration he would have slapped her here, shouting at her to know her place. That was the best course of action, as there wouldn’t be any cumbersome troubles, with them staying here quietly.
“…I’ll prepare some for you.”
So when those words left his own mouth, Yu Jitae realised that despite it being such a trivial matter, it was nonetheless, the proof of how he was a step closer to ‘daily lives’. Perhaps it was a habit that he had picked up while spending time as the children’s guardian.
Because he would’ve given the children anything without a question, if they asked for something.
“Then, that will be the end of the explanation. Take out what you found inside the underground facility.”
In response to his words, Bell carefully extended her hand forward. She was carrying a black ziplock bag.
Inside, there was a cigarette bud.
This was similar to the ‘protector’s sword’. It was probably used by Wei Yan, and the [Hostility] would have risen significantly while he was smoking it.
“I’ll keep this.”
Next, BM stood in front of them. He taught the 30-man special force team about the regulations of the ‘inner room’. As Ha Saetbyul spent time in this place, he intentionally made the place have day and night, and had taken in a TV, some newspapers as well as books.
A systematic set of regulations were needed since various objects had been added to the place.
The soldiers nodded their heads at BM’s words.
“Hmm…”
BM glanced across them.
It felt rather refreshing.
The 30-man special force team was originally famous for being a tough group of individuals. In the first place, most of them were ex-convicts with criminal histories, and the association had formed a special team to make use of the superhuman criminals.
Well in the first place, there weren’t that many physical-oriented superhumans these days that had clean histories.
If swords broke, they would use fists, and would use their teeth to crush enemies if their fists were rendered unusable. Seeing such barbarians kneeling down like obedient kids was rather strange, and invoked a laugh.
BM drank a mouthful of vodka.
When 31 humans and 1 metal armour lay down on the ground of the inner room, BM urgently called Yu Jitae.
“Do you have some time to spare?”
“Why.”
He talked about the things he had seen and felt.
The metal armour expressed its nostalgia, while Ha Saetbyul mentioned her own death, although as a joke.
A common aspect of the two circumstances, was ‘dissatisfaction’. It was a phenomenon which shouldn’t happen to people being showered by the light of [Fragment of Paradise].
“Even though they’re mentally contaminated, this status still appears like a very dangerous one. The moment the light of the paradise disappears, their emotions will crash to the ground.”
Yu Jitae gave a nod, as BM’s words were right. As if it was completely unrelated to himself, BM continued with an indifferent voice.
“Well, I don’t really understand. As long as you’re breathing with a decent body, I think that should be satisfactory enough.”
That was the thought of an old chimera engineer, but the Regressor shook his head.
Does breathing equate to living? Even if every single day was unsatisfactory, would that be considered a life?
It was then.
“Don’t come near me! Otherwise I’ll kill you all!”
A loud shout echoed inside the inner room. Ha Saetbyul had screamed as if in a seizure, and was glaring at a woman of the special force team with a ferocious expression.
…It seemed that she required some chatting.
*
Yu Jitae called Ha Saetbyul over to a small room branching off of the ‘inner room’. Her gently bent eyes glanced around the surroundings with a hazy gaze before reaching Yu Jitae.
“Hi.”
“Un. Hello.”
Ha Saetbyul laughed, “hih…”.
“I didn’t know. Were you a doctor?”
She had probably heard what he said. Yu Jitae gave a casual nod.
“Ah, that… it was an accident just then. When I screamed at them.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
Ha Saetbyul laughed.
“…Ah, and sorry about last time.”
“About what.”
“That, at your house. How I…”
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She then pretended to be swinging something, after perhaps thinking back on how she had gone on a rampage with a broken glass fragment.
“I wasn’t in the right mind back then. Normally I’m scared of sharp things like that…”
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“It’s alright.”
“Really?”
Once again, she laughed “Uhihi.”
“Why did you call me? Is it the doctor making rounds?”
“Just for a little chat.”
“About what?”
“Just, about life.”
“Hmm… There’s nothing much. In here, I just lie around and read magazines. Ah! But the magazines are super interesting.”
“Is that so?”
“Un. So I kept on reading the same magazine. It’s this one.”
Ha Saetbyul carried a magazine that was in tatters and waved it.
“I think I read it 50 times or so. I’ve read it so many times that I can remember what’s in every page; the words and the images. Do you want to try asking?”
Yu Jitae received the magazine. It was an exercise magazine related to fitness… Ha Saetbyul in the past wasn’t fond of exercises.
“Page 35. The first line.”
“Umm, umm. I know. It’s about the correct way to squat. Underneath, there’s the image of a male Chinese model. He has his shirt off for some reason, and his nipples are very big.”
“You’re correct.”
“Right? And, something else?”
“The image on page 55.”
“I know that. It’s about a couple doing yoga. The man wearing purple tights is lying down on the floor, with the woman standing on his feet.”
“You’re correct.”
A look of pride appeared on her face.
He threw several other questions, and Ha Saetbyul gave the correct answer every time. After sharing questions and answers for some time, Ha Saetbyul lay down on the table, and slowly opened her mouth.
“When I see that magazine, I feel like I’ll never be able to exercise.”
“Why.”
“What if I get hurt.”
“You can heal it back up.”
“But you can’t heal your memories.”
Ha Saetbyul murmured with unfocused eyes.
“If I injure my shoulder during a pull-up, then it will stay as a memory and it’ll be scary every time I do a pull-up.”
“Is that the case?”
“Am I the only one? But then what if I slip from a clifftop and end up hanging with only my hands… I need to raise my body up, but I won’t be able to do that.”
“…”
“Maybe you’ll still climb back up, doctor?”
“If I need to.”
“How lucky. But I…”
Ha Saetbyul started twisting her hair into a circle.
After a few seconds of silence, she started murmuring a story with a blank expression.
“In the past, there were lots of kids in our house. Kangjun, Heejun, Taejun. They were the 3 Juns. Bora, Heesoo, Hyunji… they were all kind and beautiful kids. Ahh, it’s not a house, and it’s an orphanage. I’m the teacher there.”
Tilting her head, she continued her speech.
“When a large fissure was opened, we missed out on the timing and couldn’t escape. The kids were inside the house, and fortunately the monsters walked past us. I placed the kids inside the bedroom and covered them with a blanket. Then, I went out to the living room by myself and looked outside, because that was the direction where the monsters had gone.”
This was the change that had happened in the Seventh Iteration.
“The owner was the first to run away, so it was just me and the kids. I was thinking of being the bait if need be. The youngest child back then was three years old, and was a crybaby that would cry all day from a paper cut. But then the International Hunter Association made a mistake – a friendly fire. The cannonball came flying from behind. A thunderous sound was heard from the bedroom, I dashed in and…
“I was the only survivor.”
She smiled, ‘hih…’.
“No, I was the one that killed them.”
Then, she started laughing ‘hihi’.
“Later I went to the association and asked, and they instead asked me why we didn’t follow the evacuation instructions. Hmm, it was my fault.”
Therefore, Ha Saetbyul had detested superhumans and ended up signing a contract with the existence of the abyss, in this 7th iteration.
“After that, I can’t really remember anything. It’s black… as if there’s something hidden… I feel like I had become something different.”
“…”
“Un… So everything I remember is about the orphanage.”
“…”
“But those big ahjussis and ahjummas, they had the association badge in their chests… I was surprised. It was my bad for shouting. Except for the fact that they belong to the association, there is nothing in common between them and that situation, hih… I need to apologise…”
“So, is it tough?”
“No? It should be tough, right…”
Twisting her hair, Ha Saetbyul gave a smile.
“But I’m happy.”
“…”
“Weird right? For some reason, I’m constantly happy ever since I came here. It is weird. Someone like me has no right to be happy…”
“…”
“I’m happy even if I stay still, cleaning makes me happy, and reading the most boring magazine is still enjoyable. It’s weird. That shouldn’t be the case.”
“…”
Blankly, she let out a silly laughter.
“Do you, also have a bad memory like me?”
Yu Jitae slowly gave a nod.
“Those things are hard to forget, right.”
“Indeed.”
Bad memories remain in a corner of the head for a long time. Those were hard to erase, and a catalyst was all that was needed to have it shooting back out.
– I’m… cold…
That was the case even after more than 100 years have passed.
And especially for kind people like Ha Saetbyul, such sorrows tended to stay for longer, because they blamed themselves at the same time.
“Taejun. Stay here and don’t move.”
It was then.
With a hazy pair of eyes, Ha Saetbyul murmured.
“Heejun. You need to hold Taejun’s hand.”
“Kangjun. Can you please listen to my words just for today?”
“Bora. Heesoo. Don’t cry. It’ll be fine as long as you stay here. I’m with you.”
“It’s fine. Soldier ahjussis will come to save us. You saw them on TV right. They’ll come to our house, and if you’re noisy, you’ll be the last one to be saved.”
“I’m not scared at all.”
“Un. I’m fine. Soldier ahjussis will come soon, so there’s no need to be scared.”
“Al-right. Well done. Cover yourselves with blankets, and pull your feet in. It’ll be noisy so block your ears.”
“It’s fine. I’ll go to the living room to see what’s happening outside. You guys have to stay here without going anywhere.”
“For how long? Hmm… let’s count up to 10,000 together okay?”
“After you guys count up to 10,000…”
Suddenly, her words came to a stop. Ha Saetbyul started giggling in a silly manner, and after a long time, she opened her mouth with a soft voice.
“Doctor… a person with an injured shoulder will be scared when doing a pull-up, right.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m very scared of living. Maybe my heart was the one that was crushed.”
While giving a sorrowful smile, she asked.
“…Should someone like me, still live on?”