Success in modifying memories.

According to the Saint, it’s part of the healing process.

It’s not all-powerful, so as long as revisions keep happening, it will return someday.

Taking advantage of the moment when Han Si-Hoo collapsed, the Saint cleaned the house.

Cleaning meant just hiding the medicine box.

She thinks about what to say when Si-Hoo wakes up.

She thinks about where and how the next treatment should take place.

It will probably take about 30 minutes until he wakes up again.

For an average person, it would take hours to lie down.

Awakeners with strong mental fortitude tend to get up faster.

“Ugh…”

“Ah? You’re awake.”

Not 30 minutes, but only 5 minutes.

He regained consciousness way too quickly.

Right after treatment, his memories would be jumbled and confusing.

Most would be confused about what they were doing too.

“What is this…?”

He wonders why he was in the Saint’s house.

“That’s, it’s my house. Don’t you remember? You fainted all of a sudden.”

The Saint immediately begins her lie.

It’s just a habit she follows.

The Saint wasn’t exactly of a good character anyway.

So was Han Si-Hoo originally a good person?

Did he always have a righteous character?

The Saint thought it was natural for him to be so.

“Why am I at your house?”

He gets up.

“There was an appointment, remember?”

It is true that they had promised to meet.

“[Purification]… Nope.”

Han Si-Hoo uses a skill on himself.

He instinctively feels something’s wrong.

“I came to discuss the documents we obtained from the place we went to together. Don’t you remember?”

Han Si-Hoo thinks about how the Saint would score on an intelligence test.

“[Health Recovery]”

To be precise, Health Recovery VI.

For some reason, he was in an exhausted condition, so he uses it.

The Saint also looks a bit tired.

And she plans to understand the reason for that soon.

“Explain properly. I have no reason to be at your house. Sure, there was an appointment but…”

Han Si-Hoo looks at the clock.

It’s far from the appointed time.

It’s still time to be at school.

“It’s too early. Explain what happened.”

Han Si-Hoo checks his status window.

He’s not suffering from any status ailments.

It’s impossible for him to have collapsed all of a sudden.

He’s not that weak.

“Uh, well, it’s just as I said earlier…”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

If that’s the case, there’s only one way to go about it.

Physical means must be employed.

“No way.”

“Huh?”

No way.

He can’t be persuaded by such an answer.

“You can self-heal, so you should be fine, right?”

“W-what?”

Pow.

He throws a punch.

The Saint is hiding something.

It’s not normal to be collapsed in the Saint’s house.

“Wait—”

“Why?”

“Ugh, why are you hitting me?”

“Because you’re not telling the truth.”

She’s being even more violent than before.

The Saint wonders if she should have just left Si-Hoo alone and fled.

Waking up this quickly was unexpected.

Using her fist right away was also unexpected.

Nothing is going according to plan.

“Seo-A, you came because of the photo that was taken of her, right?”

“Photo?”

“Yeah, this one.”

She hands over the photo she had.

It stirred up many memories about Seo-A.

Han Si-Hoo wouldn’t have a reason to overreact.

“…Ah, are you in cahoots with the doctor?”

“Huh?”

Bang.

Han Si-Hoo pushes the Saint against the wall.

And rolls up her sleeves.

There are needle marks on the Saint’s arm too.

“Right. Is it because of the medicine? The doctor told you to do this.”

“The, the doctor?”

“Thinking back on it, the doctor seemed to have ties to the government, isn’t that your field? If they’re using drugs, there’s no way you wouldn’t know.”

The Saint rummages through her memories.

“Drugs? Uh, that’s, the, the doctor I know? The quack…”

“The guy dressed in black. He’s the one who gave Seo-A the drugs.”

“Ah, that person is famous. He died, you know.”

“…What?”

“He spread drugs everywhere, so I heard the government dealt with him. I don’t know much more beyond that.”

“Then where did you get this photo?”

“That’s, you found it and showed it to me.”

Han Si-Hoo is momentarily at a loss for words.

There seems to be some truth in the Saint’s confident claim.

His last memory cut off at school.

It didn’t seem like anything unusual happened until he got there.

A bookstore?

Did I stop by a bookstore?

Why?

Memories are in disarray.

He has no recollection of coming to find the photo.

No, he thinks he might have seen something.

A photo?

Why was he showing a photo to the Saint?

One thing is clear: the Saint is hiding the truth.

Even a non-Awakener could tell that.

The Saint isn’t particularly good at lying.

“Why, why are you so obsessed with Seo-A? Did you get along well with her?”

He doesn’t know what the intention behind the question is.

Did they get along well?

“How did you know Seo-A’s name?”

“Huh? Seo, Seo-A’s name? You told me.”

“When?”

“T-That is… when was it?”

Frustrating.

“Speak properly—”

Bang.

He grabs the Saint’s shoulders and pushes her against the wall.

“Explain—”

He slams her into the wall again.

“Do it.”

Bang.

He punches the wall.

Pieces break off from the wall.

The Saint is terrified.

“W-well…”

“Yeah, what did you say earlier?”

He asked her why she was obsessed with Seo-A.

“Did I have such a good relationship with Seo-A?”

Why did the Saint ask such a question?

“Why? You think it’s okay for a friend to just vanish if the relationship isn’t good? Is it normal to abandon a friend just because they’re doing drugs? Just because a friend turned into trash, it’s okay for them to go through anything?”

The Saint manipulated his memories under the guise of treatment.

It seems like once wasn’t enough.

She twisted Si-Hoo’s memories, trying to push him as far away from Seo-A as possible, but it seems to have produced the opposite effect.

It was an attempt to drag Seo-A’s perception down to the worst possible.

To make it seem like Yoo Seo-A was a burden to Han Si-Hoo, an ungrateful existence.

And so she meddled with his memories.

“…When I was young, clueless, I was abandoned in the slums, with no parents or relatives.”

It’s a tale from the past.

“We grew up in such a place, so it’s not strange if our personalities turned twisted or we were rude or not in our right minds. You think Seo-A is such an amazing person that I became friends with her?”

The Saint instinctively realized her judgment had been incorrect.

Treatment? It only exacerbated the situation.

Of course, she thought multiple sessions of healing would be necessary.

But it wasn’t something that could be resolved by repeating treatment.

“It’s okay to be below normal. It’s fine if there’s something lacking; if you’re not ordinary, or if you lack common sense, or if you’re a slow learner…”

Si-Hoo had spent a longer time than expected with Seo-A.

Perhaps even more than a typical family would.

Considering how much she meddled with his memories, this is the reaction he has.

The attempts to separate him from Seo-A have failed.

If the Saint had been a bit more cunning, would it have led to different results?

“I liked seeing Seo-A smile brightly. It didn’t matter to me if Seo-A treated me casually. Even if Seo-A hated me.”

“…S-sorry…”

The Saint apologizes.

“I was lucky enough to live in an environment where Seo-A existed.”

Originally, the slums are a place where law and order are absent.

A place where anything goes.

“I wanted to be her hero; I wanted to at least mimic that.”

Everyone wants to become someone wonderful.

He wanted to look good in Seo-A’s eyes.

Pretending to be an adult from nearby.

Someone cool in Seo-A’s sight.

Someone who keeps her safe.

“She’s my childhood friend, even if she uses drugs or hates me.”

Even if he tries to blame this situation on Seo-A, he ends up realizing it’s his own immaturity.

In the end, did he become Seo-A’s hero?

A hero fighting against villains?

No.

“Maybe I should stop pretending to be some righteous hero.”

The Saint will soon speak nothing but the truth.

*

Han Si-Hoo runs and keeps running.

The text the Saint showed him had an address written on it.

SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1Y1lCZlZWTElmVEZydU5zYnhmL3d2b1dSdHRIa282ZzMxK0Yva0dJbHhyUA

To that place.

Is it within running distance?

It is.

Somehow.

*

Before he started running.

Han Si-Hoo discovered a new talent.

Uncovering the truth doesn’t require significant skill.

25 minutes until the Saint opens up everything.

Of those, 20 minutes are spent as she stumbles over the facts.

The use of violence.

The Saint was fine since she could self-heal.

That she had met Seo-A previously.

That Seo-A had been locked up in the laboratory for some reason.

That the doctor had died before the Saint met Seo-A.

That the Saint had manipulated memories under the guise of healing.

That manipulated memories would return over time.

He heard it all.

He checked all the text messages.

Photos and videos sent by an anonymous someone.

One thing is certain: Yoo Seo-A was treated the same as a monster.

Han Si-Hoo couldn’t keep watching the videos.

Even if it were someone other than Seo-A, he would have found them hard to watch.

“I was there too…”

The Saint speaks with her head buried in her knees.

“I was just trying to escape from there… I was going to run away while Seo-A was just inside…”

“Yeah.”

“I wasn’t this foolish originally… It was because of the experiments…”

The Saint laments, but Han Si-Hoo isn’t interested.

Han Si-Hoo calls a number saved on the Saint’s phone.

He hopes someone will pick up.

– The number you dialed is not in service.

But it’s a number that doesn’t exist.

Only one option remains.

Running toward the address the Saint told him.

*

So he keeps running.

And running.

Using Health Recovery skills, converting all mana to stamina.

Would taking a taxi be faster, or running be faster?

Ultimately, the destination is outside the city.

A dangerous area where monsters could pop out at any moment.

Using a vehicle involves bothersome procedures.

Is Seo-A still alive?

If Seo-A is alive?

What will he do then?

If what he saw in the video is true, even if he found himself in that situation, there’s no way he could have maintained his sanity.

Who is the one holding Seo-A?

An enemy?

What are the intentions behind calling the Saint for treatment?

If they held her, Han Si-Hoo figured it must be the doctor.

But no.

According to the Saint, the doctor died a long time ago.

So that’s why he couldn’t find the person he was seeking revenge on.

If not the doctor, then who could it be?

He will find out.

The road disappears, and a mountain appears.

But he continues to run.

Branches brush against his cheek.

“[Cleaving Strike]”

He draws his sword and uses the skill.

A beam of light slices through the obstructing trees.

In the shortest distance.

To the destination.

Is it a wise choice to just run blindly?

Wouldn’t it be better to call for allies?

Reliable people.

But there’s no time.

There isn’t even enough time to just run.

Faster!

More!

More!

He screams that in his mind countless times.

The thought that Seo-A is probably dead.

The reasonable suspicion that even if she’s alive, she wouldn’t be normal.

The conclusion that it wouldn’t be strange for her to be someone’s toy.

Shut up.

He deeply regrets everything.

Whether the Saint maliciously planted memories or whatever.

Everything is hateful.

He nears the target location.

He ran until sunset.

It’s the time when stars are vividly visible.

The air is crisp.

His breathing is ragged.

In the distance, he sees a faint light.