My hands wanted something to do.

Watching Colton smoke his cigar across from me, I remembered how I used to sit facing him like this and smoke one myself. Kyle had been rather fond of cigars too. They evoked nostalgia for the old days, so whenever Colton gave me a box, I would sometimes share it with my companions over a leisurely smoke.

The old days?

Had there been a time before I met Colton? Trying to recall it made my head hurt again. With a faint sigh, I gave up groping for a past that refused to surface. Instead, I lowered my eyes halfway and greeted him.

“It’s good to see you after so long.”

Even if it was your face.

“It feels strange, seeing a familiar face again. Until a few months ago, I didn’t even know what I was.”

“Do you now?” Colton asked slowly.

I barely suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow. That bastard. Lazily asking questions he already knew the answers to. He hadn’t changed a bit. I answered sullenly.

“I don’t remember everything.”

“Tragic news.”

“You tell me, then.”

I didn’t mince words. There was nothing to gain by beating around the bush now. The information imbalance was far too great.

He wouldn’t have summoned me just to mock my amnesia to my face. He wasn’t that inefficient. He must have had a purpose in bringing me here.

The others in the room were presumably the audience for our conversation. Neither Eric nor Yekaterina showed any intention of breaking their silence, and I didn’t bother paying them any attention.

Colton spoke at his leisure. “I don’t know how much you remember. You don’t seem to have forgotten me.”

“Actually, I had forgotten you too.” I shrugged at the candid admission.

I wasn’t sorry. I knew perfectly well he wouldn’t be hurt in the slightest.

“The memories came back the moment you entered the reception hall today. Even then, not all of them.”

“How touching.”

“Isn’t it?” I chuckled softly as I replied.

It was funny. The first familiar face I’d encountered since falling out of that portal belonged not to Kyle or some other human, but Colton Wiseman.

The affection, contempt, admiration, and revulsion that had washed over me the moment my memories returned were funny too. How could I feel such contradictory emotions? Well, looking back, I’d always had those mixed feelings about him.

A connection I’d expected to end quickly had proved remarkably tenacious.

Still wearing a faint smile, I brought up a mutual acquaintance. “I hear Kyle’s awake.”

Colton slowly exhaled gray smoke.

“The problem is, I can’t properly remember Kyle either. From what I hear, he wants to hunt me down and kill me for betraying our kind, but I don’t remember how I betrayed them, or why.”

“How did you learn he’d awakened?”

“A Badger outside the core told me.”

I had no idea how much I should say, but Yehyeon didn’t stop me, and Colton didn’t pry. Instead, my friend at the pinnacle of power asked a strange question.

“You only knew after being told?”

I didn’t understand the question. Looking up, I blinked a couple of times. The room was filled with the scent of mahogany. Everyone watched silently, waiting for my answer. I racked my brain under their sharp gazes.

But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t work out what he meant. Was he reproaching me for not having deduced it from the circumstances? Or was there another purpose behind it? He didn’t use that tone to reproach people...

Unable to find an answer, I decided to be honest again. “I only knew after I was told. Why do you ask?”

“You really have forgotten a great deal.” Colton’s words sounded more like a remark to himself than an answer. “That was your kind’s most distinctive trait.”

“What was?”

“Being connected.”

His unembellished answer sent a lost fragment of memory springing to the surface.

“Have you even forgotten what you kept hidden until the war broke out?”

[“They know nothing.”]

[“Look at this. This vitality, ready to burst at any moment. This sense of connection. The vivid sensation of life flowing through your body.”]

Kyle’s voice sprang up, blurring my senses. I struggled to absorb the chaotic rush of memories.

Yes, we’d kept that hidden to the very end. No human had known about that trait until war broke out. But how exactly had we sensed one another’s presence?

I closed my eyes at the stabbing pain and rubbed my temple with my fingers. I wanted a cigar.

Foolishly, I brought my fingers to my mouth, then realized they were empty and lowered them in disappointment.

Eric chuckled to my left. “You smoke, I take it?”

“Cigars.”

The lingering headache made my reply unintentionally curt. When I kept frowning, Eric gestured to the red-haired man beside him.

“Shashinsky. Give him one.”

The red-haired man approached soundlessly. A case of neatly arranged cigars clicked open before my eyes. A kindness I appreciated. The cigars lay in orderly rows like long chocolates. The man called Shashinsky deftly cut the one I selected and even lit it for me with a match.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Eric accepted my thanks with an elegant smile. “Make yourself comfortable while you talk.”

Right. We’d been talking.

Rolling the cigar smoke around my mouth, I turned my gaze forward. Letting the rich aroma blanket my headache, I reviewed the fact that had just surfaced. There was a reason the creatures could find me wherever I was. A reason they knew I had returned.

Though I had forgotten how to feel that connection myself.

“What a bizarre trait. I can’t really remember what it felt like.”

“Then I’ll do everything I can to help you remember that part.”

“Huh?” My eyes widened at the unexpected offer. “You can do that?”

“I’ll make an effort.”

“What kind of effort?”

Nothing good had ever happened when you said that.

Colton smirked at my distrustful stare, but offered no explanation. I made no effort to hide my incredulity.

Anyone with a conscience... No, you didn’t have one. Still, anyone with a brain would tremble with anxiety at an offer like that from you.

“I don’t know what sort of help you mean, but can I just say no for now?”

Colton wasn’t even surprised. Without so much as looking my way, he rested his cigar on the ashtray.

“You’ll regret it.”

This was maddening. He was as overbearing as ever. The bigger problem was that he didn’t make empty statements. He wasn’t the sort to make things up just to look impressive. These days, he wouldn’t even need to.

“At least explain it properly.”

The man with the neatly swept-back white hair obliged. “Before long, Kyle will come to attack you. Most likely in person. But we cannot afford a repeat of the horrors of the First War.”

Ah. I could see where this was going.

But it was hard to believe, too. I hadn’t fully understood everything, either. I put the sufficiently cooled cigar back between my lips and remained silent for a moment. Then I asked,

“You want me to stop him?”

“Unless you want to die at the hands of your own kind.”

“But can I? Could I ever? I don’t even know how to shoot a gun right now.”

Everyone stared. Standing behind Colton, Jaeyeon raised an eyebrow. Eric’s agents each blinked once, perhaps surprised by my answer. Yekaterina’s agent—where the hell had I seen him?—shot me a narrow-eyed look.

Even Eric and Yekaterina looked at me as though questioning whether that was true. Only Yehyeon and Colton were unsurprised.

Colton answered calmly. “You were never any good with guns.”

“Really? Thought so. I had a feeling.”

“What is his current level of ability?”

This question wasn’t directed at me. Colton had turned his head left to look at Yehyeon. Sitting with his legs crossed and his clasped hands resting on his thigh, Yehyeon met his gaze.

My superior spoke in his husky voice. “I haven’t sparred with him myself, so I can’t give you a precise assessment, but I’m told his performance is inconsistent. His body cannot keep up with his memories, and the memories themselves are incomplete.”

“And operations inside the core?”

“I haven’t assigned him any yet.”

“Perhaps you ought to train?” Colton chided me casually.

His chiding did nothing to me, but Yehyeon’s dispassionate assessment hit hard. It felt awkward to address my superior, so I gave my friend a sheepish smile.

“Yes, yes. I’ll try harder.”

“We’ll resume this discussion once the commander-in-chief authorizes you to operate inside the core.” Colton put down his cigar.

I blinked at the words signaling the end of our conversation. That was it for the meeting? There was still so much I needed to hear.

But the other elders were also preparing to leave, making it clear the meeting was over.

It wasn’t as though I couldn’t understand my troublesome friend’s attitude. What good would hearing the truth do when I couldn’t even use my abilities properly? My body couldn’t keep up, so recovering my memories wouldn’t magically improve my skills. Nor would it let me stop Kyle when he came charging in to kill me. Colton was saying we would finish talking once that situation changed. A very practical attitude. Just like him.

He stood and adjusted the lapels of his pitch-black jacket. No amount of insisting that we finish the conversation here would change anything.

I remained seated, watching Eric and Yekaterina rise at their leisure. Kyle and Colton. The two names I had remembered.

Kyle, who had laughed at human ignorance, and the man who had looked at me with his hands clasped and said... The man with the cold blue eyes.

[“You are the ace that will win me this game.”]

Watching everyone begin to move, I slowly broke the silence. “Colton.”

They stopped and looked at me.

“So, in the end, was I really your ace?”

Colton looked down at me without a word.

I waited for his answer with a gentle smile. I couldn’t remember why I had betrayed my kind, or how, but I was now certain that I had ultimately sided with the humans. In the end, it was Colton I had chosen, not Kyle.

Not the one of my own kind who had smiled so openly at me, but the man who was always nagging me not to waste time on pointless things.

My old friend broke the silence. “You were.”

The answer carried weight.

“And if you regain your true abilities, you will be someone’s ace again.”

“Huh?”

“So long...” Colton drew out the words as he stepped forward. “As you don’t remain in a state where you cannot even detect something like this.”

KRA-BOOOM!

Three walls collapsed, and creatures burst in.

There were four of them. Creatures resembling horses with split muzzles. Their faces were massive enough to smash through walls, and the elegant walls did indeed crumble helplessly, revealing the bluish nightscape.

The intruders were promptly butchered.

I watched the elders’ agents slaughter the creatures without batting an eye. Eric’s agents moved side by side, mirror images of each other. Yekaterina’s agent turned his head indifferently, then swung his right arm and pierced a creature’s vital point with no wasted movement.

Jaeyeon drew a gun and blew out an eyeball.

But the clatter of shell casings didn’t stop. He kept firing until a deep hole had been gouged through the creature’s pupil. Then he shoved his hand into the hole and pulled the trigger several more times. I watched in disgust as blood and chunks of flesh spattered his immaculate suit.

Having finished venting his anger, Jaeyeon stripped off his gloves and stuffed them into his pocket. Unconcerned by his ruined suit, he swept back his jet-black hair. Then he looked at Yehyeon and grinned.

Yehyeon sighed. Colton didn’t spare him a glance.

“Farewell, Prometheus.” Eric smiled as he draped his coat over his shoulders, not batting an eye at whatever was happening behind him.

All three elders were frighteningly unperturbed. They moved unhurriedly, the wind blowing in through the ruined walls.

I let out a disbelieving laugh along with my cigar smoke and returned his farewell. “Yes. Thank you for the excellent cigar.”

“You seem to have enjoyed it. I’ll send you a box as a gift. You may be dull, but you’re also important.”

What a complete pervert.

Eric and his agents were the first to leave the drawing room. After returning his agents’ nods, I looked at my troublesome friend as he passed me.

Colton walked indifferently past, his eyes straight ahead, with Jaeyeon following and shooting me a venomous glare.

I was about to bid them goodbye when Colton spoke softly. “Congratulations on making it back alive.”

I watched his retreating back with a faint smile. “Thanks.”

“I’ll give you the appropriate help, so adjust quickly.”

“I’ll give you a call,” Colton added casually before leaving the drawing room. The measured clicks of his dress shoes receded.

“Oh, right. I was going to ask for your number anyway,” I replied just as casually. It wasn’t until his footsteps faded that something occurred to me.

Wait. Hadn’t he said he’d help me remember the sensation of being connected? I’d said I wanted to refuse. Had he just ignored that?

Why hadn’t he changed at all?

Unbelievable. He really was exactly the same. As I stared in astonishment at the door they’d left through, Yekaterina passed me on my right.

She glanced at me with resolute green eyes. “I hope we can meet again as soon as possible. I trust you’ll apply yourself to your training.”

Her agent followed as she walked away. He looked me over without relaxing his frown. Our eyes met, but he turned his head without a word.

Ah. Even that gesture felt so familiar. Though we probably hadn’t been close, given that I couldn’t remember him right away.

Where on earth had we met...

Oh.

He appeared in a small fragment of memory that surfaced. Across from me, wearing a black tactical suit like his comrades.

So we had met. But I couldn’t remember his name or any details, and that strange sense of familiarity hadn’t entirely gone away.

What was it?

With the nagging frustration of failing to recall a word I knew, I frowned at the spot where he’d disappeared. If I thought just a little harder, I felt I could find the answer. Unlike my other memories, this answer really did seem to be right in front of me...

As I puzzled over it, someone stopped beside me.

“Hilde.” It was my superior’s voice. “Let’s go too.”

I turned to look at Yehyeon. At the same moment, I found the source of that familiarity.

“Commander, did you have any siblings?”

Yekaterina’s agent bore an astonishing resemblance to Yehyeon.

“That man who just left—”

But I couldn’t finish.

Because I saw the professional expression fall away from Yehyeon’s face, his eyes clouding. Saw those clouded eyes fill with a depth of sorrow I’d never seen before. Saw his wavering gaze finally sink, unable to bear the weight.

Silence wrapped around us.

A silence composed, perhaps, of my surprise, the sound of the night breeze drifting in, and Yehyeon’s grief. It broke only after a long while.

“I have no siblings.”

His voice was as faint as a guttering candle.

“That man is my father.”

Unable to find a reply, I stared at Yehyeon for a long time.