* * *

How could he forget that number? He had lived by it all that time, without a name.

Hyeonyul looked at them. The mere mention of being a test subject had transformed the atmosphere. Their protective suits hid their expressions, but he could feel the change in the way they looked at him.

"... A test subject?"

Someone spoke up. Gazes followed, scrutinizing him intently as though he were a product.

"Yes. They called me a successful test subject."

"... Successful?"

"How did they succeed?"

"He just... looks human, though?"

The murmuring, which had begun with one or two people, steadily spread. He looked human. That point alone prompted countless comments.

"You. Is... what you just said true?"

"Why would I come all this way just to lie?"

Hyeonyul raised an eyebrow. Judging by their reactions, none of the people in charge here seemed to know him.

He rolled up his left sleeve. REX―03333 was embedded there.

"If I've lived from childhood to adulthood, wouldn't you say I've survived quite a while?"

"W-would you give us a chance?"

"Yes. Give us a chance."

"A chance to do what?" Hyeonyul asked.

"Surely something in your body must be out of alignment. I—no, we can look into it for you."

"We can refine you further. We can correct the instability."

Their tight formation fell apart as though they had never held it in the first place, and some began inching forward. It was a relief that he couldn't see their faces. He had nearly lost what little appetite he had.

"I'll ask one last time. Does anyone here know me?"

Hyeonyul asked again and waited. All they had offered so far was useless chatter.

"If anyone knew you, they would have stepped forward immediately! You're a masterpiece!"

"Exactly! Perfection itself! With this, humanity can take another step forward!"

Sounds bordering on admiration spilled from their mouths. Remarkable, they said. Perfect, they said. A torrent of words fouled his ears.

"Is that so?"

Hyeonyul adjusted his grip on the dagger. His gaze sharpened as he looked at them.

"W-what are you doing?"

"What do you think? If none of you know me, shouldn't you die?"

Hyeonyul walked toward them. Though his steps were light, an air of menace clung to them. He looked as though he would devour everything.

"S-s-stop!"

Hyeonyul didn't stop. He approached without a care, grabbed one of their protective suits, and ripped it open with his dagger. A human face emerged through the torn suit.

"So this is what you look like. Strangely enough, you look human."

Hyeonyul reacted as though he were seeing a human being for the first time.

The man who met his eyes trembled all over. It was as though a beast stood before him. The mouth that had been moving so freely moments before began to freeze.

"I always wondered what was beneath those protective suits you covered yourselves in. What you looked like, what expressions you wore. I thought about it countless times and imagined whatever I pleased."

Perhaps they were test subjects just like him. Perhaps they had done this to get revenge because they didn't want to suffer alone. Perhaps they weren't human at all, but a new species. He had kept spinning out absurd thoughts. Back then, that was the only way he could endure.

How could it make sense for people to do, over and over, what no human should ever do to another? And yet they were human.

"All sorts of thoughts used to run through my head, but strangely, now there's only one."

Hyeonyul lowered his gaze and seized the man's throat. The man in his grip couldn't even struggle. The murderous intent washing over him was overwhelming.

"Whether you're monsters or not, I'll kill you all. Leave none of you alive. Wipe you out to the last. That's the thought."

Hyeonyul's eyes curved into a smile, and the man's face turned deathly blue.

"You could call it revenge. But I have no grand goal of doing this for everyone who died. It's simply for me—the person who lost his memories and even his original name because of you. It really does bother me."

"... W-wait a moment. Don't get worked up. This is a time for rational thought."

"I'm only killing the people involved in this. I have no intention of touching your families or anyone else. How could I be any more rational?"

He could do more, but he hadn't. He could make them suffer more, but he had no intention of crossing that line. He was offering them an easy death. How could he be any more rational?

"Aren't you the ones being irrational right now, rather than me?"

Hyeonyul turned his gaze to the others. They recoiled in terror.

"This is... a leap forward that can transform humanity!"

"Yes, a leap forward!"

"If you wanted that leap so badly, why didn't you undergo it yourselves?"

Hyeonyul sneered and tightened the hand around the man's throat.

"Have I ever, even once, said I cared about your leap forward or whatever it is? Did the people you killed, the people you hacked apart, ever say they wanted to be part of it?"

"... Ghk."

"What exactly are you trying to justify? Nobility? You and I are nothing but murderers."

Hyeonyul made no excuses. As revolting as it was to lump himself in with them, it didn't change the fact that he was a murderer.

"... Do you know what makes this noble? Do you know how the Empire became the Empire?"

A voice came from the back. The speaker might have seemed rather brave, but was merely a coward trembling beneath a protective suit.

"I'm not interested."

The Empire or whatever else—why should he have to listen to such grandiose talk? Why did the Poison King, the Red Witch, and even these bastards keep bringing up the Empire?

"The Empire created the power we now take for granted."

"Is that so?"

Someone else might have been horrified to hear it, but Hyeonyul treated this, too, as insignificant.

The Empire had created that power. What difference would knowing that make?

"How many people do you think were sacrificed before everyone could possess power? You say this cause isn't noble? How can you say that?"

Hyeonyul laughed at those words. He tightened his grip, and the man went limp with a crack.

'You wouldn't be able to say a thing if I did this to you.'

Throwing the man aside, Hyeonyul took a step forward.

"What are you trying to do here?"

Hyeonyul couldn't understand their questions at all. He appeared in front of the one who had asked and stabbed him in the chest. Even the sight of blood spraying seemed like a perfectly natural act.

"Why are you asking me that? I simply don't understand."

"... The Empire used that power to trample other nations."

Amid ragged breathing, condensation fogged the inside of the suit.

"The Empire did it, so you're allowed to do it too. Is that what you're trying to say?"

"You... must become a blade aimed at the Empire."

"I don't care about that bullshit. I'll turn your reasoning right back on you. You did it, so I'll do it too."

Hyeonyul smiled. Black power coiled around the dagger in his other hand. The mere sight of it was ominous. Yet the man marveled.

"W-with... this power, you could reach the Empire's heart."

It felt unbearably beautiful as the last thing he would ever see. Like a black flame that would burn everything.

"... You have to put everything back the way it was."

Without answering, Hyeonyul swept his hand in a wide arc. A thick swath of darkness traced sideways, as though cleaving space itself, and countless necks were cut at once. Blood shot into the air and rained down. Hyeonyul smiled without so much as blinking.

"Then or now, you haven't changed at all."

Perhaps they didn't recognize test subjects as people. They simply took what they wanted, by any means necessary. So the people he had cut down were villains.

Hyeonyul looked at the blood-soaked test subjects. What was the difference between them and him? Drugs had ruined him, yet he couldn't live even a day without them. Were they the same?

After using darkness to clean every trace of blood from himself, Hyeonyul took out his phone.

"Doctor."

<"Did you... find them?">

"No. They're not here either. I found two people. I'll bring them home."

<"Hyeonyul.">

"Later. I'd like to talk later."

<"All right. Come back soon.">

Hyeonyul ended the call and looked at the test subjects. He didn't know whether even Jeongmin could save them. He himself had merely been swimming through the sea and reached a lighthouse. Some stroke of luck—whether a god's whim or something else—had kept him alive. They kept calling him complete, perfect, but how was he any different from these two?

"If you can't endure it, don't force yourselves to hold on," Hyeonyul said, covering them in shadow.

"Even if you live, there is no hope."

He was the future they hoped for. Perhaps he was a fantasy they could cherish only because they didn't know what waited at the end if they endured, if they held on.

"I've lived, and this place is no better than that one."

Hyeonyul looked at the spot he had swallowed in darkness.

"But if you still want to live, try to hold on a little longer. There will be moments when you feel happy."

Slowly raising his gaze, he looked around the experimental site. He needed to know what records were here. Hyeonyul walked over to the computer. It required a key. He searched their bodies with darkness and found the keys.

One. Two. Three. Only after he inserted all three keys did it work.

It contained a vast amount of information. Hyeonyul's eyes moved across it. What he wanted to know right now was the purpose of the experiments. He could examine the rest in time.

Among the countless reports, Hyeonyul stopped at the name "Choi Ara." His eyes moved slowly. What had the experiments been for? The answer came easily.

'Ah. They were trying to bring the child back to life.'

Asan wasn't stupid enough not to understand the simple truth that the dead couldn't be brought back. He had been subjected to experiments like that himself, so it wasn't surprising. But why had she done this? It was difficult to understand.

'... Anyway, did the Empire kill that child?'

Children must not be killed. He knew that much, and whatever else he felt, this made him a little displeased. Why had that child needed to die?

* * *

"Doctor."

Back at Jeongmin's house, Hyeonyul handed over the records he had found at the experimental site. They would surely be useful to Jeongmin.

"Here they are."

Hyeonyul paused while handing over the records and looked at Jeongmin. If Jeongmin died, would he act like Asan? The thought briefly crossed his mind. But the answer was no. The dead couldn't return.

'I hope you don't die, Doctor.'

Whatever else he wished for, he kept wishing that. That Jeongmin would outlive him. That even after he died, Jeongmin would not.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Hyeonyul turned his gaze to the two test subjects. They would die. Every test subject he had rescued and brought here had died. He knew he would remain the only survivor, and that this would never change.

Jeongmin suddenly looked apologetic. Whenever Hyeonyul saw that expression, he found it difficult to understand the emotion behind it.

"You know that whatever happens to these two, it isn't your fault, Hyeonyul?"

Jeongmin always said something like that whenever he brought test subjects home.

"I don't expect anything. Honestly, I don't really know how I feel about whether they die or not. You're the one who shouldn't torment yourself, Doctor."

"I suppose I have to get used to it."

Jeongmin pushed up his glasses and smiled gently.

"You say that, but you don't seem to be getting used to it."

"It really is... difficult."

Jeongmin touched the corners of his eyes. The fact that he hadn't been able to save them always pierced his heart. He simply couldn't get used to it. When would he?

"It amazes me every time this happens."

"What amazes you?"

"How did I manage to save you? I find myself wondering that every time."

"Indeed. I wonder that too."

He had been in terrible shape back then. It had felt as though his entire body might fall apart at any moment. That was when he had reached out to Jeongmin for help.

"Listen, Hyeonyul."

"Yes?"

"You still don't remember anything about your past?"

Shock therapy was absurd, but occasionally people did recover their memories that way. It was a method that should never be used, but Hyeonyul had visited an experimental site today. Wasn't such a place the most traumatic setting imaginable for him?

"No. I don't remember. There's nothing but memories I don't want coming back to me. I want to erase them, but these won't go away."

Hyeonyul's gaze only deepened; it didn't blaze. He was like firewood whose flames had all died out.

"I want to know who I am. But I also wonder what good it would do to find out now. I can't become the person they remember."

Jeongmin could say nothing to those calmly spoken words. He knew better than anyone how Hyeonyul had lived.

"Even so, I hope you won't let go of hope."

"I won't."

"All right. Go on to bed."

"Sweet dreams."

Hyeonyul bowed his head, then vanished.

Watching him, Jeongmin let out a long breath. Seo Hyeonyul. It wasn't his real name. It was a name the two of them had made together. He hoped the day would come when Hyeonyul reclaimed his original name.

"Oh, Hyeonyul."

Hyeonyul's voice suddenly came from beside him. It might have startled someone, but Jeongmin wasn't surprised.

"Yes?"

"You're moving tomorrow, right?"

"Yes. I'm moving tomorrow."

"All right. Call me."

"I will. Good night."

Jeongmin waved, looking at the spot where he had disappeared.