It was the moment I had been waiting for.
As soon as I pulled out the card called the Crystal of Truth, I saw the carefully maintained calm on her face instantly shatter. Kim Min-seo parted her lips slightly as if to say something, but only a faint whimper escaped—no words came out.
It was inevitable. There was no need for a long explanation; by its very nature, the Crystal of Truth was the most powerful piece of evidence in cases like this. Sure, it wasn’t completely without flaws, but practically no one could exploit those weaknesses.
And since we were willing to cover the cost of using the Crystal, what more could they say?
What if they refused even this offer?
That would be tantamount to the Goryeo side admitting they had something to hide.
A brief, heavy silence fell.
“Hmm. That sounds good. Really good.”
Then, finally breaking his silence, Lee Hyo-eul spoke up. As a representative of the central administrative body, it must have been difficult for him to take sides, but now that there was a clear justification, he stepped forward without hesitation.
Lee Hyo-eul glanced quietly at Jo Seong-ho, who remained silent.
“If we use the Crystal of Truth, we can uncover all the facts precisely. I think it’s a very good method. What does the Goryeo Lord think?”
Jo Seong-ho cast a sidelong glance. But when Kim Min-seo nervously wet her lips and averted her gaze, he sneered coldly and turned to Han Chae-hyuk.
“User Han Chae-hyuk.”
“Y-yes…”
“I can’t think of any reason to refuse here. Are you confident?”
“W-what? Ah… I… I…”
“Forget everything else. Are you confident or not? If what you say is true, there’s no reason to refuse, right?”
“Th-then…”
Han Chae-hyuk stammered, his face flushed with embarrassment. He shot a pleading look toward Kim Min-seo, but she was too busy avoiding his gaze.
Something must have dawned on him because a dark shadow crossed his face, and finally, he dropped his head in defeat. The meaning of his attitude was painfully clear.
“Hmph. So that’s how it is.”
Jo Seong-ho let out a short sigh and muttered quietly to himself. Then, just as he let out a dry chuckle—
Bam!
Crash! Crash!
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, a loud noise like fireworks exploded, and Han Chae-hyuk collapsed to the floor clutching his face. Everyone seemed shocked by the suddenness of it, but I watched calmly. At least to my eyes, it was clear that Jo Seong-ho had struck Han Chae-hyuk with all his might.
“You disgusting bastard! You damn fool!”
He hit so hard that blood seeped through the hand covering his nose. Jo Seong-ho spat out a cold insult at Han Chae-hyuk, then turned to me with a weary expression.
“I don’t think we need to use the Crystal of Truth after all, Mercenary Lord.”
“…So you’re saying you accept An Hyun’s testimony?”
“Yes. Judging by their reactions, it seems the Qi Craftsman’s words were correct. We’ll accept it cleanly.”
“……”
Jo Seong-ho glared fiercely at Han Chae-hyuk once more, then bit his lip and turned his mocking gaze to Kim Min-seo.
“The confident words you spoke are about to come back to bite you. What do you think, diplomatic officer?”
“C-clan Lord… why… why…”
“Why don’t you just shut up? Who told you to present circumstantial evidence as fact? We’ll reinvestigate this case from the beginning. And if it turns out you’re even remotely involved, don’t expect us to let it slide.”
“…Ugh!”
Jo Seong-ho was furious, but he quickly tried to calm himself, taking deep breaths and brushing the blood from his fist.
“I must apologize to user Cha Hee-young and the mercenaries. To punish the guilty, we’ll need to reinvestigate the details, which will take some time. For now, we’ll show our utmost sincerity.”
“Sincerity?”
“Yes. We’ll offer appropriate compensation to user Cha Hee-young for the damages caused by this incident. At the same time, all Goryeo clan members currently at the User Academy will be expelled, and their positions will be fully transferred to the Mercenary Clan.”
“Hmm. That’s acceptable. So, the Goryeo Lord’s decision is…”
“Furthermore, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation under the Goryeo name to expose every wrongdoing. Any user found guilty will be lawfully punished in consultation with the central administrative body. After the process concludes, we will issue an unreserved official announcement and apology to take full responsibility.”
“……”
Listening to Jo Seong-ho’s clear, deliberate words, I was momentarily at a loss for words. The Goryeo Clan had bowed as low as they possibly could.
Still, I felt something was a little off. Jo Seong-ho’s attitude seemed somewhat excessive.
Of course, I understood his anger. But if I were in his position, I would have simply abandoned Han Chae-hyuk. I’d have spun the story to say Kim Min-seo had been misinformed from the start and tried to get her off the hook.
Yet Jo Seong-ho was insisting on exposing his own clan’s shame.
Anyway, we’d have to wait and see how things unfolded. With the central administrative body involved, this wouldn’t be swept under the rug.
Since he was willing to take full responsibility, I shrugged.
Lee Hyo-eul clapped his hands and spoke up.
“I’m glad things ended well. Since the case seems mostly resolved, let’s wrap up for today. It’s late, and there are matters we can’t handle right now.”
Jo Seong-ho and I agreed simultaneously.
A little later, as users waiting outside came in and dragged Kim Min-seo, Han Chae-hyuk, and the other three away, Jo Seong-ho suddenly stood and extended his hand.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but there seemed to be a faint smile on his face.
I quietly shook his hand.
“Goryeo Lord, I respect your decision. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“Not at all. It’s only natural, but your words embarrass me. I feel like I’m always the one receiving help from the Mercenary Lord… in many ways.”
“…?”
“No, nothing. Let’s meet again soon. I’ll make sure to follow through on what I promised. Have a good night.”
Jo Seong-ho bowed calmly and left like a breeze.
I stared at the door for a moment, then let my shoulders slump. The sudden release of tension drained the strength from my body—not physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue.
“Hyung…”
Just then, An Hyun approached cautiously and spoke.
Even though things had turned out well, An Hyun still looked uneasy. I understood why to some extent and gazed at him quietly. A long sigh escaped me.
“Hoo.”
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
“An Hyun… why do you always seem to have no peace? Huh?”
“…I know. I acted on emotion, but I don’t think it was right. So I accept the punishment for disobeying your orders…”
“Shut up. And you did well.”
“Sorry… what?”
An Hyun blinked in surprise and repeated his words. Inside, a flood of thoughts raced through my mind.
He didn’t do everything right.
I definitely told him to stay quiet.
How could he think like that, and so on.
At first, that’s what I thought.
I couldn’t understand why An Hyun caused trouble again despite my repeated warnings and the wrong information he’d received.
But—
If there was a difference from the Sleeping Dragon Mountain Range incident, it was that the process was similar but the outcome was different. And since there were eyes watching, yelling here wouldn’t look good.
So I placed my hand firmly on the top of An Hyun’s head and spoke softly.
“You did well.”
“Uh… uh…”
“Of course, you made mistakes, but for now, just think of it that way. We’ll talk about the rest later. My head hurts.”
“……”
An Hyun said nothing, just stared at me blankly.
After a while, suddenly, a tear rolled down his cheek.
Startled, I quickly withdrew my hand. Wait—why was he crying when I just praised him?
“Hyun, don’t cry. Why are you crying? I said you did well.”
“It’s just… I did well… but… suddenly… sniff…”
An Hyun stammered, trying to hold back tears, but they streamed down his face and lips like tiny pearls. Ha-yeon gently patted his back with a soft smile.
Watching An Hyun rub his face with his fist, I scratched my cheek and looked away. Now that I thought about it, a few people were still in the room, and this felt like a melodramatic scene—I felt a bit embarrassed.
“Oh, that’s a nice sight. Pretty rare in this world. So, you must have been pretty strict with him, huh?”
Lee Hyo-eul spoke with a pleased expression. I glared at him to tell him to shut up. He quickly turned his head, and following his gaze, I noticed a woman still trembling.
Cha Hee-young, was it?
From what I gathered earlier, the general situation became clear. It seemed like a case where Cha Hee-young had the misfortune of running into the wrong crowd during the rite of passage and was forced into something against her will. In her case, it was especially unlucky—starting out in a place crawling with guys like Park Dong-geol. And those kinds of connections probably followed her even after she entered the Hall Plain.
After staring at Cha Hee-young for a while, I activated my Third Eye. Honestly, whatever she’d been through wasn’t really my concern, but for this User Academy session, I planned to use the Third Eye on all the rookies. And with someone like Cha Hee-young, this incident could be a convenient excuse to lure her into the Mercenary Clan.
Even in a situation like this, you have to take what you can, right? Of course, that depends on having solid user information.
Soon, a stream of user data floated in midair.
Name: Cha Hee-young (0 years)
Class: Normal Mage (Beginner)
Nation: -
Clan: -
True Name / Nationality: The Hated Witch (True Name) / Republic of Korea
Gender / Age: Female (21)
Height / Weight: 167.4 cm / 47.6 kg
Disposition: Lethargy / Detestation
[Strength 14] [Endurance 24] [Agility 34] [Vitality 44] [Mana 84] [Luck 4]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
And at that moment—
The instant I confirmed her true name, I felt as if my breath had stopped.
The next morning.
I had to leave the User Academy as soon as I woke up at dawn. I was allowed to stay one night at the dormitory as a courtesy, but the Academy’s rules didn’t permit anything beyond that.
I wasn’t exactly upset. After all, I was scheduled to return as an instructor after week six.
“So, does that mean we’re getting four seats in total?”
“That’s right. Anyway, it’s never good to leave the chief instructor’s seat empty for long, so send someone as soon as possible.”
Early dawn.
At the main gate of the User Academy, I exchanged some light conversation with Lee Hyo-eul, who had come to see me off.
As I mentioned yesterday, before morning even came, Jo Seong-ho had cleared out all the Goryeo Clan members from the Academy. That left one spot open for chief instructor and one for life instructor, and Lee Hyo-eul agreed to transfer those to us.
The life instructor position was easy enough—I could just promote Ahn Hyun. But the education instructor role was more delicate; it was a high-profile and important position, so you couldn’t just send anyone. Still, the Mercenary Clan wasn’t lacking talent, so I promised to recommend a suitable member soon.
“Well then, I’ll be off. See you all in three weeks.”
“Thank you, Su-hyun. We’re really sorry and grateful that you came.”
I felt it was about time to leave and said my goodbyes, but only Ha-yeon responded.
Lee Hyo-eul waved me off impatiently, and Ahn Hyun just scratched his head awkwardly.
Next to Ahn Hyun, another woman was looking at me with eyes still clouded by sleep.
“Th-thank…”
Startled when our eyes met, she quickly turned her head away, avoiding my gaze. At the same time, she clutched Ahn Hyun’s clothes tightly, surprising me twice over.
I’d heard that after last night’s gathering, Ahn Hyun had stayed up all night talking with Cha Hee-young. Had something developed between them?
Anyway, seeing her act like such a shy girl made me feel awkward.
Because if this woman was truly the witch I remembered—the one who sacrificed herself and 1,700 others to summon the Hell Duke—there was no way she’d ever behave like this.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Now, after everything, you want to quit? That’s what I told you all before! But what did you do?”
“You pretended not to know. You ignored it! Even though I begged you to stop, to help, to save me…!”
I don’t remember much about the witch. I wasn’t interested to begin with, and before we retook Atlanta, I didn’t even know who she was.
But just before reclaiming Atlanta, I clearly remember the laughter that tore through the world and the curses filled with hatred that rained down on us.
The terror she inspired back then was almost nightmarish. It was so intense that when I started my second run, I chose Hwajeong despite all the risks because of that fear.
Suddenly, I recalled what An-sol said.
“So… depending on what choice you make… your nightmare… Waaah~ Mmm hmm…”
Did that mean An-sol foresaw this situation when she suggested sending Ahn Hyun to the User Academy?
Of course, it’s too soon to jump to conclusions.
After nearly three years of living through a second run, I’ve learned that while the future changes, some things never do.
Then—
“Th-thank you…”
“…?”
“Thank you for helping me… truly… truly thank you…”
Maybe feeling the silent pressure from my gaze, Cha Hee-young suddenly bowed deeply, one hand clenched. Though her voice was barely a whisper, I heard her clearly.
In the first run, she was the witch who showered us with terrifying hatred and curses. Now, in the second run, she was greeting me.
Yet, seeing her clutch Ahn Hyun’s hand tightly with the other hand, a wave of emptiness washed over me.
What was I so worried about?
Maybe I’d been blinded by the ghosts of the first run.
Sure, the witch is dangerous.
But I thought of Yoo Hyun-ah.
There’s still time, and Cha Hee-young hasn’t awakened as the witch yet.
So whether to nurture her or kill her—
Maybe it’s okay to wait a little longer and watch her growth.
Yeah. Instead of deciding right now, it wouldn’t be too late to decide after seeing how she develops.
With that thought, I calmly turned away, promising myself to meet again in three weeks.
The chilly dawn breeze blowing from somewhere was refreshingly cool.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
At last, I’ve wrapped up the long and complicated story about Ahn Hyun.
When I first planned Memorize, it was supposed to be a four-part series. But as I started serializing, I cut it down to three parts, and then midway, down to two.
From the next chapter onward, the story shifts to the User Academy arc, which originally covered the end of part two and parts three and four. This is where each of the previously mentioned characters will appear. At the same time, I’ll be resolving the loose ends around Jin Su-hyun. (As for the aftermath of the Magiana and Cha Hee-young incident, I’ll be weaving that in intermittently.)
Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I updated at midnight. Haha.
As for the comment section… I asked for your cooperation yesterday, but honestly, it doesn’t seem to have improved much. -_-a
Still, just as I trust my readers, I believe you’ll make wise judgments.
It’s not a difficult thing. We can all have different opinions. But I really don’t like when people tear each other down or mock one another with “I’m right, you’re wrong” attitudes.
So once again, please, no excessive criticism toward each other.
Let’s make the comment section a place of mutual respect. (__)