When I suddenly came to my senses, the scenery was rushing past my eyes in a blur.
A blade-like wind scratched coldly at my ears. My head spun like cars crossing an intersection, and the intermittent murmurs and noise grated on me—but I had no time to care. I just kept running, blindly.
I don’t know how far I ran. But running full throttle without a single break, I found myself on a familiar street. It was my old neighborhood—after a full fifteen years.
It would be a lie to say it didn’t feel strange, but I didn’t slow down. If anything, I sped up. I’d imagined returning home hundreds, even thousands of times on the Hol Plain. Of course, those daydreams were never this sudden…
Finding the row house I remembered wasn’t difficult. I practically flew up the stairs and stopped in front of the door, feeling my heart pounding wildly. I punched in the code and carefully opened the lock. As the faded white wallpaper came into view, I took a slow, steady breath.
Stepping inside the entryway, my eyes instinctively squinted. The place was a mess, as if burglars had ransacked it.
The microwave in the kitchen was cracked and split, the doorknob to the master bedroom was shattered, leaving a gaping hole. The kitchen was a disaster zone—the sink looked torn off roughly, and shards of broken glass littered the floor.
“What the hell…?”
Then, a faint groan caught my attention. I activated my magic sense and pushed open the bathroom door, only to be hit by a stench that made my nose recoil.
The bathroom was even worse than the rest. The sink was smashed to pieces, and the tiles were smeared with vomit.
Most of all, my brother was there—in this wrecked space—collapsed over the toilet, moaning weakly.
“Hyung!”
I rushed over and shook him, but all he did was gag; he didn’t come to.
Honestly, I wanted to force him awake and demand what had happened. But my calm mind, guided by my third eye, chose instead to lay him down on the bed rather than keep shaking him.
I watched him suffer for a while, then, drawn by an invisible force, I returned to the bathroom. I turned the hot water valve all the way and turned on the shower. The cold water splashed sharply on my scalp, snapping me fully awake.
That was all. My third eye had already been active, and slapping my cheek or pinching my thigh only sharpened my awareness.
But I never woke from a dream.
Everything was a mess.
When I opened my eyes, dusk had fallen. My head was so cluttered I must have dozed off deeply.
Squinting around, I sighed. I’d hoped I might be back on the Hol Plain, but the view was unmistakably my own room. Finally, I was home—but I felt no thrill. Instead of nostalgia, a flood of questions poured in.
There were three possible explanations.
First: that this was all a dream. But that was unlikely. It was too vivid, the sensations alive, the reactions too real.
Second: that I was seeing an illusion. Also unlikely. If it were an illusion, my third eye would have dispelled it by now. I’d already reached EX rank—I wouldn’t fail to break it.
Third:…
“Have I really returned to Earth?”
My reason was already shouting yes. Only my emotions refused to accept it. But by every measure, the third option was the truth.
If my brother had returned to Earth too, it explained the scene I’d found at home. He must have struggled to handle the memories and experiences from his user days. Unable to overcome the mental chaos, he’d made that mess.
“Hah…”
I couldn’t help but sigh.
When did it all go wrong?
When did everything start to feel so strange?
Looking back, maybe from the moment I woke on the train…
No, from when I entered the summoning room…
No, no—from when I met the clan members at the restaurant…
Suddenly, a ding-dong sound rang out. The phone on my desk lit up. Not wanting to be disturbed, I ignored it.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
But when the ringtone kept going off thirty minutes later, I couldn’t just keep ignoring it. I grabbed the phone out of thin air—there were three messages.
The first was from an unknown number.
“I’ll be waiting at the Tancheon stairs.”
Tancheon stairs? Oh, maybe someone was confessing their feelings. I chuckled, thinking it was a wrong number.
But the smile vanished the moment I read the second message.
“Come to Olympic Road and follow Tancheon down. I’ll be waiting.”
Because the sender was my brother.
I jumped out of bed and checked his room—it was empty. He must have regained consciousness and left while I was asleep. I hurriedly got dressed and headed out.
Normally, it would take thirty minutes to walk from home to Olympic Road, but sprinting full speed, I arrived in under five.
“Good work. Let’s get him to a hospital first…”
The third message was a map. Just as I was about to follow it down to Tancheon, I heard a voice. Looking around, I spotted a dark figure standing at the bottom of the stairs. The man saw me and raised his hand.
“Clan Lord!”
“Jo Seung-woo?”
It was Jo Seung-woo. As I descended, he nodded politely and gave his trademark friendly smile.
“You’re okay, right? Honestly, I thought I was going to die.”
“User Jo Seung-woo.”
“Yes, yes, that’s me.”
“Did you come back with us?”
He nodded, then suddenly stared at me intently.
“Clan Lord, do you know why I came to meet you?”
“…No?”
“Because you felt the least dissonance. You’ve been a non-combat user since joining the Mercenary Clan.”
“Huh?”
“I was gasping over paperwork every day at the castle. It’s similar to writing reports at a company. So I adapted relatively quickly.”
“Ah…”
It made sense. I’d handled administration rather than war, combat, or exploration. The dissonance wasn’t zero, but it was less than for combat users.
“Shall we go this way?”
Jo Seung-woo pointed to a pedestrian path on the left. It was the direction I needed to go anyway. I figured he wanted to talk as we walked, and I had no reason to refuse.
“There are just over forty users who have returned to Earth.”
Shortly after we started walking side by side, he spoke. Just over forty…
“That sounds like you knew we’d come back all along.”
“That’s right.”
He admitted it openly, then his expression darkened.
“The first thing I did after returning—well, after some time to adjust—was contact the others. I even collected their contact info and home addresses in advance.”
He pushed up his glasses and continued.
“How many do you think answered when I called?”
“Hmm. Half?”
“Eight.”
“Eight?”
“Yes. We returned at 11:45 a.m. I started calling just before 6 p.m. In those six hours, only eight people were stable enough to answer.”
“……”
I looked down at the ground as I walked. It was a shock. Only eight out of forty…
“Well, in the end, everyone is safe. Some answered through family or friends, and others I spoke to later.”
“You don’t mean the call from earlier…?”
“Oh, you heard that? Actually, there was one person we couldn’t reach until just now. Luckily, it wasn’t too late, and we managed to secure their safety.”
“Wait. Secure their safety? You mean they tried to commit suicide?”
“Yes. I had a bad feeling and sent a subordinate to their address. Unfortunately, my suspicion was correct. But don’t worry too much—they’re probably on their way to the hospital now.”
“Who…?”
Jo Seung-woo gave a bitter smile and stopped walking.
“Clan Lord, sorry to cut this short, but I’ll explain the rest later. My guidance ends here.”
He pointed ahead.
“Just follow the path. They’ll be waiting.”
Ahead was only darkness, but when I sharpened my vision, the scene became clear.
Two figures sat on a long wooden bench, waiting for me by the river. I expected my brother, but seeing Han So-young there was a surprise.
“…Understood.”
I hesitated only briefly. Though I couldn’t stop worrying about who had nearly taken their own life, knowing everyone was safe, I decided to focus on what was in front of me.
The closer I got, the clearer the two figures became. My brother sat calmly on the worn bench, gazing endlessly at the flowing river. I deliberately made my footsteps loud, but he didn’t even flinch.
Han So-young might not know, but my brother surely understood everything. I was almost certain—because besides me, only one other user had the authority to activate the Zero Code.
Finally, I reached the bench but didn’t sit. Instead, I leaned against the stone wall at an angle, met Han So-young’s eyes, and then looked out over Tancheon.
The river, swallowed by night, was eerily still—so dark it seemed to pull you in.
How much time passed?
“You’re here.”
My brother’s voice was hoarse, strained. He wanted to say more, but the words wouldn’t come.
I steadied my chest and finally spoke.
“I feel like you know something I don’t.”
He kept staring at the river. Though he said nothing, he slowly nodded, as if acknowledging I was watching.
“Just to be sure… we really did come back to Earth, right?”
Without a word, my brother nodded again.
“Probably.”
Then, in a voice barely above a whisper, he continued.
“Probably, what you’re thinking is right.”
The moment I heard him admit it, my heart felt like it stopped. Both my hands started trembling uncontrollably. I forced them into my pockets and took a deep breath, holding it before exhaling sharply. I had expected this, but still, I kept telling myself, no, it can’t be.
“What? You used the Zero Code behind my back?”
I tried to sound calm as I spoke.
“I had no idea. Since when?”
But I couldn’t stop my voice from rising.
He pressed his palm to his forehead and spoke quietly.
“I know. I know you’re probably really confused right now. And…”
“Enough. Just tell me when.”
I cut him off sharply—not just to get to the point faster, but also to express my frustration.
“It was planned quite a while ago. Of course, I went ahead without telling you.”
He spoke calmly. His composed tone grated on me for no reason.
Honestly, since I’d already decided to return to Earth, I wasn’t going to hold him back.
“I was the one who took the lead and used the Zero Code.”
But the fact that he’d done all this without saying a word—no matter how much I tried to swallow it—I just couldn’t understand.
“But I wasn’t the one who came up with the plan. It was Seraph.”
“What?”
“Seraph made the plan, and I just carried it out.”
“…!”
My throat suddenly burned. The discomfort I’d been holding back since the restaurant flared up all at once, as if it was about to explode.
“So you and Seraph are in cahoots?”
I couldn’t help but sneer.
“Suhyun.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m sure there’s a reason.”
“…”
“Tell me. I have no idea what kind of grand plan could justify all this mess. At least I’m willing to listen.”
I didn’t want to act like this in front of him, but the corner of my mouth kept twitching.
“But you’d better explain it properly. And just so you know, don’t even try to say it was for my own good…”
“It was for you.”
At that moment, the last thread of my reason snapped. When I came to, my right hand, which had been tucked in my pocket, was almost grabbing his collar.
In a split second, I barely managed to redirect my fist and slammed it into the stone wall behind him.
Thud.
Even though I held back at the last second, the entire wall vibrated with the impact.
I almost punched him. I couldn’t believe I almost did that to my own brother.
Panting, I glared at him.
“Why.”
Why.
A simple but fundamental question.
“Why did you do it?”
He finally tore his gaze away from the river and looked at me.
“Why did you save me?”
“What?”
“You did. You told me not to bring me back when I was about to die. But you saved me. Why did you do that?”
“…”
“That feeling you’re having right now—that’s my answer.”
“…”
Suddenly, I was at a loss for words. He had said that, and I hadn’t followed his last wish. Strictly speaking, I had acted on my own. If I had to answer why, there was only one reason: for me, for him.
“Of course.”
He continued.
“I’m not saying I did the right thing. Whatever the reason, whatever excuse, acting on my own was wrong. I won’t deny that.”
His low voice was thick with exhaustion. Speaking seemed to take effort; his words came out in fits and starts.
“Suhyun. I promise. I’ll tell you everything—what happened, why it had to be this way—right here, without holding anything back…”
He couldn’t bring himself to say more and closed his eyes gently.
“So…”
Slowly, he lowered his head and covered his face with his hands.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Sorry for the delay.
I’ll post the next chapter right away.