Chapter 14: This Guy Knows the Most About Me
Yu Gyeongseong's cold rationality carefully analyzed his opponent.
The question about who owns the Divine Cult had just been thrown right back at him.
Even though he'd deliberately provoked the man's emotions before asking out of nowhere, the Hall Master had instantly suppressed his reaction. On top of that, he wasn't giving easy answers either.
But contrary to what might be going through his mind, his voice came out calm and collected.
"Well... isn't it the Cult Leader? Just as the title suggests."
"Right."
"..."
Yu Gyeongseong stared directly at the Hall Master. But even under the pressure of that silence, nothing more came from him. Not a single thought slipped through.
‘This one is not easy to crack.’
He'd hoped to extract at least some information about the Cult Leader and the Six Demons from Hall Master. The guy was a top executive, after all.
But with him being this tight-lipped, there was nothing to learn. Whether he was on the Cult Leader's side, aligned with the Six Demons, or neutral was impossible to tell.
‘…There’s always tomorrow’
At least he'd cleared up suspicions about yesterday's incident, so it wasn't a total loss. Yu Gyeongseong let it go and decided to wrap it up.
"If you have nothing else to ask, I'll be taking my leave."
***
After meeting with the Hall Master, Yu Gyeongseong had also met with the Vice Hall Master and the five Elders.
But just like the case with the Hall Master, he didn't learn much. It wasn't that they were being secretive; it was that they were clueless.
Instead, they kept grilling him about why he'd been absent.
So just like with Hall Master, he told them he couldn't remember and couldn’t talk about it.
"Hmm... is that so?"
They pretended to accept it, but he could see they weren't happy about it. From the way they reacted, he figured they weren't exactly his best friends.
After wasting a chunk of his day with them, Yu Gyeongseong finally got to look around the Law Enforcement Hall.
He felt like he’d finally finished his chores. Pointless chores, but finished nonetheless.
‘I must have spent most of my time here...’
The not-so-large building was bustling with quite a few people inside. But even when they saw his face, none of them showed any particular reaction. Not a single person came up to say hello or ask how he was.
***
That made it easy to figure out.
He wasn’t friends with any of these people.
‘It is unlikely to be among them, but…’
Still, he had something he needed to do.
Yu Gyeongseong brushed past people while muttering something in a low voice. But even though it's low, everyone in the Law Enforcement Hall heard it.
"Divine Demon... Divine Demon... Divine Demon..."
"..."
They'd definitely all heard him. The sight of him wandering around muttering to himself must have made him look completely unhinged... A couple of people gave him a quick glance with a look that said, ‘What the hell is that weirdo doing now? ‘
But even those looks quickly faded like candles in the wind.
‘Forget not being close; they don't even care.’
The last place he went was the training grounds attached to the Law Enforcement Hall building.
Yu Gyeongseong walked to the center.
What echoed in his mind right now was what Maeng Heum had said.
[You were pretty much the number one hermit in the entire Divine Cult. And you did it to yourself.]
He'd known it was true, but...
‘…I didn't think it was this bad…’
If this is how it was in his own workplace, what was it like everywhere else in the Cult? He probably didn't even register as a blip on anyone's radar.
Yu Gyeongseong chuckled once to shake off those thoughts and looked around.
No matter how much he looked around, nothing came back to him.
At this point, he was starting to think he should just forget about ever getting his memory back.
‘I probably trained here, didn't I?’
That's when a voice came from one side. The same voice that had been echoing in his mind just moments ago.
"You did train the hardest in the Law Enforcement Hall, you know. Spent more time in this yard than anyone. Watching you, I always thought you should've been in one of the Six Strike Forces from the start.”
Maeng Heum walked up to him.
“So, you met the Hall Master?"
Yu Gyeongseong nodded.
"I got called in yesterday. Because of you."
"Did you?"
Maeng Heum glanced at Yu Gyeongseong's expression.
"I told them everything as it was. That I returned the money you'd entrusted to me. Oh, but I didn’t mention you’d asked about him. Anyway… nothing bad happened, right?”
Yu Gyeongseong smirked at this clumsy show of loyalty and said casually. “I think you were right about what you said yesterday.”
“Right about what?”
"Your assessment of me."
"...The hermit thing?"
“No. That you’re probably the closest thing I have to a friend.”
Yu Gyeongseong looked at him.
One thing was certain.
Maeng Heum.
This guy knew the most about his past self.
Plus, he actually answers my questions. It was a relief to have someone like him around.
But first, there was something he needed to check.
"Why do you look at me like that?"
It felt awkward to bring it up mid-conversation. So he let it slip out casually like he was just thinking out loud.
"...Divine Demon."
“Huh? What was that? Shit-ma? Did you just call me a piece of shit?”
(TL Note: Our amnesiac man actually said Shinma (신마), but because he said it low, it actually sounds like the Ssi of Shibal (씨발))
"I’m not cursing you..."
"Then what?"
"Divine Demon."
"Huh? Where the hell did that come from all of a sudden..."
"Never mind!"
Yu Gyeongseong sighed heavily and turned away.
Maeng Heum watched him for a moment, then tried to cheer him up, probably thinking he was losing his mind.
"Don't stress about it so much. So what if you're missing some memories? They probably sucked anyway. Now you can just make new, better ones.”
Yeah. Must be nice to be so carefree.
Yu Gyeongseong answered internally as Maeng Heum continued.
“Are you snooping around here and there because your memories haven’t returned yet? Hoping something might jog it?"
"Yeah. Not getting much out of it though. What about you?"
As in, why aren't you working and hanging around here?
"Me? I’m just heading in for my shift. I saw you over here and figured I’d say hi.”
“You’re just starting now?”
Yu Gyeongseong glanced up at the sky. He'd spent a lot of time dealing with the Six Demons and the Law Enforcement Hall higher-ups, but since he'd started at dawn, it was just past the Hour of the Horse (11 AM to 1 PM).
"Oh, we work on regular shifts. Day and night. I’m on days this month. That’s noon to midnight.”
Maeng Heum stretched and scratched his side with a loud yawn.
“Man… I’m always starving after my shift. I think all these midnight snacks are making me fat.”
“You sure it’s not because you drink all night since you get to sleep in?”
What he could easily sense from the guy was the lingering smell of alcohol that still clung to him.
Maeng Heum grinned.
"I work hard, so of course I get hungry!"
As Yu Gyeongseong half-listened to his bullshit about getting cravings whenever he came to work, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Is there any other place I used to go? Anywhere you can think of?”
Since he knew me well, maybe he'd know about things closely connected to my past self?
Maeng Heum chuckled at that.
“Your life was pretty damn boring, Squad Leader. The Law Enforcement Hall is basically your second home, then you’ll hop onto your real home after your shift ends.”
"..."
But soon enough, an answer that met his expectations came.
“There was one place, though. A spot you went to every now and then.”
"Where's that?"
"The Heavenly Lake on Tianshan Mountain. From what I saw, you seemed to go there sometimes when you felt suffocated. So... since you’re frustrated now, maybe you should check it out? Maybe something'll come back to you."
***
Back in the Hall Master's Office
Some time after Yu Gyeongseong left, Byeon Wu entered. He'd been investigating on Hall Master's orders and came to report his findings.
“So the guy who started that whole mess… was Squad Leader Dong? That Dong Gong, from the Second Squad of Rock Demon Clan’s Strike Force?”
Yes, sir. I thought it was strange too, so I confirmed it multiple times."
Hall Master's gaze deepened.
First Wu Wonta, and now this. Dong Gong was one of the high-ranking officials of the Rock Demon Clan.
The Hall Master nodded for him to continue, and Byeon Wu spoke.
"There were three Rock Demon Clan members at the scene, including Dong Gong. We tried to meet them, but... couldn't."
He didn't need to hear more to understand the situation. No matter how much investigative authority the Law Enforcement Hall had, it was incredibly difficult to push through when the Six Demons refused to cooperate.
"So we secured statements from the restaurant staff. But..."
He seemed to hesitate about something.
"What?"
“The witnesses said a… a huge gray thing erupted from Squad Leader Yu’s hand. They said Dong Gong just froze like a deer in the headlights and took the hit without even moving.”
...Hand Aura?
That was a supreme realm that even Hall Master himself hadn't reached. He couldn't help but be skeptical.
Did I hear that right?
“They also said the gray energy kept changing form. It turned into something like a giant hand and grabbed Dong Gong's head."
Shaped Hand Aura?
Now he understood why Byeon Wu hesitated to speak these words. The man reporting found it difficult to believe his own account.
"Based on the combined statements... Dong Gong... seems to have had his dantian destroyed, his tongue ripped out, and his arm severed."
He was from the Rock Demon Clan, not some other third-rate clan. The Art of the Undefeated that the Rock Demon Clan’s Squad Leaders mastered was a realm approaching invincibility. And yet, a man like that… had what happen to him?
‘That level... just what...’
He couldn't make sense of it.
Squad Leader Yu had boasted outstanding martial prowess among the Law Enforcement Hall members, but he'd never been at that level.
What suddenly came to mind was what Yu Gyeongseong had said when they met.
[I received some teachings.]
Could it be...
Did he learn the Soul-Slaughtering Art from the Crushing Demon himself?
If he's that powerful now… when did this happen?
Does this mean he wasn't the Cult Leader's man to begin with?
The Law Enforcement Hall Master's office fell silent.
After a long while, a low voice echoed.
"Keep this case strictly confidential. Silence the witnesses too."
***
At the Heavenly Lake on Tianshan Mountain.
A massive lake nestled among the peaks, so huge it looked like an ocean in the sky.
A single figure stood before that majestic nature.
Yu Gyeongseong drank in the full view of the Heavenly Lake.
Blue waves glittering like jade, catching the light descending from the heavens. A sea of snow formed by the eternal snows atop the peaks surrounding the lake. The clouds drifted between the mountains, their reflections so clear on the water's surface that it was hard to tell where the lake ended and the sky began.
It felt like you were standing at the connection point between heaven and earth, a place with a limitless view where you could see everything all at once.
[From what I saw, you seemed to go there sometimes when you felt suffocated.]
Looking at it now, he could see why. Just the sight of it was enough to make you feel like you could breathe again.
Of course, he still didn't remember a single thing about his past...
In this moment, Yu Gyeongseong nodded inwardly.
Because it felt familiar.
When Maeng Heum mentioned this place, something had clicked inside his mind. So, he had already guessed to some extent.
This place was probably the space he'd created when he reversed the Illusion Demon's illusion art.
He had just made it instinctively.
The still lake that swallowed the illusory ocean.
But… how? How could he have created a perfect copy of a real place inside an illusion when he had no memory of it?
"..."
That's why a sense of relief washed over him.
It was the same feeling he’d gotten when he heard stories about his old self.
It felt like a sign… that the old me wasn't completely gone.
‘Maybe I can get myself back.’
It definitely won't be easy.
He needed to figure out what exactly the Great Law was. And why exactly he'd lost his memory in the first place.
But whether he chose this or was forced into it, this was his path now. Who he was now was the result of that choice.
I wonder… did the old me trust that I could handle this?
He stood there for a long time, just staring out at the lake, completely still.
When the day stretched long enough that it felt like sunset would arrive soon, he turned around.
And as he walked away,
The piercing blue waves watched him go in silence.