"Ha...."
Seeing the doll, Yohan let out a short breath, dumbfounded.
It had no facial features, and someone had merely dressed a jointed wooden doll in clothes.
That doll was turning its head strangely as it stirred a pot of curry.
From the doll's head, a sound like one coming from a speaker kept flowing out.
"Yo-Yohan, did you sleep well?"
"Sleep well, my ass. Thanks to you, I'm wide awake now."
Did Mother have a new housekeeper doll around this time?
Yohan's thoughts could only flow in that direction.
It made no common sense that the thing that had been his mother until now was a jointed doll, and that he had followed along with it.
"Mother! Where is Mother?!"
Even after searching every corner of the house, he could not find a single trace of Mother.
"Yo-Yohan, what is wrong? Yo-Yohan...."
When the jointed doll placed a hand on Yohan's shoulder, he reflexively knocked the doll's arm away.
It was hard, but each of its careful movements was exactly like Mother's.
"Don't tell me...."
Yohan returned to his room.
Then he looked through the photographs he had taken with Mother.
"This one too, and this one!"
The photographs that should clearly have shown him with Mother all showed Yohan alone.
Lastly, he headed to Mother's room.
He opened the door and examined the small picture frame placed beside the bed.
It was the same frame he had possessed even before he met his death.
But what was different was that there was no person in it, only the background.
"Fuck."
Yohan sat down on the edge of the bed, leaned over his knees, and clutched his head.
Then he performed a simple routine, shaking his hand as if flicking blood from a sword and placing his hand over his chest, regaining his composure and organizing the situation.
I'm still alive, and I've returned to ten years ago.
Mother doesn't exist.
Right. I have to assume this does not exist.
Then is this actually possible?
There's no way.
If it's impossible....
There was exactly one thing that could change the world from impossible to possible.
'Illusion Art.'
A method by which the practitioner showed the target Visual Hallucination and Auditory Hallucination, realizing things that did not exist in the world only for the target.
That was the only method.
"Illusion Art. It has to be that."
More than anything, the voice he had heard before returning to the past gave him certainty.
―Illusion Art: Visual Hallucination and Auditory Hallucination lifted.
Having reached his conclusion, Yohan struck the bed.
"Damn it! When?! When the hell was I put under Illusion Art?!"
He had moved once ten years ago.
Surely, that had been the practitioner's only chance to work on him.
Erase every trace of what had originally been there and overwrite it with a new image.
That was the basic principle of Illusion Art.
"You bastards cast that on a person just to get your hands on one Wish Vessel?"
Even after performing his routine, Yohan could not contain his rage and struck the wall.
THUD.
"Fine. So you want to take this all the way? Old man, you're dead."
However, striking at Do-cheol meant making enemies not only of the Hangeom Family, but also of the other eleven Families.
Yohan cooled his excitement in an instant and regained his composure.
'I need a force of my own.'
Yohan recalled what the Wish Vessel had said.
―Awakening new ability.
Awakening.
The first qualification to become a Hunter.
It meant he had returned to the past with that in his possession.
He still did not know what kind of ability it was, but it meant the situation had changed.
'Hunter Academy.'
The Hunter Academy was a specialized institution that trained Hunters.
Only the Awakened could attend, and it was an institution that trained people who eradicated magic beasts and closed Gates.
'What if I can recruit talented people at the Academy first?'
At the Academy, students could create clubs and carry out autonomous activities.
Yohan grinned broadly.
'I can make an assassin unit composed of ability users.'
He could create a Shadow Unit made entirely of Awakened Hunters.
'Then I take Hangeom Do-cheol's head. If the eleven Families want to pick a fight, let them. I'll wipe them all out.'
At the thought of entering the Academy with a new power, Yohan rose from his seat in high spirits.
"I was trying to live quietly, but that won't work. Even if I leave, I have to fuck you bastards up before I go."
Thinking of dragging the Hangeom Family down into the abyss, Yohan looked at his device.
Even though he had confirmed that the present was February from ten years ago, he needed to know the exact day.
Beep.
When Yohan operated the device, a screen appeared and showed the time and date.
<February 15>
The day he would send Mother to the direct-line family for her treatment and be left to miss her through photographs alone.
It was the day Yohan would join the Shadow Unit.
And.
It was the day she came.
At three o'clock, Yohan opened the door before she could even press the doorbell.
"Hey, good to see you, Mi-suk."
Mi-suk, whose real name had been called so suddenly, seemed flustered. Her mouth remained open, and she could not even retract the finger she had extended toward the doorbell.
Kim Mi-suk.
An informant of the Shadow Unit, and one of its first-stage selection agents.
At present, her role was to approach people from branch lines and propose that they join.
Later, she would become the team leader of the Shadow Unit Intelligence Team, but that was a story from ten years in the future.
"How do you know my real name...."
Those were Mi-suk's first words after staring blankly for a moment.
"Don't worry about the details. Come inside for now. This isn't a great place to talk."
"Understood. I see you are aware that this is an extension of what we discussed before."
"Of course."
Yohan let Mi-suk inside and closed the door.
Then, to see Mi-suk's reaction, he called loudly to the jointed doll.
"Mother! Mi-suk is here. No, that's not right. Someone from the Hangeom Family is here!"
"Hangeom, Hangeom Family, welcome. Hangeom, Hangeom Family, welcome."
The jointed doll came from the kitchen, making creaking sounds with its joints.
Mi-suk's expression twisted as if she were looking at the uncanny valley.
Reading that expression, Yohan became even more certain that Mi-suk also saw Mother as a doll, and that what he had seen until now had been Illusion Art.
Because of that, Yohan acted even more calmly.
"Mother, someone from the Hangeom Family came today to discuss something important, so don't come into my room."
"O-Okay. O-Okay...."
The jointed doll made creaking sounds again as it returned to the kitchen.
"What are you doing? Come in."
"Yes.... Excuse me."
Yohan brought Mi-suk into his room.
As soon as he entered, he went to the bed and sat on its edge.
By contrast, Mi-suk stood awkwardly in front of the door.
"Sit."
Mi-suk looked around, then pulled out the chair tucked under the desk and sat there.
"Your personality has... changed quite a lot, has it not?"
"Go through every kind of hardship, and that's what changes, I guess."
"I am surprised. You are truly very different from before."
"Same here. Even I never thought... I'd end up like this."
Perhaps because Yohan felt comfortable with Mi-suk, he leaned back as he dealt with her.
Mi-suk could not help but remain bewildered.
When they had met a month ago, he had definitely not acted this way.
After witnessing his mother's chronic illness worsen, he had been desperate to save her somehow.
That was why he had taken a low posture, and he had even said he would do anything as long as the Hangeom Family could take care of his mother.
He had been a man who knelt and begged.
Yet now, his attitude had changed as if he were the one standing above her.
"Ahem."
Mi-suk cleared her throat in order to take the lead in the conversation.
It meant they should get to the main point.
Yohan seemed to notice as well, because he stopped swinging both feet and looked at Mi-suk.
"After making inquiries with the Hangeom Family, I was told that if you join the Shadow Unit, your mother's chronic illness will be cured."
"Oh, really? But Mi-suk, I've thought about it."
"What is it? And I have a name, Jennifer. At the very least, please call me Miss Kim."
Yohan leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand.
"I was thinking entering the Academy might be one option."
"The Academy?"
"Right. What the Hangeom Family wants is talent who can work for the Family, isn't it? I thought entering the Academy and learning there would be more helpful."
"Do you mean that is a path to saving your mother?"
"Of course. Isn't this some kind of deal too?"
At his sudden proposal, Mi-suk was rendered speechless.
"Even so, entering the Academy is impossible."
"Why?"
"There may be various academies, but unless one is Awakened, one cannot enter unless one belongs to the direct line."
"And?"
"Furthermore, what the Family wants is not scholars, researchers, or doctors. It wants Hunters. You know what kind of Family the Hangeom Family is, do you not?"
"The First Family among prestigious Hunter families."
"You know it well. As you said, there is no Hunter Academy that a branch-line Powerless like you can enter."
At her words, the corner of Yohan's mouth rose slightly.
"Then what do you intend to do if I am Awakened?"
"In that case, you would have to enter the Family and be tested to confirm whether you are Awakened, but you were Powerless from birth...."
Mi-suk's eyes flashed as if she had realized something.
"Could it be... Acquired Awakening...?!"
"Correct."
Mi-suk stared at Yohan with an expression that said it was impossible.
Acquired Awakening had manifested only in the First Generation, and in the current Third Generation, it could not be found.
"That cannot be.... Acquired Awakening only manifested in the Family Head's generation...."
"And I'm saying it turns out it can happen again."
Mi-suk bit her nail.
Her mission, in the end, was to select and use people who would benefit the Family.
That was why they had gathered the Powerless among the branch lines, made them kill one another, and raised the survivors as assassins who hunted Hunters.
But if he was an Acquired Awakened?
Then the story changed.
'Should I report this to the higher-ups?'
In that split second while Mi-suk was biting at her nail and thinking, Yohan saw her behavior and knew she was growing agitated.
"I need to briefly discuss this matter with the higher-ups...."
"No need. I'll go myself."
"But...."
"No buts. It is something that can only be done after I go to the main family and prove that I am Awakened anyway, isn't it?"
"That is true."
"And joining the Shadow Unit is something I can do afterward."
"We have our own schedule as well."
Yes. Yes. Of course you do.
Murdering people must have its own schedule.
"Then just proceed with the schedule without me. I'll be checked first to see whether I'm Awakened."
At Yohan's firm attitude, Mi-suk frowned.
Yohan was someone they had spent a full ten years preparing in order to raise him as an assassin.
There was no way the Shadow Unit would let someone like him go.
More than anything, the request from the higher-ups had been clear.
They had not told her the reason, but Yohan absolutely had to be made to join the Shadow Unit.
"Understood. In that case, I will postpone the schedule."
"Do whatever you want."
Mi-suk decided that this matter was not hers to judge.
It was the Family that had maintained Illusion Art for ten years, and it was the Family that had told her to put him in the Shadow Unit.
Thinking this change, too, must be the Family's will, Mi-suk tapped at her device.
"Then I will say this again, but I must report to the higher-ups...."
"I told you, you don't have to."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'll go myself in time for the direct line's Awakening Ceremony."
"How do you know about that...."
Yohan smiled as if to make sure Mi-suk saw it.
"What's wrong? I'm a scion of the Hangeom Family too."
Mi-suk nodded as if she understood.
"But, Mi-suk."
"Haah, I will not even hope to be called Jennifer anymore."
"Do you have any interest in coming over to my side?"
Mi-suk looked at Yohan with a bewildered expression.
"Pardon?"