“Guess he was the type to write in bursts only when he felt like it. I don’t have a hobby of snooping through other people’s diaries, but… sorry. Since I’m using your body, I need to read this to get a better grasp of the situation.”
Yihyun muttered quietly as he read through the diary. The early entries were filled with loneliness at the Ability Bureau and the misery Yihyun had endured as an illegitimate child. Then, starting from a certain date, the tone began to shift strangely.
[2023. 01. 01 - Father decided to use my body for a new project he’s starting. He said it was a liquid refined from byproducts brought back from deep inside a Gate. Every time they inject me, it’s so hot and painful that it feels like shards of glass are flowing through my veins.]
[2023. 05. 15 - Whenever I wake up, my pillow is covered in hair. I think the color of my eyes in the mirror is changing little by little. The researchers cheer when they look at my readings. The numbers keep going up, but it feels like something inside me is being worn away.]
[2024. 03. 10 - Whenever I close my eyes, I keep hearing things. I know I’m inside the Ability Bureau, but it feels like I’m in a damp cave. Father smiled at me for the first time, saying I’m the only ‘case’ that doesn’t go into overload.]
[2024. 11. 12. - At some point, I started noticing that person more and more. There’s none of the contempt in his eyes that everyone else has when he looks at me.]
[2024. 12. 22. - I spoke to him for the first time. He’s different from the other Espers. He’s kind. He was the first person at the Ability Bureau to speak to me first.]
‘Using his own kid as a test subject. The bastard’s completely insane.’
With a bitter smile, Yihyun turned the page. The further he went through the notebook, the more he could feel Baek Yihyun’s desperate, aching feelings for ‘that person.’ He was about to put the notebook back where he had found it, unable to keep snooping on the details of someone else’s unrequited love, when the next page made him stop.
[2025. 01. 01. - They say it’s a gift from heaven. As a reward for enduring all those painful injections, I reawakened from A-Rank to S-Rank. The researchers cheered and called it a miracle, but Father was cold. He called me a failure, saying the drugs had made my mana circuits so extremely unstable that they could rupture at any moment. It hurts so much. The fear that I could die at any moment is choking me.]
[2025. 01. 10. - Mr. Changhun gave me flowers to congratulate me. Father ignored me and called me a failure, but Mr. Changhun hugged me after I became S-Rank. For the first time, I was happy that I had reawakened. He’s the only person who smiles when he sees me. When I’m with Mr. Changhun, I can’t even hear people whispering about me being an illegitimate child.]
[2025. 10. 21 - Mr. Changhun asked about Father. I think he’s curious about what my existence means to Father. I want to help Mr. Changhun rise higher. For Mr. Changhun, I’d gladly do anything, whether it means staying in Father’s good graces or taking those injections over and over again.]
“Reawakening……? Baek Yihyun’s rank increased after his initial awakening?”
Yihyun’s eyes shook violently. A person’s rank was an innate form determined upon awakening, an immutable law of this world. Reawakening later in life was a one-in-ten-million occurrence—no, it was so close to impossible that it was called a prank of the gods.
And yet Yihyun had already encountered that absurd word just a few hours earlier, in the classified document he had secretly read on the Guide Wing’s internal network.
[Awakening confirmed following reversal of Han Taeyun’s mana wave.]
“First Han Taeyun, and now Baek Yihyun…….”
A chill ran down his spine. A one-in-ten-million miracle had happened to two people in succession within the span of only a few years? The old Lee Seunghyun would have dismissed it as extraordinary luck or simply assumed they were both incredible geniuses, but Baek Yihyun’s diary now revealed the hideous truth lurking behind that miracle.
‘Then what about Han Taeyun? Don’t tell me that bastard’s reawakening was also…….’
Yihyun’s thoughts reached that point before he shook his head.
‘No. The diary says this was a new project that started in 2023, so the timeline doesn’t match.’
Yihyun let out a hollow laugh and rubbed both hands over his face. Yet an unsettling sense that something was wrong continued prickling in one corner of his chest.
What if Baek Seungho hadn’t independently started this brutal project from scratch?
What if there had already been a completed version of the ‘miracle’?
In other words, what if he had witnessed Han Taeyun’s abnormal reawakening and then begun experimenting on his own biological son in an attempt to replicate it?
“……Fucking lunatic.”
His thoughts tangled together until his head felt ready to burst, but one thing had become certain.
At the center of this hideous miracle stood Baek Seungho, his biological father and the Director of the Ability Bureau.
‘No wonder this body’s as fragile as a damn sunfish.’
The face of Baek Yihyun that he had seen in the mirror flashed through his mind.
Pale skin that looked as though it had never seen sunlight, light-colored hair that seemed ready to crumble weakly strand by strand, and eyes so unnaturally pale they resembled glass beads.
None of it was simply because Baek Yihyun had been born beautiful or lacked pigmentation. It was the result of unidentified Gate byproducts and cruel drug experiments that the Ability Bureau Director had pumped into him.
And Baek Seungho’s cruelty in throwing away his own biological son as a ‘failure’ simply because he was unstable made Yihyun’s teeth grind.
In that hell, Lee Changhun had been the one salvation Baek Yihyun had managed to cling to.
‘Without even realizing that salvation was a rotten lifeline…….’
Toward the end of the diary, the handwriting had deteriorated until it was almost illegible. The pages were covered in dried tear stains, and the final page laid bare exactly how Lee Changhun had changed after confirming the Ability Bureau Director’s cold response—the fact that he regarded Baek Yihyun not as his son, but merely as an experimental subject who could be replaced at any time.
The lips that had once whispered love in the gentlest voice began spreading vicious rumors about Baek Yihyun, calling him ‘the child of some mistress who tried to seduce the Director despite being nothing but an illegitimate brat.’ To conceal the fact that he himself had been discarded, Lee Changhun had painted Baek Yihyun as a deranged illegitimate child who had seduced him first and used him as a shield.
“To think you tried to die because you let human garbage like this push you around. Baek Yihyun, you really were pitiful.”
A cold smile settled on Yihyun’s lips.
Lee Changhun. Back when Seunghyun had been one of the most influential figures in the Ability Bureau, there had been a bastard who used to trail after him everywhere with a servile grin. A little punk who had been around A-Rank, a fire-type, with fuck-all skill to speak of and an obsession with factional power struggles.
“That bastard’s only talent back then was sucking up to the right people. Guess that carried him pretty damn far.”
Yihyun closed the diary and stared coldly at some distant point on the wall. That piece of trash was probably somewhere right now, wagging his tail in hopes of latching onto another powerful connection, without even knowing whether the Baek Yihyun he had thrown away had died from the pills or survived.
“Just you wait, Changhun. Hyung will make sure to cut off those precious connections you love so much soon enough.”
***
Perhaps because of the aftermath of yesterday’s commotion, Yihyun managed to finish his entire morning shift without incident. When lunchtime came, he headed for the cafeteria. Ignoring the gazes that poured over him the moment he entered, he searched for some docile sheep he could squeeze information out of.
Then he spotted a familiar face eating alone in a corner of the cafeteria. It was the employee who had kindly given him directions in the lobby yesterday morning.
Yihyun strode over and set his tray down in the seat beside him. The employee looked at Yihyun in surprise.
“Sorry…. This was the only empty seat I could see, so I sat down. If it makes you uncomfortable, should I move?”
Playing pitiful while taking advantage of his delicate appearance was a direct hit. The employee took one look at Yihyun’s pallid complexion and immediately waved his hands in flustered denial.
“N-No! It’s fine. Please, sit wherever you like, Guide.”
‘Wow, this guy really is nice. Who knew there was a living national treasure like this in such a miserable place?’
Yihyun inwardly cheered and took a spoonful of rice. Then he casually glanced at the ID badge hanging around the employee’s neck.
[Research Institute Support Team: Kim Seonho]
A research institute employee. He was in a much better position than Espers working in the field to access the Ability Bureau’s internal secrets or data concerning the Gehenna Gate incident five years ago.
Yihyun subtly struck up a conversation with Seonho.
“Your name was Seonho, right? Thank you so much for showing me the way yesterday. Thanks to you, I wasn’t late.”
Seonho’s expression brightened slightly at Yihyun’s gentle voice. Yihyun didn’t miss the opportunity and curved his eyes into the most harmless smile he could manage. With Baek Yihyun’s already pale, beautiful face smiling sweetly at him, Kim Seonho flushed all the way to his ears and hurriedly averted his gaze.
“Ah…. It was nothing.”
“If they had enough money to make this building so ridiculously fancy, they could at least feed us properly. Isn’t expecting people to work after eating this a little much? We’re all working to make a living in the first place.”
Yihyun clicked his tongue as he poked through the pathetic side dishes on his tray with his chopsticks. Compared to the glass-palace-like building, all gleaming and impressive on the outside, the food they gave the people actually working inside was downright miserable.
At Yihyun’s casual remark, Seonho startled and glanced around before lowering his voice to a whisper.
“Shh, Guide. This building… Han Taeyun completely blew it away five years ago, so they had to rebuild it. I heard the entire Ability Bureau budget went into reconstruction costs.”
Yihyun’s chopsticks froze.