Chapter 141

His heart pounded violently.

“I-It’s because of me……”

Jaeha panted heavily. No matter how he tried to breathe, air refused to reach his lungs, let alone his brain. He struggled to calm himself, but the suffocating sensation would not abate.

The memories still hadn’t returned. Yet simply reading the president’s memory was enough to piece certain things together.

It wasn’t the president who had killed them.

It was him.

He had gone to the association, hand in hand with his parents, and after reading the chairman’s thoughts, had promptly tattled to them: “That man threw a kid into a place called a gate because he wanted him dead.”

“Hahh… Hhhahh……”

His vision swam. His stomach lurched again, and as he dry-heaved, he faintly glimpsed the orb in the distance, glimmering faintly in his blurred sight. He squeezed his eyes shut. Tears, hot and unbidden, welled up and rolled down his cheeks, dripping onto the ground.

“-! –!”

Someone grabbed his arm, pulling and calling out to him. Yet the voice reached him muffled, as though filtered through water. He shoved away the restraining hands violently.

Thud. A harsh collision.

“Ugh…!”

A faint groan followed. Jaeha’s mind snapped back into clarity. He felt vividly the cold sweat running down his cheeks, pooling at his jawline, and dripping to the floor.

“Aiden…?”

His heart still pounded from the aftershock. Yet he couldn’t help but turn—because it was Aiden he had shoved down.

His body trembled uncontrollably, but alarmed, he stumbled toward him. He tried to crouch before him but lacked the strength, nearly collapsing to the ground.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“Jaeha. Snap out of it. This isn’t your fault.”

Apparently unharmed from the fall, Aiden jumped back to his feet. Kneeling weakly before him, Jaeha now looked up at him—Aiden suddenly seeming taller. Aiden pulled him into a tight embrace. Despite his effort, his small frame didn’t exert much force.

“N-no, it’s… it’s just… Dad, no… the president…”

Jaeha stammered. He was dazed, disoriented. Words tumbled out incoherently, a mess of fragmented thoughts. Aiden clutched his shoulders tightly, rising on tiptoe to hug him even more firmly.

“Song Jaeha, listen to me. It’s my fault. Think of it that way.”

“…How… how is this your fault, Aiden?”

“If I hadn’t been shoved into this gate, you never would have read that memory.”

It was, honestly, absurd logic. He too was just a victim. Both of them knew that. And Jaeha understood: Aiden was saying it purely to comfort him.

“…Liar.”

Jaeha muttered in a voice caught between sobbing and laughing, resting his feverish forehead on Aiden’s small shoulder.

“Just believe it that way. Don’t turn the knife on yourself. You’ve already been hurt enough.”

“……”

Aiden parted his lips as if to say more, then closed them again. Instead, he simply held Jaeha tighter and patted his back. The weight leaning against him must have been heavy, but he bore it silently. Jaeha’s tears fell freely, mingling with soft sobs—whether muffled or unabashed, he couldn’t tell.

He cried into that small frame, unaware of his father arriving, startled by the anguished sounds, standing behind him in confusion. He didn’t notice his father recognizing the orb, nor Aiden shaking his head, prompting him to retreat quietly and shut the door without a word.

He simply kept crying.

After reading the president’s memory, Jaeha avoided looking into any other orbs. It wasn’t difficult. After assessing Jaeha’s condition—and the state of everyone else who had viewed memories—the team leader sealed the orbs away in a subspace item, retrieving them only during collection. Besides, Jaeha didn’t have any memories worth sharing.

Even so, his emotions still churned violently. But he had no time to rest or recover. Eventually, Jaeha stumbled out, dazed, eyes swollen from crying.

[1 day 00 hours 21 minutes 3 seconds]

<Past Team: 26/52 │ Future Team: 44/49 │ Monster Team: 2/101>

“Wooow, thanks a ton…! You’re awesome. Hehe.”

Unlike the rapid pace of collecting orbs at the start, gathering all 20 took nearly a full day. In that time, they defeated three more monsters and rescued several survivors. As before, injured individuals were isolated and guarded, but in total, they had gathered about sixty people.

The “candies” the monster referred to were now nestled in its arms. Hugging them tightly like birthday gifts, it beamed with happiness.

“…Now we just have to get rid of your number.”

“Yep! Wait a sec, let me put these away first…”

They had already defeated three monsters while searching for orbs. And now, with this monster appearing, the count of the remaining thirteen—promised earlier—had dropped to one on the scoreboard. The final number must belong to the monster before them.

The monster began absorbing the orbs into its body.

Some it tasted deliberately—pressing them against its lips until they crumbled, inhaling the shimmering powder like drifting snowflakes. Others it shoved straight into its chest or stomach. The orbs, solid when captured by humans, dissolved into mist under the monster’s will and were absorbed into its body.

“……”

Everyone watched uneasily. They wanted to urge it to hurry and finish later, but no one dared provoke it. Even the team leader stood silently, lips pressed tight.

“Mahitta.”¹

After a short while, the monster looked around. Its face, now polished and gleaming, suggested its meal had been satisfying.

“Only ◼◼◼ left now… Good luck. Hope you win.”

Despite belonging to the Monster Team, it didn’t seem at all bothered by the prospect of losing. Apparently, even if the gate closed, its life wasn’t at risk.

“Do you know where he is?”

“Hm? Oh, he’ll be here soon.”

“…‘He’ll be here’?”

The monster’s cryptic words prompted the team leader to press further, but the creature clearly had no intention of answering. It merely waved its arms loosely, bidding farewell.

“Yup, you’ll find out soon. Byeee.”

“Wait—”

Before the words to stop it could finish, the monster’s form collapsed into mist and vanished.

<Past Team: 26/52 │ Future Team: 44/49 │ Monster Team: 2/101>

<Past Team: 26/52 │ Future Team: 44/49 │ Monster Team: 1/101>

“……”

Almost in unison, everyone checked the scoreboard. As promised, the number disappeared. Only one remained—presumably the boss of the gate.

So they could clear the gate, after all. Then again, the Past Team had testified to clearing gates before, so perhaps this outcome had always been inevitable.

“When we get back, I’m applying for research on gates.”

“…Honestly, I’ve never seen a gate like this in my life.”

As some muttered in the background, Jaeha scanned his surroundings. About twenty-five people remained for the boss raid; the rest—particularly the Past Team—were too gravely injured to bring along.

“Let’s go. We can’t just stand here waiting.”

“Yes.”

The gate’s interior, now nearly emptied of monsters, was bleak and desolate.

Familiarity had set in after only a few days. Jaeha deliberately avoided glancing at the president walking nearby under the team leader’s watch. Ever since reading his memory, he couldn’t stop noticing him—and the impulse to punch him kept flaring, startling even himself.

—Song Jaeha, Esper. Be careful.

“Jaeha.”

“Yes?”

He turned toward the voice, deliberately diverting his gaze from the president’s back. It was Sasha the healer, who had recovered enough under treatment to rejoin the subjugation team, accompanied by Aiden.

Their warning made him drop his gaze hastily. He nearly tripped over a jutting piece of debris in the road.

“Ah, thank you…”

—No problem at all.

Sasha smiled, his eyes crinkling gently—eerily similar to Aiden’s. Aiden, walking beside him, seemed to notice it too.

[What’s with the flirting?]

“Haha…”

Jaeha wanted to deny it, but with so many others around—and remembering Sasha nearly asking for his number—he couldn’t claim it was entirely wrong either. So he let it slide with a laugh. Truthfully, he was still dazed, unable to shake the aftereffects of reading the president’s memory.

[Komisch… Ist das wirklich Sasha? War er schon immer so?]²

Nearby, Lukas the Esper kept glancing at him, thoughts drifting in German. Jaeha couldn’t understand, nor did he care to.

…But he should have tried to decipher that meaning somehow.

—Song Jaeha, Esper.

“Yes…”

Still, Sasha had promised to speak outside the gate. He must have understood. With dozens walking together, no one would say anything reckless here… or so Jaeha thought as he glanced back at Sasha again.

“……”

Jaeha froze.

Sasha smiled at him—shy, gentle, and identical to Aiden’s expression from before he changed. Specifically, the Aiden from the bar.

—I really like you, Song Jaeha.

What did that mean?

But before he could ask, it happened.

Krrrrruuumble.

A deafening roar shook the air as buildings at the edge of the gate began collapsing.

¹ Mahitta: Likely a non-Korean word or creature-specific term; contextually seems to express satisfaction or completion, possibly a catchphrase or unique speech quirk of the monster.

² Komisch… Ist das wirklich Sasha? War er schon immer so?: German for “Strange… Is that really Sasha? Has he always been like this?”