The mont I opened my eyes, a fit of coughing tore through . I jerked up from the sofa, keeping only my head tilted over the floor as I hacked up everything rising from inside. It was violent enough to make my whole body shake.
Every ti I coughed, blood surged up my throat and splattered down to the floor.
Fuck.
Just as the coughing finally subsided, a stabbing pain spread through my ribs, like they’d been broken. Or maybe it was so organ inside. I reflexively wrapped my arms around my chest and quickly checked the state of my bones—thankfully, nothing was broken.
'They said I had internal injuries, but... no way.'
A throbbing ache radiated from my lungs, making it hard to breathe. The instant I leaned my head back, blood poured from my nose. I hurriedly bent forward again and pinched it shut.
'This is a whole circus of bullshit.'
The pain was so bad it was enough to twist my personality in real ti.
“Jehyun.”
Im Haekyung grabbed , lifting my head. Calm as ever, he pulled out a potion.
“Open your mouth.”
The mont I parted my lips, the potion slid straight down my throat. Im Haekyung held my jaw, controlling the timing so I swallowed naturally.
“Swallow.”
I obediently followed his words, gulping down the potion, only to open my mouth again as more was poured in. After repeating the process several tis, the pain that felt like my body was being crushed finally eased.
Once the potion was drained, Im Haekyung tilted my head, turning it side to side as he examined my face. Since the pain hadn’t vanished, I couldn’t put up much resistance.
“The bleeding’s worse than I thought... You can hear , right?”
Instead of answering, I nodded. Im Haekyung let go of my chin and pushed my shoulder back so I could lean against the sofa.
As I endured the penalty, fighting off dizziness, his voice reached .
“Does it hurt badly?”
“Enough to... manage.”
My voice cracked and scraped as I spoke. Im Haekyung didn’t say anything else for a while after that. Which was a relief—ti was exactly what I needed to just grit my teeth through the pain.
After so ti, I regained myself enough to face him. That was when he finally asked about my condition.
“Feeling better now?”
“Yes.”
He stepped away briefly, returning with a towel that he handed to .
“Wipe off the blood. Your face... and here, on your chin.”
I scrubbed my face without protest. Dark red sared thickly across the bright towel.
'I must look like shit.'
And this bastard Im Haekyung... what was it he said again? That “a bit of pain helps”?
'This is what you call a bit?'
Of course, it wasn’t really his fault. I tossed the bloodied towel onto the coffee table.
“How long was I out?”
“About an hour.”
Only an hour? It had felt like at least three. My brow furrowed on reflex. Im Haekyung picked up on it imdiately.
“Felt like you were unconscious longer?”
“...Yeah. I thought I’d been out for a few hours.”
“Mm...”
He trailed off vaguely and then smiled.
'He’s smiling?'
Smiling in front of a man covered in blood—what kind of psychopath shit was that? I was ntally chewing him out when he suddenly decided he’d waited long enough and cut straight to the point.
“I’ve figured out a few things.”
“...What?”
His words froze in place. Figured sothing out? I’d been unconscious this whole ti—what the hell could he have learned?
Reading my suspicion, he explained easily.
“I can use my skill on people even when they’re unconscious. You’ve seen it before.”
That brought back the mory of him controlling an unconscious person to make them use their skills inside a Gate. Which ant he had used ntal Domination on while I was out.
'Is this fucker insane?'
When it was other people, I hadn’t thought much of it, but now that it was ? I couldn’t stop cursing. Haekyung didn’t care—he just kept smiling faintly, waiting for my response.
“...So, what did you find out?”
“First, there are signs that part of your mory has been deleted.”
“......”
“And there’s a restriction in place. When you try to bring up the deleted mory, it manifests as a physical reaction. Passing out, or the pain you just felt—it’s not just from your body being weak. Of course, I won’t deny that being low-rank contributes to it.”
It was an astonishingly precise deduction.
'Deleted mory? Could it be the deleted rounds?'
And from what he said, I also learned sothing new.
'When I try to bring up a deleted mory, my body reacts.'
A penalty, clear as day. Until now, I’d thought “disrupting plausibility” only ant talking about the “original story.” But maybe not.
'I don’t know the exact boundaries, but I’ve got at least a rough guideline now.'
If I tell soone else about deleted mories, a penalty strikes.
If I substitute “deleted mories” with “deleted rounds”... that ans I’m being blocked from revealing the deleted rounds to anyone.
'Hmm...'
But what exactly is a deleted round? At first I thought it referred to rounds that had been erased from my mory. But too many things didn’t add up.
Even the phrase itself was weird. Why call it a “round”? The Status Window had always referred # Nоvеlight # to Kwon Taehan’s lives as 1st round, 2nd round, 3rd round, and so on. Why specifically use “deleted round”?
'So it wasn’t just mory that was erased?'
Just as my thoughts began to spiral, Haekyung cut through them with a question.
“Do you know what happened?”
“No.”
“I figured.”
He figured? I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just smiled brightly and spoke in a fresh, cheerful voice.
“Well then... since you cleared up my doubts, I should give sothing back, don’t you think?”
“...?”
Still smiling, he made a soft offer.
“I’ll remove the restriction on you.”
“...What?”
That suggestion was so outlandish it wiped away all the tangled thoughts in an instant.
“You can do that?”
“Of course. It’ll take so ti, but it’s entirely possible. Though to be precise, it’s less ‘removing’ and more ‘restoring it to normal.’”
“......”
My penalty was a clear external imposition. A force strong enough to interact with the Status Window itself.
And he was saying he could erase that?
'Bullshit.'
Even for an S-rank ntal-type, this was claiming power above the gods.
But Haekyung, still smiling like it was nothing, added,
“Ah, of course this is only if you want it.”
“......”
“So? Want to remove it?”
'This bastard’s bluffing, isn’t he?'
Probably couldn’t actually do it—just saying he could. Entirely plausible.
Still... if by so chance he really could get rid of my penalty...
I thought seriously about it.
The penalty was an ever-present thorn in my side. But it also served as a guideline, giving direction. If it disappeared, could I afford that?
The answer ca quickly. I never planned to follow the original plot anyway. I was going to shatter it piece by piece until I t the gods themselves.
At first I’d considered keeping the penalty as a guideline, and as a shield against Haekyung’s ntal Domination. But things had changed.
Right now, the downsides outweighed the benefits.
My hesitation didn’t last.
“Yes. Remove it.”
He looked into my eyes for a long mont, then nodded, sighing theatrically.
“Ah.”
“...What?”
“Before that, aren’t you curious who placed such a restriction on you? You said you don’t rember.”
What fresh bullshit was this?
Haekyung erased his smile and sat on the coffee table across from , locking eyes. His voice was serious this ti.
“If we can identify who set the restriction while removing it, what about tracking them down? We need to know the cause.”
“Tracking?”
“Yes.”
In other words, he wanted to track down the one who made my penalty.
'As if that’s possible.'
If anything, that was veering into occult territory. Honestly, using a Ouija board would probably be more realistic than chasing them with psychic powers.
But there was no need to burst his bubble. So I just nodded.
“Yes.”
Never thought I’d end up negotiating with Im Haekyung over my own body. Well... more the mind than the body, but still.
***
After that, I spent a long while lying on the sofa, letting my condition stabilize.
An hour later, Haekyung handed one of his shirts and told to wash up.
In the bathroom mirror, my face was a sight. I figured I’d have blood around my nose or mouth, but it had streaked across my cheeks and clothes, too. At best, I looked like soone who’d just walked away from a paint job. Realistically? Like I’d just killed soone.
So personal healer this was—what a ss. Then again, if I went ho like this, my “personal healer” would probably scream if not kill outright.
As I scrubbed the blood off, I thought for a mont.
'Why the hell did I tell Kwon Taehan about my family shit?'
It wasn’t like I had a reason for it.
But since I’d already blurted out that useless crap, the mory kept surfacing no matter how much I wanted to forget it.
By rights, the thing burned into should’ve been my death.
Yet compared to that fucked-up family background, I almost looked like I’d grown up fine. Couldn’t help but admire myself. Proof that character really is innate.
I turned off the faucet, ending that train of thought. All the blood had been washed clean.
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