RG 154

The moonlight streaming in through the window illuminated Cha Sahyeon’s neck.

Cha Seohu, quietly gazing at that unusually pale and radiant neck, pulled out the item he had stored in his inventory—a green jewel attached to a black string glimmered in the palm of his hand.

Just a small reach would be enough to touch him. It would be a simple thing to place this item around the neck of Cha Sahyeon, who had come close and was bowing his body forward.

And yet, Cha Seohu didn’t move easily. His eyes, staring down at the choker, narrowed.

‘…This is the right choice.’

No matter how much fate had changed and the future had shifted, inside Cha Sahyeon’s body still lay the “Seed of Calamity.” He couldn’t let such a dangerous being roam free.

‘I have to bear this burden.’

Wasn’t that the very reason he had rescued Cha Sahyeon and fled the laboratory in the first place?

On the day he regressed, Cha Seohu had decided to shoulder the burden of the Great Calamity alone. He didn’t want to drag others—like the people of Circle Guild—into it.

Every time he slept beside young Cha Sahyeon, saw Ryu Seonghyeon’s wary gaze, and experienced the differences from his previous life, his resolve hadn’t wavered—it had only grown stronger.

“…”

He wasn’t regretting that decision now. The reason for his hesitation was that what he truly feared was…

“A gift… for me?”

That trembling voice and the red-flushed cheeks flashed through his mind.

“You bought it… to give to me?”

The shy smile as he hugged the paper bag with the game console inside.

“I like it. It’s the first one you made.”

“I was scared. When I saw a rift open where you were… I was so scared.”

“I was angry, but… you looked really hurt, so I just…”

Flickering like the turning of pages, all the memories of Cha Sahyeon passed through Cha Seohu’s mind. When he insisted on eating the food Cha Seohu made, when he came looking for him without permission, when he woke up in the hospital room.

The night sky bursting with fireworks, which they looked up at together.

“If we go there, you’ll be a lot safer. I can understand.”

Even the conversation they had before the boy was kidnapped. The time he spent with Cha Sahyeon was vivid and alive in his memory.

Yes, that was the problem.

Cha Seohu had truly cared for the young Cha Sahyeon as his guardian. He wasn’t foolish enough not to realize that real affection had formed. And it was that affection that he feared.

He was afraid that he might come to feel the same affection toward the current Cha Sahyeon, who carried the memories of the Great Calamity. And if someday, when the time came that he had to kill Cha Sahyeon… he was afraid he might hesitate.

Cha Seohu bit his lip and tightened his grip, crumpling the choker in his clenched fist. For a moment, he stood there.

Then, slowly, his fist relaxed.

He had been thinking the same thing ever since he met Cha Sahyeon here and received the item—but the conclusion was always the same. He had to give the item to Cha Sahyeon.

The excuse that there wasn’t much time left was meaningless. When only one path lay before him, what did it matter when he started walking?

“Lower your head more.”

Cha Sahyeon lowered his head a little more. Through the strands of disheveled hair, his green eyes simply looked happy. His expression resembled the young face he had made when receiving the game console as a gift, and Cha Seohu felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

Click.

A soft velvet cloth wrapped smoothly around Cha Sahyeon’s neck. The green jewel at the center of the choker and the green sapphire earrings he wore shone with the same hue.

‘Is this enough to at least suppress the L-class aura?’

Regardless of his tangled feelings, Cha Seohu felt a measure of relief. The L-class aura leaking from Cha Sahyeon had been bothering him all along. As he sighed inwardly in relief and was about to open the status window to check—

Crackle!

“…!”

Sparks suddenly erupted, engulfing Cha Sahyeon’s entire body. Shocked, Cha Seohu tried to rush over to him, but he couldn’t withstand the overwhelming force that swept over him like a crashing wave and staggered.

“Ugh…!”

A stinging pain, like being pricked by needles, spread across his entire body. He gritted his teeth and endured it, and the storm of energy quickly subsided. Even though it had lasted only a very brief moment, the power was enough to leave his limbs tingling and his back soaked in cold sweat.

Looking down at his trembling arms, Cha Seohu quickly lifted his head. “Cha Sahyeon, what was that just now…?”

He couldn’t finish his sentence. Cha Seohu’s eyes widened.

“Cha Sahyeon?”

At the absentminded call, a small, jet-black head popped up from within the black cloth.

“Wh-what is this…?”

Startled, Cha Seohu instinctively took a step back.

A plump, youthful face, round eyes, and a body small enough to only reach Cha Seohu’s waist. The oversized black robe began to shrink and squirm to fit.

The clothes Cha Sahyeon wore underneath, seemingly mere shadows, slipped down, leaving him wrapping the robe tightly around his bare body.

Looking up at Cha Seohu, Cha Sahyeon spoke. “It’s the item’s effect.”

“What?”

Even Cha Sahyeon’s voice had changed into that of a child. “My body is connected to my energy. When my energy weakens, my body shrinks.”

“…You mean, the item weakened your energy, so your body became younger too?”

“Yeah.”

As soon as he heard the answer, as if waiting for it, the status window appeared.

User Information: Sahyeon (Antagonist)

Age: 22

Primary Skill: Living Shadow (Class A)

Title: The Master of Shadows

Attack Power: Class A

Attack Speed: Class A

Movement Speed: Class A

Agility: Class A

Special Note▼

ㄴ Seed of Calamity (62% Progress) (60% Sync Complete)

Sure enough, everything that had previously been labeled as L-class had changed to A-class.

“It wasn’t just an item to mask your energy, huh?”

“Technically, it’s closer to suppressing it. My energy is too strong to simply hide it,” Cha Sahyeon explained.

Well, it made sense. It was L-class, stronger than not only S-class but even SS-class.

Cha Seohu calmed his startled heart and calmly observed Cha Sahyeon’s appearance. Looking closely, he seemed a little taller, and the roundness of his face had diminished. Maybe it was because he was now A-class instead of the B-class he used to be.

‘He looks like he grew about five centimeters.’

As Cha Seohu was deep in thought, Cha Sahyeon, watching his reaction carefully, took a step forward—only to stumble immediately.

“Ugh!”

Thud!

Cha Sahyeon, caught in the drooping fabric of his clothes, fell flat. Cha Seohu gave him a look of disbelief. “What are you doing?”

“It’s going to take a while to adjust…” Cha Sahyeon muttered in a small voice, almost as if making an excuse. Maybe it was his imagination, but it looked like his pale cheeks were slightly flushed too.

Even if he looked like a child on the outside, he was a fully conscious adult and an Awakened one at that—Cha Seohu had assumed he would quickly adapt, but apparently, that wasn’t the case.

Sigh.

Watching Cha Sahyeon push himself up from the floor with small hands, Cha Seohu let out a deep sigh and lifted him up in one swift motion.

Just then, the door burst open, and Ryu Seonghyeon, Song Ji-un, and the King entered one after another.

“Hunter Cha Seohu, we sensed a powerful surge of energy from this room—!”

“Uh…”

“Hm?”

Ryu Seonghyeon, who had shouted with a grave expression, was the first to freeze, and Song Ji-un and the King, who followed behind, also looked puzzled. All their gazes fixed on the young Cha Sahyeon in Cha Seohu’s arms.

‘Great.’

It seemed the three of them had rushed over, sensing the energy storm caused by the item’s effect.

Meeting Cha Sahyeon’s eyes, Ryu Seonghyeon looked close to horrified. It was understandable; after all, he’d seen the child become an adult and now a child again.

“This is, uh…” 

Cha Seohu racked his brain on how to explain this, but before he could speak, the King opened her mouth. “Cha Seohu, is that the child you brought with you?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

The King blinked and looked between Cha Seohu and Cha Sahyeon with a curious expression, then asked, “Did you… sire him?”

“…Excuse me?”

Cha Seohu was struck speechless, while Ryu Seonghyeon and Song Ji-un both turned to look at the King with faces full of complex emotions. An odd silence filled the room.

Faced with a truly outrageous question he had never imagined he’d hear in his life, Cha Seohu replied in an unusually dazed tone. “…I’m a man, you know?” 

Only then did the King seem to realize something and coughed awkwardly. “Ahem, my apologies. It’s just—the child resembles you so much, and in my world, it is possible to give birth regardless of gender, so I was briefly confused…”

What even was this conversation?

Cha Seohu felt his sanity slipping. Barely managing to gather his senses, he pressed his aching eyes. “In any case, you must’ve sensed the energy that burst out earlier, but there’s no problem. This child is… my little brother. He’s the large, pitch-black one who had been following me earlier.” There was no excuse good enough, and he wasn’t confident he could fool all three of them anyway. The only option left was to explain honestly—well, with a mix of truth and lies.

Feeling Cha Sahyeon’s small body clinging tightly to him, Cha Seohu signaled to the others with a glance.

“Come inside. I think this is going to be a long story.”