IMPRINT 10

Kang Juha chose a fairy tale book with great care. Looking down at his dark-haired head as he deliberated, I used my ability ever so slightly to the point where he wouldn’t notice—but in that instant, he whipped his head up. Whether it was because of that or something else, I was repelled from his mind without even getting close.

“This one.”

“…Alright.”

What was that? Did Kang Juha just intentionally strike my ability away?

…No, surely not.

The fairy tale Kang Juha chose was The Fairy and the Woodcutter. I had never read it properly either, but I roughly knew the story.

“Once upon a time, in a certain village, there lived a kind-hearted woodcutter.”

It certainly started with a kind-hearted woodcutter, but as I read the book, it somehow felt like a criminal confession where a voyeuristic pervert stole someone else’s clothes and even committed a fraudulent marriage.

Is it really okay to read this kind of thing to a seven-year-old child?

Unlike my expression, which grew more serious the more I read, Kang Juha was listening quietly as if immersed in the story.

“This won’t do. I’ll stop reading this story. Shall we read something else?”

“Why?”

“Because the woodcutter seems like such a son of a—… no. Because he seems bad.”

“Then this one.”

What Kang Juha brought over this time was The Little Mermaid. He looked at me with sparkling eyes while covered in a blanket, as if he intended to listen to the story in earnest. Perhaps because of that gaze, I momentarily felt that Kang Juha was a bit cute.

Of course, the moment that thought surfaced, I slapped myself in my imagination to snap back to my senses.

Kang Juha seemed more interested in listening than reading the fairy tale himself; he didn’t even glance at the colorful illustrations and stared intently only at my lips as I read the story.

Naturally, I didn’t have the talent for making a fairy tale sound realistic, but I read down the faithfully written text.

Only my voice echoed quietly inside the special treatment room, and I felt this space was impossibly peaceful. It was something one couldn’t even imagine on the outside.

Kang Juha’s return had not yet been officially announced. Only the Center Director, Director Shin, and a few Center executives, including myself, knew of his return. Furthermore, I was the only person who knew the state of Kang Juha’s health most intimately.

“And so, the Little Mermaid turned into sea foam and disappeared.”

I read the final sentence dryly. I wondered if it wasn’t a too-realistic ending for young children to read, but rather, I thought it might be an appropriate ending for the current situation.

“Can you tell me what thoughts came to mind after hearing this story?”

Because bringing a heap of fairy tale books wasn’t simply to kill time with him.

“I don’t understand why they let those two get married.”

“Hmm?”

“You said if the prince marries the princess of the neighboring country, the Little Mermaid turns into sea foam.”

“…Right?”

First of all, this much was a success. Since I found out that Kang Juha was in a state where he could think logically.

“Then he could just kill the princess of the neighboring country.”

“…”

“As long as that princess is gone, it would be fine.”

But when the conclusion of that logical thinking turns out like this, should I view it positively or negatively?

“If it were me, I would have killed that princess first.”

…I better not put this part in the report.

What a choice, devoid of dreams or hope. They say that in some ways children are more cruel; I wonder if this is exactly that.

Looking at the sparkling eyes watching me, it seemed Kang Juha didn’t have the slightest thought that there was a problem with his words. If I had a profession related to child education, I would have tried to correct his thinking, but… that part was not under my jurisdiction.

“We’ll stop reading fairy tales here and proceed with today’s treatment immediately.”

Kang Juha looked like he wanted to read a bit more, but he didn’t stop me as I packed up the books.

“It might hurt a bit.”

“How much?”

“It depends on the person…”

If he surrendered his mind obediently, it would end with just dizziness or nausea, but if he showed a rejection reaction like last time, he could suffer from extreme pain as if his head were splitting. It was a situation where I couldn’t be certain of either outcome.

“If it hurts a lot, I’ll stop right away, so tell me.”

I didn’t mean to scare him, but when Kang Juha heard that it might hurt a lot, he drooped the corners of his eyes and made a pitiful expression.

“Then, can’t you hold my hand?”

“Your hand?”

“Yes…. Because then it might hurt a little less…”

He spoke with a face like a puppy caught in the rain, and I felt like I would become a piece of trash that couldn’t be associated with if I refused, so I nodded as if possessed.

At that, Kang Juha’s face brightened instantly, and he took one of my hands, wrapping it preciously with both of his. My hand was already big, but since it was caught within both of his, it was almost invisible.

Kang Juha’s hands were warmer than I thought.

“Ahem, then I will proceed.”

“Yes…”

While making eye contact like that, I released my ability. In an instant, I dug into his mind, and starting from the memory at the hospital I saw before, the childhood memories that remained most vividly in his brain currently flashed by quickly.

Rummaging between the memories, I stopped in front of something lumpy and pitch-black. Until now, it had been impossible to even approach, so I couldn’t even tell what kind of brainwashing had been set up, but seeing it like this, it was anewly horrific.

How can one mangle a person’s head to this extent?

If I were to mindlessly undo that brainwashing, Kang Juha would surely go mad, unable to distinguish which of the memories stuck inside were true and which were injected lies.

Even for me, an S-class mentalist, it required a lot of energy and time to discern the authenticity of memories.

Originally, it was impossible for a memory to exist 100 percent perfectly. It is bound to be slightly transformed or distorted depending on the person, and even if they experience the same event, everyone sees it through their own eyes, so there were many cases where what one believes to be the truth is far from the actual facts.

Well, sorting that out was my job.

I scanned from the clearest memories located nearby. I could catch a glimpse of the faces of the Alpha Team members I saw at the event before, and scenes like joining the allied forces and moving to the operation site by helicopter were also visible.

Thinking there might be something to salvage, I looked closer and saw the allied Espers showing interest in Kang Juha and Kang Juha finding them bothersome. And I strangely thought that Kang Juha seemed to be keeping his distance from the Alpha Team belonging to the Center.

No, or was it the opposite?

Through the vision of Kang Juha, who was responding half-heartedly or not at all to the pouring questions from the allied forces, the faces of the Alpha Team members huddled together were visible.

And I read a familiar emotion from those faces. It was the same look I received when I was part of the Medical Bureau.

Even though they were clearly in a relationship where they had to perform the same mission as one team, they had eyes full of hostility, as if they were looking at a common enemy.

It felt as though old memories I had almost forgotten were rising unpleasantly. If I could have it my way, I wanted to erase them as easily as the other memories, but because they were memories related to work, I couldn’t touch them carelessly and left them behind, and that made me feel dirty like this once in a while.

I barely managed to pull out a part of the memory entangled with brainwashing. A desert covered in sandy dust. The sound of a storm-like wind and gunshots ringing harshly in the ears. Nothing was visible through the blurred vision, and a standing Kang Juha was staring at something.

A single pitch-black dot appeared inside the sandy dust, and then a crack occurred with a creeeak sound. It was a Gate occurrence.

Everything began to be sucked into the split gap in an instant. Kang Juha kept his body low and calmly reported the situation over the radio.

The crack that split the sky grew larger and larger, and not a single structure existed on the desert ground that he could grab and hold onto. The storm created by the aftermath of the crack wrapped around Kang Juha’s body, and in an instant, his vision was filled with pitch-black darkness.

“Ugh!”

With Kang Juha’s painful groan, my ability was repelled just as it was. My vision returned to reality. I caught my breath for a moment.

After looking into one person’s memories for a long time, I definitely had to find my bearings. Otherwise, who I am, when it is, and where this is would all get tangled up.

“…It hurts, it hurts.”

“It’s over. Don’t worry.”

Soothing Kang Juha, who was complaining of a headache, I classified and stored the information obtained through my ability in my head.

Thinking I should stop here for today and withdraw, I was about to take a chocolate out of my pocket to give to him, but Kang Juha would not let go of the hand he held.

“Mr. Kang Juha? No, Juha.”

At my call, Kang Juha let out a groan full of pain and spoke pitifully.

“Save me. Save… save me. Please…”

Only then did I see that his pupils were unfocused. It seemed the memories I had unleashed were affecting him late.

“Mr. Kang Juha, pull yourself together.”

Leaving the captured hand as it was, I gently tapped his shoulder with the other hand. However, Kang Juha began to tremble as if he were becoming trapped in his own memories.

“Mr. Kang Juha! Juha, Kang Juha!”

He was applying so much strength that the captured hand felt like it would burst. The veins in Kang Juha’s neck, and the blood vessels in his forearm, writhed angrily.