Chapter 247 - Memories of Alpha (2)

The rooftop serving as a helipad was of considerable size. But it wasn't hard to spot Yoohyun. As soon as I stepped onto the rooftop, Irin appeared behind my neck. Lifting a front paw and waving it in greeting, Rin dropped to the ground and led the way.

My brother stood at the other end of the rooftop. The morning sunlight gently illuminated his black hair.

His face resembled Yoohyun's, but also slightly different. And he had grown a bit older. Since he was 26 years old.

Of all the versions of my brother I had seen, he was the oldest... It was better that Alpha's appearance blended with his. Otherwise, it would have been quite difficult.

"Why did you come here? Without saying anything."

I approached Yoohyun. Over the railing, I had a bird's-eye view of the city. The traces of last night were barely visible through the buildings in the distance. The people here must be shocked. The Defense Agency had been turned upside down overnight. There would be people delighted and people apprehensive.

"Hyung."

"Yes?"

"I think... I've become too soft these days."

Irin, climbing up Yoohyun's body, planted herself on his neck. My brother continued calmly.

"I'm thinking of going back to my place in the guild. You have Peace and Park Yerim by your side, and Hunter Noah also lives there. So there's no need to worry. And, anyway, it's the building right next door…"

"Hey, what are you suddenly talking about? What do you mean you're becoming soft? What's that about? It's not good to live too rigidly either. Being reasonably soft is good."

It was true that Yoohyun had relaxed a bit recently. But his demeanor now was better than in the old days, especially before the regression... Much better.

"I don't know if you don't want to live with me; that's not it, right?"

"No. That's not it. Things are fine now. So good that sometimes I wonder if I'm dreaming it."

"Then why would you leave?"

I didn't get an answer. There was some reason. I was sure of it. Maybe it was because I... almost died trying to save him. No, I had already talked about that openly. Saying that if something similar were to happen again, I would wait however long it took, so he should go with the others and rescue him safe and sound.

My brother didn't tell me to just abandon him. Rather, he asked me to rescue him. He must have been really shocked and terrified and gone through tough times, but he didn't reject my help. So he wouldn't leave my side now, after all, that's why.

In that case.

'...Is it because of Alpha's memories?'

Even if he had suddenly been thrown into a stranger's body, his surroundings had changed and he had ended up alone, it was strange that it would push him so far as to go mad. Take Moon Hyuna for example; she was skillfully playing the role of Lambda. And she had said that the only place reporting anomalies with her SS-ranked guard was Akates. There wasn't much dialogue between cities, but there was no way something as big as losing control of Alpha would go unnoticed, which meant Yerim and Noah must have adapted well too. And Peace... could be put aside for now.

So in the end, the only one who had problems was Yoohyun.

‘And I was asking about this world before going to sleep.’

But what the hell were those memories?

"Yoohyun, why are you doing this—"

With light, silent steps, Yoohyun climbed onto the railing.

"—Because of Alpha? Where are you going!"

My damn brother walked along the railing as if fleeing. I followed, but it didn't take long before the path was blocked. I would have been in trouble if I still had rank F, but now I had rank S and I had the boots. I also climbed onto the railing.

The two-finger-wide railing soon ended, replaced by a slightly taller wall of metal panels for safety. Its walkable surface was less than an inch wide, worse than walking on a tightrope, but it seemed as stable as if standing on level ground. There was nothing I couldn't do now.

"It's dangerous, hyung!"

Yoohyun shouted as soon as I stepped onto the wall. What do you mean dangerous? The ground, visible just to the side, was far below, but there was no way I would fall.

"We agreed not to hide anything from each other, right? Tell me."

"...You don't tell me everything either."

"I've confessed everything except the things I can't talk about. I told you everything about this place. Including that this is my real body and I have four lives left. I wanted to hide it because I knew you would worry, but I told you honestly."

I took a step forward. Yoohyun's gaze was fixed on my feet. His legs tensed unconsciously, as if preparing to run the moment it looked like I was going to fall.

"Of course, there are things you have to hide from other people. I also don't want to meddle in your personal affairs. Although I would like you to tell me if there's someone you want to go out with or if you're secretly dating someone."

"There isn't and I'm not."

You should.

"But if you do this, it's definitely also related to me. Right?"

Yoohyun pressed his lips together. Mhm, as expected, it was.

"Then shouldn't I know it too, Yoohyun? You wouldn't like it if I worried about you and kept it to myself without saying anything. Am I wrong? Let's say I hid the fact that my body right now is the real one because you would worry, how would you feel? You wouldn't like it, right?"

"...I wouldn't. But... hyung."

My little brother hesitated, unable to speak easily. What the hell was that? I had no idea.

"I'm with you. So…”

Yoohyun still couldn't lift his gaze from my feet. But I felt he would run away if I approached and tried to catch him, so I restrained myself.

"I think I should do it. No, it's really true. You'd be better off if I didn't exist..."

"Hey! Han Yoohyun!"

Yoohyun's head jerked up sharply, surprised. There were things this kid should and shouldn't say.

"What the hell is that?!"

"But- Alpha-!"

What's with Alpha! Yoohyun's voice abruptly cut off and Azure Willow Leaves appeared. That bastard was really determined to escape from this, I see!

Gritting my teeth, I leaned to one side. Out of the building, towards the ground. It was a height at which not only an F rank but even a C rank could never survive unscathed.

"Hyung!"

Naturally, my brother came running. His hands reached out towards me. My body tilted, perfectly parallel to the ground. Normally, I would have fallen, but the soles of my boots landed on the side of the vertical metal wall as if it were level ground. Holding onto it, stuck to the steel panels, I took out my cable. It was a durable A-ranked item with an automatic binding function.

I wrapped the cable around my wrist and tied my brother's body at the same time.

"If you push it, it'll cut my wrist."

"What the—Hyung!"

Even if it were an A-rank item, how could it suppress an SS-rank? So I deliberately tied it to my wrist. When the cable was pulled, it tightened around my wrist. Since my body was C-rank, it wouldn't just squeeze around my flesh but also pierce through it, even cleanly cutting the joint.

Yoohyun froze without even thinking of cutting the cable wrapped around the top half of his body. I climbed back up to the top of the steel wall and pulled my bound brother towards the building. Yoohyun stayed perfectly still to avoid hurting me, as he collapsed onto the rooftop.

Holding onto my brother, I climbed on top of him so he wouldn't try anything funny. Irin crawled out and roamed as if wanting to cut the cables.

"Rin, be quiet."

Rin blinked, hesitating, then returned to my brother's nape. Good.

"...That's too much. Taking you as a hostage."

Yoohyun muttered hoarsely.

"I'm sorry."

Even if I didn't have the strength to catch my little brother, this wasn't the right way. But when my foolish brother was cutting himself, I couldn't just stand by and watch.

"Why do you have to do this?"

"…"

"Han Yoohyun."

I waited. I'd stay here as long as necessary. After a long moment, Yoohyun's mouth opened.

"...Alpha also had a caretaker."

A person with that title, my brother said. For a moment, I wondered if it was the same title as mine, but this wasn't a fifth-source world. They said the Caretaker title for raising a born SS-rank appeared only in a fifth-source world. Alpha didn't seem to be a born SS-rank.

"And she... was murdered."

“Yoohyun, I understand what worries you, I was told it's common for people with the Caretaker title to be killed. So you distanced yourself from me, right? It was tough for a while, but it's okay, not…”

"By a filial duty addict."

"…What?"

Yoohyun's eyes were squeezed with distress. He gritted his teeth as if struggling to remember and spoke again.

“This place, Akates, is related to filial duty addicts in this world. Although I don't know the details, maybe because I only got parts of their memories, or maybe some of them got blocked out. There's someone here contracted to them.”

“You don't know who?”

Yoohyun briefly shook his head. There were many possibilities it could be someone from the Defense Agency. They might have been caught and killed in yesterday's incident, or they might have fled; We should question those who had been detained.

“That bastard... The one who killed Alpha's Caretaker—also said, like you just said, that people with the Caretaker title are often killed. By immoral people.”

“...That's…”

I was speechless for a moment. When they said they were done by immoral people, wait a second.

"...They could have been lying, you know?"

“Alpha was just standing by the side of the person they were contracted to, and the contract also included the condition that they couldn't give false information. They also talked about Alpha and the SS-rank guards from other cities. So they couldn't have been lying…”

If they even brought Alpha when secretly contacting the filial duty addict, that would mean they trusted Alpha. Were they mentally controlling Alpha or something? Murdering their caretaker might have been part of it. So it was highly likely that the jerk who hired the filial duty addict was one of Alpha's handlers.

“Apparently, immoral people try to remove obstacles in the way of SS-rank Awakened, especially born SS-ranks, so they can keep hunting monsters smoothly. And it's a waste if they're cuddled up around their Caretaker to defend them. If their Caretaker disappears, normally SS-ranks are easily overcome, but if they manipulate things to make it look like they were killed by monsters, they'll be more dedicated to protecting the world…”

My heart was pounding. Suppressing nausea, I sorted through the information as calmly as possible. So, to make world protection more efficient, Caretakers were eliminated. By… immoral people.

…They hadn't lied to me. When they said that, they often got killed. After all, they hadn't told me who was killing them. Well done.

"I think I'm one of those born SS-ranks, hyung."

Yoohyun said, looking incredibly shaken.

“I had the feeling… that I'm different from other SS-rank Hunters. The Jupiter Guild leader and Hunter Riette emit a similar feeling. They said there are very few born SS-ranks with Caretakers, and almost all of them are... unconditionally handled by immoral people... And they can't hide it because the designation is there in the system…”

"Yoohyun."

"When you woke up, I thought: if they killed you because of me...”

“Why would it be because of you! It would be the fault of those immoral bastards!”

"But if I had stayed away from you, maybe... you'd be safe..."

The aim of immoral people was to save the world by protecting themselves from dungeons. So, Yoohyun said, if he had stayed away from me and focused on cultivating his guild and strength, they might not have insisted on involving me. And my heart sank.

No way.

Don't tell me Yoohyun also knew about this.

"Yoo...hyun."

My voice trembled slightly.

“Do you mean you would have… continued staying away from me? In the years to come?"

"…No. I was still young when I woke up, and you... would have been too worried. Once the guild was properly established and you guys (the people in general) got used to the dungeons, I would have tried to contact you. Even if we couldn't go back to how things used to be before… Even then.”

Yoohyun apologized. He had nothing to regret, but I couldn't properly console him. There was too much to think about. I felt dizzy. I lowered my head to hide my expression.

"...Hyung?”

"It's nothing, just a few things I'm thinking about."

I didn't want him to know. Don't let him find out. Please. If Yoohyun had thought that his very existence was a threat to me… Damn it.

His smiling face came to mind. I felt sick to my stomach. Why was he smiling? Why? As if he felt relieved to be dying.

“Yoohyun, it's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong.”

I wasn't just trying to appease my brother. I said it sincerely.

“It's just- It's just that I loved you and you accepted me, that's all. No one did anything wrong. It's just bad luck that can't be avoided, like an unexpected disaster. No one's to blame. No, it's those damn immoral bastards' fault.”

Those idiots might have the justification of saving the world, but so what?

“And it's fine now. You saw it too. How the immoral people feel intimidated by me. They can't touch me. Instead, they're trying to protect me. That's…”

That's… it's all… thanks to you. I choked back the burning lump that kept rising in my throat. It was hard to swallow, but not impossible. I could smile somehow.

“Don't worry, Yoohyun. Everything will be okay. You said you liked living with me, right? That will remain the same in the future. So keep doing it. For as long as you want.”

My little brother nodded slightly.

"I'm sorry, hyung, for avoiding telling you."

"It's okay. Make sure to talk to me from now on and remember it's not your fault.”

Untangling the cable, I stood up. I reached out my hand to my brother.

“Above all, it was me who approached you first. What would a newborn baby know? You clung to me because I took care of you first. So you really didn't do anything wrong.”

Taking my hand, my brother stood up.

"But I still feel sorry, hyung."

“It was my choice. If you keep feeling sorry, it means I made the wrong decision. So don't regret it, um, be grateful.”

Gratitude was definitely better than regret. Yoohyun smiled, clearly brightened up. It really was much better when he smiled.

“Thank you, hyung. Still, if you get married, I'll avoid you. It won't be good if I'm seen around you too often.”

"...What? What's this all of a sudden? I mean, I'm basically your guardian! And what do you mean avoid? If someone doesn't like you, I don't like them either.”

“But normally people don't like me. So it's better to keep it in mind in advance.”

What? Who was telling that kind of nonsense to a kid?

“Who says? Who! I don't like those people either! It's none of their business! There's no need for you to move out.”

In the first place, I... well, had given up on marriage. Even without considering Yoohyun, I was surrounded by monsters and, above all, it was also dangerous. I was sure there was no one who would accept all that, and even if they did, though I regretted it, I wouldn't accept them.

Moreover, right now, the kids came first… Who would I even meet with this mindset? We would only hurt each other.

"So, can I really keep living with you?"

"Of course. Who knows if you'll change your mind, but I won't. If you want to live alone, I'll be sad, but it's okay.”

“If it's okay with you, I'll never leave to live alone. I'm happy now."

"Okay okay."

In the first place, at twenty, most people would live with their family unless they had moved out for school. Though he was a guild leader and an SS-rank Hunter, he was still a kid.

"Is there anything else in Alpha's memories that we can use?"

“I didn't get all of her memories, and in her role, she was only receiving orders, so there isn't much. I think Hunter Moon Hyuna might know more.”

Still, the fact that the Akates Defense Agency was linked to filial duty addicts was useful information. After meeting with Sigma, should we go look for the filial duty addict's contractor?

[Morning Exercise on the Rooftop!]

As we were about to head down from the rooftop, the mission window glowed. Oh come on.

"What are you suddenly doing, hyung?"

"It's for tourists. Light exercise in the mornings is good for health.”

It wasn't just for the rewards. That was a fairly decent amount of points, mmm.