I should have checked who it was before waking them up....

I cursed my own stupidity.

I should have remembered that the Commander-in-Chief also lived in this house. To barge into a superior’s residence and wake them while they were asleep—there was no worse disgrace than this.

I quickly lowered my eyes and apologized.

“I am truly sorry.”

“For what?”

Yehyeon muttered with his head down, eyes half-closed.

He was clearly still half asleep. That only doubled my guilt.

I could not stop berating myself and apologized again.

“For waking you while you were sleeping. I am sorry. Please ignore me and return to sleep.”

“Mm.”

Yehyeon’s husky voice answered, and he collapsed back onto the sofa.

Silence returned in an instant. Watching the man lying with his eyes closed, I carefully began to retreat backwards.

Just quietly slip into the guest room by the entrance.

“Hey.”

His eyes cracked halfway open.

“But why did you come here?”

“Ah.”

Like a thief caught in the act, I froze where I stood.

I looked at my superior, who was staring blankly at the ceiling, and answered.

“Uh... Yun told me to use the guest room. He said the house would probably be empty. I had no idea you would be here. My apologies. I am already being a nuisance as it is....”

“Something wrong with the old wing?”

My superior pushed himself upright. My guilt threatened to crush me.

Pale, he pressed his fingers against his eyes.

I chose my words carefully.

“There is nothing wrong with the old wing, but... I had a small issue with Senior Mühlen. So...”

“Mühlen?”

Yehyeon’s eyes widened.

His already large eyes grew even larger.

“John Mühlen?”

“Yes, sir. It was because I did something foolish. It is nothing important, so please don’t ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) trouble yourself over it.”

“Did he say he wanted to experiment on you, and you agreed?”

A ghost?

I stared at my superior, dumbfounded.

“How did you know?”

“I just had a feeling.”

Never lie in front of this man.

Yehyeon sluggishly rose from the sofa. His white shirt and black trousers were wrinkled from sleep, but he didn’t seem to care. With half-awake eyes, he shuffled slowly across the living room.

I couldn’t even move from where I stood.

He staggered diagonally across the room, then stopped and looked at me.

“Did you have dinner?”

I hadn’t. But if I admitted that, he might offer to prepare something, and that thought terrified me.

Before I could reply, he said,

“Your face says you haven’t.”

Never lie in front of this man.

He shuffled on, the sound of his bare feet echoing against the clean floor. He looked completely like someone who had just gotten off work—soft, languid, almost mushy.

So this is what people meant by calling him mild to the point of bland.

The pale man dragged himself across the wide house and opened the refrigerator.

Head still buried inside, he asked,

“What do you like?”

“No, Commander. I am fine, really.”

“I haven’t eaten either.”

“Then I will order something.”

“Sure. Order whatever you want. My card is on the table.”

Yun. Please come back quickly.

After confirming several times that he truly had no preference, I settled on sashimi. I tried to pay with my own phone, but his firm refusal forced me to use the card on the table.

I had no choice but to order from the restaurant he named. Estimated delivery: thirty minutes.

“I’ll nap a little more. Make yourself comfortable.”

Half-closing his eyes, he headed back toward the sofa.

I nodded, then bolted for the guest room.

The moment the door shut, I let out a sigh of relief at being alone.

The same room where I had stayed that bleak night when the cabin had been destroyed. Familiar, now that I had seen it once before.

A faintly bluish darkness, a chair, a plain bed.

I walked softly, sat in the chair, and checked my phone without turning on the light.

Messages from people enjoying their weekend freedom waited for me.

[Group Chat / Hesh: I’ll bring all my game packs from home this week, so let’s try again next week!]

[Group Chat / Tom: Have a good trip to your family home. Hilde, I hope you finally escape from being stalked....]

[Group Chat / Tom: I still don’t know why it’s only you he’s after.]

[Ro: That bastard again?]

[Unknown Caller: You really forgot everything?]

What’s this?

I stared at the message from the blocked number.

The notification on the screen. The last message looked strange.

What is this? Is it the same lunatic who sent me crazy messages before?

But last time there was a number, though I didn’t recognize it....

This must be someone different. Maybe the person who used that number before had a lot of issues.

I frowned and opened the thread. Multiple messages had arrived from the restricted number.

[Unknown Caller: Did you really forget everything?]

[Unknown Caller: Come on, you know what you did.]

[Unknown Caller: Ah, no way you forgot it all. You must remember something.]

[Unknown Caller: Or not?]

[Unknown Caller: Did you really forget?]

[Unknown Caller: Really?]

[Unknown Caller: Fuck.]

[Unknown Caller: At the very least, you can’t treat me like this.]

[Unknown Caller: Remember, you bastard!]

Who are you.

Who the hell are you. Do we even know each other?

Reading the paranoid, erratic messages left me dumbfounded.

Chills ran over me. Whatever their intent, the sender was clearly not in their right mind.

This was too strange, far too strange.

Should I change my number?

Maybe it wasn’t even meant for me. But the fact that I had lost my memory made it all the more unsettling. If these kept coming, I’d have to tell Yun or Ami.

For now, there was nothing I could do.

I closed the message thread and answered the more ordinary chats.

Trying to recall what the unknown sender demanded I remember.

I was still fiddling with my phone when the doorbell rang, crisp and clear, jolting me upright.

I rushed to the entrance to intercept the delivery before my superior could wake from his nap on the sofa.

***

“There’s banana pudding.”

Sadly, Yun was delayed, so I had no choice but to eat sashimi alone with the highest-ranking officer.

Half-asleep, chewing slowly, Yehyeon suddenly said,

“Have one later. It’s good.”

“Ah—yes. Thank you.”

“What do you think of Yun?”

I nearly sprayed miso soup across the table.

The sudden question froze my insides. He might still have his switch turned off, but he was still my Commander-in-Chief.

I quietly set down my spoon.

“He’s better than I expected.”

Yehyeon blinked his huge eyes once.

Then, staring at me, he chuckled.

“That sounds like a truly honest answer.”

“Yes. If I’d said, ‘He’s wonderful,’ you wouldn’t have believed me, so I answered honestly.”

“Good.”

“Yes. And truly, I am doing better than I expected. I don’t know what Yun thinks of me, but... he was the one who first suggested I try using a sword....”

“Sword?”

His chopsticks froze in midair.

So did mine, about to pick up salmon sushi.

Was he surprised? So Yun hadn’t reported it?

We stared at each other, frozen, until Yehyeon broke the silence. His eyes pinned me as only his arm moved.

Watching him resume eating, I recalled something from a month ago.

That video.

The one that birthed the title “Hero of the Troubled Age.” The one everyone had seen. In that video, the man facing a 10th-class creature was now sitting across from me, slowly lifting a slice of flatfish.

I watched him swallow, then broke the silence.

“Commander.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve seen that video.”

The switch flipped on.

The change was visible. The man who had been lazily chewing fish straightened at once. No more drowsy eyes. The chopsticks set down with a decisive click.

Unreadable eyes.

He waited for me to continue.

I looked into those seasoned, fathomless black eyes and asked,

“By any chance—”

“Go on, ask freely.”

“By any chance, do you know why that creature... hesitated?”

What was that fleeting emotion?

That split-second expression. Something I would have missed if I hadn’t been watching with all my focus.

The emotion that welled up and vanished in Yehyeon’s eyes was so strong I could not bring myself to ask anything further.

Even though he gave me no clear answer.

“Did you start practicing the sword after seeing the video?”

“No. The first time I went outside, Yun told me to try using a sword. I only watched the video later, because others mentioned it. Ah—Yun can definitely use a sword, but he said not well enough to go out, so he told me not to think about leaving for a month. Since then, I’ve only sparred inside until today.”

“Good.”

What exactly was he praising?

I wondered, but didn’t ask.

Yehyeon lowered his eyes, lost in thought. Then, picking up a piece of tempura, he added quietly,

“Someday, spar with me too.”

“Ah—yes. It would be an honor. Actually, Yun said that once my swordsmanship surpasses his, he would ask you for a spar. I don’t know if that day will come, but...”

“It will.”

His words could have been encouragement, or something else.

Staring at the round shrimp tempura in his chopsticks, he added,

“If you defeat me with a sword, I’ll give you that sword.”

The Commander’s voice was thoughtful.

The shrimp tempura split cleanly in half between his chopsticks.

“The sword from the video. I have it.”

I could not find an answer for a long time.

We ate in silence until Yun finally returned, refreshed from having shaken off John Mühlen’s stalking.