The green magical potion slipped into Go Yeongeun’s mouth.
Gulp. Gulp.
When the liquid was gone, and the glass bottle was completely empty—
“……!”
Go Yeongeun lowered the bottle.
Eyes wide open, she brought both hands to her ears…
And, trembling within her palms,
As if new flesh was sprouting over an injury, round lumps of flesh began growing where her ears had been torn away.
In an instant, they started taking shape.
The helix, tragus, and earlobes all formed distinct structures around the cartilage, and then…They became whole again.
“……”
“W-Wow…!!”
Goodness.
“Go Yeongeun-ssi?”
“Yes!! Oh! I can hear! I can actually hear…!”
Go Yeongeun exclaimed in disbelief as she touched her newly grown ears, then opened her smartphone’s camera app to inspect them.
As expected, they looked identical to her original ears.
“Does it hurt or feel uncomfortable?”
“Not at all! It just itched for a moment, but then it was fine… Actually, it feels like my hearing is even better than before!”
It was truly a wonderful thing.
Really, it was astonishing and awe-inspiring, something to be deeply grateful for, but…
‘…This could lead to more reckless decisions.’
In this company, if a high-grade Darkness was confirmed to involve unavoidable severe physical injuries, low-Class regeneration potions were sometimes issued as standard equipment.
And once people get used to that?
Employees would gradually begin to feel indifferent about losing parts of their bodies.
It’s hard the first time, but after the second, it gets easier.
‘Is that really a good thing?’
I glanced to the side with a strange feeling.
Baek Saheon was staring somberly into the ornate box containing his regeneration potion…
With one eye.
“…Pardon, Baek Saheon-ssi.”
“……”
Go Yeongeun hesitated before speaking cautiously.
“Losing vision in one eye has a bigger impact than you’d think. Depth perception, field of view, even balance are affected. It might be better to use it and regenerate your eye, even if it feels wasteful.”
“Mind your own business.”
Go Yeongeun almost showed a ‘What’s with this guy?’ expression but chose to let it go, perhaps reassured by the return of her ears.
After some hesitation, I added,
“Given the risks of our work, there’s always the chance of more injuries later. Saving it for emergencies isn’t a bad idea either.”
“Oh… That’s true.”
“……!”
Baek Saheon suddenly trembled slightly as he stared intently at the box.
‘Hey.’
Why did he suddenly look like he was debating, ‘Should I just use it now?’ after I backed him up?
Anyway, I ignored him and carefully stashed my own box.
My heart beat a little faster.
It was my first time seeing such a famous, powerful, and non-threatening symbolic item in person.
The symbol of Daydream Inc.
The magical potion.
‘I better keep this safe.’
At that moment—
“Excuse me, Soleum-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“I meant to say this earlier, but I wanted to formally thank you.”
Go Yeongeun looked at me and bowed slightly.
“Truly, truly… Thank you.”
Huh?
“For fighting that machine alone to let us escape.”
“…Go Yeongeun-ssi, you weren’t in immediate danger back then.”
Her ears had already been taken, so there was no more fee to pay. Honestly, the only person I really saved was Baek Saheon.
‘And that ungrateful punk hasn’t even said a single word of gratitude…’
What a piece of work, this punk.
However, Go Yeongeun firmly shook her head.
“No. You came back to save us afterward, didn’t you? Even lying that the candle was ours to protect us.”
“……”
“No matter how I think about it, you didn’t need to do that. You could’ve just stayed with the D-squad.”
“Um.”
Yeah, but actually…
‘If I gave the candle to those guys with nerves of steel instead?’
What? Was the situation secure now? Okay, then let’s test this and test that, put it through the manual revision process, and farm some points.
Just imagining the chaos they would cause made me feel like I’d collapse from a heart attack.
I didn’t wander around that insane exhibition to find the two of you for no reason.
There was something even scarier behind me that drove me to act…!
‘And… if I can save someone, it’s right to do so.’
I simply did what I could.
So I just shook my head.
“That’s something anyone would’ve done.”
“Are you serious? It doesn’t seem that way…”
“If anything, considering your contributions, both of you deserve promotions as well. I feel a bit guilty being the only one promoted.”
Go Yeongeun frowned.
“N-No. I… I don’t really want to be promoted just yet.”
“……”
“Oh but, um, Soleum-ssi, you’d do a great job, though!”
Suddenly, I felt like I might cry…
“But, why do you think we should be promoted? You do remember that all the items at the exhibition came out of your pockets… right?”
Go Yeongeun looked at me with an expression that seemed somewhat pitying.
“Um. In a corporate environment, if you seem too nice, people might take you lightly, so maybe you don’t always have to be so kind to others…”
Yes?
It really felt like she was overestimating me thanks to the ‘savior effect’. But remembering the Silver Heart badge, I simply lowered my head.
Be kind!
“…Thank you for the advice.”
Baek Saheon, looking utterly incredulous, alternated his gaze between me and Go Yeongeun before clamping his mouth shut.
Then, without a word, he stood up and left.
Well, let’s just leave him be.
I exchanged polite goodbyes with Go Yeongeun and turned around, deep in thought.
‘When should I start wearing the Silver Heart badge?’
Should I only use it during missions?
As I rolled the badge around in my pocket with my fingers, planning things out, a now-familiar silhouette appeared at the end of the hallway…
A white lizard head.
“Squad Leader.”
“Kim Soleum-ssi.”
It seemed the squad leader had been talking with the team leader while I was receiving my award.
By now, even those vertical pupils were starting to feel somewhat familiar.
‘Is this the savior effect too?’
I momentarily recalled the lizard’s brutal knuckle strikes that had split the usher machine’s needle in two and fell silent.
Then, the lizard’s vertical pupils shifted toward the empty regeneration potion bottle and its box.
“Did you use it?”
“Pardon? Oh. It wasn’t mine. My colleague here… Go Yeongeun-ssi used it.”
“Hello, sir! It’s nice to meet you! I’m Go Yeongeun!”
Go Yeongeun bowed her head politely to the unfamiliar lizard—or rather, the squad leader from another team.
The lizard regarded her with unblinking eyes.
“I have a question.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Are you the owner of the escape item?”
“…Pardon?”
“Three days ago, in the B-Class Darkness with the exhibition format, did you possess the cognitive interference item shaped like a candle?”
Oh.
“Ah… um. Something like that…”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Go Yeongeun glanced at me, quickly grasping the situation, and trailed off her sentence. But she didn’t outright deny it, showing some situational awareness.
Still, she probably felt it was time to make a swift exit.
“Well then, I’ll be going now.”
With that polite farewell, she quietly slipped away in the opposite direction down the hallway.
‘Good judgment…’
Relieved, I took a water bottle out of my bag and drank a sip…
“Kim Soleum-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Refrain from repeated lies.”
I nearly spit the water out through my nose.
“The more you repeat them, the less effective they become.”