**#314. Reunion (4)**
—
The doctor spoke.
He said that was why he sowed discord among the other Guardians and incited war once again.
By driving the other races to mutual destruction and launching his invasion at the decisive moment, he was able to ascend the throne as the king of the human race.
> “We drove out the other races and seized the central territory. But there wasn’t much to be gained. The cities were destroyed, the land devastated. Of course, I had anticipated as much.”
The doctor led the humans upstream to the Elton River, a place where the environment had been relatively well-preserved and was outside the range of the war’s devastation.
There, he established the Red Citadel—a new city for humans and their point of origin.
> “I thought then that my plan was complete. The other races were either extinct or pushed to the fringes of the world. With all resources in our hands, I believed humans had nothing left to do but enjoy infinite prosperity.”
The doctor took a shallow breath.
His murky eyes rippled with countless emotions.
> “But that was a grave delusion.”
There was no prosperity, no glory.
The limited resources of the upper Elton River—
Struggles and conflict arose over them, and social divisions began to form.
Jealousy, rage, fear, envy.
Discontent, resentment, irritation, boredom.
Emotions that were supposed to have perished with the war returned like ghosts and began to consume the Red Citadel.
The doctor was struck with immense shock.
He wandered the citadel in confusion.
Watching humans stab each other with spears and hurl stones, he pondered deeply.
Why hadn’t things gone as he had expected?
Then, he reached a conclusion.
> “Emotions themselves were the cause.”
The scenery shifted again.
The Red Citadel, now engulfed in internal strife, with flames rising everywhere.
Following the trail of thick black smoke with his eyes, the doctor spoke:
> “That was when I finally realized. As long as emotions exist, we can never escape this endless cycle of suffering.”
Whether it was humans—
Or other races.
Afterward, the doctor secluded himself in an underground chamber and began studying emotions.
> “After long research, I finally achieved results. I found a way to inject specific emotions into a living being—or extract them.”
The scenery changed again.
A younger version of the doctor, eyes lit with euphoria, shouted at his worktable.
—*This is it! This is it! Now I can create the perfect humanity I’ve always dreamed of! A humanity that lives with only positivity, without despair or anxiety! Isn’t that truly wonderful?*
> “…At first, I thought I could simply extract negative emotions from humans. That if I did, humanity would move forward without conflict or strife, filled only with optimism and hope.”
He started experimenting on small animals like mice and cats, and succeeded.
The animals let out joyful sounds and no longer fought in any circumstance.
But human experiments were different.
**Bang! Bang!**
—*Why! Why won’t it work?! I removed the emotion of jealousy, so why did the emotion of interest disappear as well?!*
The doctor of the past, seething with rage, slammed his fist onto the desk.
> “…After repeated failures, I realized something. Human emotions weren’t as simple as those of small animals. Every human emotion carried a complex duality.”
Behind love was hate.
Behind interest was indifference.
Behind joy was anxiety.
Entangled emotions could not be selectively removed.
Whenever one emotion was suppressed, its counterpart disappeared as well.
—……
The former doctor stared vacantly at his ruined laboratory.
Then, frantically rummaging between broken desks, he picked up a red shard of the rainbow.
—*Not yet, I can’t give up yet.*
> “That was when I made up my mind. If I couldn’t fix existing humanity, I would create a new one. A perfect humanity, one in which negative emotions were never instilled in the first place.”
Thus began the homunculus project.
After years of research, he successfully replicated the red shard of the rainbow to create *Bloodstone*.
Using that as a core, he constructed golems, gradually refining them into human forms until finally completing the homunculi.
—*At last! At long last, success! Hahaha! Success! It’s a success!*
> “I was overjoyed. For I had created a new humanity that would live a perfect life, unlike the flawed humans who came before.”
The new race, infused only with positive emotions, was sent to a small, remote city the doctor had prepared in the wilderness.
He firmly believed his glorious children would enjoy infinite prosperity there.
> “But once again, the results didn’t turn out as I had expected. Do you know why?”
“……”
Ray recalled the homunculi he had encountered until now.
Though they looked indistinguishable from humans, there was always a sense that something vital was missing.
> “They aren’t human.”
> “Yes, exactly.”
The doctor nodded.
> “My children could never become human. They were mere imitations pretending to be human. Their behavior and thoughts were fundamentally unnatural. A single conversation was enough for anyone to notice something was off.”
He collected all the homunculi and returned to his research.
He input behavior values corresponding to each emotion and continually refined them to appear more human.
> “…And thus, the homunculi evolved to their current form. So refined and polished in speech and action that no one would suspect they weren’t human. But still, I declared it a failure. To my eyes, there was a maddening unnaturalness. And then, I finally understood.”
**Zzzzt— Zzzzik—**
The magical light overhead flickered.
Dust floated in the light.
> “Humans are not complete beings made only from positive emotions.”
**Zzzzt—**
> “Anger, hatred, anxiety, sadness.”
**Zzzzik—**
> “All of those are fragments that make up the being known as human.”
Between flickering lights, the old man’s aged face appeared and disappeared.
> “In the end, I concluded that it was impossible to selectively preserve only certain emotions.”
The magic light went out.
In the darkness, the voice continued.
> “And in discarding the homunculus project, I realized something else.”
“……”
> “That what had tormented me all this time was also emotion. That it was emotion—the very substance—that compelled me to unnaturally extend my life through magic and chase my goal over countless years.”
“……”
> “Isn’t it ridiculous? I believed I had lived autonomously, but in truth, I too had been a slave, dragged through the mud with the reins of emotion around my neck.”
A bitter laugh echoed.
It mixed grotesquely with the creaking sound of his wheelchair.
> “In the end, the only way humans can truly master themselves is to return to that time—when emotions did not exist. A world of eternal peace, without joy, sorrow, or anger.”
At last, the doctor’s objective became clear.
But to claim that one must erase emotion to become their true self—
Did that mean the emotionless child Ray once was had already achieved a complete life?
*That can’t be.*
No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense.
The Ray of the present, who could feel emotions, was living a far richer and more vibrant life.
And while humans were often swayed by emotion, it was something that could be overcome.
Pale, who lived under the bridge, had never once stolen a loaf of bread from a store, despite his hunger.
Isra, of Rael Row, never gave up his dream of flying despite the sneers and ridicule.
Veronica of the Order would come to the Tower whenever she felt exhausted, lay her head on his lap, and snore gently.
*……*
Maybe not that last one. In any case—
Humans were beings capable of overcoming emotion through will and effort.
That was the conclusion Ray had reached.
> “Emotions *can* be controlled.”
He spoke firmly.
No answer came back.
Instead—
**Swaaaaaaaa────**
The sound of rain echoed.
Behind him, a broken streetlamp began to flicker ominously.
Amid the dim crimson light, the hidden scenery emerged from the darkness.
The form of a golem visible inside the underpass.
Collapsed tents and the pool of blood spreading beneath them.
In that instant, Ray felt as if his blood was flowing in reverse.
> “Among the final memories transmitted by the golem in Sector 50 before it was destroyed, I found something interesting.”
> “I’m warning you. You’d better remove that memory *now*.”
> “Haha, that won’t do. Would you rather just close your eyes? Not that it’ll stop you from reliving the emotions of that day.”
Ray’s breathing grew ragged.
His chest heaved.
His body wasn’t physically restrained, yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the unfolding scene.
A white-haired boy, charging at the golem, his reason consumed.
The fierce battle unfolding amid the rain and the stench of blood.
Niles, chest pierced by the golem’s beam, collapsing.
──────!
Ray, cradling his now-cold body, screaming with grief and rage.
And the torrential rain that swallowed every last cry.
**Swaaaaaaa────**
> “*Khak!* Yes… such a fine emotion. *Heheh…!* Now—use that rage… and finish me…! *Kgh…!*”
Before he realized it, Ray had risen to his feet and was lifting the doctor by the neck.
If his previous threat had been mere performance, this time was real.
Now, Ray’s heart surged with crimson rage and murderous intent.
> “Use that fire…! Burn me with it…! *Heheh…!* Go on…! Prove it… that you too are just another human… swayed by emotion…! *Krrgh…!*”
Ray glared at the doctor with eyes that dripped with coldness.
Internally, he was desperately focusing his mind to shut off the emotional faucet that had burst open.
*Crackle—!*
He clenched his teeth tightly.
Veins bulged on his face.
It was far from easy.
For a boy with such a sharp memory, past emotions never faded or dulled with time.
Anger, hatred, sorrow, despair.
Those emotions revived vividly, as if he were reliving the events all over again in the present.
“Gghrk…! What are you hesitating for…! I am the very one, gghrk…! Who gave the gift of death—rest—to those filthy, uncivilized lowlifes…! The one who created the golem…! Gghrk…!”
The doctor’s breathing grew ragged.
His face contorted with pain.
Even as he grabbed at Ray’s hand around his neck, trying to loosen the grip, he didn’t stop provoking him.
“You too… emotion… gghrk…”
“……”
Countless memories and emotions swept through Ray’s body and mind.
The current situation was chaotic, yet amidst it, one thing was clear.
That the choice in this moment lay entirely in his hands.
Finally, Ray made his decision—and swung the hand holding the fireball.
—
