The Impact of the Author's Intervention on a Blank Page - Chapter 15
At that moment, a sudden hypothesis struck his mind.
‘Don’t tell me, brother…’
Could it be that his brother had lost his memories? More precisely, he seemed unaware of what they truly were to each other….
Ja-hyun gripped his brother’s wrist and persistently held his gaze. He tried desperately to read the truth hidden in his brother’s eyes.
A cheerful ‘ding’ sounded in his head, as if grading his ominous guess. Simultaneously, he read the system window that appeared before his eyes and realized his suspicion was correct.
[‘Special contract with Operator-###’ is in progress.]
▷ Special Quest (Administrator Only)
[Orbit Correction of Incomplete World EN-967221]
[Difficulty: Hard]
[Time limits and penalties will be applied according to difficulty level]
[Contact with ‘Collaborator’ confirmed!]
[Loading….]
[Hard Difficulty Penalty – ‘Collaborator-Apostle’s’ memories have been partially sealed]
[Penalty Maintaining – Time Remaining: 127 days 3 hours 18 minutes]
‘What, what?’
Ja-hyun inwardly gasped in shock. Insane hard mode! You crazy… His body’s condition alone was already hardcore, and now this on top of it?
Help… What was he supposed to do about this? This was too much.
His strongest ally had lost his memories and was treating him with strange formality, plus his body was trash. This was beyond excessive.
But the situation didn’t give Ja-hyun time to despair.
▷ Sub-Quest
[Find ‘Planche Enestia’ and ‘Lucas Blade’]
[Time Remaining: 28 days 12 hours 45 minutes]
The system’s request to first find the original protagonists made some sense. That is, if this had been a normal situation.
The sub-quest’s mere 28-day time limit wouldn’t have been a major issue if things had gone according to plan.
However, he had become an imprisoned brother in the midst of silent snowfall, held by the Grand Duke Izatrix – his lover and brother who had lost all memories of their true relationship.
***
“This is driving me crazy….”
Ja-hyun covered his eyes with his hands as he lay in bed.
His brother had, without a doubt, lost his memories.
This was truly serious. It had completely derailed his carefully laid plans.
Ja-hyun had tried to hold back his departing brother, who was trying to put him to bed, to ask one question. After careful consideration, since he couldn’t directly bring up past lives or anything similar, he’d settled on:
“Brother, perhaps… Do you remember what we did last summer?”
But his brother’s response remained consistent. His gaze was sharp, trying to understand why such a question was being asked.
“Well. What did we do then? You were sick, so we couldn’t have gone anywhere.”
That was all.
While eating the soup brought by servants, Ja-hyun recalled his brief encounter with his brother.
Unlike himself – a sickly person with skin clinging to bones and a deathly pale complexion – his brother was healthy. Somehow, he even appeared slightly bigger than his original self.
The base appearances of the ‘shells’ assigned to Kwon Ja-hyun and Kwon Kyung-woo were almost identical to their original forms. However, certain aspects had been modified to fit their roles – things like builds and health conditions.
Brother Kyung-woo had become Ludwig El Izatrix, the ruler of the northern Izatrix Grand Duchy. In short, the Grand Duke of the North.
And as for himself…
He had become the Grand Duke’s terminally ill younger brother. It seemed he was actually set up with a death sentence. Born weak, suffering from heart and lung diseases of unknown cause and diagnosis.
Unfortunately, he had no choice but to believe it. His lungs hurt just from breathing alone. Even the slightest movement caused fever and chest pain. After experiencing this, it was impossible not to believe his condition.
‘Why on earth?’
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been scammed. Even without his brother’s memories, if he had been a strong and capable swordmaster like his original self without any ailments, he wouldn’t have worried this much. He thought he’d checked everything carefully before signing the contract, but he’d been completely fooled.
As he kept groaning at random times, an anxious thought occurred to him. What if he failed all the quests in succession? Though that wouldn’t result in any actual penalties for his real self. He’d just be trapped here, achieving nothing, killing time until the contract period ended.
Would he become completely useless like this? Even if his brother’s memories returned soon, if he’d already ruined all the quests by then, there’d be no way to salvage the situation. What would he do if all he could manage was to lie in bed all day, weakly waiting to hug his brother and act cute when he returned from work? What good would that do….
