Nymphpunk 20XX # 2
━Woof-woof…!
Bringing Keong-keong-i along would have been useful in all sorts of ways, but he'd decided to stay home today.
━Bang-bang…!
Probably because Kwang-kwang-i was riding on my shoulder. From the looks of it, Keong-keong-i and Kwang-kwang-i got along so poorly that they couldn't even be kept in the same cage.
Huh. Kind of like Yu Ari and Seo Yerim.
"I suppose even animals have their compatibility issues."
It reminded me of how households with cats generally balked at raising a dog alongside them. Different animals had different temperaments and behavioral patterns, so keeping them together just stressed them out.
So when Kwang-kwang-i came along, Keong-keong-i had to stay behind. It would've been nice if everyone could get along.
On a whim, I asked Oinoi if she had any wisdom on the matter.
"There exist beings in this world who simply cannot mix…! Wolf spiders and dog-squirrels are territorial creatures…! The fact that they share a space at all is already a miracle…!"
According to her, the mere fact that Keong-keong-i and Kwang-kwang-i occupied the same neighborhood was remarkable in itself.
Was it like they were only tolerating each other for the sake of their mutual friend—me?
If that was true, then I had somehow become a mediator of the natural world.
"Even the long-eared fairies known as elves and the native fairies with short, dashing ears—the nymphs—were once beings who could not mix…!"
Oinoi still hated elves. Coris, the ice water nymph, wasn't fond of them either.
Apparently, just like dog-squirrels and wolf spiders, nymphs and elves had very firm boundaries between their territories.
"But this city has far, far too many elves…!"
Oinoi grumbled as we walked the streets of Macheon City. She had a point—the place really was crawling with elves.
How should I put it—there were a lot of Korean couples walking around hand in hand with elves?
At the sight of them, Oinoi shuddered violently.
"Surely…! This is the scheme of an invasive species seeking to invade and conquer the natives…! They marry native Koreans, bear countless elf children, and dry up the seed of the Korean people…!"
Okay, that was quite a take.
Elves were marrying Koreans in order to wipe them out?
Granted, I'd heard that children born between elves and humans leaned far closer to their elf side than their Korean side. Elves, whether male or female, always produced beautiful children.
Those kids showed up on TV and all over MeTube being adorable, and there were moments it made me want to rush out and get married myself.
But apparently that was all a plot to drive out native Koreans?
"Oinoi, don't you think you're overthinking this? I really don't think it's like that."
"Elves live very, very long lives…! Native humans cannot feel it, but to elves, several human generations pass in the blink of an eye…! If a thousand years pass like this, only the invasive elves will remain in Korea…!"
A thousand years.
Well… if elves kept marrying Koreans indefinitely, then in a thousand years, maybe only elves would be left. The Korean peninsula would belong to the elves.
I felt like I'd just been let in on an enormous conspiracy.
And yet.
What would be so bad about the land belonging to the elves?
A country in crisis because its birth rate had fallen below 0.6 had climbed back above 1.5 since the rifts opened. Wasn't that a good thing on its own?
"This Oinoi cannot stand idly by while invasive species invade…! I shall gather a great host of nymph sisters to stand against them…! Alas, the nymph sisters are far too few at present…."
So that was how it was. Technically speaking, from a Korean's perspective, Oinoi was an invasive species too.
She spoke up again.
"Which is why I wonder where that sister Illinoi might be…! This Oinoi wishes to persuade sister Illinoi…!"
"Ah, uh—there it is. We're here."
The old candy factory.
It had once made traditional eye candies the old-fashioned way, but after Macheon City was established, it became derelict land—until the gangs moved in, or so I'd been told.
Fairy Tale.
That was supposedly the name of the outfit occupying it.
"So what'd you have for dinner last night?"
"Tteok ramyeon."
Men with daggers at their hips or baseball bats slung across their backs loitered around the factory perimeter.
No firearms, apparently. The moment guns entered the picture, the corporations' strike teams wouldn't sit idle, so it seemed true that Macheon had banned firearms outright, for better or worse.
"Who're you supposed to be?"
As I approached the factory, a bald man gripping a bat sized me up.
Did he really not know who I was? I was, for the record, a famous person.
But in this case, my middling level of fame actually worked in my favor. I'd changed my style—swept my hair back, put on glasses—but if anyone recognized me and went, Hey, aren't you that famous, incredible awakener, 'The Great Ha Ildo'?, it would've complicated things in a dozen ways.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—nobody recognized me at all.
Feeling a twinge of bitterness, I pulled out the bag I'd prepared in advance, just as planned.
"I'm a merchant going by 'Second.' I'd like to discuss a business opportunity. Would it be possible to meet your boss? I think it'd be best to talk face to face."
"What business? Buzz off, small-time peddler!"
Everyone here was on a short fuse, huh.
Then Oinoi, wearing the hoodie I'd draped over her, stepped forward.
"This Oinoi is a nymph…! I thought there might be nymph sisters here, and so I came searching…!"
"A nymph?"
"She says she's a nymph?"
"A nymph, huh."
What kind of reaction was that? It was extremely, uncomfortably muted.
Then the men huddled together and murmured among themselves before somebody hammered out a message on a phone. About five minutes passed?
Finally, the bald man gestured me forward.
"Name's Junk Head, of Fairy Tale. I'll take you inside. Follow me."
Shouldn't it be Skin Head, not Junk Head?
Anyway.
I made it inside the factory without incident.
The factory was more spacious than it looked from outside, and it was cluttered with all manner of goods and equipment—including instruments I'd expect to find in a corporate laboratory, nowhere else.
"Take a seat. Do you like tea?"
They were even serving tea?
More professional than I expected—and just as that thought crossed my mind, Junk Head spoke.
"Since you're a nymph, maybe honey water or cocoa is more your thing than tea? Man, and to think there's another nymph besides the boss. Look, we trust the boss's business instincts completely, but… every time she put up one of her unsellable paintings or jars of water on the site, even I got skeptical."
Water a nymph had washed her hands in. Paintings a nymph had painted.
So they really were unsellable products.
Well, yeah. Who in their right mind was paying tens of millions—hundreds of millions—of won for that?
"But the boss always said someone would come along someday and recognize their true worth. And look—just like she said, another nymph actually showed up! Two nymphs! That makes Fairy Tale invincible!"
I see.
So the paintings and the water had been like signals—flags to summon the nymph sisters?
Viewed that way, the strategy had worked. Oinoi and I were standing right here, after all.
Just then—
A girl with orange hair cropped in a bob, with a long ponytail tied behind it, stepped into this bizarre reception room.
When Junk Head bowed deeply with a cry of "Boss!", the girl—who looked to be in the upper grades of elementary school by now—furrowed her brow.
"Who dares summon this Illinoi…? This Illinoi has business to attend to—two biz, as it were…! If this is something trivial, this honey-fisted Illinoi will beat you soundly…!"
Kwoooong—.
Her fist-clenching form was strange.
Again, I felt the world tilt dangerously before my eyes. The boss was actually a nymph.
Oinoi, of course, was delighted.
"Ahhh—! There truly are nymph sisters in this world…! This Oinoi has truly met a nymph sister…! When I beheld that maple-splendid orange hair, I knew at once—a nymph born of autumn, without a doubt…!"
"Ahhh…! That voice is most familiar…! Indeed, when I beheld that sun-dazzling honey-colored hair, I knew—a nymph born of summer, without a doubt…! Another nymph sister exists…!"
Shwoop—.
The two nymphs pressed their foreheads together.
Watching the scene, the bald gangster Junk Head stammered, "Wh-what's…?"
Was this his first time seeing it?
As the person who understood nymphs better than anyone in Korea except the nymphs themselves, I offered a simple explanation.
"It's how nymphs greet each other."
"Ohhh."
Acting like you know things really is satisfying.
Before long, Oinoi called out, foreheads still touching.
"This Oinoi is Oinoi, nymph of ditch water…! Nymph sister…! It is a joy to meet you…!"
"I am Illinoi, nymph of medicine…! Good to see you, it is…!"
What was with her speech?
And nymph of medicine? What did that even mean?
Just as question marks began sprouting all over my head, Oinoi tilted hers too.
"She speaks in strange words…!"
"Of course not! That is because Illinoi… opened her eyes in the great land of America, passed through a country called Japan, and only then arrived in this nymph-friendly, rabbit-shaped country…!"
So her language patch was corrupted.
From what I understood, the elves who'd crossed over through the rifts used some innate 'translation magic,' and I suspected Oinoi had it too—after all, the two of us communicated perfectly.
Plus, Oinoi ended her sentences with "…it is!" and Coris with "…that's what it is!", which was probably a quirk of that same magic.
But Illinoi had passed through who knows how many countries on her way to Korea, and her translation magic seemed to have broken down completely.
"I don't understand half of what you're saying, but either way, this Oinoi is glad to meet Illinoi…!"
"Nice to meet-choo, it is…!"
A thoroughly surreal situation, all things considered.
And yet Oinoi and Illinoi got along as if they'd known each other for years.
"This Illinoi…! Never once doubted that other nymph sisters existed…! Today is a most moving day…! I have been so terribly alone until now…! In commemoration of meeting a nymph sister, I shall perform the Nymph Dance of Joy…!"
"A splendid idea…!"
Oinoi and Illinoi rested their hands on their hips and wiggled their butts left and right, dancing. It looked a bit like bees moving about a hive—whatever it was, it was fun to watch.
The mood was good in every way.
And Illinoi wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. If anything, this seemed like something we could settle peacefully through conversation.
"Illinoi, the truth is I came here on business. You're holding the Bifrost, aren't you? A corporate strike team could storm in here at any moment and destroy it."
"…What manner of talk is this? Explain further, you do…!"
"You want more explanation? Fine—the thing you stole is important. If a corporate strike team shows up, this place will be flattened."
"Hieeek…! This Illinoi intended to return to her homeland using a door much like the ones those long-eared invasive elves used…! If the strike team comes, disaster strikes…!"
So that was it.
When I'd heard 'a nymph is the gang's boss and stole the Bifrost,' I'd half expected something like this. She'd been trying to go home.
"Hand it over peacefully. I promise I'll find a way to send you back to your homeland myself."
"Human, they are all liars…! When this Illinoi was living peacefully among the Illinoi tribe, the American Yanks tormented us…! On what basis should I believe a word…?"
A war between Indians and Yankees, huh.
From the sound of it, Illinoi was far older than I'd assumed. Wait—was the actual 'state of Illinois' named after this Illinoi?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Oinoi spoke up.
"The master of our house is more nymph-friendly than anyone alive…! This Oinoi and Coris, nymph of ice water, are living proof…! You may trust him…!"
"Coris, nymph of ice water…! Yet another nymph exists…? A most good thing, this is…. Now that I look, he does have the face of a man who would fall easily for scams—is that precisely what makes him nymph-friendly…?"
They say nymphs can instinctively recognize good people.
And in Illinoi's judgment, I had the face of a man who'd fall for any con.
Come to think of it, she wasn't wrong. I'd once gulp-drunk talisman-infused water on the strength of someone's claim that it would boost my mana.
I'd been desperate in every possible way at the time.
Come to think of it, that was the same reason I'd believed Oinoi's story when we first met, too.
"Understood, it is…! For words from one so nymph-friendly, I judge it safe to believe…! The device shall be returned to the corporation…!"
Oh.
Excellent. Living honestly really does pay off.
No violent confrontation after all.
"Candy-head is listening, he is…!"
"Boss, I'm not Candy-head. I'm Junk Head."
"The stockpiled Bifrost shall be handed to this man said to be master of the house…! And as of today, the gang 'Fairy Tale' is hereby dismissed…!"
"Wait, seriously? We only just got our name out there two weeks after you arrived, and now we're disbanding…?"
"That is how it is…! Any who refuse shall taste the Honey Fist Combo this honey-fisted Illinoi learned fighting the Yanks…!"
Junk Head was terrified of Illinoi's round little fists.
He bowed his head, vanished somewhere, and reappeared five minutes later, his voice quaking with panic.
"B-Boss! We've been robbed! The Bifrost and the latest beam saber blueprints—both gone!"
"…What manner of talk is this?"
"The bodyguard the previous boss hired! Apparently that guy loaded the goods into a container under your name and hauled them off!"
You've got to be kidding me.
I turned to the bald man.
"Do you know where that container went?"
"Here are the container coordinates! We put a GPS tracker on it! But you'd better not try to stop it! That bodyguard—no idea who he really is, but he's strong. For real. A bunch of our guys jumped him and every single one ended up minced!"
A bodyguard from an A-rank awakener background.
Seo Yerim had warned me he was genuinely dangerous.
I handed my phone to Oinoi.
"Oinoi, tell Seo Yerim everything that just happened. If the Bifrost falls into someone else's hands, this could spiral completely out of control. I'll go ahead and buy us some time however I can."
With the GPS tracker I'd gotten from the bald man in hand, I set off after the Bifrost.