Chapter 28
Chapter 28
4. The Savior Who Ended the Cold Wave -4
To cut to the chase, I returned in glory.
"Hunter Noah Won, reporting my return. The expedition spoils are substantial, so please assemble a transport team."
I had squeezed Camp Ace for everything I could get. And with a bit of exaggeration, the amount was about the size of a small building. It was a small amount from the city's perspective, but for post-apocalyptic Seoul, it was enormous.
On top of that, this was the second transaction, and the fact that there was still one more—a third transaction—left made my shoulders feel light.
My friend Minsik and Seoul's household manager Team Leader Park, upon seeing the mountain of supplies, each expressed their unconcealable astonishment in their own way.
"What the... did you go loot some otherworld military base or something?"
"I traded for it. Tell the kids I ripped open a secret bunker."
"Yeah, sure. What would the kids do knowing it's another world or whatever? If word like that got around, it'd just be 'Captain Noah Won, can't you please emigrate to that other world?' ...But hey, if it's another world, did you see any stacked elves or anything?"
"You think I would?"
Minsik seemed to be imagining the usual fantasy races, and from skimming the community posts, it did seem like such races existed. Dragonkin, for instance.
The most beautiful person I'd seen so far was Eve, and after her, the famous girl group center I'd run into at the broadcast station. If elves or dragonkin actually existed, would they be even more beautiful than that?
But everyone I'd met so far was human. If I had to name someone suspicious, the Hunter Alliance assassin didn't exactly seem human, but who knows.
I recalled that monstrous evasive maneuvering from a corner of my mind and asked Minsik.
"Did you come first? Where's the transport team?"
Minsik answered while muttering, inspecting the supplies—especially the firearms.
"Our people are mostly out on weeding operations, so there aren't many around. The transport team was probably put together mostly from civilians. So it'll take them a while to get up here... Right, Team Leader Park?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"Team Leader Park? Hello?"
Only then did I notice that Team Leader Park's condition was strange. He had been standing there frozen with a shocked expression for a while now. What the hell. Did he get hit with some petrification ability?
When his eyes met mine, he slowly brought both hands together in prayer.
"Hunter Noah Won. Truly, Hunter Noah Won must be someone sent down by the Buddha."
"...Team Leader Park, weren't you non-religious?"
"I began believing recently. Upon reflection, I couldn't help but think this is all fate. As it happens, there is a Hellenism monk among our citizens, so I often listen to the words of Zeus of the Śakra heaven."
"Ah, yes..."
Even for a believer, he'd picked quite a niche sect.
But he didn't seem to take it seriously. Given how genuinely interested he'd seemed in the otherworld talk last time, he was probably just the type who enjoyed that sort of subculture.
Whatever the expression, I was glad he liked it.
Soon the transport team members reached the foot of the mountain with an escort of two hunters. They wore thoroughly terrified expressions, as if afraid of walking through an area overgrown with plants.
"Good heavens!"
"Th-that thing looks a bit odd, but it's a K-2!"
"Where did all this come from...?!"
They too widened their eyes at the mountain of supplies.
And soon, they seemed to realize who had brought this mountain of supplies. If I, who hadn't shown my face for a while, appeared together with the supplies, wasn't it obvious and plain to see?
"Heh."
Being looked up to didn't feel bad.
"Hey, wipe that grin off your face. You really are a former idol—the second anyone pays attention to you, you look ready to die of happiness."
"I wasn't dying of happiness."
"Yeah, right."
I escorted the transport team out of the mountain foothills. And then I stepped into my nest that I was seeing for the first time in days—not a city, not a nation, but the city-state of Seoul.
I delegated the supplies to Team Leader Park. This kind of thing is best left to the experts.
"Move these materials as they are and use them to reinforce the exterior wall of Miju Apartments Building 3. The guns—there's someone living in Building 5 who handled ordnance in the military, so put them in charge of those. And—"
The moment he arrived in Seoul, he distributed the supplies as if he'd already drawn up a plan in advance. Among the people who benefited, there was one item in particular that drew an especially intense reaction.
That item was, unexpectedly, heaters.
"Heaters——!!"
"We don't have to cling to that goddamn Lee Hyejin anymore! We've gotten our hands on warmth!"
"We need to double the number of regular prayers offered to Captain Noah Won...!!"
Our kids especially—meaning the hunters affiliated with Seoul—were overjoyed.
Come to think of it, it was gradually becoming winter, so the temperature had dropped below freezing. I hadn't noticed because the zombification curse had dulled my whole-body sensation.
The monsters wreck Earth's ecosystem, but they also ruin something more fundamental than that. Abnormal temperatures were a prime example. The forests mercilessly suck up warmth. They said the global average temperature had dropped by about 2 degrees.
The autumn-winter of the Republic of Korea, which already had distinct four seasons, now felt like an ice age had arrived. On top of that, heaters were prioritized for civilians with weak bodies, so I understood why our kids were happy.
Though there seemed to have been some strange cheering mixed in there.
I quietly asked Minsik.
"...Does Hyejin shake the kids down?"
Lee Hyejin, a B-rank hunter by Earth standards. She was the same B-rank as Minsik, so their raw output was about equal, but because she was young, she hadn't been included in the leadership. Her position was roughly assault team captain.
That said, she had a fair amount of authority relative to her rank. Because she had power on par with Minsik, who oversaw all of Seoul's hunters.
If Hyejin were someone with a bit of ambition, it could have been a situation for discontent, but from what I'd observed so far, she wasn't that kind of kid. If anything, she seemed like the type who found such positions bothersome.
Had she developed some greed as she got older?
"No, it's not like that..."
Minsik answered with a chuckle.
"Ah, pyrokinesis is unique to Hyejin, right? So she's been acting as a heater for the kids and taking cigarettes as payment. This winter's so damn cold, what can you do? You've got to hand over cigarettes to stay warm."
"She's been sneaking smokes since way back. A kid that young, acting all loose."
"Hey, Hyejin just wears that worn-out school uniform, but she's over nineteen. It's legal for her to smoke now. And thanks to her, the kids' lungs have gotten cleaner. With the forced quitting, they run longer during morning runs too."
"...Is that something to be happy about?"
It seemed Hyejin was sucking up all the cigarettes circulating in Seoul like Kirby. There were barely any left now—each stick was precious—and if the kids were handing them over to run a human heater, it must have been freezing as hell.
Rustle.
At my fingertips, a cigarette pack rolling around in my pocket brushed against them. It was one I'd received from Sojin as payment for one sparring session.
Since the topic came up, should I go give this to her? I had something to ask too.
Hyejin would be in one of two places. The training ground, or the wall outside the training ground. She was the type who slept at the training ground because even the time spent moving while sleeping felt like a waste, so you could really meet her near there all year round.
She was the type of person who ran as if she were going to die tomorrow. She'd been that way since I first met her, and from that moment until now, she'd been running almost like a runaway locomotive.
For training hard in Seoul, she could be ranked first. Second and third were me and Kim Minsik.
That's not to say Minsik and I slacked off. We had to manage Seoul's affairs big and small, so our personal maintenance time inevitably got spent on that.
If we dropped everything and just trained, well. I'd probably be first.
"Twenty-nine, twenty-nine, are your arms dropping? Twenty-nine!"
"Don't you know how to count—!! Aaaagh!"
"Crying won't make anyone count for you, so if you want out, hurry up! Twenty-nine!"
As I approached the training ground, Hyejin's voice reached me. Hearing it after a while, it was quite welcome. When I opened the door and stepped inside, the smell of blood and sweat had soaked in thickly.
Hyejin, who had been gleefully pecking away at a hunter beside her, was herself running while searing her own body warm with her flames. When our eyes met, she immediately acknowledged me.
"Oh, Seoul's armadillo, Hunter Noah Won. Is your business trip over?"
"Still a bit left. I have to head out again in a few days. And say it properly—Seoul's Black Tortoise."
"Ar-ma-dil-lo."
"Come out. Let's talk."
"Ugh..."
Hyejin shook off the flames clinging to her body and came outside. She was pretending to be cowed, but both she and I knew this much was just banter.
Ash scattered with every step she took. Since she'd just been burning, the cold weather made steam rise off her in wisps. She looked like a steamed bun fresh out of the steamer.
Except the wrapper was a bit worn.
Hyejin still wore her school uniform, from back then until now. By now it had holes here and there, and from repeated washing it was completely worn out. If her expression hadn't been so confident, anyone would have thought she was from a disadvantaged household.
"Noah, what is it?"
"Nothing much. I have a favor to ask."
I handed over the bribe first. The cigarette pack Sojin had given me.
"Whoa. A brand I've never seen."
Hyejin turned the pack over and over, examining it meticulously as if she were looking at a luxury handbag. She even sniffed it and brightened as if she'd live. I asked offhandedly, wondering if it was really worth indulging in that much.
"I hear you've got a lot of cigarettes these days."
"Did the kids snitch? Or did Minsik say something? I got them through legal trade, so don't give me grief. Anyway⋯⋯ I've been out of cigarettes for a long time."
"From what Minsik says, you shook them down pretty hard. Where did they all go?"
"Obviously I smoked them all ages ago? A high school girl can't function unless she smokes about three packs a day."
Is this a person or a thermal power plant?
She trained like she had no will to live, and apparently she smoked the same way. I imagined Hyejin with about five cigarettes in her mouth at once, puffing away furiously. Since she was always so rowdy, it actually suited her quite well.
"You're old enough for an ID now, aren't you? Doesn't that mean you're done being a high school girl? You should retire that school uniform now. It's falling apart."
"The school blew up, so how do I graduate? But I didn't drop out either, so I'm an eternal high school girl. If you're going to call me something, call me a fourth-year high schooler."
"There's no such thing as a fourth year in high school."
"They say college students can be in their tenth year if they set their minds to it, right? It's like that."
There's no such thing. If there were, then even now, with my agency blown up, I'd still be an idol.
I figured it was about time to state my business and opened my mouth, but Hyejin raised a hand to stop me, hurriedly pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and put it in her mouth. Then.
"Sssssssss— inhale, huff, phwaaaah...!!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
She really smokes with a racket.
In the meantime, I organized what I wanted to say. To boil it down to the essentials: I was planning to bring Sohye to my world. The purpose was to rigorously build up Sohye's fundamentals.
The next quarter's tutorial would open soon. If the 『Telescope』 respawned, I planned to temper Sohye and have her make contact with the highest-rank hunter possible. That required hard training.
And the most suitable instructor... I judged to be Hyejin.
I could run her through it myself, but training inevitably means showing all sorts of unseemly sides. So I thought it would be more comfortable if the supervisory role went to another woman.
"Soon... I've arranged to bring a guest over."
"Huh? A guest?"
"Yeah. Her name is Kim Sohye. Her ability itself is about D-rank hunter level by Earth standards, but her potential is probably S-rank. I invited her to develop her properly. Run some field training for her here with our kids."
"...What do you mean, 'by Earth standards'? Did you get abducted by aliens and issued a space hunter license or something?"
Something like that.
"Sohye... if her name's Sohye, she's a woman, right? Girlfriend?"
"No. She's an important cooperative partner, so you can work her mercilessly, but don't be rude to her."
"Got it. It's not a hard job, and I got a pack of cigarettes for it, so..."
"I'll contact you later. Good work today."
"Yep."
Good, I'd secured a teacher. If it was her, she'd turn Sohye into a proper hunter.
With my business done, I turned to leave and plan the nearby bunker assault with Minsik. But then, somehow, I felt as if a thin thorn had lodged in my finger.
I soon realized.
Hyejin hadn't asked me what I'd brought back. Not today either.
The cigarette pack, I mean. Since it was something brought from Sohye's place, it was obviously something never seen in the Republic of Korea. Hyejin, who burned through every cigarette in existence, couldn't have failed to notice its rarity.
How far did you go to get this, or what did you bring back this time, or did you pick up another magic power generator or something... There wasn't a shred of that kind of expectation.
I'd been suspecting it for a while.
From conversations, from her usual habits, and from her attire.
She didn't dress herself up. From the moment the world turned upside down, she'd worn nothing but that tattered school uniform. As if it were her mourning clothes. As if she didn't expect anything from what came next.
Hyejin hadn't changed. Today like yesterday, yesterday like the day before, she lived as if she were about to die. That also looked like she didn't want to stay long in a world like this.
That stung a little.
I still didn't have clear certainty myself. But hadn't I, after obtaining the System... changed Seoul quite a bit? The food situation had improved greatly, and we used more electricity.
Wasn't that worth having at least a little expectation? For the future.
So I left one more word.
"Live a little longer."
"Huh?"
"Just live about 10 more years. I'll make you a college student."
"...Pffhaha! So I'd be thirty and starting my first year of college? That's way too late. Then when am I supposed to get a job? Forget it."
Forget it, my ass.
Just watch. Watch how Seoul changes.
Kim Sohye made up her mind and accepted Noah Won's field training proposal.
After her older sister returned alive, her life's goal had changed. From now on, she wanted to become tremendously strong so that no threat could ever reach her sister. If possible, as strong as Noah.
Also, her older sister Kim Sojin had earnestly urged Sohye: learn and master the advanced training methods of Noah's world, then teach them to her.
Since only those granted the System could travel to other worlds, Kim Sohye had to meticulously learn everything she was told. Only then could she plant seeds in her own world.
She was ready. She was resolved!
"Now, this is Kim Sohye. Sohye, this is Lee Hyejin. While you're here, Hyejin will oversee your training. I've put together the curriculum myself and left it for you, so don't worry."
"P-pleased to meet you..."
But.
"...Hmm?"
Chill—!
The look in the eyes of that school-uniformed girl reeking of cigarette smoke. Seeing those eyes, the thought that something had gone wrong arose on its own. Her sensitive instincts had detected danger.
"Pleased to meet you, Sohye! Since you're a beginner, shall we take it easy today—just until you throw up three times!"
"...Excuse me?"
"Yes!"
Perhaps her resolve was just a tiny bit insufficient...