An Honest Man
I opened the eyes I had shut against a blaze of white light.
My body was locked stiff. My shoulders had drawn in, and my neck was rigid. I stood planted on both feet—the very posture I had last held in the convenience store—and in that same stance, I had arrived here. A phone in one hand, a shopping basket in the other.
The screen was frozen on the last thing I had been looking at. It had not even gone dark. An instant. In the space of a single instant, I had been moved here. Seeing that made it strangely, undeniably real.
I had been so tense I had not noticed I had stopped breathing. I drew a breath.
A different landscape, different air, a different smell. Every one of my senses was telling me I had come to the Tower.
I looked into the basket. The things inside sat exactly as I had last seen them. Didn't spill a thing. That I could count this a relief, of all things, struck me as a little ridiculous.
As my stiffened body loosened, my surroundings came into clearer focus. Stone underfoot, low buildings, and people threading the gaps between them. Some stole glances at me, newly appeared; others loitered nearby without bothering to hide it. Their clothes, and the look of the street, were nothing like what I knew. It felt as if I had stepped onto some busy thoroughfare of the Middle Ages.
Then a woman with blue eyes and blonde hair walked slowly toward me.
"Hello."
A dry, colorless greeting. The nameplate on her chest was written in English.
Jane.
She was clearly a foreigner, and yet words that seemed like neither English nor anything else reached my ears and translated themselves with perfect clarity.
"Ah. Yes."
I returned the greeting before I had quite caught up.
"I'm Jane, with Nyx."
"...Ah."
For a second I wondered whether I ought to answer that I was Park Minsu, of the convenience store.
"I know you're in no state for this. We at Nyx assist those who have just been summoned."
A stiff delivery, as if she had already repeated the line more times than she could count.
Nyx. That name, I knew. I had heard it in the Tower newsletters I always made a point of reading.
"Right."
My suspicion eased a little.
"Will you come with me."
Her manner suggested that even if I refused, she would simply turn and go. I answered with a nod.
I could not have said how many steps we walked. All the same, she stopped before the most respectable-looking building in sight.
"A new summon."
The man gave a small nod. Jane handed me off to the burly fellow and turned back toward the plaza we had come from. She was probably some bored employee who waited out there and passed newcomers like me along the moment we dropped in.
So people live here, too. The thought loosened my nerves a little further.
The burly man opened the door and went in. We still had not so much as exchanged greetings. No nameplate. There was none on his chest, either. Maybe a rank where your face settled everything.
"A new summon?"
A woman seated at what looked like a reception desk asked him, but once again he answered with a nod so slight you could barely tell it was there.
Following him up the stairs, the basket kept getting in the way. Two floors up, he knocked on a large door—knock, knock—and a voice soon told us to come in.
"A new summon."
It was the first time I had heard the burly man's voice.
"Oh, hello."
This time it was proper Korean. Black hair, dark eyes, and even the slight bow of his neck... this man was Korean.
"Ah, yes. Hello."
He gestured toward the seat across from him.
"You're Korean, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Meeting someone from home, he smiled until his narrow eyes curved as far as they would go.
"It's been a while. Since I've met a Korean."
"Ah."
I had nothing to say to that. Up until a moment ago, Koreans were all I had ever seen.
"Even so, you're remarkably calm. I expect you'll do well here."
His gaze drifted to the basket I was holding against my chest.
"Ah."
Once again, I had no ready answer.
"I've been slow to introduce myself. I'm Kim Taeyong. I run the Nyx Merchant Guild."
"Park Minsu."
We shared the awkward handshake of office workers. A hard callus sat on the middle joint of the hand that gripped mine—less the hand of a man who had held a sword than one that had gripped a pen for a very long time.
"People live here, too. The Tower has already been around for twenty years."
Taeyong steered the conversation with practiced ease.
"There are merchant guilds, shops, restaurants. It's more livable than you'd think."
That alone set me a little more at ease. Strange, when he had not even said I would not die.
"We offer help to people who have just arrived. More precisely, it's closer to a transaction."
"A transaction?"
"Goods brought from Earth, or the latest news."
Earth. That seemed to be what people here called the world outside.
"Soccer, baseball, it doesn't matter. Celebrity talk, or something newly released—those are fine, too. If it's information we already have, the price does drop."
I thought for a moment, then asked.
"Is esports all right, too?"
Why not. Esports is a sport.
Taeyong let out a short laugh.
"Of course."
Only then did I pause to think. What did I actually know?
"Just tell me lightly, if you would. How are things in Korea these days?"
That the president had changed. That since communication had become possible, the families of the summoned were being treated far better than before. I told him a few things as they came to me, and Taeyong listened with considerable interest.
Then, abruptly, he asked.
"Then how is Nyx Group?"
Something in his eyes shifted. Everything before had been an appetizer for this question.
"Ah, they're doing very well."
This, I knew. I had overheard a thoroughly drunk customer on the phone, boasting that he had made a fortune on Nyx Group stock.
"They landed a major contract overseas, and I heard they're building a new factory."
"Ah. Is that so."
A faint smile touched the corner of Taeyong's mouth. After a brief silence, he asked.
"And the Chairman?"
"Hm... that, I wouldn't know."
The man's face stiffened, just a fraction.
"The truth is, I'm the second son there."
"Ah."
"Turns out even a chaebol heir can't dodge a summons to the Tower."
Taeyong laughed.
"I did manage to get out of military service, though."
For a second I wondered whether I was allowed to laugh. Then a memory surfaced. I had once seen an article about a chaebol family's son being summoned to the Tower. So this was that man.
"Still, I'm glad the company is running well."
He said it that way, but the look left at the end of his smile seemed a little bitter.
"What about your skill?"
I chose silence over an answer. I did not know yet.
"I've kept someone who has only just arrived far too long."
At that, Taeyong nodded as if he understood, and moved his gaze to the basket.
"Do you mean to use everything in there yourself?"
I looked down into it. A toothbrush, toothpaste, a towel, a power bank, instant ramen. I had swept them in in a hurry, and even I was not sure which of them I actually needed.
"Shall I take a look?"
"Yes."
Taeyong looked through the basket.
"They make toothbrushes and toothpaste on this side, too. You'd be better off just using those."
His hand stopped on the power bank.
"This fetches a decent price."
"A power bank does?"
"A lot of people need something charged. A phone that still has photos or videos on it is a rather precious thing."
Ah.
"And the ramen."
Taeyong smiled.
"This sells well, too."
My gaze on the ramen wavered, just slightly. Eat it... no. Sell it?
"It's better to have money at the start. This place is where people live, in the end."
Taeyong calculated for a moment, then brought out a small box. A clink, and unfamiliar coins were set upon the table.
"For the information and the goods together, I'll give you five Gold and thirty Silver."
Was that a fair amount?
"Haha. You won't have to worry about starving, or sleeping on the street, anytime soon. Spend it carefully, and it should last you three or four months."
Taeyong, who had been waiting on my answer, moved first. A hearty laugh, and eyes drawn long and thin. He did not seem to be lying. Even so.
"Hm. The truth is, I've valued it on the high side."
The master of a merchant guild had no reason to lie about information he could learn just by stepping outside.
"To put it simply... ah, yes. If you think of one Gold as about a million won in Korean money, it's easy."
Hm.
"A decent meal runs about one Silver."
I kept calculating in my head.
"This is the money here?"
"Yes. It's made by refining Magic Stones. The color is why they're called Gold, Silver, and Copper. Rather sly of them, really..."
The words he added under his breath sounded somehow bitter.
"A hundred Copper to one Silver, a hundred Silver to one Gold. For now, just remember that much. You can learn the rest in time."
Five Gold and thirty Silver. So, roughly 5.3 million won. The rest, as he had said, I could figure out as I went.
"Then, will you make the trade?"
I glanced down at the basket once more. The ramen and the power bank... I was a little reluctant to part with them. Even so.
"Yes."
Right. For two packs of ramen and a single power bank, it was more than enough. And right now I needed money more than I needed ramen.
Should've packed more power banks. Or was the ramen worth more?
Taeyong put the coins into a small pouch and handed it to me. I tucked it firmly into the pocket of my convenience store vest and zipped it all the way shut. That felt safer than the pocket of my sweatpants.
"By the way."
Taeyong's eyes curved long and thin again.
"You won't tell me your skill? I might be able to help."
A brief silence passed.
"I still don't really know."
I haven't even looked yet.
"Hm."
At my answer, his eyes bent into crescents.
It was a loaded thing to say.
"Then I'll see you again."
"Yes. Until then."
And so my first meeting with Taeyong came to an end.
© GrandJackpot #1qxce
Author's Note
Thank you.