Chapter 78
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 78 - How to Escape From Being a Troublemaker (8)
The person with the soft voice who called me looked up at me with tearful eyes.
“Sister was sold too…?”
The child, with his characteristic blue eyes, blue hair, and gill-shaped ears, was very small. He appeared to be a mixed race, especially a mermaid.
Moreover, he asked if I was sold?
“No, I was kidnapped.”
“You can’t kidnap someone, though…?”
“Right. You also can’t sell someone.”
“I see.”
He slowly nodded at my words.
At that time, the car stopped moving. The men shouted, banging on the body of the car.
“Get off!”
I have to loosen my feet to get off, you idiots.
As the darkness cleared, the visible landscape was a ruin lined with half-collapsed buildings. Among the ruins, I could see houses that were roughly built and looked as if they would collapse at any moment.
The place we arrived at was a place that seemed to be a recycled building that was still intact among the ruins.
“It’s fine, though.”
“The price is…”
I fiddled with my wrist, where the rope had come loose.
Although I looked around, there was no place to escape.
As I was comforting the child clinging to me, I felt eyes on me. I could see the head of a child my age through the broken window. When our eyes met, the child’s head fell down.
“Thank you always!”
The men who kidnapped me smiled brightly as if they had completed their transaction and drove away.
And the man who seemed to have bought us approached us with a kind smile.
“I’m glad you’re safe. This was the only way to save you.”
The man smiled sweetly and continued speaking.
“This is a government-run shelter. It’s my job to protect children like you and move them to a middle ground.”
At those words, the child seemed relieved and relaxed his entire body.
The man brought us into the building. The inside of the building was old, but it looked livable.
“Please rest here for a while. The other kids will guide you on how to get along. Guys!”
At those words, children around my age or younger than me showed up. They were looking at us with curious look.
“New friends! Be nice! So, will our Fox take care of our new friends?”
(it’s actually Yeowoo (여우) which means fox. but the way the man gives names, i think he does it literally)
At those words, a boy with fox ears and a tail came up to the children and answered.
“Yes.”
The boy appeared to be of mixed fox beastman race.
‘Now that I think about it, most of the children here are mixed races.’
As I looked around at the children, I noticed something unique. It’s amazing that people of mixed race, which are rare, were gathered together like this.
The man looked at us and said to the child.
“Our mermaid friend’s name is, um… Half-mermaid will be nice!”
Half-mermaid?
I frowned a little at the way he gave the child a name without even asking him.
Strangely enough, the man also asked me my name.
“What is this friend’s name?”
“Nahyun. Kang Nahyun.”
“Mmhm, Nahyun! If you have any difficulties, tell me right away!”
I felt something filthy. This person is somehow…
“I’ll show you to the rooms.”
Then Fox came up to us. He spoke bluntly and turned his back.
We made eye contact and followed Fox in silence.
“This is the bedroom. That’s the dining room.”
Although Fox was blunt, he guided us faithfully.
As we walked along him, several children observed us from a distance with sparkling eyes.
The building wasn’t that big, so it didn’t take long to be shown around.
Nothing much happened after that. There wasn’t much territoriality, but no one approached first.
I’ll be able to get along well and return to the middle zone like the director said. That’s what I thought.
Until dinner time.
“You’re not going to eat?”
While I was drinking the soup that was almost like a clear soup, I noticed the child sitting next to me chewing the bread that came with it and pushing the soup away.
“If I eat this, my throat gets itchy.”
The child focused his blue eyes on mine and pointed to the soup.
Is it an allergy? I looked at the soup with no idea what was in it and asked him.
“The inside of your throat itches as soon as you eat it?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright. Don’t eat it. Just eat bread.”
I also gave my bread to the child. This place was so sparing with its supplies that the bread was so small to the extent it fitted perfectly into a child’s small hands.
The child took the bread and smiled softly. How cute.
As I was thinking that, I heard a man’s friendly voice from behind me.
“Gosh. You can’t be a picky eater.”
The man grinned and squatted down behind the child. Then he picked up the soup bowl that the child had pushed away and thrust it at him.
“A good child eats everything, right?”
The child seemed taken aback by those words.
“I-I don’t like that. It itches.”
“Director, he seems to be allergic, so I don’t think he should eat that.”
The man, who was the director, didn’t pay any attention to my words.
“Allergies also get better with eating.”
What bullshit? However, the director kept pushing the bowl at the child. The child seemed frightened by the bowl that came right in front of his nose.
“Director, stop…”
“I told you to eat!”
“Stop!”
I hit the bowl the director was holding with all my might and made it fall to the ground.
Clank, clank…
The sound of a bowl rolling on the ground was heard. The atmosphere calmed down.
The moment I felt like the director’s eyes were twisted,
Slap!
A sharp pain clung to my cheek.
“How dare you criticize what a teacher does?”
The director started to get angry as if he had never been so gentle. Pain ran through my entire body.
“You have no manners!”
The director, who had been beating me for a while, left me and disappeared from the dining room only after he let go of his anger.
I straightened my crouched body only after confirming that the director had left the restaurant. It was to make sure the mermaid child was safe.
“Sisteeeer…”
The child was crying.
Still, there were no injuries. The mermaid child came quickly towards me and hugged me tightly.
“B-Because of me…”
At that moment, a creaking sound was heard from inside the dining room.
Soon something strange happened. The faucets in the restaurant turned at the same time and started pouring out water. Like the crying mermaid child.
“I-I…”
The child, who was crying, soon fainted and collapsed. I quickly supported the child’s collapsing body.
Before I knew it, it was raining and water was dripping from the ceiling.
I had a hunch. All of this is because of this child.
Fox quietly walked around and closed the open faucets.
“The water will go underground anyway. Because there are sewers. Now all we have to do is wipe it.”
“Thanks…”
The fox looked at me quietly and said something out of the blue.
“Do you know each other?”
“Huh?”
“Have you known Half-mermaid from the beginning?”
“No. We were just sold together.”
“Then… Is she just stupid, I wonder.”
“What? I didn’t hear you.”
“No, nothing.”
Fox was silent for a moment, then took a mop out of the cleaning drawer.
“The director won’t be coming out of the director’s office for a while, so clean it up in the meantime.”
The children who were with him also raised their hands and shouted.
“I’ll help you!”
“You were awesome!”
“Can I call you Sister?”
How cute. I responded by stroking the head of the half-dog, who came up to me and nuzzled her head.
“Thanks. Call me whatever you want.”
As if the boundaries had disappeared, the children were laughing and talking.
“I came here because they give something to eat! Some kind of government? Project? Like that!”
“Director? He does that often, but he’s a good person! If we endure just a little bit, we’ll even be eligible to live in the middle zone!”
Fox said that as if it was no big deal.
“Because I didn’t have a citizenship card, I was secretly living in the middle zone and couldn’t go back even if I was caught, but they gave me a citizenship card so I decided to hold on.”
…It was a bit of a heavy story to talk about with a smile, but whatever.
If I put together what I heard from the children, it was like this.
This orphanage was a pilot project run by the government, and seemed to be run to rescue children living in illegal settlements.
If they decide that they’re worthy of living in the middle zone, they will give them a citizenship card and adopt them to a suitable family in the middle zone.
Anyway, they have to endure here. Got it.
As evening passed and everyone was getting ready for bed, the child who had had the accident finally regained his consciousness.
“Someone like me must die…”
A few water droplets floated next to the child who was squatting in gloom.
The children seemed to find it fascinating and were poking and drinking the water droplets next to them… Wait, they drank that knowing what that was?
I tried to open a child’s watery mouth, yet he quickly swallowed the water and laughed. I’m going crazy.
“Don’t be like that~”
“That’s right, we’re fine~”
Still, the children sat around the mermaid child and offered comfort.
“I had a bit of trouble cleaning it up!”
“As expected, something like me…!”
“Yeah! The dining room floor will be a bit damp for a while, though!”
“I’m trash… … !”
…Comfort, isn’t it?
I pondered for a moment as I poked the cheeks of a child who kept trying to drink drops of water and drained the water.
Fox said as he laid down the children one by one.
“Let’s stop and go to sleep.”
However, the children’s energy could not be stopped, so we had to wait a while before we were able to turn off the lights in the room.
By the time all the children were put to bed, a comradeship had developed between Fox and me.
I lay down next to the mermaid child. Fox got out of the seat above me and laid down head to head with me.
As if the child wasn’t sleeping yet, he spoke to me again in a sleepy voice.
“Sorry…”
I told him it was fine, though. I patted the child one more time for no reason. I felt like I needed to change his mind to something else.
“It’s really fine. More than that, what’s your name?”
Come to think of it, I still didn’t know his name.
At my words, the child muttered and gave an answer in a low voice that made me doubt my ears.
“Half-fish…?”
The child must have seen my stiff expression and quickly brought out other names.
“Oh, there’s also Gills…! There’s also the new one, Half-mermaid, I acquired this time…!”
I tried to raise the corner of my lips.
“…Shall we come up with a new name?”
I thought deeply while stroking the child who had just rolled over and crawled into my blanket. I’m not good at coming up with names.
“Hmm… Is there something you want to do under this name?”
Then the child looked at me and said.
“I’d like to be the same with you.”
“With me?”
When I asked the child back, pointing at myself, he nodded his head. No, it’s still a bit wrong to give him my name. It’s confusing.
“Then… Let’s take the strong character from my name.”
I thought of the child’s abilities. Ability to handle gently flowing water. When I looked at the child’s blue hair and blue eyes, I thought of flowing blue water.
“And I think it would be better to add the letter ‘Yoo’.”
I rolled the words I made up in my mouth and then spit them out.
“Kangyoo, how is it?”
The child’s eyes widened at my words. Soon he smiled brightly.
“Love it!”
I got scared at the loud noise and covered the child, Kangyoo’s mouth.
“The kids will wake up…!”
When Kangyoo heard those words, he covered his own mouth as if he wanted to avoid it. Looking around, we saw that everyone was deeply asleep without even tossing and turning.
I let out a small sigh of relief and lay down again.
Not knowing what will happen the next day.