Two by Two
The sun had already set, and the world was beginning to darken into dusk. At the shrine entrance, two guards stood watch.
One of the guards pulled a cigarette from his pack and muttered, “Damn it. No matter how low-ranking we are, standing guard in a place like this feels pathetic. What the hell were those cadets thinking, doing something like that in a shrine of all places?”
The other guard chuckled. “Heh heh. Forbidden places always make secret meetings feel more thrilling, don’t they?”
“Tsk. Still, no matter how rowdy those kids in their prime got inside the shrine, it’s ridiculous that we have to stand guard over it.”
Shhhk. The guard lit the cigarette between his lips. The one beside him said, “What else can we do? We just follow orders from the higher-ups and collect our paychecks.”
“Anyway, ever since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the world hasn’t been the same. They keep saying we’re in a time of war so we have to stay tense in body and mind. Both Japan and Joseon are getting harsher by the day.”
“Hey. Someone’s coming.”
The two guards, who had been idly chatting, spotted two female cadets climbing the shrine steps and immediately stopped them.
“Hold it. Who are you two?”
The ones who halted were a silver-haired girl with a long daenggi braid and a red-brown-haired girl with a ponytail. It was Lee Yuha and Hong Okrye.
Lee Yuha lifted her head and asked politely, “May we enter for a moment?”
After hearing her, the guards conferred with each other.
“Uh… wait. Should we let them in?”
“The order was ‘Do not allow male and female cadets to approach, as they may engage in improper behavior.’ These two are both girls, so it should be fine, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Right. Let’s just follow the instructions we received.”
After their discussion, one of them called out, “Oi! You two can go in.”
“Just keep it quiet in there. And don’t drink any alcohol or anything, got it?”
They let them through without much fuss. Lee Yuha, who had expected the guards to block their way, was instead left feeling dazed.
“……?”
In truth, the men guarding the shrine entrance were nothing more than low-ranking sentries. They had no knowledge of the ‘hidden underground beneath the shrine’ or the events that had taken place there. They had only received the surface-level order to ‘prevent male and female cadets from approaching due to the risk of improper conduct.’ Naturally, they saw no reason to stop two female students.
Still somewhat bewildered, Lee Yuha passed the guards and entered the shrine. She thought that if the security was this lax, Baek Chulyeon might have found a way inside as well.
He might really be in here.
With that thought, she walked deeper into the shrine. From behind her came the sound of the guards resuming their idle chatter.
“You think those two are doing that too?”
“Doing what?”
“You know, during their school days, female cadets often fall for each other.”
“Aha…! Heh heh. Could be. A forbidden romance in a forbidden place…”
Lee Yuha felt her face grow hot. There were proper rules between yin and yang, yet talk of romance between women? What kind of bizarre nonsense was that?
And with that Hong girl, of all people?
Suppressing the embarrassing heat rising within her, Lee Yuha led Hong Okrye toward the storage shed beside the shrine’s worship hall.
But when they opened the door, neither Baek Chulyeon nor Yang Bok-ja was inside.
Not here?
Lee Yuha stood at the threshold, beginning to wonder where else they might have gone.
Meanwhile, Hong Okrye, who had entered the shed with her, noticed something. A rope hanging messily on the wall! It was the very same rope Baek Chulyeon had used to tie her up last time.
Fearing Lee Yuha might notice something strange, Hong Okrye casually walked over and straightened the rope while saying, “U-um… it doesn’t look like he’s here. Maybe Baek Chulyeon didn’t come to a place guarded by sentries after all?”
“Indeed… I thought the same.”
After all, no matter how bold Baek Chulyeon was, he probably wouldn’t have come all the way to a guarded area just to have a secret rendezvous. Lee Yuha looked around the inside of the shed. The small storage room, only about two pyeong in size, was the shrine’s ritual equipment repository. Inside were unfamiliar Japanese-style ceremonial tools, completely different from the ancestral rites she performed back home. There was nothing else of note.
However, Lee Yuha spotted something that felt out of place in the corner near the shed’s entrance. Beneath the shelf where the ritual vessels were neatly arranged, a single gas mask lay discarded.
This… isn’t this from the Otherworld Botanical Garden? Why is it here?
Sure enough, the gas mask even had a tag indicating it belonged to the Otherworld Botanical Garden. Thinking it would be best to return it, Lee Yuha picked it up without much thought.
She was about to leave the shed when a lingering reluctance stopped her. Standing at the doorway, she asked Hong Okrye, “Are you truly not going to tell me what you and Baek Chulyeon did here?”
At those words, Hong Okrye’s face went pale with shock.
What Lee Yuha was holding was the gas mask Hong Okrye had used a few days ago when she tried to blow up the shrine. Right after being caught by Baek Chulyeon and dragged into this shed, she had forgotten it here. The fact that Lee Yuha had picked it up and was now questioning her like this could only mean she already knew everything.
“S-s-save me!”
“?”
“I-I won’t tell anyone! Just spare my life!”
Panicking, Hong Okrye stumbled backward and slammed into the wall. But the wall spun around, revealing a pitch-black abyss that looked like a bottomless cliff!
Hong Okrye possessed not only lightning emission abilities but also physical reinforcement in the agility category, which she had used to master Taekkyon. Yet with her center of gravity already compromised, she couldn’t stop herself.
“Kyaaak!”
She toppled backward, upper body first. As she felt the sensation of falling, Hong Okrye squeezed her eyes shut.
But something was wrong.
It’s cold?!
She wasn’t falling downward. Feeling the chill, she opened her eyes and realized her feet were frozen solid to the shed floor up to her ankles.
Lee Yuha wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “……Thank goodness I wasn’t too late.”
“Y-you… saved me…?”
“……? Of course I had to help. Isn’t that obvious?”
Hong Okrye hung upside down, her upper body dangling into the darkness while only her feet remained stuck to the floor. Lee Yuha approached and extended her hand.
“Hurry and take it. The ice will melt soon.”
“U-uh… yeah…”
Hong Okrye grabbed Lee Yuha’s hand. Despite the girl’s cold words, demeanor, and abilities, the hand holding hers was warm.
Clack!
I pulled the lever to the 開 (open) position. There was no audible sound, but I felt something click solidly into place.
Good.
Whether this lever truly opened the hidden passage in the magic beast stable would be confirmed once I returned there.
“Let’s go.”
I headed back toward the magic beast stable with Renka. The beast was still asleep. After releasing the lock I had placed on the cage and stepping inside, Renka followed and asked quietly, “Is this really okay?”
“Well, it should be fine. I was told it would stay asleep for at least an hour or two.”
“I’m not sure I can trust the abilities of that perverted female cadet…”
Why did this girl keep picking on Yang Bok-ja? Anyway, it seemed the lever from Professor Nakamori’s lab had been the correct one. The manhole—no, the hatch—inside the magic beast stable was wide open. The entrance was large enough for a medium-sized magic beast to pass through easily.
“This is it. Let’s head in.”
I jumped down into the passage, and Renka lightly leaped in after me. The tunnel, which received no light from outside, was pitch dark.
“Renka, light.”
“Yes.”
Whoosh!
Flames erupted along Renka’s sword. The dark passage finally brightened a little. I said to her, “Can you shine it on the floor and walls for a moment?”
When Renka brought her blade close to the floor, the large claw marks of the Claw Wolf we had encountered in the shrine basement the other day became clearly visible. The walls bore the same marks. The long passage ran perfectly straight but sloped gradually downward. Though being underground made it hard to tell cardinal directions, considering the location of the magic beast stable on the surface, this tunnel was definitely heading toward the school shrine.
This is the right passage.
The school shrine stood at the center of the campus grounds, while the magic beast stable was on the outskirts. The distance between them was considerable—roughly five to six hundred meters in a straight line.
How long had we been walking? We continued in silence until Renka suddenly spoke.
“Shirabayashi-san.”
“Hm?”
“What exactly is that ‘star candy’ machine? I still don’t understand why you’re so interested in it.”
It seemed my earlier mutter of “computer” had sounded like “konpeito” (star candy) to her, and she had kept calling it that ever since. It had been bothering me, so I corrected her.
“It’s not konpeito. It’s a ‘computer.’ Com-pyu-ter.”
“Kom-pyu-ta…?”
“Yeah. That’s close enough…”
Well, she was Japanese. “Kompyuta” was about as accurately as she could pronounce it. Renka asked again.
“Anyway, what is that machine used for? I’m not very familiar with machines or science, but do you have reason to believe it’s not simply a barrier maintenance device?”
“Well, a computer isn’t a machine built for such a simple purpose. It uses binary code to perform abstract logical operations…”
“……?”
Of course Renka couldn’t understand. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to explain it either. Even though I had used computers casually in the 21st century, explaining their fundamental operating principles wasn’t something most people could do unless it was their specialty.
Still, I tried my best to make her understand.
“For example, the computer down there is made up of hundreds or thousands of vacuum tubes. Turning each one on or off is treated as a 1 or 0, allowing the machine to perform logical calculations according to programmed procedures.”
“Ah!”
Renka let out a sound of realization and said, “It’s like a soroban (abacus), then?”
“No…”
I gave up trying to explain computers to Renka. It was partly the era, but mostly because she had no interest in machines or science. If it had been someone with actual scientific knowledge, maybe they could have understood even my clumsy explanation…
“Whoa!”
At the bus stop near the school entrance, Song Byeong-o had been reading a newspaper while waiting for the bus home. He adjusted his glasses and muttered, “I already knew they were doing atomic nucleus research with a cyclotron in Osaka, but the Germans have actually succeeded in splitting the atomic nucleus! Tsk tsk… When a uranium atom is split, it releases atomic energy of twenty million volts… If another world war breaks out, we’re all in serious trouble.”
Song Byeong-o clicked his tongue and folded the newspaper, setting it aside.
Just then, someone walking down from the school entrance called out to him in a loud voice.
“Hey! Four-eyed Joseon bastard!”
It was Murasaki. Song Byeong-o was startled.
Oh no.
Why was that guy calling him? Song Byeong-o felt somewhat uncomfortable around Murasaki, who was in the same squad. Actually, uncomfortable didn’t even begin to cover it. Given his strong aversion to the police, the son of the Jongno Police Chief was the last person Song Byeong-o wanted to deal with.
Whether aware of Song Byeong-o’s feelings or not, Murasaki strode over angrily. Without any preamble, he demanded, “What the hell is up with that Shirabayashi guy?!”
Not understanding why the question was directed at him, Song Byeong-o answered awkwardly, “Huh? Uh… I don’t know. What exactly are you curious about?”
“Damn it! Shit!… I finally offered to buy him a beer, and the bastard dares to refuse, saying he has something to do?!”
Song Byeong-o didn’t know, but Murasaki actually felt a slight sense of guilt toward Baek Chulyeon. It was true that Baek Chulyeon had gotten hurt because of him, and Murasaki wasn’t stupid enough to deny it. However, being rejected even after offering to buy drinks as a gesture of reconciliation had made him furious.
Murasaki asked again, “What is that guy so busy with that he’d turn down my offer?”
“……Why are you asking me?”
“What?! You four-eyed Joseon punk are close with that arrogant Joseon brat, so you must know!”
Song Byeong-o broke into a cold sweat. Even he had no idea where Baek Chulyeon went or what he did. But under Murasaki’s persistent pressure, a memory from a few days ago suddenly surfaced, and he spoke up.
“Well, um… Oh! I’m not sure, but I think he might be dating someone.”
“What? Dating?”
“Yeah. A few days ago, he was worrying over a female student’s handkerchief. So I gave him some advice…”
Upon hearing the answer, something occurred to Murasaki as well.
Dating?
Now that he thought about it, all day today—from noble girls to that expensive Joseon girl earlier—every single female had been looking for that guy. And those Joseon girls from before had said they were going to the shrine to find Shirabayashi.
An obscene image formed in Murasaki’s mind.
“He dares to fool around with women in a sacred shrine? As expected, that bastard has no respect! Filthy Joseon scum!”
“What…?”
The slight guilt Murasaki had felt toward Baek Chulyeon was now completely overshadowed by indignation and disgust. Enraged, Murasaki shouted, “Arrogant Joseon bastard! I’ll ruin it for him!”
With that, he ran back toward the school. Seeing this, Song Byeong-o jumped up in surprise. He was curious who Baek Chulyeon had been agonizing over with that handkerchief and who he was ‘dating,’ but it would be a disaster if Baek Chulyeon got into another fight with Murasaki. So, reluctantly, Song Byeong-o chased after him, heading back to school.
“Hey! Wait! Damn it…”
“Damn… those girls are really going at it.”
One of the guards muttered. He had heard a loud clattering noise coming from the ritual equipment storage beside the shrine’s worship hall.
The other guard laughed ominously. “Heh heh. Want to go take a look?”
“Forget it. What if the guard captain catches us abandoning our post?”
“Tsk…”
The guard who had licked his lips in vain pulled out another cigarette and said, “Anyway, these days even the girls are no joke.”
“At least it’s just girls. Heh heh. In decadent places like England or America, it’s the men who—”
“Ugh, what the hell. Don’t say such disgusting things. …Hey. Someone else is coming up.”
“Now what?”
The two guards stared at the dark shrine steps. Once again, someone was running up the stairs. This time it was a large male cadet and a scrawny male cadet wearing glasses. Unlike before, these were two male students.
One of the guards muttered, “Don’t tell me these guys are… that?”