Awls That Pierce the Pocket
When the crow claimed that bastard’s skull could stop bullets, I figured it was pure exaggeration.
But watching it take more than a dozen full swings with an iron bar just to crack open, it felt more like an understatement if anything.
…No matter how I look at it, toughness on this level doesn’t make any sense.
Even if the thing had been chugging liters of milk every day like some relative of Popeye and lived a hundred years, bone density still wouldn’t turn out like this.
I stared uncomfortably at the black brain matter oozing from the cracks, then shoved a kitchen knife into the gap and stirred the inside of the skull a few full circles.
Even in wars between ordinary humans, confirmation kills are mandatory. Against a mutant bastard like this, how much more so?
After turning the brain into absolute mush—enough that not even the monster’s grandfather could ever rise again—I poked at the other bones, wondering if they were just as hard.
…Master, are you alive?
The voice coming from deep past my eardrums made me freeze. I set the iron bar down and was about to open my mouth when—
Haah, I knew it would end up like this.
Unable to endure even that brief silence, the crow started muttering to itself.
Still, he was a decent user… Why wouldn’t he listen no matter how much I tried to stop him… Really. That stubborn human.
“…Sorry for being stubborn.”
?!
I didn’t even need to see it to know exactly what kind of reaction the crow was making.
…Y-You’re alive? I believed in you the whole time!
“Don’t bullshit me. Just now you said you knew it would end up like this.”
…Ahem, ahem! Anyway, was my support any help? I put quite a bit of effort into allocating resources as efficiently as possible.
“Yeah. It was pretty decent.”
Whatever else, it had definitely kept the corpses from interfering while I finished the thing off.
I calculated the optimal timing so Master could escape easily. There’s no way it wouldn’t help.
“…Escape?”
You’re hiding after running away right now, aren’t you? Since there’s no roaring like before, you must have shaken it off cleanly.
Did you lure it all the way outside the building? That would be a total jackpot!
It had only been a few hours since the crow was spouting nonsense about a new world or whatever. When the hell had it picked up slang like that?
I could have corrected the misunderstanding, but whether from the aftermath of the brutal fight or the sudden wave of annoyance—no, fatigue—I let it go.
Yes? Yes? Master. Please answer. Where is the Beta entity right now?
“Where else? Right under my feet.”
…Pardon? I misheard.
“You heard right. Anyway, I’m heading up now.”
I tucked the orangutan’s head—sawed off with the kitchen knife until the blade was completely dull—under my arm and walked toward the main building.
Along the way I glanced back at the scene spread across the playground.
My red blood and the orangutan’s black blood, mixed with the countless white and red frosts they had shed, all blended together decorating the playground like some piece of modern art.
Looking at it, a slasher movie I’d seen sometime came floating up in my head.
One where every character gets massacred by irresistible violence just like that orangutan.
It was absurd that I’d fought a monster that belonged in a movie like that alone and cut its throat.
In the end I shook my head with a hollow laugh, stared once more at the mangled orangutan neck, and kept walking.
Moving, deep cleaning—there were more than one or two big jobs waiting.
Now let’s finally try a hot shower. Please.
And a little later.
When I opened the broadcast room door holding the head, I’ll skip the part where she first looked happy then fell over in shock.
The sun was starting to set, so I had to hurry the move before it got completely dark. But first I explained the current situation to the crow; it barely managed to calm down and slowly nodded.
…Yes, well. I understand. So Master has a few people under your responsibility, and you’re bringing them all here today?
“Not exactly under my responsibility. But let’s say that for now.”
For me, the more people the better. Honestly, Master’s personality is so cynical that talking wasn’t any fun…
“What?”
When I leaned in at the muttering under its breath, the crow hurriedly played dumb.
No! Just that my role is to take responsibility for the welfare of all humanity at the end of this world. Feel free to bring as many as you want.
“Got it. Then I’ll go get them right away, so if anything happens in the meantime…”
I was about to half-heartedly tell it to handle things cleverly on its own, but paused at the sight of the helpless 3D creature on the monitor staring with those bright eyes, and rephrased.
“…Remember every little thing, and tell me everything when I get back.”
Yes! Leave it to me!
She answered with her tension still sky-high, as if my surviving was such a joyous occasion.
Master. But how did you really kill that Beta entity? Really, truly, it’s something that doesn’t make sense. This is…
“Ah, come on.”
I closed the door in disgust at the fifth identical question as I hurriedly tried to leave the broadcast room.
After that, standing in the pleasantly quiet hallway watching the setting sun, I thought.
First grind this head on the rooftop, and if it’s as valuable as the crow said, grind the whole corpse too.
By the way, I know most schools have tons of bikes students use for commuting piled up in the back.
I should borrow a few.
Sssss—
Hoooooo—
Jonghun blankly watched his younger sister lying on the bed, staring only at the sky outside the window.
The way she inhaled from the inhaler with her frail body that looked ready to collapse at any moment looked almost like smoking from the side, so Jonghun opened his mouth with a pointless smile.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“I’m pondering the reason I have to keep living.”
“…What the hell?”
This girl, after I begged and begged to barely save her… Looking at her with absurd eyes, Jiyun turned her gaze from the sky and met his.
“It’s true. Someday food will run out, and if something like earlier happens, I’ll just be a burden for sure. What’s the point of living?”
“If I’d just died a few days ago, Oppa wouldn’t have to worry about me going forward.”
“…Stop right there. I’m really going to get mad.”
After Jiyun miraculously survived, Jonghun never once raised his voice or made any threatening move toward her.
No—more accurately, he couldn’t.
Perhaps because of the responsibility that she was the only person he had to protect in place of their parents whose life or death he still didn’t know. Jonghun’s heart softened every time he saw Jiyun.
But even so, hearing what Jiyun was saying now, he couldn’t help the heat rising.
Without even knowing how Jonghun himself thought of her.
Still, hiding the reason for that anger and desperately managing his expression, he said one thing.
“If you say things like that, what does that make Sijun hyungnim who risked his life to save you?”
“…..”
Jonghun stared hard into his sister’s eyes as she immediately shut her mouth at those words, and continued.
“Park Jiyun, instead of wasting time saying you’re a burden or whatever, you should first figure out how to repay hyungnim for your life. Right?”
“…What can I even do. How am I supposed to help someone that amazing…”
At that question, this time Jonghun lost his words in turn.
Right then, Yejin’s voice calling him urgently from outside Jiyun’s door was heard.
“Jonghun-ssi! Come out quick! Sijun oppa is—”
“…What? Hyungnim is back?!”
Startled, he met eyes with Jiyun who also rose from the bed in surprise, then hurriedly left the master bedroom and walked to the living room.
Someone must have opened the door for him instead of Jonghun; a man entered.
Sijun, covered in blood as usual and holding a blood-soaked iron bar in one hand, stepped through the front door and opened his mouth.
“Everyone pack your stuff. Food, clothes, and anything useful—pack it all and put it in the van under the villa.”
“…What? Oppa, what do you mean…”
Yejin, undeterred by that bloody appearance, approached close and kept checking his condition before asking.
“…No no, before that Oppa. Are you sure you’re okay first? Nothing happened?”
“It’s not that nothing happened—there were a few things. I’ll tell you after we finish moving. Everyone pack first.”
“What do you mean…”
Flustered Yejin met Sijun’s eyes once, then obediently nodded and immediately opened the front door and ran to the wardrobe downstairs.
Then Sijun, scanning the still bewildered others, said one thing.
“If you want to properly wash that body reeking of blood and sweat, hurry as much as possible. Women maybe not, but men are first come first served for sure.”
At his words that it would be decided by who packs more snappily, and the single word “shower,” everyone’s expressions had to change.
Swept up in the atmosphere, Jonghun and Jiyun also helped packing before suddenly pausing.
“…Uh, um. But hyungnim? Is it okay for us to join?”
As soon as Jonghun said that, Sijun’s reaction of frowning made his body shrink automatically.
“What kind of obvious question is that. You two live alone? When some crazy bastard who smashes the front door might come again anytime?”
“Th-that… it would be hard, but still, I don’t want to impose more on hyungnim here…”
Sijun grabbed the shoulder of Jonghun who was stammering from too much surprise.
“Don’t talk bullshit and pack your stuff quick.”
“…Understood, hyungnim!”
Jonghun was so moved he didn’t hear Sijun muttering about what bullshit he was spouting when there was no time.