Leaving Jeju Island
“I had a good idea.”
After what happened yesterday, I’d expected her affection for me to cool, but judging by Yuseong’s posture, my hope seemed to have been granted.
“Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like a good idea for maintaining your stance. Your feet are too wide. Imagine it—not a charging bison, but striking and retreating like a chameleon’s tongue. Focus on speed. Of course, keeping your posture is the foundation.”
I corrected Yuseong’s stance and demonstrated. Without a sword, the movements I had performed countless times unfolded without betraying me. My right foot surged forward with explosive power from my left leg. My enhanced body accelerated far beyond anything I could have imagined before. Normally, one would lose balance at this stage, but my right foot, nearly glued to the ground, rolled forward exactly as far as I intended before stopping. The motion, repeated tens of thousands of times, swung an imaginary blade in place of the sword I no longer held.
I struck downward. But what I emphasized to Yuseong was the strike-and-retreat. The rest was simple—returning as quickly as always. The demonstration was swift and precise, the posture flawless.
-Paaang!
Of course, with my absurd physical abilities, the air where I had stood burst apart. The resulting sound was deafening. People nearby flinched and turned toward me, the source of the noise.
“…Was that too fast?”
“Yes. Did you know about Ne☆ro? It felt just like that.”
A sword making that sound when swung? An unenhanced body couldn’t possibly reach that level. At best, it would be too fast for the eye to follow. Though if I were still a swordsman, maybe it would have been possible.
“I might have managed it as a swordsman. Still, if you keep practicing, you could reach this level too. Your body is that of a warrior, unlike mine—you might even be faster.”
I offered a small boost of confidence.
“Anyway, you said you had a good idea earlier. Calling that guy from yesterday to deal with Steel…”
I raised my hand in front of Yuseong’s mouth to cut her off.
“Rejected. First of all, you didn’t think this through.”
“Please hear me out. You said he grants favors without taking payment. So what if multiple people shared the backlash?”
Yuseong’s voice was full of conviction. But it wouldn’t work.
“That being’s name is Changcheon Amgui. She is the one who created the world, and she scatters her power across the land for her own amusement, causing chaos.”
“…But you said she was a polytheistic god.”
“Even in polytheism, there are gods who created the world. Regardless, a single individual made a simple request, and look what happened to Baengnokdam—it froze over. That backlash will last at least a week. If we scaled that up to a national level, what kind of backlash would we face?”
Even as I spoke, I couldn’t fully grasp the scale. It would be an unimaginably horrific disaster.
“At minimum, everything within a certain radius of the center—probably an entire neighborhood—would freeze solid. Would the Korean Peninsula turn into Frostpunk?”
“Can the message be withdrawn?”
Yuseong looked frightened by the sudden escalation. She had probably thought Steel was the final boss, but hearing that beings of that magnitude actually existed must have been dizzying.
“A nation’s goal is its own survival and the survival of its citizens—not the eradication of the supernatural. If compromise is possible, then compromise is the reasonable choice. That’s why the government is starting with lower-ranking spirits, building experience through contracts.”
It wasn’t quite an invasion of Earth, but it still meant bowing to aliens. The words felt wrong coming from someone who hunted monsters. They were words no one who had watched people die or be eaten should easily say. In just one month, so much had happened that most Awakened on the front lines were teetering on the edge of madness. If I said this in front of them, blades would fly—and that went double for anyone whose family had been directly harmed by monsters.
“…”
Silence. It wasn’t the silence of someone about to stab me, but the quiet of someone lost in thought. At least she didn’t seem to have lost family to monsters. Nor did she seem particularly patriotic. She had some other purpose, but I couldn’t guess what it was.
“Unniiieee!”
At that moment, Dohwa came running toward me, clutching her rubber ball. Behind her was the golden retriever’s owner, out for a walk.
“Was playing with the puppy fun?”
“Yeah!”
Dohwa answered with a bright smile. She needed to move as much as she could while she still could. I thanked the owner briefly, then fixed Dohwa’s scarf, which had come undone.
“Yuseong. I’m leaving Jeju Island in three days. You understand what that means, right?”
It meant returning to the mainland, where every corner was hell instead of peaceful Jeju. Yuseong knew that.
“Do we have to go back to the hospital again?”
For Dohwa, it meant returning to that bleak place. But it was necessary. Jeju’s hospitals weren’t enough to treat her. I needed materials for her treatment—the inner core of fire. And ultimately, I needed power. I couldn’t support Dohwa by running away forever. I had already seen things I shouldn’t have, and I had already fought battles where my life was on the line.
Yes. I was giving Yuseong a choice.
“Think it over again. Whether you’re truly prepared to follow me, even if it costs you your life.”
“I’m home.”
The only thing that greeted Yuseong as she opened the door was silence and the bare minimum of furniture in her studio apartment. The only thing that felt remotely human was the family photo on the wall—but Kim Yuseong’s face wasn’t in it.
Correction—Kim Yuseong’s face was there. Along with her parents’ and her older sister’s. It was just that the current Kim Yuseong had an entirely different face.
The player “SeawaterShirt.” That was Kim Yuseong’s face and body now. A curse that had erased every trace of blood relation from her in this world.
Even though her entire family had rejected her, Yuseong had never rejected them. She still hoped that one day they would apologize and accept her again.
Today, as always, she greeted the photo.
-Clunk.
She opened the small refrigerator, but all it contained was water and drinks. The only thing resembling a meal was a single cup of instant ramen on the shelf.
“…I should go grocery shopping.”
Shopping would be more varied than relying on rations. Though limited, bartering happened, so she could use her ration tickets to buy things—but Yuseong hesitated.
If she left Jeju Island, she wouldn’t need to shop. But if she stayed, she would have to. It was a choice that could cost her life, one that would determine her future path.
Yuseong pondered for a moment, then grabbed her shopping basket and ration tickets. Her steps felt light. Having made her decision, she felt free. She had escaped the gaze of death she had sensed from afar.
She entered the market and wandered for a while—
“Ah.”
They ran into each other.
Kim Yuseong and her mother, Lee Chaesong.
Time stopped. Or rather, time continued to flow for everyone else, but the time belonging to just the two of them froze. An awkward silence stretched for ten seconds. Just as the cold sweat on Yuseong’s forehead began to trickle down and she finally opened her mouth—
-Tap-tap-tap!
Lee Chaesong turned and walked away before Yuseong could speak. Yuseong reached out wordlessly, but her legs wouldn’t move. She simply stood there.
“Hooh. So this is what it feels like.”
Dowol, who had been tailing them from behind, muttered to herself. She thought she finally understood, at least vaguely, why Yuseong was so fixated on her.
‘Come to think of it, there were cases of the opposite too.’
Rumors occasionally circulated about families who had lost their breadwinner trying to lure in an Awakened to share rations—either until their household stabilized or permanently. Of course, from the Awakened’s perspective, there were all sorts of reasons. Whether it was simple pity or just for amusement varied from person to person.
And then Dowol had a rather ominous thought.
‘What if Dohwa didn’t recognize me…’
That weak, pitiful seven-year-old would think she was all alone in the world. And without understanding why, she would die.
“Still…”
What she had to do hadn’t changed. She would save Dohwa and create a world where Dohwa could live safely. And if her connection disappeared… she would simply build a new one.
Three days later.
“I’ll go with you. I’ve prepared my weapon too.”
Yuseong stood before Dowol and Dohwa, carrying a suitcase and a bag with a sword at her waist. Dowol glanced at the sword.
“A longsword. Draw it for me.”
-Shrrng.
A cool metallic sound rang out as the blade was drawn. Dohwa took a small step back. Dowol accepted the sword, examined it from various angles, then pursed her lips.
“…Well, it’ll do until we can get you a proper one.”
“Then what about me?”
“What are you doing? Follow me.”