Jack Daniel
"Ori! Wait up!"
"Don't call me Ori!"
The girl spun around at the end of the hallway.
The corners of her eyes were red and wet.
Jack stopped walking. The hand he had reached out froze in mid-air.
"...Alright. If that's what you want, I'll do that."
I was watching the scene from behind a pillar. The two of them had stormed out of tea time, and the three of us had ended up following them. Earl Grey was on tiptoes to keep her footsteps quiet, and... Mokjul was a guy who, strangely enough, didn't seem to make any sound when he walked.
"In the end, aren't you just another person trying to use me?"
"I..."
"I heard. The rumors about you."
Origin's voice trembled.
"An Apostle who couldn't protect his Saint. To you, a person like me is just a replacement for that Saint, isn't it?"
"That's..."
Jack was speechless.
It must have hit the mark. At least halfway, anyway.
"To begin with, what are you expecting from me? A half-baked Saint who can't even form a Covenant?"
The girl shouted.
"I'm someone who was abandoned by both my father and my mother!"
The hallway went quiet.
The illegitimate child of the prestigious Ridgeway family. The child whose very name was said to be a bad joke. That child was revealing her true emotions. Jack didn't speak for a while. Then, he opened his mouth.
"...I, I want to stand up again."
"What?"
"I loathe myself for living trapped in the past without changing a single thing."
Jack's voice was low. Not a shred of his usual playfulness remained.
"I want to change that version of me. To do that, I'm going to pilot an Advent with you."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's your decision whether to ride or not. But I'm ready to ride. Because I want to break ties with my past self."
"What changes if I ride? I don't get recognition from anyone."
"You change."
Jack stepped forward.
"You'll get your own recognition. At the very least, it's a choice you made. Becoming a Saint, piloting an Advent. From that point on, it's all you."
Origin fell silent.
"I'm a narrow-minded man."
Jack thumped his chest.
"A pathetic mercenary who doubted the Saint who trusted him, leading her to her death, and who ended up wandering aimlessly after being jealous of his sworn brother, Lafitte."
The reason his Saint seat was empty.
The reason he was so conscious of Lafitte.
The answer had come, more or less, from his own mouth.
I heard Earl Grey gasp beside me.
"You... are just like me."
The edge had left Origin's voice.
The abandoned child and the lost man. The two of them, having confirmed each other's rock bottom, were looking at one another.
"Even someone like me wants to stand up again. I want to prove to myself that the assessment I made of myself was wrong."
Jack reached out his hand.
"How about you, Origin."
"I want to change."
The girl bowed her head.
"But as Mokjul-ssi said, I probably have no use."
"Your worth isn't determined by others."
Jack's voice echoed in the hallway.
"In the end, all of this is a choice. What kind of person do you want to be to yourself?"
"I..."
Origin's shoulders trembled.
It was probably the first time she'd ever been asked that question, having been a discarded child. There couldn't have been anyone to ask her what she truly wanted to become. The girl trembled like that for a long time. Two more streaks of tears flowed. And with wet eyes, she looked at the hand that was extended toward her.
"I'll ride..."
It was a small, quiet voice. But it was clearly her own choice.
"Then, I'll be with you."
Jack smiled. By then, he had returned to his usual playful self.
"Indeed. It's going well."
I nodded from behind the pillar.
"If we were going to watch like this, wouldn't it have been better to go together..."
Earl Grey whispered with an embarrassed look.
"In the end, piloting an Advent is their own choice. We have no right to intervene."
Mokjul replied.
Then, he glanced at me.
"By the way, you're quite interested in that friend, aren't you?"
I said, suppressing my awkwardness.
"Because they're friends I made since coming to this world."
"Ha. You expect me to believe that ridiculous joke?"
"People cannot live alone. The only beings that can are beasts or gods."
"Is that so..."
Mokjul was silent for a moment. From his profile as he looked toward Jack and Origin, I couldn't read any emotion. There was no envy, no mockery. To that being, who looked at things he couldn't understand and would never reach—I asked.
"Which side are you on?"
"Who knows."
The white-haired youth smiled.
"In my case, I'd say I'm closer to a beast."
"A beast, huh."
We had exchanged it like a joke, but a chill ran down my spine.
From my perspective, knowing that guy's true ending, it wasn't an answer I could just laugh off. He didn't have human inner workings, as he truly thought the world being destroyed was happiness.
Let's keep this in mind, Kim Min-ho, no, Evan. That answer will return as foreshadowing someday.
"What, you guys. Were you watching from here?"
Jack approached with Origin. He was scratching the back of his head, his face red.
"How embarrassing."
"Everyone, I apologize for acting on my own."
Origin bowed her head. Her eyes were still wet, but her tone was different from before.
"Everyone has moments of confusion."
Earl Grey smiled and reached out her hand. That benevolence was, as expected, my Saint.
"Saint Origin. It is an honor to stand on the battlefield with you."
Origin took her hand.
"I was thinking of having a drink to celebrate our touching reunion, but we're short on time."
Jack checked his watch.
"There's a flight to Timor scheduled in a bit."
"Jack and I will board a transport plane carrying reserve forces and head to the base on Timor Island."
Mokjul summarized the operation.
"Earl Grey-nim and I will receive the requested DPM, then force our way through from the Australian continent to Timor Island."
I continued.
Mokjul nodded.
"Indeed. If we start from there, we won't be picked up by Golgotha's radar."
Jack raised his hand toward me as well.
"Good luck to everyone. We can have that drink after we make it back alive, right?"
"Yeah."
Mokjul and I answered at the same time.
"Personally, I'd like to save those new recruits too. But I guess we don't have the luxury for that."
"Yeah."
Mokjul cut off Jack's words shortly. There was no luxury to spare for saving bait.
"For now, let's focus on surviving."
I threw that out there.
Jack nodded as if he were convinced.
"Yeah... I, and Origin, have a version of ourselves we want to become. We can't die until then."
Origin looked up at Jack. She seemed about to say something, but closed her mouth and just nodded.
"Then let's go. Let's make sure to survive and meet again."
"Yeah."
The sound of the transport plane's engine warming up echoed from the runway. Jack pushed Origin's back and took the lead. Mokjul followed behind. The girl walked a few steps, then turned back and bowed to Earl Grey.
And so, we left our farewells and headed to our respective battlefields.
Hangar.
Logos, which would soon leave for the hunt, stood in the darkness.
Behind it, equipment I was seeing for the first time was attached. A propulsion unit, larger than the machine itself, was strapped to its back.
DPM, the Deep Penetration Module.
That thing would throw us into the heart of the enemy lines at Mach 20. Sitting next to Earl Grey in front of it, I listened to the mechanic's explanation.
"When the DPM activates, the gravitational acceleration applied to the Apostle is at the limit of human tolerance. Even with the response suit and Sanctuary Field correction, you will experience tunnel vision and clouded consciousness."
The mechanic flipped through the documents.
"In that state, you must perform attitude control and aiming simultaneously. The required piloting proficiency is... to be honest, it's equipment that is only permitted for top-tier Rankers by regulation."
"What if we get hit during projection?"
Earl Grey asked.
"...Because the acceleration consumes Afterglow Particles, the Sanctuary Field output drops to less than 30% of normal levels. Especially if the opponent is a Golgotha-class main cannon."
The mechanic couldn't finish his sentence.
Get hit a few times, and it's a shoot-down.
That was the conclusion.
As the explanation continued, Earl Grey's expression darkened. Her two hands on her knees were clasped quietly.
Even after the mechanic left, she was looking up at Logos for a long time. The hangar was quiet. In the darkness where the maintenance cranes had stopped, only the sound of cooling water circulating echoed low.
Most of the grace period had already vanished. Once this silence ended, the next step would be heading to the battlefield.
"Even if we're aiming for a gap where Golgotha isn't prepared."
She opened her mouth.
"Piloting a monster like that, can we break through Golgotha? Us?"
I placed my hand on our worry-prone Saint's shoulder.
"Earl Grey. Trust me."
Whether my meaning was conveyed or not, the stiffness in Earl Grey's face loosened considerably.
"Hehe. You're right."
She smiled.
"You always give me faith like that. And you make it a reality."
"I..."
"You've always achieved it. So, I will trust you."
Earl Grey looked back at me.
"But if it's possible to destroy Golgotha, the world's attention will be focused on us this time. Many opportunities will come. And dangers too... everyone will try to keep us in check."
Golgotha, the mobile fortress that only top-tier Rankers can catch. If an unknown Apostle destroys it, it becomes an event that transcends mere war records.
Assam, the Church, Kyungdanryeon. All of them would see us differently. Probably with eyes of wariness rather than respect.
But it doesn't matter. To strip away all the petty modifiers in front of the name of the abandoned 7th Saint Faction leader, the half-baked Saint, this kind of event is necessary. I would turn all those gazes into stepping stones for Earl Grey.
"I will protect you. You."
Earl Grey's eyes reddened.
This woman must have guessed. What I am shaving off every time I ride Logos.
She bit her lip as if to swallow her tears. And looking straight at me, she said.
"I will also definitely protect you."
We exchanged the vow to protect each other's lives like a greeting.
The hangar lights slid over Logos's armor. In the darkness, Logos's ruby-colored sensors reflected the light back.
And that light turned toward us. Earl Grey's lips, lush with moisture, shone. I was momentarily entranced by it.