Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Tuna Can (1)
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"Aren't you hungry, sis?"
Yul asked as we walked and talked.
Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten.
I'd be fine if I used the medicine, but it was probably better for my health to eat.
"Want me to show you our hideout?"
"What are we eating? The stuff we got last time? Is there water?"
"Yeah. We have some of that stuff."
Yul took my hand and pulled me along.
I followed where she led.
A shabby, abandoned house, piles of dirt of unknown origin.
We walked along a completely unkempt road.
The sound of the children chattering was endearing.
"There it is, over there."
We wound our way through the alleys.
The door was a crude thing made of plastic sheets pieced together.
"It's a secret base. This is a secret, okay?"
I nodded.
A secret base.
There was something about it that stirred a childish part of me.
The inside was surprisingly spacious and well-organized.
"This used to be a restaurant. We found a secret passage to get in!"
"That's just the back door."
"It's a secret entrance."
"How is it a secret if everyone knows about it?"
"It is a secret."
They bickered as they showed me around the inside.
It was certainly full of charm.
"Anyway, let's eat! I'll give you some of the food we got!"
Someone brought something out from a cupboard.
"Ah, miss. You just add water to this and it makes a meal. They said it's not healthy to only eat this, so we have side dishes and stuff..."
"I have snacks too! I have cookies!"
"Eat cookies after your meal."
"Aww. Then..."
Yul looked for something else.
She was rummaging through the cupboard.
"Seaweed?... We ate it all. Ah, we have this."
In her hand was a can of tuna.
"Ah, we have to eat outside. The smell gets everywhere if we cook inside."
"There are chairs outside, too."
Sharing their food with a stranger—they were good kids.
It couldn't be easy to be so kind while living in a place like this.
Still, it seemed better than where Yoo Seo-ah used to live.
There, no one would hunt monsters for you, and getting free food was a rare event.
I accepted the can of tuna.
—*What do you want to eat most?*
Someone's voice surfaced in my mind.
A memory from the past.
A friend?
Was it a friend who had asked?
Come to think of it, I remembered eating together.
But it wasn't a friend's voice.
A strange knot formed in my stomach.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
"Ugh..."
Disgusting.
Tuna is a food I hate.
It must be.
"Eek, you don't like this? Oh well."
Sorry.
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
Did I hate it so much that I'd refuse a kind gesture?
I used to stock it at home and eat it all the time.
My tastes must have changed.
Still, the instant meal was edible enough.
It was basically fried rice with a few side dishes.
"Oh? You're a picky eater too, sis."
Picky?
I had only picked out the radishes and other vegetables mixed in.
"It doesn't taste good, right? Broccoli, too."
"It's for your health."
That's right.
For the sake of my health, it was important to eat everything without leaving anything behind.
I disliked picky eaters myself.
In fact, I could eat almost anything as long as it wasn't spoiled.
So why was I picking out the vegetables now?
Sometimes you just don't feel like eating certain things.
In many ways, it was better than the food they gave me at the lab.
I had forced myself to eat everything they gave me there.
And now I'm being picky?
Anyway, I ate gratefully.
"Ah, are you leaving? To the factory?"
"I told you, she might not be from the factory."
"Play with us!"
I wanted to do that, too.
Let's do that later, if there's time.
"...Do you have to go somewhere, miss?"
I gave a slight nod.
I have to go.
[283 hours 21 minutes]
To the factory.
Perhaps for the sake of these children.
Or maybe just to get more medicine.
I had been planning to go to the medicine factory for a long time anyway.
While eating just now, I'd spotted a logo on the container.
It was the same logo as the company that made the medicine.
A logo I still remembered, one I hadn't forgotten.
The logo was also on the bag that held the instant meal.
This factory had to be connected to the medicine somehow.
Maybe it was a place that did good things.
A factory that took on the role of hunting magical beasts and supplying daily necessities and medicine.
No such benevolent facility existed in this world.
I had never seen one.
It would have been nice if there had been, just once.
"Huh, Doctor?"
Hyun said, looking behind me.
"It's the Doctor!"
Doctor?
I spun around immediately to check.
It really was the Doctor.
Amazingly, the Doctor was standing there.
Did he know I was here?
I just have to kill him.
Attack.
No, but the Doctor is a good person, so I shouldn't attack him.
I'm angry, but I can't figure out why.
Ah, is that it?
Am I frustrated that he took so long to get here?
"It's been so long, Doctor!"
Yul greeted him cheerfully.
"...Heh."
The Doctor just pops up everywhere.
It's astonishing.
"Hello. It's been a while for you too, Miss Seo-ah."
"You know her, sis? Is your name Seo-ah?"
"Yes, I've come to get Miss Seo-ah. I should have come sooner. Were you all playing together?"
"We were about to."
I can't think.
I can't think straight.
It's even worse since it's been so long.
"Here, I brought some snacks. Please share them."
"Wow!"
"Thank you."
Is it okay to eat that?
It probably is.
The Doctor is a kind person.
"You've been well? Haha, it's been a long time."
He started a conversation as if everything was normal.
I mean, things are normal.
No.
Isn't this strange?
Why is the Doctor here?
Why are the children so friendly with him?
Why now of all times?
Is this a good thing?
The Doctor will give me medicine.
That's why he was always a good person.
My brain feels like it's fried.
I can't possibly think of him as a bad person.
"—I have something to discuss with her separately. It's all right if I take her, isn't it?"
He seemed to have finished talking with the children.
"Yeah! Come again!"
"Goodbye."
It was over in an instant.
The farewells were just as quick.
"Shall we be on our way?"
The Doctor held out his hand.
Is he telling me to take it?
I hesitated.
Of course, I couldn't see any ill will in that hand.
But I could instinctively feel that something was going wrong.
This wasn't the first or second time this had happened.
It was wrong that I couldn't think or move my body as I pleased.
"[Snap out of it.]"
And just like that, my mind cleared.
There was only one goal.
Kill the Doctor.
The world would be a much more peaceful place with just this one person gone.
My dear medicine, make a sword or whatever, and let's just kill that man.
It can't be helped, even if he's a good person.
I don't want to let him get his hands on these children.
I'm enough of a patient for him.
*Plunge.*
The medicine was injected.
Everything from my nerve endings to the core of my brain flared up.
My whole body tingled, and my strength drained away.
[404 hours 5 minutes]
This is great.
I got my medicine.
It feels like my time has been refilled by over a hundred hours.
*Clink.*
The half-formed black sword fell to the ground.
Then it vanished as if it had evaporated.
Ah, I failed.
But I feel good.
Incredibly good!
"Hehe..."
Nothing mattered anymore.
The Doctor is a good person, after all.
Let's just wait a little longer.
Maybe there'll be a better time to deal with him.
Let's think about it after I've secured more of this medicine.
"This isn't my designated area, but if it's a place where a munitions factory is operating, I can travel here easily."
Did he come through a portal?
What an absurdly powerful ability.
"Actually, I was planning on visiting you at some point, Miss Seo-ah. I'm not sure if you remember, but..."
He paused.
We walked hand in hand as he spoke.
It was pleasant.
"It was a path you chose for yourself."
"......"
Chose for myself?
Whatever it was, I have no memory of making any such choice.
I couldn't imagine what I would have been so eager to volunteer for.
"Haha, perhaps you don't remember. Well, it has been a long time."
What is he talking about?
"The truth is, there are many people who have you to thank, Miss Seo-ah. Thanks to you, our work in determining the medicine's usefulness was finished quickly."
He'd experimented on me relentlessly.
Considering the huge gaps in my memory, it must have been for a very long time.
"If it hadn't been for you, Miss Seo-ah, we would have had to find someone else."
The hand holding mine was so very kind.
But I couldn't understand.
I didn't even know why he was explaining all of this so kindly.
I glanced at the syringe the Doctor was holding in his other hand.
A thin, empty syringe.
Thanks to it, I was happy.
"Ah, this. This is a very potent medicine. It's not manufactured here, but I had it prepared in advance because it was necessary."
I had no idea where it might be needed.
[404 hours]
I just wish he would keep giving it to me.
"It was made by mixing in a significant ratio of the undiluted solution... so not just anyone can use it. Still, I believe you, Miss Seo-ah, deserve at least this much."
That's right.
I do deserve it.
Why else was I locked up in that room for so long?
Haven't I earned the right to a justifiable amount of pleasure by now?
"It seems you didn't want to meet your friends."
"Huh?"
"At the laboratory. You must have seen them."
Friends.
"The Academy happened to be conducting training exercises nearby. Thanks to that, I was in the area as well."
Friends?
The scene I saw inside the laboratory building came to mind.
I saw a sparkling light.
They were fighting a magical beast.
It would have been strange for me to interfere.
Of course, I wanted to see my friends.
So I watched from a distance.
I was content just observing.
Nothing would have changed even if I had intervened.
It's unfortunate, but that's the truth.
So there's no need for me to meet these people called friends ever again.
"Would you care to sit for a moment?"
It was a backless bench.
Shabby, but I could sit on it.
"I have a general idea of your condition, Miss Seo-ah, but now that you are under my care again, it is my duty to confirm it."
He had such a duty?
"There is no one else nearby."
I see.
Why does that matter?
"Now, please lift up your shirt."
"...Huh."
Why?
"It is merely an examination."
I saw the stethoscope draped around his neck.
Oh, right.
He's a doctor, so he'd conduct an examination.
But here?
Why?
I didn't want to lift my shirt.
It wasn't because I was embarrassed or anything like that.
The feeling was closer to fear.
There had been a similar situation in the past.
I had a bruise on my stomach, so I lifted my shirt to check it.
The situation is a little different now.
It would be better if it were just a bruise.
No.
On second thought, this is embarrassing.
The scars.
It's just that I have a few scars.
The Doctor waited.
"Ahaha..."
A bad memory resurfaced.
It would have been better not to remember.
It wasn't a big deal worth dragging out.
I was just the victim of a childish prank.
It was just a prank.
I've overcome it now, so it's fine.
Did the Doctor know and tell me to lift my shirt anyway?
He didn't even look like he planned on using the stethoscope.
A bad memory surfaced.
This is all because of that tuna can from back then.
The tuna can.