047. Survivor (2)
047. Survivor (2)
The victims who read Rinne's novel and headed for the Cradle of Silence, only to meet with disaster, numbered four in total.
All four had belonged to the same base: one commander and three military biodroids. The three biodroids had been devoured by Eve and turned Corrupted.
The commander—the only human among them, and the one who had led the others—managed to survive.
The survivor's name was Jang Yu-na.
She was in her early twenties.
She was no longer a commander.
According to her personnel records, she had stepped down as commander after the incident.
Currently, she was working as a childcare teacher in a small town near Metropolis, or so it seemed.
Whatever the case, as their former commander, she would surely know the personal histories of the captured biodroids in detail.
So, to write a 'salvation narrative' that could restore the Corrupted biodroids to normal, we had no choice but to enlist her help.
It was no simple matter.
Since she was already out of the military, even just tracking down her contact information took considerable time and effort.
Even after we managed to get her contact info, she didn't exactly respond warmly.
I tried calling her, but she hung up the moment I revealed my identity as an active-duty commander.
—If it's anything to do with the military, I want no part of it.
She snapped that curtly and ended the call.
Naturally, we didn't give up there.
We left a text message from a different number.
This time, we included the full story, including the fact that Rinne herself was the one contacting her, so she couldn't dismiss it as spam.
At that, Jang Yu-na, who had previously acted as though she wanted nothing to do with us, changed her attitude immediately and agreed to meet.
However, there was one condition attached.
[If the author is coming too, then I'll think about it.]
Jang Yu-na also chose the location: a small café near her home.
Worried we might be late to the appointment and anger her, Rinne and I left nearly an hour early.
Even so, Rinne couldn't hide her nervousness.
It wasn't that she was worried the other party might break the promise and not show up.
If anything, it was the opposite.
Rinne was uneasy about meeting Jang Yu-na.
"You've never met her before?"
"Huh?"
"You and Jang Yu-na, I mean."
I spoke clearly to Rinne, who was in a daze.
A moment later, Rinne answered quietly.
"......Yeah. This is the very first time."
Just as she said, Rinne had never met Jang Yu-na in person before.
She felt she didn't have the right to face her, and she still felt that way.
"I don't particularly think you did anything wrong, though."
If we simply traced the cause and effect, the cause of the disaster was, of course, Rinne's novel.
But that didn't automatically make it Rinne's fault.
Unfortunate events often happen in the world without anyone being at fault, and Rinne had simply experienced that type of accident.
"......It's not that I can't do that kind of logical thinking either. It's just how I feel. My feelings."
If that was the case, I had nothing to say.
After all, half the reason Rinne wanted to take on the Cradle of Silence herself was her own desire to atone to the victims.
If I told her, "Don't get swept up by feelings at this point!" then the whole point of discussing things together would go out the window.
So, what mattered was this.
"You can start talking things through now."
We had come here to save her squad members.
Rinne was even prepared to stake her life on it.
That alone meant she'd fulfilled her moral responsibility, and surely Jang Yu-na would understand how she felt.
The moment I said that much, someone approached our table.
"So you're the ones who bothered to call me out here."
It was Jang Yu-na.
I could recognize her because she hadn't changed much from the photo in her personnel file.
Even so, there was no room to greet her cheerfully with an "Oh my, welcome!"
Her face was openly venomous.
"Um, for now, if you'd take a seat and we could talk......."
"This isn't something to sit down and talk about. To think I'd finally meet the author of Single-sided Coin."
Jang Yu-na snapped.
"I can never, ever forgive you."
By then, I had a rough grasp of the situation. This woman resented Rinne far more than I'd expected—even more than Rinne herself had feared.
Apparently she'd agreed to meet Rinne partly to get back at her.
My job was, of course, to calm Jang Yu-na down.
Calm her down first, explain our situation, and secure her cooperation.
But before I could take that first step, Rinne, terrified, spoke up.
"I-I'm sorry......!"
An apology so uncharacteristically straightforward it bordered on servile—hard to believe it came from the impertinent Rinne.
But Jang Yu-na showed no sign of stopping there.
"Sorry? Is saying sorry going to fix everything? Do you have any idea how much I've resented you all this time?"
"Please, try to calm down for a moment."
I finally cut in.
But it was already too late to stop it. Jang Yu-na grew even more enraged and shouted at Rinne.
"How could you put a series on hiatus right before the final volume and just bail?!"
......Excuse me?
Leaving me flabbergasted, Jang Yu-na continued her protest.
"Do you know how much I loved the ending of your novel? I owned three copies of each volume — one for reading, one for archiving, one for lending! I was even agonizing over buying a fourth full set for long business trips, and then suddenly it's a serialization hiatus?! What is wrong with you?!"
Um.
I turned to look at Rinne, wondering what on earth this was.
But that gave me no answers. Rinne looked just as confused in her own way.
No help for it. I decided to ask Jang Yu-na myself.
"Excuse me, is the reason you're angry right now because she put the Beyond the Cradle series on hiatus?"
"Yes. You're well informed, I see."
Jang Yu-na answered, then declared with an imposing air.
"The reason I agreed to this meeting today is to strongly request that the author resume serialization."
I was dumbfounded yet again.
"Did you actually read the text we sent properly?"
"No. Honestly, I didn't really pay attention to anything other than the fact that the author of Single-sided Coin would be accompanying you."
She said it with pride.
"Then I'll tell you again. As things stand right now, resuming serialization of the Beyond the Cradle series is impossible."
"Then fix that pathetic mindset of yours first! Just write it, come on, write it!"
"No, I mean......."
I explained in more detail.
I told her that the reason serialization of the Beyond the Cradle series was impossible wasn't because Rinne couldn't write.
Though that was how it was known on the surface, the reality was that an incident had occurred and related materials were censored. Rinne's novel had simply been banned from publication as part of that.
At that, Jang Yu-na gave a start and exclaimed.
"So you're saying serialization was halted because of me?"
"Well. Strictly speaking, you could see it that way......."
But wasn't that beside the point right now?
"What? What do you mean, beside the point?"
To Jang Yu-na, who asked as if she had no clue at all, I conveyed our side of the story.
Once she understood the situation correctly, I heard what she had to say.
To cut to the chase, Jang Yu-na didn't seem to resent Rinne very much.
No, she did harbor some resentment...... but apparently, it was solely about the part where Rinne put Beyond the Cradle on hiatus and bailed.
It wasn't that she lacked concern for her subordinates.
If anything, she was the type who treasured her subordinates deeply.
It simply had never occurred to her to connect responsibility for her subordinates' deaths to Rinne.
She firmly believed someone else entirely was responsible.
"The reason my squad members ended up like that...... was entirely my fault."
Jang Yu-na said, a bitter smile on her lips.
She said she had been the one to recommend Beyond the Cradle to them, and the one who first suggested setting out to find the Cradle of Silence from the novel.
The person who had led her soldiers into hell wasn't the author, but herself—the reader.
So.
"Actually, I tried to save my subordinates at first too."
"You did, Yu-na?"
"Yes. That was before the corruption had fully progressed. Back when their brains hadn't been eroded yet and they were still resisting, I tried to bring them back no matter what."
Because if their brains were still intact, there was a chance they could be healed, they had told her.
She had tried to save them by betting on that slim possibility.
It wasn't easy. The higher-ups judged that their chances of recovery were essentially nil and opted for 'elimination.' Just as I was struggling alone now, Jang Yu-na had also been forced to proceed with only her remaining squad members.
So, Jang Yu-na gathered all available resources and personnel and conducted harsh training.
Believing without a doubt that if only she could save those children who had fallen into the enemy's hands by her own fault, that would be enough.
Her mind changed one day just before deployment.
During the grueling training, an incident occurred where yet another squad member sustained a serious injury.
In the end, the planned operation was scrapped. That incident made Jang Yu-na wonder:
"Was I driving other people I cared about toward death just to save someone else?"
At that moment, Jang Yu-na became convinced she was unfit to be a commander.
In the end, as a final act of atonement, she quit being a commander.
She accepted that her squad members were already dead.
Several years passed like that, bringing us to the present.
Now another biodroid and commander had come to her, asking for help reaching the Cradle of Silence.
If her subordinates could be saved by doing so, that joy would be beyond words.
But what if, by some chance, we were injured or killed?
And what if Single-sided Coin, the author who had given her such entertaining stories, died?
Jang Yu-na didn't think she could bear that.
She didn't want to drag someone else into danger because of her mistakes again.
So.
"I'll be honest. I'd rather you two didn't go to the Cradle of Silence. I'd rather you just lived happily like this, the past half-buried and left alone. Just like I did."
Though it might not be a satisfying ending.
But she believed stopping here was also a valid option—and an ending in its own right.
At the very least, Jang Yu-na could accept that kind of ending.
The reader spoke her piece.
As someone who was, at best, maybe an editor, I had nothing to say to that.
So I turned to the author.
The author bit her lower lip tightly and answered.
"......Even so, I want to give it an ending where everyone is saved."
That was worth risking her life for.
That was why she'd come all this way.
Jang Yu-na nodded.
"As expected of the author. I'm deeply moved."
And then, flashing a thumbs up, she added.
"Fine. I'll tell you everything about the personal histories of the squad members who became Corrupted."
"Really?"
"Yes. But only after I see what you're capable of."
Hm.
What did she mean by that?
I, who had been quietly watching the exchange between the two, cut in.
"Capable of what?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I want to see whether you have the combat strength to withstand my subordinates' attacks, and whether you can write a salvation narrative strong enough to overwhelm Eve. I need to see at least that much before I can entrust this to you with peace of mind."
So saying, Jang Yu-na stated the first condition.
"First, please clear the training program 'Barna Defense Battle,' which my subordinates barely managed to pass, at B-Rank or higher. If you do that, I can trust your combat capabilities."
It wasn't an unreasonable condition.
The problem was what came next.
"And please write up the final volume of Beyond the Cradle and bring it to me."
What the.
"You said you'd be testing our salvation narrative writing ability."
"Yes. I did say that, didn't I?"
"Then why this sudden demand for the final volume of Beyond the Cradle?"
"Because the Beyond the Cradle series is the most perfect salvation narrative light novel in the world. The final volume itself serves as an excellent indicator of salvation narrative writing prowess."
Hm.
Put that way, it almost seemed to make sense.
"Then by that logic, any salvation narrative would do. Why specifically the final volume of Beyond the Cradle?"
"Well. That's, you know......."
Jang Yu-na began as though she were about to launch into a long explanation.
But no more words came, even as time passed. Only silence.
I narrowed my eyes and asked.
"You're not just using the skill check as an excuse because you want to read the final volume all by yourself, are you?"
"......Tteukkeum."
"You just said 'tteukkeum' yourself. With your own mouth."
"What are you talking about? There's no way I'd make such a weird sound. Tteukkeum?"
Completely unashamed, Jang Yu-na kept saying 'tteukkeum.'
As if she had no intention of backing down, she declared once more.
"Anyway, those are my conditions. If you need my subordinates' personal details, clear my quest. That's all. End of transmission."