Seonyudo Settlement (1)
Morning came, and we packed up in a hurry before setting off for the Seonyudo Settlement.
More precisely, we no longer had any reason to walk, so we rode one of Yeonseo's summons — though that hardly made the journey less urgent.
The broad stretch of Seonyu-ro, still connected to Yanghwa Bridge, made for quick travel as well.
"I didn't know you had a horse-shaped summon too. What's its name?"
Its body was a graceful sculpture of ice, all elegant curves, with translucent blue wings unfurled at its sides — a pegasus, in other words.
And why was it running instead of flying? When I asked Yeonseo, she said that a pegasus had simply been the first thing that came to mind when she created it, and she hadn't thought as far as actual flight.
That didn't mean it couldn't fly at all. It could glide well enough, and she and Hyunseok had taken to the air now and then when the two of them were out on their own.
"This one's called Markab."
"Pretty unusual name. Where'd you get it?"
"I take most of them from constellations. Kind of romantic, right?"
"Unexpected, but I'll give you that. Oh — right! You said you'd come up with names for my skills. Have you thought of any?"
"Of course I have! I'll tell you once we reach the settlement and get a chance to rest. Look forward to it."
"Heh. Someone's confident."
"Ah, but don't expect anything too original. I'm a summoner, so I use distinctive names to help give my summons their physical form — but you fight mostly up close, don't you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I can manage ranged attacks too, but yeah."
"And sure, you've already got plenty of experience from the other world, but you said the quality of the skills you're using now is different, right? That makes it even more important to solidify their shape through an activation word rather than pure thought alone.
And since you're primarily a melee fighter, short, striking words work best."
"Ahh — so you're saying not to expect names like the ones you give your summons. That's fine. I'm not the type to fuss over that kind of thing."
"Yeah? Good to hear. Hyunseok's the same way, actually. Right?"
At Yeonseo's words, Hyunseok — who had been riding along in silence — nodded.
"Yeah. I tend to go with things that feel like Fist or Kick."
"Ah. Right."
Since yesterday, I had been avoiding conversation with Hyunseok. More precisely, he kept trying to approach me, and I kept dodging him or cutting things short.
Even I didn't fully understand why I was acting this way. All I knew was that every time we talked after what had happened, something rebellious stirred in me — and the thought that if we kept going we might end up fighting was enough to make me shut it down fast.
I didn't want to keep things like this. But what was I supposed to do about something I couldn't control? I just went on living, hoping time would sort it out.
After that, even my conversations with Charlotte had dwindled to the bare minimum.
I apologized — told her I was sorry — but she only said there was nothing to apologize for. Her face, though, was full of something that looked a lot like resentment.
Like a kid who'd just hit puberty.
I'd asked Yeonseo about it too, but she just said time would take care of it and changed the subject, leaving me feeling completely stuck.
"Yeonseo, is this really okay? Leaving it like this?"
"It's fine. Time will sort it out, so stop worrying and watch where you're going."
"No, but still… this isn't right, is it?"
Yeonseo sighed, looking thoroughly fed up, and jabbed a finger at me.
"Hyunseok. I've already told you — this is a problem time will solve. It is absolutely not a problem for me to wedge myself into and fix. And why are you so hung up on Charlotte in the first place?
Isn't it fine just leaving things as they are?"
"No, it's not!"
The words burst out of me before I could stop them — a shout, raw and involuntary, at Yeonseo's suggestion that things were fine as they were.
Yeonseo looked startled. She reined us in and steered toward the shoulder of the road.
"Sorry. I don't know why I yelled like that either. Haha…"
"Haa. Charlotte! Let's take a short break here. The settlement's right ahead anyway, so a little rest won't hurt. Mind checking the area?"
"Huh? Oh — okay."
Once Charlotte was gone, Yeonseo tipped her head toward the stairs that led down from the bridge. She leaned her arms on the railing, looking out over the river, and spoke.
"First, how about answering my question from earlier? Why are you so fixated on Charlotte?"
"Because… she's a close friend now. And a little sister I need to protect?"
"Protect, huh… Is that all?"
The words hit me like a thorn. Yeonseo had clearly caught on to something; she gave me a sidelong glance, then turned back to the river and waited for my answer.
I clenched my fist, thinking of Charlotte — no, of my little sister, Luna — and answered.
"The truth is… she looks like her. So much it's almost exact."
"Your little sister? Hmm. And?"
"I've told you before — I got drunk on the power I had and lived however I wanted. That's why my parents died. And my sister.
You know that ever since then, I've only used my strength to suppress or restrain things, right?"
"Get to the point. The point!"
"Okay, okay. Geez."
I scratched my head irritably and pressed on.
"That's why. She looks so much like my dead sister that every time I see Charlotte, I think of Luna. That's probably it — I've been projecting Luna onto her.
So I don't want her to get hurt. I want to protect her. But lately… I don't know. It feels a little different."
Yeonseo looked at me with something like surprise, then turned back and drummed her fingers slowly along the railing. After a moment she stepped away from it and came toward me.
She poked a finger into my chest.
"All right. Here's what we're going to do. Stop seeing her as your little sister. Charlotte is not Luna. Got it? And she's not so weak that she needs protecting. Got it?"
"Huh? That's it?"
"'That's it'? You have no idea how big a difference that is. Start with that. And stop patting her on the head! The two of you might be fine with it, but from the outside it's very easy to get the wrong idea."
That was not the reason I'd expected.
"Wrong idea? Wait — does she like me? Charlotte?"
"Drop it! Just stop treating her like a little sister. Understood?"
"Yeah. Thanks for the advice. Really."
"Please. It was nothing. But does she really look that much like her?"
"Yeah. Want to see?"
I opened the pendant hanging around my neck and held it out. Yeonseo looked back and forth between the photograph inside and my face.
"Ah… yeah. I can see why…"
That was as far as she got before Charlotte's voice called up to us from below, and we both looked down.
When Yeonseo suggested a short rest, I felt a flicker of unease — but I let it go and headed down to the playground beneath the bridge.
Well. What had once been a playground. Now it was ruins.
"Hmm. Looking around, it's all ruins no matter where you turn — the Tower's desolation field, same as everywhere else."
I sat on one of the few benches that still held its shape and looked up at the sky, replaying what had just happened.
A moment ago, Hyunseok and Yeonseo had been talking — and then Hyunseok had suddenly shouted.
No, it's not!
What wasn't? Something about helping people? Or something about me?
I turned over one possibility after another, but the thought that kept circling back was that it might have been about me.
But why? Why would the two of them need to raise their voices over me? The more I thought about it, the more the answers skewed dark, so I shook my head and stood up.
"Right. Thinking about it won't change anyth— wait. What is that?"
A short way past the playground, a parking lot came into view, and beyond it the outline of a building. Looking closer, I saw a human figure that looked for all the world like it was being chased by something in the sky.
I called for Hyunseok and Yeonseo at once, and the three of us ran toward it.
I hadn't been seeing things. Someone was genuinely being pursued by a monster — a creature with a woman's upper body, a bird's lower half, and wings in place of arms, beating hard as it flew. A harpy.
"I'll knock them off her with wind first. Yeonseo, take a summon to that person. Charlotte, cover them after that!"
Wind gathered around Hyunseok's legs and he shot forward. Yeonseo and I moved the instant he spoke.
The blast of air tore the harpies away from their prey, and they wheeled to chase after Hyunseok as he drew them off.
Big Dipper
In that same breath, two ice sculptures in the shape of shield-bearing bears materialized and took up positions around the fallen figure. We closed in on the person — a woman, I corrected myself, looking at her properly — who lay collapsed on the ground.
"Are you all right? If you're hurt anywhere, show me."
I supported her quickly and checked her wounds. Nothing life-threatening, but harpy feathers were lodged in her or had left gashes, so I pulled them free and began treating her at once.
Only then did she catch her breath, turn her head toward us, and open her eyes.
"Wh… who…?"
"Just travelers passing through. Do you belong to a settlement nearby?"
"Thank you. I live right over there, at the Seonyudo Settlement. My name is Choi Wonkyung."
Choi Wonkyung was twenty-eight, and at the Seonyudo Settlement she was responsible for scouting and recovering resources.
Why someone with so little combat ability had been given that job came down to her power: Marking.
When she placed a mark on an object or a living thing, it appeared on a map she carried — which made her invaluable for the work.
"If that unnie's stable, come over to me. Charlotte! You go help Hyunseok. He'll have a hard time alone."
"Got it!"
I was about to head for Hyunseok when Yeonseo pressed a scrap of paper into my hand.
"I wrote down some simple activation words for now, all right?"
"Okay! Thanks!"
I poured holy power into my rosary at once, armor settling over me, and drew Durandal and Curtana. I drove Curtana into the ground where Yeonseo and Wonkyung stood, then turned and ran toward Hyunseok.