The Oath of Sixty Thousand
A peaceful weekend morning.
The contract was finished and the Pixie Powder secured, and Eunha had nothing left to do. Lately, every day felt like the weekend.
She went to the refrigerator and took out a cold can of beer. A day off called for drinking alone. For the record, drinking alone was a phrase she had only recently learned.
She dropped onto the sofa, gone cool in her absence, and switched on the television. A summer-special rerun of Unanswered Questions was just coming on.
She stopped.
The can she had been about to open stayed in her hand as she lifted her eyes to the screen.
Ominous music swelled, and a string of internet sightings scrolled up the screen.
......Mr. Park? Surely not Manager Park Jehwi?
Eunha, who had been lifting the can to her mouth, shifted and fixed her attention on the screen.
"......"
Mosaic and voice modulation both, and still it was almost certainly Jehwi.
Eunha watched with a dry face and sipped her beer. The broadcast went on.
Eunha stared at the interview in disbelief. Well, of course. I never went to headquarters......
She was still fixed on the screen when—
Ding-dong.
The bell. She looked up, and the intercom light was blinking. The first-floor lobby, by the look of it.
Who at this hour? She and Jehwi had planned to shop in the afternoon, but there was no way he would already be here.
Eunha turned off the television, rose, and checked the visitor.
"This is Bae Junhwan of the Legion."
Junhwan's face came up on the monitor beyond the intercom. Once she had confirmed it, she opened the door without protest, and a moment later the bell rang again.
She opened the front door to find him standing stock-still, a strange light in his eyes. Beret in hand, he bent deeply at the waist.
"I'm sorry for barging in without any notice."
"No. It's all right. Did something happen?"
Eunha asked carefully. The strange broadcast had left her uneasy for no clear reason. Has he heard some odd rumor too? Or maybe something's gone wrong with Minju.
"......"
Junhwan's face was complicated, and he did not speak at once. Eunha studied him in silence, then tipped her chin toward the inside.
"Come in first."
Only then did Junhwan edge, hesitant, into the officetel.
The two of them sat facing each other in the dining chairs. Even after that, he could not easily find an opening, and only let his gaze fall.
"Did something happen to Minju?"
"N-no...... it isn't that."
"Then what? Did they say the Pixie Powder didn't work?"
"......"
Pixie Powder. At those words his face grew heavier still. The fist he had set politely upon his knee tightened.
"Hunter. I heard it from Dr. Plant."
Junhwan slowly raised his eyes.
"......The Pixie Powder. They said you were the one who obtained it, Miss Yura."
"Ah."
All at once discomfort washed over Eunha's face. Before the broadcast had unsettled her, she had already been reading the articles and community posts about exactly that.
"He answered only because I pressed him to the end. This will not leak outside, so please do not worry. I swear it on my life and on the Legion together. Only...... there is one thing I wished to ask, and so I came, at the risk of being rude."
"What is it?"
At her question Junhwan closed his mouth as if hesitating. When his voice came again, it trembled faintly.
"Why did you go so far?"
"......"
"No—what I mean is...... the reason you spent such an enormous sum. I simply cannot, how should I put it......"
"......I'm sorry."
He shut his mouth again. As if he no longer knew in what form the words ought to come out, he bit his lower lip.
"As you know, the master is in critical condition, so...... it seems we cannot repay the debt just yet. If you would only give us a little time, someday, without fail......"
"No."
Junhwan looked up, a question in his eyes. Eunha spoke evenly.
"There's no need. This isn't a debt."
"Pardon? But......"
"You said we were family."
Eunha looked straight at him. He was looking at her as well. The moment their eyes met, she smiled without a sound, then drew her chair back and rose slowly.
"Enough of that. Would you like something to drink?"
There was soda, and canned coffee. Or beer? She said it while rummaging through the refrigerator. No answer came back from Junhwan.
She took out two drinks, shut the door, and turned.
"...?"
Thud.
Without a word of warning, Junhwan had dropped to his knees on the living-room floor.
"Thank...... you......"
A can in each hand, Eunha froze as he pressed his forehead flat to the floor. She watched the back of his head and moved her lips quietly.
"As luck would have it, I had money enough, and someone who had called me family happened to need something. Badly."
She added, low:
"All I did was go and get it."
"......"
Junhwan, still bowed to the floor, lifted his head in a daze. Their eyes crossed in the empty air.
Slowly, but without a waver, he got to his feet.
"......Our Legion never forgets a kindness."
Standing properly before her, he bowed once more. This time it was not so deep. A plain salute.
But when his eyes came up again, neither the guilt nor the anxiety of a moment ago was anywhere in them.
"Miss Yura—no. Princess of Dark Flare. On behalf of the Legion, I offer you the oath of an army of sixty thousand."
"An oath?"
"Yes."
He raised a closed fist and laid it over the left side of his chest.
"We bought a ton again today."
Jehwi, unloading the trunk, wiped the sweat beading on his brow. They had just come back from the market.
"It might be better if I do the shopping alone for a while. If today happens again, we'll be in trouble."
He shook his head as if he'd had more than enough. At every mart there had been people who recognized Eunha, and it had been miserable. In the end the errand had taken more than three hours.
Most of them only whispered from a distance, but a few came right up and trailed them the whole way through the aisles—was she really the Princess of Dark Flare, had she really fought the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, could they take a photo. The cap she had pulled low had, in the end, done almost nothing.
If that had been all, it would have been a mercy.
Technology was a frightening thing. There were people sharing her movements on social media as they happened.
On the way out, a cluster of what looked like reporters had already gathered in front of the mart. A little later, and they would have walked straight into them with no way out.
"I'm telling you, those people are like ghosts. Ugh. For all I know they were waiting around the clock like starving hyenas."
"I know."
"Anyway, you really went through it. Next time I'll think of something—the mart in the next neighborhood, or I'll go alone."
Waiting for the elevator, Jehwi sighed as if he were sick of the whole business.
"......Ah. One moment."
As if something had occurred to her, Eunha set the bags down and headed for the mailboxes. The maintenance fee would be due soon.
The officetel was now in her name—in Lee Yura's, to be precise—so from this month she would have to transfer the payment herself.
She opened the box. Sure enough, two or three white envelopes waited inside. One was the maintenance bill, another an insurance flyer, and the last......
"Hunter, the elevator's here."
"......"
"Hm? Hunter?"
Jehwi, holding the elevator, tilted his head and came over.
"Is something wrong?"
"......This."
Eunha did not take her eyes from the envelope in her hand as she murmured.
Among the white envelopes, one red one stood out sharply. Beneath an ornament of gold foil shaped like a butterfly, the lettering was clear.
"Could it be a fan letter?"
"And how would they know my address?"
"Mm. That's the thing."
Doubt settled in both their eyes.
The Princess of Dark Flare had lately been dragged across every netizen's chopping block, but surely her home address had not leaked as well.
"If it feels wrong, maybe just throw it out? Or—no. We ought to see what's inside first."
Jehwi muttered beside her. Eunha slowly turned the envelope over and checked the back. And in that moment—
"......!"
Jehwi's eyes looked ready to pop from his head. Eunha had gone just as rigid.
On the back of the envelope sat lettering neither of them had expected.