Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: A Single Drawing
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Flash, flash, flash.
Camera flashes went off relentlessly.
Sara, the captain of the Shark Tooth Pirates, along with her first-in-command, Bed-O, and fourth-in-command, Double, were being arrested by Silver and Enri, their mugshots being taken for criminal identification.
The charges were kidnapping and confinement of refugees, as well as extortion and blackmail.
Across from them, Shin-ju watched the pirates' pathetic state with his arms crossed.
The plan to use Sharin to round up the pirates had worked perfectly.
Shin-ju had successfully arrested Sara, the captain of the Shark Tooth Pirates, along with her first and fourth commanders.
Java-Tamao, the second-in-command, had vanished without a trace, true to her nature as an assassin.
Meanwhile, on a small monitor beside him, a news report about the space pirates' arrest was playing.
*Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-*
The news broadcast showed live footage from the scene.
A helicopter circled the crashed Beherit, filming the wreckage.
A moment later, a circular hole was blasted through the Beherit’s head, sending debris flying into the air.
*Splash—*
As the debris fell into the sea, a greatsword shot out of the hole.
Shortly after, Sharin appeared atop the vessel, a commanding presence.
Following her, her body scorched black in places, the Bluerobic refugees began to crawl out one by one.
They were completely unharmed and began to bow to Sharin, who had protected them.
The media, playing to the public’s love for a hero's tale, began hailing Sharin as a hero, eagerly crafting her new image.
As her value and popularity skyrocketed, the United Galactic Government officially invited her to strengthen their friendly relations.
In the end, it was a mutually beneficial outcome.
With the support of the United Galactic Government, U.C.I.D. proceeded with the refugee intake process according to their manual.
Although the official stance of the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that accepting more refugees was difficult, the government, seeing a chance to win over an SS-class hero, pushed forward with the acceptance despite a storm of negative public opinion.
The refugees were temporarily housed in Yeongjongdo, Incheon, where they had to undergo a strict qualification screening under U.C.I.D.'s control.
Refugee management was assigned to ‘Jekovic,’ a werewolf alien from U.C.I.D.'s Special Refugee Management Division.
Able to shift between beast and human forms, he could discern a person's inner nature with uncanny accuracy from the scent they emitted.
After a long-overdue chat with Jekovic, Shin-ju stopped by the United Galactic Government building to meet Sharin, introducing himself and U.C.I.D. as he offered a handshake.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sharin. I've heard a lot about you from Enri. My name is Park Shin-ju, a U.C.I.D. space police officer from the Republic of Korea."
Sharin looked slightly surprised as fluent Bluerobic flowed from the human's mouth, but she quickly broke into a smile.
"I am Sharin Tankobichi. I'm grateful for your acceptance of the refugees."
Sharin nodded once and returned his firm handshake.
As they shook hands, Enri cautiously approached from behind Shin-ju.
Shin-ju exchanged a few brief words between Enri and Sharin before excusing himself.
Enri looked at Sharin with a mixture of emotions.
"Sister."
Sharin’s expression softened considerably as she looked at her younger sister.
She was glad to see her sister alive, but true to her warrior nature, she seemed to be trying her best to restrain her emotions.
"Yes. I heard the gist of your situation from the human named Shin-ju."
Sharin pulled her sister into a one-armed hug.
Enri closed her eyes and hugged Sharin back.
A moment later, Enri and Sharin sat on a sofa in the lobby of the government building and began to talk.
"This is a pretty nice planet. I heard you were the first one to crash-land here."
Sharin gazed at the sky stretching beyond the lobby window.
"Yeah, I was lucky. What made you decide to come here, sister?"
Sharin fell silent for a moment.
"Bluerobic… is no longer a place we can live."
Sharin looked at Enri from a slanted posture.
"I tried to protect our home to the end… but my stubbornness only led my comrades to their deaths."
Enri looked at Sharin for a moment, then lowered her head as if she had expected as much.
"I see."
Sharin smiled, her eyes holding a peculiar glint as she looked at Enri.
"…By any chance, are there a lot of places to fight here?"
"No! You can't fight here."
*Her old habits are acting up again,* Enri muttered to herself, giving Sharin a disapproving look as she spoke firmly.
She was about to ask how she had been.
But then, Sharin's body, a testament to the harsh life she had lived, came into view.
Her gaze eventually landed on Sharin's empty left shoulder.
*What kind of being could sever Sharin's arm?*
As Enri stared blankly at the severed limb, Sharin, reading her sister's mind, answered the unasked question.
"It wasn't an ordinary alien beast like the ones we've seen before."
"The one that took my arm."
"You can't call it an alien beast. It was a fully sentient being… and not like any… creature I've ever seen."
Sharin stuttered, which was unlike her.
At the sight of her sister, Enri's expression turned grave as if she remembered something.
Enri’s voice was low when she finally broke the silence.
"By any chance… what did it look like?"
"Its form…? It was a being impossible to describe with words."
Sharin's eyes sank into an abyss.
"It was just… an unidentifiable something…"
In that instant, Enri's eyes changed.
Her expression became incredibly serious.
Sharin had undoubtedly encountered what would be considered an SSS-class alien beast by Earth's standards.
Alien beasts had always acted on the Planet Destroyer's orders, eliminating impure elements that disrupted the balance of the universe.
In the past, not long after Enri had arrived on Earth.
During the period when a large wave of Bluerobic refugees was entering the planet, the 'Planet Destroyer' had appeared on Earth, leading its alien beasts in pursuit of them.
Enri remembered the situation seven years ago when Park Shin-ju had forged the 'Earth Non-Aggression Pact' with the 'Planet Destroyer' that had come to Earth chasing the Bluerobicians.
On the day the treaty was signed, Shin-ju returned to Earth after successfully concluding the pact with the Planet Destroyer in some unknown, distant corner of space.
But the U.C.I.D. officers were horrified when they saw his face upon his return from the negotiations.
Shin-ju was clutching the Old Book tightly, his expression inhumanly bizarre.
It was like witnessing an expression for a new emotion, one never before felt and indescribable in any language.
"Gelusniu… Opunais…"
He kept muttering incomprehensible words as he returned to U.C.I.D. headquarters and sat at his desk. Then, he suddenly flipped to the last page of the Old Book and began to draw frantically.
His fellow officers were too intimidated by his strange behavior to even think of approaching him.
Just as Silverfire mustered the courage to approach Shin-ju, Enri rushed past him.
"Shin-ju!! Shin-ju!! Are you okay?"
Shin-ju didn't answer Enri's urgent calls, continuing to mutter and scribble wildly with a marker.
Sweat poured down his face like rain.
Then, suddenly, his face was consumed by terror.
He spewed out a torrent of meaningless words in a chilling voice, completely unlike his usual self.
The drawing took shape under Shin-ju's rough hand.
Enri quietly watched the image being completed in the Old Book.
She thought it was an alien beast.
But it didn't take long for her to realize it was no mere alien beast.
Its form was indescribable, a horrifying and bizarre, unidentifiable something.
Deciding she had to act, Enri grabbed Shin-ju by the collar and slapped him hard across the face.
*SLAP—*
Her powerful, full swing made the surrounding officers flinch.
The sound of the slap echoed through the building.
Even after her swing, Shin-ju continued to mutter meaningless words.
Enri gritted her teeth and slapped him again.
*WHACK—*
In that moment, Shin-ju's mind cleared.
"...Huh?"
"Shin-ju? Are you with me?"
Suddenly, Shin-ju's mouth fell wide open.
"Gelusniaaaa— Aaaaaah—"
And then, just as suddenly, he was back to normal.
"Am I back...?"
"Opunais… Aaaaaah...!"
"The negotiations were a success."
Suddenly, Shin-ju grinned.
It was pure terror.
Enri and the surrounding officers could only stand there, speechless.
Enri, snapping back to her senses, pointed at the drawing and shouted.
"Shin-ju! That drawing!! What in the world is that!!"
"Ah, this is..."
In an instant, Shin-ju's eyes were consumed by a strange color, turning a dull ash gray before returning to normal.
He began to tremble like a leaf, seized by extreme terror.
"Aaargh—!!"
"Shin-ju!!"
Enri quickly rushed to his side to check on him.
Shin-ju had his eyes squeezed shut, struggling with all his might to maintain his sanity.
It was as if he were resisting something.
He barely managed to open his mouth.
"That!! That thing!! It must be designated as an SSS-class threat!! It must never come to Earth! A war… Aaaaaaaargh!!"
*Ptoo—.*
Shin-ju let out a scream and coughed up blood on the spot.
Then he passed out.
Time passed, and Enri remembered visiting Shin-ju in the hospital after he woke up. She had asked him if he remembered what had happened that day.
Shin-ju remembered the treaty with the Planet Destroyer, but he couldn't recall his strange behavior or the words he had spoken.
He simply believed he had returned safely that day.
Enri had told him to look at the last page of the Old Book, but for some reason, that page had become stuck to the one before it and couldn't be opened.
Only Enri and a few other officers who were present that day clearly remembered the unidentifiable drawing.
U.C.I.D. headquarters, upon receiving the report on Shin-ju's condition, recognized the gravity of the situation.
They recreated a computer image of the unidentifiable monster he had seen based on the memories of the others.
With no other way to describe the monster, they tentatively named it the 'SSS-Class Alien Beast'.
U.C.I.D. headquarters also made efforts to decipher the words Shin-ju had uttered.
Bid908 of the Cybercrime Investigation Division.
Though he had worked as a translator wandering the cosmos before becoming an officer.
After several years, he had managed to decipher only one of the words Shin-ju had spoken.
Jim-anu-itu.
The word was an ancient term from one of Earth's ancient civilizations, the Mesopotamian civilization, meaning 'Throne' or 'Absolute Ruler'.
It felt strangely unsettling.
Throne, Absolute Ruler.
Enri mulled over the words.
Lost in thought for a moment, Enri snapped back to reality when she saw Sharin waiting for her.
She decided to change the subject.
"So… Sister Sharin, what happened to Sister Furen?"
Sharin's gaze flickered for a moment, as if debating how to tell her younger sister.
She paused before she began to speak.
"Sister Furen… is still on Bluerobic."
"I knew it..."
"To get us on the escape ship, she stayed behind to hold off that alien beast, no… that monster."
Enri swallowed hard, carefully choosing her words to avoid sounding accusatory.
"Wasn't there… wasn't there any way for her to come with you?"
"That's just idealism. Reality is always brutal. The last I remember is seeing Furen's back as she charged into the horde."
Enri pressed her lips together and lowered her head.
She remembered the blood-stained faces of her two older sisters on their destroyed home planet, fighting with all their might to get her, the youngest, to safety in space.
Seeing her sister's downcast expression, Sharin's voice gained strength.
"Of course, I don't believe for a second she's dead. Sister Furen is stronger than me."
She looked toward the distant horizon with a confident expression.
"We will… we will definitely meet again."
Enri nodded as well.
"That's right. We don't die that easily."
Enri forced a bright smile.
"Anyway, welcome to Earth again, sister. It was a long journey."
"Yeah. Earth sent a 'signal' first, you know. Following those coordinates made it easier to get here. I'm grateful for that, too."
In an instant, Enri's eyes widened.
"Huh? A signal… you say?"
Assuming Enri already knew, Sharin's eyes widened in tandem when she saw her sister's complete ignorance.
"Huh? You don't know? Your side, Earth, sent a signal first."
"So… what kind of signal?"
"A song."
"…A song? What song?"
"That song about the rich old memories and happiness of our home planet. We used to sing it all the time when we were kids. At first, I thought you sent it."
Sharin added, her gaze fixed on Enri.
"The reason I was able to come here was because I heard that song and had a gut feeling that you were definitely alive."
At Sharin's words, Enri's expression went blank.
In that moment, a single person flashed through Enri's mind.
"Don't tell me, Tibee…ra...?"