The End of Vacation #5
The End of Vacation #5
The family estate.
The family estate out in the countryside wasn't exactly a warm and welcoming place.
Surrounded by mountains on all sides, it gave off a strong sense of isolation. If the surrounding environment felt that way, stepping inside the house only intensified the feeling.
[No Trespassing — Private Property]
I ignored the warning sign and followed the mountain path upward. The farther I went, the more the outline of the house began to emerge. A fairly large mansion built into the mountainside. Enclosed by high walls, the place felt suffocating.
I let out a breath.
It was my own house, but every time I came here, a strange feeling settled over me. A home was supposed to be a place where you could relax. It wasn't like that at all. I'd never once felt that way here.
"Is it because of Mom?"
The cause of the suffocating feeling was probably my mother.
Thinking that, I opened the gate and stepped inside.
"Young master."
"Yes. Hello."
The mansion had a large staff.
I exchanged perfunctory greetings with them—they all seemed so mechanical—and entered the house. My chest was already tightening, making it hard to breathe. Was it because I had to talk to those wooden, emotionless people, or because I was on my way to greet my mother?
'Illegitimate child.'
The thought circled in my head.
Was my mother the Sovereign Commander's mistress? Probably so. After all, he had an officially acknowledged wife and legitimate children.
In this day and age, a simple internet search would pull up a long list of my half-siblings' activities. The Sovereign Commander, a king with power greater than any Joseon dynasty monarch, had bloodlines that were both the next generation of power and celebrities in their own right.
Beneath their dazzling, radiant lives, illegitimate children like me existed like shadows. I thought to myself. There were probably many more like me out there.
Lost in those thoughts, I soon stood in front of my mother's room.
I paused for a moment, then took hold of the door handle.
"Mom. I'm here."
I opened the door as I spoke.
"..."
No answer came.
My mother was lying in bed, dressed in a hospital gown. The IV stand designed for superhumans and the various treatment devices next to the bed caught my eye.
She had once been a superhuman of considerable renown, but for some reason, she was now afflicted with an incurable superhuman disease and couldn't even keep her mind straight. When I was younger, at least my mother hadn't had trouble moving around.
"Are you okay? I'm here, aren't you even going to say hi?"
I sat on the corner of the bed, stroking my mother's leg as I spoke. It was uncomfortable and made my chest feel tight, but my mother was still my mother. Seeing her this weak was painful.
Since I was here, I wanted to hear her voice.
"How much longer are you just going to lie there... Please, get up."
It might be in the mountains, but it was a luxurious mansion. They even had a full staff. And yet, a cure was nowhere in sight.
Maybe this space itself was something like a prison.
"Or are you just sick of me coming by so often? I came all this way, it's a bit much if I can't even see your face."
Maybe if I kept talking, my mother's eyes would open. Thinking that, just as I was about to say a few more words—
"...Son."
My mother's eyes opened.
'She called me son again.'
Even though she knew my real gender, even when we were completely alone, she insisted on using that term. As if a decision once made could never be reversed, my mother always treated me as a son.
But today, I had to know the reason.
I wavered for a second at the sight of my mother's unfocused eyes, but my resolve quickly steadied.
'The Sovereign Commander or whatever the hell else, I'm going to ask. Why I have to live my life disguised as a man like this. This time, no matter what, I'm going to hear it. I'm sick to death of doing this without knowing the real reason.'
I organized the words that were swirling inside me.
And took my mother's hand.
"Mom."
"...Son."
"I want to ask about that today. I'm not your son, I'm your daughter. Why on earth do I have to keep hiding it? Please, just tell me now."
The moment I said it.
I felt a sense of wrongness.
'Huh?'
A strange light flickered in my mother's two eyes, which had been so unfocused. A gaze filled with will and strength. Those sane, normal eyes—something I hadn't seen at all since she collapsed.
They were fixed on me with an eerie intensity.
"Uh, Mom?"
At the unsettling feeling coming from my own mother, I let go of her hand and stood up. Even so, my mother's stare didn't waver.
"Wha, what? Are you lucid again? Did the shock of what I just said snap your foggy mind back into—"
Maybe it was Kim Geun-cheol's influence. I spoke as if making a joke in this unexpected situation.
"...If you."
A cracked, rasping voice slipped from my mother's lips, and a chill ran down my spine.
"If that man finds out you are a girl, it will be the end."
In an instant, as if the power had been cut, the lights in the room went out with a crackling sound.
"Uh, uhh...?"
"Absolutely not. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely."
"Wh-what...? Why? What's the reason—"
"Two."
The word two.
"Before you, you had two older sisters."
The chill turned to sheer horror.
"Two... two... I didn't know anything... I didn't know, I didn't... Th-the lab... Ah, agh. Uuughk."
"Mom!"
* * *
"Oh, dear Princess... asking for ten million more gold, isn't that a bit much? You don't even give me a straight answer when I ask you things... This is too cruel, honestly..."
"Fetch it."
The Void Princess was arrogant.
Even as she summoned people again and told them to give her ten million in game gold, she was profoundly arrogant. Was this woman... seriously in her right mind? An S-rank monsterkin from another world was extorting gold from a person just to play a game?
"Fine! Whatever, I'll give it! But Princess! In return for the tribute I'm offering, could you at least help me—"
"You."
"Yes?"
"Have you become bold enough to suggest a trade simply because I deign to mingle words with you?"
The monsterkin's eyes flashed as she glared at me...!
"No! You just asked for the gold! Please don't be so scary!"
"Silence. Are you a being powerful enough to dare utter the word 'trade' from your lips? If I say bring it, then bring it. Did I not bestow a fragment upon you last time? Is such a paltry sum of gold too precious for you?"
The fragment was something I procured myself from the start!
"Argh...! No, but still! Come on! Void Princess! Honestly, I have a lot of things I'm curious about, too! A little give-and-take would be a huge help to both of—"
"From now on, do not tack on words to my own. Remain silent."
Yes, ma'am.
"Do you not have things you yourself hide?"
She hit the nail right on the head.
"..."
I couldn't say a single word.
She and I both have a lot we're hiding. So there's a major barrier to communication, but unlike my desperate desire to know VP's secrets, VP showed no such inclination at all.
I'd realized it as we'd been talking up until now.
She apparently has no intention of forcibly finding out my secret, and doesn't seem to want to mess with me. What on earth for, I have no idea.
"It seems you've grasped something? Well, suppose it to be so. If you understand, then nod your head. I require ten million more gold."
"Yep."
What can I do.
Right now, I just have to bow my head.
"Let us go back, Geun-cheol."
"Okey."
—Poof.
It was only after that round of discussion concluded that I could finally return to my dorm room. Crazy bastards. Are they straight-up extorting my actual cash now? In my heart, I wanted to tell them to spend their own damn money on microtransactions.
But there's no way these monsterkin sisters could engage in normal economic activity. If they started getting involved in the real-world economy, some innocent person would definitely lose money and be devastated.
"Haaah."
Still, better that they're wreaking havoc in a game than in reality.
Actually, it's something I'd almost want to encourage.
But I wonder what the charge would even be for someone who funds a monsterkin's game gold habit? Game-espionage? Game-treason? Game-sedition?
I was thinking that as I pulled up a real-money trading site.
—Bam bam bam.
Someone pounded on my door.
"It's gotta be Si-hoo."
Ever since she'd said she was going somewhere, I hadn't heard a peep. I'd diligently prepared a whole apology speech because I thought I'd been a bit too harsh... and it looked like she was finally back.
—Creak.
I opened the door right away.
"Oh, Miss Si-hoo. Hayaku come here... Huh?"
"Geun-cheol."
—Slip.
Before I could say anything.
Si-hoo barged roughly into my room.
"What? Hey. Si-hoo. What's wrong with you?"
But something was seriously off. Si-hoo was just standing there in the middle of the living room. I could only see her from behind, but I could tell immediately.
Si-hoo was trembling.
"Hey, man. What's going on? Did you see a ghost or something? Yikes!"
—Whirl!
She suddenly whipped her head around and scared the crap out of me!
"Hey! What the hell!"
But this bastard's seriously terrified!
"Geun-cheol..."
What the hell happened to her to make her like this? I felt a surge of instinctive danger. I immediately drew the curtains, grabbed Si-hoo by the shoulders, and pulled her down to sit on the bed.
—Shiver shiver shiver.
Even so, Si-hoo looked profoundly unstable.
"Calm down. Let's just calm down first, Si-hoo. Unless you really did see a ghost, it looks like something serious happened... Instructor? Leona? Should I contact people who can help?"
I said it to try and reassure her.
—Snatch.
Si-hoo just grabbed my hand, the one holding my phone.
"No. Don't. It's not like that."
"Then why the hell are you 'trembling' like that?! You are being seriously messed up right now!"
"That's..."
"First, just tell me what happened. You can tell me."
Why on earth is she like this? Seeing Si-hoo, who was always so strong, acting this way made even me feel unstable. But in times like this, I've got to be the one to hold it together mentally.
"..."
After a moment of hesitation, Si-hoo spoke.
"Geun-cheol... me... I mean, I think... I'm in really big trouble."
"Why."
Even her voice was trembling.
"To put it your way, Geun-cheol... I'm pretty fucked."
"Wait, did you actually turn into a real guy?"
"Bullshit... hoo, hoo... hoo... Though, hearing you spout bullshit somehow makes me feel a little calmer..."
She looked genuinely terrified.
My instincts went searching for my weapon. An attack? Was it an attack? She's related to the Sovereign Commander, so some kind of power struggle, maybe? Were assassins from the powerful closing in? There's no way Instructor Lee So-ra would ever allow that.
"I'm a little scared... I came here because I was scared..."
"So what I'm asking is—"
"Mom said."
In that instant.
A chill ran down my spine.
"She told me I had two older sisters before me."
As she said that, Si-hoo hugged her own arms, as if wracked with terror.