Even the Unwanted Get a Rice Cake
It had been nearly a year since I'd returned from the Murim.
Aside from the three months I'd spent with the Hound under Red Fox Lee Hee-su's rule, the rest of my life had been here at the Eclipse.
The Hound periodically drafted shelter residents for labor. Mostly menial work, but accidents were guaranteed.
Whether it was personal greed or something else entirely—even when nothing went wrong, an ordinary person could only last less than six hours in a rift zone. For some people, things went south well before that.
In other words, they turned into zombies. Every so often someone Awakened, but…
Most either died or became the walking dead.
Was it any wonder people fought tooth and nail not to go?
Uncle Kim and Mao Mei had insisted on joining the work crews themselves, but I'd ordered them kept off the draft lists. Some residents grumbled about the favoritism, but if they had a problem with it, they could try being shelter lord themselves. I hadn't planned it this way, but I was effectively the official lord of this place.
Whenever someone started mouthing off, my retainers—if you could call them that—the brothers Gwang-sik and Gwang-du would haul the complainers off to the rift first.
There'd been another incident just yesterday.
Gwang-sik had finished his report with a grim face.
"S-so, once work hours were over and everyone was getting ready to leave… Mrs. Park and her family never came back."
Mrs. Park—wasn't that the household with young kids?
We limited work shifts to five hours. That was the only way to wrap up and clear the rift on time. Cleanup usually took about thirty minutes, and among the people who'd been in and out of the zones a few times, some used that short window to scratch a little personal itch.
The soldiers dispatched from the Hound tended to look the other way, so everyone did it under the table.
The problem was that Mrs. Park's greed had apparently gotten the better of her.
"That so? She got greedy."
"Thing is, nobody told her to, but she brought the kids along too—and they all vanished. Looks like…"
"…She really got greedy."
Nothing to be done about it. By now they were probably shambling around somewhere in the rift as zombies.
Even after the end of the world, the education fever was still a problem. A real problem.
Sending your own kids into a rift just to make them Awaken…
She'd probably figured that once they Awakened, she could ship them off to the government forces or some warlord faction—and then life would be incomparably easier than it was now.
"Ah, and that's why I'm bringing this up—our resident count has dropped below a hundred. What should we do?"
"Anyone waiting to get in?"
"Yes, sir. Always more than we can take. Just the gakdagui alone, a dozen or so come and go every day."
The Hound authorized a hundred residents per shelter. Of that number, the shelter lord could freely adjust about ten to twenty percent.
The government of the Republic of Korea had collapsed a long time ago. They still called themselves the government army, the government—but they'd abandoned their duty to the people ages ago. Regional warlords had stepped in to fill the void, but there were obvious limits to what they could do.
So each warlord only managed as many people as they could actually support. The Hound oversaw a total of ten survival shelters. Anyone who couldn't get into one received help from no one, spending their days cycling between predator and prey, devouring each other just to get by.
Every so often a group would try to storm a shelter, but even then the Hound didn't intervene. They simply let the newcomers take over.
"…This time, let's take in some young kids too."
That last pack of gakdagui still weighed on my mind.
"Sir? Th-that's, uh…"
"What, is there a problem?"
Gwang-sik spent several rounds insisting he wasn't defying me before he finally explained why. Apparently, beating their ringleader to death that first time had left a lasting impression on the kid.
"W-well, the Hound really hates it. See, if you've got gakdagui—kids, I mean—you've got no choice but to send them out during personnel drafts… and every time that happens, they make a huge stink about it."
"Because kids don't have any real labor value?"
"We figured that was it at first too, so when they called for ten people we'd count two gakdagui as one adult slot. Kids or not, two of them can do one grown-up's share. But even then, the Witch of Massa—I mean, Red Fox—threw an absolute fit."
Hee-su?
Come to think of it, she had an unusually strong aversion to orphans. Sure, I understood they weren't much use—but even kids could handle simple chores, couldn't they?
"Why does she hate them so much?"
"Honestly, I don't really get it either. From what I know, other warlords deliberately round up gakdagui and dump them in rift zones all day long."
"So they've got their own Mrs. Parks over there too."
"…The younger they are, the higher the odds of Awakening. One or two out of ten will Awaken. That's why some people send their own kids into the rifts."
Is that right?
And yet Red Fox still hated orphans?
I had a hunch about that one.
"Anyway, this time take about half as kids. And for rift-zone work, only send people fifteen and up."
Gwang-sik looked faintly rattled.
"Still got people complaining these days?"
"…N-no, sir. I'll manage them properly."
Come to think of it, sitting in on the interviews myself might not be a bad idea.
"Actually, never mind. I'll handle the interviews this time. Get things ready."
"Yes, sir. Understood. Are you going to see all of them?"
"How many are we talking?"
"Probably a hundred will show up."
"That many? Tell them to gather by tomorrow. Tomorrow's market day anyway, right?"
I figured I'd run the interviews together with Uncle Kim and Mao Mei.
There used to be something called a five-day market. Or rather, there was. Right up until the collapse, it had been a fine old institution that still held on in the provinces. Big-box stores had taken some of the shine off, but if you went to a five-day market in a county town you could still feel that festival atmosphere—local specialties, all kinds of food, things to see.
Something similar still happened now.
It didn't line up neatly every five days the way it used to, but a market opened at least twice a month.
It was also the day the shelters traded supplies with each other, and even people who didn't live in a shelter could come here with a reasonable degree of freedom—on this day alone.
That was why soldiers dispatched from the Hound stood permanent armed watch. In this world, anyone who'd come to buy or sell could turn into a looter at the drop of a hat.
Out beyond the shelter walls they didn't care who killed whom, but the message was clear: not here.
"Boss, we've got everyone gathered at the gym. Shall we?"
Gwang-du had come to find me. There was a roofless gymnasium nearby, and apparently that was where the interviews would be held. Nobody was going to work out there anyway, and repairing the place was beyond anyone's imagination.
Still, we couldn't exactly do this out in an open field.
Most of them had probably come to buy and sell goods, then stampeded over the moment they heard we were taking new residents. Ages varied. Word must have gotten out that we were taking gakdagui too—there were quite a few orphans among them.
And somehow, a fair number of young women had shown up as well. I had no idea where they'd heard what.
Ordinarily we mainly selected skilled workers, and young women like that usually went straight to warlord territory. Steady employment was guaranteed there, after all.
But even after the end of the world, not everyone was willing to sell their body lightly. These were probably the ones who didn't want that kind of life.
There were women pretty enough that even I noticed—but this wasn't a session for picking out concubines. Looks weren't a consideration to begin with.
If I'd left it to Gwang-sik and Gwang-du, they'd have come back with enough girls to form a couple of idol groups.
"Boss, everyone's here. How many at a time?"
"Let's see them in groups of about ten."
Gwang-sik looked like he had something he wanted to say. Hesitating. Fidgeting.
"What? Spit it out."
Only then did he glance around cautiously and venture the words.
"Uh, well… if I could just pick… five or six people…"
Six people?
Their little crew had been six, hadn't it? What was this about?
The pretty young women I'd noticed earlier suddenly came to mind.
I'd kept these guys close and put them to work, but I couldn't entirely shake the worry that their old habits might resurface someday. Their gang had once tried to force themselves on Mao Mei before backing off, and for all I knew the same kind of thing was still happening quietly. It just hadn't reached my ears.
Maybe formally pairing them off wouldn't be such a bad idea. If they were just keeping playthings, that would be a bigger problem—but if they took proper partners, they probably wouldn't act the way they used to.
A man with a wife and kids tends to try living right. That was just how it worked.
"Got your eye on some girls, then?"
"Ah? Ahahaha…"
"There are conditions."
The moment I looked ready to agree, Gwang-sik and Gwang-du's eyes lit up.
"First—nothing forced. Whether you bring gifts or whatever else, the women have to say yes too. And you get married properly. Not just shacking up. I'll even arrange a simple wedding ceremony."
At the word marriage, both of them went wide-eyed. They clearly hadn't thought that far ahead.
They looked at each other and nodded.
Every young woman in the place stampeded over to Gwang-sik and Gwang-du's interview station.
Apparently the brothers had advertised that they were looking for women who'd just handle housework—no farm labor, no rift-zone work.
Really?
Even with the planet ending, were people not looking at their faces? I was mildly surprised, then decided to let it go.
Anyway, once those two settled down and started families, they'd probably manage this place a little more normally.
It wasn't as if I could stay here forever.
Sooner or later, the time to leave would come.
"Why are we only taking ten people, Master?"
Mao Mei asked, round eyes full of curiosity. The number we were selecting was smaller than the slots available, after all.
"Ah. I left the rest to Gwang-sik's crew."
"…Will that be all right?"
I knew exactly what she was worried about. Uncle Kim, standing beside us, chuckled and set her at ease.
"Don't you fret. They're not forcing anyone, and anyone who didn't like the idea would've come over to our side."
"N-no, it's fine. Master and Uncle will handle it. You took me in too, after all… I'll go start on dinner."
She finished speaking, bowed to me, and headed back to the Eclipse.
Truth be told, Mao Mei had only been able to stay here thanks to Uncle Kim. He'd been a man of some influence in this place long before I arrived. The thugs who'd originally run the shelter couldn't manage basic personnel or supplies, and Uncle Kim had taken all of that on himself.
So he'd always had a certain amount of discretion.
"Say, did you know?"
I turned to look at him, wondering what this was about.
"Before you came, our shelter was the least popular of the lot. Honestly, we were barely scraping together the numbers the Hound demanded. Sure, some people still wanted in—but nothing like this."
It might have been Red Fox Hee-su's consideration, or it might have been all the magical beasts and zombies I'd beaten down across this whole area.
At the very least, people here almost never got attacked by zombies or beasts in their sleep.
"Anyway—what do you think? I'd say we should prioritize that woman sitting in the third row."
I looked where he indicated. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, neatly put together. Was the old man lonely? I tilted my head at the thought, and he hurriedly pressed on, flustered.
"N-no, not for me—for you. Wouldn't it be good for you to have someone too?"
"I'm not particularly inconvenienced as things stand."
"Well, sure, with Mao around the housework's no trouble—but to my eye, that child is more like a little sister to you, isn't she?"
I hadn't really thought about it. The kid respected me as her master, not as a man. But jumping straight to some other woman?
"…Mao Mei is my disciple. I appreciate the thought, but I'm only taking people with specialized skills. If that woman you mentioned has something useful, I'll consider her."
"Ah? Don't you worry. Don't I know you by now? I hear she's a former nurse. Well? Couldn't you use one of those?"
A nurse? A doctor would be better, but even a nurse was an excellent find.
I was just about to say who we'd take when I sensed someone approaching.
Measured footsteps. Not someone trained in martial arts, exactly—but clearly well-drilled.
"Whoa? People really do flock to this shelter, don't they? How have you been? It's been a while. You remember me, right?"
I remembered him.
That slick bastard Kim Hui-seong appeared with a greasy smile, leading his subordinates.
Wait—Red Fox Lee Hee-su hadn't come along too, had she?