That Happened Too (5)
That Happened Too (5)
The girl instinctively dropped into a low stance.
'...What was that?'
A vibration came from somewhere.
Maybe it hadn't been her imagination.
At regular intervals, a thumping—kung, kung—vibrated through the sewer, shaking the walls.
Humidity beaded on the ceiling, falling like rain, while dirt sifted through cracks in the old, fractured walls.
She slowly rose to her feet and looked in the direction the sound had come from—the way she had walked.
The vibrations, the noise. As time passed, they were drawing closer.
'Is that an explosion?'
She had no time to dwell on it.
The girl ducked between the thick pipes lining one wall.
She covered her mouth with her hand and held her breath.
"...Ah...!"
Amid the echoing booms, a human voice rang out.
'...What kind of lunatic roams around making this much noise?'
There was a limit to how recklessly you could throw your life away. The girl thought whoever it was had to be a massive idiot.
By the time she realized that "some idiot" was looking for her, she was already stepping out from behind the pipes.
"Geumjjogi—ah, there you are."
"......."
That some idiot was someone she knew.
"Geumjjogi, never mind the city. It's dangerous here, let's head back."
"You know that, and you're running around shouting like that?"
It was beyond frustrating—it was dumbfounding.
If it had been a stranger, she would've let it slide.
But because he knew it was dangerous, she felt a strong urge to hit him just once.
"......Haaah."
The girl let out a deep sigh.
'He's not even a real idiot.'
Or maybe he was.
The boy who had appeared with the explosion of noise looked at her and grinned brightly, as if he had no clue what she was feeling.
"Let's go home."
It was only natural that the girl ignored him.
26. Yeah, That Happened Too (5)
I was relieved I'd found her faster than I'd expected. I breathed a secret sigh of relief.
I couldn't tell when Geumjjogi, who had vanished leaving only a slip of paper, had left. While I was talking with Four-eyes, she might have already gone deep toward the city.
That was why I'd been roaming around making a racket. Finding Geumjjogi even a second faster was crucial.
We were already far from the village. It was true that this zone was relatively safer than other places, but that didn't mean much.
It was still dangerous. I spoke to Geumjjogi again.
"Don't ignore me. Let's go back."
Since I'd come all this way to fetch her myself, the only answer should obviously be "YES."
But.
Her nickname was Geumjjogi.
"I'm not going."
"?"
Geumjjogi, Geumjjogi....
What on earth are you saying.
I followed behind her as she started walking, trying to persuade her with all my might.
"Hey, Geumjjogi. Just stop for a second."
"No. You go back."
"Then at least walk a little slower."
"I don't want that either."
Jeez.
Why was a kid with legs shorter than mine walking so damn fast?
Instead of slowing down, she picked up the pace.
With my trash-tier stamina stat, just keeping up was hard.
...Oh Eun-young seonsaeng.
Please, grant me strength (physical).
I was about to lose her again at this rate. I calmed myself down by taking deep breaths and reciting prime numbers, then sprinted after her with everything I had.
Since I couldn't stop her actions right away, I decided to figure out the reason first.
"Why on earth are you trying to go to the city?"
"...Just because."
Geumjjogi.
"Just because" isn't a reason.
"...You don't have to go right now."
"That's true, but still... just because."
Okay, at least you're answering.
I tried to think positively.
If only the answers hadn't been meaningless, I would've thought, "Our Geumjjogi has really grown up well."
.......
At this rate, we really were going to reach the city.
Not that arriving safely would be without problems.
Basically, kids born and raised in the garbage landfill usually don't have an "identity."
The moment we reached the city, my class would automatically switch from "Mage" to "Illegal Alien." Life would become infinitely harder.
Sure, after arriving, there might be a way back to the landfill. But just because the route there was safe didn't mean the way back would be.
I wasn't even sure we were heading toward the city. Where she got the confidence to stride forward like that, I had no idea.
...She knew, right?
With that in mind, I asked her a question.
"Is this even the right way to the city?"
"......."
Geumjjogi, who had kept answering my questions, ignored me for the first time.
Honestly, it was practically an answer. A silent admission that she didn't know.
Wouldn't grabbing her ankle and begging her not to go have a better chance of getting us back?
Just as I was starting to think that—
"Let's go back—huh?"
I stopped mid-sentence. Geumjjogi had halted in her tracks.
Had my persuasion finally worked?
Unfortunately, no.
A shadow stood blocking our path.
It was a vagrant with a blanket draped over his shoulders.
A mechanical eye, revealed through cracked artificial skin, glowed red as it turned toward us.
He was also the man who had sold me a device for watching YouTube for three days' worth of food.
"Where are you little runts going?"
"......."
Hm.
Were we screwed?
We were far from the village. This wasn't a place where you'd want to run into a vagrant.
"Haha, don't be so wary."
I felt like I was seeing both a "My dog doesn't bite" sign and a "Beware of Dog" sign at the same time.
As the man took a step toward us, we stepped backward to keep distance.
I supposed I'd have to show off the power of my magic—
That's when Geumjjogi scooped me up and started running in the opposite direction.
"Huh?"
I'd never been carried princess-style even before I got stuck in the game. I was flustered by my first ever princess carry.
A kid shorter than me, freakishly strong.
"A princess carrying someone while running... does that make it a princess carry?"
"...Shut up and stay quiet."
Geumjjogi answered my dazed musing.
If anything, I should have been the one doing the carrying and running. But with my stamina, that was impossible.
Maybe running all the way back to the village was too much for her too. She ducked into a narrow fork along the sewer.
Pipes crisscrossed the ceiling and floor in a tangled mess.
Geumjjogi set me down, breathing heavily.
This looked like a dead-end corner of the sewer. No lights, so darkness pooled thickly. The buzz of insects reached my ears.
I asked Geumjjogi, still gasping for breath.
"...You okay?"
"......Yeah."
Being rescued by a girl (probably) younger than me carrying me princess-style was certainly a novel feeling.
If he heard us now, we'd be caught right away. I spoke as quietly as possible.
"...Now you'll go back to the village, right?"
"......Let me think about it."
So it took things getting this bad for you to consider it.
.......
A sudden thought popped into my head, and I told Geumjjogi.
"But hey."
"...Stay quiet, we could get caught."
That was true, but—
"If it's a mechanical eye, it usually detects biometric signals—"
"Hello there?"
The man's voice suddenly rang out from behind us. Startled, we jumped forward, almost falling.
What the—there was only a wall.
As if reading my mind, the wall broke apart with a loud noise.
- Kwang!!!
The other side of the broken wall was lit, bright beams of light flooding through the hole.
Beyond it stood the vagrant from before.
I finally saw what he'd been hiding under the blanket: instead of an arm, a pile bunker. So a cyberpunk vagrant carries a pile bunker.
"You can't run all the way to the village anyway. Let's not tire ourselves out—just come on over here."
A grin that looked ready to split his face spread across his mouth.
With his intact hand, he widened the hole and stepped through.
Huge chunks of stone crashed into the puddle of water on the floor.
"Runt, you can run away."
Then the man looked at me. Seeing him say that, I knew—the vagrant's target was Geumjjogi.
"How many credits will I get? Haha! Even a bum like me gets a chance like this."
The man's eyes, shining with madness, fixed on Geumjjogi.
Perhaps thinking there was no escape, he slowly blocked our retreat and started walking toward us.
Geumjjogi said to me.
"...You run away first."
"What?"
"I'll take care of that guy and come."
What did you mean by that, Geumjjogi.
No matter how strong she was for a kid, her chances against a man armed with cyberware were close to zero.
Reading my expression that said "don't talk nonsense," she added:
"...Then are we going to fight together? I'll create an opening, and you use it to run away fast."
I shook my head.
Maybe he found that funny. The man burst into loud laughter.
"Kuahaha! A real tearjerker! Yeah, Bisiri, right? As a man, you gotta have that stubbornness! Not that it means anything now... What the hell is that?"
A ball of light formed at the tip of my index finger and drifted toward him at a slow speed.
Perhaps sensing no threat, he stared blankly at it.
"Ahh, so that's it."
Geumjjogi looked at me like I was crazy at my changed tone, but I ignored it.
The man waved his hand through the ball of light that had stopped right in front of his nose.
"I can't even touch it. What is this?"
I answered his curiosity.
"Magic."
"......What's magic?"
Perhaps my reply didn't clarify anything. He looked doubtful, but I had no time to explain.
I released my control over the gathered mana.
The light that had brightly lit the surroundings contracted. Just as the man, sensing unease, stepped backward—
I grabbed Geumjjogi and threw us in the opposite direction.
"Hey, hey! Where do you think you're touching!"
"Get down, dumbass!"
The more I used mana, the more I understood my talent. The speed at which I gathered it had increased, and I'd figured out how to scatter it.
Out of all the magic I'd used so far, I'd gathered the largest amount of mana yet.
- Peo-eo-eo-eo-eong!!!
Good thing I'd covered my ears. The exploding light engulfed the entire sewer. The shockwave sent Geumjjogi and me tumbling in the opposite direction.
What happened to the man was obvious without even looking.
* * *
Maybe she had a change of heart. Geumjjogi followed behind me.
"...I said I'm sorry."
She even apologized, but... if you do wrong, you have to face the consequences. So I let her words go in one ear and out the other.
"...But it's dangerous, so we can't go together."
I didn't answer and kept walking.
Before we knew it, we'd reached the village. I continued along the path of the sewer village.
"Answer me... I said I'm sorry."
"Enough, follow me."
I took her to the house of the technician called "Tinkerer."
"Huh? What business do the Little Ones have here?"
A grimy woman wearing glasses made of eight lenses, like a spider's eyes, looked down at me.
I spoke to the woman, Tinkerer.
"Can you make us some proper identities? And a credit chip we can use in the city."
The color of Tinkerer's glasses changed.
"That's a bit expensive. Even for the village Little Ones, I can't do it for free."
"Use this for the credits."
I handed over all my savings.
"...Hey! You saved that up for a really long time."
This is what I'd saved it for anyway. I turned to Geumjjogi.
"What can I say to a little brat who tries to go to the city without a second thought? This will solve the identity problem. So let's wait until we're a bit older to go to the city."
"...But still."
"I'm confiscating your nonsense."
Originally, I'd planned to save more and get a higher-grade identity. But if I didn't do this, who knew what Geumjjogi would do next.
"Oho."
Tinkerer, who had checked the credits, spoke.
"What names will you choose? Ah, for reference, a name is like an alias you use in the city."
"I'll go with Lee Si-woon. Surname Lee, given name Si-un."
"Oh, looks like you know what a name is?"
Of course I did. After giving my real name, I looked at Tinkerer.
If I'd known it would be turned into some Chinese-style alteration, I would have been more careful. But at the time, I didn't know that would happen.
"Hm, Geumjjogi, and you?"
"......I."
Geumjjogi seemed to have a name ready. Slowly, she spoke.
"Originally, I was going to go with just Catherine, no surname. But please give me the same surname as Bisiri, Su-un...? Whatever that was."
"Confirmed, go sit over there and wait."
Why did she want the same surname as me? Did it feel like we were siblings or something?
But Catherine?
If it was Catherine, that was the default name for the female protagonist in the game.
* * *
"Anyway, that's how we decided on the names to use in the city. I stayed there for a few more years and then finally came to the city."
I finished the brief explanation.
Catherine, beside me, showed Eve the framed photo she was holding, adding to my story.
"This is the picture we took back then at Tinkerer's house. Doesn't he look really fresh and young?"
Eve, who had been silent while Catherine reminisced, finally asked.
"...That entity, 'Teddy'—what happened to him?"
"How would I know? I heard a rumor he got dragged off by a drone after that."
"......Then why did you say 'spoiler' earlier?"
"Because it's more fun that way."
"......."
Emotion crept into Eve's eyes as she looked at Catherine. She looked like she might be angry.
To stir emotions in an artificial intelligence. Geumjjogi really was something.
I shook my head. Today was another peaceful day.