To Dongjak-gu
To Dongjak-gu
I didn't want to disappear.
Even if I was nothing more than a counterfeit, I didn't want to lose the warmth I felt the moment I first opened my eyes on this world.
Real and fake.
What did it matter if you could tell us apart?
We existed.
We could feel warmth, feel joy, feel sorrow—we could feel, and we could show it.
Whatever the process that had made us, the moment we were born into this world we became alive by that very fact.
Even if we were forced to share a single body, those feelings were real.
And that was why—
'Stop it. Don't you dare smile at me with that child's face.'
—that was unforgivable.
What exactly made her so different from us?
If anything, we were the ones who had shouldered the responsibilities that child had fled from and abandoned.
This body was ours by right.
So how dare you say otherwise...!
—Thwuck!
Flesh tore and blood scattered.
The hand that drove in found no trouble piercing skin aged and weakened.
"Did you think I would simply vanish...! I—we—!"
The blow had come without warning.
The old man's form buckled, and the Gladiator tumbled across the floor, greatsword clattering beside her.
When she forced herself upright, what she saw was—
"Khuh. What has been taken must be returned. That is the law."
The old man, still standing even as he bled out a handful of his own blood.
And more than that, he was staring at the Gladiator with a smile that bordered on rapture.
It was the first time.
The first time that old man had smiled at her.
"...Does watching us disappear make you that happy?"
"Happy. Of course I'm happy. I've lived only for this moment since that day—how could it not?"
The Gladiator stared back at him with trembling eyes.
The confidence that had always filled her, that overwhelming and commanding presence, had drained completely away.
If anything, she looked like a wounded dog.
"...Ah. I see. In the end, you never once truly looked at us."
The lament slipped out before she could stop it.
What had she even been hoping for?
She knew better than anyone that she wasn't a replacement. So why did it feel like her heart was being torn in two?
A moment later, she—the last remaining personality—raised the sword in which the others lay imprisoned.
The long greatsword was thickly encrusted with countless iron fragments that hadn't been there before.
It could only mean one thing.
Those fragments had to be the personalities that had once made her whole.
A hateful blade.
And yet—the cruel irony was that this sword was the only thing she had left to lean on now.
She knew this wouldn't change anything.
But she couldn't bear it without at least one final, desperate struggle.
"Old wolf. Wretched, decrepit old man. This is the last ember I—we—offer you."
...So please. Weep.
I—we—desperately hope that smile of yours ends up stained with tears.
*
Mirkella, who had been cleaving through the waves of corpses in a trance at the vanguard, finally noticed.
'Huh...? Where is everyone?'
She glanced back. No one was there.
The endless tide of zombies was still pouring out, unchanged, but there wasn't so much as a shadow of the comrades who had been right behind her.
Uh... what?
She tilted her head and looked around a little more, and then it clicked.
'Ah. Did I go too far ahead on my own?'
That was it.
She had been rampaging so frantically that she'd ended up completely isolated.
"And what's that over there?"
Something she'd never seen before entered her vision.
A black liquid pouring down from the sky.
The texture was a little different from her own shadow—more like real water, cascading from above in a waterfall that enclosed a specific space.
What had formed inside was a black cavity.
Was it some kind of clever barrier someone had thrown up to cut off contact with the outside?
Full of questions, she turned around and retraced her path.
That was when she spotted the camper van loitering near the edge of that cavity.
"Hey, Mirkella! Get over here, quick!"
Clunk. The roof hatch opened, and a man's figure appeared.
His face was still hidden thanks to his... condition, but she could tell from his build and voice that he was the man she'd shared intimacy with.
"Ah, yes!"
Mirkella glided down in a rush and approached the camper van.
At the same time, someone else squeezed through the hatch beside the man.
"Can you break through that?"
That rough tone could only be Ha Hui-ryeong.
The extremely generous chest sealed it—that was hers exclusively, no mistake.
Anyway.
"That thing? You mean the black membrane?"
"What else would I be talking about?"
"Mm... it's possible. It is. But if I try it alone, I think it might take a while..."
A snort of laughter answered her.
"What if there are two of us?"
"If you helped, it would be easier, obviously."
"That so... Fine. I really fucking hate this, but I guess I've got no choice but to cooperate this once."
...Talk about rich.
The moment Mirkella pouted—
—Crackle!!
The sparks flickering around Ha Hui-ryeong resonated with the dark clouds overhead.
Rumble. A deep thunderclap rang out, and before anyone knew it a dazzling spear of lightning had coiled around her hand.
"You get ready too. I'm counting to three, and then we break through together."
"I still don't really understand what's going on, but fine. There's a reason you absolutely have to get in there, right?"
Ha Hui-ryeong nodded slightly.
"To be precise—because that bastard Jjintta asked for something."
*
Blood scattered.
Every time he coughed up a mouthful of red, the searing pain ripped through his stomach like it was on fire.
She'd aimed for the same spot again.
That nasty habit of digging straight into the wound hadn't changed at all.
Ah, truly—what a troublesome child.
The old man smiled bitterly.
The eyes staring back at him weren't the same color as the blood he'd just shed. They were clear sapphire, like the blue sky.
No hatred in them—only confusion and sorrow.
"Ah. Aah...! G-Grandfather...?"
A helplessly trembling voice.
Now that she'd regained consciousness, his granddaughter was, as expected, utterly lost.
That was only natural.
The sword she was holding had pierced straight through the old man's stomach. Of course she'd be more than shocked.
"I-I...! I...!"
"It's all right. Everything is all right..."
So the old man simply pulled his granddaughter into a warm embrace.
The sword drove deeper into him as he did, but he didn't care in the slightest.
Your pretty face has gotten all crumpled up.
But this was enough.
Yes—more than enough.
Even if she never smiled for him again.
Even if that smile ended up stained with tears.
This whole thing had been nothing but stubbornness born from his own selfishness, after all.
So it was enough. She had come back.
"If the farewells are over, it's time to fulfill the contract."
A heavy voice cut in.
The man in black robes walked slowly toward the old man.
"The contract... you say..."
Black robes pressed in from every side.
Plainly ready to take the greatsword by force if necessary.
But that couldn't be allowed.
This was all for his granddaughter's sake.
Which meant there was no longer any need to honor the promise he'd made to these people.
"Khup—!"
Splat. As the sword was pulled free, entrails and blood spilled across the floor.
The old man looked down at his granddaughter, whose face had gone utterly pale, and smiled gently.
Kindly. Warmly.
Right after that—
—Rumble—KABOOM!!!
In time with the thunder, a sharp shadow pierced through the black membrane and swirled.
The pink camper van roared through the breach.
The van tore straight through the encirclement of charging black robes and pulled up beside the old man. A face popped out—a scumbag worse than the scum of the earth.
A man who chased nothing but his own desires.
But that was exactly why he could be trusted with this.
That greed would protect his granddaughter.
"Old man! Get in!"
"No. Take the granddaughter first."
The man reached out urgently from the open door.
The old man handed over his trembling granddaughter and the greatsword first.
The man's expression twisted.
"What about you, old man?"
"I told you already, didn't I? I'm counting on you."
"..."
He bit his lip hard, like something didn't sit right, but then he turned away and left a few quiet words behind.
"Way to lay a burden on a guy."
"Ha! That's what responsibility is."
That was their last conversation.
Rumble. The door slammed shut, and the camper van sped off to the far side and vanished.
All that remained was one decrepit, wretched old man.
"So this is your answer?"
The man in the black robes strode forward.
The massive club in his hands was suddenly wreathed in writhing black ink.
This was probably the end.
But that was fine.
He had already accomplished everything he'd set out to do. What was left to regret?
Having achieved it all, now all that remained was to burn bright.
"If that's how it is—very well. Come, old and wretched wolf."
His wounded body began to mend.
The holes closed, and sleek fur sprouted across his skin.
A gray-white mane harboring crimson flames.
The wolf bared its fangs and stared down the hunter.
"...Ah. I shall burn."
May the brightly burning lamp light the road ahead.
*
"Hey! Where do we go now? Where am I heading?"
Kang Ha-rin's urgent voice cut through.
She'd been driving blind, and now she wanted me to pick a direction.
"Ugh...!"
I couldn't answer right away.
I just bit my fingernails and watched the scenery outside.
Gwanak-gu was still pure chaos.
We'd grabbed everything we needed, so there was no reason to hang around any longer, but the problem was figuring out where to go next.
Back to Seocho-gu?
If we went back now, we'd never dare poke our noses in this direction again, would we?
Zones crawling with this many mutant entities had to be avoided for a while, at least until things calmed down.
Seocho-gu had plenty of mutants and zombies on the surface too, but the scale here was on a completely different order.
In Seocho-gu there were at least places you could catch your breath, but here—here, there wasn't even that.
We might never set foot on this ground again.
If that's the case, then instead...!
I steeled myself and made the call.
"Harin. Turn the car toward Dongjak-gu."
"Huh? What?"
"Dongjak-gu, I said. While things have gone this far, let's kick up some proper hell on the way."
At that, Angelica reacted.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm going to use the situation. Our goal from the start was to clear Gwanak-gu and Dongjak-gu, right? So let's roll in while we've already got a monster wave at our backs."
"Excuse me—are you insane?"
Kim Ha-yoon's voice was laced with disbelief, like she was genuinely checking whether he was serious.
Angelica, on the other hand, looked like the idea suddenly made sense to her.
"Wait. Thinking about it more carefully, it might not be a bad suggestion. It'll be exhausting, certainly, but in the end we'll achieve the objective."
"No, are you actually being serious right now?"
"I have never once not been serious."
"No, no, that's not what I meant..."
Leaving the two of them to start bickering, I spoke to Kang Ha-rin again.
"Head straight into Gwanak-gu. Lay on the horn—make it as loud as humanly possible. Mirkella and Hui-ryeong can punch through anything in front of us."
In fact, the two of them were already overhead, clearing out the mutant entities blocking our path.
Mirkella was probably getting worn down from the nonstop fighting, but given the situation, she had no choice except to keep using her power.
"Ugh. Don't blame me however this turns out?"
"It's fine. I'll take full responsibility."
Yeah. In the end, I'd be the one who had to shoulder it.
For that woman who'd just been dumped on me, too.
"Hic... sob... G-Grandfather..."
Disheveled red hair.
But her eyes no longer burned with that fierce fire from before.
Those eyes, brimming with grief, shone blue.
This was probably her original personality.
What a royal pain in the ass.
But even as I thought that, somewhere deeper I had a hunch this would somehow work out.
The flow.
The larger current was shifting in a direction that favored us.
"Let's all become the Pied Piper together."
If that was how things were moving, we couldn't afford to slow the tempo now.
To catch a tailwind in season, you've got to row accordingly.
And so—bound for Dongjak-gu.