A Camp Among the Ruins
The campsite was decided on the sixth floor of an apartment complex. The plant roots hadn't penetrated it, and even if they grew while they slept, it would be difficult for them to reach. At the same time, it was a place where they could flee to the higher floors if monsters came from below. After searching for such a space, this was the one they chose. Past the old building with the faded sign advertising a 24-hour sauna restaurant behind an octopus specialty shop that once sold takoyaki, and across the children's playground within the complex, several relatively intact buildings stood out among the overturned or rusted-out cars. Among them, they selected Building 305.
“We'll go with this one. There's a river right in front, and if we lower a rope from the roof in an emergency, we can narrow the angle of any incoming attack.”
If the enemy used firearms, it wouldn't have been ideal, but from what he'd experienced moments ago, that wasn't the case. At best, they wielded primitive bows, throwing spears, daggers coated in poison, or needle guns. Without complaint, Jinwoo stepped over the shattered glass door and entered the building.
“Vertea.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Go up first. I have something to prepare in advance.”
“Understood.”
Once Vertea had gone ahead, Jinwoo gathered shards of glass from the broken door and scattered them along the path. Vertea was a halfling, so her feet wouldn't be injured by such things, but if an enemy tried to launch a surprise attack, it was better to have some means of detecting them or inflicting injury in advance. The only problem was remembering to clean it up tomorrow. After setting the trap, he went upstairs to find the door to room 604 already open.
“Hmm? You're just coming up now, mister?”
“I was scattering some glass shards at the entrance.”
“Ah, just like Mister Remy. Do all soldiers do that?”
“Something like that.”
“Come in. I checked room 603 earlier, but the door doesn't close properly and there are vines growing inside.”
Kiyara spoke with a teasing lilt as she stepped back into the room. Jinwoo followed her inside and was about to take off his shoes when he paused.
“Ah.”
Everyone was still wearing their footwear. It might scratch the floor a bit, but none of them would know about Korean indoor customs. Since Vertea was barefoot, he'd follow her lead. Jinwoo entered fully and set his longsword down against the wall after removing it from his back.
The party was already deep into setting up camp. As the sky darkened, they pulled sleeping bags and mats from their backpacks and laid them out. Vertea had taken ingredients from the others and was focused on cooking.
“Welcome back, Master. This unit was preparing dinner for you.”
“Hey, what about us?”
“This unit is also preparing the party's meal at the same time.”
She untied a bundle of firewood taken from a backpack, stacked it in a circle, lit a fire, and began boiling a stew. Watching the smoke drift out along the veranda, Jinwoo realized the difference between having a divine apostle like Vertea and not. Without her, they would have been chewing on dry rations at best. If they had money, they might have eaten combat rations, but they didn't have that luxury. It really was fortunate.
The rest of the party seemed to feel the same.
“...Wow, this is the first time we've had something warm since leaving the city.”
“Even you, Mister Remy?”
They devoured the stew and bread Vertea ladled into bowls with ravenous speed. The fluffy, mild bread paired with the subtly spicy, stimulating stew was a rather deadly combination. Jinwoo watched them practically lick the bowls clean as they shoveled the food down, feeling the toxin spread through his body before it dissipated. It was a sleeping agent.
He glanced at Vertea, finished his own portion, and only spoke once the pot was empty.
“How do you usually handle night watch?”
“Yawn... Usually, since Sister Alice doesn't need to sleep... she keeps one person company for conversation and stands guard together... taking turns...”
“Then I'll take the first and last shifts. Everyone, get some sleep.”
“...Are you sure? I'm a doll, so I'm fine, but...”
“It's okay. I don't feel great about making kids younger than me stand watch either.”
“I'm not that young...”
“You look sleepy too. I'm fine, so go ahead and rest.”
At his insistence, Kiyara and Pon crawled reluctantly into their sleeping bags and closed their eyes. Remy, unable to fight his drowsiness, folded his ears and lay face-down on his mat. It was probably because of his tail. Jinwoo watched the once-wagging tail go still, then saw Vertea lie directly on her mat and pull up a blanket.
“Master, this unit will sleep first. Please wake me if needed.”
“Alright.”
With that, everyone fell asleep. Only Jinwoo and Alice remained awake. An android unaffected by ingested substances and Jinwoo, who was immune to poison. Their eyes met. He listened to their breathing.
Jinwoo extended his micro-current to read the presence of each companion one by one. Slowed heartbeats, even breathing, relaxed muscles. He slowly opened his mouth.
“Alice.”
“...Yes?”
“That's an unusual name. What does it mean?”
Alice smiled with an elaborately crafted expression.
“I'm not entirely sure. It wasn't given to me at creation... It's a name I chose for myself. But it belonged to someone precious.”
“I see.”
He wasn't going to pretend he didn't know. Jinwoo pondered how to begin. If this were thirty-seven years ago by his own reckoning—before entering cryogenic sleep, before leaving Korea—there would have been countless ways to broach the subject. But now, nothing came to mind. Had he been out of practice for too long? He let out a sigh, closed his eyes, then opened them again. The distance was three meters. One step would close it. So he wasn't worried.
“My senses are a bit unique.”
“...Are they?”
“Yes. I have a unique sense that lets me detect things like heartbeats, muscle tension, and muscle movement. It makes it easy to tell if someone is lying or not.”
“Really? That's amazing. Ogres all...”
“But you're an exception.”
When Alice, who had been about to chime in agreement, fell silent, Jinwoo looked at her.
“You don't have a heart. No muscles either—just precisely replicated metal and plastic.”
“That's because I'm a doll... so...”
When the excuse-dropping Alice stopped speaking, Jinwoo gazed at her steadily. Metal and plastic. There was only one thing that meant.
“Not a doll. An android, right?”
Jinwoo drew his shotgun and aimed it at the frozen Alice. It was the weapon he had carried like a talisman ever since his wife Sera died. Alice recognized it. Her pupils dilated, her hands trembled. A meticulously simulated human reaction. Part of the algorithm designed to reduce the uncanny feeling androids gave off.
“Fortunately, it was still loaded when I found it, and it's been well maintained, so I can fire it anytime. So don't make any sudden moves.”
Alice remained rigid. Jinwoo sighed, as expected.
“At first I was confused. I couldn't tell if you'd recognized me as the Apostle of Darkness or not.”
More precisely, whether she was acting on orders from the Church of Light. Or the Church of Darkness. Or for some other reason. But now he knew.
“During that fight earlier, you must have been surprised that I didn't use electricity and relied mostly on rifles and hand-to-hand combat. It was different from the Brigadier General Ha Jinwoo you knew.”
He spoke while keeping the gun trained on her.
“You're an android who still remembers when the Labyrinth was still just the Labyrinth—when it was still Earth, aren't you?”
Alice's eyes darted restlessly among the sleeping party members. Her gaze was filled with clear concern.
“My servant is competent. They've all eaten the sleeping agent and are deeply asleep. Even if I fired this gun, they wouldn't wake. Vertea ate the food too in order to deceive them, so she's asleep as well.”
“...I see.”
The click of Jinwoo releasing the safety made Alice squeeze her eyes shut.
“You know who I am. Don't you?”
At his words, Alice nodded, then laughed bitterly at herself.
“Who wouldn't? Everyone who lived in Seoul knows your name—and your infamy.”
Her balled-up doll-like hands trembled faintly. She glanced once more at the sleeping faces before speaking.
“My designation is ELAF-173108. A domestic assistance android.”
We stepped outside and stood side by side on the veranda. I had put the gun away, but only because there was no need to waste ammunition. Once she understood that it would take me less than a second to crush her head if she tried anything, there was no point in keeping the shotgun out. Instead, I looked at the cigarette Alice offered me. It was a thin one. I didn't particularly like them. But it had been quite a while since my last, so I wasn't in a position to be picky. I accepted the pack, pulled one out, and lit it with an electric spark.
Crackle! Amid the rising smoke, the deeply inhaled vapor filled my lungs. My overheated mind cooled, and the smoke passing through the filter in my mouth settled my thoughts. The violent urges I'd felt for so long diminished. It wasn't bad.
Meanwhile, Alice rested her arms on the veranda railing, propped her chin on them, and spoke.
“Alice was my owner's name.”
With those words, Alice began recounting her past.
“I was frail from a young age. I always needed someone to support me, and eventually that role was taken by an android, but my body remained weak.”
Her hand traced her own face, then brushed her neck.
“This face, this voice... they all belonged to Alice. I've lived as Alice—using her name, her face, her voice—all this time. Hearing my model number again feels... strangely unfamiliar after so long.”
When Alice's eyes rolled over and met his, she continued.
“I recognized you the moment we met. I'd seen the name Ha Jinwoo, but I never imagined it could actually be you.”
“It's not exactly a common name. Not in this world.”
“That's true. But people who encounter the Labyrinth's media, culture, or newspapers often adopt Labyrinth-style names. I thought you were one of them.”
She let out a small laugh.
“There were so many propaganda pieces, after all. It wouldn't be strange to take the name of Seoul's god and use it.”
It was an embarrassing story. Something Jinwoo had never liked. When he looked away in awkwardness, Alice offered a gentle smile.
“But I knew the moment I saw your face. That madman, the Second Koschei, the butcher—it was really you.”
“They called me that?”
“It was that big of an incident.”
More than ninety percent of the military's general staff had been wiped out, so it made sense. Jinwoo thought the Second Koschei title was a bit much but didn't argue.
“I thought you were dead. There was no news, and the government kept broadcasting that they'd killed you.”
That made sense. The story that they had killed him was exactly what the government wanted people to believe. Reality was always different, though.
“After that, I left Korea and lived in China and Russia for about thirty-seven years. Then I entered cryogenic sleep.”
And when he woke up, he was here.
Jinwoo held the cigarette between his fingers and exhaled smoke.
“Now I'm called the Apostle of Darkness, the Church of Light is trying to hunt me down, and I suddenly have a daughter I didn't even know existed. Quite the change.”
He put the cigarette back to his lips. Beside him, Alice looked up at him.
“How did you end up becoming an adventurer?”
“Because I wanted to keep living. And I've always liked adventure.”
He simply hadn't had the chance before. Now it was different.
“I wanted to grow stronger with the blessings, gain the power to protect what matters to me, and live while pursuing the adventures I want.”
And to find out whether being the Apostle of Darkness was his fate, what lurked ahead of him—and to do what he could while learning all of it.
“That's why I became an adventurer.”
The android who called herself Alice remained by his side. She was wary of him. She thought he might be dangerous. It was only natural—he was the most-wanted man in history for killing the largest number of high-ranking military officers. But that wasn't the worst outcome.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“About me?”
“Why are you using your owner's name, and why are you an adventurer?”
Alice hesitated for a moment. Her gaze left him and drifted through the veranda's glass window to the sleeping party members.
“...We made a promise.”
Her clenched fist stopped over her chest as she spoke.
“I wanted to become a singer, and my owner wanted to go to space.”
She spoke with a sigh. Her voice carried an eerily compelling resonance.
“But the world wouldn't allow a domestic android to become a singer, and space wasn't a place you could reach just because you wanted to go. And... my owner was too frail to ever achieve that dream.”
She gazed at the distant sky with a slightly melancholy expression. Her unique pupils held a swirl of emotions.
“So we made a promise. If one of us couldn't fulfill our wish, the one who remained would make the other's wish come true.”
That was how the android received her owner's name.
“Was it an order?”
She shook her head.
“It was a request... from a friend and family.”
Jinwoo fell silent. Alice looked at him directly.
“There's a spaceship somewhere in this Gangseo District. I'm an adventurer to find it. To go to space in my owner's place—using my owner's name, face, and voice.”
Even so, Jinwoo's instincts told him there was something she wasn't saying. But he didn't ask.
“What are you going to do now...?”
He faced the android who looked up at him, revealing her anxiety and fear. The cigarette had already burned out. He flicked it off the veranda and thought.
Back when World War III was raging, that was the kind of era it was. Dreams were meaningless. Anything that didn't help the war effort was ignored. Yet here was an android who had carried her dream this far, surpassing her operational limits again and again. Innocent and pure, like a child dreaming.
To that child, he said,
“Will you be okay standing watch alone?”
“...Pardon?”
“It's almost time for the shift change, but since everyone ate the sleeping agent, it doesn't look like they'll wake up. You'll probably have to handle the watch by yourself tonight.”
I need to get some sleep too.
Alice's eyes widened at his words, blinking rapidly. Maybe he should say something more.
“I don't know what you've heard about me, but I'm not that kind of person.”
He added it so she could feel at ease.
“So... I'll help you find that spaceship.”
At his words, Alice clutched the hem of her clothes. Even as he opened the veranda door and stepped inside, she didn't follow right away. Only a quiet murmur came from behind him.
“Why...?”
Yes, why indeed. He pondered for a moment, then simply said what came to mind.
“It's a wonderful dream. I want to cheer you on.”
And that was enough. What was wrong with having a dream?
He added with a faint smile,
“If anything comes or it's time for the last shift, wake me.”
He lay down on the roll mat, stretched out, and closed his eyes. A careful voice reached his ears.
“Thank you...”
He simply pretended not to hear and fell asleep.
“Good morning, Mister Jinwoo. Did you sleep well?”
Alice's bright smile as she greeted him looked distinctly different from the day before to anyone watching. It was only natural—she had been wary of him yesterday.
“Yeah. You should've woken me for the last shift.”
“You were sleeping so soundly... Please rest a little longer. I'll bring breakfast.”
“...Did something happen last night?”
To the others, it must have looked like something had definitely happened.
“It's a secret.”
Explaining would be annoying, and he couldn't tell the truth. When he changed the subject, the two blood-related girls gasped and began whispering. They were clearly misunderstanding, but even so, it was a good start to the day.
Jinwoo rose from his spot, genuinely looking forward to the adventures that lay ahead of him.