The Butler of Hyperion
"A... UFO?"
A sleek, elegant curve. At the center of a thick white-glossed disc sat a hemispherical hull, and its headlights pulsed with an eerie, unnatural glow.
What had burst through the ceiling was, by every measure, a UFO. And it was unmistakably hovering in midair.
What the hell is that?
Yeongsik's eyes trembled. Since when could something like that exist in this world? No shelter ability, no matter how powerful, could produce a flying craft so utterly alien — and the same went for the awakened. He whipped his head around, scanning the surroundings, but nothing else seemed amiss.
It just... fell out of the sky?
Then it happened.
You have been chosen as the temporary Butler.
"...What?"
The voice rang out of nowhere inside his head, and Yeongsik's jaw dropped.
A woman with a cold bearing and short-cropped hair, a long spear slung across her back, strode briskly down the corridor. A man fell into step beside her.
"There's been a commotion in D-Sector."
"A commotion? Did zombies attack?"
At the mention of D-Sector, the woman's expression stiffened almost imperceptibly. Noting her sour mood, the man quickly added, "It doesn't look like a zombie attack. It's just... the place where it happened..."
"Enough. I'll go see for myself."
D-Sector — the slum quarter built outside the shelter's inner walls, home to those without power. It was also where his former comrade had ended up.
That idiot...
Yoon Seunga shook her head, thinking of the man so hopelessly soft-hearted he might as well have had sucker stamped on his forehead.
"I told him a hundred times to get his head on straight."
She clicked her tongue and kept walking — until someone stepped into her path.
"Oh my, if it isn't Seunga unni. Busy day?"
"Baek Seulgi..."
Kim Yeongsik's ex-girlfriend — the same woman rumors had lately linked to the shelter's leader.
She was in her twenties, her makeup neither too heavy nor too light, her face a study in delicate beauty laced with a strange, unsettling allure. Dressed in a one-shoulder knit top and jeans, she made Seunga's brow furrow on sight.
Dressing and painting herself up like that, even now. In this world.
Seunga couldn't fathom the mindset. Clean water and food were perpetually scarce, and fighters were dying by the handful every single day. Granted, she supposed she could understand wanting to dress up, if she bent over backward to be charitable.
As a combat officer who worked the field, Seunga had no interest in adornment herself — but she knew some people clung to old memories of the world before, or used a bright appearance to lift the spirits of those around them.
What soured her, though, was the arithmetic behind it: how much precious drinking water was spent to keep that appearance up, and how many search-team members had died scrounging for clothes and cosmetics so this woman could strut around like the world hadn't ended.
"Hmm. Heard there was trouble in D-Sector?"
"None of your business, is it?"
Seunga tried to brush past her, but Seulgi, it seemed, had other plans.
"Why wouldn't it be my business? Isn't that where Yeongsik oppa lives?"
Yoon Seunga shot her a look of pure contempt. Seulgi only smiled back, eyes crinkling with amusement. Anyone worth their salt knew exactly what this woman was — the one who had used Kim Yeongsik down to the bone and thrown him away.
"..."
"Right, of course. The vice-captain of the security force must be terribly busy — has to run around personally, hm? What would you do if something happened to the oppa you coddle so dearly?"
Beneath the mockery lay open contempt, a sneer that might as well have said, The man you care about is the man I discarded.
The truth was, what Seunga felt toward Kim Yeongsik was closer to respect than anything romantic.
"Sure. I'd say he matters more than someone who does nothing but wag her tail around the shelter without lifting a finger to help it."
"Ho ho. What a hurtful thing to say. Anyone overhearing would think I'm a freeloader."
"And aren't you? You've never so much as killed one zombie, and it's not like you handle any real duties. Ah — right, you do work very hard as the shelter's flower."
"...Well. What would a stiff, blockheaded unni know, anyway? I have no idea what you see in that fool, but good luck out there."
Seulgi swept away in a cloud of perfume, laughter trailing behind her.
"Hmph."
Seunga quickened her pace to make up the time she'd wasted on the encounter. She couldn't shake a nagging sense of foreboding about the disturbance in D-Sector. The man was already in Leader Yoo Byungtae's disfavor; even a minor incident there had a way of metastasizing into something far worse.
It couldn't be. Surely not.
Even an outlying sector like D was, given the shelter's sheer size, no small place. It didn't necessarily have anything to do with Yeongsik—
"Kim Yeongsik! Come out this instant and explain exactly what happened here!"
"Collapsing a building — are we supposed to take that as an attack on this shelter?"
"Don't tell me you teamed up with the Slatter to pull off a terror attack?"
By the time she arrived, the awakened had already ringed Yeongsik's dwelling.
Creak—
What on earth did that idiot do this time?
The building they had surrounded looked like it had been carpet-bombed — the roof and the second floor had come crashing down in a heap of rubble.
"Kim Yeongsik! We all know you hold a grudge against our leader, so come out already!"
"If you refuse to comply, don't blame us for getting forceful!"
In truth, the awakened had nothing to fear from an unawakened man like Kim Yeongsik. The reason they were shouting so theatrically, playing it up like actors on a stage, was easy enough to guess.
They wanted an excuse — any excuse — to exile him.
Face hardening, Seunga pushed through toward the scene.
"Um... Lord spaceship? What exactly am I supposed to do here! Those guys are already scraping for any excuse to throw me out—"
[You will address me as Master.]
"N-no, that's not the point—!"
Beside himself, Yeongsik gripped the door handle and strained against it with a groan.
Screech—
"Nnnngh!"
Of all the luck — when the ceiling had come down, the steel entry door had warped along with it, and it wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pulled. As if that weren't enough, outside, the awakened who had always looked at him sideways had now set up camp and were running their mouths.
"Hey! Kim Yeongsik, don't tell me you forgot you're under confinement?"
"This is shelter residential territory, in case you forgot."
"Haha. You trembling in there, crying to yourself?"
"Wouldn't be surprised."
"No idea why the Leader even bothers with a piece-of-shXt like him."
"Either way, we have to deal with him properly for pulling a stunt like this while under confinement."
In the end, Yeongsik didn't make it out until the awakened had steeled themselves and forced their way in.
"Restrain him!"
"Careful now — he's unawakened."
"Haha. Usually people awaken to at least some pathetic little power, but this one never manifested anything at all, did he?"
"Right, body's probably still exactly the same as it ever was."
"Ghh—!"
Yeongsik couldn't resist the heavy-handed suppression. When they pressed him for the truth, he didn't hide a thing — he told them exactly what had happened.
"What nonsense? There's nothing here."
"Seeing phantom spaceships now? He's completely lost it."
"You just messing with us? A spaceship, seriously? The guy's raving."
"..."
That was when Yeongsik realized it: the craft that sat plainly in his own sight was utterly invisible to everyone else.
"Should've just drunk yourself stupid and kept your head down."
"But seriously, how did he even bring the building down?"
"Smuggled in a grenade or something? No visible traces, though."
"Who cares. We caught him red-handed — drag him off."
From there, things unfolded exactly as he'd expected.
"Defying the Leader's confinement order, are we?"
"The courtesy we extended to a founding member only went so far."
"He's survived this long thanks to the Leader, and this is how he repays him."
"If you've got no power, at least have the sense to keep quiet."
"Even Seulgi-noona tried her best to steer him straight, but he was a lost cause, so she gave up on him, apparently."
"Tsk tsk."
Yoo Byungtae, the ability user who had built and ran this shelter, was nothing short of a god here — and Kim Yeongsik, whom that god disliked, might as well have been public enemy number one, deserving of universal wrath.
To be fair, the members who knew of Yeongsik's contributions held their tongues, but even they found it hard to step forward given Byungtae's standing. And while things might have been different in the early days, now that the shelter ran smoothly on its own, Yeongsik simply wasn't needed anymore.
"Exile? Exiling someone who isn't even awakened — how is that any different from a death sentence?"
"..."
"Seunga, if you don't understand, stay out of it."
"Why? Everyone here knows full well how much Yeongsik contributed to this shelter."
"Doesn't change the fact that he's a man with no power."
"..."
They averted their eyes and gave no real answer.
"Seunga. You know that kind of talk is dangerous, right? The Leader only lets it slide because he thinks well of you. Don't push it."
In the end, Seunga alone could not stop the order of exile.
"I'm sorry. It feels like yesterday that you saved my life... Why did you have to..."
She couldn't bring herself to call him a fool to his face. After all, it was that very foolishness of his that had saved her life.
"It's fine, Seunga. Don't go sticking your neck out for me and making enemies. Go on back inside."
Yeongsik gave a bitter smile. True, she was awakened, but her ability was nothing remarkable and her influence within the shelter was weak — and she was hopeless at political games besides. If she drew attention to herself, nothing good would come of it. Especially with her mother living inside the shelter, it was a risk she couldn't afford.
At the shelter's entrance, where barricades of cars and chain-link fencing stood, only he and Seunga remained. A short distance away, a lone awakened guard stood watch with arms crossed, eyes sharp and fixed on them.
"Haha..."
Yeongsik let his gaze travel over the shelter one last time — the vast haven walled in by those long, long barriers.
Through the collapse of the world, he had steadied his mind, gathered comrades, kept the shelter running, and weathered crisis after crisis to see everyone through. And of all the people he had led, the only one who came to see him off was Seunga.
She sighed and held out a small leather pouch.
"At least take this. It'll serve you better than going out there with nothing."
"This is... I wouldn't even be able to use it."
When Yeongsik peered inside, the pouch brimmed with strangely luminous, blood-red gems.
"They're used to grow an awakened's power, but out there people trade them as currency, too."
"Seunga, you..."
His first instinct was to refuse, but he hesitated a moment — and accepted.
"I'll put them to good use."
"Right. Make sure you stay sa— ...Never mind. Take care."
"...Yeah."
Yeongsik took one final look back at the shelter he had spent years building, then turned away. Seunga, unable to refuse his insistence, had already gone back inside.
"..."
Yeongsik lifted his head. The craft still hovered above him, exactly where it had been all along.
[If you hand over what you are carrying without resistance, no blood will be shed.]
Yeongsik was ready to tear his hair out.