The Ruined Land

"Well, if it isn't my handsome little brother!"

A familiar postman, caught just short of the Headquarters protected zone. The Physiognomist.

"Mr. Woo? On your way back from a delivery?"

He was alive. I'd assumed he would be, of course.

"You bet! Made it back in one piece this time too!"

A gut like that meant he was at least doing the job properly.

"I was hurt, little brother."

"Hm?"

"You just up and left me!"

Nonsense, the moment we met.

"You're the one who disappeared."

I'd woken to find the Physiognomist already gone. I hadn't even noticed him slip away on his own.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Huh? What are you talking about? I went to take a dump, and the fellow who'd been sleeping was gone in a blink. Didn't think you were the type, little brother!"

"......?"

"Don't play dumb! You scurried off the second I stepped away!"

His gear had vanished too, every bit of it. Then again, we weren't close enough for him to leave his things behind while he stepped off to relieve himself. And given the smell, going as far as possible was only polite.

"Still, I understand! You must've had your reasons, little brother."

So it was nothing but chance, the two of us missing each other? No. Maybe this was an act as well. He was a man who'd mastered playing the weak, and I couldn't take his words at face value.

"Well, everyone has their circumstances. It wasn't as if I needed your permission to go."

"Right, right! Anyway, good to see that handsome face alive again!"

A slippery old snake. Still, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠timing of the reunion wasn't bad. The sisters and Hocheol couldn't enter Headquarters, and leaving them outside while I went in alone had left me uneasy. With this man around, it wouldn't be the worst arrangement.

"If you're not busy, could you spare a little time with my companions?"

"Hm? Those ones trailing after you — they're with you?"

The sisters and Hocheol ducked their heads, awkward, and the Physiognomist returned the greeting just as awkwardly.

"So you're not a total lone wolf after all?"

Rich, coming from the man who'd latched onto me. I always wanted, desperately, to be alone. Then I'd come to, and someone was always there. Luck that rotten.

"Look after these people for half a day."

Meeting Jo Yong-han and getting back out again would take a good while. The entry processing alone ran close to two hours.

"I'll compensate you."

"Compensation? Don't be so cold!"

"So you'll do it for free?"

"Still, the closer you are, the clearer the deal ought to be, eh? Even in a family, money—"

"Just stay with them so nothing happens to them out here. That's all."

Leave the sisters and Hocheol alone, and strange types might come sniffing around. Slip one civil servant into the mix, and that worry shrank considerably.

"Nothing hard about that! Between family, how could I not do that much?"

He didn't even ask how much I'd pay. Figured I'd settle it properly on my own, no doubt. I meant to, of course. The man was still somehow irritating.

"Get on in there and get yourself treated first!"

"I'm not hurt."

"Then all that red smeared across the uniform is somebody else's blood? Went off somewhere and danced a nice long knife dance, did you?"

Traces of Captain Choi.

"Just look after them. I'm going."

"Don't you worry! Go get some rest!"

At least he had the sense not to ask the most tiresome question. He had every reason to wonder why I meant to leave them and go into Headquarters alone.

The sisters and Hocheol watched me with sour faces. They all knew, of course, that they'd be waiting outside. They simply hadn't planned on doing it beside a man who reeked of liquor. But this was no time to be particular. There was no guarantee at all that I could get them through the doors. First, I'd have to try.

Standing before the main gate, it felt new all over again. These past few days the stink ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of zombies and the reek of blood had soaked into me. Once I crossed this door, I wouldn't have to smell either for a while. About the time the stench worked its way out from under my nails, the work would start again.

The scanner's voice. Ordinarily a scanner was only supposed to call out the name of whoever passed. The one at the main gate was the exception. This one announced the person's status as well — a device to keep the guards from missing an entrant's identity.

Fifty-one hours left.

Success. I'd arrived with more than two days to spare before the deadline. It had been a high-difficulty delivery, and even that rigidly pedantic stickler, the one who lived to explain things, would have to grant me this much. I'd gotten the sisters out, besides.

I'd never once pressed the red button. I knew what happened if you did. It wasn't a thing that would ever come to me. Then again, you never knew with people.

I pressed the green button. Beep.

Only now did it welcome a man who'd been standing there all along.

Obvious as it was, Headquarters hadn't changed in the slightest. The last change I remembered was nine years ago, when the new hunter training facility went up. From then until now, the view inside had always been the same. The outside world was a little different every time I left it. Set beside that, this place felt as if time had stopped. White buildings, a hush laid over everything — more than once I'd caught myself truly believing the clock had halted. Maybe time really had stopped, and I was simply the last to notice. Foolish thoughts, chaining one into the next. That was Headquarters.

Thanks to that, even when I was safe inside Headquarters, the survival instinct kept twitching. Out there I worked at not dying. In here I worked at not forgetting I was alive.

The ones who never went out, who lived comfortably inside and nowhere else, wouldn't know the feeling. Legs stretched in comfort, their greatest concern whatever might turn up on the evening menu. Lives spent competing for a little more money and a slightly better title, in a world where no one died a senseless violent death. Stand among people like that long enough, and the fear came on its own. The sense that I, too, without noticing, might forget the value of being alive. Only a feeling, of course. The safety granted to me never lasted very long anyway.

Clank.

Clearing entry, I went straight to my personal cabinet. Among the Cores I'd taken from Captain Choi, I'd stored the ones that still held energy. Seven in all. They wouldn't be sitting in the cabinet long. All but one would have to go out with me on the next mission — a single use of the ability.

I also needed to store six sets of body armor, and the cabinet was hopelessly short on space. A nuisance, but I'd have to carry them for the time being. One solution had occurred to me. Whether it would work, I couldn't say.

Last, the uniform stained with Captain Choi's blood. I could have it laundered, but I had plenty of spares.

This is all that's left of Captain Choi.

For now, I decided to leave it in the cabinet. There would be a proper way to deal with it, when the time was right. I laid the uniform over the letter stained with Gyeongsu's blood. Had the letter that lived alone gained a companion? Seemed these weren't fated to go it alone either.

The moment I stepped out of the residential quarter, one of Jo Yong-han's subordinates, who'd been waiting, passed me a message. A request to meet in the lobby, right now.

I went down and found Jo Yong-han in a tailored suit, idling with a cup and a straw. The same impression as last time. He had that air peculiar to Headquarters desk staff, of a man living in some other world. The Old Man used to call it looking like a company man. The old era must have been full of them.

"What are you drinking?"

We weren't close enough for a warm hello. This would do as a greeting.

"It was hot water, originally. I left it too long without drinking, and it didn't just cool. It went cold."

"Then you can just call it cold water."

"It was hot water, originally."

So he said.

"You have returned alive."

"I had a feeling you expected we'd see each other again."

"Returning two days early did exceed my expectations."

Exceeded his expectations. Pleasant to hear. The tone was stiff, but it meant he was willing to acknowledge the work.

"The token, if you would."

I handed over the envelope I'd received from Jo Shin-hye. The same envelope Jo Yong-han himself had sent his older sister. A token, creased and torn.

"The poor condition was like that from the start."

"I am aware. The settlement's censorship would have left it in this state."

He folded the token neatly and slipped it into a pocket.

"Did the recipient have anything in particular to say?"

"There was a lot of this and that."

"Is that so?"

All at once his eyes went bright.

"Then let us change locations before I hear it. I will buy you a drink."

"I was about to say the same. Let's move. I've got a place in mind."

"Very well."

"They don't sell drinks there, though."

"That does not matter to me."

He lifted the cup to eye level.

"It's a bit of a walk. Do you have the time?"

I finished the question and looked at the watch wound around his wrist. But—

"There is time enough."

Jo Yong-han didn't look at the watch.

All the while we walked out of Building A, he kept his silence. The posture of a man who meant to talk only once he was properly seated, though the things he wanted to know must have been piled mountain-high. Desk staff were usually an unhurried breed, and this one was the finest specimen I'd seen. He probably didn't even know what running was. Emotional swings were rare on him, too.

Even so, there was no way Jo Yong-han could keep his composure through this particular moment.

"......What is this? Do not tell me you mean for us to leave Headquarters."

"Been a while, hasn't it? Stepping outside."

He probably couldn't even remember when.

"I fail to understand what this situation is supposed to be."

A high-handed voice, displeasure put on full display.

"It's right up ahead. Compared to the routes I usually walk, it counts as fairly safe."

"I cannot take a single step onto the ruined land. Kindly say whatever you came to say, and quickly."

The ruined land.

"People live out there too, you know."

"If you continue to behave discourteously, I will not tolerate it any further. Simply convey what you heard. You will be compensated."

Jo Yong-han drove both hands into his pockets. His eyes had gone cold.

Well. I could have told him beforehand. I could have said the family he'd been waiting for all this time was waiting outside, and it would have been much cleaner. But I'd wanted to see it. Just how badly he hated stepping out. I'd rolled through hell and back for this, after all.

"You'll want to make that compensation generous."

"Do not concern yourself. Quite gener—"

"And slot me into the special mission while you're at it. You haven't forgotten, have you? The one about delivering by the Subway."

"Hm."

Jo Yong-han adjusted his glasses.

"Very well."

As expected. He agreed without a fight. Not because he wanted to hear about his family, and so was humoring me. I'd proven ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my ability, so he was accepting it — even while I was being this openly unpleasant. Merit was merit, and private affairs were private affairs. I could have cursed him to his face right then, and he still wouldn't have reversed the decision. That was how rigid he was. Now that I'd confirmed it, that was enough. I could trust him from here on.

A person you could trust. That meant a person you could predict. It meant you could see, clear as day, what they would do. That was trust. Not breaking expectations.

"Actually, the sisters outside are waiting for you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Sisters you know quite well."

"What on earth—"

For an instant Jo Yong-han's eyes flew wide.

"No. No, that cannot be. There is no way......"

"No. It is them."

The startlement on his face was oddly awkward, and that was funny. Maybe it only looked that way to me. Maybe it was because I'd assumed he was a man who never shook at anything.

"You are saying they escaped? Where are they now?"

"Just a little farther out."

"Good heavens. How did any of this come to pass......"

Even so, this counted as a calm reaction. A reunion with family he might have thought he'd never see again, and this was tame.

"It's a long story. Let's just go out first."

Now I might finally learn who he really was. The main-gate scanner would announce his status.

"Hm."

Jo Yong-han hesitated. Well. If he hated revealing his identity badly enough to die rather than do it, he could always send his subordinates out in his place. If he went that far, I'd have no other move.

But—

"Don't you want to go see them? Ah. Is it the scanner? Worried your identity will come out?"

"Mm......"

"If you can't trust me, nothing I can do. Call some subordinates to go out in your place."

Dangle trust as bait, and he wouldn't want to disappoint me. The man who'd brought his family, no less. That was how rigid he was.

"......I trust you."

Saying it so outright. Enough to make a man cringe.

"To think you have already finished ascertaining my family circumstances. That must mean my elder sister, or my younger sibling, trusted you enough to speak. In that case, I will trust you as well."

A person you could trust. That meant a person you could predict. For Jo Yong-han, I would gladly remain predictable.

But I couldn't forget that what truly mattered was something else. To survive all the way to the end, you had to exceed expectations. On the ruined land, trust was a luxury.

"Then I will complete the procedure first."

Jo Yong-han stepped straight up to the scanner. I'd been sure his status would be anything but ordinary.

And yet—

A shrill alarm split the air.

The warning that followed.

He, too, was a man who exceeded expectations.