Chapter 52
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"What were you talking about earlier?"
Once we were far enough from camp, Seoyun asked me.
"I'm not sure either. She said to beware of something that looks like a deer, but isn't one."
"I meant what Ms. Miryeong does. Is it something like saju fortune-telling?"
"It's similar. She tells fortunes by looking into the future, and she helped me out once before."
The questions stopped there.
She wasn't interested in the prediction itself, just in what Miryeong did.
The Assistant Manager did seem like the person among us least likely to believe in fortune-telling.
"Miryeong has heard the spirits' voices from time to time since she was little."
Yuna, who was walking ahead of us, added an explanation.
"Spirits? Is that something like magic, too?"
"I'm not sure if it's magic, but it's similar in that it's a mysterious power. Miryeong helped me when I was little, too."
"Do you believe in shamanic fortune-telling, Woojin?"
"I'm not sure."
I couldn't give a definite answer these days.
A shamanic reading had helped me before, but it could've been a coincidence.
And even if one came true, that didn't mean I believed in all shamanic readings.
It was worth keeping in mind when deciding what to do.
That was how I saw it.
"Oh, would you like some of this?"
"Thank you."
The Assistant Manager seemed to remember something and took a snack out of her bag.
It was dried pandanus fruit.
I accepted it and popped it into my mouth.
"Once you've sucked all the sweetness out, you can spit it out."
"Thanks for the food."
As soon as we left camp, the heat was stifling.
Even with the Wind Glyph, there was only so much it could do.
After walking for about forty minutes, Yuna was breathing hard.
"Should we take a short break?"
Seoyun asked with concern.
"I'm sorry."
"You haven't fully recovered your strength yet. Let's take it easy. We'll be able to get back before dark—"
Seoyun looked back at me as if asking, Right?
"Yes."
I figured all we had to do was watch out for the deer.
"If you see something deer-like, be ready to run."
"Pfft. What?"
Seoyun smiled at me as if I were a child who believed in Santa Claus.
"You acted like you didn't believe her, but you really do?"
"……"
"……"
Seoyun tilted her head, perhaps sensing the strange atmosphere between Yuna and me.
"You really believe it?"
"There's magic, so there could be shamanic readings, too. So…"
I spoke to Seoyun seriously.
"If I say we should run, then run right away, Assistant Manager."
The Assistant Manager, who was a little weak when it came to scary things, turned slightly pale.
"What's with you? Don't be scary~ Those readings are just for fun, right, Yuna?"
"Sometimes Miryeong's shamanic readings do come true…"
"Ugh. What's with you two?!"
"Haha."
We set our bags down and took a short break.
"Phew."
……
Yuna casually took off her outer shirt, then pulled up her tank top and freed her breasts.
She must've been sweaty, but…
I was a little startled by how naturally she showed them to me.
I flinched.
Yuna and I made eye contact.
"Ah… I-I was hot…"
"Yeah. Don't mind me."
If she was willing to show them, I wasn't going to stop her.
"The others don't seem to be wearing bras, either…"
We'd silently settled on a no-bra rule.
In this heat, wearing a bra with a chest that size would be torture.
The Assistant Manager cleared her throat.
"Still, be careful about showing your skin. Woojin is a pervert."
"A pervert?"
"What do you mean, I'm a pervert?"
If anyone was being sexy, it was Yuna.
"You're not dangerous, but you like sexy things… something like that."
"I don't dislike sexy things. Haha."
As soon as I said "sexy things," Yuna shyly covered her breasts with her arms.
It'd be even sexier if I said her arms didn't cover everything, wouldn't it?
But it was true that Yuna's breasts were sexy!
"You seem like a herbivore on the outside, Woojin, but there's a rough side to you underneath… If someone gave you the okay, you might pounce on them, so be careful."
"Excuse me, but aren't you two dating…?"
"Me?"
The Assistant Manager crossed her arms, took a defensive stance, and looked away.
"What, I, no, wait, why would you think Woojin and I are dating?"
"You two look so good together…"
"We're just a boss and her subordinate… It's true we've gotten more relaxed around each other lately, but that's only because we're on a deserted island."
"Because you're on a deserted island…"
"That's right. Because we're on a deserted island."
It was cute how the Assistant Manager tried to hide her embarrassment.
We really weren't dating or anything.
But we were doing things with each other that people usually had to be dating to do.
Living together, sucking on her breasts…
Admiring her huge breasts.
Seeing her after she'd showered, and so on.
"You two seem like such mature adults. I think you're really cool."
The Assistant Manager, maybe. But me?
I figured that was just the kind of dreamy impression a twenty-year-old had.
"Thank you."
Seoyun was genuinely pleased.
"Woojin Oppa is amazing, too."
"I'm not that amazing."
"Why not? Yuna, what do you think of Woojin Oppa?"
This woman was having way too much fun…!
"Woojin Oppa seems like an elite employee who's good at his job."
"Pfft!!"
Snort.
Seoyun burst out laughing before she could stop herself, just as I'd expected.
"Ah, sorry. Hehe. That's right. Woojin is so good at his job."
This was embarrassing.
Memories of messing up even simple tasks and spilling things flashed through my mind.
Still, in plain terms, Seoyun was helping me save face.
"I knew it! I thought so. Hehe."
"Yes, Woojin was an elite employee. He won Employee of the Month every time."
"Wow."
"And that's not all. You saw him interpreting for the foreigners, right? Kim Woojin was good at studying, too. He's practically a walking encyclopedia."
Guh… Gasp.
A torrent of sweet praise from the Assistant Manager.
This was harder to take than getting insulted or scolded.
Just call me a hopeless screwup!!!
"Woojin Oppa and Seoyun Unni are amazing… I want to be like you two!"
"If you want to be like someone, I'd recommend the Assistant Manager, not me."
"Hoho, no. You should look up to Kim Woojin, the best employee in our company."
I stood up, as if to change the subject.
"Shall we get going?"
"Yes! We're almost there!"
After walking a little farther, I could sense something with my Detection magic, too.
We were nearing the two girls' camp, but…
'Huh? This is the plant colony?'
It looked more like a water source. The ground was hollowed out, and there seemed to be a faint chill gathering there…
The only way to know for sure was to see it with my own eyes.
We followed the stream a little farther downstream, and suddenly the forest opened up.
Sunlight poured through the densely tangled trees, and a vast stretch of deep green spread along both sides of the gentler stream.
The grass was growing thick!
"You can eat all the plants here."
"How did you know that?"
"Ah, well… I tried eating them to find out…"
"Goodness, what a dangerous thing to do…"
Could I tell what kind of plants they were if I took a closer look?
Hmm. No way…
There was no chance I'd recognize them just by looking. I'd even passed up the side dishes of greens Mom often made for me.
Up close, I saw long, narrow leaves sprouting from each stem, and tender, hollow stalks winding together along the water's edge.
So this was what had made it seem like a water source.
These were aquatic plants that grew in tropical climates.
The farther downstream we'd gone, the muddier the ground had become. Here, where the water pooled shallowly, the plants had grown so thickly they formed something like a mat.
"What do you think, Woojin? Do they look edible?"
"I'll take a look."
They seemed safe according to my Detection magic. I couldn't sense anything toxic.
Since these plants had grown by absorbing water, they wouldn't be edible if the water were polluted.
Was the water upstream the same stream that ran by our camp?
If that water was clean, these plants should be safe, too.
I thought it over.
……We did dispose of the saponin wastewater separately.
We hadn't bathed in the sudsy water. Luka had played around in it, but that was all.
We'd used separate water for laundry, too, and hadn't dumped our wastewater carelessly.
Thinking it all through, I realized we wouldn't have been able to eat these with peace of mind if we hadn't been so careful.
…Strictly speaking, these were gyaru plants grown in Luka's bathwater…
Still, that was much better than animal carcasses or droppings. They were edible.
"We managed the water carefully, so these should be fine."
"Really? But what exactly are they?"
Seoyun snapped off a stalk.
It was hollow inside.
"I think I've seen this somewhere before."
Seoyun murmured.
"Really?"
They were plants from a tropical climate, though.
"Umm, it looks familiar…! The name… the name meant that the inside was hollow! I know I ate it when I went on a business trip to Southeast Asia!"
Seoyun tried desperately to remember.
"Ah! It's water spinach!"
What!? Water spinach!?
………
……I don't know it.
"So there's something like that."
If she'd said water parsley, I might've pretended to know what she meant.
The only greens I knew were spinach, water parsley… that sort of thing.
"It's similar to water parsley. The flavor's much milder, but the crisp texture is what makes it special."
"Oh."
So all the plants here were edible?
There weren't just one or two clumps. From the shallows up the bank to the edges, most of the green in sight was water spinach.
It hadn't merely grown here and there. It had taken over an entire stretch of the downstream area.
"Isn't this amazing?"
This was practically a vegetable garden.
"It's amazing! Water spinach takes seasoning well and is great in soups, too. Ah, we found a good source of fiber!"
It wasn't as exciting as meat, but having more variety on the table was certainly welcome.
"Thank you, Yuna!"
"I'm glad I could help. It's not very tasty or filling on its own, but at least it gives you something to chew on."
"It'll be different once it's seasoned. It'd be delicious stir-fried in oil with just a little salt."
Seoyun was delighted at the thought of having green vegetables on the table.
"Then instead of picking it all and taking it with us, maybe we should think about how to grow it."
"We can't come back here every time. What if we take a few plants and try planting them at camp? We could make a little garden."
"Hmm."
Would they grow as long as we gave them water?
If so, the Water Glyph might let us provide even better conditions for them.
"Sounds good. Let's try it."
"For now, let's take just a few plants with their roots to test, and collect some stems with nodes, too. For eating, we'll just cut off the young shoots at the top and take those."
"I'll do it."
I swept the Wind Glyph across a section of them.
Whoosh!
All we had to do was pick up the cut water spinach and put it away.
I wrapped the roots of the plants we wanted to propagate in water pockets so they wouldn't dry out, then put them in my bag.
"What do they need to grow, anyway?"
"Water spinach is semi-aquatic, so it needs lots of water."
That's perfect for us.
We were able to gather a whole lot of vegetables.
"Since we're already here, let's check the beach, too. The Manager asked us to see if the rescue team had come."
"Sounds good."
We gathered the water spinach and headed to the beach together.
The waves roared.
The beach was empty.
When we'd first washed up here, people had spent all day staring at the horizon.
Waiting for a rescue team that might never come.
The branches and scraps of fabric Seoyun and I had dragged across the sand to make a distress signal were still there.
Now, all that remained was the sound of the waves.
The metal surface of the plane wreckage, battered by salt and sunlight, had faded in patches. Inside the dented window frames, only darkness pooled.
A few abandoned bags with their zippers gaping open were strewn around.
"There's nothing here."
Seoyun said sadly.
"Yeah."
The days when we'd waited to be rescued felt like they belonged to the distant past.
Now, there wasn't even anyone left on the beach to wait.
A few makeshift shelters were still visible, though. It seemed some groups still came back to the beach to sleep at night.
"Shall we head back?"
"Let's stay a little longer."
Seoyun looked out at the horizon as if clinging to the last trace of longing, smoothing her hair.
Yuna was quietly gazing at the sea, too.
"Oh, there's a raft over there, too."
Seoyun approached the raft with a wistful look.
It had turned into a piece of junk after being left alone for a few days…
"We tried to take this out to sea, but ended up coming back."
"Was there nothing out there?"
Yuna asked curiously.
Seoyun sighed as she recalled it.
"No, there wasn't. The only unusual thing was… there was another small island right beside the one where we were stranded."
I remembered it, too.
When we'd rafted farther out, the two islands had looked like they were connected.
Of course, they weren't close enough to walk between.
"I think it was that way…?"
The place Seoyun pointed to wasn't visible from here.
It would probably appear if we walked farther along the beach, but…
"Should we go take a look? The tide's out now, so we might be able to walk there."
I checked my wristwatch.
"It's getting a little late, so let's check it out next time."
We'd taken the shortest route, but the sun was going down faster than I'd expected.
I thought we should take Seoyun and Yuna back.
"All right."
The way back through the forest was darker than it had been on the way there.
"It gets dark so fast…"
Yuna hunched her shoulders, looking a little scared.
"I'll go first."
I knew the way with my Detection magic.
"Stay close behind me."
"Okay! Woojin Oppa…"
"I'll stay right by you."
The sun hadn't fully set yet, but evening shadows were already falling wherever the trees grew thick.
As I led the way, I hitched the sack of water spinach higher on one shoulder.
We should hurry.
Yuna looked tired, but she followed without complaint.
Seoyun also looked back more often than usual. She seemed to regret that we'd wasted time at the beach earlier.
Just then,
Rustle.
Something crunched in the bushes to our right.
I stopped immediately.
Seoyun and Yuna stopped behind me.
"What's wrong?"
"Oppa?"
"Quiet."
I spread a thin layer of the Wind Glyph around us.
The air that swept between the leaves and returned carried the smell of an animal.
The damp scent of fur, mixed with the smell of earth and bark. It was fairly large.
'A wild boar?'
No.
It was far too quiet to be a wild boar—
I looked beyond the bushes.
Between the trees, a faint shape stood there.
Four slender legs.
An elongated torso.
Antlers branching out above its head.
"……A deer?"
Seoyun murmured in the faintest voice.
At first, I thought so, too.
There wasn't enough light to make out its exact color, but its body and antlers definitely resembled those of a deer.
"Woojin, it's a deer. Isn't this our chance to get more meat?"
The Assistant Manager came over and whispered to me, sounding excited.
Is that so?
Had she not even thought about that shamanic reading?
A deer suddenly appearing on a tropical island like this… It was strange, wasn't it?
'Maybe I'm overthinking it…'
I watched it closely. The longer I looked, the stranger it seemed.
Weren't its legs too long and thin?
They didn't run straight from its body to the ground. It looked as if there were an extra joint in the middle…
And yet it stood with an unnaturally straight posture.
"Woojin, this is strange."
Seoyun tugged at my sleeve and swallowed hard.
"What?"
"It looks like it's watching us."
At that moment, I felt that its eyes weren't a deer's eyes.
I didn't know how I could see them so clearly in the dark, either.
But the moment our eyes met, a powerful alarm rang in my mind: that thing wasn't a deer.
Its movements were strange…
"Don't run. Turn around slowly."
"We're just going to leave…?"
"Let's not provoke it. We can just pass by."
Seoyun, who'd said, "It's a deer, so let's catch it," was now terrified, too.
She must've sensed that it was something intelligent.
Even I'd thought we could fight with magic if we had to, but now that I was facing it, I felt my whole body shrink in on itself.
Let's not touch it.
Let's not even get curious.
Final conclusion: run away.
Just as we'd begun to get some distance, it suddenly moved in a bizarre way.
Its joints moved in a way that defied common sense, and only one thought came to mind.
"Shit, run!"
"Aaaah!"
Seoyun ran without looking back. Yuna did the same.
I forcefully pushed the air around us with the Wind Glyph. Leaves and dirt billowed up all at once.
It was for cover. I was begging it to let us go.
A wild animal would've been startled, but I heard no cry, not even a sound like an animal's call.
Screeeeeech.
Instead, I heard a cry that sounded like someone scraping at a human throat and imitating a voice.
It was too low to be a deer's cry, and too long to be a human voice.
"Don't look back! Keep running!"
I ran at the rear, urging the two of them to flee, then abruptly stopped.
"Woojin! What are you doing? Come on!"
──It's gone.
It didn't seem to be there anymore.
My Detection magic couldn't pick up anything suspicious, either.
But something felt off.
Its overwhelming presence had vanished all at once, as if it had simply gone up in smoke.
When I focused my senses on the lingering trace, I detected a new kind of magic.
'A new kind of magic──.'
"Woojin!! Don't go!"
"Ah—"
"Please, come here!"
Seoyun cried out desperately and grabbed my sleeve.
Was I about to go forward just then?
"Why are you walking forward like you're in a trance?"
It seemed I'd taken a step forward without realizing it.
"But the magic—"
"No!"
Drawn in by Seoyun's desperation, I couldn't follow it with my legs, but I kept chasing it with my senses alone.
It was definitely a Glyph.
But its pattern faintly radiated a meaning I couldn't understand yet.
'What does it mean?'
It represented a concept far more complicated than Preservation, Wind, or Water.
Leaving behind the lingering trace of a Glyph I couldn't interpret, it vanished, and I could no longer sense its presence.