Chapter 90
“Ugh, I swallowed a ton of water.”
“Hey, Yang-iduk. W-we saved on food costs.”
As soon as the wave pool’s waves stopped, the crowd rushed out. Only then did Kim Yang finally peel herself off my back.
“Where's Ms. Renea?”
“I-I don't know.”
She doesn't even seem to be looking for her, either.
As I came out of the wave pool, I accidentally overheard a voice. It was a conversation between a couple—a man from Cyber City wearing something like the scouter from an old cartoon, and a woman from Earth.
“You're late. I told you we should've gone into the wave pool.”
“Purified water 92.4%, sweat, urine 3.2%, cosmetic mixtures 2.1%, fried foods 1.3%, and even microscopic solids... That's human soup, Mijin. You shouldn't go into that.”
“I told you to leave some of that nonsense out, oppa! If you go around seeing everything like that, where are you supposed to find anything clean?”
“......”
“......”
The passersby who’d been forced to swallow that red pill glared at the man in disgust.
Same here.
As someone who'd just filled my stomach with that water, it was not something I wanted to hear.
“B-boss. S-something delicious.”
“...You're paying?”
“Y-yeah. S-should I go buy some disinfectant?”
“So I can eat that?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Forget it.”
As I awkwardly searched for Ms. Renea, I saw a pink shape diving below the wave pool.
“What are you doing over there? Get out.”
“I-I know, right.”
When I went back into the wave pool, she poked her head out of the water, clung to me, and whispered softly.
“Boss, hide me!”
“Why? What did you do now?”
“Again? You make it sound like I’m always out causing trouble!”
Even as she said that, she kept looking around, and no matter how I looked at it, it seemed obvious she’d done something.
“Elves... There are elves here.”
“Huh? Oh, right. They got a warning in a group and were kicked out of the wave pool earlier.”
“Really?! I was in the water, so I couldn't hear it.”
Even with good hearing, I guess you still wouldn't hear anything underwater.
“I used to be an elf queen, did I not? So everyone basically recognizes me by face alone—.”
“Hmm.”
It made me remember how she hadn't wanted to go up to the 4th floor last time, and how she didn't want to use a bow either.
For her, who wanted to throw off the burden of being the Elf Queen entirely and become just Renea, fellow elves seemed like people she didn't especially want to meet.
“Got it. We'll do our best to avoid the elves.”
“Thank you!”
It's not like people who want to hide their past are few and far between.
Renea clung to my back. She was a little lighter than Kim Yang earlier, so it was easier to walk around with her.
* * *
“......”
Tap, tap.
Hunter Association vice president's office.
It was nothing more than tapping a desk with a finger, but the impatience showed through.
What I saw beyond the monitor on the desk was Cyber City's new mayoral candidate.
- A city for people! Welfare for people! I will build a city that begins with people and ends with people! Everyone! I, Elik Dwolb, will make it happen!
A middle-aged man with a stocky build shouted with his fists clenched.
After the city-management AI Axis stepped down, the politicians who'd been waiting for their chance were starting to show their faces one by one.
The fact that they were already whipping people up like a campaign rally even before the election had begun meant they were probably impatient.
But shouldn't that kind of thing count as an illegal campaign?
'There’s more than one thing to worry about.'
Cyber City's next leader.
I didn't know who would end up sitting in the seat that could be called the mayor's office.
This was a fairly important matter for the other floors as well.
The direction they'd take going forward would change depending on who became the leader.
'Maybe Axis was better after all.'
Looking at Elik, who seemed stubborn to the core, Yoo Yeona’s eyebrow twitched. Personally, Yoo Yeona liked Axis.
It argued only with reasonable points, and if you presented reasonable points, it would accept them.
It was still unfortunate that things had, unintentionally, gone in an undesirable direction.
Yoo Yeona moved to the next screen.
She didn't have time to keep watching that old man spit all over the place while shouting forever.
'Ah, right.'
Next was the procedure for lifting Baek Yeonhwa's ban on entering the 3rd floor.
Baek Yeonhwa wanted to come down now even though only a few months were left anyway.
Since Cheongryong and her help had been so crucial in this operation, this much was only natural to accept—but...
'I can't help feeling a little petty about it.'
She thought about pretending not to see it and putting it off, but she resolved not to be childish and sent the approval request.
While she was handling the other piled-up work, a direct call came in on the work line from the director.
- Director McClen: Ms. Yoo Yeona.
- Director McClen: Could you check this quickly for me?
'Hm?'
There was currently some rather important work underway at the Tower Management Bureau.
None other than Axis's interrogation.
They said it had been disposed of, but of course that was only what they told the public.
There was still plenty to extract from Axis, so naturally the Tower Management Bureau was squeezing information out of it.
Maybe because the live footage had been edited in the middle, the file stuttered from lag and stayed on a dark screen.
“Ah, seriously......”
An unintended stutter.
Her own face was reflected in the darkened screen.
A woman sitting in a perfectly tailored suit, her face unruffled.
Seeing her colder-than-expected expression, Yoo Yeona felt a jolt of unfamiliarity.
'Was I like this?'
'Was I like this?'
She washed up, put on makeup, and even did a final check before going to work.
How should she put it... back then it had been a sort of extension of work, but now it felt like she was seeing her face in a private setting.
She gently laid a hand on her cheek.
This wasn't the kind of face I remembered having.
Back when I was a little more youthful, and a little warmer—.
'Juseon, how about we go somewhere fun to celebrate when we graduate from training camp?'
What kind of face had I made then?
Probably bright red like a beet.
'Celebrate our graduation? Sure, sounds good.'
And what kind of face had I made when I heard that breezy answer?
Probably an awkward expression, trying hard to hide the corners of my mouth from twitching up.
Judging from how you laughed and said I was cute, though.
The screen came back on, and the top-secret footage stored in Axis began to play.
“How embarrassing.”
That brief trip down memory lane ends here.
Returning once again to Hunter Association Vice President Yoo Yeona, she watched what was essentially an interrogation video.
- This is the 57th question.
- Yes, go ahead.
A small room like an interrogation chamber.
In the screen, researchers and agents from the Tower Management Bureau stood their ground.
There were even people in silk robes from the old Murim, and armored paladins too.
It was important enough that agents from every floor's management bureau had come to watch.
Axis answered calmly from within a small computer that wasn't even connected to the internet.
- For the past few days, Cyber City on the 6th floor has been unable to use the tower elevator. Explain in detail how that happened.
- Ah, you're curious about the tower passage restrictions in 6th-floor Cyber City?
Axis was gentle and friendly, like an AI explaining some kind of dieting method.
Cyber City's travel restrictions.
The unprecedented situation where the tower elevator couldn't go up to or down from the 6th floor.
If it had been impossible from the start like the 7th floor, that would be one thing, but the 6th floor had originally been accessible and then suddenly got blocked.
Of course, now travel was possible again.
- Axis will explain.
- Fifty years ago, after the inter-floor war, Cyber City had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
- As a last bastion, we would close off the tower and let Cyber City survive independently.
- While searching for a solution, the 7th floor was discovered.
- Axis found it.
'Found it.'
What?
Even though it was already recorded, I swallowed hard with tension.
There must be a reason Director McClen sent this, saying I should hear it directly.
- More precisely, it would be more accurate to say we met.
- The master of the tower, I mean.
- Axis closed off the floor through a deal with that person.
* * *
“Gahh—! I’m exhausted!”
The sunset sky.
We’d played at the water park and soaked away a ton of fatigue in the hot spring, but my body felt as heavy as lead.
Strangely, I felt even more tired than when we came.
“I don't feel like driving.”
My beloved Argent S was feeling a bit bothersome right now, since I'd have to drive on the way back too.
On top of that, I'd just eaten dinner, so the food coma was hitting me hard and making me tired.
I even impulsively considered booking a room at a nearby hotel and sleeping there, but after hearing the price, I gave up.
Sleep belongs at home.
“T-tired.”
“Sleepy, huh.”
Kim Yang and Renea, who'd been wandering around to get every last bit out of the trip like I had, shuffled toward the car in exhaustion.
“Hehe, look at this.”
“It came out well.”
On the other hand, Kim Dajeong and Raichen already had a different vibe from the start.
We look like we're riding the subway home from work, but those two look like a couple heading out on another date.
'Ah, thank goodness Raichen doesn't get paid a salary.'
Where else would you find an employee working that happily? That smile is basically his paycheck.
Just as we were about to get in the car.
“Yo, Your Majesty...?”
An exclamation came from some distance away.
I was about to turn my head to see what it was when Renea suddenly grabbed both my cheeks tightly.
She was breaking out in a cold sweat, her pupils trembling, as she whispered urgently to me.
“E-elf! It's an elf! It looks like they recognized me!”
“Huh? No, the distance—.”
It was quite a distance, so how could they possibly know? But elves live in the forest, and their eyesight is good too.
Turning my head slightly, I saw elves lying on mats inside the fence around the neatly trimmed grassy plot.
Those crazy bastards were apparently planning to enjoy the water park and sleep rough on the grass next to the parking lot.
“Your Majesty? A-are you really her?”
In the meantime, an elf man who spotted Renea started striding toward us—
Renea caught her breath, then nodded, meeting my eyes.
“I saw it in a drama. How to deceive people in situations like this!”
“Huh?”
“Don't worry, I'll be gentle!”
I didn't even have time to ask what nonsense that was.
Renea's puckered lips, stretched out as far as they could go, came straight toward me—
[Law 1, Paragraph 2 - Response Acceleration]
I immediately shoved her away and slammed her to the floor.
Thud!
Renea sprawled on the floor.
Seeing her lying there in such a rather undignified pose did make me feel a little sorry.
But I couldn't just stand there and do nothing, could I?
“B-boss. W-what was that?”
“Oh?”
“......”
Between the three of us, none of us had properly grasped what had happened because everything had unfolded so suddenly.
“Renea... Your Majesty?”
At the elf's cautious call, she only gave a startled twitch. Renea didn't seem to have any intention of getting up.
The story continues off the page
Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you