Chapter 66
#066
1.
Let's see.
It took 12 hours to get in, and after getting the crap beaten out of me by Sunming halfway through, I'd been laid out for 24 hours straight.
14 hours searching for the treasure, and another 6 hours just to get back out.
We’d basically rotted in the sewer for almost two full days.
My feelings when I finally managed to get out were...
"Hwaaah! Boksuni, breathe! Breathe!"
"Hwaa!!! This is the best! The air doesn’t smell weird!"
The air of the Necropolis, rivaling Delhi, seeps into my lungs as if I’d come to Finland’s pristine forests.
And then there was the prize from this treasure hunt, the butterfly-shaped hair ornament in my hand.
Dopamine was popping off so hard I didn’t even have time to feel tired.
This isn’t the time for this, is it?
"Bring me drink and women at once!!!"
"It’s feast time!!!"
Boksuni and I both ran to Hongshen Market, more hyped than ever.
Money in hand?
Just spend it all!
We’ve suffered like dogs for a week, so we can eat and play to our hearts’ content for one day!
That’s the whole point of doing this, isn’t it—so we can eat and have fun!
"Bring on the customers!!!"
"Welcome!"
First we ran to a skewers shop.
It looked like they used at least decent meat, but the prices were so high I never even glanced at the place.
"Give me every skewer here, the best ones you’ve got. And pack ten bottles of baijiu."
"Master, your humble servant doesn’t care for baijiu. Order beer."
"Hey! Why beer on a day this good? Beer is for girls."
"Your humble servant is a woman."
"Hmm, convincing argument. Add ten beers too."
We bought a mountain of skewers, baijiu, and beer.
"If you’ll let me pay, can I drink with that young lady too... kgh!"
"How dare you get ideas! You want to die?"
"You lowly thing! How dare you covet her!"
As usual, I crushed the noses of any creep who tried to hit on women.
"Boksuni! Pick the rice cakes!"
"Shopkeeper! Two hundred mochi! Give me two hundred!"
"Twenty, please."
"Why?!"
We also bought a ton of glutinous rice cakes for Boksuni at the rice cake shop on the way home.
We entered the boarding room with both hands full of loot.
"Hey, use as much hot water as you want today."
"Is that really allowed?! Can I boil two tubs?!"
"It’s a good day! Boil two tubs!! Take a nice hot shower!"
"Wonderful, master!"
"Want to shower together?!"
"...Th-that, I don’t want to."
"Bummer."
I’d boiled the water furiously and even taken a squeaky-clean shower.
It was an unprecedented luxury since my Necropolis debut.
After the shower, we sat on the floor and laid out the drinks and food.
The menu was skewers of meat that I had no idea what kind they were.
And a blazing-red hot pot whose broth felt like it would punch a hole through my stomach the moment I drank it.
Next to it was a mountain of mochi and a row of liquor bottles.
Honestly, compared to the days when I used to live off Brother Yiming, this was sorely lacking, and the prices were as outrageous as Myeongdong street stalls, but....
"How is it?"
"I-it’s a proper feast...."
"Right?"
You could tell just by looking at Boksuni.
She’s drooling like a dog told to ‘wait~’ in front of a food bowl.
"You worked hard, Boksuni."
"You worked hard too, master."
-Purr purr purr
We poured drinks into the glasses we’d each brought.
Beer and baijiu, different drinks, same toast!
-Cheers!
"Cheers!"
"Kanpai!"
We clinked our glasses and tipped them back.
The liquor burned its way down my throat.
The smell of acetone and the artificial pineapple scent lingering at the tip of my nose.
I’d picked out the best they had, but it was still unmistakably cheap erguotou.
If a Korean-Chinese joint had delivered liquor like this, I’d have wound up on the 9 o’clock news as an arsonist.
"Krrr...! This is great!"
"Kyaa..."
But right now, no problem!
After a falling-out, expensive brandy tastes like crap, while soju you drink after everything’s gone to hell is a heavenly elixir.
"Ugh, it just sinks right into my bones!"
Taking advantage of the moment, I grabbed a skewer and chewed on it.
Spicy seasoning plastered on to hide the gamey smell, and artificial charcoal aroma.
If you wash down that awkward aftertaste with cheap erguotou again....
"Krrr! This is the damn kind of Necropolis worth living in!"
Apparently she really did like alcohol, because Boksuni downed her beer in one gutsy shot.
She stuffed mochi into her mouth, then....
"Ooh... it tastes so moving...."
Tears welled up at the corners of her gently closed eyes.
Squishy things like squishy things, so it’s doubly squishy!
"Wanna play a drinking game?"
"Huh? A drinking game? Oh, you mean that? Sounds good! A drinking party needs some entertainment!"
Since just drinking would be boring, I went ahead and taught her some drinking games.
"Cedric’s favorite random~ game! Random~ game! Game start! Apartment, apartment, apartment, apartment. What floor do you live on?"
"...Huh?"
"What are you doing? Put your hand here!"
"L-like this?"
"Three floor! One floor! Two floor! Three floor! Boksuni wins!"
"I-I don’t understand what this is! What is happening?!"
"You learn drinking games by drinking! Drink up, drink up!"
"Oho! So I drink because I won?!"
The apartment game that had been kind of popular lately.
"Fold if you're a woman."
"Ugh, fo-fold if you’ve got a nasty personality! What are you doing? Why aren’t you folding?!"
"Nope. I’ve got an insanely good personality."
"What do you mean your personality is good, master!"
"If I had a bad personality, you’d have been kicked out already, wouldn’t you?"
"Ugh...."
"My turn, right? Fold if you eat more than the master."
"Grr.... D-do I eat more?"
"Put your hand on your conscience and think about it."
"Grrr!"
"Now that everyone’s folded, drink."
"Krr... This is humiliating!"
The Son Byung-ho game.
"Kya-haha! Finally! Finally! I am the king! Master! Strip naked at once and dance to liven things up."
"It’s a dynastic overthrow...!!!!"
"...And what is that supposed to be?"
"Ah, when a ruler loses virtue and torments the people, Heaven takes away that authority and passes it to the virtuous. Jin Boksun, you are no longer the king. From now on, I’ll take Heaven’s place."
"Stop making up weird nonsense, human! I even wore a bunny-girl outfit and acted cute for you!"
Even the king game.
Drinking games are already the kind of thing that crank up the pace of drinking.
And since the two of us were doing that, we were both tipsy in no time.
Empty bottles and discarded skewer sticks were strewn across the cramped floor.
I sat half-reclined on the bed, while Boksuni leaned her head on my shoulder and swayed drunkenly.
"Ma-asteeer.... is the apple mango bingsu... really that good?"
"I’m telling you it is, dumbass~ Once I get to Eden, I’ll make sure you get some!"
"Is it tastier than rice cakes?"
"Ha, shit. That’s pissing me off. You can’t compare them~ Apple mango bingsu has the romance of the bourgeoisie, you know?"
It had been a long time since I’d drunk to the point my heart was practically pounding.
Every single day, under constant tension.
I’d been living with the kind of urgency that made my ass burn if I wasted even a single day.
Of course, even now I wasn’t completely at ease.
"...."
I took out the butterfly-shaped hair ornament I’d gotten from Jinjo.
It wasn’t very large.
About half my palm, maybe?
It had been delicately crafted from pure white platinum, and on the butterfly’s outspread wings were multicolored jewels set like stained glass in a chapel.
Whenever I tilted it just a little, a dazzling brilliance spilled out so brightly it stung my eyes.
Where should I sell this?
It didn’t seem like the price would be lacking, but....
Turning something worth a whole Gangnam apartment into cash in this sewer was a separate problem.
Should I ask Brother Yiming after all?
If it were ordinary contraband, that would’ve been fine, but this was something Jinjo had given me.
What if it caused trouble somehow?
"Master."
"Yeah?"
At that moment, Boksuni, who had been mumbling against my shoulder, suddenly lifted her head.
"That hair ornament was originally mine, was it not?"
"So?"
Boksuni turned her back to me, fussed with her hair, and said,
"What are you doing? Put it on me. A butterfly is supposed to be on a flower, after all."
Whether from being dead drunk or not, the back of her deerlike neck and the tips of her ears were flushed red.
"Well, look at that."
I suck at doing hair.
"Come here. Who does hair like that?"
"Ow! Ow! That hurts!"
"Hold still. You messed it all up."
Since I didn’t have a comb, I roughly worked my fingers through her hair.
I coiled it neatly up and fixed it in place with the hair ornament.
"It’s not going well without pins. Hey, stop moving around. It’ll come undone in a second."
Once I’d mostly finished, I brought over the hand mirror from the bathroom and showed her.
"Waaah...."
Boksuni gave a tiny gasp and changed angles again and again, admiring herself in the mirror.
Her alcohol-lidded eyes turned bright and sparkling.
Come to think of it, this was probably the first time she’d ever had someone do this for her directly.
It made sense that her hands were awkward when it came to hair.
"S-so? Do I look pretty?"
"Even if you like it, I’m still selling it."
"Who said otherwise! I know that already!"
There she goes pouting again.
Her puffed-up cheeks peeked out a little.
"Hmm...."
Eh, why not.
"Hey, Boksuni."
"...Don’t talk to me."
"Come here for a second."
-Creak
I turned off the room light and yanked open the stiff window.
"Why are you opening the window when it’s freezing? And why did you turn off the light?"
Boksuni grumbled as she scooted over beside me.
The boarding room was only on the second floor, but since it was in a high spot in this sector, the sky was still fairly easy to see.
"Can you look over there?"
My fingertip pointed at the night sky, thick with green smog.
"What is there?"
"You don’t see it? You really don’t see that?"
"Stop teasing me!"
"You really can’t see it?"
"This is your final warning. If you treat me like an idiot, you’ll be in for it. Do you understand?!"
I’d originally planned to show it to Ceres-mama back at the manor house.
But it’s a good day, so why not.
======
「Sudden Festival」
- Rank: C
- Description: An unexpected festival that captures everyone’s attention.
- Effect: A spectacular, massive fireworks display will light up the sky you designate for 3 minutes.
- Note: Single-use. Very pretty.
======
-Piiing
The murky night sky.
A trail of white light shot upward like a comet.
"Huh? What is tha—...."
The moment Boksuni rounded her eyes and tilted her head,
the most beautiful fireworks bloomed over the filthiest city.
-Babababam!
The thunderous crack of fireworks reached us a half-beat later.
Golden sparks drifted down like a meteor shower, dancing in shimmering arcs.
-Bang! Boom! Pow!
Multicolored fireworks blossomed like the diverse flowers in a greenhouse.
"Ah...."
The red and blue light spread across Boksuni’s white cheeks as she stared with her mouth agape.
Each time the fireworks burst, her wide-raised eyelashes trembled.
Passersby on the street stopped too.
Windows normally hidden behind thick curtains opened with a rattle.
Even merchants who sold to the notoriously nasty residents straightened up for a moment and looked up at the sky.
"How is it?"
Three minutes was very short.
The room, with its lights off, sank back into pitch-black darkness.
In the breeze seeping through the window, the smell of gunpowder lingered like a strange aftertaste.
Still, it was probably the most beautiful three minutes in Sector C’s history.
"Did you do that, master...?"
"Yep. Pretty killer, right?"
I let a touch of swagger curl the corners of my mouth.
Boksuni didn’t answer right away and just looked up at the night sky.
"...."
Soon she turned her head and faced me.
"It was the most incredible spectacle this servant has ever seen."
She giggled, showing off her tiny little fangs.
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