Chapter 48
Following their mother, we headed toward the apartment where the siblings were staying.
I kept scanning left and right as I walked.
The more I looked, the emptier the apartment complex that should have been full of people seemed compared to the area near the station.
If you looked closely, you could see many empty apartments beyond the open curtains and glass windows.
“I heard survivors have been flooding into Yeouido every day, but there are still a lot of empty homes.”
My words drew a bitter smile from the siblings’ mother, and she nodded.
“Yes. It’s nothing but empty homes. Before the apocalypse, how many people do you think lived in these huge apartment complexes? So many people... a lot of them disappeared.”
She was right.
Even with survivors flooding in, it still wasn’t enough to fill this place.
Ding!
When we entered an apartment and I pressed the button, the elevator opened with a cheerful chime.
The elevator here was working properly.
That was probably thanks to the efforts of countless people who handled electricity and other facilities.
We stopped in front of one unit in a high-rise apartment building.
As the mother deftly entered the door-lock code, the door opened with a chirp.
“Mom’s home?”
“Mom!”
The moment the front door opened, the sound of thumping footsteps rang out from inside the living room, and the two siblings dashed out.
They were faces I had missed.
But the children, who had been running toward us with bright smiles, froze when they noticed me standing beside their mother.
“Huh...?”
“It’s big sis!”
The children rubbed their eyes for a moment, then cheered and, without even acknowledging their own mother, rushed straight into my arms.
“Sis!”
“Waaah!”
I felt a little awkward with the kids hanging off my waist and bouncing up and down.
I glanced at the mother to gauge her reaction.
“Uh... ahaha.”
I wondered if she might feel left out.
But far from feeling left out, the mother let out a warm laugh.
“That makes sense. The memories they made on the train must be really special to them. I’ve been out every day lately because of work, so there have been long stretches when the two of them were left alone. Of course they’d be so happy.”
The mother stroked the children’s heads, then asked me as if something had just occurred to her.
“Oh, by the way, could you tell me what Donggeuri actually is?”
“Huh? Donggeuri?”
“Every time the kids talked about the train, they kept saying Donggeuri, Donggeuri, so I asked them about it. Then they explained it was some green, round animal... something kept in a tank. I wondered what kind of animal that could possibly be...”
“Ah.”
Only then did I understand.
The kids must really like Donggeuri.
Come to think of it, I had drawn all sorts of expressions on the tank.
“It’s a marimo. Uh... how should I put it, it’s kind of like an aquatic plant. I’m keeping one on the train...”
“Ah, I see, a marimo~”
The mother nodded with a smile at last.
Fortunately, it seemed she knew what a marimo was.
We sat facing each other on the living room sofa and talked about life inside the Yeouido safe zone while drinking the warm tea she had served.
Information I’d only read in posts on the Gallery felt completely different when it came from the mouth of someone actually living in this safe zone.
From stories about settling here to tales about the celebrities making a name for themselves inside the safe zone.
It all felt very real.
But as the conversation moved on to the recent situation, the mother’s expression began to stiffen noticeably.
“But... recently, the management bureau controlling this safe zone brought in a very special Awakened.”
“The management bureau?”
The management bureau was apparently a new department temporarily created by soldiers, politicians, and various civil servants to manage the safe zone.
“Then... the special Awakened...”
I knew they were looking for Ha-seon, but they clearly hadn’t found Ha-seon yet.
What kind of special Awakened had they brought in, exactly?
“Yes. Apparently it was someone with an appraisal skill that lets them peek at other people’s status windows. They said they’d use that person to conduct a large-scale inspection of the safe zone...”
“Inspection...”
My brow furrowed instantly.
They could see through other people’s status windows?
It might not be such a great skill, but bringing in someone with that kind of skill at a time like this felt suspicious.
I knew they were looking for Ha-seon, who had the Gallery skill.
“The bureau wrapped it up in a very good-sounding pretext. They said it was an inspection to help ordinary people who don’t know exactly what their skill is or how to use it, and to place people where they fit best so the safe zone can run more efficiently.”
But adults’ instincts were sharp.
Especially parents who had to protect their children.
“That sounds nice when you call it placing people in the right positions, but it’s making people uneasy. Folks are even saying that if you have a combat skill, they might forcibly conscript you into the military...”
As long as they were inside the safe zone, it wouldn’t be easy to resist if they were told something like that.
Of course, some Awakened were opposing the inspection, but quite a few of them were also curious about the results.
They say even Awakened are always talking about needing more combat power.
Maybe they were hoping the inspection would turn up talented people with good skills.
The mother gripped her teacup tightly, glanced at my face with anxious eyes, and asked very carefully.
“Um, student, you know what kind of skills our children have, right?”
Her voice was trembling ever so slightly.
She might have already heard from the siblings.
They said they talked about their memories on the train every day.
“Yes.”
“...By any chance, are they skills someone would covet?”
“...Yes.”
I quietly looked at the siblings, who were happily playing with the drone on the living room floor.
“I’ll be honest with you.”
I looked straight into the mother’s wavering eyes.
“The children have skills with tremendous potential.”
“I knew it...”
As soon as I answered, the mother let out a deep sigh.
A complex mix of emotions crossed her face.
“...The kids brag about it sometimes. They say their big sister praised their skills.”
She had been looking sadly at the tops of the two siblings’ heads while they played with the drone on the living room floor, then turned toward me as if she’d made up her mind.
“I know this is an incredibly shameless favor... but could you let the kids ride the train again like before?”
“Huh? The kids?”
I widened my eyes.
Of course, from my perspective, it wasn’t a bad offer.
Those siblings’ skills would definitely be useful.
But—
“Are you really sure that’s okay? No matter what, being together as a family...”
“I’m trusting you because you’re a student.”
The mother grabbed my hand and said,
“I don’t want to see their skills exposed and have them caught between the Awakened and the bureau.”
“Ah...”
Her fingertips were trembling.
“I’d rather have the children stay on your train like before. Besides, it’s not as if I wouldn’t be able to see them at all—you’ll stop by Yeouido like this from time to time anyway, right?”
“Of course...”
In the end, there was no choice.
The mother forced the corners of her lips up and called out to the siblings.
“Kids. For a while, do you want to ride big sis’s train and go around like before?”
The children, who had put down their blocks and come over, tilted their heads and then looked back and forth between their mother and me.
“Mom... you’re not going anywhere, right?”
“Of course not.”
Though they were still young, the children were quick to catch on.
The siblings hesitated for a moment, holding each other’s hands tightly, then nodded vigorously.
“Okay, then. We’ll come see Mom often!”
“Mom, make sure you eat well, okay?”
The children acted so maturely, as if they were the ones comforting their mother.
It seemed the children had grown up too fast.
The mother embraced them.
The only answer I could give was a promise to bring the kids to Yeouido often.
“Come on, let’s go, kids.”
I held each sibling’s hand in mine and turned back toward the train.
“Yeouido’s situation wasn’t something I could just let slide.”
Up until now, I’d been looking the other way, thinking things would somehow work themselves out.
But the situation was gradually getting worse.
They were chasing Ha-seon and trying to control people.
I wanted to actively do something about it now.
But how exactly was I supposed to do that—
“Um, excuse me! Are you by any chance Mr. Choo-Choo?”
Someone suddenly sprang out from the entrance of a dark alley and blocked my path.
He was a suspicious man with a black cap pulled low and a mask covering half his face.
“...!”
Instead of answering, I reflexively tugged the siblings closer and hid them behind me.
Whiiir—click!
The drones, sensing the caution in my actions, reacted at once.
The combat drone’s military rifle and the sniper drone’s heavy anti-materiel rifle were aimed at the masked man’s forehead.
“H-hiii!”
The man recoiled in shock the moment he saw the cold gun barrels aimed at him.
Then his feet tangled, and he fell onto the asphalt.
Thud!
“P-please spare me! Don’t shoot!”
The man waved both hands frantically in the air and shouted in a panic.
“It’s, it’s a misunderstanding! I was just waiting because I wanted to have a very important talk!”
“A talk?”
I narrowed my eyes and looked down at the man, who had slumped to the ground and was trembling.
He didn’t seem to be hiding any weapons, but there was no way I could trust someone with their face covered by a cap and mask.
“...I’ll take the kids to the train first and come back. If you really want to talk to me, don’t move from there and wait.”
“Y-yes, yes! Of course! Please, do as you like!”
After confirming that the man was nodding so hard he was practically flat on the ground, I quickly led the children to the train.
The door of Car 1 opened, and as I came in holding the little siblings by both hands, Ha-seon’s pupils began to shake violently as she sat in the cab.
“S-So-won? W-what are these kids, in the world...?”
“Ah, sorry. It just happened that way... this must be uncomfortable for you...”
“No, it’s not uncomfortable or scary or anything...”
Ha-seon, the Gallery’s darling, had both a fear of men and social anxiety.
I had worried she might be scared of the siblings too, but fortunately it didn’t seem to be that kind of fear.
She just had no idea how to deal with little kids and was awkwardly fumbling around.
“Hello!”
“Hi, big sis!”
As the friendly siblings gave a spirited bow, Ha-seon fidgeted helplessly with both hands in the air.
“Ah... u-uh, hi? Kids... nice to—”
Just as the awkward atmosphere lingered in Car 1.
The siblings’ gazes passed over Ha-seon and landed on the small glass tank sitting in a corner of the control panel.
“It’s Donggeuri!”
The children’s eyes sparkled as if stars had been set in them.
The siblings lost interest in Ha-seon in an instant, ran over to the green tank holding the marimo, and pressed themselves against it.
There was clearly a golem there too, but they hardly cared.
“Nice to see you... really, nice to see you...”
Ha-seon continued speaking in a wistful voice.