Chapter 72
As I killed time checking the Gallery's heated reactions here and there, afternoon had already come.
"..."
"Hmm..."
The siblings Jiwoo and Sua, who had come back from the passenger compartment in Car No. 2 and were absentmindedly looking out the cockpit window, turned their heads in unison as if on cue and stared straight at me.
"Ah."
They didn't say it aloud, but their pleading eyes made it obvious what they wanted to say.
They wanted to go outside.
More precisely, it seemed they wanted to go see their mother.
If we went straight ahead in the direction they were looking, their home would be there.
"Sure. Let's go out. We should go see your mother after such a long time."
As I grinned and stood up, color returned to the children's faces.
On a lark, I also turned to Haseon, who had been fiddling with a laptop in a corner of the cockpit.
"Would you like to come too, Haseon?"
At my suggestion, Haseon's shoulders jerked.
She flailed both hands wildly, startled.
"A-ah, no! I'm fine! You know I have social anxiety... The outside still scares me too much. If I ran into even a man, I think I'd stop breathing..."
"Don't worry. There won't be anyone at Singil Station right now."
"Even so..."
"It's okay. I'm here, aren't I?"
I soothed her fear in a gentle voice.
There was a reason I was going out of my way to reassure Haseon.
She might not have noticed it herself, but whenever I went out and came back, Haseon would sometimes stare blankly through the gap in the open door.
Since the train's cameras had been upgraded, she had often been looking at them too, and the other day she had been looking at photos of Yeouido on her laptop.
The thought occurred to me that maybe Haseon wanted to go outside too.
"Everyone has gone with the old man to the Administration HQ, so the area is completely empty."
As Haseon's fingers tapping on the laptop slowed a little, I added, pressing the point home.
"More importantly, the No. 1 and No. 2 candidates who were after Haseon, along with all the agents under them, have all been kicked out as of today. Aren't you curious what the changed Yeouido is like? It's stifling to stay here every single day."
At my words, Haseon's wavering eyes began darting between the laptop screen and the view outside the window.
After hesitating, she parted her lips and asked me in a very small, cautious voice.
"If I get too anxious while walking... can I come straight back to the train halfway through?"
"Of course."
I nodded without hesitation.
"If it gets too hard, I'll even carry you back to the train, so why not go out for a stroll?"
"Carry me...?"
Haseon said she was taller than me, and I laughed at that.
Right. If I carried Haseon now, her toes might end up dragging on the ground.
Only after hearing me did Haseon give a brief nod, as if she'd made up her mind.
"I'll go out."
A little later, after Haseon had finished getting ready and stepped out of Car No. 1, I was a little surprised by her outfit.
A cap pulled down low, and a large black mask covering more than half her face.
It was an outfit she'd secretly prepared for the day she might someday go outside.
Haseon had been on the run, after all. I figured she'd need something like that.
Even though she no longer needed to be chased, she seemed to prefer that outfit.
If that put her at ease, then so be it...
"All right, let's go."
Haseon, with her cap pulled down low, and I got off first.
Then the siblings, who came down after us, each took one of my hands tightly.
Behind us, the golem and scout drones followed, providing sturdy protection.
For the first time, everyone on the train went outside.
"This is..."
"Yes, we're in front of Singil Station."
There were still broken buildings and stretches of road visible here and there, but the piles of rubble had already been cleared away cleanly, and weeds were growing in the gaps between the shattered roads.
The streets near Singil Station were being rebuilt into a landscape different from before.
Our group passed through those streets and headed toward the siblings' home, where their mother was.
As we walked around the area near Singil Station, restored buildings began to catch our eye.
The most common buildings among the restored ones were churches.
Korea already had a lot of churches to begin with, and in the extreme situation of the apocalypse, many people wanted something to lean on in faith.
"There are quite a lot of restaurants too."
The second most common were restaurants.
Small business owners were using memories from before to open whatever restaurants they could.
Kimbap shops and snack bars were the most common, and every so often there were gukbap restaurants too.
We went into an ice cream shop with a modest sign.
It looked like it had originally been a Kimbap Heaven-style restaurant, but now it seemed to be making ice cream.
We ordered four handmade ice creams, and it seemed credit or barter were both accepted.
"Just take them."
"Huh?"
And luckily for us, we got the ice cream for free.
"What's that... a drone? Looking at the drone, you're the one who carries people around and takes them to safe zones, right?"
"Ah... yes, that's right."
"Wow!"
The shop owner said they'd heard the rumors and just gave them to us, telling us to keep working hard to save people.
The children's admiration at that made me feel pretty good.
"Thanks. There's a ton of fruit in here, huh?"
I asked as I took the ice cream.
I could see large chunks of fruit pulp embedded in the ice cream.
The shop owner answered with a friendly smile.
"Of course. The Awakeners in the Awakeners' Alliance who had agriculture-related skills got together and worked hard to cultivate fruit and vegetables."
"I see..."
"There are far fewer mouths to feed than before the apocalypse, but the harvests are overflowing, so fruit is cheaper than you'd think. ...Of course, there are still only a few kinds of fruit being grown..."
So Awakeners' skills weren't just solving combat problems—they were solving production and food problems too.
In a changed world, reliance on skills really was high.
We thanked the shop owner and left.
"All right, let's each eat one."
I handed an ice cream to Jiwoo, Sua, and Haseon each.
I took a big bite of the ice cream.
Honestly, compared to the flavor of the ice cream made by the corporate researchers with master's and doctoral degrees before the apocalypse, the texture and aroma were a bit lacking.
But instead of artificial sweetness, the fresh, natural fruit flavor spreading through my mouth was by no means bad.
Maybe if I got addicted to this taste, it might end up seeming even better than the ice cream from before.
By the time we were nearly done with the ice cream, the apartment came into view at just the right moment.
We took the elevator and arrived in front of the siblings' apartment door.
When I lightly knocked on the door, I sensed a cautious presence from inside.
"Who's there?"
"Mom!"
The siblings' mother, who had happened to be staying home after getting off work, opened the door a tiny crack with a flustered voice.
But through that narrow crack, Jiwoo and Sua shouted "Mom!" at the top of their lungs and darted in like bullets.
"Oh my! Jiwoo, Sua!"
The wary expression on their mother's face melted in an instant, giving way to a bright smile.
Seeing her tightly hug the children, Haseon, standing behind them, also smiled quietly.
"This time, things got a bit tangled up outside, so I ended up coming a little late."
When I apologized with an awkward smile, the mother shook her head vigorously.
"No, just having our children come back looking this bright and lively is enough for me."
The mother stroked the children's heads and bowed deeply to me.
The mother hurried to calm the siblings, who were running around the house, and said,
"Please wait a moment! I'll quickly prepare some warm food. You must have had a hard time outside."
After the mother hurried off toward the kitchen, I turned to Haseon, who was standing quietly.
Her eyes above the mask had been round and dazed ever since earlier.
"Haseon, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
At my question, Haseon slowly shook her head and gazed at the peaceful street beyond the living room window.
"I really had no idea Yeouido's safe zone would be like this."
She let out an admiring sigh.
"I thought I knew it all because I'd seen so much on camera, and in photos and videos in the Gallery..."
Haseon laughed, saying it was completely different from that.
Haseon, who had gained various phobias in exchange for her skill, seemed to have taken a step forward.
It would be nice if she could overcome her phobias one step at a time like this.
And then, at that very moment.
Bzzzt—
The smartphone I'd put in my pocket vibrated.
[Sender: Lee Han-yeon]
"...So you've finally finished sorting things out?"
I read the message for a moment.
[I wanted to meet in person and tell you, but I think I'll be swamped with cleanup for a while. I'll contact you by message.]
In short, the message was simple.
He seemed likely to be busy for a while just cleaning up the things the No. 1 and No. 2 candidates had done.
So rather than bringing the other races to Yeouido now and causing even more chaos,
he would provide support, and we should try turning Elftown, where the other races were, into a larger safe zone.
A safe zone where other races and survivors could coexist.
With support from my train and Yeouido, it should be possible.
"...Hmm."
Rather than endlessly expanding the safe zone centered on Yeouido like this,
he seemed to think it would be better to gradually build trustworthy safe zones one by one outside Yeouido and expand outward.
The first step in that plan was the safe zone called Elftown.
It had few people, but it also had other races living there and was made up of Awakeners with combat abilities, so it had formed a small but sturdy safe zone, and it was far from Yeouido.
The fact that it was drawing a lot of attention in the Gallery also worked in its favor.
No one had actually come yet, but there were quite a few people who wanted to see elves or dwarves, or who were curious about a safe zone created by Gallery users.
It was the perfect candidate site.
"Hmm..."
While I was thinking, another text came in from the old man.
[By the way, I suddenly have a box of low-grade mana stones left over.]
"...I can't turn that down."
I let out a chuckle and accepted.
He understood exactly what I was thinking.
After sending my reply and lifting my head, I saw the siblings' mother coming out of the kitchen with steaming stew and rice, and Haseon, who had taken off her cap and mask, smiling comfortably.
The siblings were also trying to help in their own way, carrying a small plate of kimchi.
"Uh..."
"Uh..."
It was a little nerve-racking just watching them, but they managed to bring it over safely.
"Please eat!"
At Jiwoo's shout, we smiled and began eating.