Chapter 65
Not long after we left Taepyeong City behind.
Rat-a-tat-tat!!
Something slammed violently against the car window.
Crackle!
Mud that flashed and crackled the moment it touched the window.
No, I feel like I should first consider whether that’s actually mud.
Mud charged with electricity? Does that even make sense?
“Is this the mana fog?”
Lumina nodded at my question.
“It’s a mana fog that blows in occasionally. I guess our timing wasn’t very good.”
“Normally, people travel when mana fog isn’t occurring. Of course, nothing too serious should happen as long as we don’t stray off the road!”
Manager Millelo chimed in.
The mana fog was much more violent than I had expected.
The wind was so fierce that not only the windows but the entire vehicle shook,
and dirt filled with mana pounded against the windows.
Then there was the blue lightning flashing within the fog.
Rumble!
The murky visibility made it impossible to see even an inch ahead.
The only guides within it were the yellow flags the golem police had emphasized.
Like lighthouses in a violent storm, the yellow flags glowing dimly beyond the fog served as our compass.
“Good grief, the fog is thicker than I expected. We almost got a tire stuck in a mana puddle just now.”
Manager Kim clacked his jaw as he roughly turned the wheel and steadied the vehicle.
“Hahaha! Isn’t this exactly what the wastelands are supposed to be like? It feels like my heart is dropping into my stomach! Oh, right, I only have bones.”
“Undead jokes are so unfunny.”
Lumina clicked her tongue at Manager Kim’s humor.
She really must hate jokes like that.
But perhaps Manager Millelo was actually encouraged by Manager Kim’s humor.
“When we’re done driving, help me find my left ear. I think it fell off just now. My ears keep ringing.”
“Haha! Yes, sir!”
“That wasn’t a joke.”
Clunk!
The vehicle lurched violently up and down, apparently after hitting an unpaved section of road.
“Gah!”
“Kyaaah!”
Lumina and I naturally bumped shoulders.
“Ms. Lumina, are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine……”
Lumina looked at me awkwardly.
“Are you all right, Mincheol? You’re not getting carsick, are you?”
“I’m fine. I’ve built up some tolerance over the years.”
Compared to the times I had ridden a two-and-a-half-ton truck during my military service, this was bearable.
“That’s a relief. Tell me if you’re uncomfortable. We can switch to my bike.”
“Can you get through that fog?”
“If you stay right behind me……. Ah, never mind. It probably won’t be easy after all.”
Lumina cleared her throat and turned her head away.
The flames inside her helmet, which had begun to settle down, flared violently.
“If the shaking gets too bad, you two should hold hands or something! We have something else to hold onto up front, but you don’t in the back seat!”
At Manager Millelo’s words, Lumina turned her head toward me.
“S-should we?”
Just as she carefully reached out her hand,
“Ah, I guess we won’t need to. The fog is starting to clear.”
The fog that had filled every direction gradually began to thin.
“Tch.”
I could have sworn I heard someone click their tongue.
That was when it happened.
Vroom!
An unfamiliar engine roared.
“Scavengers.”
In the direction Lumina was looking, scavengers riding crudely modified buggies and motorcycles were chasing us.
“Judging by how quickly they appeared, they must specialize in targeting travelers who have just escaped the mana fog.”
“The rat bastards were hiding in the fog and lying in wait!”
Manager Millelo and Manager Kim chuckled.
There wasn’t the slightest hint of tension in their voices.
That must have meant this was an everyday occurrence for them.
The scavengers, armed with chains and harpoons, were approaching to raid the cargo compartment of our vehicle.
“How dare these troublesome vermin target an Endless corporate vehicle?”
With only his right ear remaining, Manager Millelo reached a hand out the window.
Condensed mana shot from his fingertips, caught one of the scavengers clinging to a buggy, and flung him into the air.
“Aaaagh!”
One scavenger flew away amid his scream.
At the same time, a harpoon shot toward our vehicle, and.
“I was getting a little stiff. Maybe I’ll loosen up too.”
Mana gathered in her leather-gloved hand,
Zzap!
and she caught the incoming harpoon barehanded.
Whiiir!
Then she fired it straight back in the direction it had come from.
The rapidly flying harpoon flipped both the motorcycle and the buggy.
“Aaaagh!”
This was far beyond what nameless wasteland scavengers could handle.
“Whew, good work, you two! Why do those guys have such terrible learning ability?”
Lumina answered Manager Kim.
“People who prey on travelers and merchant caravans aren’t likely to be cautious.”
“Haha, well said.”
After cleanly disposing of the small fry, we drove on for another thirty minutes.
Once the mana fog had completely cleared, Manager Kim stopped.
Bzzzt.
A flickering, dilapidated sign.
A broad parking lot stood desolately beside the road, next to a long, two-story building.
With an old restaurant attached to one side, it looked like the kind of roadside motel one commonly saw in American dramas.
“We’ve reached the base camp.”
Manager Millelo said this as he dusted off his crumpled suit.
It seemed this was our destination, where we would pause to repair our equipment and catch our breath before infiltrating the Army of the Dead’s base.
“We’ll rest here for a while, then head to our destination. We’ll review the plan briefly before departing.”
“We’re not staying the night, are we?”
It was still broad daylight.
Wasn’t it around four o’clock by now?
“We’ll rest sufficiently and move at night. We’ve already pinpointed the Army of the Dead’s location, so it isn’t far from here.”
Lumina got out of the vehicle and stretched before speaking.
“When we set out again, we’ll take my bike separately.”
“Understood.”
Manager Millelo got out as well, picked up the ear lying on the passenger-side floor, and headed toward the lodging.
His ear really had fallen off.
You never knew which undead jokes were actually jokes.
“This is why I hate those people’s jokes.”
Lumina spoke as though she sympathized with my expression.
“By the way, Ms. Lumina.”
“Hmm?”
“If we’re going separately on your bike, I’m riding with you too, right?”
“Why are you asking something so obvious?”
She quietly stepped closer, then whispered with her hands clasped behind her back.
“You imagined something naughty, didn’t you? Imagining yourself holding me from behind?”
“…Is that naughty?”
To survive, I would have to hold on to her waist somehow.
“Ooh~. So Mincheol doesn’t think that’s lewd? Just what exactly were you imagining?”
“Ah, n-no, it’s not like that.”
“You’re naughtier than I expected. I guess it’s true that all men are wolves.”
That wasn’t what I meant.
“Ms. Lumina, what I meant was—”
“Mincheol’s a pervert~.”
Lumina had no intention of listening.
Instead, she was using this opportunity to tease me.
She even gestured toward her chest to act out the word ‘pervert.’
“You can look forward to it.”
“L-look forward to what?”
“Riding through the wastelands on a bike feels really exhilarating.”
After saying that, she gave my back a light smack.
It didn’t hurt.
Even though she had hit me with considerable strength, it still didn’t hurt.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
We got out of the vehicle and entered the restaurant connected to the motel.
“The steak here is delicious. It’s made from bison that can only be hunted in the wastelands, and it’s cheap and tender too.”
Lumina recommended it naturally.
“Have you been here before?”
“Of course. There’s nowhere I haven’t been. It’s one of the basic virtues of being a delivery driver, I suppose?”
“…I thought you said you don’t eat properly because you’re a dullahan.”
That was why she hadn’t even had coffee earlier.
“There’s special food for dullahans.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll know when you see it. Excuse me! We’d like to order!”
At Lumina’s call, the restaurant owner approached wearing a worn apron.
She pointed to the menu and rattled off her order with practiced ease.
“One wasteland bison steak. And one ‘Wasteland Soul Steak,’ please. Medium-rare.”
“Certainly. What will the two behind you have?”
Soul steak?
Just as my curiosity began to stir,
“I’ll have a plate of special aged raw beef tartare with formalin dressing. Make it well-aged.”
“Two calcium shakes and a whole bison bone oven-roast!”
Formalin tartare and roasted bones.
Despite the bizarre orders, the owner disappeared into the kitchen as though it were perfectly ordinary.
“Taepyeong City even has restaurants exclusively for undead. This place doesn’t separate the menus and sells everything together.”
“Ah.”
Before long, extraordinary dishes were set on our table.
An appetizingly cooked steak was placed in front of me, but what sat in front of Lumina was a little different.
It was a steak, all right, but.
“This is……meat?”
What lay on the plate looked like a mass of pitch-black shadow.
A dark-blue haze rose from the black mass.
It was clearly not something a living person could eat.
“Ordinary meat doesn’t provide me with any nourishment. This is the mana residing in the meat, condensed and hardened into the shape of a steak. The mana here tastes pretty good.”
Lumina took up her knife and fork and elegantly cut into the mass of shadow.
I wondered whether she could eat without removing her helmet, but I didn’t ask.
I knew how much she hated showing other people that she had no head.
The moment she speared the meat(?) with her fork and brought it near her helmet,
Fwoooosh-!
The shadow meat on her fork instantly turned into black mist and slipped through a gap in her helmet as though being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner.
“Mmm~! I’m telling you, this restaurant has the perfect mana blend. It just melts in your mouth.”
Lumina lightly tapped her helmet and hummed a satisfied tune.
Holding my fork, I stared blankly and asked about this unfamiliar way of eating.
“How exactly do you eat that? Is there a separate opening inside your helmet?”
“My, my.”
Lumina tilted her helmet slightly and propped her chin on her hand.
“You’re prying into how a lady eats? Don’t you know that’s rude? This is a secret.”
“No, I was just curious……”
“If you’re curious, check for yourself later when we’re alone and I’ve taken off my helmet. Or do you want to come into my room right now?”
At Lumina’s joking answer, I quietly shut my mouth.
"I-I’ll tell you later."
"Hehehe, this is fun. Teasing Mincheol really is the most fun."
I should just cut my own meat.
The situation across from us was a spectacle.
Crunch! Crack!
“Mmm! Whole bones are the best when you’re tired! I can practically feel the gloss spreading over my joints!”
Manager Kim shoved a whole bone as thick as his forearm into his mouth and chewed it noisily.
Finely crushed bone powder poured between his ribs like snow and piled up.
The more bones he consumed, the shinier the surface of his bones became, as though they had been coated.
Manager Millelo also chewed the tartare reeking of formalin and nodded with satisfaction.
“The preservative definitely gives my skin more elasticity.”
Just as he said, his skin did seem a little shinier.
I gave up trying to understand.
It felt like I had gone beyond the stage where understanding was possible.
I ate a wasteland bison steak while watching the undead’s bizarre mukbang.
“It’s pretty good.”
As Lumina had said, the meat was definitely delicious.
Good enough to make me want to come back.
After finishing our meal, we took a short rest and regrouped.
“Then, before entering the destination, let’s review the plan one more time.”
Manager Millelo went over each person’s role, folding down his rotting fingers one by one.
“First, I’ll draw their attention from the front and lure them outside. While I do that, the remaining three will infiltrate the location where the object is being kept. Ms. Lumina will lead the way and clear a path, while Manager Kim will protect Mr. Mincheol from the rear.”
Manager Kim answered energetically with a sharp clack of his jaw.
“I’ll escort him safely even if it means my bones turn to powder! My vacation depends on it.”
Manager Kim’s voice was full of enthusiasm.
“And the most important thing. When we find the object, Mr. Kim Mincheol will be responsible for retrieving it personally.”
Manager Millelo’s eyes turned toward me.
Lumina, sitting beside me, tilted her helmet askew as though she were frowning.
“Why does Mincheol have to be part of this operation? He’s an ordinary person with no combat ability. If all he has to do is pick up the object, I or one of your employees could do it.”
“We would like that as well, but Director Belarus repeatedly emphasized that only Mr. Mincheol, being human, can handle the object.”
“…Fine. I understand.”
After we briefly reviewed the plan, we set out as soon as the sun set and night fell.
“Then, we’ll depart.”
We moved stealthily.
“Hold on tight.”
Lumina climbed onto the bike first, then tapped her waist and spoke.
“…I won’t let go.”
“You can hold on as tightly as you want. We’re going to go fast.”
There was a hint of laughter in her voice.
I wrapped my arms around her cool yet soft waist.
She still smelled of flowers.
The scent was a little stronger than usual today.
Had she put on perfume?
I felt a strange warmth.
“Then we’re off.”
***
How long had we been riding through the darkness?
We spotted a massive fortress not far away.
A crude wall seemingly built by piling together wasteland red rock and heaps of scrap metal.
Searchlights swept back and forth above it without pause, surveilling the dark sandy plain.
It was large enough to resemble a small military city.
“That’s the Army of the Dead’s base.”
Manager Millelo spoke in a low voice.
At his signal, Lumina also turned off the bike and killed the engine.
“Didn’t you say they had only recently moved their base?”
“That’s right.”
“And they built a fortress this large?”
“…I suspect it was thanks to the power of the mass of mana they obtained.”
“……”
In the pitch-black darkness.
Lumina got off the bike and stared blankly up at the enormous fortress with her helmet still on.
The flames rising inside her helmet flared wildly, popping far more fiercely than usual.
“……”
Both her hands clenched tightly.
She had squeezed her fists so hard that her leather gloves were pulled taut, creaking audibly.
“…Ms. Lumina?”
When I called out to her carefully, she muttered as though entranced.
“…It’s over there.”
Her voice was far more subdued than usual, without its customary playfulness.
Her faintly trembling voice held a mixture of intense longing and certainty.
“Pardon?”
I asked without thinking at the unfamiliar tone in her voice.
“My head is over there. This energy—it’s definitely my head.”
The flames flickering inside her helmet burned far more fiercely than usual.
Was she sensing the waves emitted by a part of her own body, just as she claimed?
“Really?”
Lumina slowly nodded without taking her eyes off the fortress.
“Definitely……. That’s my head.”
