Chapter: 130. Interlude. 8
An overwhelming shock hit us.
Caught completely off guard, I accidentally made a sound.
When I finally raised my head after recovering from the shock, the senior had already vanished.
•••What was that guy?”
“Master! You have to take me too!”
What’s left behind is me in disbelief and the children. And amidst this situation, Baek Sihyeon is still energetically bouncing around.
You mentioned the Black Marauder! Then I should handle it!”
While everyone else was rendered speechless, the crazily flailing Baek Sihyeon shouted towards the unseen senior.
As if they could hear you, Sihyeon…
“Haah. Sihyeon, calm down.”
I sighed as my head began to ache and reached out to settle down the bouncing Baek Sihyeon.
Fortunately, Sihyeon seemed not too angry to control her power and accepted my hand, stopping her rampage.
“Why stop me? The Master went alone again! Is this fair?”
She’s always like this.
Well, she did say she was looking forward to fighting alongside our senior when we first came here.
But that fight never happened.
So how should I calm her down?
During our chaotic partnership, I learned a lot about her, so there are countless ways to comfort her.
Among those, I thought of the most suitable method and spoke.
“Sihyeon, the senior must have reasons for acting that way. Or do you not trust the senior?”
Opening with the senior’s name.
“Ugh, but…”
The moment I spoke, Sihyeon seemed at a loss for words, her face dimming and her body slumping.
Mentioning the senior seems to work well on Sihyeon.
“I know how much you were looking forward to it. You always mention the Master. But isn’t there something more important for us right now?”
Now, it’s my turn to lift Sihyeon’s spirits by borrowing the senior’s name.
I slightly turned my body so that the children could see her well.
“Sihyeon, do you think the Master would just leave these children behind? Just tell them to run away?”
While she did leave them behind, I still believe the senior did all she could before leaving.
Perhaps.
•••But she wouldn’t do that.”
The now completely deflated Baek Sihyeon responded weakly.
Did she think I was right?
With drooping shoulders, Baek Sihyeon slowly walked toward the children.
Up to this point, things were going as planned.
Now Sihyeon should let go of her regrets about the Black Marauder and focus on the children’s safety.
But if she continues being all mopey like this, I need to cheer her up.
“Sihyeon. Let’s gather the children and take them to safety. The senior trusts you to handle this important task, right? If she didn’t trust you, she would have done it herself!”
Imagining that seemed to lift Sihyeon’s spirits, and she spoke in a brighter voice.
Honestly, it feels like she trusts us at least in part, and it’s also a bit due to how crucial this task is…
But there’s no need to voice that, right?
“Right, the senior trusts you. Even if the Black Marauder shows up, I believe you can get the children to safety.”
Thinking about her dark personality, I don’t think she’d take it out on them…
Pushing away the countless counterarguments arising in my mind, I chose words that I thought Sihyeon wanted to hear.
Perhaps because of that.
“Yeah! The Master wouldn’t act thoughtlessly! Let’s go, everyone! This unni will take you somewhere safe!”
Suddenly, the reenergized Baek Sihyeon started running.
Not at full speed, but at a pace that the little ones could keep up with.
“Follow me!”
Of course, the children stared at Baek Sihyeon’s unexpected leap with confusion.
•••I’ve been thinking, is that unni a bit crazy?
“That unni… might be a bit nuts.”
“Dam, Yeon, you both shouldn’t say that to a little one. What’ll happen later if they get used to bad words?”
I scolded them, but I couldn’t deny that thought in my mind.
“She’s just… a bit pure.”
That was my excuse after squeezing my head for a while.
Clearly, by her actions and manner, she wasn’t dumb at all.
“By the way, is she alright?”
“What do you mean?”
Dam asked a question I couldn’t grasp while I was holding my head.
“Does that unni know where she’s going?”
Huh? Where?
For a moment, I didn’t understand the situation and tilted my head, trying to recollect my thoughts.
Baek Sihyeon had already disappeared somewhere.
We were left behind.
“…Let’s chase after her.”
“Unni, she went that way.”
“Thanks, Yeonah… my head really hurts.
“It’s so long…”
How long have we walked?
It must have been hours, yet we still couldn’t see the exit.
When will the bombing drop?
From earlier, the whole building was rumbling, signaling that an attack had begun, but…
I don’t have enough information to analyze anything.
Baek Sihyeon knocked down a passing thief to ask if they knew anything, but it seemed they also had no clue about the situation.
As time passed, my anxiety grew, and the repetitive situation was driving me mad.
I need to ask.
•••Yeonah? Can I ask you something?”
“•••I already know what it is.”
You too, huh?
Fearing she might get hurt, I finally asked the suppressed question to Dam, who was leading the way.
“Are you sure this path is right?”
The most important question.
In this concrete maze, he was our only guide.
Was he truly reliable?
“Sure… this way has to be right.”
A question mark…?
For a moment, I pondered if Dam might be lying, but noticed him fidgeting, shaking his hands.
So, that wasn’t it.
I should rephrase my question.
“Has the path changed… or…?”
“Have you ever been out of Nanjido?”
From the beginning, did he only know it through hearsay?
•••Actually, I’ve never been out of Nanjido.”
Was that the truth?
Dam flinched and opened his mouth.
As if he were a little child who had made a mistake.
“But… uh… you see…”
Then he began to mumble, struggling to reply.
Shaking his body, appearing scared of what he had to say.
I can’t help it.
I knelt down and matched my gaze with Dam’s.
“Dam, do you trust this unni?”
Dam nodded his head.
Rubbing his little head, I continued speaking.
“Then tell me. I’ll listen to everything.”
•••It must be something completely nonsensical, right?”
“Yeah.”
Dam stayed silent, looking at me.
The pulse I felt from my hand was rising into double digits.
“Hold on.”
Dam shook off my hand and ran somewhere, picking up a stick, then poking it into the ground to sketch something.
“Uh… Dam, what are you doing?”
“Shh. Sihyeon, quiet.”
He needs to focus.
Lines began to appear on the ground.
A small round circle connected by multiple lines, with incomprehensible symbols at intervals, and while the scaling was off…
“This is…”
“A map!”
Sihyeon piped in.
•••How did Sihyeon know that?
“Yeah. It’s still incomplete though.”
Dam kept scratching away at the floor, his face down.
After a few golden minutes of passing by, uncertain if a bombing would drop at any moment, we quietly sat around and observed him.
Scrape.
As Dam scratched the concrete to draw a line, he tossed the stick backward.
“This is the overall map of this area. It’s pieced together from things I remembered and from other organizations…”
“Wait a second.”
I focused my mind.
The alleyways we had raced through so far, that pieced-together map.
•••Something feels off.
Up to a certain point, it aligns, but at a specific location, the mapping drastically distorts.
“Where are we right now?”
•••Here.”
At my question, Dam slowly pointed his finger. Not far from the star on the map.
And then, the place where the mapping began to misalign.
“Where is that star?”
•••It’s the exit.”
Strange.
I don’t know the exact timing, but recalling correctly, the place Dam was indicating was somewhere we’d reached a couple of hours ago.
Pieces of information I’d gathered until now began to pile up in my mind.
The fork we took hours ago, that unnaturally long straight path, and the collapsed sewer, along with that stick that had flown off behind us earlier.
We’ve been going around the same spot? That’s what I wanted to say, right?”
Dam hung his head.
Filled with guilt doing so.
He probably thought we wouldn’t believe him.
Or maybe, he was anxious that we’d doubt him.
What if the map was misleading?
What if he misread the path?
With those thoughts in my head, I glanced down at the map again.
Fast-paced thoughts racing, almost giving me a headache.
I pieced together all my memories and this flimsy map in front of me, but the answer remained the same.
While I had gone all over the places on this map, there were very few errors in it.
The only error was from that point to where the star is.
So, is that information misaligned?
No.
I thought for a moment about the possibility, but my gut feeling insisted that this map was accurate.
I can’t quite explain why, but it’s been several times my intuition has saved me, so I decided to trust it.
Didn’t the oxymoron senior also say to treasure that intuition?
As I lifted my head to organize my thoughts, I suddenly spotted it.
The little rat tail decoration on Sihyeon’s waist.
Bum-bum.
Dizziness?
When did the headache start?
Is this headache I’m feeling right now… something we experienced when we arrived here?
•••Sihyeon?”
“0,2”
“Does your head hurt right now?”
“My head…?
Now that I think about it, it does hurt a bit!”
•••Only now do you notice the pain? Well then, I couldn’t realize until I thought about that possibility.
“Sihyeon, earlier you said this was a map, right?”
“Yeah!”
“How did you know that?”
•••I could tell by looking.”
And that’s why she’s a genius.
“So, can you memorize all of this?”
“I memorized it all already!”
•••And that’s why she’s a genius.
“Then from here to the star, run there and back as fast as you can.”
“Got it!”
Baek Sihyeon started running fast, as if she had no questions or hesitations.
•••Doesn’t that seem pointless?”
Maybe tired from the continued march, Dam spoke up while sitting on a pipe.
Yeon and the other two kids appeared exhausted as well, lounging around nearby.
I glanced away from Sihyeon until I couldn’t see her anymore, before turning my head back to respond to Dam’s question.
“No. This will gather information.”
Somehow, we need to take these kids and escape. Before time runs out.
As I wrapped up that thought, I momentarily turned to move closer to the wall.
I also needed a short rest. No matter how fast Sihyeon was, it would at least take five minutes…
Just as I thought to sit down.
Swish!
“Yeonah?!”
Yeonah leaped into the air, using her whole body to spring up and take flight.
And then, she landed.
With claws bared, shrinking her frame, she stared into the air.
Above. A mapping…
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Suddenly, the building began to shake.
There had been slight vibrations earlier, but nothing compared to this tremor.
What is it? What’s happening?
I lack information.
I can’t predict what’s coming.
In a situation where even my reliable feelings had no information…
The brief confusion quickly settled.
Bang.
It was caused by her sudden appearance.
The ceiling collapsed.
Concrete scattered, and large stones poured down toward the children.
I need to block it.
The children didn’t even have time to react.
Thus, I poured all my strength into deflecting the stones.
Even with my body reinforced by mana, I felt pain, but I didn’t stop swinging my arms.
If those stones hit the kids, the outcome would be catastrophic.
After two seconds of being fully concentrated on that, I heard her voice through the dust.
•••Han Abin? If you’re here…
As the dust settled, her identity was revealed from above.
Pitch black, slimy.
Underneath her legs, a mechanical-looking map was crushed beneath her foot, standing amidst a pile of concrete.
Holding a red hammer, scattering black particles, she opened her mouth.
“Where’s that noisy Baek Sihyeon?”
The Black Marauder.
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