Chapter 42
“……”
I just smiled awkwardly and quickly turned my head away.
I had heard that Dowonhyang also classified its Awakened guild members by rank.
Naturally, the highest was a man named Cain.
Below him were five “executives,” they said.
They wore special emblems on their waists instead of the yin-yang symbol.
The lower-ranking guild members supervised the workers here, while the rest were responsible for fending off invading monsters.
‘In exchange for Awakened ones protecting you, you talentless ones should do your part through labor.’
That was their logic for exploiting the non-Awakened.
With a name like Dowonhyang, the inside of this barrier felt like a different world.
It was as if the caste system had been revived.
“What’s there to be grateful for!”
Just then, a woman who always looked gloomy shouted at us.
“I was forcibly separated from my daughter and dragged here! This is just tyranny!”
“Oh please. Then why don’t you go out of Dowonhyang to find your daughter?”
“What? You…!”
A commotion broke out in the bathhouse.
The work supervisor monitoring us from outside yelled loudly.
“What are you doing? Not working? If you don’t like laundry, should I send you to the construction site?”
The bathhouse fell silent as if a mouse had died.
At least in here, they didn’t have to endure whippings or carry heavy stones.
Everyone was living like that, forcibly complying.
Stomp, stomp—
I mechanically stomped on the laundry, quietly thinking.
‘…I think I’ve heard most of the information we can get from here.’
Everyone here was a worker, and since they spent most of their time confined in the sauna, they didn’t know much about other sectors.
‘Should we make a move tomorrow…?’
“Hey, newbie! If you’re done, don’t slack off and start on the next load!”
At the supervisor’s sharp yell, I raised my head proudly.
Then I shouted loudly.
“Yes!”
💎
“Oh my goodness…”
After finishing the hard labor that continued until late evening and returning to the rest area,
I lay down on the sauna mat, groaning in pain.
My whole body ached from scrubbing an enormous amount of clothes all day long.
“…If I had known it would be like this, I should have pretended to be a man and snuck into the men’s quarters.”
Yu, watching me, looked around carefully before speaking softly.
Despite her small frame, she had incredible stamina and was handling all this work with a calm face.
“That’s nonsense.”
I answered firmly, even while groaning.
Living together would involve changing clothes and showering.
In such an inhumane space, it was unreasonable to expect respect for individual privacy.
“I know you’re strong, Yu, but remember you can’t kill humans recklessly. Don’t forget your god has anger management issues.”
Yu raised the corners of her mouth with a strange expression.
I flinched even while groaning and stammered.
“W-what’s with that look?”
“Are you… worried about me?”
Ugh.
I sat up abruptly and hurriedly made excuses.
“No! If you get caught, it’ll be trouble for me too, since we came together. And anyway, we need to return to the camper van together…”
…Huh?
Come to think of it, why did I assume we had to go back together?
Aren’t psychopaths supposed to abandon their companions and only pursue their own interests?
That’s what all the characteristics of psychopaths I looked up on the internet said.
‘…So, should I be acting like that?’
I was momentarily gripped by confusion.
Seeing me like this, Yu smiled again.
It was a gentle, very kind smile.
“Think carefully, Noah.”
I rubbed my aching arms and asked in a wary tone:
“…About what?”
“About listening to the voice of your heart. About who you are and what you truly want.”
Yu whispered to me softly with a serene face.
“You have to break out of your shell through your own realization. Others can help, but they can’t directly pull you out of that shell.”
Then she covered me with her share of the thin blanket.
“…I’m fine.”
“Cover yourself. You seemed to be quite sensitive to cold.”
Yu leaned against the wall and closed her eyes quietly.
“Let’s take turns keeping watch. You sleep first. I’ll wake you up after dawn.”
I stared blankly at the blanket she had covered me with for a moment.
“You just tried to suffocate the baby with a blanket! …You psychopath!”
When I was very young,
Around the time my half-brother was just born,
My mother called me a psychopath when she saw me trying to cover his tiny body with a blanket.
My stepfather, my stepsister, the neighborhood, school teachers, classmates, everyone.
…Think about what I truly want?
I turned over abruptly.
‘What I want is to go to the shelter and live where there are no humans.’
Just look at this Dowonhyang.
How difficult and painful is it when humans live together?
Right.
And to get to the shelter, I need Baek Iheon, the survival cheat key, and to save him, I need Choi Yu.
Yeah, that’s it.
[(Messenger) Indra quietly suggests that you’ve had a tough day and should just sleep without thinking about anything now.]
‘…I was trying to.’
I answered inwardly with a sullen tone, tossing and turning to find a comfortable position.
Indra was right that today had been exhausting.
The complexity in my mind was only momentary.
“Don’t need… people…”
I mumbled something that might have been talking to myself or sleep-talking, and then fell asleep.
💎
In the night, when everyone was asleep,
Yudam, sitting cross-legged with a peaceful face, was gazing at the sleeping Noah.
She was curled up on her side like a shrimp as she slept.
It was an extremely defensive posture.
Just like Noah’s heart, which didn’t want to be hurt by anyone.
“Noah. There is no one who doesn’t need people or love to live.”
Yudam murmured softly.
She herself had nights when she only wanted to die.
Times when she slept curled up like that.
Perhaps that’s why.
This hurt girl with unusually dark pupils concerned her so much.
Or maybe it was because of Noah’s gaze as she looked at her own reddened fingers from making the abbot’s grave that day…
“Let’s go together.”
It might have been because of that calm single sentence.
‘I will protect you, Noah.’
In the dark times when she was walking through nights without even stars, it was the abbot who had lifted her up.
Now that the abbot was gone,
She would become such a presence for Noah.
Yudam murmured, stroking her forehead where the third eye had appeared.
“Yes… Becoming your spear.”
That must be why she alone survived that chaos.
In the dark room without a single window,
Only Yudam’s eyes shone brightly.
💎
On the fourth day, the opportunity we’d been waiting for finally came.
“Hey, you, newbie.”
Hearing the call, I, who had been diligently stomping laundry again today, promptly answered.
“Yes!”
The supervisor guarding the bathhouse entrance today stared at me and casually remarked.
“You’re not keeping up with the laundry speed today?”
“Ah, that…”
Of course, it’s because my whole body aches from muscle pain.
Hiding my surging feelings, I was about to make an excuse when the supervisor added in an indifferent tone:
“You’ve endured quite well for three days. Hard to move because of muscle pain, right?”
This is my chance.
It seems the past three days of working hard with my mouth shut have paid off.
As I appeared to be adapting well and without complaints, their guard towards me had lowered.
After a momentary flash in my eyes,
I immediately imitated a good, obedient newbie and shook my head.
“Oh, no, supervisor.”
Then, after gauging the situation for a moment, I added slyly.
“…Thank you for your concern. Unnie?”
Responding with an affectionate tone and flashing a slight eye-smile, I saw the corners of the previously stern supervisor’s mouth quiver slightly.
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
