KEG 36

“Ugh… But you should know that yourself. You awakened and rose to the top.”

“Can’t you shut your mouth?”

I couldn’t tell whether she was ambitious or not.

With skills like this, she’d be called around on a national level. Then she would have received praise from so many more people.

I suddenly recalled the green skin that had melted in my hand.

“…Can you also lift monster curses?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only treated livestock and junkies.”

I had nothing to say.

This was a personal choice, and I couldn’t force her to take responsibility for her abilities. Time couldn’t be turned back, and the outcome couldn’t be changed.

Is it wiser not to even think about it, rather than risk regretting it later?

Click.

“Ugh!!”

“All done. Try moving it.”

The treatment ended with the sensation of my shoulder joint snapping backward.

I rotated my right arm in a full circle. The movement felt natural.

“You’ll experience aftereffects. And they’ll happen multiple times.”

“Isn’t it over after what I just went through?”

“I only sped up your metabolism; I didn’t give you a new arm. It’ll hurt even more than when you were injured.”

I wasn’t sure if this was healing or a curse.

If you look at it extremely, doesn’t this just mean my arm has aged even more?

“Do you think people live out their natural lives and then die?”

Maybe she read my thoughts, because Go Seokhui sneered.

“Go. Go find Philip.”

***

Before looking for Go Philip, I stopped by the hospital to go through the discharge process. While I was there, I asked Kim Hwanhee and Lee Seungmin about the deserter, partly as a greeting and partly as part of my investigation.

“A deserter?”

Lee Seungmin, who had been peeling tangerines beside Kim Hwanhee, responded with a counter-question.

“Yes, how should I go about finding him?”

“If he deserted four years ago… as a long-term fugitive, he’s likely already under the state’s surveillance.”

“You’re part of the search unit, yet you know a lot about the military police?”

Kim Hwanhee didn’t miss the opportunity to slip in a compliment.

I get that you two get along well, but let’s focus on the conversation.

“Hmm, well, I have a close friend from my training days. He’s a great storyteller, so I’ve heard a lot of these stories.”

“What exactly does ‘under the state’s surveillance’ mean?”

Sergeant Lee Seungmin explained simply that all social and economic activities (including credit cards, insurance, cell phones, and IP addresses) becomes subject to monitoring.

“His resident registration would have been marked as unknown long ago. He’s probably a wanted man by now.”

He hadn’t joined the military by choice; it had been compulsory conscription.

To think this was the price he paid for freedom.

“Above all, the four years of social isolation are the problem.”

A society already reeling from anxiety and chaos. What must those four years have [stolen content]been like for a man in his twenties, thrown into the midst of it all?

“And he’s an E-class Guide… There’s a possibility he got connected to an illegal guiding establishment.”

Illegal guiding establishments.

A dark underbelly of society born from the emergence of Espers and Guides.

They were illegal prostitution rings masquerading as guiding services.

“Are they actually in operation?”

“Yes. There are more of them than you’d think.”

Kim Hwanhee added with a somber expression. I thought it over carefully before speaking.

“How does one get a job there?”

***

Red lighting, sticky wooden tables, and musty sofas with geometric patterns.

A man who introduced himself as Manager Choi, and who fit right in with the surroundings, looked me up and down.

“Hmm… You’re applying to be a guard?”

“No. A Guide.”

Manager Choi’s eyes darted around again. He looked skeptical.

“We only hire female Guides…”

“How can a person live on rice alone?”

“Since this is a place that sells rice, we should stick to selling rice. It would be a bit odd to suddenly start selling jajangmyeon.”

“You’re quite picky.”

Manager Choi sighed at the pointless banter.

“I’ll recommend a place that takes on people like you.”

My persistence in going through no fewer than eight interviews finally paid off. At other places, my interviews hadn’t even lasted five minutes. But Manager Choi here seemed to take pity on me.

“Give them a call.”

Manager Choi rummaged through his wallet and handed me a business card. I looked it over and bowed.

“I’ll do my best.”

He looked pensive as I bowed. But then he grabbed his head and waved his hand. It was a signal to get lost.

Midnight Butterfly Bar

000-0000-0000

I examined the business card as I walked out of “Lovers Under the Moon,” the back-alley establishment where Manager Choi was.

A navy-blue background with a black butterfly design, embellished with gold foil, a business card that was nothing short of tacky.

“Even the name is tacky.”

I knew nothing about naming or design. But I just couldn’t believe this business card and the shop’s name were paid for.

Who on earth comes up with these shop names? This damn outdated trend shows no signs of changing.

“These days, it’s the era of personal sponsors. If someone looks even half decent, they promote themselves on social media, finds a sponsor, and do guiding that way.”

I recalled Kim Hwanhee’s advice.

But a deserter wouldn’t be on social media, and even if they were, they’d be operating privately. Would that really solve food and housing? Given how urgent his situation must have been, he’d likely gone to an establishment that provided food, lodging, and even advanced him money.

“He might have saved up some money and left right away, but…”

It’s been a full four years.

Enough time to save up enough money to flee the country, no matter what he did.

Enough time to make a life for himself, whether abroad or at home.

“But not everyone is rational.”

People indulge in luxuries, gamble, and act as guarantors.

I don’t know everything about Go Philip. But I’m certain he isn’t a rational person. Because…

“Where do you think a guy who deserted and came straight home would have run off to?”

His mother had said he had come home for a home-cooked meal right after deserting.

Setting foot in his own home, the military police’s top search priority, was something no rational person would do.

“I suppose….”

The one place such an irrational, emotional guy would head to, leaving behind his mother, who was more than willing to hide him.

“A lover.”

Before going to Midnight Butterfly, I headed to a cafe to meet Go Philip’s lover.

Ding-dong–

I stepped inside a small independent cafe in the neighborhood. The doorbell rang with a cute little chime, but not even the staff paid it any mind. It was just the sound of everyday life.

But someone reacted as if it were a disaster alert, staring at the door like a guilty person.

“Are you Go Philip’s lover?”

Without hesitation, I approached the person and asked.

“Uh, how did you…?”

“I have a good instinct for these things.”

“I’ve already told the police everything. It’s over.”

“But you still came out here?”

I hated beating around the bush. The whole ordeal just to fix an arm was a hassle. Since the situation was troublesome, I wanted people to be straightforward.

“I’m not a cop. I’m a patient.”

I pulled out a chair and sat down. Now that I could use at least one hand, I felt a little more alive.

“I heard you were in the same department. An Esper?”

“Yes, I’m a road guard.”

The areas between nations, the open seas and neutral zones, are ideal environments for monsters to nest.

That was because if you went in to exterminate them, the slightest misstep could be considered a territorial violation, making it impossible to act freely.

That was why the road guards, the guardians of the trade routes, were born.

“You’ve got a rough job.”

“I was originally doing alternative service at a trading company’s office. But every time we sent goods, they’d all end up dead…”

Mercenaries who protected trade routes to ensure smooth commerce.

Though they bore a grand title, their origins were far from honorable.

“I ended up on a ship, and I survived.”

People who had to set sail knowing it was a death sentence.

The first road guards were formed by those sailors who luckily survived. Their struggle for survival was their root and origin.

“And your lover is a deserter?”

“Both Philip and I were ordinary people to begin with.”

One plunged into a brutal reality, while the other fled beyond the prison bars.

“At first, we were on opposite sides. I was a member of a civilian group opposing conscription, while Philip willingly enlisted, saying he wanted to defend the country.”

“A civilian group opposing conscription?”

So there was such a group.

The battlefield wasn’t limited to the military. Everyone was fighting on the outside too.

“I was eligible for conscription too. Once you’re registered, you’re dragged in no matter what. I thought that was unfair, so I refused until the very end. I was constantly in and out of court.”

A duty someone had to fulfill.

But a duty no one wanted to fulfill.

“Eventually, I ran out of money, people kept dropping out, and I gradually lost my strength…”

People need to eat and breathe to survive.

Not by being forced to accept responsibility in the name of honor.

“Is that why Go Philip came to you after deserting?”

His eyes, which had been shaking with worry, settled. It wasn’t that he had calmed down; it seemed more like resignation.

“No. He really didn’t come.”

I looked at him, trying to gauge the truth.

“I wish… I wish he had…”

The rough hand of the mercenary holding the mug trembled.

“He should’ve taken me with him…”

It was as if the emotions they had shared, worn down to nothing but longing, had been laid bare.

“Haha, I wonder if he ever loved me? When all he cared about was his mother?”

Even though he was clearly speaking to me, his face seemed to be projecting someone else onto me. At the same time, he didn’t expect an answer because he was too lighthearted.