< Couples' Spats Are Like Beheading with a Sword (5) >
Under Yumsus's guidance, Min-jun fell into a nightmare.
He saw distant memories from the past, ones he wished to forget.
"Is that woman the new recruit? The one just assigned?"
"Yeah. This is her first place of exile."
"Seriously? She's a complete rookie?"
Min-jun turned his gaze toward his colleagues' conversation.
They were sitting in the bar, the only entertainment facility on the space battleship. In the mobile prison where only convicts could board, this was the one place where people could experience a sense of openness, so those with free time often spent it here. It seemed the new recruit had quickly picked up on that.
The convict who caught their attention was a woman with a short bob haircut. Petite in stature. It should have been the end of her shift, yet she was still in her battle suit.
"How much is she worth?"
"I don't know."
One of the things they were most curious about when a new convict appeared was the amount of their severance pay.
What is the price of freedom the new recruit must pay?
The amount of dallant she has to gather can gauge how severe her crimes were. According to committee guidelines, minor crimes like killing a few people start from one hundred dallant, while war criminals range between five hundred thousand and one million dallant.
Though exact predictions are difficult due to weighting based on the case, it's a given that the larger the amount, the more heinous the crime.
"Hey, Cain."
Min-jun didn't realize the call was for him. But, regardless of his will, his mouth opened and words came out.
"What?"
His curt reply. The observer Min-jun then recalled. Yes, that was the name he used in the previous dimension. Cain. It had been so long.
"I noticed you were close with the new recruit the other day. Are you two serious?"
Min-jun shook his head.
It was just one time together. But he had no intention of discussing that fact here.
He first met her, who used the alias "Del," about a week ago. It was a new face, so he had tried to strike up a conversation out of a sense of welcome, with no particular intention. That day, Del had displayed both the traits of a newly arrived convict and those of someone recently embodied. She looked quite confused and her movements were awkward.
It took her more than ten seconds to respond when Min-jun first spoke to her. Del turned her head towards the sound and just stared at him with her mouth slightly open. An awkward silence followed.
He understood that she didn't want to talk and tried to get up again. But as he turned, she grabbed his sleeve.
"...?"
And she apologized.
"I'm sorry."
She didn't offer much of an explanation, but Min-jun guessed that the silence was due to the aforementioned reasons. He sat back down and had a light conversation with her.
Though her expression was stiff and she appeared psychologically repressed, once the conversation began, she was relatively easy to talk to. As the drinks flowed, the evening ended in her cabin.
"So it's not serious?"
The colleague who asked that gestured as he spoke.
"Then...?"
Min-jun turned his gaze from Del. His silence seemed to be interpreted by his colleague as meaning there was nothing between them. Min-jun felt no need to correct the misunderstanding.
He remembered that he had stopped forming deep relationships around the time he had completed about 200 years of incarceration.
Forming attachments with convicts never ended well. Even if the other person was also a convict, it ultimately resulted in the relationship being torn apart and severed by the committee's orders. No one had ever kept their promise of staying together forever. Min-jun himself lacked the ability to do so.
Though Del had just become a convict, she seemed to have learned the harsh truth of convict life quickly. Since that day, when they first encountered each other here, they hadn't exchanged a single glance. They hadn't contacted each other in between.
'She learned the truth of convict life pretty quickly. A smart woman.'
Min-jun had no intention of binding her, and she seemed to feel the same way. Like many convicts, she probably intended to maintain an open relationship. Thus, Min-jun left his colleague to approach Del. He had no intention of interfering.
But in the next moment, he had no choice but to turn his attention back.
"What? What the hell did that crazy woman just say? Say it again!"
The approaching colleague was shouting loudly, attracting the attention of everyone in the bar. Del recited her words with an expressionless face, in a completely detached tone.
The sight made Min-jun's expression go pale.
'What's with her... Has she lost it already, not even having been here long enough?'
Del was delivering a sentence saying "Don't speak out of turn, you insignificant mammal," with a dispassionate tone. An outright insult. The absurd part was that despite delivering such an insult, Del herself was originally a different species but was now in a human body. Min-jun murmured, 'She seemed fine that day?'
The colleague demanded an apology, but Del stiffly refused. She claimed she did not speak such words carelessly and felt no need to do so now.
"That woman is really something!"
She could have just refused politely, but this was too much. As other convicts were trying to intervene...
Bang!
Muscles bulged and clothes ripped as the colleague's body transformed instantly from a normal human form into a blue-skinned monster.
He was both a Breed-shifter and a Weapon Master. Through his first ability, he could transform into a powerful creature that overpowers trolls, and when he activated his second ability, his already superior physical abilities were amplified dozens of times.
"Hey, calm down!"
Someone finally stood up, but it was too late.
Whoooosh!
A sound tearing through the air. A fist like a boulder split the air. It was intended to subdue, not to commit a crime. The moment the punch landed, the small woman's body seemed about to be hurled away like a leaf in the wind.
But everyone's expectations were off.
Thud!
"?!"
"K-Kugh!"
Min-jun raised his eyebrows.
The room fell silent and the air froze. Everyone stared in shock at her, their mouths agape.
Del had simply lifted one hand. The blue monster's fist had stopped just an inch from her open palm.
The arm frozen in the air trembled, veins bulging grotesquely. Even a faint aura shimmered on her skin. A sight typically seen only when she was exerting full power.
But the fist did not advance any further.
"Telekinesis?"
She had created an intangible wall in her palm.
Yet, telekinesis holding off the power of a Weapon Master!
Having perhaps suffered a blow to his pride, the Breed-shifter's face twisted in anger.
At that moment, the aura flowing through his massive body intensified. Min-jun sprang to his feet.
'She's gone berserk!'
What had been a common power struggle among convicts now became a different story.
If they fought with that level of power, one of them would end up charged with assault. Min-jun chanted a curse and aimed for his brain's blood vessels. Since his mind was focused on Del, he wouldn't be able to resist.
But he did not achieve his intended outcome.
Crack!
"?!"
A clear and crisp sound.
The shattered monster's teeth scattered in the air. His head was twisted at a dramatic angle. And Del's fist was raised high above his head.
The eyes of Del, who was retrieving the hand that had delivered the uppercut, burned with fire. It was the expression of someone who had precisely understood what the colleague had just attempted.
"From now on, this is self-defense."
Once again.
Thud!
Del's fist landed before the opponent's head could even turn. Another punch, firmly landing on the jaw.
Min-jun realized that this was how she amplified the energy of her movements with telekinesis.
'It's been a while since I saw control like that.'
She maximized the destructive power exerted on the opponent while minimizing the shock transmitted to her own body. Simply put, it was like using telekinesis to create a boxing glove, but with exceptional functionality.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Now the Breed-shifter had completely lost his reason. With waves of aura surging over his entire body, the other convicts looked to Min-jun. Since the situation had surpassed their level of intervention, they wanted him to step in. But Min-jun shook his head, faintly smiling.
"...I think she'll be fine."
"?!"
The monster launched a fierce attack. Del feigned a dodge to the left, then swiftly leaped to re-engage. Her movements were astonishingly fast and light. Without hesitation, she stomped on the Breed-shifter's thick thigh with her right foot.
"!"
The monster roared in pain. Using the thick thigh as a stepping stone, Del soared into the air.
With her body propelled up to shoulder height, she spread her legs and clamped around the opponent's neck like scissors. Then, using the recoil from her telekinesis, she shifted her weight downward!
The monster's head collided with the ground.
Thud!
Even after achieving the feat of slamming
At Min-jun's question, Del, who had been lying beside him, sat up. She tossed aside the covers, got out of bed, and stood in front of the mirror. Initially, she had been horrified and disliked looking at her own reflection, but it seemed she had gotten used to it now.
Del, who had been gazing at herself vacantly for a while, spoke without turning around but rather maintaining eye contact through the mirror.
"…It was nothing."
"Is almost shooting down an evacuation shuttle really nothing, considering you were sent to deal with space bugs?"
Recently, Del had been deployed for a mission to exterminate a swarm of wasps. Telesia, who had detected the large-scale arrival of these wasps from another galaxy in advance, had evacuated the residents of the colony in their path. Since the committee effectively governed this dimension temporarily, and its agents were the prisoners, no one disobeyed her orders.
However, the mission faced issues due to timing. The wasps had approached before the evacuation was complete. Telesia had ordered the shooting, and Del, among the pilots, had downed the most wasps.
Few would believe such a story, but Del never used the radar when piloting a fighter. Instead, she relied solely on her visual confirmation and 'senses' to fire her ammunition, hitting every target with unerring accuracy. It was so remarkable that one might wonder about her original species.
The problem, however, was that her senses sometimes made critical errors. Not errors of missing the target but of hitting targets she shouldn't.
"I had a feeling from the evacuation shuttle."
"A feeling?"
"…The same feeling I get when I'm dealing with bugs."
"You're kidding."
She said that the instinctual feeling, which was no different from when shooting at space bugs, had told her that the evacuation shuttle was also a 'target.'
Moreover, the shuttle she almost shot down was so far away that it wasn't even picked up by the radar. It was astonishing how she managed to hit it. Of course, one could explain it as a lucky shot by a blind projectile, but Min-jun knew that wasn't the case.
After a deep sigh, Min-jun added,
"And then you came back and beat up another guy?"
Even though neither of them openly acknowledged their 'intimate relationship,' rumors about it were spreading among the inmates. The problem was with the prisoners who returned from missions. The ones who had been away for a while showed interest in new arrivals, and like the culture among prisoners, they wanted to form new 'intimate relationships.'
Every time, Del had shown a similar reaction.
"Do you always have to pick a fight? You could just refuse politely."
"But..."
Del muttered with a downcast expression.
"It's really disgusting."
"?!"
"All the prisoners here have taken human forms. So, I can't stand it. Just looking at them is revolting, and when they come near and try to make advances..."
Min-jun, taken aback, said,
"Well, your body is human, too."
"Yes, and that's why I hated looking in the mirror at first."
"…"
Del stared intensely at the mirror and muttered.
"I must have committed a tremendously grave sin before losing my memory. It must have been an unforgivable sin. That's why I'm trapped in this body. This body that I despise and find unbearably disgusting."
As Min-jun listened to her, he mulled over the question he had often wondered about. What could her original species have been? If she finds mammals disgusting… could it be an insect or aquatic species?
Such thoughts were abruptly interrupted by her sudden confession.
"530,000."
"…"
Min-jun, realizing the significance of the number, cast a heavy gaze.
"Surprised? It's 530,000 dalants. That's the amount I need to pay to be free."
She then burst into a hollow laugh.
"It's practically a life sentence, isn't it? Absurd, right? I'm scared. Not of how I'll gather that money and pay it off, but of imagining what horrendous crime I must have committed for such an amount to be set. And just thinking about how many people must have suffered and been sacrificed because of my crime makes my body shiver."
It was the first time he had mentioned it.
Min-jun fell into a moment of silence after the sudden confession.
Instead of responding to the confession with another confession, he changed the subject of the conversation.
The amount too difficult to speak of was buried deep inside his chest.
"By the way, what about me?"
"Huh?"
"I'm human too. So why didn't you react like that when we first met?"
Del widened her eyes in disbelief, as if to say, "What nonsense are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about? You are completely different."
"Different? In what way?"
"…Now that you ask, I can't really explain."
After a moment's hesitation, Del said,
"I knew as soon as I saw you. You can't compare with the other prisoners. Even though you wear a human shell, the fundamental part inside is completely different."
Saying that, she burrowed back into the bed. Then she brought her face close to Min-jun's head and whispered. Min-jun felt the warmth of her breath on his nose. Her breath tickled his cheek.
"You had a light about you."
Hmm.
Feeling his face flush?
Even though it was a conversation by the bedside, the expression seemed overly sentimental and corny. "A light about you."
However, perhaps due to a long-suppressed sentimentality, Del did not stop speaking.
"So I'm certain. Someone like you couldn't have committed a crime. You're different from the other prisoners. Even different from me. You are innocent and pure. There must have been some misunderstanding."
Del's expression, shaded by the lighting, was creating strange nuances. Her eyes seemed entranced, almost reverent.
"That's why I might be even more drawn to you. You're the only one here who is free from the chains of atonement. Someone who should be free, but for some reason, is among us sinners."
Min-jun was unsure how to respond.
He decided to dismiss it as just her being unusually emotional.
But.
"…"
Although he didn't want to give it too much significance, it was undeniable that her words had left a heavy mark on his heart.
Whether it was due to rampaging hormones, over-invested emotions, or attachment born from anxiety… meeting someone who so blindly affirmed him was a first.
More precisely, it was the first time he had met someone who said such things even knowing he was a prisoner.
"…Thank you."
But he couldn't bring himself to say it. The amount stuck in his throat.
So instead of continuing the conversation, he chose to focus on something simpler. He pointed to the clock and said,
"We have about 20 minutes until we need to switch to landing mode… how about it?"
Del did not refuse.
After that, Min-jun did not openly declare or seriously show their relationship. Del was the same.
But there was a change.
For one, Del's way of rejecting the advances from men (and a few women) had become much more moderate. Whether it was accepting Min-jun's advice or not, she no longer engaged in the risky blood feuds that nearly led to violence and did not openly insult the suitors. Naturally, Del's reputation among the prisoners improved a bit. "Looks like she finally became human."
Another change, which became apparent a little later than the previously mentioned one, was that although she had rejected them kindly, many of the prisoners who had previously made advances were now suffering from various diseases. Most were not life-threatening, but they were severe enough to cause significant psychological trauma. Even with the use of recovery capsules, the afflictions would return immediately after leaving the capsules. It took over a week from the initial symptoms for the ailments to be fully cured.
It would have been strange not to know what was happening by this point.
Eventually, Telesia, who understood the situation, became frantic.
"Hey, Cain! Del! Just make it public already! Announce it officially to the other colleagues! Say that you're dating! Why can't you say it?!"
And so, she ended up publicly announcing their relationship to the prisoners. It was only under such circumstances that Min-jun realized what he had been afraid of and hesitated about.
The fear of making it irrevocable the moment it was spoken aloud.
He was anxious about starting a relationship that might collapse at the whim of the committee.
But…
'Maybe this time it will work out.'
In that baseless confidence, Min-jun moved all his belongings into Del's quarters. With Telesia's permission, he even expanded the room to double its size.
He thought that this time might be different. He had a premonition that with Del, they could be together for a very long time.
And this time, he also had a feeling that this premonition might actually come true.
< The Couple's Quarrel is a Beheading (5) > End