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“Gaia puts secrets into various boxes, and only allows access to the relevant box to those who absolutely need to know.”
That’s why, according to Choi Jae-seong, unless you’re the one who planned everything, you wouldn’t even know who holds what information. It was common for people not to know which part of the cogwheel their work belonged to.
“Chairman Cheon Seong-beom didn’t have access to Gaia, but he would have known his grandson was going to be a test subject for the Galatea project. Professor Yoon would have explained it.”
Choi Jae-seong said that, expecting Cheon Geon-young to show emotional turmoil. But all he got was Cheon Geon-young’s cold stare.
“Did the project ultimately fail?”
“Regrettably, it’s natural for a team to disband. The Galatea project didn’t show significant results. If failures repeat, no one finds potential there.”
Oh Gi-cheol, who was examining official documents related to Yoon Jeong-hoon, let the papers fall loudly onto the desk.
“Is that why Yoon Jeong-hoon’s bank account has no balance? For a man who made quite a bit of money from books and investments, he didn’t have much wealth. His overseas accounts were also empty.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I heard he tried to continue the project until the very end. They say he tried to keep it going even with his private funds. But no matter how many books you sell, it’s difficult to extend a project with personal funds unless you’re a chaebol.”
Cheon Geon-young asked.
“How were the failed test subjects handled?”
“Well, you’re alive and well right here.”
Oh Gi-cheol slammed the table with his palm, telling him not to joke around. Choi Jae-seong laughed like a madman. Then he tilted his head and stared at Cheon Geon-young. At some point, he had started acting as if he found great interest in simply conversing with the test subject he had been observing.
“Mr. Cheon Geon-young, you should thank your grandfather. You probably returned safely because you were Chairman Cheon’s grandson.”
“...”
“To become a Galatea, you had to awaken and re-awaken at a young age. Statistically, those under ten were overwhelmingly successful. Only those children safely passed through adolescence. Even then, they died young, which is why the project failed.”
“I wasn’t either of those until I was twenty.”
“That’s why it was a great disappointment. Children of dimension travelers are so rare that some researchers suggested waiting longer. I remember Professor Yoon Jeong-hoon being one of them... This isn’t accurate as I wasn’t in the lab at the time.”
“Do you know who killed the children who failed to awaken and their parents?”
Choi Jae-seong’s cloudy glasses, as if covered in dust, slid down his nose.
“I’m sorry about your parents.”
Oh Gi-cheol gritted his teeth at the voice, which held no hint of apology.
“This bastard, he knows it wasn’t an accident?”
“I merely inferred that Gaia would have ordered the cleanup. Who wouldn’t know that, unless they’re an animal of extremely low intelligence?”
Someone, at Oh Gi-cheol’s request, seemed to have lowered the temperature in the interrogation room. The surrounding air was cold. In contrast, Cheon Geon-young’s mind was burning hot.
A sharp murderous intent spurred him on.
A familiar voice began to whisper in his ear. It sounded similar to the voice of the woman who killed his parents. Words full of malice, which she had never actually uttered, swirled around him.
It must have been men like this who killed his parents. People who championed a grand cause but never, for a single moment, protected anyone with their own hands.
Did this man know what it felt like to lose someone you love? No, he wouldn’t. He loved nothing but himself. He was just covered in a plausible wrapping, but his essence was ugly. Those who cherished their own desires above all else. Monsters beyond the wall who wouldn’t care about killing others for those desires.
They killed your father, killed your mother, and tried to drown you. Then, realizing you were a test subject they needed to observe, they barely saved you.
Can you guarantee that watching your parents die in front of you wasn’t part of the experiment? They wanted to make you awaken, like a rat controlled by electric shocks.
The last light in Cheon Geon-young’s eyes faded. The vitality drained from his body, and black masses filled the void.
He needed to hear more, he was an important witness for future events, so he had to be kept alive...
All of that felt irrelevant. His consciousness plummeted. Hatred smoothly connected the breaking chains of his thoughts. Just then, Oh Gi-cheol dragged his chair and stood up. He took off his vest and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm.
“Let’s take a break. Otherwise, I feel like I’ll lay a hand on the witness.”
He gripped his vest in one hand and lightly tapped Cheon Geon-young’s shoulder, who had not yet risen. However, Cheon Geon-young didn’t react, like a person whose senses had died. Oh Gi-cheol, who still hadn’t noticed anything strange, urged him again.
“I said, let’s take a break?”
Cheon Geon-young simply wanted to kill the man.
“Let’s go out.”
He was confident he could kill him without a trace.
He just had to melt his insides.
“Geon-young?”
Oh Gi-cheol realized he was not himself. And Oh Gi-cheol wasn’t the only one who realized it. Choi Jae-seong, who had been blankly staring at the special glass of the interrogation room, which looked like a mirror, turned his head. He pushed up his sliding glasses and narrowed his eyes.
Choi Jae-seong’s mouth twitched, an expression that suggested he wanted to say more. But the moment his eyes met Cheon Geon-young’s abyss-like black gaze, his cunning face contorted with fear. Choi Jae-seong, who had collected countless pieces of data, easily read the signs.
“Get him out!”
“Why are you screaming and making a fuss?”
“Can’t you see his eyes? Get him out of this room now!”
Choi Jae-seong, who had stood up, stumbled back and pressed against the wall. Then he yelled at Oh Gi-cheol. “Get him out. If you don’t all want to die, lock him up first.” Oh Gi-cheol, not understanding, shook Cheon Geon-young’s shoulder.
“Let’s go out on deck and get some fresh air.”
Even Oh Gi-cheol’s voice, right next to him, was faint to Cheon Geon-young in his current state. Then, Oh Gi-cheol touched his arm. Cheon Geon-young’s dry gaze finally shifted to his own hand.
He saw a watch and a hair tie.
A seemingly ordinary black military watch and a hair tie. They came to him, trapped in a deep inner world, and knocked.
Into the completely black space, filled only with the sound of lapping water, a faint scent of rain seeped in. The scent of rain soon changed to a fruit scent so sweet it made his tongue tingle, then again to a woman’s soft fragrance.
Different scenes flooded his mind.
A voice asking for permission and lips touching the back of his hand, a delicate back regulating its breathing over his body, and two arms spread wide as if savoring the sunlight pouring over a field. Her head resting on his shoulder, unable to fight sleep, a paper airplane landing on his knee, a loosely tied tie, and the rounded, puffed-up curtains of the library.
And the wind that disturbed him, and her playful laugh.
Yoon Tae-ha.
She stood at the end of the wind.
We have a lot to talk about. Her eyes met his, and she smiled beautifully, like moonlight piercing through the darkness. Cheon Geon-young was captivated by that vivid smile.
The voice had receded into the depths of his subconscious. The sound of water subsided. Slowly but surely, he felt his consciousness return to the interrogation room.
Choi Jae-seong, trembling with fear, was hiding behind the chair. He looked at the young man’s eyes, which had regained their focus, with disbelief.
“You startled me, not answering...”
“I apologize. I was thinking of something else.”
Oh Gi-cheol sighed in relief and opened the door, letting Cheon Geon-young exit first. The door closed, leaving Choi Jae-seong behind.
________________________________________
Yoon Tae-ha’s airship landed near Cocytus. Charlton had already sent the crew members who needed rest down to the city. Only Yoon Tae-ha, Mago, Charlton, Park Jeong-won, and two A-rank espers remained in the operations room.
The five agreed that the airborne battleship that took Rebreb didn’t seem to intend to land.
Airborne battleships use their own power sources that can withstand long flights. They are supplied with necessary materials by transport planes and usually do not deviate from their set trajectory unless in an emergency or given special instructions.
Even for Yoon Tae-ha, it was impossible to bring the battleship down to the ground. Ultimately, infiltrating it themselves was the only way.
“Of course, communication comes first.”
Charlton interjected among the people engrossed in a heated discussion about the best infiltration method.
“What excuse should we make? That friend is an outsider living diligently in Cocytus and a member of the Black Lion, so she has nothing to do with you and should be returned now?”
One esper retorted aggressively.
“Or should I say that my pet got lost and entered Orca’s research lab? ‘Oh, our master was here! I’ll take her. Goodbye for now,’ like that?”
“It sounds like you’re actively picking a fight.”
“It means the logic is weak. For persuasion to work, first, the other party must accept that Ms. Yoon Tae-ha concealed her identity.”
Charlton listened to the squad member’s words but still paid attention to Yoon Tae-ha, like someone concerned about her feelings.
“Someone with a guaranteed identity, important enough for the government to put them on an airborne battleship, would hardly welcome hearing that their partner belongs to an illegal guild. We’d be lucky if they don’t think we’re the same as Orca.”
Another esper sitting next to him, who was Browse the list of weapons on board the airborne battleship, hinted,
“We’d be lucky if they don’t point a gun at our heads.”
“Exactly my point.”
“Still, Ms. Tae-ha is strong against bullets.”
“That’s, at least, fortunate.”
Yoon Tae-ha leaned against the corner, listening to the skeptical conversation between the espers.
A dead end.
She was being punished here for her weakened heart. She shouldn’t have closed her eyes. She shouldn’t have been optimistic. She shouldn’t have believed.
The price of abandoning her principles was too high. If it was a punishment for herself, she would gladly accept it, but someone else shouldn’t have to bear it. She knew Rebreb liked these people more than anyone else. And that she hated a life of surveillance.
“In the worst-case scenario, they might even imprison Ms. Yoon Tae-ha.”
Park Jeong-won calmly added his thoughts. The esper who had gained his support actively provided the second reason.
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