Chapter 187
Permafrost (8)
I sat on the guest sofa in the commander’s office at the Maritime Air Base and saw the commander’s eyes staring at me.
His blue irises were so blue, but his emotions inside them were burning hot.
Considering his rank, he must have lived his entire life as a soldier, and seeing his anger at the meaningless death of his subordinate, he must have been popular.
‘A mighty soldier’
It was not difficult to figure out the character tendencies assigned to him.
To see him expressing his emotions without hesitation in order to fulfill his role—.
“Poor sleep… … .”
——Sentiment escaped from between his lips. I thought it was fortunate that I sent the party first.
Yes. he was pitiful
A puppet who moves to fulfill his duty without even recognizing that this world is at most someone’s imaginary world.
I sighed at the old soldier moving through the thread hanging from the creator’s hand.
I thought of convincing him for a moment, but I laughed at myself.
He lifted the coffee cup in front of him.
“… … what?”
The captain questioned my self-talk, but his question was not important to me now.
I just lifted my arm and emptied the coffee cup in my hand. A frivolous sound that did not fit the atmosphere of ‘Hororok’ spread throughout the room.
The captain’s eyebrows immediately narrowed.
“Geumtaeyang, what the hell do you want to do right now… … !”
And the moment his crumpled expression makes sense and pops out of his mouth.
-[The Greedy Usurper] defends your sentiments.
I don’t know why, but he seemed insignificant.
“Captain, do I have to explain?”
cut it off I refused to take his word for it.
He put the coffee cup down on the table.
The sound of ‘Tak’ resonated throughout the room as if drawing a line.
At the same time, his eyebrows were slightly furrowed.
My condition is strange right now. I am quite aware of that.
I’ve had this feeling before. I can’t even remember when it was.
My impressions are only my own.
“… … What, what? What did you just say?”
The captain asked me in an awkward manner. The soldier limped to the end, probably taken aback.
I gave him a cold gaze and opened my mouth. It was around that time that he removed the handle of the cup he was holding with his middle and ring fingers.
“Captain, your question is natural. My external status is that of a newbie who just entered the academy, a first year student.”
“Can you act like that now knowing that!?”
“But-”
“… … .”
A fierce snowball fight ensued. No, to be precise, his whites were red hot as if he was having a war of nerves with me, but this side just looked at ‘it’ with an inorganic gaze.
“—No matter how much you are the military commander and the head of a region, you cannot know everything. I’m asking you now. We need a means of transportation that is faster than a helicopter.”
“What is that… … ?”
“Please don’t let my request turn into an order.”
The voice that speaks is calm.
“I am looking at different things from the general manager. And there’s no way for you to know what I’m seeing. No matter how high your social status is, no matter how long you have lived in the world.”
“… … .”
“Because I’m just an ordinary person from Museon.”
Seeing the momentary blank expression on the leader’s face, I repeated the words I had said the first time I met him.
“Who do you think I am?”
Even as I spit out these words, my heart is steadfast.
Doesn’t budge.
It was so frozen.
* * *
In the car on the way to Anya’s house, I meditated. My head is complicated. There was not a single thing to think about.
My brown face was reflected in the dark window. In an instant, the white skin of Kim Tae-yang is overlaid on my face.
Taeyang Kim and Taeyang Geum.
Museon and Earth.
What was the sense of difference I felt in my conversation with the leader a moment ago?
As I pondered, there were a few results that came to my mind right now.
1. The sense of alienation that occurred while possessing the body of Taeyang appeared.
This one was a bit far.
‘What should have appeared from the beginning of the possession has only come now?’
Because I heard the question.
The car I was riding entered the city of Ussuriysk before I knew it. The sunset is over and the stream is white with snow.
Going deeper, I caught the snow of the city, and the roof was black, reflecting the color of the late evening sky while shining white.
back to the idea
I moved my head from the seat to the window and rested my chin on it.
2. My personality has changed because of what I have experienced in this world – Museion.
I, who was just an ordinary college student before, now commits murder casually. It’s not that I feel particularly guilty.
There have been enough things to throw away a person’s personality, and it’s definitely a reasonable hypothesis.
Maybe the piled up anger finally exploded?
“Or is it that my original personality, hidden under the shell of a modern man, came out… … .”
Isn’t it said that being a human originally comes out when faced with an extreme situation?
What was wrapping me in the end.
─It may not have been my original personality, but an idea instilled by modern education.─
It is said that a place there makes a person.
The title of The Seven Deadly Sins, which I ended up sitting on, was enough to affect my personality.
Either way will give you a headache, but the latter is more likely.
Suddenly, I lifted my head, which was resting my chin on the window sill.
If the… … .
really if
If it is true that my personality has changed, when the hell did it start?
They say it changed from the inside while I wasn’t even aware of it… … .
To have a headache.
My temples throbbed, and the blood in my neck stood up because I needed a lot of oxygen to keep up with my quick thoughts.
Even in the midst of that, one definite conclusion could be drawn.
-That I have changed-
One thing is certain.
-[The Greedy Usurper] agrees with you.
yeah look at this
I also agree with the characteristics.
While I was thinking, I arrived in front of Anya’s house before I knew it.
Let’s stop thinking about this.
In terms of results alone, one fighter was assigned with the tacit consent of the flight commander. Yeah, that’s it.
When I opened the door, a cold wind blew in from the opposite side of the warm air inside the car.
“Im here.”
“I’m rooting for you.”
I sighed and got out of the car at the agreement of the characteristics that are inseparable from me to the point where I felt like an alter ego now. ‘Tak’, the moment I try to enter the house, leaving behind the dull noise.
“… … What is this?”
A truck I had never seen before was stopped in front of the house.
-[The greedy usurper] says he saw it in Nikolai’s garage this morning.
Indeed, it’s a guy’s truck.
As soon as I recognized the owner of the white truck, I felt my facial muscles contract. Absolutely not because of the cold.
Recalling that thinned face made me dizzy inside, which had been at least slightly stable.
It’s a delivery truck that you can often see in the neighborhood, no, even in Seoul, but strangely, even the truck felt like it was in good shape.
… … Not even a truck.
With a crunching sound, the snow that had been stepped on by his feet, close to a chunk of ice, crumbled.
When the gate was pushed back, the frozen iron hinge let out an unpleasant scream with a ‘sigh’.
A window across the yard caught my eye.
the light is bright
A scarlet light close to yellow was visible through the window.
It is a warm color. Even if the cold chill of midwinter flooded my face, it felt like my heart would naturally warm up with this light.
Yes, it’s the same color as a campfire.
Thinking of that, the moment you step on the stairs.
“Nikolai, are you sane—? Hey, kids, look at what he’s talking about. Hey, you’re so pure, so pure!”
“No—I didn’t say anything wrong, did I? Everyone hates painting out of town, but I have to step in and do it. I had something to do anyway.”
I heard a woman’s voice, thin and thin, in my ear. A voice I have heard many times.
It was Anya’s.
“No, no matter how it is—”
“If you step forward like this, they will take care of it later when you have a hard time.”
If you listen closely, you could hear not only Nona, but Desiree and Elizabeth as well, and their laughter could be heard from time to time.
… … Let’s go in. cold.
The moment you want to step out again.
“By the way, Golden Sun? where did that friend go? You went out together.”
“Oh, the sun?”
My feet stopped when I heard him mention me.
I don’t know why.
My ears were directed toward the kitchen window.
I focused on the voice leaking through the slightly open window.
“I heard that you have something to say after dressing up, so go first? Ah~. Oh, this is delicious.”
“He’s having a hard time too, I hope he likes it tonight.”
“Ah, the sun is sweet. Uh~ very! Because you like it, you must like it unconditionally?”
“Then it’s fortunate, oh by the way—”
No words come out. It felt strange to hear my story come out in a place where I was not present. Feeling like voyeurizing something you shouldn’t be entering?
There is a strange sense of immorality.
The moment I try to get closer to listen to the children’s conversation that will follow in a little more detail.
“Oh, it’s cold. Where is the window open?”
“uh!? The window is open over there.”
Unfortunately, it had to be postponed to another opportunity.
If the cold air entered the house from outside, laughter and warmth leaked from inside.
The feeling of looking inside from the outside was quite strange.
-[A greedy usurper] suggests that you stop doing this perverted thing and move in.
I agree. I didn’t notice it, but before I knew it, the cold was entering my body through the military uniform I was wearing.
It was perfect to freeze to death if I stayed like this.
The moment I tried to move my feet like that.
It felt strange.
This strangeness did not originate with me.
From the moment Nikolai and the children stopped talking, he felt a sense of alienation.
It was something I would have overlooked normally, but I couldn’t adapt to it properly yet, but I was able to think about it because it was something I kept thinking about on the way from the car today.
Listening to his conversation, it was clear that he was a good person. No, the guy’s disposition, which came from his actions and words, was good.
It was perfect.
I knew how to live a social life, voluntarily running out if I wanted to be me, and to the extent that I took care of me when I wasn’t there.
At this point, rather than being a good person, he was more like a good person.
however.
why?
Why doesn’t Nikolai show his dislike for me?
A drop of cold sweat broke out on his back. The light in the kitchen that looked like a bonfire started to look like a red-hot fire.
——The shadows of the children swaying beyond it didn’t seem to notice the approaching disaster.
He swallowed dry saliva and put his hand on the doorknob.
It seemed like one more reason to do what I was doing right now.
I went inside the house, threw off my half-wet coat, and headed for the kitchen.
“Taeyang, are you here?”
“Welcome. the sun.”
“Come quickly, because only you were waiting.”
In the kitchen where I arrived first, the kids greeted me with a smile.
and.
“Oh, are you here?”
Nikolai was laughing behind the children. It was definitely a standard smile with the corners of her lips slightly raised.
I felt it.
I knew when the doubts started.
That his eyes are filled with something other than goodwill.
… … This house did not come out of favor as Anya thought.