Guest Ch 13

West Fort Owner, Blue Hawk (4)

There was only one thing people wanted. To live ‘like a human.’ Even if they couldn’t live in luxury, they at least didn’t want to wake up to find their family and friends dead. They didn’t want to experience having their arms cut off and chewed like beef jerky by those same loved ones. Who wouldn’t cling to the hope that the Prophet could improve such a terrible life?

It was said that the rise and fall of a fortress could reveal how far a Prophet could see into the future. The fortresses that possessed a Prophet became richer by the day, increasing their chances of survival through various challenges and attempts. Meanwhile, those without a Prophet vanished into holes while building homes on crumbling land. Their limited resources were plundered, and they died coughing up blood after contracting diseases from the fallout.

Occasionally, wild dogs, not Garrison or Stand-ins, would take a Prophet. When that happened, the wild dogs roamed freely as if the entire region belonged to them. With the Prophet’s help, they would also learn of hunting grounds teeming with prey, and come to own orchards with well-ripened fruit.

The hope that the Prophet could enrich life became an undeniable truth for everyone. The belief that owning a Prophet meant a better life turned into an accepted reality.

“So…”

I had only asked about the wild dogs out of curiosity, but before I knew it, I realized just how deeply the Prophet had penetrated their lives. After hearing this, it became impossible to ignore.

“Do you mean I can do something like that?”

That I, an ordinary college student, could be of any help to the people here? How? How is that even possible?

Confused, I looked at the man, but he only stared at me with an indifferent gaze. My bewilderment seemed to be something he had expected, and he had a leisurely attitude.

“Our previous Prophet is being held captive in the Northern Fort.”

Pointing beyond the broken bridge, the man recited the last words left behind by the previous Prophet.

“A new Prophet is coming. He seems like someone connected to all beginnings and ends. He can see futures that have never been seen before. No, he can even see the past that many Prophets have missed.”

Me, what can I see?

Looking at my still-bewildered expression, the man opened his mouth again.

“The wild dogs were the first to respond to that prophecy.”

Ah, so that’s why the wild dogs and wolves they tamed were chasing me from Seoul Station.

“They call him ‘Wolf Fang,’ the alpha of the wild dogs in this area. Wolf Fang came to negotiate a deal to share you, but I refused.”

“Why?”

“The terms weren’t favorable.”

Unbelievable. They even negotiated over me.

I can somewhat grasp the power struggle. There are wild dogs outside the fortress, and they’re after me. In this situation, wandering around looking for my family or friends is impossible. But staying cooped up here in the fortress forever isn’t an option either…

If I fail to fulfill my role as a Prophet, will they kill me? Or will they keep me locked up here until my ability manifests?

I looked at the man seriously. He met my gaze and leaned one shoulder against the window. I shot him a pleading look, but he didn’t show me any favor. He simply kept his eyes on me in silence.

“So, what are you curious about? Ask. I’ll answer anything for now.”

The power dynamics in this world are already a headache, but the man in front of me is the biggest obstacle. I hesitated to speak, still thinking about the argument from this morning.

Did he catch on to my hesitation? The man looked at me without blinking.

“Why aren’t you smiling this time?”

He really is a bastard with a bad temper.

His deliberate way of asking reminded me of the sergeant I met right after I enlisted. The kind of person who nitpicks over trivial things, starts arguments, and orders people around. The jerk who said he’d be discharged in a month and even made me clean his rifle.

Whether it’s that guy or this guy, they both treat me like their personal slave.

“I thought you didn’t like it when I smiled.”

I answered without avoiding his gaze. The man watching me tilted his head slightly and tapped his hand lightly on the steering wheel, deep in thought. Still, his gaze stayed glued to my face.

“I think there’s some kind of misunderstanding.”

He continued speaking in his usual slow, drawn-out manner.

“I don’t dislike you. I dislike Prophets.”

“So, are you being deliberately harsh to me because you hate Prophets?”

“Yeah.”

That’s just too much.

And why are you so honest about this?

“How could anyone like it when a stranger decides the fate of the world you live in, right?”

“… Why would you even entrust your world to a stranger?”

It wasn’t a question I asked to pick a fight. I was genuinely curious.

“You don’t like the existence of Prophets, and you don’t believe them either. Can’t you just ignore them?”

“Seems like you’re not scared anymore, saying things like that without hesitation.”

“I’m scared. I don’t know when you might throw me around.”

“No, not me. This world.”

“Of course I’m scared. By the way, what’s that dust falling from the sky? Is it sand? Is there a desert above the clouds or something? Did the ground flip over and get stuck in the sky?”

“That’s what’s strange. Why are you different from the other Prophets?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re too carefree. You act like it’s no big deal.”

“Did you want me to cry and beg?”

“That’s the pattern previous Prophets followed.”

“I won’t do that. Getting all serious won’t help anyway.”

The man didn’t agree with my words.

“You have to be serious if you want to fix this situation.”

“That may work for others, but it doesn’t suit me. I’ve tried before, but it was useless.”

He narrowed his eyes. He was starting to question my personality, which was to laugh away serious situations.

“What situation was it where being serious didn’t help?”

A year of being locked in a room and becoming a shut-in. Those intense, serious moments that pushed me to the edge.

I quickly spoke up before those painful old memories resurfaced.

“Can I get out of the car?”

I smiled as I gripped the door handle that could only be opened if unlocked from the driver’s seat.

“I just want to go outside and take a look around.”

Look at his expression. He sarcastically asked why I wasn’t smiling, but now that I’m smiling properly, is that not good either? I smiled a bit more naturally, no, shamelessly. I even tilted my head slightly to the side as I smiled, the same smile that used to make my female classmates blush at school. The captain’s brow furrowed deeply.

I understand, no one likes seeing a man smile cutely. But who started this fight first? It makes me want to do more of what you hate.

Click.

I hear the sound of the unlock button being pressed silently, and thanks to that, I can open the heavy door and step out of the car.

“Haaa.”

As I take a deep breath, I feel dust and sand catching in my throat. Even on days with severe fine dust, it didn’t make my throat feel this scratchy. Looking at the fallout powder falling from the clouds, I was about to walk toward the dense trees by the river when the man called out to me.

“If you have any sense, you won’t go near that dense brush. I trust you understand what’s dangerous without me having to explain everything.”

So, this is how he sarcastically say, Don’t go into the brush because it’s dangerous. I swallowed a sigh and stopped walking, then turned back to ask him.

“How dangerous is it?”

“It’s pretty dangerous, statistically speaking.”

“Statistically?”

“You could get bitten by a hidden wild dog or a snake. They’re not always hiding, so if you’re lucky, you won’t get bitten.”

At his words, I stared at the brush ahead without daring to get closer. The leaves were so vividly green, they looked toxic. From a distance, they seemed fresh, but now, after hearing his words, they felt sinister, as if a creepy face were hidden among them.

‘Just take one more step.’

I heard a familiar voice from somewhere. I turned my head to look around. Aside from the man watching me, no one else was nearby to whisper in such a soft tone. It seemed like the voice was inside my head, not coming through my ears, as if it was tickling my brain with a feather.

‘Just one more step.’

Is someone in the brush? If I step into that squishy green, will I meet the owner of this voice? Or is it just a hallucination? Maybe. Ever since Seoul Station, I’ve been plagued by strange thoughts that threatened my very being. The voice that once urged me toward suicide now calls me closer.

‘A little more, come on.’

Suddenly, everything around me feels like part of some giant beast. The sinkhole is a breathing hole, the river a spine, darkness a mouth, plants its fur, and this sound, its voice.

“Come here.”

This time, the voice came through my eardrums, not just inside my head. I turned my head toward the voice.

The man was calling me, his jet-black eyes gleaming under the bangs fluttering in the river breeze. He commanded me, as if it were second nature.

“Hurry.”

I turned my body after looking at the lush green leaves swaying in the strong wind for a while.

The man led me to the dock. The dock’s planks were old, groaning loudly with every step.

Creak, creak.

It took a lot of courage just to take each step. As I carefully approached the edge of the dock, I could see the rusty cruise ship in more detail. It had tipped over onto its side, half-submerged in the river.

“This is why water is precious.”

The Han River water, which was gushing out of the overturned cruise ship, was pitch black and rotten. It looked like sewage that couldn’t even be used as drinking water or to keep a single fish alive.

The man naturally wrapped his arm around my waist. The feel of his arm made me tear my gaze away from the river and look up at him. It was a protective gesture, meant to keep me from slipping into the river, but the closeness of our bodies was unsettling.

The way he searched for the hidden object by taking off my clothes in the morning was the same. He was too casual, even without formality. He approaches the body of another man too easily. Is this also something that people don’t care about when living in a desolate world?

“There’s no water to wash with. Doing laundry is a waste of water. It’s better to just change into any new clothes you find at the store.”

I don’t have time to appreciate the voice ringing right next to my ear. His explanation only made my head spin more, and I ended up asking one question.

“Is it just the Han River?”

“No.”

“Are all the rivers like this?”

“All the water, even the sea, has rotted. It’s been about five years since anyone’s had fish.”

…Why? Why has the ground collapsed, thick clouds block out the sun, fallout rains down like dust, and all the water has turned undrinkable? Why has it come to this?

The man stared at me for a long time as I wrestled with my confusion. Anyone seeing us standing on the dock like this, arms around each other’s waists, might imagine it to be a romantic scene. But the word ‘romantic’ was the furthest thing from what existed between us.

There was no warmth or affection in the way he looked at me. Instead, for the first time, he showed a hint of sympathy, something he had never expressed before.

“There’s going to be a fierce battle over you.”

He said it like it was something that had nothing to do with him, something only the ‘Prophet’ would experience.

“You’ll go through a lot of hardship. I wonder if you’ll still be able to keep your carefree attitude then.”

The sneer on his pale face made me feel like I was freezing to my bones. He tightened the arm around my waist, pulling me even closer. The words whispered in my ear sounded more sinister than the foul stench of the river flowing in front of us.

“Keep smiling. I’ll count the days to see how long your pretty smile will last.”

With such provocation, I decided to respond in kind.

Prophet. I don’t know what it is, but if it’s a role I’ve been given, then I’ll do it. I will become the perfect Prophet and see this man kneel before me and apologize.

“What do you want me to do?”

I spoke through gritted teeth.

“You’re certain I’m the Prophet, right? Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll be that damn Prophet, so tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

The man narrowed his eyes. The most striking feature of his appearance was his eyes, quietly moving behind his slightly disheveled hair. I focused my gaze on those mysterious eyes.

“There’s a lot you’ll need to learn.”

“Yes, I’ll learn.”

“You’ll also need to do a few things with me personally.”

“Yes, I will.”

“It’ll be something you won’t like.”

“After coming this far, what more could I possibly hate?”

“I’m tired of arguing with you. I don’t want to go through what happened this morning again. I’m not going to put up with you getting upset over trivial matters.”

“Understood. I just need to keep my temper in check, right? Wait, not that I was losing my temper earlier… No, never mind. Yes. I’ll just shut up and do what you say.”

“Hmm.”

“Just tell me. I’ll really do it.”

“Promise me you won’t get all sensitive.”

Hey, if you’re going to talk, speak clearly. It’s not that I’m sensitive; you’re the one who’s sensitive. To put it nicely, you’re delicate, but to put it bluntly, you’re a pain. Even when things don’t go your way and you act stubborn, you piss people off. Like this morning—suddenly telling me to take off my underwear and stick a cotton swab up my an*s, and in front of you, no less. Who would want to do that?

Out of defiance, I answered sharply.

“Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut and do whatever you tell me to do.”

“And if you don’t follow my orders in the future?”

“That will never happen. I swear.”

Only when I said something serious like ‘I swear” did he look a little satisfied.

He really does have a way of making things complicated.

Even though I was cursing him in my head, I was honestly a bit nervous about how far he was pushing this. What on earth was he planning to make me do?

As I watched with a tense expression, he loosened his arms from around my waist. He led me down from the dock and walked toward the car parked nearby.

“Stick with me for now. Even if I order you to do something worse than what I asked this morning, you’ll have to shut up and do it. You made a promise, so keep it.”

“What exactly are you going to order me to do?”

“Whatever I order you to do.”

“…Can I refuse if it’s too unreasonable?”

“Who was it that swore to shut up and do whatever I say?”

Ah, so this is how he messes with people.

At least I had the sense to recognize it. Otherwise, I might have foolishly thanked him for ‘educating’ me out of his busy schedule.

I swallowed my curse and forced a sweet smile, one that I knew he hated.

“Yes, order me to do anything. I’ll be in your care from now on.”

*