Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea-Chapter 158

When did John Doe prepare such things? Did he steal them while grabbing the nail polish? The atmosphere became heavy.

Shin Hae-ryang, who had been staring at John Doe sitting on the floor with his hands tied for a few seconds, approached and whispered something in his ear. John Doe’s eyes filled with terror. He quickly nodded at Shin Hae-ryang with frightened eyes. Observing his reaction, Shin Hae-ryang connected the middle part of the backrest of a fallen chair nearby to John Doe’s bound wrists with a single rope. Then he said to the others:

“You can start moving now.”

“What about John Doe?”

“He says he wants to part ways here.”

To verify the truth of those words, I looked at John Doe, who, sensing my gaze, started headbanging back and forth. As I stared blankly at that scene, Baek Ae-young gently pushed my shoulder towards the exit. My feet were reluctant to move. Baek Ae-young whispered softly to me:

“The faster we leave, the quicker he can cut the rope and escape.”

Baek Ae-young said, kicking the glass shards on the floor. Ah, I see. With glass everywhere on the floor, he could cut the rope and escape.

Maybe this is better, since he was someone who originally wanted to part ways with the Engineering Team A. John Doe seemed to want us to disappear quickly. I took one last look at John Doe and left the accessory store. Shin Hae-ryang was the last of our group to exit the store.

I expected us to go straight to the escape pod port since the accessory store was close to it, but Seo Jihyuk said we were heading for the beauty salon located right next to the escape pod port. At those words, Tumanako started walking confidently and maturely in a straight line towards the beauty salon.

She was about to overtake Seo Jihyuk, who was walking at the front of the group. Seo Jihyuk looked slightly flustered at the confident Tumanako and quickly said:

“Stay behind me. We don’t know what might be ahead.”

“What could be there?”

When Tumanako asked boldly with her hands on her hips, Seo Jihyuk hastily replied as if making an excuse:

“…The door might be locked?”

“The door’s not locked. We can just go in. We operate on a reservation basis in principle, but we don’t turn away walk-ins.”

“That’s not the only problem. What kind of customer pushes past the guide in a high-crime area? Wait, wait! …Ae-yong, Ae-yong, Ae-yong!”

As Tumanako acted like she was about to sprint to the beauty salon in one go, Seo Jihyuk gritted his teeth and called out behind him. Baek Ae-young, who had been walking beside me, quickly stuck close to Tumanako. She separated Seo Jihyuk and Tumanako and explained rapidly:

“He’s worried that there might be two men inside the salon holding scissors backwards waiting for you, Tumanako-ssi, or that they might have set up something strange on the door. We’ll push Guide Seo in first, and if everything’s normal, we’ll go in. …Call me that one more time and you’ll die by my hands?”

Baek Ae-young explained kindly to Tumanako. However, she changed her attitude and left a vicious threat for Seo Jihyuk, who didn’t even look back as he watched ahead and said:

“Hey. Didn’t you tell me to watch my words and not scare you too much?”

“Yeah. I don’t have to watch my words or hold back on scaring you. In this situation, they’d be more anxious if I didn’t explain.”

Seo Jihyuk seemed to be busy watching and assessing the path ahead, barely listening to what was happening behind his back.

Tumanako, who had been looking at her approaching beauty salon, quickly agreed with Baek Ae-young’s explanation. Her majestic stride instantly changed to caution.

Tumanako seemed to be suppressing with all her might the urge to immediately rush into the familiar space she knew well. It had looked extremely close, but seeing Seo Jihyuk on edge made it feel farther away. We soon began to move silently.

So the person at the front of the group has to be mindful of such things. When we were wandering around South District or the research center within South District before, we seemed to have moved around recklessly. …Is that why we got hurt so much?

The people who were with us then were covered in bruises all over. Come to think of it, the people in this current group, while emotionally drained and tired, hadn’t suffered any external injuries. While each person had to take care of their own mental state, it seemed they were taking care of each other’s physical well-being.

As we got very close to the beauty salon, I finally saw what the Chinese deity Nüwa that Tumanako had mentioned looked like. On the outer wall of the salon was a painting of a man and woman with snake-like lower bodies, wearing skirts and looking at each other. They were holding what looked like scissors and tweezers in their hands, with a round object presumed to be the sun floating in the sky between them.

As soon as I saw that picture, I had an ominous feeling that this beauty salon was also created without any consideration for interior design.

Seo Jihyuk and Baek Ae-young entered the beauty salon first. In less than a minute, they signaled for us to come in. If Deep Blue was surrounded by frames of blind sharks in a completely dark sea and shark-related items, this place was like a beauty salon for ancient people living in BC times.

It seemed they hadn’t considered at all that the customers visiting this beauty salon were humans living in the 21st century. The wallpaper was bright yellow. Moreover, images of half-human, half-snake beings with human upper bodies and snake lower bodies were hung in frames here and there on the walls.

…Couldn’t they have decorated it with a clean, modern design? Is the budget tight? Or is there some separate snake-related religion?

My orthopedist friend said simplicity was aesthetic and had nothing on the walls except wallpaper, and I used to criticize his hospital interior for being empty, but I never thought I’d come to envy his hospital’s interior. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that my Deep Blue was at least a bit more sophisticated than this Nüwa beauty salon. Even if it’s just choosing the lesser of two evils, it’s still something.

None of the people with guns were interested in the beauty salon’s interior. Seo Jihyuk seemed more concerned about possible booby traps that might be set up somewhere, while Shin Hae-ryang, who came in last, seemed more worried about someone ambushing us here.

Unlike me, who was calmly observing the interior of the beauty salon, Tumanako started running around here and there as soon as she entered. It was worrying to the point where I thought she might bump into something. As I was reflecting on what had happened in the accessory store, I asked Shin Hae-ryang, who was walking behind me:

“About the items John Doe hid.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you think I cooperated?”

I had pondered this internally several times, but I thought it would be better to ask directly. If I didn’t ask, I felt like I would keep questioning myself endlessly. I was the closest to John Doe and even carried him on my back. The Engineering Team A people seemed to want to abandon John Doe in the elevator, but bringing him this far was almost entirely due to my insistence.

Isn’t it more logical to think I was an accomplice rather than a bound person skillfully stealing and possessing such items? If I’m thinking this, Shin Hae-ryang must have already made such assumptions. It was an opportunity to leave me behind as well when expelling John Doe from the group, but they didn’t. Shin Hae-ryang, who was bringing up the rear of the group, asked while watching outside:

“Did you?”

“No.”

“Then that’s fine.”

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What’s fine? Shin Hae-ryang seemed to think that was a sufficient answer. It’s like having a conversation with an AI whose programming is slightly off. I’m really curious about what Shin Hae-ryang is thinking. Even if I knew his concerns, I probably wouldn’t be able to help solve the problem at all. Fearing the answer I might receive, I threw a direct question:

“Don’t you think I’m a bothersome person to keep around?”

“Why do you think that?”

Why do I think that? Even I think there are too many reasons. From Vladimir onwards, every person we meet picks a fight or threatens us, we take turns carrying people on our backs, I insist on bringing along a cult follower. Moreover, I haven’t been particularly friendly or cooperative with the Engineering Team A people. Every action is suspicious.

If I were Shin Hae-ryang, I would have concluded that I was a cult follower. Besides, I’ve already told Shin Hae-ryang all the information I know. To someone who prioritizes efficiency, I’m a person who has already been squeezed dry. …Then again, they brought me along before when I had no information and was practically just baggage.

At the place Tumanako had pointed out, Seo Jihyuk found a few cookies and several water bottles. He threw one bottle to Baek Ae-young and was about to throw one to me, but then sighed and came over to hand it to me directly. Shin Hae-ryang took the water bottle Baek Ae-young had drunk from, took a sip, and answered:

“I think you’re an ordinary civilian caught up in a disaster situation. Please drink.”

Then he chewed on a broken cookie. Is this attitude normal? Then are there civilians who act in extraordinary ways?

Tumanako, who had been running around with a towel, brought a small flowerpot from a corner. Is that the Rhaphidophora? Tumanako tried to separate the plant from the pot, but for some reason, the roots wouldn’t separate. If she pulled too hard, only the stem above the soil might come off.

As I held the pot with both hands, Shin Hae-ryang was about to smash it with the butt of his gun. Seo Jihyuk approached while chewing a cookie and stopped Tumanako’s hand as she was trying to grab and pull the stem.

“You’re trying to pull the roots out of the pot, right?”

“Yes.”

Seo Jihyuk tapped the pot a few times, then grabbed the very bottom of the stem and lifted. The entire plant separated from the pot I was holding. Didn’t he say he had separated flowering trees before? Where on earth does one learn such skills?

Tumanako grabbed the stem and shook off most of the soil. Then she laid the plant on a towel. She sprayed water on the roots with a spray bottle and wrapped it in the towel. Then she pushed it into the old cloth bag she had been holding. The plant was neatly stored in the bag. Only then did Tumanako sigh, sit down on the floor, and say:

“Okay. We can carry it like this.”

“Have some water.”

Following Seo Jihyuk’s suggestion, Tumanako drained the water bottle in one go and hugged the bag tightly. Broken cookies were forcibly fed into Tumanako’s mouth from Baek Ae-young’s hand.

As Tumanako was chewing the cookies, she suddenly seemed to remember something and opened a drawer nearby. There were 5 large chocolate bars inside, which she took out and threw at people as if lobbing them. Seo Jihyuk was the happiest about it.

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