Episode 59. [My own war (4)]
Elkani’s brother gaped and looked at the people who came into the living room.
His face looked several times more surprised than when he saw the man from the EV during the day.
American troops entering a city surrounded by government forces. Everything my brother said was correct.
“I am from the United States government. I have been asked to rescue Anne. I am taking her to America.”
A civilian-looking man took out a business card and handed it to Elkani.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs civil servant business card. It was one of three business cards he carried.
He handed over the business card and looked at the girl and the surroundings.
A shabby but calm girl who is not very hungry.
The living room was completely torn apart, but the family didn’t seem to be sick or anything.
It was difficult, but it seemed bearable.
Finally, he saw the thick iron stick the girl was holding. It was an iron bar with several lines drawn on it.
He nodded to himself.
It was similar to the equipment that the awakened people carried during the association demonstration in Korea.
The pattern was much simpler, but the composition was no different from the equipment seen in the photo.
“Can you take my whole family? That’s my request.”
Elkany repeated to the Americans what he had said during the day.
The CIA agent nodded immediately.
“The four of you here can do it right away.”
It was a different answer from the man who came during the day.
I may have prepared leisurely because I didn’t know her situation, but I had no choice but to trust her.
“But how did you get in?”
her father asked cautiously.
“Some of our team is causing trouble.”
Even now, gunshots and gunshots could be heard softly. I thought it was night artillery fire, but it seemed like it was the sound of battle.
“I think we should hurry. We have received information that a large-scale attack by government forces will begin tomorrow. It will be difficult to escape beyond tonight.” At the
agent’s words, she and her family looked at each other.
‘Wait longer?’
‘no. It would be right to say that there is no time. America is enough.’
‘What about the man who came during the day?’
‘He ignores me.’
After communicating with their eyes, the family made a decision.
“I’ll pack my things. Just give me time.”
The agent nodded at his father’s words. He made one request to the girl.
“Could you try your ability? Just to confirm…”
Elkani tightened the stick in his hand. The lines glowed faintly. She stabbed the iron stick into the wall.
Phew.
It felt like a knife had been driven into tofu. The iron bar pushed through the cement wall without getting caught.
“That’s enough. Thank you.”
At the agent’s words, Elkani pulled out an iron stick.
The family was busy packing and she came down to the basement under the pretext of packing.
Crash.
Locking the basement door to prevent anyone else from entering, she went deep inside.
I saw a candle flickering next to the desk. And there was a statue on the desk.
‘our family?’
Her eyes fluttered.
But she closed her eyes tightly.
The boy was sitting blankly on the bed next to the desk. But Elkani couldn’t bear to look at him.
She opened her mouth as she looked at the other items placed next to the family statue.
“You heard everything, right?”
Although her family didn’t know, she, as an Awoken, knew that he could hear conversations upstairs.
This was because they knew that he could not betray them even after hearing all the stories.
During the war, she saved a boy who was left alone and they have been living in the same house ever since.
It was a story that had already been going on for almost a year.
Of course, at that time, they knew the boy was an awakened person and brought him in, but the boy was more helpful than expected.
For a year, she and her family stole the boy’s abilities.
But
the boy considered her and her family as his own.
But he was not visible in the family portrait on the desk.
She tried to say something, but in the end she could only say one word.
“sorry.”
She shed tears. These were not tears of apology. It was disillusionment with myself.
It was because I had been using him all along and was doing it to show him my last apology and tears.
“It’s okay. You’ve been taking care of me all this time. If it wasn’t for Elkani, I would have died a year ago. And there are the last weapons I made on the desk.”
There was no expression on the face of the boy who spoke calmly.
“Thank you. And I’m sorry.”
Wiping away tears, she apologized again and took the weapons on the desk.
She didn’t see his face until she left the basement.
Clap.
The basement door closed again.
The boy wrapped his legs around the bed.
After some time, the family gathered again. Everyone was wearing body armor brought by the soldiers.
Before leaving, the agent asked the family.
“Did anyone else come to visit?”
The family looked at Elkani. she answered.
“I came to you from the EV during the day.”
The agent’s eyes sank and the soldiers held their guns nervously.
She told what she knew about the man who came during the day.
A young bearded man of unknown nationality who speaks Arabic well. He came alone and asked to take his entire family with him, but he left saying he needed time.
“I thought the U.S. government would be much more trustworthy than an unknown EV.”
The agent saw the girl again.
It wasn’t just his ability that was great. He has good intelligence and determination. He just wasn’t the type of person to be swayed. The U.S. government also didn’t seem easy to deal with.
But such concerns were not for ClA agents and SEALs.
“There’s no one left at home, right?”
“no.”
Elkani shook his head in response to the agent’s question.
After receiving Elkani’s confirmation, he nodded towards the captain.
“You’ve completed the installation, right? We’re leaving in a protective formation. Don’t forget that there may be more than just human enemies.”
The captain gave instructions to his subordinates, and the family and soldiers quickly left the house.
The family peeked into the basement once before leaving the house, but no sound was heard from the basement until they left.
***
The sound of the door closing was heard, but the boy did not relax.
It was the second family member to lose. No, the second family existed only in the boy’s imagination.
The boy just sat on the bed blankly.
thud!
At that time, a heavy sound was heard from upstairs. And the sound of footsteps.
Jump and jump.
The sound of footsteps came closer and closer to the hallway.
Then it stopped abruptly.
“Scream! Crazy Yankees!”
The boy heard a curse from an unknown country, and soon the man shouted.
“If you hear my voice directly above, avoid! I’ll go right through!”
The boy looked up blankly. It was the man’s voice I heard during the day. This time he could understand.
Deep. Deep. Deep.
Blades kept sticking out from the ceiling. In an instant, several holes were created in a circular shape.
thud!
Then a shock echoed throughout the room.
Quarr.
The circular ceiling collapsed downward. Then, a man jumped onto the collapsing ceiling.
The man holding the sword in one hand frowned and waved his other hand.
“Damn it hurts.”
I used my mana with my fists, but since I broke the cement ceiling and came down, there was no way it wouldn’t hurt.
Gyeonghoon got down on the floor and looked at the boy with an absurd expression.
The boy sitting right in front of the hole was covered in dust.
“Why aren’t you avoiding me… No, now is not the time to argue about that. I’m sorry.”
Kyung-hoon threw himself upward with the boy at his side.
“Damn, it’s not easy with one more person.”
If I was alone, I could have jumped out of the hole, but now I could barely put my hand into the hole in the ceiling.
He pulled himself and the boy up with one arm.
As Kyung-hoon came out, he saw stick blocks hanging from a pillar.
M112. It was a U.S. military-style block-type explosive. Moreover, it was equipped with a wireless peony, so it could be detonated from a distance.
Kyung-hoon ran down the hallway with the boy at his side. The hole that had just been drilled in the back of the living room was getting closer and closer.
***
Same time. At a distance from the house, the colonel pulled out a switch.
“No way…”
The girl looked at the switch the colonel had pulled out with startled eyes.
“It’s a long way away, but everyone, watch out for debris.”
Soldiers hugged their families and stuck to the wall.
“Wait a minute…”
The girl tried to scream in surprise, but her hand was faster at pressing the switch.
Quagwagwang!
Flames soared with an explosion. Elkani’s house exploded.
The whole family looked at the house in fascination.
“I’m sorry for destroying your house. It would have been difficult if traces of Anne were left behind. I will go to America and give you ample compensation.”
The whole family looked at each other with white faces. Everyone couldn’t say anything.
Elkani just looked at the house blankly.
“It looks like the shock was bigger than expected. Please.”
At the agent’s words, the soldiers began to move, leading their families.
Although it was night, the city at war was a dangerous place even for soldiers.
The soldiers ran west without stopping.
***
A man was lying in the garden behind the house, with smoke billowing out of it.
His back was covered in black ash and the cloak he was wearing was torn in various places.
The man frowned and stood up.
“If I had been upset, I would have gotten caught. They say Americans are ignorant.”
-I don’t think that’s what the owner would say.
Ignoring Eve’s comments, Kyung-hoon turned and looked at the destroyed house.
The house that still had up to the second floor was now in ruins and smoking.
The hole he had drilled in the wall had now collapsed along with the wall.
It was truly breathtaking.
Kyung-hoon confirmed that American troops entered the city while the sun was up.
Then, after eavesdropping on a story about the family abandoning the boy, they came up with a new plan.
The plan was to seduce the boy after the Elkani family left.
Fortunately, the plan went well, but they did not expect that the American soldiers would plant the bomb.
-If you had thought about it based on your own standards, you would have been able to predict it well.
“Then why didn’t you give me advice?”
-I never thought the US military would do something like you. I need to gather more information.
Kyung-hoon sighed at Eve’s words. It seemed like she was only learning the wrong habits of humans.
-I think it is time to look at the awakened people that were rescued.
“Oops!”
Kyung-hoon looked at the boy lying on the floor.
“It doesn’t look like you’re hurt anywhere.”
The boy just looked at Kyung-hoon with a blank face.
Kyung-hoon held out his hand to the boy.
“If you’re not hurt, hold on and stand up.”
The boy, who looked at his hands for a moment, grabbed Kyung-hoon’s hand and stood up.
The boy was very small. It looked like he was in the lower grades of elementary school. But Kyung-hoon knew that the boy was older than him.
“It feels like something has changed… ”
Kyung-hoon scratched his head and introduced himself.
“I received a request from EV…”
The boy looked at the broken house. It was a story we all heard during the day.
“… Do you want to come along for this reason? Accommodation and education in a safe country. I’ll provide you with a job.”
I don’t know if he’s old enough to get a job, but first, he clearly explains the situation.
The boy, who was looking at the broken house, asked Kyung-hoon.
“Will you be my new family?”
Kyung-hoon chuckled at the boy’s words.
“What kind of family is an orphan… I don’t even know what family is.”
Kyung-hoon looked straight at the boy and said,
“Family is too much, I can be a friend. If you have my back, I will have your back too. ”
The boy looked at Kyung-hoon at Kyung-hoon’s words.
-Didn’t you say you would become a family? You look lonely, so it would be good to talk nice things!
Eve’s voice was heard, but the boy just looked at Kyung-hoon in silence. Kyung-hoon also looked at the boy. I stared at him.
The boy, who had been looking at Kyung-hoon for a while, eventually cautiously held out his hand.
“Is it okay to shake hands if we are colleagues?”
Kyung-hoon grinned and held his hand.
Bang! Ta-ta-bang!
At that moment, the western sky lit up. It shone.
An explosion sounded and even the sounds of helicopters and planes were heard.
“This looks like a naval gunshot. Are they shooting from the sea?”
-Communications have been opened. The government forces are focusing their attacks on the escaping US soldiers. The US is also counterattacking.
“Should we say it is like a brown bear? I dug a trap and waited. If someone steals honey from the beehive, they were planning to take it and eat it.”
– It seems like the one who stole it is not easy, but…
“Well, the one who won will take the honey. Even though it’s fake honey.”
– I guess we have to hope that the honey pot doesn’t break.
Kyeong-hoon’s face turned bitter at Eve’s words. But it was already out of his hands.
“We need to get out quickly, too. Is there anyone I should go with?”
The boy shook his head at Kyung-hoon’s words, and Kyung-hoon put the boy on his back.
It was about time for the sun to rise. Kyung-hoon started running toward the north.
