Chapter 17: The Unyielding Past

That much, fine. Let’s assume she was paranoid and came to him without discretion. But the stories she brought up afterwards…

[The human soldiers are planning to clear out the incinerator.]

Then, as now, it was a statement that made him instinctively rub his face dry. He had immediately refuted it.

They wouldn’t care about a place like the incinerator, where all sorts of germs ran rampant.

Anyway, the average life expectancy of refugees was barely 38 years. There was no reason to specifically deploy military forces to deal with lives as fragile as flies, which would die from contaminated water if left alone. Moreover, they sometimes took them as test subjects.

But that woman.

[There’s no reason to leave it alone as they have until now.]

Researcher 38, reading her written reply, was speechless for a moment. That too, was true.

But.

But why now?

Unable to shake off the doubt, Researcher 38 looked at the girl standing idly three steps away from him.

With black hair, dark eyes, ivory skin, a flat forehead, and a short jaw, she was a child born from an extremely limited mingling of species.

“You.”

Yeosu, who had been wiggling her fingers, snapped to attention at Researcher 38’s unexpected call. He frowned as if asking why she was so nervous, and asked.

“Where is your father?”

Human soldiers, including upper-district residents, received the best treatment among humans, but mating was prohibited. It was Juseong’s will to severely suppress barbaric traits like maternal love.

That meant the child was not born when the woman was a human soldier.

“Ah… Dad, he’s, he’s not… here…”

Researcher 38’s eyebrows sharply bent. Yeosu flinched, perhaps thinking he looked fierce.

“I… I think he… d-died. Pr-probably.”

‘If he died, he died. What does ‘probably’ mean?’ Researcher 38 sat on the roughly pulled chair and rubbed his forehead.

Her stammering and slightly lower intelligence suggested that the quality of her inherited genes might not be good.

“Damn it, what a mess.”

Researcher 38 buried his face in his hands. Fatigue washed over him all at once. It must be because of the nightmare.

Then, a small warmth was felt on his left leg. He lifted his head, narrowed his brows, and saw the child who had approached him.

“What is it?”

“A-are you still, still in a lot of p-pain?”

Yeosu’s voice became softer, as if she was scared.

“Y-you… you looked like you were in a lot of p-pain then.”

His eyes twitched. It was because Yeosu’s small hand, which couldn’t even fully cover his knee, was lingering around the injured area from that day.

He was silent for a moment, then snorted and pushed Yeosu’s hand away.

“Are you trying to boast just because you brought one cane? Do you want something in return?”

“Oh… no…”

“Today, the debt from then is paid. You should be satisfied with just one night’s stay!”

Yeosu lowered her head. She took a few steps back, perhaps thinking she would be kicked out soon.

He seemed about to add something, then stood up abruptly. He intended to take the child directly to Cheche’s shelter.

“I hope your mother didn’t just abandon you and run away.”

He snatched Yeosu’s pale arm at his words and propped his cane on the ground. It was that fleeting moment. The tent, which had been fixed with stakes, shook.

It was that woman.

‘Speak of the devil and she appears.’
Researcher 38 sneered and pulled out the stake he had driven into the hard dirt ground.

Cheche appeared through the opened tent. A smile spread across Yeosu’s lips.

Cheche’s expression, however, was no different from yesterday. Her lips were tightly sealed, and both sides of her jaw were firmly set. This confirmed that nothing had happened last night.

“The military coming was a lie, then.”

He, who had unexpectedly become a babysitter, did not hide his discomfort.

“Was it just an excuse because the child was annoying?”

Yeosu’s smile plummeted.
Cheche hugged Yeosu to her side and glared at Researcher 38.

‘Who would flinch at such a gaze?’
He snorted and deliberately tapped his cane as he returned to his chair.

“Quickly, take the child and leave.”

But she again took out paper and a pencil from her pocket.

Now, just seeing that paper made him sick.
Before she could hand over another written reply, Researcher 38 tapped the floor with his cane.

“Don’t you still understand? As long as you’re a deserter, that child will never pass the obedience test.”

He heard a sharp intake of breath. He glanced at the frozen Cheche and continued.

“The moment a jockey is tattooed, all lies are detected. It means you can never lie about your heart and memories.”

Just as Cheche’s fists clenched, he gestured at them and said.

“Yes. Exactly these kinds of actions are detected.”

He turned his gaze to Yeosu, who was clinging to her mother’s side.

“If asked, ‘Is one of your parents a deserter?’, what will you answer?”

He saw Yeosu’s eyes waver and gave a bitter smile. The moment Cheche admitted to being a human soldier in front of her child, the answer was predetermined.

The child would not pass the obedience test that filtered out ‘impure breeds.’

“You came to me because you were curious about how to trick the jockey, didn’t you?”

Most of those who feared the obedience test were like that. In fact, it was a test that could be passed if only one could trick the jockey.

“But there is no such method. Your daughter will be exposed as an impure breed the moment the jockey is tattooed.”

Cheche’s eyes widened as if to refute him. But this was reality. The jockey he had researched and developed for three years was flawlessly perfect.

Bored, he finally changed the subject of conversation. It was, in fact, the only topic he was truly curious about from her.

“Were you ‘Seoul’?”

Seoul. A representative symbol of impure breeds, their military units were for a time called the hope of humanity to resist Juseong.

However, that was an old story, more than 10 years ago. Juseong’s Special Forces had finally found their stronghold and slaughtered them all.

To her, who was visibly on guard, Researcher 38 gave a bitter smile and said.

“So that’s why you’re wandering around incinerators. Because your base to return to is gone.”

Her expression would have immediately refuted him if she could speak. He received neither affirmation nor denial from Cheche, but he shrugged.

“The reasons for deserters were generally ‘Seoul’.”

Juseong’s military was a place everyone yearned for but not everyone could enter. It was the pinnacle of ranked humans, and thus a place where a comfortable life was guaranteed.

Those human soldiers were even said to occasionally have access to the same food ingredients as Juseong’s people. Therefore, not many humans would voluntarily abandon such luxurious environments.

Only the insane, or ‘Seoul,’ who could be considered even more insane than the insane.

“Still, you must have been quite skilled. I never thought I’d see a living deserter.”

All the deserters he knew were dead. Most died attempting to desert. Others died at the hands of the Special Forces within a week of deserting.

But Cheche in front of him was perfectly alive. Moreover, she had even given birth to and was raising a child. Considering that human soldiers were forbidden from reproduction, she must have deserted at least 10 years ago.

Cheche still neither affirmed nor denied it. Researcher 38, who had already found the answer in her expression, asked no further questions.

“Now, please leave. I can’t help you with anything.”

The tent was pulled back. Cheche, after looking at Researcher 38 for a moment, took Yeosu’s hand and left the shelter.

Researcher 38, who had tidied the tent and turned around, noticed a toy lying on the floor.

It was the scrap metal doll in the shape of a baby that Yeosu had been holding.

“My fairy, you’ve braided your hair beautifully.”

“Thank you, brother.”

The image of the smiling girl flashed through his mind. The appearance of the doll she was holding at that moment also.

Even though a cotton doll and scrap metal would be different, that particular moment came to mind.

“Are you… alright?”

At the same time, recalling Yeosu’s face as she extended her small hand to him, Researcher 38 unconsciously threw his cane against the wall.

“Damn it.”

He was, after all, human. He had been livestock, long subjugated by aliens. If he had intended to deny that now, he would have joined the rebel faction the moment he escaped the research facility.

The reason he hadn’t was that he had accepted it.

“Humans are…”

“Livestock.”

That humans could never become ‘people.’