Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 47



Only Krnovel

33. Moving (3)

“I was a fool. I’m sorry to say this to my mother, but I should have met a stronger and more determined woman.”

The Defender made a brief comment about his father.

“He lived in a flower garden and died in a flower garden.”

My brother’s expression was more pointed.

The defender sighed and said.

“My father was a so-called good man. He was the type of person who couldn’t refuse. He loved lending money that he couldn’t get back. Whenever my mother said something, he would protest that a person’s heart was more important than money.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his younger brother added with a goosebumps-like expression.

“I hated you so much, Dad. To the point where I wouldn’t even make eye contact with you. How can someone be so gullible?”

I think I know what kind of personality he has.

What should I say? He’s the type of person who doesn’t harm others, but makes things difficult for his family.

The Defender, who goes around killing people when he gets angry, and his father seem to have completely different personalities.

Defender spoke about his father with eyes that slowly looked back on the past.

It’s exactly as expected.

A nice person.

A person who is easygoing and takes care of those around him.

But he was a person who couldn’t take care of his own interests at all, and in the end, no one helped him, so he gradually fell into the abyss.

A person who tries hard to ignore the people who helped him later pointing fingers at him.

“I was a person who never saved a penny in my entire life. All I had was the inheritance from my grandfather. What could I do with that money? I had three brothers. Of course, I couldn’t even dream of owning my own house, so I moved from one rented house to another. Later, when the rent wasn’t enough, I searched for cheap monthly rent in neighborhoods I didn’t know. My already poor living conditions became even more difficult. To the point where my younger brother was even considering going to college.”

“I guess you weren’t prepared for war.”

The defender turned to me.

“Do you know what that guy is talking about?”

“well.”

“War is not something that can be easily won. I know the Chinese well. The Chinese are a people of peace.”

The Defender snorted.

“They said they didn’t know what to do after the missiles fell. The water and electricity were all cut off, and the government told them to go to shelters, but there was nothing in the shelters. Little brother, how was it?”

“Oh, I was dragged into the bathroom and almost raped.”

“That’s what I lived in. It was at that moment that I got a call from the owner I mentioned earlier.”

“The owner of the house you guys lived in?”

“uh.”

“What was the relationship?”

“He was my father’s college classmate. But he lived a completely different life from my father.”

It reminded me of the Defender’s mansion.

It was an old and unrepaired mansion with some damage and dirt here and there, but it still had traces of considerable wealth here and there.

Well, if I had lived a life completely opposite to that of my father, who gave everything he had, wouldn’t I have saved a lot of money?

“He was a person who would occasionally call his father, who was once better than him, to nag him. Well, he won a Porsche for his son this time. He bought him an apartment. He went on a trip abroad. Later, he got divorced and had a mistress. He was a materialistic person who would even say things like that.”

A look of blatant contempt appeared on the Defender’s face.

“After the war started, that man asked my father if my mother and younger sibling were okay and gave me a single room.”

“······.”

“In exchange for living in a rich house instead of in ruined Seoul, I worked as a servant. I cooked for him, cleaned for him, and did construction work for him. But you know, isn’t it a bit shabby?”

The Defender’s sharp blade bounced around in the light.

“When I actually got there, there were only men. And only dark ones at that.”

In fact, I read the previous owner’s intentions in the part where he asked about the well-being of his wife and daughter while giving them the house.

It’s such a common and obvious story.

The story of preying on the helpless using the promise of a comfortable life as bait was a common tragedy that occurred frequently in the immediate aftermath of the war.

The victims were mainly women and children.

It’s a secret, but it’s said that the morality that Koreans boast about is not much different from that of other countries.

“So I told my father. Let’s go. I had a bad feeling about this. And I wasn’t the only one who said it. My brother said it too.”

“I was in the bathroom doing my business when he came over as if he had been waiting and knocked on the door.”

“But that stupid guy got angry instead. He wasn’t rejecting people’s favors. It was the first time I’d seen him so angry. That day, my father slapped me for the first time. And then, what I was afraid of finally happened······.”

Defender’s younger brother, who had been lying diagonally on the regular seat, sat up straight and gently pushed away his flowing hair with his fingers.

There was a clear scar on the side of his forehead.

“When I got there, my father was beaten and tied up. My mother was dead, beaten with a shovel. This guy was unconscious with his head hit by a shovel, and some men were taking off his clothes.”

“I couldn’t take off the baby’s baby, a female bra.”

The defender’s brother sneered.

“So what happened?”

“What can I do?”

The defender smirked and twirled the sharp knife around his fingertips.

“I killed them all. My landlord, my brother, my friend, my legitimate son, my concubine’s child, and even my foster dog.”

“······.”

“My father sat on the floor and cried, but I felt no sympathy. That man’s foolishness continued to ruin our family’s life and eventually led to its destruction. I treated my brother, buried my mother, and disposed of her body, but my father did not even look.”

The Defender sighed and looked up at the sky.

“He was dead the next day.”

The Defender looked back at me with a relieved expression.

“That’s pretty much it. Are you satisfied now?”

The defender got out of the car.

Before he knew it, a cigarette was in his mouth.

“Stay here. I’ll take a quick walk around and come back.”

“······.”

Was there a story?

Anyway, it’s certain that we have become close.

Didn’t the Defender guy say that at the theme park that day?

He said he would tell me about his family after we became closer.

It’s not a pleasant story.

Seeing someone’s stains.

At least it’s not something that would make it to the popular posts on Viva! Apocalypse!

In a world full of tragedy, adding another tragedy is like pouring water on water.

As I was lost in my bitterness, my younger brother poked my shoulder.

“ouch.”

As I turned around, complaining of pain, she immediately thrust her tablet screen at me.

[ My brother still loves my father . ]

“What? What are you talking about?”

Her fingers moved quickly.

[ That’s why they can’t even collect the body and are just acting like this. ]

“No, he’s not some idiot, he’s the guy who left my father’s body hanging out for over two years?”

[ I told you. You’re afraid of your father’s body. You don’t have the courage to face it. Because you liked it too much. No, to be exact, because it feels like you killed it. You know, like that? If I had just said one word there, things would have been different. ]

“······.”

[ Skeleton doesn’t have a father? ]

“I am an orphan.”

“ah.”

[ I thought so. ]

“What are you implying?”

[ Anyway, Oppa, please help me out. It’s more delicate than it looks. I’m sure I’ll regret it later, right? ]

“What do you want me to help you with?”

“A word that touches the soul?”

My brother stared at me.

It was the first time she had looked at me for so long, and especially so with such earnest, almost pleading emotion.

“I know. He’s a guy who hangs out with people who are boring, weird, beatboxing, and stuff, but he’s actually a deep person.”

She blushed slightly and looked away.

“Even I look like this, I have an eye for people.”

She looked at me again, her blush fading away.

“But even so, I don’t think it’s 197cm, 100kg, and 30cm.”

“Stop worrying about that.”

I thought to myself with a bitter smile.

Want to say something to the Defender guy?

To this incompetent team leader who couldn’t even take care of a single colleague?

If you make a mistake, you’ve made a big mistake.

But what is it?

This feeling of wanting to do something.

Of course, there is no guarantee that everything will go well.

Due to the nature of humans being clumsy in dealing with others, this can actually harm our relationships.

But I was asked to do it.

Besides, an appropriate idea just popped into my head like Edison’s light bulb.

“Then I’ll go out for a bit.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt.

“What?! Where?!”

“Because I’m not very good at speaking.”

“So, so?”

“So, once your father’s body is brought back, you can just move and decide whether to go back or not, right?”

“That’s true, but······.”

“There was something like a carrying pole.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Take it out.”

It’s a bit of a drive back, but it’s still along the road.

It actually takes 13 minutes on foot.

If you run, it’s a distance that can be covered in about 5 minutes.

You can tell just how short the distance is just by looking at the theme park in the distance.

I might meet soldiers along the way, and I don’t really like carrying corpses, but I guess this is the best I can do.

Having lost my entire family to monsters, I have little memory of them.

Hatred filled the void in those memories.

That hatred was the source of my strength.

But what about the feelings of those who had families and whose memories still linger in their hearts?

Isn’t it something very precious?

Above all, I remember.

That cold and ruthless defender turned away just because he didn’t want to see the face of his father’s body.

The feeling may not be simple contempt, as my brother said.

Perhaps, because I loved as much as I hated, I left her in a state where I couldn’t do anything.

If he really hated it, he would have disposed of it cleanly, like children who abandoned Kim and just waited for him to die.

“Hey. What are you doing, Skeleton?”

The Defender’s communication sound is heard.

Ignored it.

Soon the Defender’s voice was heard again.

“I heard from my brother. You know you’re being useless, right? This is our family’s business. I like you, Skeleton, but I can’t stand you interfering with our family’s business. Come back soon before things get complicated.”

“Let me ask you just one thing.”

“what?”

“It may be a blunder, but I think it’s true that your father is a bad father.”

“That’s right. He’s a bad father.”

“But is he really a bad father?”

“that······.”

I don’t think so.

Even after death, I see those cruel siblings being bound like this.

This is the end of my story of being unable to articulate well.

I have nothing more to say and I don’t want to say anything more.

“Skeleton.”

The defender spoke again.

Looks like you’ve made up your mind.

“I appreciate your consideration, but this is a family issue. Right now······.”

“Do you know why Dad liked it there?”

My brother intervened.

Her intervention seemed unexpected even to the Defenders.

“Da-jeong-ah.”

When I see you calling my younger sibling’s name, which you’ve never said in front of me.

“I hated my dad, but I know why I went there and why I wanted to stay. I had memories.”

“memory?”

“Do you remember when we held hands and went to the amusement park below your house?”

“······that.”

“My father said that was when he could do the best for us, when our family was the most well-off.”

“Does that matter?”

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t believe in superstitions. But maybe my father missed those days too? Maybe he thought that if he stayed here, those days would come again? That’s just my guess.”

The defender said nothing.

Judging from the fact that I can’t even hear breathing, it looks like the microphone has been turned off.

I now see a corpse bathed in the light of the full moon, permitted by the clouds.

“Father, that’s right······.”

The corpse, from which I had cut off one of its arms, was swaying gently like a lawn, looking down at the theme park spread out beneath its feet.

They took the body down, wrapped it in a bundle, and placed it on a carrying pole.

“Phew.”

Let’s get back as quickly as possible.

Thinking like that, I scanned the downhill slope with my eyes, now accustomed to the darkness.

The Defender’s voice, which had been cut off for a moment, was heard.

“You’re a fanatic.”

I could hear him clicking his tongue.

“Fuck. There’s Awaken in there too.”