Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Chapter 131

I removed the towel pressing on Sumire’s hand and thigh and examined her thigh. The bleeding was due to the soft, plump skin being imprinted by the rough barbell plate. Whether the bone was damaged was the most important concern, but I couldn’t tell just by looking. This seemed like something that would require an X-ray to know for sure.

I could disinfect and stitch it, but right now, all I had was a towel. Since we were in the Central Building, we could go to Deep Blue to disinfect and stitch it, but I didn’t want to go that far with this person.

…It’s strange. I’m someone who climbed over 4,000 stairs in the dark while crying, with an injured leg and carrying a person much heavier than Sumire. Yet I don’t want to make a quick trip to the dental clinic, which is on flat, bright ground and less than 10 minutes away. Trying to shake off the feeling of not wanting to do anything, I moved my hands.

I left the towel pressing on the leg in place and took out another towel from my bag. Then I tried to tear the towel with my hand strength.

…It’s not working. Both clothes and towels, aren’t they made too well? Or is my grip strength lacking? No, that’s not it. I have enough strength to extract wisdom teeth.

Since Baek Ae-young, who was aiming the gun at Sumire’s head, was the closest, I asked her:

“Ae-young, can you help me tear this towel?”

Baek Ae-young watched me struggle with the towel as if observing a primate, then answered:

“How can I do that?”

“…”

Baek Ae-young’s face froze instantly. Then, sighing, she whispered to me softly like the wind:

“Don’t expose other people’s backup weapons.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

Baek Ae-young took out scissors from her left pants pocket and handed them to me. The scissors looked familiar. It seemed one of the kitchen scissors Seo Jihyuk had brought from the cafe had ended up with Baek Ae-young.

I cut the towel into pieces with the scissors and tied it around the thigh like a bandage. Sumire, with her cheeks puffed out, asked me:

“Excuse me, do you have any painkillers?”

If my translator isn’t malfunctioning, it seems she’s using polite speech only with me. I didn’t know she was this kind of person when she came to the dental clinic. I only remember her being quiet without saying much during cavity treatment and scaling. I remember asking her many questions because she was so silent. I didn’t expect her to have this kind of personality then.

“No, I don’t.”

While Sumire and I were talking, Yoo Geum-yi lost her grip on Tumanako. Tumanako tried to lunge at Sumire, but I caught her by the waist in surprise, and she shouted:

“We could have died because of you if we had taken the West District escape pod!”

Sumire looked at Tumanako while touching her leg with the makeshift bandage, then sneered at Tumanako’s face.

“But you didn’t. And I didn’t do it!”

“I’m going to put you on an escape pod and send you away first! You should experience it too! Eeek! Let go of my waist!”

If I hadn’t grabbed his waist, he might have flown like a bullet to attack Sumire. …I just treated her leg. Let’s not add more injuries. Thankfully, Yoo Geum-yi was diligently covering Henry’s ears.

“Calm down. What will beating that person solve in this situation?”

“Hitting her might calm my heart! Damaging the escape pod?! Are they out of their minds?! …Aren’t you angry?! You live in the West District too! This situation was caused by engineers fighting! You and I are innocent! Let the engineers fight each other to death! Why should we be involved in this?”

The hairdresser, who had nearly died without knowing it after only a month of working at the underwater base, shouted while waving his arms in the air.

Anger? It feels like there’s a fire burning somewhere in a corner of my head. I can’t even cry.

If we could use the escape pod, we wouldn’t need to use the stairs or elevator. Moreover, there might be people escaping on that escape pod right now. If beating that person could make us escape this underwater base immediately, I’m not sure if I could refrain from doing it. …My heart is so heavy.

And experiencing this life for the third time, I feel more disappointed in the people who damaged the escape pods than in the armed Infinity Church believers we could see in the 3rd Underwater Base.

In the research center, the escape pods were intact, but there were far too few compared to the number of people. There were people who gave up their turns to let others board the escape pods, or who fought for their lives to get on them. Aren’t you ashamed of damaging the escape pods? …I suppose people who would do such things wouldn’t know shame.

And Tumanako seems too excited right now, but when you hit someone, the person who hits also gets hurt. Be it on the back of their hand or in their heart, somewhere. There’s no need for Tumanako to hurt herself by hitting this kind of person. There’s no need to feel even the slightest guilt.

“I’m very angry too. But I intend to investigate the cause and determine responsibility after we get out of here. …We’ll have plenty of time.”

Tumanako’s finger pointed at John, who was next to Sumire.

“And you! You said Infinity Church, right?! I don’t know what kind of religion it is, but are you the ones who flooded this underwater base?!”

“Mmph mmph mmph!”

John, who was pointed at by Tumanako, shook his head vigorously from side to side. He seems to be saying no. Then who on earth fired the torpedo? Tumanako said as if she was about to burst:

“When I find the culprit who made me lose my job here, I’m going to hang them upside down at the top of Milford Sound!”

…I don’t know where that is, but it must be a terrifying place. While I was trying to calm Tumanako down, the rest of the people were preparing to leave immediately.

The gun naturally went to Baek Ae-young, and Shin Hae-ryang picked up the 15kg barbell plate that had fallen to the floor. Kang Soojung put her hand on Lee Jihyun’s shoulder, who had been turning her head to the side the whole time. As people prepared to leave just like that, the one who panicked was Sumire, sitting on the floor.

“Wait! What are you doing? Aren’t you taking me with you?!”

Yoo Geum-yi stroked Henry’s head several times with tired eyes and said:

“Unfortunately, the people gathered here are West District lodging guests. Why don’t you ask the people staying in the East District?”

“Tamaki was the one who broke the escape pod! It’s his fault! I didn’t do it!”

Shin Hae-ryang looked at Sumire’s nails and said with a sigh:

“All the engineer team leaders in this underwater base know that Tamaki Yuzuru is handling Engineer Team N’s work alone.”

“That’s… that’s… he does it because he wants to!”

Sumire shouted as if at a loss for words, but Shin Hae-ryang silently picked up the 10kg plate from the floor. Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed the Engineer Team A people already knew about this.

Is it possible for one person to handle the work of an entire engineer team? The team consists of at least 7 to 8 people. There must be a reason for that composition. Kang Soojung exhaled deeply and said to Sumire:

“The weekly English engineer reports your team writes. He writes all of those alone, right? Tell him to study infinitives again. He’s putting ‘to’ everywhere.”

Lee Jihyun nodded at Kang Soojung’s words and added:

“You’ve never written an English report with your own hands, have you? Have you ever read what he wrote?”

Sumire, who had been frowning, closed her mouth. Shin Hae-ryang spoke affectionately to Baek Ae-young, who was checking the remaining bullets and the gun’s condition:

“I’ll shoot.”

Following Shin Hae-ryang, Seo Jihyuk gently added:

“Ae-young. I’m here too. If you’ve forgotten how to shoot because it’s been too long, or if it’s too heavy…”

“I’m not giving this to anyone! It’s my gun now! Team Leader, you just carry that hunk of metal! And you, just carry your dumbbell!”

Baek Ae-young acted as if she would bite anyone who tried to take the gun from her.

“This is all my wealth right now!”

At those words, Shin Hae-ryang seemed to quickly give up on the idea of taking the gun Baek Ae-young had captured. However, Seo Jihyuk, holding the dumbbell, asked Baek Ae-young:

“How am I supposed to fight someone with a gun using this?!”

“How should I know?”

Seo Jihyuk didn’t ask any more and just sighed deeply. Sumire shouted at Shin Hae-ryang’s profile:

“I’m going to sue you for doing this to my leg!”

Shin Hae-ryang didn’t even answer to that. Instead, Kang Soojung looked at Sumire and said:

“Sure. Sue as much as you want. I have tons of things to sue for too. Let’s send each other so many lawsuits that our mailboxes burst. I’m planning to hire 100 lawyers and 100 yakuza. You ganbatte with your lawsuits too!”

…It seems Kang Soojung doesn’t use her fists because she can beat people sufficiently with her tongue. Sumire bit her lip hard and glared at Kang Soojung. Then Sumire cried loudly and shouted towards Shin Hae-ryang:

“Why are you treating me like this?! I didn’t break the escape pod! I didn’t shoot anyone! Why are you being so cold to me?! You even suggested immigration to Korea for Tama-tama!”

I wondered what the immigration suggestion was about, then barely remembered. Didn’t they say something about making such offers to foreigners who did decent work in each engineer team? It seems Engineer Team A offered Tamaki Yuzuru to immigrate. Judging by what she’s saying now, Sumire apparently never received such an offer from Engineer Team A. Sumire shouted as if wronged:

“Tama-tama is just an idiot from Kan-Kan-Dou-Ritsu (mid-tier private universities) and a country bumpkin! He’s a fool who doesn’t fit in at all with our Tokyo Ikkou (top-tier national universities) team members! Why are you so kind to him but not to me?!”

“Is that why you fed him needles?”

What? Shin Hae-ryang crossed his arms and looked at Sumire as if she were an insect.

“Engineer Team S Leader Richard contacted me. He complained that the shower room was covered in blood, saying I should beat people in moderation. He asked if putting needles in someone’s mouth wasn’t going too far. He said if you did such a thing, you should at least clean up all the needles that fell on the floor.”

Putting needles in someone’s mouth?

Is that even possible? I was stunned for a moment by the shock.

How did Tamaki react when I asked if he had chewed on a sea urchin or hedgehog? Tamaki was consistently quiet and tried not to say anything, seeming intimidated. I thought it was because he was tired and exhausted.