25. We met through work (5)
***
Minjun doesn’t remember exactly when his relationship with Dell started to go wrong.
Because we don’t know exactly when Dell’s mind became twisted.
In the early days of their marriage, Minjun had a vague premonition. If it was Del, he would be able to go on together forever. If he was with her, his spirit, which had been worn down over time, would not suddenly collapse. They would be able to live by relying on each other.
“Of course, sadly, that premonition was also wrong.”
Minjun accelerated the memories he didn’t want to recall in his head.
“It started with an eerie look.”
While eating, getting dressed, taking a nap, reading a book, washing my hands… In the midst of ordinary moments of daily life, when I suddenly turned my head, Del was looking at me. With a completely different gaze than I had seen in the past 80 years of peace.
Minjun knew that look well.
It was life.
The marriage finally came to an end the day she found evidence that she had been plotting a long-term plan to kill Min-jun. It was a terrible day.
“Even now, when I think about that day, I feel like I can smell blood.”
Minjun doesn’t know why her mind was failing so quickly. From what he could tell, Del had been taking her prescribed medication regularly. The blue pills given by the doctor who travels through the dimensions to interview prisoners.
Nevertheless, Del went crazy. On the day their relationship ended, Minjun persistently questioned him. Del avoided giving a definite answer, but he remained silent on some questions and indirectly affirmed them. As a result of the terrible questioning that was like twenty questions, Minjun was able to derive three sentences.
“One, Del wants to kill me.”
He spoke cruelly in a monotonous tone. It may have been a story he had told several times before, but it didn’t matter.
“Second, the reason is because you love me so much… because you think that’s the only way I can be free.”
Crazy. Crazy, crazy as hell.
“Three, but Del can’t kill me while we’re both prisoners. Killing a prisoner, that is, damaging the property of the committee, is considered property damage.”
If a prisoner commits such a serious crime, he or she will be subject to the next level of punishment after amnesia.
Soul erasure.
That was not what Del wanted. She believed in the superstition that the fate of this life would continue into the next. If she were to receive severe punishment and have her soul destroyed, she would not be able to reincarnate.
“oh my god.”
Bradley said in a weary voice.
“The idea that you have to die to be free is ultimately seeing the possibility of you earning your talent and being released as zero.”
“You know what’s even more incredible?”
She had a delusion that she would be discharged first, become a free person, and then kill Minjun.
Then, even if you are caught and punished, you will avoid soul destruction and just have to serve time in prison again.
“I still can’t forget the last day I saw you.”
When the mission was over in that dimension and the two were torn apart into different worlds, Minjun thought he would never have to face Del again.
Her retirement pay of 500,000 talents was not a small sum, and it was impossible for her to save it with the way she worked. The fact that she planned to kill Min-jun after her release was also reported to the committee, so the future was even darker. Even if you think about it as optimistically as possible, it will take thousands of years.
“The mind has already begun to collapse, and I thought that by then it would no longer be able to function as a living being.”
At the moment when the prisoners gathered for the last time, said goodbye to each other, and went their separate ways, Minjun unconsciously made eye contact with Del. Since it had been a long time since they had spoken to each other, he tried to look away again as usual.
But the other person didn’t avoid eye contact. As if he had seen her before, Del smiled shyly and said with his lips:
At that time, I simply dismissed the sentence as the nonsense of a delusional patient.
‘It won’t take as long as you think.’
***
There was a moment of silence between them.
Minjun was the first to speak again.
“Anyway, part of the plan has already succeeded. We were released first.”
Minjun’s prediction was wrong and the remaining steps were obvious. However, Bradley brings up a possibility as if telling them not to lose hope.
“Well, let’s look at the positive side.”
I racked my brain for words of comfort.
“Just because I regain my memories as a criminal doesn’t mean I’ll become more violent and crazy.”
“If a crazy person goes crazy again, will they turn around and become normal? Or can a person become calmer thanks to the memory of a 500,000-talent crime?”
“That’s impossible. It’s Dell. That’s not what I meant···.”
After hesitating, I brought up the name again.
“You could be like Telesia.”
“······.”
“······.”
This silence was a little longer. Bradley realized his slip of the tongue and his face clouded.
Minjun held the silent words in his mouth and eventually changed their contents.
“What worries me more now is that I don’t even know what race that woman is.”
Just a moment ago, when their conversation was going nowhere in the office, Bradley briefly thought Dell was a dragon.
Minjun was thinking that it would be better if she really was a dragon.
“I only found out during Telesia, but the process of leaving is divided into two stages, right? First, you get your memories back, and then you get your original body back.”
The natives of the previous dimension were also human, and Minjun was active at the time in the same body as he is now. Del also looked human at the time, but it is unknown what kind of being he really was.
“If there is a race with terrifying abilities that I cannot touch···.”
Del, who is now able to unleash 100% of his sealed power, will return as an even more powerful madman. However, Bradley shakes his head as if that is impossible.
“Hey, no way.”
The two continued to talk about Del for a while, but eventually changed the direction of the conversation. Minjun thought that there was no point in worrying and lamenting any longer.
“By the way, how much time do you have left?”
Then Bradley smiled.
“10,000 talents in the future.”
The topic changed in an instant. The atmosphere also changed.
Minjun, who heard his answer, clapped his hands slowly but powerfully. Clap, clap, clap.
“How much was the severance pay?”
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“Seventy thousand talents.”
“Have you ever lost your talent because of something random?”
“Of course. Am I you?”
“Then, if we do it well… we can fill the rest on Earth?”
“I think so. As you can see, there are a lot of illegal immigrants in this dimension. Even if you just sit still, talents will walk into your pocket.”
Minjun agreed. That was one of the reasons he stayed in this dimension longer than he had initially thought.
The two continued to chat nonsense after that and then got up from their seats. The two prisoners exchanged brief greetings in front of the bar entrance. As Minjun was about to turn his back, Bradley suddenly asked.
“Hey, since we were talking about Telesia earlier, I know you might feel bad if I say this, but…”
“Then don’t do it.”
He chuckled and said.
“······I wanted to say that you couldn’t do that.”
Minjun snorted.
“Huh. That’s okay.”
“Freedom.”
“Freedom.”
We exchanged pleasantries as was a long-standing habit among prisoners and parted ways. It was not known when we would meet again.
Minjun takes a short walk to the shopping center. And instead of thinking about Dell, he thinks about Bradley’s last words. The meaning of that short sentence is simple.
‘Minjun, even if you pay your severance pay and are released, you won’t end up like Telesia.’
A man who has lost his memories of the distant past walks down a cold, airy road and recalls a relatively recent past.
***
The dimension in which they operated together was called ‘Ashtal’, and the Republic, which comprised 36 planets inhabited by intelligent beings and 145 space bases, was ruled for a long time by a single dictator.
The dictator was so vicious that he was notorious to another level. He oppressed the people with a thorough reign of terror, and those who resisted were brutally trampled and killed. The number of people who were brutally murdered during his rule has not yet been calculated. There are only wild guesses that it is at least several billion.
One of the most famous and horrific examples of tyranny at the time was the tragedy of the colony planet XE-21.
Minjun frowned without realizing it as he recalled that memory.
‘I only heard about it in records… but it was really unbelievable.’
The dictator, who received intelligence that the citizens there were plotting a rebellion, suspended all food transport ships heading there without warning. XE-21 was originally designed as an industrial planet and was 99% dependent on external sources for food.
The planet’s inhabitants, exhausted from starvation, attempted to escape into space, but were shot down by satellites that surrounded the planet. There is no data that properly explores the hell that unfolded there after all emergency food supplies were consumed. It is only estimated that even the hell where parents eat their children and humans hunt humans did not last more than three years.
‘That incident was decisive. In the end, even his close associates turned their backs on him.’
A coup d’état took place. The dictator, fearing rebellion, built a defense system unknown to even his closest subordinates. The war lasted longer than expected, but at the cost of many sacrifices, victory eventually fell into the hands of the revolutionary forces.
It is said that the dictator, facing a purge, did not panic or plead, but quietly smiled and pressed a switch.
‘No one knew how far the madness had reached.’
At that moment, more than 90% of the Republic’s power plants, collective farms, communication bases, and stations self-destructed and disappeared into space dust. And even the defense shield that had been blocking the space bugs that flew between planets and attacked and devoured everything was destroyed.
Only then did the revolutionary army confront the dictator’s long-held, ugly plan. If he had prepared for this, he could have planted a self-destruct device in the planet’s core without anyone knowing. However, the dictator did not do so. He wished that the people who had rebelled against him would return to the primitive era and continue their painful lives of barbarism, starvation, and being hunted by space bugs.
It was truly an act of extreme malice.
Meanwhile, not even a single piece of the dictator’s body remained. It is said that he was torn apart into molecules by the angry revolutionaries.
In the end, they won the war, but what they left behind was a devastated land where almost everything they needed to survive had been destroyed, and hundreds of millions of people were exhausted and wounded by the long war.
‘Only then did the committee begin to intervene.’
Instead of sending immigrants there, the committee organized a task force to rebuild the broken social and economic system. Of course, all prisoners had their memories erased, and Telecia was one of them.
During the reconstruction project that lasted over 300 years, personnel were supplemented several times, and Minjun also participated in the latter half and met Del there. And the inmate who achieved the most outstanding achievements in all of this was Telesia.
‘Mother of all.’
It was a nickname the natives of Ashtal used to call her.
Even when other prisoners were rotated, she stayed until the end and did her best for Ashtal. The natives didn’t know she was a prisoner, but even if they had, it doesn’t seem like anything would have changed.
‘Because they all loved Telesia.’
She was neither particularly good at fighting nor a great engineer. Her strengths lay in her administrative skills and political sense.
Telesia negotiated directly with the committee on behalf of the revolutionary army, which was on the verge of collapse due to civil war, increased the scale of aid supplies, and led several reinforcements. It was also her achievement to quickly restore Ashtal’s economy, which had been in shambles after the war.
The ability she displayed to rebuild Ashtal was overwhelming, and the way she treated all the dimensional people as family impressed many. They showed Telesia sincere affection and respect.
‘Telesia loved them all too.’
It was the dimension where Telesia was first sent after beginning her life as a prisoner, and she had resided there for over 300 years, so she couldn’t help but feel attached to it.
As time passed and the Ashtal Reconstruction Operation was nearing its official conclusion, Telesia, who had been recognized for her merits, was selected for a special pardon. In simple terms, this meant that she would be released immediately, regardless of how much talent she had accumulated.
‘Thank you, it’s all thanks to you guys!’
She was genuinely happy and told her companions about her plans for the future. After she was free, she would return to Ashtal and spend whatever time she had left with them.
On the day of Telesia’s discharge, all the prisoners who had suffered with her gathered together to congratulate her.
The sound of everyone chatting excitedly rang in my ears.
‘I knew there was a concept called special pardon, but this is the first time I’ve seen it with my own eyes.’
‘Maybe we can be like that someday?’
‘Thank you, Telesia. You gave hope not only to the people of this dimension, but to all of our prisoners who were with us.’
The moment finally came amidst the excitement of everyone.
Before regaining one’s original body, one must first restore one’s memories.
The moment Telesia took a deep breath amidst the tension, something began.
Looking back now, Minjun didn’t feel anything at the time. Was it magic, technology, or something else beyond his perception? The only clue that something was going on was Telesia’s stiff body.
A few seconds passed as everyone held their breath.
Something happened that no one expected.
‘······Telesia?’
The moment someone softly called my name.
Telesia looked down at her hands as if she could not believe it. Then she looked at her companions. Next, she looked at the countless stars spread across the night sky. She looked at the Ashtal people scattered throughout the universe. She looked at the sanctuary where they lived. She looked at the vast world she had rebuilt.
And then her face became very distorted.
Everyone felt embarrassed. There were whispers that something was wrong.
Telesia collapsed. She fell to her knees, shaking. She shook her head in panic and let out a harsh sob. She muttered something incessantly, mixed with the croaking sounds.
These were the words that Minjun could barely understand.
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’
She kept mumbling those words and cried out to the committee, asking them to take her away from here immediately.
The committee answered her prayer and opened the door, and she ran away without looking back. Those who were left behind just stared blankly. That was the last sight of a prisoner who had dedicated herself to Ashtal for three hundred years.
And soon after the remaining prisoners had all left Ashtal, they heard the news that Telesia had taken her own life.
***
Minjun walked a little further down the street where the noise was rising.
Recurring thoughts.
‘I won’t be like that.’
It was more of a resolution and determination than a premonition.
Minjun repeated to himself that whatever memories he had lost would not be eaten away at him after he regained them.
He and other prisoners could easily infer from the situation at the time. It was a very terrible assumption, but they could not find a more reasonable explanation. What kind of memories did Telesia regain, and what crime did she commit to start her life as a prisoner?
The committee didn’t make it official and no one asked, but everyone had a gut feeling.
And the memory of Telesia’s end remained more vivid in Minjun than in anyone else.
It had to be that way.
Minjun reads a language that only he can see.
– The retirement allowance (immediate release bail) awarded to ‘Prisoner Identification Number: Asif-666’ is 5,124,990 talents.
Minjun remembers clearly.
Telesia’s retirement allowance was 1.2 million talents.
