By Zephyria 
All sorts of thoughts crossed his mind. Whether this was a dream or reality. Whether the voice that had just called him had actually reached his ears, or if it had seeped out from some moment in his memories.
However, his vision was far too clear to dismiss it as a mere hallucination. The expression on Joo-oh’s face beside him was also different from a moment ago.
As he stood there blankly, as if his mind had stopped, warmth enveloped his hand. Glancing back, he saw that Joo-oh was holding his hand.
‘It’s okay.’
It felt as if he were saying exactly that. Perhaps that was why Mu-hae felt a little better about this sudden moment thrust upon him.
“I didn’t realize such a big shot would come and wait in person.”
Despite the smooth tone, there wasn’t a hint of a smile in the voice. As he pushed open the door and entered, he held his breath for a moment.
The slowly widening gap of the door felt like a screen with visual effects. When he had seen similar direction in the trashy TV shows Joo-oh kept on, he had thought it was a boring and lazy expression.
In reality, everything flowed very slowly, as if time had stopped.
A half-open door. A bookshelf and a chair visible through the gap. Someone was sitting atop furniture covered in a white cloth.
“It has been a long time.”
The other person greeted him first in a serene voice. She was a middle-aged woman with brown hair neatly tied back.
Her gaze remained fixed on a tablet, as if she were handling business even in a place like this. Only after the two of them had fully entered the room did she lift her head to meet their eyes.
“Seeing as you’ve come all the way here, it seems you’ve remembered something.”
Her face bore signs of exhaustion, yet it was imbued with elegance. The slightly cool look of her eyes and the shadows of her features gave an alarmingly familiar feeling.
Had Gu-reum said so? That he resembled ‘that woman.’
Although the person before him differed from Jin Mu-hae in many ways, the impression she exuded was undeniably similar.
“It has been a long time.”
Mu-hae returned the greeting, even toward someone he couldn’t remember.
If the person standing before him was indeed who he thought she was, unless he had grown up with his eyes closed, he must have seen her at some point in the past.
Once he realized that, he found himself speechless. After the brief exchange of greetings, a silence that felt like an eternity flowed.
Perhaps thinking the encounter was already over, Joo-oh intervened, pulling a single-person sofa toward himself.
“I want to sit too.”
Dust puffed up around him as he plopped down without even removing the cloth.
“This is Jin Mu-hae. I’m Joo-oh.”
He took it upon himself to introduce them, though he hadn’t been asked. In front of a person who likely already knew exactly who was who, his behavior was practically a performance.
“Should I call you West Wind?”
“…….”
“Or, Kang Ju-seo?”
“Both are indeed my aliases, but both are names bound to the Return flight.”
West Wind folded the tablet, tucked it into her clothes, and stood up calmly.
Approaching Mu-hae step by step, she extended her right hand. As if proposing a handshake.
“I am Seo Ju-gyeong, the General Manager of City Administration. Is this the first time we’ve met like this?”
The moment he heard that name, the relationship map he had rehearsed countless times in his head connected and lit up like a spiderweb.
The Mayor of Goryeo City, who had not appeared in public for several years. The image of the person sitting beside him in an old video surfaced in his mind like an afterimage.
Seo Ju-gyeong. The current Mayor’s niece and the real power of Goryeo City. The traitor of the Return flight. The observer of the reconstructed Return flight. And Jin Mu-hae’s biological mother…….
Faced with this extraordinary resume, Mu-hae was somehow calm, like a person devoid of emotion.
He didn’t budge an inch, leaving the hand she extended hanging awkwardly.
“I suppose you’re not in the mood for greetings.”
“…….”
“And it seems you’ll need some time to process this.”
“I wonder.”
As West Wind was about to withdraw her hand at the blunt response, Joo-oh, who had been watching while swinging his legs from behind, popped out again.
He grabbed her hand on Mu-hae’s behalf and shook it enthusiastically, swinging his arm back and forth.
“What an interesting friend.”
“Jin Mu-hae says he’s not interesting.”
“Right. He’s not, so just wait quietly.”
Today, he didn’t even have the energy to nag him not to interfere recklessly. Mu-hae picked him up and plopped him onto the sofa, then kicked the white cloth aside.
Understanding the silent warning, the fellow held his breath and returned to observation mode. Only then did Mu-hae take in the sight of West Wind tidying her sleeves in the interim.
In his life, he had never once longed for family. Since he had no memory of them, he hadn’t grown up yearning for a mother.
Nevertheless, at this moment, the existence of the biological mother who had appeared as if fallen from the sky felt quite special.
It wasn’t because of blood ties or emotional turmoil regarding a lost parent. It was simply…….
“Since when did you know?”
“Since the Signaler was activated.”
“Then Gu-reum must be on your side as well.”
“Quick to deduce. A good ability.”
Because she might have been involved in every part of his journey thus far.
He suspected that her influence had reached not only the Return flight but also various points throughout his growth process.
“It seems you have many questions.”
“…….”
“That’s good. I happened to be thinking of an appropriate reward. Since you’ve found the right answer.”
“I believe the price has already been set.”
“Then you can consider it an additional bonus.”
“I’m not so sure about that. There aren’t many topics I’m interested in enough to dig into.”
There was no mother-son reunion like something out of a rainbow-colored fantasy. There were no tears, no longing, no joy or cheers.
It was merely a meeting between a seasoned Mayor Faction politician from the Return flight and the new General Manager of the Return flight. Thinking of it that way made the moment feel a bit more realistic.
Mu-hae crossed his arms, trying to ignore the pain in his temples. The headache had progressed beyond a throb to a stiffness that encompassed his entire head.
Suddenly, an anecdote he had heard from Director Gil came to mind. A story so impressive it hadn’t left his head for a while.
His mother, who had visited Starlight Road after his father’s death. The confession that she had left warnings and a deal with Director Gil and Teacher Jung before departing.
“However, it seems you’ve known where I was for a long time.”
“Probably.”
“…….”
“Then why didn’t you look for me?”
“I’m simply curious about the situation. I’m not interested enough to resent you.”
Despite the answer, which was cold enough to hurt, she did not seem displeased. West Wind stared straight ahead and spoke.
“What is your schedule?”
“I don’t care how long the conversation takes.”
“I’m fine too.”
“I didn’t ask you.”
He snapped at Joo-oh almost out of habit, but Joo-oh was the one who would be most inconvenienced if the meeting dragged on. He hadn’t had dinner yet. A fellow who claimed to be hungry even after eating more than the standard amount.
Fortunately, a quick glance showed his mouth was dry and fine. Although he had quickly hidden it when their eyes met while he was trying to take a photo with the Link Watch, it seemed he wasn’t in a state to be panting from hunger right now.
“Basically, the societies of humans and beasts are not much different. At least, that’s what I believe.”
In the meantime, West Wind’s past was played out along with some vague talk. The concise and easy-to-understand explanation flowed clearly, like playing a recorded file.
Mu-hae checked on Joo-oh one last time before turning his gaze back to West Wind. Once the story began, Joo-oh’s eyes sparkled as if he had never interfered.
……Two political factions that clawed at each other whenever they got the chance. A power that leaned heavily toward the Council Faction.
West Wind, who grew up as the Mayor’s niece, took on the role of aide instead of the Mayor’s own biological children, whose characters were flawed.
Calling it an aide’s role was a stretch; it was more of a process for political education and experience. As she emerged as a key figure of the Mayor Faction, her every move became a weakness, and after covering up the events of the Return flight, everything related to it became a fatal vulnerability.
After summarizing the subsequent collapse of the Return flight in a single sentence, West Wind finally got to the main point.
“The kidnapping that day was an unexpected accident. The fact that a former colleague would take the child was even more outside of my assumptions.”
Colleague. The dry term hinted at the rift between them, but he felt no particular emotion or pity.
It was simply fascinating that a man and woman, from whom not a single drop of sentiment could be squeezed out even if twisted, had once been lovers.
“Only after finding your whereabouts did I think that. That perhaps it would be better in many ways for you to grow up there without knowing me.”
“Wasn’t it because you judged that once I was on someone else’s family register, I would become a weakness too difficult to embrace?”
“I cannot deny that either. I didn’t have the luxury to engage in a war of attrition with someone who knew me well.”
I gave up because I thought you would become a vulnerability. Because she honestly affirmed such a selfish statement, he actually felt calmer.
The time to be hurt by such words had passed more than a decade ago. Jin Mu-hae calmly brought up the following question.
“But my father must have been part of the Return flight’s forces.”
“I was part of the Return flight as well.”
“Didn’t you split because your intentions didn’t align? And that I would grow up absorbing their way of thinking?”
There was a betrayal significant enough to make a group with such potential lose everything and collapse. It was an act difficult to commit without having intentions vastly different from the Return flight.
At the sharp question, the corners of West Wind’s mouth, which had remained expressionless, moved slightly. She asked calmly with an inscrutable smile.
“You must have traced the marks of ‘West Wind.’”
“Yes.”
“Did West Wind seem uninterested in the termination of Crystal Blue? Or did she seem foolish enough to join a dangerous faction without such a goal or determination?”
No, her tracks had consistently followed the research of the Return flight. The person who supported Dmitri, the shadow who provided information and help through Gu-reum, and the big shot who approached Olga—assuming they were all West Wind, she had been digging into the same goal for a very long time.
He had already seen the story behind her in the attic of the abandoned building.
There is a flaw in the Starpath. That flaw must have been a risk factor that West Wind could not ignore.
“Furthermore, before making the ‘decision’ at that time, I had already guessed.”
Hope and expectation, disappointment and worry, conviction—all sorts of emotions dwelled in those brown eyes that seemed to look far into the distance.
Looking into eyes that resembled his own but held a completely different light, Jin Mu-hae vaguely realized her intention.
“As that person warned, there is a time for everything. Once an opportunity is missed, it’s hard to promise the next.”
“…….”
“But even if a human’s lifespan is finite, achievements and goals are bound to be inherited by future generations.”
His throat, dry without any saliva to swallow, surged as he attempted a swallowing motion. Jin Mu-hae uncrossed his arms and blankly clenched his fist.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be me who holds onto the ‘next’ that comes searching.”
Beside Jin Seong-jo, the old house on Starlight Road was another base promising a future.
A secret trump card she had established in the face of a grand plan that might consume an immense amount of time…….
251 – I Became an Anomaly in a Dead Game