By Zephyria 
—Whenever I see the panorama of this vast Solar City, I think of you, Olga. Your well-being, your abode, and a comfortable armchair. Your face as you doze off in it. All my efforts are solely for that. Please understand the days when I couldn’t tell you anything.
The man’s voice was low, calm, and even his tone was so gentle that it was easy to focus on the content without effort.
Even though it was an unfamiliar language, he could vaguely understand it. Although commercial translators were readily available, Mu-hae had studied this language in the past.
Thinking about it now, it wasn’t surprising. Everything he had learned as a child was for the Return flight.
However, Olga, perhaps thinking that no one but her could understand, didn’t turn off the streaming audio file and left it as it was.
—The situation hasn’t been good for the past few years. I’ve always had to move assuming the worst of the worst. Did you say that? That humanity is now on the back of a dangerous sea turtle called Crystal Blue. That we must learn to float on our own before it sinks and drowns us and bites us. Thinking about it now, there was no wiser saying than that. You were always right. I learned everything from you, from the order of putting root vegetables in soup to how to hold the strings of an instrument.
Joo-oh fidgeted his hands at the quiet voice. Strangely, he also seemed to understand the contents of the will.
Was he also from Solar City after all? Come to think of it, he was found in Khan Rano, somewhat far from Goryeo City.
Since there were cities around that used a similar language to this place, he hadn’t noticed, but when he thought about it, it was almost a coincidence that he could communicate with him from the beginning.
—Olga Belova. You are a wonderful woman. I believe you will always lead such a wonderful life even without me. I wish I could be a part of that life, but things don’t always go the way we want. Maybe it would be good to have a religion after I finish this recording. It’s more reassuring to leave you behind if there’s an afterlife than to return to nothingness.
—Don’t worry about me and live. Only for yourself. However, as much as I remember you, Olga, as I return, I hope my existence remains as a dot for you. In a size that doesn’t interfere with your remaining life, always buried very small on one side.
With a concise greeting, the recording file turned off with a static sound. A heavy silence flowed over the table where the three were sitting.
Olga had been burying her face in her hands for a while. Even though there wasn’t a single sob, the space between her fingers was damp.
After a long wait, she raised her head. After wiping away the moisture flowing down her cheeks without leaving any, she finally sighed and smiled faintly.
“You understood the content, right?”
“Yes?”
“You looked like you did.”
Olga adjusted the size of her bracelet, looking bitter.
“He’s a funny man. Actually, I already stole and looked at his documents as much as I could. I couldn’t bear to watch him. He gradually lost his appetite, sleep, and became emaciated.”
“…….”
“After that, I needed time to think. I left him and went on a trip, and one morning, the hotel TV said that Solar City had disappeared.”
Her eyes became wet again as she rambled. Her watery blue eyes contained the shock of her younger days.
The pain and sense of loss that had not diminished even after so much time had passed.
“If you lose your lifelong home and wander around, you can’t help but become quick-witted. So, you’re not sent from the intelligence agency, are you?”
“Assistant manager…….”
“That too. I know it’s not a job I received from the intelligence agency. There’s no way. Who else would they entrust their work to?”
It seemed that even a flimsy excuse had been caught early on. If so, Olga had revealed an anecdote that she had kept secret to a person who was neither a civil servant nor knew where they came from.
“If you’re moving separately from the organization, I guess it’s on that person’s side. I just threw it out there, but it wasn’t a bad choice.”
She took out a handkerchief and wiped her face, making a meaningful sound.
Mu-hae’s eyebrows twitched. Did Olga also know Gu-reum?
“It’s a strange thing. Even if I’m from Solar City, I wouldn’t be in a position to meet such a big shot.”
“A big shot…… you mean?”
“Yes. That woman. She asked me about that person’s work directly before. She immediately feigned ignorance, but she already seemed to know something.”
Mu-hae raised one eyebrow slightly and recalled Gu-reum’s appearance. He had only met her once, but her appearance was engraved in his mind.
“If you met her in person, maybe she has black hair and slightly drooping eyes…….”
“Oh. I guess you don’t know.”
Olga cut him off as soon as he described her features. As if the person she met was not the Gu-reum that Mu-hae knew.
“That’s strange. There’s no other way to approach her except through you.”
After thinking for a moment, Olga scanned Joo-oh and gave an unexpected answer.
“It seems like you don’t know who you’re working for.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the ‘real big shot’. Not just an intermediate contact.”
……It was an incomprehensible point. In the first place, Mu-hae moved for the Return flight, not for anyone else, and Gu-reum, who helped with that, was a big shot enough.
If the person who understands the gaps in the city and causes incidents at will is not the real one, then what is?
Then, Mu-hae suddenly remembered what Director Gil had said before. When he asked about her cautiously, he said that Gu-reum was not someone with that much power.
“Then, the big shot you met.”
“The real power of this city. The one who manages and controls Goryeo City.”
Olga whispered in a small voice that could barely be heard. Mu-hae’s eyes widened at the answer that far exceeded his expectations.
“Since you’ve granted my request, you have to pay the promised price.”
Unlike Mu-hae, who lost his words and froze, Olga was gradually regaining her stability.
After calming down her irregular breathing, Olga slowly got up from her seat.
“Let’s go. I don’t think this story should be told outside.”
Following her, Mu-hae also picked up two stacked cake boxes and hurriedly left the cafe.
‘I couldn’t understand all of that person’s documents. First of all, it’s not my field, so I only recognized the general content.’
‘I know that Solar City was trying to stop the Crystal Zone. They tried various studies for that.’
‘I guess you’re not from the intelligence agency. So, the reason you need that information is because of the use of Blue Energy?’
‘Maybe it’s to prepare so that this city doesn’t follow a similar path. That’s what I’m doing for now.’
It wasn’t a lie. The ultimate goal of the Return flight was to erase Crystal Blue from this world.
Her expression changed at Mu-hae’s answer. It was as if she was recalling the memory of the day Solar City was destroyed.
‘Okay. I don’t know if this will really only be used in a positive direction, but even if I hold it, things won’t get any better. According to the records, Solar City developed a substance called ‘Star Road’ in this language. When that substance combines with Crystal Blue, a unique change occurs. Maybe they were trying to eliminate or reduce the Crystal Zone that would be created nearby with that.’
‘It seems things didn’t go as planned.’
‘Considering that the record was already several years old at the time, they must have been repeating research after research. It must have been an unstable technology.’
Was it because they touched an unfinished substance and brought disaster upon themselves? The preparation period for Solar City was too long to simply dismiss it as such.
There were still many unsatisfactory aspects, but he had obtained valuable information anyway. Combining the clues he had found so far, it seemed that the Return flight had been continuing exchanges with a specific group in Solar City, and his father’s research was of great help to their path.
So, the ‘Star Road’ that Olga mentioned was probably a substance related to his father’s records.
‘Do you know what role the deceased played in that project?’
After thinking for a long time, Olga quietly shook her head. Her face was still pale.
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’m telling you this now, but it seems that that person wasn’t only involved in good things.’
‘It might help prevent similar accidents.’
‘Maybe it will. But…….’
After that, she had been holding her bracelet all the time. Even until the moment Jin Mu-hae took Joo-oh and left the house, as if searching for traces of a beloved person.
‘It’s embarrassing to say, but sometimes there are things that can’t be shared even for the sake of the greater good. Just wanting to cover up the faults of a loved one makes you ignore greater values……. If you want, I’ll tell you more information that I still remember. That will definitely be more helpful. To you and to those behind you.’
In that way, the business trip to Garam District was completed, going in and out of the city.
When he returned to Jaegang District and opened the door of the hideout, the empty air coldly touched Mu-hae’s skin.
“Jin Mu-hae. This.”
Joo-oh, who followed, rummaged through his pockets and took out a jewel the size of a fingernail. It was a red and round bead like his eyes.
It was what he received from Olga. Not giving in to the previous refusal, he handed her a green toy again.
‘Somumu. It makes sadness just that kind of emotion.’
‘Not joy?’
‘Yeah. That’s roughly it.’
“It’s yours.”
“Jin Mu-hae has it. Put it in your bag. Or in your pocket.”
Joo-oh, who had been earnestly told, snatched the cake box and ran inside.
Perhaps because he had been holding it in his pocket, his body temperature remained lukewarm on the round bead.
If he just threw it away, he would probably look for it again later. Jin Mu-hae put the bead in the bag he carried with him on every request and leaned back in the armchair.
Now that he had completed the mission, it was time to contact Gu-reum. If it was the information about ‘Star Road’ that he had obtained from Olga, she would be satisfied enough.
‘The day I was rummaging through the ruins of Solar City, I saw a survivor of the city. That person was also rummaging through something like me. He was probably a researcher. A special frame that was only given to a few people was attached to the Link Watch.’
However, the words that Olga added before leaving the entrance would not flow to Gu-reum.
Unless they were in a superior-subordinate relationship, there was no need to report everything to her. Moreover, if there was a sudden ‘real power of the city’ behind it, as Olga had guessed, wouldn’t it be necessary to save the cards in hand even more?
‘Maybe it’s a leap.’
Jin Mu-hae quietly stared at the panel that wasn’t even turned on.
If it’s hard to judge with your head, stop when you get a hunch. He was still surviving by following that rule.