The Outer God Needs Warmth-Chapter 135: Academy, you’re out of your mind (5)

After walking along the coastline for quite a while, we arrived at the port.

Victoria’s gaze repeatedly turned toward the mountaintop, indicating that she was observing the location of the port, her position, and the terrain to assess her surroundings.

The port was quite chaotic.

Burnt-out buildings and debris. Bloodstains scattered around the buildings were still visible.

However, soldiers in heavy armor were cleaning up the area.

The brass-colored skeletons and the winding gears turning here and there. Occasionally, exhaust vents emitted a faint blue light from which mist arose. The medium armor wasn’t just armor, but an enhanced exoskeleton that amplified strength.

It seemed that some of the techniques Victoria was learning at school were incorporated into it.

Perhaps because of that, Victoria couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the exoskeletons.

Since her hand was holding mine, I followed her gaze and observed the soldiers. I saw one lightly lift part of a collapsed building, resembling a small crane. As those in medium armor cleared heavy debris, others dressed in uniforms entered to conduct a search.

At times, soldiers emerged from buildings carrying something.

It could be the corpse of a Sahagin or that of a human.

The bodies of the Sahagin were thrown into a pit on the outskirts of the port, while human bodies were laid out in the middle of the plaza and covered with white cloths. It seemed like they were laid out for identification.

I could see old people weeping as they confirmed the faces of the corpses under the white cloths.

I wondered why they needed to cover the faces with cloths if they were going to check the faces anyway. But then I realized as I watched the bugs flying around them and settling on the bodies.

It’s a bit unsettling to check the face when insects are swarming around.

Victoria, however, didn’t spare a glance at this scene, absorbed in admiring the exoskeletons.

After enjoying her look around the village and soaking in the sight of the exoskeletons, Victoria, with an awkward smile, dragged me somewhere.

To the lodging.

It was a cheap place, more like a hostel than a hotel.

It was a two-story building with a long hallway, and the rooms had doors opening directly into the hallway.

Together with Victoria, I opened a door with a muddy handle and entered the room.

In my faded memory, it resembled the kind of accommodation you'd see in an American movie, standing alone in the wilderness. Though, in the memory, it wasn’t a movie but a game with zombies inside.

Except for the absence of a TV, the inside of the room wasn’t much different from my faded memory.

An unexpected feature was that every room had its own washing and bathroom facilities.

With the advancement of technology, the washing area was placed inside first, followed by the bathroom.

According to my faded memories, bathrooms hadn’t been inside such cheap places for that long.

For a civilization glowing with a brass color, it meant the technology was surprisingly advanced.

And it also meant that this technology was widespread among ordinary people.

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The first thing that caught my eye was the open door and the footprints stuck to the floor.

Looking at the footprints, I could tell that nothing had been touched, except that Victoria had been kidnapped.

Victoria confidently entered the room, looked around, and let out a sigh of relief. She then hurriedly shoved her belongings into her travel bag.

“You! What are you doing there? You’re not a thief here to steal someone else’s things in such a situation, are you?”

Just then, I heard a voice shouting from outside the door. When I turned my head, I saw an old man with a cane shouting loudly from outside.

“Are you the owner? I’m just taking my things.”

But Victoria answered nonchalantly, unfazed. Then, without caring whether the old man saw or not, she quickly packed her things into the bag.

Thud!

Victoria slammed her thick travel bag shut with a loud noise and walked out with the bag.

“You’re... the kid who disappeared last night...?”

The old man, who was staring at Victoria with a surprised expression, looked confused and suspicious. The look on his face was subtly different from one you would expect when seeing someone who had been thought dead. It was more of an uncomfortable sense of anxiety.

It was the expression of someone who was afraid that their misdeeds would be discovered.

But, as if unaware, Victoria walked out the door.

Thud!

Then, she dropped the bag heavily in front of the old man.

“There’s really been a lot going on. It’s been tough, but since the boat is coming at noon, I need to catch it. Fortunately, the monsters didn’t touch anything. If I leave before noon, I shouldn’t have to pay extra fees, right?”

Under the pressure of Victoria’s tone, the old man nodded reluctantly with a sour expression. Then he looked at me, who was inside the room, and shouted in surprise.

“What’s this? Wasn’t the kid supposed to be sleeping alone? Then, you should pay the extra fee!”

“That kid was rescued when he was kidnapped,” Victoria replied calmly, and the old man immediately shut his mouth. His face was full of dissatisfaction and suspicion.

It didn’t seem like he was trying to raise a fuss over the cost.

However, after pushing the key that was near the entrance into the old man’s chest, Victoria looked at me.

“Let’s go.”

“Right.”

I followed Victoria out.

After walking a bit further from the lodging, I noticed a look of disdain and disgust on Victoria’s face, and I realized it was directed at the old man.

Once we were far enough from the lodging, I asked Victoria.

“Aren’t you going to criticize him?”

“You’re sharp.”

Victoria, carrying the bag, spoke as she walked briskly.

“I don’t know how tangled things are. Whether he opened the door for me in exchange for survival, whether he had already handed someone over before, or if there was some contract, I can’t tell.”

Her leather shoes, stiff with dried blood, stepped into a puddle.

Splash!

There was anger in her voice.

She knew the old man had dealt with the Sahagin in some way.

“But, with the boat right around the corner, it’s not the time to discuss the right or wrong. If we miss it, we won’t be able to board the ship and will have to sit all day.”

Because so many people are moving with the start of the break, there’s no choice. According to Victoria’s memory, if you don’t buy a ticket two or three weeks in advance, the prices rise sharply and there are no good spots left.

“And now the old man has no one left to deal with, right? So it’s fine to leave him.”

As she said this, the female student who had transformed into a Sahagin butcher holding a crowbar spoke seriously.

I nodded.

“But, what should I call you?”

I explained that I didn’t have a name. But without a title, it’s hard to address me. There was a simple solution.

“Make one for me.”

“You want me to make up a name for you?”

Despite my ridiculous request, I continued.

“A name is just a symbol. Think of it as a nickname and choose one.”

“Just, just give me a little time.”

With a face that looked like she had encountered a big problem, Victoria decided to put the issue on hold.

I nodded.

After all, names aren’t that important.

Besides, compared to Choseol, this body is so short that even a short distance feels like a lot of walking.

I wondered if this body would be tall. I hope so. It was more comfortable when I was Rebecca rather than Choseol.

While I was thinking to myself, Victoria and I arrived at the port.

In front of us was a large ship with gears and a huge wheel.

It was the warship from the memory of the Sahagin. It had a mechanical device that shot beams instead of cannons, and if you got hit by it, both the Sahagin and the bio-weapons literally disintegrated.

“Crazy...”

Victoria seemed to have forgotten about naming me, staring blankly at the warship. From her gaze, it looked like she was fascinated by the intricacies of the gears and machines.

Victoria liked learning new things.

Boom!

“Ah! The ship! Hey, hurry!”

When a small boat, not too far from the large ship, sounded its horn, Victoria, looking like a worker who was late, grabbed her bag and ran as fast as she could.

I ran after her, barely catching up in front of the ship.

“Ticket, please.”

Panting, Victoria took out the ticket. When the crew member pointed at me and asked for my ticket, she was startled and shouted.

“Can’t we make an exception for one child?”

“No, we can’t.”

There was a scuffle over the ticket.

After all, the ticket was for one person, so there was nothing to be done about it.

Just when it seemed like we might be separated, after some bargaining, the problem was miraculously solved when the man took a few coins from his pocket.

And then, I was able to board the ship.

“Phew. Good thing he was flexible.”

“So bribery is flexible, huh?”

“Don’t learn about these things.”

Victoria, treating me like a child, took me aboard the ship.

The ship was bigger than I expected.

Well, strictly speaking, it was quite a large ship.

But the warship next to it was so massive that this one felt small in comparison.

After recovering from her exhaustion, Victoria entered with the ticket. She looked at the room number on the ticket and soon arrived at a small private room.

She threw her things inside, lay down on the small bed, and didn’t get up.

“Ugh, I’m going to die. Really. Sorry. I’m going to sleep. I’m so tired.”

She began to exhale deeply, burying her head in the bed as the ship departed with a loud sound. It meant she was utterly exhausted.

Night began, and by dawn, the Sahagin city had erupted into chaos.

In the beginning, when there were Sahagin around, she would hide or lure them to bash their heads in with a crowbar, quietly assassinating them.

But after getting her own weapon, she stopped avoiding and went on a massacre.

Victoria probably didn’t know, but there was a reason they didn’t actively hunt her.

It was because the look in their eyes when they looked at her was like they were seeing their own kind.

Not yet, but soon, they hoped she would become one of them.

It was also significant that Victoria was a girl.

If such a strong creature became one of their kind, their offspring would be excellent.

With various intentions intertwined, it was lucky that the girl who slaughtered all the Sahagin finally finished them off.

At the end, she almost failed.

But thanks to the misfortune of me being summoned, she survived.

In short, it meant that the sleep and exhaustion I had been putting off finally hit me, and I fell into deep sleep.

I undressed Victoria enough to change into the pajamas in her bag and sat by her side, waiting for her to wake up.