Chapter 272
Chapter 272
- We are fine .
The screen displayed Jimin’s face, and Sungyoon saw no strangeness in her complexion or demeanor . Suddenly, a small face popped up in front of Jimin .
- Fine! We are fine!
Sungyoon unconsciously relaxed his face . He didn’t even try to hide the smile that appeared on his face as he ran his hand across s.h.i.+nhae"s face on the screen .
“How’s our daughter doing? Are you doing ok?”
- Yes! I went to a bookstore yesterday with Mom! I bought a lot of books!
“Is that so?”
s.h.i.+nhae had now become used to calling Jimin mom, and there was no awkwardness to it .
Sungyoon saw s.h.i.+nhae raise a picture book with the name ‘The Little Mermaid" . s.h.i.+nhae let out a trilling laugh as she showed her father the underwater kingdom drawn inside the book .
- I’m thinking about teaching s.h.i.+nhae her letters soon .
“Aren’t you being too hasty?”
- I have no plan on rus.h.i.+ng her .
Jimin had just wanted to lay down some seeds and let s.h.i.+nhae become familiar with her letters . Had s.h.i.+nhae disliked it, Jimin would have put it off to the future . Unexpectedly, s.h.i.+nhae loved learning the letters .
Jimin looked at s.h.i.+nhae as she laughed . It appeared as though she wanted to say ‘Right!’ to s.h.i.+nhae . s.h.i.+nhae nodded in response .
Sungyoon wanted to ask how they were doing in light of the terrorist attack, but somehow the topic of the conversation had turned into s.h.i.+nhae’s education . He pressed down on the urge to keep talking about s.h.i.+nhae .
“I’ll leave s.h.i.+nhae in your care . You should listen to your mom, s.h.i.+nhae . ”
- Yes!
A smile appeared on his face at the sight of his energetic daughter, and Jimin held a similar expression as she watched s.h.i.+nhae . Suddenly, their eyes met, and Sungyoon spoke .
“Take care of yourself, D-darling . It seems the world is becoming a dangerous place . ”
- Yes . You should take care of yourself too .
In any topic regarding s.h.i.+nhae, the two could converse without a problem . When it involved the two of them, however, the conversation would become awkward . Nonetheless, it was evident that they had gotten closer .
s.h.i.+nhae waved her hand, and Sungyoon did the same before ending the call .
‘That takes one worry off my mind . ’
Sungyoon brushed his hand over his chest, then returned to the living room . Grace, who had been drinking black tea, looked up at him with a smile on her lips .
“How’s your family?”
“They said they are doing fine . How did you know I was calling them?”
“It"s natural to contact one’s family when hearing about a terrorist attack . I also contacted my parents and grandmother . ”
Unlike Sungyoon and Grace, the Ross siblings looked disinterested because they didn’t have any close family to worry about .
The four of them once again paid attention to the TV .
‘Why would terrorist attacks simultaneously occur across the globe?’
Sungyoon wondered about the motive behind the terrorist attacks . Why were they causing so much chaos on Earth? There was already enough trouble on the Moon .
‘There is no way these are related to Fabion, right?’
Earth and the Moon .
An incredible distance separated the incidents in both places, and it was hard to make a connection between them . Yet, a feeling kept nagging Sungyoon .
‘So many things have happened to me that I’m suspicious of everything now . ’
If he told about his thoughts to any other person, they would probably tell him that he was being paranoid . Sungyoon tamped down his suspicions, but he knew it was best to be on his guard .
***
No one could explain the goal behind the terrorist attacks . Unlike other terrorist organizations, the ones behind these attacks didn’t put out a manifesto . They just caused indiscriminate destruction .
As if Earth had attracted all the troubles on the Moon, Armstrong city enjoyed eventless days and its residents lived a peaceful life .
Sungyoon pulled back his blanket and jumped into his bed . As always, he took out a picture before he slept . Of course, it was a picture of a smiling s.h.i.+nhae, but the picture was a bit different now . Jimin was standing next to s.h.i.+nhae with a quiet smile on her face .
His wife was getting ever closer to his lovely daughter, and Sungyoon wanted to be with them as soon as possible .
‘Why do things have to get so complicated? Jeez!’
Sungyoon sighed when he saw the faces he missed . Two weeks had pa.s.sed since he had started monitoring Soyoung’s mother . She hadn’t consumed much in this period, so she was becoming more and more emaciated .
To respond to the terrorist activities on Earth, a lot of Connectors had returned to their own countries . Armstrong city was running short-handed .
‘It might have been better if we had also returned . ’
Each member of Sungyoon’s party had received a request to return to their country . However, Armstrong had pulled out all the stops to prevent that from happening . Thus, the four of them were stuck guarding the suspected ambusher .
‘The Mayor"s trust in me is giving me trouble . ’
Russell and Bruce had gone back to Earth . Armstrong city had worked harder to keep Sungyoon’s party in place rather than those two Connectors . Of course, the name value of the two men was too high for Armstrong to mess with them .
Sungyoon lay in his bed as he ran his hand through his hair .
‘It will soon end . Let’s not think about unnecessary things . ’
Being a suspect, Plu-El would be transported to Earth under heavy security for a proper interrogation .
‘The mission will come to an end . ’
Sungyoon didn’t feel so good about it .
‘… In the end, she didn’t open her mouth . ’
He was worried . Of course, he wasn’t worried about Plu-El, but her daughter, Soyoung .
‘She was a cute child . ’
This thought didn"t come to his mind just because Soyoung had gotten along well with s.h.i.+nhae . Sungyoon had entrusted s.h.i.+nhae to an orphanage before, and he knew what happened to children without any parents .
‘She’ll be lonely because of her mother’s sins . ’
As he thought about the girl, something happened .
Kooooooooohng! Kwahhhhhhhng!
His droopy eyes opened wide . He jumped out of the bed, ran to the window, and pulled aside the curtain .
‘What the h.e.l.l happened!’
Smoke rose from various locations in the city, and a building engulfed in flames appeared in Sungyoon"s vision . His ears picked up screams coming from the direction of the fire, and everyone on the streets was looking at the fire in surprise .
Shwahhhhhhhhhh!
Streams of water fell from the ceiling of Armstrong city . The citywide sprinkler system had been activated, and it was a matter of time before the fire would be extinguished . Several bystanders became relieved .
However, Sungyoon still felt a chill run up his fine .
‘The fire isn’t the problem . ’
He had heard an explosion first . If there had been a single explosion, Sungyoon would"ve returned to bed a.s.suming someone had made a mistake . However, as his eyes took in at least six buildings on fire, his mind thought back to the event that had occurred on Earth not too long ago .
‘Terrorists!’
Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng!
More explosions erupted, and the people of the city finally realized what was going on . They started screaming . Everyone was focused on the burning buildings, but Sungyoon’s gaze headed past the buildings toward Armstrong"s walls .
‘If my ears haven’t deceived me . . . ’
Sungyoon had heard explosions in the distance . These explosions hadn"t happened inside the city, but near the walls .
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhng!
A siren rang out within Armstrong city, and the situation became hectic . Due to it being night, the city"s lights had been dimmed . Thus, the appearance of a red light now was an ominous sign .
Bul-kuhk!
“Mr . Sungyoon!”
Tim, who was still in his pajamas, burst through the door of Sungyoon’s room . Soon, Grace and Emily also entered the room, clad in their sleepwear .
“What . . . what . . . what . . . . what’s going on!”
The last one to arrive was Chelsea . Unlike Sungyoon’s party, Chelsea hadn’t experienced pandemonium before, and her body shook in fear .
“I’m not too sure . It might be a terrorist attack or an attack from outside to take down Armstrong city . We have too little information right now . ”
“Let’s go out to help!”
An ax appeared in Tim’s hand . A violent light shone in his eyes as if he wanted to decapitate the culprits behind the explosions . However, Sungyoon thought otherwise .
“No . We will continue to stay here . ”
“Are you sure about that? Armstrong is short-handed right now . They’ll need all the helping hands they can get . ”
“Please think about whom we are guarding . ”
“Ah!”
Emily looked toward the room where Plu-El was confined .
“We’ll only move if we get a direct order from Armstrong"s higher-ups . ”
Sungyoon faced the four of them as he spoke .
“Ms . Emily and Ms . Grace, you will guard her . She might try to escape using the confusion . ”
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
Resolve filled their eyes .
“Mr . Tim and I will guard against any threat from outside . ”
“Please don’t worry about it!”
Tim pounded his chest .
“I’m sorry, but I have a request for you too, Ms . Chelsea . Please stay near the phone . If a call comes, please relay the message to us . ”
“I can do that!”
Her body still shook, but Chelsea clenched her fists .
“Then, let’s get moving . ”
Everyone left the room in a flash . Sungyoon followed the others, but he glanced back once more . The fire was still dancing in the air .
***
“Wh-what the h.e.l.l happened?”
One of his comrades spoke up in a fl.u.s.tered voice, but Aruwen kept silent . However, his trembling eyes proved that he was also shocked .
“Hey! Did we set up this many explosions?”
Aruwen"s comrade asked the question to the whole group this time, but everyone just shook their head in surprise .
“What should we do, Aruwen?”
The person in the rear asked as he tapped the ground with his spear in an impatient manner .
“This wasn’t in the plan . Are we still going to push ahead?”
All of them had slowly infiltrated Armstrong city through the Great Labyrinth and the Beginner’s Labyrinth . They had gathered a good number of people despite the heightened surveillance all over Armstrong city .
They knew where Plu-El was imprisoned, but their fighting force was too small to confront the troops within Armstrong city . So they had come up with this plan . To distract Armstrong, they had scattered their men to various locations within the city and caused explosions . It wasn’t a bad plan .
Things had even gone their way . Armstrong city was thrown into confusion by the explosions . However, their plan had been too successful, and it had been spurred by some unknown factor .
“… We’ll carry it out . ”
“Won’t it be too dangerous?”
“We’ll never get a better opportunity . A lot of their troops are on Earth because of the terrorist attacks . I have no idea why there were more explosions, but it puts us in a more advantageous situation . ”
Aruwen’s words sounded reasonable, so everyone nodded . They searched for quiet streets as they moved toward Sungyoon’s house .
***
“What the h.e.l.l is that?”
Aruwen"s group and Sungyoon"s party weren"t the only groups shocked by the larger than expected explosions