Chapter 7

“Can you wake up?”

“…”

I had just woken up. A pristine white hospital room, curtains, and a nurse in white.

The society that broke the repetitive daily life was too much for me to fully accept.

It seems like just a few days ago we held Seol-a’s funeral, but my memories are all jumbled.

“You still have some effects from the medication, so you might be feeling dizzy. If you’re okay, shall we hold hands and go together?”

I nodded.

Strangely, words wouldn’t come out easily, so I replaced it with a nod.

In virtual reality, it felt like I could speak effortlessly just by thinking, but in reality, it felt like there was an extra step? I opened my mouth, but the words I thought didn’t come out of my throat.

Hospital. A boring space that imposes annoying things. Maybe because of my child’s body, it was an emotion I found quite difficult to endure.

I twisted my body and rolled my eyes to count the number of patients to soothe my boredom.

“103 cm and 15.8 kg… this really is less than a five-year-old baby.”

The doctor mumbled as he received the chart from the nurse.

Following that, there were a series of boring tests.

Covering one eye to match shapes and hugging a giant teddy bear tightly.

“Hold your breath for a moment, isn’t a teddy bear doing a chest X-ray a bit child-friendly?”

Having tasted a honey-like deep sleep, I who used to sleep less than six hours a day now slept for twelve hours and still felt groggy upon waking.

As I sat in a chair nodding off, someone I presumed to be my guardian had sat next to me and was listening intently to the doctor’s words.

The doctor continued explaining calmly, but the older man next to me had a rather serious expression. Or maybe he always had that expression. His face was so rugged that it was hard to tell.

After a check-up, the last stop was always the pharmacy. This was roughly consistent with my common sense. The world was so strange that I often got confused about what was common sense and what wasn’t.

“You’ll have to drink this every day from now on.”

The man handed me a drink that looked very much like ‘Fanta’ or ‘Sprite.’ He even popped the can open for me. How kind.

Ah, this tastes familiar.

Of course, it wasn’t ‘Fanta.’

Looking at the nutritional information on the back of the can, it confirmed my thoughts.

The mana potion I used to have as a meal replacement every day. It seems they sell it in reality too.

“Is it tasty?”

It wasn’t delicious, but it was at least tolerable. I didn’t offer any comments. The man didn’t seem to care much about my non-reaction.

“Now that you have nowhere to go, what are you going to do? This is bad.”

After I finished the pseudo ‘Fanta,’ the man took it away and threw it in the trash. He didn’t forget to crumple it first.

I never had anywhere to go, so what was he talking about?

“Seriously, what a tight situation! Just because you’re not officially classified as a terror victim, you don’t get any support? Insurance premiums and qualification requirements, they say they don’t even know if you’re a Korean citizen because you don’t have a bio-chip. Damn, if your mom is Korean, of course, the daughter is Korean too.”

How did the country end up like this? The man’s complaints went on for quite a while.

It was hard to understand at times due to the dialect, but the gist was that all the funds from Seol-a’s support went to funeral expenses and my hospital bills. Just lying in the hospital for one more day would incur astronomical costs.

“Sigh, how would you know anything? You just seem pitiful.”

Even the National Intelligence Service and the prosecution seemed to have completely washed their hands of the situation.

Given my age, I wouldn’t know any information regarding the terrorism anyway, and above all, it was hard to identify the perpetrator.

Since it was already officially declared that Valpurigis had been eradicated in Korea, it was now an uncomfortable situation. The state probably views me as just a pitiful girl who lost her mother to a terrorist organization.

Even that wouldn’t qualify for any official citizen benefits, let alone the bare minimum living expenses.

It seemed that Detective Ma Beom-il was acting not just out of performance but simply out of professional spirit.

Despite his harsh words, he didn’t grip my hand tightly. He kept looking at my health report with his other hand as he walked.

“If I could, I’d take you home and let you meet Ji Hye… but the law says that’s not allowed. I should blame my job.”

Is Ji Hye the name of the man’s daughter? Just by the name, it seemed to give a round impression in contrast to the man.

Ultimately, the point was that I wasn’t a terror victim or a proper citizen, but rather close to an illegal immigrant whose origin was unknown.

After arriving at a remote orphanage across the mountain and river, I saw that the facility looked quite dilapidated, yet was an accredited institution with official government marks at the front gate.

Since the man had called ahead just before arriving, an elderly woman with graying hair was waiting to greet us.

“Please take good care of her.”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

“I’ll visit often.”

“I’ve never seen anyone who says that actually keep their word in my 25 years of work here.”

She had a rather cynical personality.

I bid farewell to Detective Ma Beom-il in that manner. Our encounter was quite short, and nothing special happened, but I still thought he was a rather kind person.

“Is your name ‘Name?’ That’s quite unique…”

“Na-me.”

The woman glanced at my identification form as she spoke. I quickly corrected her.

“It’s No-name.”

* * *

Ultimately, my comprehensive health examination report, which had passed through various hands, ended up in my hands only at the end.

Since I am not an expert in this area, there were often terms I couldn’t understand, but to summarize, it could be said that I was a walking comprehensive hospital.

Short stature and underweight were the basics. Now my body had gone beyond tolerance levels and become addicted to the mana potion, to the point I couldn’t live without it.

Maybe that’s why my bodily balance was completely disrupted. The muscles were so thin that I could barely breathe, making even walking a task requiring significant mental strength. The numbers were astonishing.

Fortunately, there were no major issues regarding intelligence. I just had some autistic tendencies and language disabilities. Come to think of it, I found it hard to make eye contact with people.

No, have I even properly met anyone until now? The issue of not being able to speak seemed fixable over time, so I decided not to worry about it too much.

The orphanage lady seemed, by comparison to Detective Ma Beom-il, quite cold and unfriendly, but seeing her be unfazed by my health situation suggested she was simply a person without bias.

Indeed, it’s the indifferent people like this who survive long in the social welfare field.

[Merlin Orphanage]

This would be the place I would reside in the future.

A wooden manor with a loft structure not found in the city. Each room was incredibly small, just barely accommodating a bunk bed.

After completing my admission process, Aunt Park Young Hee (thanks to her name tag, I knew her name) immediately guided me to my room.

Room 206.

It was the room located at the farthest end on the second floor.

[Hwangbo Young]

[Baek Arin]

The aunt removed the top name tag attached next to the room.

“Hwangbo Young moved to a room on the first floor yesterday, so you can take this spot. There’s a bunk bed—Arin is on the first floor, and you’re on the second. Right now it’s lunchtime, so everyone is in the restaurant. If you haven’t eaten lunch, you can come and eat.”

That said, Aunt Young Hee quickly left.

I had no belongings. The casual clothes I was wearing were also bought by Detective Ma Beom-il.

Yet, I wasn’t hungry.

Time floated awkwardly. I tried to open a potion given by the man, but I couldn’t manage it by myself.

Finally, setting aside my struggle with the can, I headed toward the full-length mirror by the door. I think this was the first time I was fully seeing myself in the mirror. Come to think of it, there were no mirrors in the hospital.

My hair, which hadn’t been cut for seven years, reached my waist.

Not parting it properly, I swept aside my bangs that covered half my face.

Because of the thickness, my hair was particularly black, in stark contrast to my face, which was unbelievably pale from not seeing sunlight.

My eyes, possibly resembling Seol-a’s, filled my small face. No, they looked a bit slanted, giving me a fierce impression.

As I engaged in a staring contest with my reflection, I felt a bit of chills.

My limbs were extremely thin. Not only did I lack muscles, but I also noticed there was very little fat. My snowy skin covered the contours of my bones.

“Who… are you…?”

A timid girl whispered through the gap of the door.

Since I was standing blankly in front of the mirror, the girl relaxed her guard slightly and came into the room.

“Are you the new sister the nun was talking about today… or not… oh, right?”

It seemed she was referring to Aunt Young Hee as ‘sister.’

“What’s your name? I’m Arin. Baek Arin.”

“No Name.”

“Na-me? Is that really your name?”

I nodded.

“Na-me is really small. It’s the first time I’m meeting someone younger than me coming in here. I’m seven years old, how about you?”

I was about to say ‘seven,’ but once again, the words got stuck in my throat.

I reluctantly raised seven fingers to show her.

“Seven years old? No way!”

She couldn’t believe that such a small person was the same age as her.

Arin seemed astonished that someone smaller than her was in the same room.

“Hey, Baek Sang-ah! Now that you have a room to yourself, are you happy? You’re not bored since I’m not playing with you, are you?”

A tall, boyish girl burst through the door. Before Arin could react, she wrapped her arms around Arin’s neck.

“Ah, Hwangbo Unni…”

“Who’s this? Ohhh, this is the new girl who just came in today? Nice to meet you. I’m Hwangbo Young. What’s your name?”

“…”

“Um? Why are you not speaking? You’re going to upset the person asking.”

“Th-that…! My name is Na-me, right, Na-me?”

“Our Na-me doesn’t talk much? Or are you deliberately trying to make me upset?”

“No, no, I think Na-me is just nervous since this is her first time here.”

“Really? Then it’s fine. You two look cute being so small together.”

Once Young dashed down the stairs, Arin let out a sigh of relief.

“That was Young Unni, who used to share the same room with me. She’s in fifth grade and knows a lot of scary upperclassmen, so if you meet her again, you have to be nice to her.”

I could see her leading other kids around on the first floor. It seemed like she was almost the leader in the elementary school section.

Perhaps the reason Arin had always shared a room with Young, despite their age difference, was that she was at the lowest rank among the peers.

Even now, Arin was jumping for joy about regaining the first-floor room that had been forcibly taken from her.

This wasn’t some royal palace, and I had no interest in getting involved in the children’s politics.