Chapter 9. Mystery Mart (1)
Divine power.
I knew what it was.
Along with mana and martial arts energy, it was one of the forces collectively known in the Gallery as the Five Great Energies.
It was a power capable of healing the injured.
I hadn't expected something like that to exist in this world too.
Could mana and martial arts energy exist here as well?
At this point, this world was starting to feel like some fantasy setting where all kinds of things had simply been thrown together.
Anyway.
I caught the woman as she collapsed from exhaustion after releasing divine power.
She moved her lips as though she didn't even have enough strength to speak, then closed her eyes.
Soon, the two men approached us.
I took a step back and studied their expressions.
There was surprise and confusion on their faces, but not much of it.
It looked like they already knew about divine power.
Their confusion was probably caused by the woman's sudden action.
Divine power.
Divine power, huh...
Should I take her with me?
Being able to heal injuries in an apocalypse was an incredible ability.
Even so, I hesitated.
The mart looked extremely dangerous.
If I was going into a place like that, I couldn't afford to have even the slightest obstacle holding me back.
I weighed the benefits I could gain from bringing the woman against the potential trouble she could cause me.
It didn't take long to reach a conclusion.
I should take her.
As long as she could follow on her own.
The problem was if she wanted her companions to come too.
My gaze shifted toward the two men.
Both were large, muscular, and well-built.
Even though I'd learned a little martial arts, there were two of them.
If they caught me by surprise, I would almost certainly lose.
I also couldn't blindly trust the kindness they'd shown me.
Anyone could put on that much of an act.
If those two joined us as well, I might need to reconsider traveling together.
“......”
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Was I being too sensitive?
Even if this was an apocalypse, only one day had passed.
The zombie virus was dangerous, but according to the government, it was expected to die down soon.
Perhaps because of that announcement, there seemed to be almost none of the looters commonly seen in apocalypse stories.
And even if these people were looters, there wasn't much they could gain by attacking me.
The only weapon I had was a knife, not a gun.
And it was just an ordinary kitchen knife that anyone could easily find.
I wasn't carrying food either.
Anything another person might actually want had been left back at my house.
Had I been...
too paranoid?
“...Would you like to go to the mart together?”
After thinking it through carefully, I decided to travel with them.
At my question, the woman who was half-leaning against me immediately brightened.
The two men, however, looked serious.
They approached us.
“Yeonhee. Are you really going back there?”
“...Yeah. I have to. Even if I die.”
“Fine. Haah... All right.”
They exchanged a few brief words before looking at me.
The woman was the first to speak.
She shakily pulled herself out of my arms and leaned against a nearby utility pole.
“Thank you for catching me. Um, that light just now...”
“It was probably a Mystery. Divine power. Since when have you been able to use it?”
Her eyes widened.
She muttered something to herself, then seemed to understand.
“You... have a Mystery too, don't you? That's amazing.”
“I'm surprised as well. So, when did you gain the ability to use divine power? You don't have to answer if it's a sensitive question.”
“It's okay. And... I'm sorry, but I don't really know much about the divine power either.”
I looked directly into her eyes.
I wasn't a psychologist or a profiler.
There was no way I could distinguish truth from lies just by looking into someone's eyes.
But I could at least put pressure on her.
She avoided my gaze.
Judging from her expression and the atmosphere around her, she didn't seem to be lying.
“Please don't look at me like that. I'm telling the truth... I just woke up and suddenly found that I could use it. Was it different for you?”
Very different.
This wasn't actually my ability.
It was the book's ability.
Since it looked like we were going to the mart together anyway, I decided there was no harm in telling them.
I let go of the book in my hand.
The book flew free and enthusiastically flapped around me.
The entire group, including the woman, stared back and forth between me and the book in shock.
The man who had first spoken to me earlier even clenched his fists.
Did he think it was an enemy?
“This is a book. It's my friend.”
“A Mystery... is your friend?”
“Aren't you similar? You control a Mystery too.”
“That's completely different. I'm controlling the Mystery inside me, but you...”
She didn't finish the sentence.
I could roughly guess what she wanted to say.
I stroked the book.
It rustled happily and released smoke.
Everyone immediately backed several steps away as though the smoke were poisonous gas.
Their reaction was more sensitive than I'd expected.
Then again...
It seemed like they'd lost a friend to the Mystery inside the mart.
Maybe their reaction was only natural.
To show them there was nothing to worry about, I played around with the book for a while.
