episode_0015

[Do you need help, Driller?]

The moment Yuna’s voice echoed inside the cockpit, the two remaining pirates surrounding me couldn’t hide their bewildered expressions.

“Wha-what is that machine?”

“It’s an Icarus mark! Don’t tell me… the Silver Witch?!”

“Quick, let’s take care of that scrap metal and get out of here!”

They quickly aimed their muzzles at me again.

But it was already too late.

*Whizz! Bang! Bang!*

Two blue laser beams accurately pierced the cockpits of the remaining two pirate ships, and they exploded into fireballs without even a scream.

I could only watch in a daze as it unfolded in an instant.

This was the skill of Silvera, the culmination of Icarus’s cutting-edge technology, and ace pilot Yuna.

Silence settled in the isolated chamber.

I slowly descended without lowering my guard and gazed at Silvera as it landed nearby.

Suspicion came before gratitude.

‘Why now, of all times? Right at this moment, when I’ve just gotten my hands on the Gravity Damper?’

[It’s quiet now. How are you?]

I glanced at the warning lights inside the cockpit and replied.

“You saved me. I owe you, Yuna.”

I asked, trying my best to hide my emotions.

“But… how did you know to come here?”

[I tracked the unique energy signature emitted from your machine.]

As expected, she answered vaguely.

[Your last signal was cut off in this dangerous zone. I judged it to be an abnormal danger signal and came to investigate. You were lucky.]

‘Lucky?’

I scoffed inwardly.

She said she tracked my machine’s energy signature, but that couldn’t be the whole truth.

There had to be some other purpose.

Could she have already known about the Gravity Damper?

Did she wait for me to get it, then appear?

All sorts of suspicions piled up.

“Alright, I understand for now. It doesn’t seem like the situation to talk in detail here. Let’s get out of here first and continue our conversation at Terminus.”

It would be foolish to continue confronting her in this battered machine.

A brief silence flowed through the comms after my suggestion.

[Terminus?]

A moment later, her voice came again. It sounded slightly surprised.

[The one I’ve only heard rumors about? Good. Let’s do that.]

Surprisingly, she readily accepted my proposal.

I firmly re-secured the Gravity Damper I had obtained inside the Bugbear and rechecked the minimal flight systems.

We exited Titan’s Graveyard with Yuna’s Silvera leading the way.

The way back to Terminus across the ash-grey wasteland was quite different from the journey there.

The mere fact that the powerful Silvera was accompanying me gave me a sense of psychological stability, but at the same time, her presence was also a burden.

We barely exchanged any words during the flight.

Only a taut tension hung between the two machines.

Upon arriving at Terminus Station, after landing and exiting the cockpit, I spoke to her.

“There’s a decent cafe nearby. Let’s talk there.”

The place we headed was a relatively clean-looking cafe near the central passage.

As we entered the cafe, the gazes of the mercenaries and merchants inside instantly focused on us.

Especially on Yuna.

Her form-fitting silver-white pilot suit and unreal beauty were utterly alien to the atmosphere of this place.

“Isn’t that woman Yuna from Icarus?”

“My god, why is the Silver Witch here?”

“Who’s that guy next to her?”

Whispers came from all directions.

Yuna ignored such gazes nonchalantly and took a seat.

She looked out the window at the chaotic scenery of Terminus Station for a moment, as if fascinated.

“It seems the rumor about it being a sanctuary for free mercenaries wasn’t an exaggeration.”

Her voice contained a genuinely surprised tone.

“It’s amazing how the station maintains itself amidst such disorder.”

It seemed she was either unaware of Terminus’s existence or, at the very least, it was her first time actually visiting.

I sat opposite her and crossed my arms.

I waited for her observations to finish, then asked directly.

“Yes, it exists. Are you done?”

I gazed directly into her silver eyes.

“Now, will you tell me honestly? What was your real purpose in coming all the way to find me in that dangerous ruin?”

Yuna cleared her throat and spoke.

“Fi-first, I want to know your name.”

‘My name?’

Come to think of it, I realized I had never told her my name.

There was a reason she called me ‘Driller’ or ‘cog7’.

“It’s Kang Jin-woo.”

“Kang Jin-woo?”

“Yes.”

Hearing my name, she nodded as if she’d heard valuable information, then quickly averted her gaze.

Honestly, it was a bit frustrating.

It was ambiguous whether she came to Titan’s Graveyard on a commission or to find me.

“Say something.”

I broke the awkward silence.

After all, ever since she asked my name, she had only been sipping her coffee without saying a word.

“Ah… ah, right.”

At my prompt, Yuna raised her head, looking slightly surprised.

She cleared her throat in embarrassment and straightened her posture.

“Why did I come? Um…”

She looked out the window for a moment, then back at me, and spoke.

Her silver eyes were trembling with complexity.

“To be honest… I don’t really know why I’m here myself.”

My eyes widened at her words. What did she mean?

She continued.

As if trying to understand her own actions.

“A few days ago, I handed you a chip with my contact information at Chronos Base. I naturally expected you to contact me right away. I thought there was no way you’d refuse the offer. But there was no news.”

Her voice dropped slightly.

“I felt strangely uneasy. As time passed, I grew more anxious and started worrying about you. Thoughts like whether something had happened to you at Chronos or if you were in some other danger wouldn’t leave my mind.”

I was speechless at her confession.

“Then I confirmed the information that your machine’s last signal was heading to this dangerous area called the ash-grey wasteland. At that moment,”

Yuna placed a hand on her chest.

“Without realizing it, I was heading here in Silvera. Even though I knew it was dangerous, all I could think about was having to check.”

She looked at me once more.

Her gaze contained genuine confusion, not excuses or lies.

“So, I ended up coming here myself. I wanted to confirm you were safe.”

Her sudden confession left me completely speechless.

Did this mean her interest in me wasn’t simply because of my abilities or the Gravity Damper?

Or was this even a sophisticated psychological tactic? But her expression and voice felt so genuine.

Rather, it seemed she herself didn’t understand the situation.

She paused to catch her breath, then asked a slightly different question.

Perhaps it was what she was most curious about amidst all this confusion.

“Are you perhaps unwilling to join our corporation? Is that why you avoided contact?”

Her voice even seemed to contain a hint of anxiety.

I was momentarily flustered by her unexpected honesty and question, but I quickly composed myself and replied.

If she was being honest, then it was only right for me to be honest too.

“Rather than ‘unwilling’…”

I chose my words carefully.

“I don’t think working under someone, within a fixed framework, suits me. It was the same at Chronos. I just want to move freely.”

I uncrossed my arms and adopted a more relaxed posture.

“And as for not contacting you…”

I looked into her eyes as I spoke.

“I wanted to come here to Terminus first and establish a foundation on my own two feet. Having just escaped from Chronos, I didn’t want to blindly rely on your corporation without any preparation.”

Yuna nodded, listening intently.

“I planned to contact you after I had at least grasped what kind of place Terminus was and properly repaired my machine.”

When my explanation finished, Yuna nodded silently once more, then reached for the coffee cup on the table.

Then, suddenly, her movement to take a sip of coffee stiffened.

Her silver eyes seemed to tremble greatly, and her pure white face and neck quickly began to turn bright red, like a ripe tomato.

‘…Hm?’

Did I say something wrong? Or did she suddenly feel unwell? Just as I looked at her, puzzled.

“Pfft!”

With a loud sputtering sound, she spat the coffee she had in her mouth onto the table.

Along with coughing sounds, she covered her mouth with her hand, flustered and at a loss.

#

When Kang Jin-woo’s calm explanation finished, Yuna nodded silently.

His words made sense.

An independent mindset, willing to take risks and build his own foundation.

He was certainly different from the opportunistic mercenaries she usually dealt with.

She could understand his position.

Yes, perhaps his way was the right one.

Having understood the situation, she thought she should now return to the main topic and clearly present Icarus’s offer.

She naturally reached for the cold coffee cup on the table.

She was about to wet her throat and prepare her next words.

It was at that very moment.

The words she had just spilled to him exploded in her mind like a delayed bomb.

-I felt strangely uneasy.

-I started worrying about you.

-Without realizing it, I was heading here in Silvera.

-All I could think about was having to check.

-I wanted to confirm you were safe.

She realized what she had said.

She had painstakingly confessed her anxiety, her worries, and even the reasons for her impulsive actions to an unknown mercenary she had only met a few days ago.

And those reasons were emotional and illogical, starkly contrasting with his rational explanation from just a moment ago.

‘Fool.’

With a cold realization, intense heat rushed to her face.

It was unprofessional. Foolish. She had lost control.

And most of all, she was incredibly embarrassed.

The fact that she had casually blurted out such things to the opposite sex gave her goosebumps.

As a result, just as she was about to take a sip of coffee, she unconsciously held her breath.

“Pfft! Cough! Cough!”

With a loud spluttering sound, the cold coffee she had in her mouth shot out onto the table.

The brown liquid soaked the table and part of her white suit.

Along with coughing sounds, she hastily covered her mouth with her hand, flustered and at a loss.

She wanted to disappear from that spot right now.

She grabbed a napkin from the table and frantically wiped her mouth and the table, but her trembling hands only spread the coffee stain further.

She couldn’t bring herself to lift her head, keeping it bowed low, only her reddened ear tips visible.

How much time had passed?

It was Kang Jin-woo, seated opposite her, who broke the hellish silence.

“Are you alright? Did you choke?”

His voice was surprisingly calm.

“So, is Icarus’s offer still valid?”

His question pulled her back to reality.

She couldn’t show any more embarrassing behavior here.

She desperately pretended to be fine, forcibly stopped coughing, and managed to lift her head.

But she still couldn’t properly meet his gaze.

“…No problem.”

Her voice was stiff.

“The offer is valid. If you decide, contact me using that chip.”

She couldn’t sit there any longer.

“Wait, there are still things I need to ask…”

As if she hadn’t heard Kang Jin-woo’s last words, she abruptly rose from her seat as if fleeing.

“What’s going on? The Silver Witch just stormed out.”

“So young, so young. Even a cold-blooded witch mellows out when it comes to love.”

Forcibly ignoring the rampant speculations of the mercenaries, Kang Jin-woo followed after her.

There was still a mountain of questions he needed to ask.