Chapter Index





    Ch.195Epilogue. There’s No Way I Could Raise an Alien Monster Daughter

    I had just arrived back from Kentucky on a high-speed Hyper Bullet train. Juliane and the kids had returned earlier to visit her parents, while I made a solo trip to Kentucky. With Juliane recently re-entering the country after our world tour, I thought it safer to travel separately in case she was under surveillance.

    “Where were you?” she asked.

    “Kentucky.”

    “Kentucky? Do you have friends there too?”

    “Friend… enemy… I’m not sure what to call him. I don’t hate him much anymore. Not that I want to see him again either—just someone I could have a drink with and chat briefly.”

    Apparently, my trial had been ongoing without my knowledge. I heard that law firms, smelling money, had swarmed like a pack of dogs. With Congress passing special legislation to pressure the Navy, they couldn’t even mount a proper delaying action and were thoroughly cleaned out. By that point, my compensation had far exceeded what the Navy could pay in one installment. The total: 40 million dollars. It was reported as a record-breaking amount across multiple channels.

    Forty million dollars… such an astronomical sum I couldn’t even properly grasp how much it was. Enough to easily buy a small building in the station with plenty left over. Of course, since I was officially declared dead, the money went to my spouse, Juliane.

    “Where are the kids?” I asked.

    “Over there,” she pointed.

    Following her finger, I saw Cuss and Bliss among the tombstones under bright sunlight on green grass. Each held flowers, seemingly engaged in conversation I couldn’t quite hear.

    “Sister! What’s this?” Bliss asked.

    “Well… this is a human funeral custom. When a person’s bodily functions stop, they’re buried here to be remembered.”

    “I don’t understand!”

    “Well…”

    “It’s Daddy’s former family,” I said, approaching from behind and hugging them both tightly.

    I was also unsure how to explain it. While Cuss had a deep connection, they were essentially strangers to Bliss. Still, she needed to know what kind of father I was.

    “Former family?”

    “This happened before Bliss was born, before Daddy met your mother. These were Daddy’s wife and daughter back then. They’ve both gone to heaven now.”

    I stroked Cuss’s head while explaining carefully. Bliss was still too young to understand everything completely. I could tell her more as she grew older.

    “After all that wandering, we’ve come back,” Juliane said.

    “Indeed.”

    It had been quite a long journey—over six months of travel that cost an enormous amount of money, especially since we hadn’t tried to economize.

    We stayed longest in Korea, spending about a month touring nearly the entire country. Since it was my first visit to the unified Korea, touring the North Korean region was quite enjoyable.

    There were many memorable moments. I insisted on trying local alcohol wherever we went, once getting sick from spoiled liquor. Once, Juliane’s prosthetic leg suddenly malfunctioned with no repair shop nearby, so I had to fix it myself. And Cuss attracted flirtatious attention everywhere we went, making it impossible to leave her alone. She’s just too pretty for her own good.

    What surprised me during our travels was Bliss’s appetite. I’d always thought Cuss was the one who would eat anything, but when we got to Asia, she couldn’t handle the spice-laden exotic foods. Bliss, however, devoured everything. She even ate Chinese food with such foul smells that I couldn’t bring myself to try it. I wondered if something was wrong with her sense of smell or taste, but she seemed perfectly able to avoid bad or spoiled food.

    “It’s a shame we couldn’t visit Southeast Asia and South America,” I said.

    “Yes, we should have explored the Maha civilization ruins too.”

    “But we did manage to visit Chile somehow?”

    Juliane smiled and leaned toward me. Hearing “Chile,” Cuss’s eyes lit up with anticipation. Only Bliss tilted her head, not understanding the significance.

    “Our youngest doesn’t know where we’re going next?”

    “Nope. Where are we going?”

    “To fulfill your sister’s wish.”

    If we were going via Chile, it was obvious where we were headed.

    ***

    “Brrrr! It’s cold!”

    “Put your hat on, then.”

    “No! I can’t see Daddy well!”

    Bliss whined the entire way. Antarctica was at its coldest now, so it was understandable. I tucked Bliss inside my padded jacket, and she kept burrowing deeper. Unlike Cuss, Bliss’s hands and feet were not just warm but hot—practically a human heater.

    “Juliane, I’m cold too…”

    “Come here. I’ll warm you up.”

    “Ah! It’s hot!”

    So the real human heater was over there. Cuss’s face looked ecstatic as she slipped her arm into Juliane’s sleeve. That’s what you get with cutting-edge prosthetics with built-in heating elements.

    “We’ve arrived!” our guide announced.

    “Is this really the place?”

    “Yes, it is!”

    The snowmobile stopped, and we got off with dumbfounded expressions.

    “We’ll return with cameras and the filming crew! If there’s an emergency, contact us by radio!”

    “Understood. Thank you for your work.”

    The snowmobile drove away, leaving us on the empty snowfield. Was this really the documentary filming location? There was absolutely nothing here. Just in case, we set up a tent and prepared chairs. The four of us huddled together, drinking hot cocoa repeatedly.

    “This can’t be right.”

    “Hehe. But doesn’t it feel nice, like we’re camping?”

    Camping, my foot. More like cold-weather military training. I was starting to freeze to death. Bliss had fallen asleep inside my jacket, making soft breathing sounds. Only Cuss kept moving around, looking through binoculars.

    “Hey, you’ll get cold if you sweat. Just sit down.”

    “According to the filming crew, they should appear soon. From that direction… Ah! There they are!”

    Cuss exclaimed, dropping the binoculars and jumping up and down. Looking where she pointed, I could see black dots appearing in the distance. I snatched the binoculars from Cuss and confirmed—they were penguins. Not just a few, but hundreds, thousands of penguins.

    “Wow! It’s exactly like the documentary!”

    Cuss couldn’t contain her excitement. My own impression of seeing the penguins was… just okay. It was certainly spectacular, but not worth the hardship of traveling all the way to Antarctica.

    “Jinsoo! Take a picture! Quick!”

    “Hey, don’t get too close. They might bite.”

    “It’s fine! Bliss! Wake up! Penguins!”

    “Mmm…?”

    Cuss woke Bliss up and pulled her out of my jacket, lifting her high so she could see the penguin colony better. Seeing her so happy made me smile despite myself. Maybe this kind of hardship was worth experiencing once in a lifetime. I grabbed Juliane’s hand as she approached and leaned against her.

    “Hehehe. I’m glad we came.”

    “You think so…?”

    I wasn’t so sure. If I could have chosen, I would have preferred a daughter who insisted on going to Disneyland rather than Antarctica. The cost-effectiveness was terrible. The only consolation was that we now had more money than we knew what to do with.

    “Jinsoo! This penguin! I think it’s taller than you!”

    “Huh.”

    Cuss shouted from beside a penguin, clearly trying to provoke me. Did she think I’d fall for that?

    “Right, Bliss?”

    “Yeah! Super big! Bigger than a stuffed animal!”

    “Bigger than Daddy?”

    “Don’t know!”

    “Say it’s bigger than Daddy.”

    “Bigger than Daddy!”

    “That’s what she says, Daddy! Come see!”

    “Ah, I… really.”

    “Hehehe. You held out for a while. But you’re going to get up anyway.”

    I sighed and reluctantly stood up. Juliane giggled and stuck close to me as we walked toward Cuss. I couldn’t believe I’d come all the way to Antarctica to compare heights with a penguin. How did she develop an interest in penguins of all things? What a hassle. My alien monster daughter. I don’t think I’m cut out to raise her.

    ***

    In a shabby bar in Kentucky, a man named Jack Wild slammed his empty glass on the bar counter. A former Marine who had re-enlisted in the Space Force and been stationed on a space station, he was dismissed after allegations of abusing inmates. After two dishonorable discharges, the military wouldn’t take him back, so he returned home to take over his father’s farm after he developed lung cancer.

    He married a business partner’s daughter, thinking he’d never find another woman in this backwater if he missed the chance. But as soon as he inherited the farm, three consecutive years of crop failures followed, pushing him to the brink of having to sell his father’s legacy. But what did it matter? Jack had alcohol, his life’s faithful companion that helped him forget everything temporarily.

    “The liquor here is good,” said a stranger beside him.

    “Of course. It’s the best.”

    Looking over, Jack saw a man in a hat sipping bourbon. He clearly wasn’t local—probably a truck driver passing through or an odd tourist who’d wandered into this rural backwater.

    “You were in the Space Force, I see?”

    “Ah, this.”

    Jack glanced at his leather jacket with its large Space Force logo and smiled. It wasn’t an actual space uniform, just a souvenir.

    “I worked on a space station once.”

    “A space station? I’ve been up there too.”

    “Huh?”

    A space station that wasn’t even the ISS, just a tiny station for research and imprisonment—claiming to have visited? We never accepted tourists, Jack thought, snorting dismissively.

    “Didn’t the director there have a beautiful nightingale-like voice?”

    “Yes! That’s right!”

    “But in person… not so impressive, right?”

    “That’s right! Who are you? Which department did you work in?”

    “Hahaha. Try to guess.”

    Jack was convinced now. The director’s beautiful voice was famous, causing many people on Earth to fall for her. But once they came up and saw her in person, they all abandoned their crushes. Of course, none of them ever told anyone on Earth about the director’s actual appearance. They wanted others to be fooled too.

    “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.”

    “What happened to the director?”

    “She got what she deserved. She took the blame for everything. I also admitted to charges of negligent homicide, assault… all sorts of charges, and served about a year. But the director, being the one who gave all the orders, got 40 or 50 years. She’ll probably die before getting out.”

    “Considering her physique, she’ll definitely die before release.”

    “Hahaha! Exactly!”

    Meeting a former colleague made the drink taste better. Jack kept examining the man’s face, trying to figure out who he was. There was definitely something familiar about him, but he couldn’t place it. Had his memory faded that much?

    “How have you been since then?”

    “Oh, I’ve been fine. Met a good person, got married, already have two kids.”

    “Hahaha… must be tough. I’m married too, but no kids yet. Is raising children manageable?”

    “Except for having no time to breathe, it’s quite livable. We recently traveled around the world.”

    “Around the world?”

    Jack’s eyes widened. None of the guards who worked at the space station had that kind of financial freedom. He must have won the lottery after returning to Earth. Lucky bastard.

    “Ah, I should get going now.”

    “I still don’t know who you are. At least leave your name.”

    “If you couldn’t figure it out, that’s your loss, you bastard.”

    “…?”

    Jack was bewildered by the sudden change in tone and couldn’t take his eyes off the man. That playful voice—he’d definitely heard it somewhere before, but frustratingly couldn’t place it.

    “I came by thinking I’d punch you in the face for old times’ sake, but your face looks like it’s already taken several hits. Marriage must be tough, huh?”

    “You… you…!”

    “Live well, idiot.”

    “…”

    The man left some bills and walked away. Jack could only stare blankly at his retreating figure, unable to stop him. He never figured out who it was, which made him feel even more unsettled. It was like having a dream.

    “Where are we going next?” Bliss asked.

    “To Antarctica.”

    “Antarctica? What’s there?”

    “Penguins.”

    The End


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