Chapter 290
Sungyoon jumped out of the portal and stopped supplying his magical energy to the Royal Gem before his feet could hit the ground . Then, he bent forward to get as close to the ground as possible .
His posture looked awkward and funny . However, Sungyoon had done it in preparation for the possibility of an attack . Thankfully, no attacks passed through the portal before it closed .
“Hoo-ooh~!”
With that, Sungyoon took a deep breath . He welcomed the air that filled his lungs as he pushed off his legs to get up .
“Mr . Sungyoon!”
The Mayor greeted him, while Plu-El and Aruwen looked relieved to see him .
Sungyoon greeted them and his party members, who had been impatiently waiting for him .
“Are any of you hurt?”
“We are fine . ”
As if to allay his worries, Grace raised her arms to show that she was fine . It didn’t seem she was exaggerating .
This time, Sungyoon posed a question to the Mayor .
“Where’s the safe?”
“Over there . ”
The Mayor pointed to a corner in the room where several Connectors safeguarded the safe . The safe looked dirty, but it was intact even after going through all this mess .
‘It's quite sturdy . ’
“Do we have the key?”
“No . We couldn't find the key within the debris, so we plan on breaking it open by force . ”
“Let’s do it right now . ”
Sungyoon took up his ax . The Mayor had no objection to his plan, and he retreated a step .
“What if the items aren’t in the safe?”
“Don’t put that evil on us!”
The Ross siblings whispered to each other . They were just voicing the worries that everyone in the room felt .
‘There’s no way that can happen . ’
Sungyoon anxiously executed his actions . Since he didn’t want to break the safe in this room, he lifted and carried it outside . The others followed him out .
When they arrived outside, they saw all the Connectors who had participated in the plan . They were either resting or healing their wounds .
Sungyoon tossed the safe away from the Connectors, then brought down his ax . He did his best to control his strength .
Puh-uhk!
A dull vibration passed through his hands . Sungyoon showed exquisite control over his strength . His strike crushed the hinge of the safe's door and flung the door far away . All kinds of Devices and Gems with tags attached to them fell from the safe .
“Which one is it?”
“I’ll look for it . ”
Plu-El approached him . She squatted in front of the pile and sorted through the mess of Devices and Gems . Everyone else nervously watched her . Suddenly, she came to a stop and carefully picked up a particular Device .
“I found it . ”
Cheers rang out all over the place .
***
They saw the city that was enclosed within a large space . It was an exotic city touched by the passage of time . The city's design looked similar to that of the cities Sungyoon and Aruwen could enter with their special Gems .
However, there were some differences too .
“This is the holy city?”
Even if someone was ignorant about their culture, that person could not miss the religious buildings inside the city .
“It's quite different from the cities that you're used to seeing, right?”
Plu-El spoke from behind Sungyoon .
“It seems each special Gem leads to a different city . ”
“That’s right . As I’ve told you before, the special Gems were the treasures of our leaders . Each leader was in charge of a city . The warrior leader was in charge of Fortress city that had the strongest military might . The shaman leader was in charge of the holy city that was the center of our religion . The mage leader ruled the city of magic where anything related to magic was gathered . ”
“What about the city connected to the Royal Gem? What kind of city was it?”
“At the time, the Royal Gem was pretty much the symbol of the king . Which city would a king rule from?”
“… The capital?”
“That’s right . ”
‘This is a really important Gem . ’
The Royal Gem basically signified the authority of a king . Even though the ancient civilization was no more, this Gem was a remnant of that time . Since it was a connection to their past glory, the Royal Gem meant a lot to the Moon people .
The people near them looked at Sungyoon’s Royal Gem with renewed respect in their eyes .
Plu-El walked forward without any hesitation .
The portal she had made led to a room within the holy city, and she guided the group to a different room .
“Isn’t this room similar to the one we saw in Mr . Sungyoon’s city?”
Emily asked in a curious voice . She could see unknown machines in the room and holographic screens floating in the air .
There was only one difference between this room and the one in the capital city; the buildings displayed on the holographic screens were red in the capital city's room, while all of the buildings displayed on the holographic screens here were blue .
Plu-El approached the holographic screens and performed some actions .
The images on the screens started to change . The buildings slowly faded away, and new images started to appear in their place . Two circular shapes appeared on the screen, one large and one small .
Everyone knew what they were .
“It's Earth and the Moon . ”
Emily mumbled .
“Where should I send you all?”
Plu-El, who had her hands on the keyboard, turned her head to look back at the group .
***
Three weeks had passed since the extraordinary event had taken place in Armstrong city . However, the UN and all the countries in the world didn’t know what to do . They couldn’t come up with a clear plan . The incredible distance of 384 thousand kilometers was the problem .
Even when a country wanted to send troops over the ocean, immense time, effort, and resources were required to pull it off . Moreover, there was no guarantee that the invasion would succeed . In fact, there was a higher probability of failure .
Now, space had to be inserted into that equation . It was a completely different proposition when it came to sending troops to fight on the Moon .
This was why the talks mainly centered around rescuing the survivors, but no one knew where the survivors were . Even if they traveled through space to reach the Moon, they couldn’t just randomly search for survivors since monsters were crawling all over Armstrong city .
In many ways, Earth was in a state of deep chaos .
Despite the political mess, time continued to flow and people had to get on with their lives .
“Mom! Hurry!”
Shinhae waved her hand toward Jimin, who laughed and walked toward the little girl .
After Jimin had lost contact with Sungyoon, she had lived like a broken person for two weeks . However, she had realized that she couldn’t continue to live like that .
She was different from the girl who fell apart when her father had disappeared . She was no longer the naive girl who had entered headfirst into the intense business world with money, but no knowledge .
She had to be different .
A major influence behind this change in her was the responsibility she felt toward her daughter . Shinhae had yet to know that her father was missing, and Jimin was doing her best to hide this information from her .
‘I can’t hide it forever . ’
She didn't need to hide it forever . She just had to hide the information until Sungyoon returned . That way, Shinhae wouldn’t have to go through any unnecessary hardship from worrying about her dad . She would be able to live a happy life .
Therefore, Jimin had brought Shinhae to her favorite zoo . She was doing her best so that her daughter could continue to live a normal life .
The zoo was not busy today . It was to be expected considering the state of the world . All the adults who had come here had a shadow darkening their faces . The only ones acting normal were the innocent children having fun at the zoo .
Shinhae arrived near the cage containing lions, which were her favorite animal . Without a care in the world, she let out a large yawn . Then, she put on a bright smile as she looked at the lions once again .
After Shinhae had played for a long time, she and Jimin exited the zoo and entered the car . Shinhae was tired, and she fell asleep inside the car .
On the way back, Jimin did her best to not wake up the child . She then carefully carried the child into the house, but this wasn’t the house owned by Sungyoon and Jimin .
“I’m here . ”
“Welcome back!”
Aiin greeted Jimin .
“Oh my! Shinhae is asleep?”
“Yes . ”
Aiin deftly took Shinhae in her arms . Shinhae tossed and turned for a brief moment, but it seemed Aiin’s arms were also comfortable . A happy expression appeared on the little girl's face, and she resumed her deep sleep .
“Hoo-hooht! She’s such a cute child . ”
Not long after Sungyoon went missing, Jimin had taken Shinhae and gone to reside in her parents' home . Aiin and Hweeyoung had insisted on it . After all, they had experienced losing their husband within the labyrinth . Jimin knew they were worried for her, so she hadn’t put up much of a fight in accepting their offer .
After handing Shinhae to Aiin, Jimin went to the living room .
“You're here, Noona?”
Woosang and Woosung were also here .
They had been lucky as they had returned to Earth before the mess in Armstrong city broke out . Moreover, they were living at home right now . They had made various excuses for their presence here, but Jimin knew that her brothers were worried about her .
However, they weren’t alone . Another person was sitting next to the two brothers .
“You're here, Hyunwoo ahjussi?”
“Yes!”
Hyunwoo, who had been conversing with Woosang and Woosung, turned to greet her . Since there was no flight to the Moon, Hyunwoo had nothing much to do . He frequently visited Hweeyoung's and Aiin’s house with Woosang and Woosung in recent days .
Jimin sat down in the living room as she conversed with the three men . It didn’t take long for Hweeyoung and Aiin to join the conversation too . None of them brought up any news about Armstrong city, as everyone knew it was a sensitive topic . They knew that Jimin was pushing herself to act calm, but her nerves were as taut as the string on a bow . If that string snapped, they knew Jimin might collapse . That was why they brought up inane topics to be considerate of her feelings .
Some laughs occasionally broke out, but the conversation was brittle . There was no substance behind it, and it was dry like the rough sands of a desert .
“I . . . I need some air . I will be back . ”
It seemed Jimin was having a hard time keeping up this farce . She carefully stood up .
No one stopped her . They just looked at her back with worried gazes .
“Hoo-ooh~!”
When she came out to the backyard, Jimin let out a sigh and raised her head .
The night sky was devoid of stars . There was only the full Moon, which was unusually bright tonight .
Jimin felt spiteful toward the Moon as if it had stolen away all the light from the surrounding stars .
In the past, it had felt like the Moon had taken her father from her . This time, it felt like the Moon had taken her husband .
‘No . ’
Jimin forcefully shook her head from side to side, and her long hair flew through the air like tangled threads .
‘He's alive . I know it . ’
She once again looked up at the sky . Even though she had hardened her heart, she felt her mental state slowly chipping away . The media was slowly starting to bring up the possibility of the survivors being dead on the Moon . They were talking about holding a joint funeral service for the fallen .
Jimin wholeheartedly disagreed with those opinions, but she had no proof to back up her feelings .
She could only wait .
‘Where are you right now?’
Wait for Sungyoon's return .
‘When will you be back?’
The dam that restrained her tears finally cracked, and a single tear fell down her pale cheek .
“Mr . Sungyoon . ”
“What’s wrong?”
At first, she thought she was hallucinating . She missed him so much that her brain had deceived her into hearing Sungyoon’s voice . She was sure of it . Yet, she couldn’t stay still .
Jimin slowly turned her head .
Even if it was a delusion, she felt hope . She wanted to drag this out for as long as possible . She knew despair and a heavy sigh awaited her . However, her eyes caught sight of him . She rubbed them, but he didn’t disappear .
“Mr . Sungyoon?”
“Yes . Have you been waiting long?”
His smile and his voice matched everything she knew about him . This was real .
“Mr . Sungyoon!”
It was as if the impudent full Moon had prepared a surprise for her . Under the Moon's gentle light, Jimin jumped into Sungyoon’s arms .