Moon's Labyrinths

Sungyoon was in a desperate situation, yet he forgot about everything and came to a stop.

‘What did this woman just say?’

Resentment.

He saw deep resentment in her eyes as if he had killed her family. Tears had also started to well up in her eyes, but they hadn't appeared out of sadness, but resentment.

‘We killed Mr. Hahn Jungbum?’

Puh-ung!

An explosion taking place outside brought Sungyoon back to reality.

“Nonsense!”

As he said that, Sungyoon resumed walking.

“What nonsense? You son of a bitch!”

As if her silence up to this point had never taken place, Plu-El kept cussing out Sungyoon, nonstop. Jungbum's and Soyoung's names were her biggest triggers.

“You travel with that trash Sung Hyunwoo, and you dare speak Jungbum’s name!”

Sung Hyunwoo.

It was a name that Sungyoon felt uneasy about.

‘Now that I think about it, her attitude changed when I met Mr. Hyunwoo.’

Sungyoon had a pretty good rapport with Plu-El until that point. They had found a common interest in their love for their daughters, so they could converse with each other in a congenial manner.

However, her attitude had done a 180 after she had seen Hyunwoo. In hindsight, Sungyoon realized that everything about that encounter had been odd. Nevertheless, that had nothing to do with her current accusation. He couldn’t stay still and just silently hear her ridiculous accusation.

“Mr. Hahn Jungbum is my father-in-law. Why would I kill him?”

Of course, Sungyoon had never met the man, but it was also true that he had no reason to kill him. However, the reaction he got from Plu-El was very strange.

“Father~ In~ Lawwwwwww?”

A fire appeared in her eyes.

“Stop the bullshit, you ‘davanaroong’ bastard! Do you think I’ll let a dirty bastard like you take Soyoung?”

‘What the hell is 'davanaroong'?’

The word sounded like an adjective, but Sungyoon didn’t know its meaning.

‘Did she just say Soyoung?’

Sungyoon thought about the cute girl who had played with Shinhae.

“Why are you talking about Soyoung?”

“Don’t play dumb, you pedophile! There should be a limit to how trashy a person can be! You're aiming for Soyoung, a girl who isn't even ten? You weren’t satisfied with taking out him, and now you're gunning for his daughter?”

“What?”

Sungyoon once again stopped dead in his tracks.

“I’m aiming for Soyoung? Why would I aim for someone my daughter’s age?”

“Then why did you refer to my beloved as your father-in-law? You plan on possessing and playing with his only daughter! You aren’t human!”

It was clear that both sides were talking past each other, and a deep misunderstanding existed between them.

‘Wait a moment. Did she just refer to my father-in-law as her beloved? That means this woman is referring to Hahn Jungbum! Soyoung is the daughter of her beloved, so it means Soyoung is Hahn Jungbum’s…’

When he pieced together everything, Sungyoon felt as if his still heart wanted to leap out of his mouth.

“Soyoung’s father is your husband, Mr. Hahn Jungbum?”

“Why are you asking that now?”

“I’m asking if I’m right!”

Sungyoon's sudden yell caught Plu-El unawares.

“… That’s right. You conspired to kill him, so what’s with this act?”

“I had no hand in killing him.”

Sungyoon resumed walking again as he explained it to her.

“As I’ve told you before! Hahn Jungbum is my father-in-law!”

“Soyoung is not—”

“I’m not referring to Soyoung!”

Sungyoon once again yelled.

“If the Hahn Jungbum I know is the Hahn Jungbum you know, then he should have other children aside from Soyoung! Do you know anything about that?”

Plu-El rolled her eyes. She had been so angry that she had been ignoring that nagging feeling within her heart. But, she did remember something.

“Now that I think about it, he did say he had a couple of children...”

“He has two sons and one daughter. His daughter’s name is Hahn Jimin, and she's my wife. Not Soyoung!”

Sungyoon caught sight of the surprise that appeared on Plu-El's face for a moment.

“… It seems we misunderstood each other at some point. Let’s finish this conversation after we get out of here.”

As Sungyoon walked forward, the two of them kept silent, but their heads were filled with complicated thoughts.

Thankfully, the two of them safely passed through the portal in the end, albeit separately.

Sungyoon's arrival in the ancient city marked the end of the evacuation in Armstrong city. Moreover, an incredible number of monsters had now overrun Armstrong.

The only city outside of Earth and the vanguard of gathering moonstones had met a miserable end.

***

“Mr. Sungyoon!”

As soon as Sungyoon exited the portal, his party members, who had been awaiting his entry, greeted him. Chelsea became happy to see him, and the Mayor and the Deputy mayor looked relieved.

However, Sungyoon didn't have the time to celebrate with his party members.

“Where’s that woman?”

“What? Who are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the suspected terrorist.”

Sungyoon had handed Plu-El to a different Connector so that the remaining people could pass through the portal. He had to keep the portal open from the other side, so he didn’t know where Plu-El was.

“We locked her up in the room next door.”

The Deputy mayor spoke.

“What happened though? You told us to not treat her roughly, and she was quite docile for some reason.”

“First, there is some information that I need to tell you. Please come with me.”

The Mayor and the Deputy mayor looked at each other.

“Sure.”

They didn’t think too long to agree with his request.

Sungyoon led the two men toward the room where Plu-El was imprisoned. His party members and Chelsea discreetly followed them, and Sungyoon didn’t object.

Buhl-kuhk!

When he opened the door, he saw Plu-El sitting up against the wall. It seemed she had been very calm up to this point.

“You're here.”

She was the one to take the initiative to speak.

Sungyoon walked in front of her. The others didn’t interfere with him and spread out into the room. However, their gazes remained fixed on Sungyoon and Plu-El.

“May I hear your name first?”

“I am Plu-El. I have no last name.”

Everyone became surprised that she answered him.

“What about you?”

“Woo Sungyoon. My last name is ‘Woo’, and ‘Sungyoon’ is—”

“It's your name, right? His name was like that. I'm familiar with it.”

Plu-El shut her mouth for a moment as if she were going over the questions she wanted to ask.

“Are you really Mr. Jungbum’s son-in-law?”

Sungyoon took out a picture from his pocket and presented it to Plu-El.

“You’ve seen my child before. She's my daughter, Woo Shinhae. The woman in the picture with Shinhae is Hahn Jimin. She's my wife and the daughter of Hahn Jungbum. For your information, my daughter was born between me and my ex-wife, and she has no blood relationship with Jimin.”

Plu-El looked over the picture, and she especially paid attention to Jimin. She was trying to see if Jimin looked similar to Jungbum, but in the end, she let out a sigh.

“I can't be sure just by seeing her picture. She looks like him, but she also doesn't. I can make a case for either opinion.”

“I can't give you proof beyond that right now. Moreover, I do not trust you if I’m being honest. In fact, I would like proof from you. Are you...”

Sungyoon glared at Plu-El before speaking his next words.

“Are you really Mr. Jungbum’s other wife?”

Sungyoon heard everyone in the room let out a gasp.

Of course, his party members and Chelsea knew Hahn Jungbum’s name. The Mayor and the Deputy mayor were acquainted with the name too. Therefore, the suspected woman being Hahn Jungbum’s wife had shocked them.

“Other wife… How are his wives? Are they doing well?”

“Yes. They are.”

They were doing better than expected.

Jungbum had been the linchpin of his family, and his death should have broken up the family. However, his wives lived under the same roof as friends, and it showed that the two women were exceptional in many ways.

‘No. They probably became close friends when they fought against Jimin’s mother in the past.’

If seen in that light, Jimin’s mother had done Hahn Jungbum's family a service.

“I heard one of them ended poorly.”

Plu-El talked about that woman.

“Yes. She's my wife’s mother.”

Of course, he had no intention of referring to that woman as his mother-in-law. She had been a horrible mother to Jimin.

“I heard that was the case. Honestly, I have no proof that I'm Mr. Jungbum’s wife. I have a picture, but I left it at home. It would be disastrous if it were damaged in battle as Mr. Jungbum only took a few pictures of us. What about you? How do you deal with that problem? How do you keep it safe in fights?”

Sungyoon didn’t say anything as he placed a hand on his storage Gem and took out a dozen copies of the same picture.

“When it gets damaged, I replace it.”

He shook the bundle of pictures.

“… I see. I never thought about doing such a thing. I only possess a few pictures.”

One could feel from her voice that she was jealous of his stash of pictures. She became conflicted for a moment, but strength returned to her eyes as if she had made a big decision.

“May I ask what's your relationship with Sung Hyunwoo?”

The hostility was unconcealed in her words. Sungyoon immediately realized that his answer would have a big effect on how their conversation would proceed.

“He has helped me a lot in the past. This includes my wife. I thought he was a trustworthy person. I don’t know what your opinion is about him, but he was best friends with my father-in-law.”

When Sungyoon said the words 'best friends', it looked like Plu-El was going to explode in anger. It was clear that she wanted to deny such an assertion, but she somehow suppressed her outburst and didn't cuss out.

“From what I’m hearing right now, you don’t have the same opinion as before.”

“A lot has happened in recent days, and I’m starting to wonder if he has an ulterior motive that I'm unaware of.”

“Basically, you're like him from the past. It's possible that he has deceived you.”

Plu-El let out a short sigh.

“Alright. I will trust you this one time. It might be for the best since our mutual destruction is assured if both our people walk down this path. It isn’t a bad time for a gamble.”

Destruction!

It was a frightening word.

“I'll answer your questions first. Unless the question is detrimental to the survival of my people, I will answer most of them. What do you want to ask?”

“First…”

Sungyoon had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask, and these questions were swirling and mixing around inside his head. It was like turning a kaleidoscope. However, Sungyoon didn’t have much difficulty in choosing his first question. In many ways, the answer to this question would cut through a lot of the others.

“Who are you?”

“We're the descendant of Planote. That's what we call ourselves, but we have a name that you guys can better understand. This is what those bastards in Fabion called us.”

Plu-El let out a short word.

“We're the Wul-In.”

In Korean, Wul-In translated into Moon people, and those in the room who understood Korean became surprised.

Sungyoon was the same, and suddenly, a phrase brushed past his brain.

[They aren’t ambushers. They are rabbits.]

Once, in a mocking tone, Jinsoo had told Sungyoon to call the ambushers rabbits.

‘Our ancestors believed that rabbits lived on the Moon, and there's the folktale of the Moon Rabbits.’

The pieces started to fall into place for Sungyoon.