Chapter 267 – For You.

-Kkangkangkang

The sound of steel ringing echoes through the quiet house, announcing the morning. Following the clear and deep sound that seemed to play music from unknown origins, the morning sun resembling the sunset brushed the wooden floor and walls, ran down the stairs, and played in the living room. However, the source of the sound was not visible even here, and if you go a little further, you can hear a sound coming from a crack in a door in a corner. Beyond the door, intense heat was seeping out with the sound.

The furnace constantly emits heat and dyes the steel held in its arms red and hot like mine. Steel, which was soon dragged out, spread embers and appeared hot as if it were about to melt. And a clunky, heavy hammer falling on top of it. Although the hammer was blunt, it was not soft, so the more it collided with it, the more it distorted its shape and changed into reddish steel. The identity of the sound heard from early morning was the sound of someone lighting a fire in the furnace and tapping the steel being pulled out.

“Whoa.”

And that someone is an old man who couldn’t let go of his stubbornness despite his rusting body. Since the room has an open ceiling, the heat emanating from the furnace fills the room, even though only the sunset is visible at all times. It was just when, sweating profusely, he stubbornly gripped the handle of the hammer with his bony hand that he couldn’t tell which was the hand and which was the handle, and tried to strike the steel again. Even the old stubbornness couldn’t ignore the years, so the handle of the hammer eventually left his hand.

The moment the old man looked at the hammer hovering in the air and closed his eyes.

“Isn’t it time to leave this to the other young people?”

The voice he heard was that of his son, whom the old man misses and is familiar with, but has changed. When the old man opened his eyes, which had been barely open due to the heat, what was in front of him was the figure of a man who, rather than saying that he was wearing armor, was not strange. Even that was not enough, even the one-eyed yellow eyes that shed light on.

“Why did you come here?”

Although he had already become incapable of being human, let alone traces of the past, the old man could see that he was his son. It was something he himself couldn’t figure out why.

“It just reminded me of the old days. I don’t think I’m the only one. Isn’t it?”

Where his gaze landed, the red-hot steel was cooling to white.

“It would be enough to pour this into a mold and cast it. Why are you pounding it?”
“It’s not necessary. It’s only used when making cogs.”
“Isn’t this a cogwheel?”

What the old man was making was a small gear. It was so small that he didn’t know where to put it, but he knew the old man just as well.

“There’s nothing to do. I’m talking about fixing these crude toys.”

Still, Krikaliev held the hammer the old man had missed.

-Kkangkang!

Usher slowly opened his eyes to the regular sound in his ears. Then, what I see in front of me is a wooden ceiling reflecting the sunset light. So he tried to get up, surprised that he might have slept until late in the evening, but he was stopped by the small weight on his stomach.

“Oooh.”

Erica had been sound asleep with her face buried in his chest. Usher hurriedly escaped from under her at the soft skin of the girl, crushed by the memories of yesterday, and the crushing of him.

“Hunaa.”

Then, as if searching for her missing warmth, he saw Erica gripping the blanket and pulling her, and with her complicated mind, she ran through her girl’s hair.

“Huaam, Usher?”

Did that touch actually wake her up? Her thin eyelashes quiver in the sunset-like morning light, and Erica reveals her pale gray.

“Did you sleep well?”
“Uh, yes.”

As she faced him, Usher gave her head awkwardly to the girl who came to greet her. Because of her, she was able to recall that the sky here is always a place where the sunset is reflected, whether it is morning or evening. She even looks at him as if she is having fun, then gets up under the blanket. However, Usher averted her gaze as she soon saw the girl’s skin revealing from under the covers.

“Okay, put on some clothes.”

She already had a relationship with her, so I wondered why she was doing this, but that was even more problematic. She was so exhausted yesterday that she went to sleep, but she slept for a while and woke up.

“Ooh, but uncomfortable.”

As Erica grumbled and adjusted her clothes, Usher managed to calm her urge to let out a sigh. He didn’t know how to treat Erica yet. She said she was the one with Belka, but it was true that she still struggled to understand. It was clear that he had to take her anyway and climb on top of her. While making that promise.

-Kkangkang!
“What is this sound?”

There was a pause, and Erica was the first to pay attention to the sound that came again. Usher recalled the sound of gears engaging downstairs, but she didn’t like it. The sound of the gigantic gears rolling and meshing was very loud and there was a slight cacophony, but the sound I heard now was something like tapping iron, but also ringing iron in a regular rhythm.

“Ugh, that’s close.”
“Oh, wait!”

As if Erica was looking for the tail of the sound, she opened her door first and left, so Usher followed her down to the first floor.

“Mister?”

When Erica arrived, Krikaliev was tapping something with a hammer. No, not just him, he was watched by an old man he thought hadn’t returned yesterday. Usher didn’t know what he was doing, but he couldn’t help but watch it with the girl. The sight of the steel, which I thought would only be hard, getting heated in the furnace and changing its shape as it was beaten with a hammer, had the power to make me fall in love with it even in the heat that filled the room.

“It’s been a while, so I’m not sure if this is right. Should I just do this…?”

Krikaliev, who created a small cog, put it in a barrel of water to cool it down, turned around the old man, and found Usher and Erica.

“When did you guys come here?”
“Hee hee, since before? So where are you using it?”

As Erica’s gray light flashed with curiosity, he scratched her head and looked at the old man.

“Follow me and you’ll know.”

The old man checked the cog in which Krikaliev was holding, got up and opened the door they had come through. As they step outside through the door, they feel the cool air enveloping them, when they hear a voice.

“Are you coming out now?”

Thaddaeo was standing by the door they came out of.

“If you wake up, don’t come in, what are you doing?”
“Please take a look, I can’t stand that steamer.”
“Hey, how is it?”

For a while, he looked at Krikaliev’s bruises for a moment. The old man went on and they came out into the little yard in front of the house. The old man eventually stopped at a table in the center of the yard. I thought it was a table because the round plate was covered with something like a white cloth. Usher soon knew it wasn’t a table or anything. When the old man removed the cloth, he could see the shapes of many gears.

“It’s amazing every time I see it.”

Thaddeo muttered whether he already knew of its existence, but Usher, seeing it for the first time, could not take his eyes off it. The table that I thought was a little small, the moment I saw the contents, I thought that it was big even though it was not that big. If this was really a table, the inside of the table was incredibly packed with gears as large as the palm of your hand and as small as the fingernail of your little finger. As I was looking at it, Krikaliev stepped in front of it.

“As expected, it was because of this.”

In his hand was a gear that had just been made. It’s like a cog wheel stuck in there. As Krikaliev inserted it into the tiny space he couldn’t even tell it was empty, the old man pressed a small button on the side of the table.

-Kiririk Kirik

Then, I thought it was moving slowly, but one by one, it moved quickly and rotated in the table, each with its numerous gears that obscured the sunlight. Small roaming between large cogwheels or odd-looking structures connect the two cogwheels, and others busily move up and down. I didn’t know what they were moving for, but I didn’t have to. Just because the way they move makes sense. It was at a time when Usher was lost in the sight because no one said anything.

“Ah! I think I know where I saw this!”

Erica, who had been watching it with him until now, opened her mouth.

“Have you seen this again?”
“Yeah, the one in the room was part of it. The one here is exactly the same as the one on the ceiling.”

Usher couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he looked, so she asked her, but what she got back was her unexpected words. Usher looked at the table again, but he couldn’t tell if it was really the same as the one on the ceiling, just because it looked similar.

“Because this was made by Yakaf following that structure.”
“Are you uncle?”

Surprised by Thaddaeo’s words, he looked at Krikaliev, standing side by side with the old man, watching it move.

“Tsk, that’s a story from when.”
“Sometimes, when you were young, you made those stories, so how annoying it was to be compared to me and Lucas.”

It looked great even to Usher. Did you even make this when you were a kid? What came to my mind then were the toys I had seen in Krikaliev’s room yesterday.

“Sometimes he said he would give you useless things. I guess he liked it after all.”

And even the meaningless cogwheel models in between and Krikaliev’s words that he made them for practice. Maybe he’s really here.

“…Yes, I guess you didn’t like it.”

The old man’s trembling voice reminded Usher again that he could have been Kuratar. Maybe he’d better stay here? It was a moment to think.

“Well, let’s talk about the trivial past.”
“Yes?”
“What?”

As Krikaliev spoke indifferently, Usher looked at him blankly, and Thaddeo also looked at him unexpectedly.

“Motor core, where are you?”
“You really…!”

Thaddeo contorted his face in anger, but he had no time to shout.

“Yeah, let the old man grab him by the ankle any more. It’d be ugly.”

The old man bent down and opened the door hanging from the post supporting the table. Then, what was revealed from the inside was a large sphere-shaped lump of metal. Various metal pieces and rubber lines wrapped around a sphere. At first glance, the purpose was unknown, but Krikaliev held it as it was and looked at Usher.

“Now, we can go get the little girl.”

Usher didn’t know what to say about it. Even though her heart was overflowing, it was the limit to endure the feelings that seemed to pour out because she was sorry for him.

“Ugh, are Usher and you going upstairs now?”
“Yes.”

Usher looked at her sadly at Erica’s words. Even so, she’s bothering him. He didn’t know what to do to ask him to take her Erica with her. He felt her girl squeeze his hand as she was fidgeting. Looking at her, her Erica looked at her Krikaliev, who smiled bashfully at him.

“Then I want to follow.”
“Ok?”
“Erika?! What do you mean?!”

It was Tadao who was more surprised by her words than anyone else and hurriedly intervened.

“Ugh, but it’s hard and frustrating to be underground all the time.”
“If that’s the case, I…!”
“Besides, I also want to see the sky.”

He hurriedly tried to say something, but he seemed to be speechless when Erica looked directly at him.

“Then why don’t we go together?”

In the end, while Ta Dae-oh kept his mouth shut. Despite Usher’s worrying about how to persuade him, Krikaliev readily agreed to accompany her.

“I’m sorry for all this time, Father.”

After opening the gate with those words, Usher and Erica followed behind Krikaliev. But they couldn’t figure it out.

“Tadaeo. Can we stop now?”
“No. Even if you do, I can’t quit. This is my job too.”

That there were those left who did not follow them.

“Three goals, send a signal and secure the girl first.”