Chapter 4. A Spoonful of Lively Soup (1)
“That’s okay?”
“The taste is identical. There’s no need to worry.”
No. 6 asked in disbelief, but Seryun spoke as if it were no big deal.
Victoria sided with him.
“Don’t look at him like he’s suspicious. Seryun was also the one who taught me that I absolutely need kimchi if I’m going to run a business in Korea. And he’s extremely precise about money, so I never lose out.”
Despite his gloomy and suspicious appearance, Seryun seemed to have earned a fair amount of Victoria’s trust.
Then Seryun seemed to remember something and pulled an object from his belongings.
“Oh, right. I almost forgot to give this back.”
It was the overtechnology weapon he had borrowed.
No. 6’s face lit up as he took the dagger.
“My dagger!”
Seryun looked disappointed.
“I had high expectations because it was an overtechnology weapon created by Abraxas, but I couldn’t determine how it was manufactured or what technology was used. All I learned was that it far surpasses modern engineering.”
“That’s probably why they were able to turn me into this.”
No. 6 answered bluntly.
He did not show it, but he had felt terribly uncomfortable the entire time the dagger had been away from him.
“And this is the payment I promised.”
Seryun pulled out several documents and handed them to No. 6.
No. 6 tilted his head.
“What’s this?”
“Your new family register, created through the black market. We registered you as the adopted child of someone who had lived overseas. This is your new name and your new identity.”
It seemed to be the payment Seryun had promised.
No. 6 read the document with trembling hands.
“My new name...”
His newly fabricated identity and name were clearly printed on the document.
Surname: Yuk (陸)
Given Name: Gap (甲)
No. 6’s face twisted.
“This is my new name?”
Seryun calmly nodded.
“Yes. Since your codename was No. 6, I chose the surname ‘Yuk,’ which sounds similar to the Korean word for six. For your given name, I chose ‘Gap,’ meaning you should always become number one wherever you go.”
“...”
Seryun looked incredibly proud.
“Put them together and you get ‘Yukgap.’ Not bad, right?”
No. 6 exploded.
“Are you screwing with me?! What kind of nonsense is that for a person’s name?!”
Victoria, however, seemed to like it.
Her eyes sparkled as she repeated his new name.
“I think it’s nice. Yukgap! It even sounds kind of cute.”
“If that sounds cute to you, then there’s something seriously wrong with your sense of beauty.”
No. 6 snapped.
Seryun simply waved his hand.
“Anyway, I’ve fulfilled my part of the deal. Stop bothering me.”
Then he turned and walked away.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
No. 6 shouted after him.
Seryun did not even look back.
Robert, still sitting at the table with the morning newspaper, spoke indifferently.
[Yukgap. Stop making a yukgap of yourself and get to work. Making noise will not produce food.]
No. 6 sighed.
Then he looked back at the papers containing his new identity.
“Yeah. I’m the idiot for expecting anything from you people.”
No. 6, or rather Yukgap now, muttered with complete resignation.
Like it or not, he had no other choice.
“Yukgap... Yukgap, huh?”
He quietly repeated his new name.
Maybe he was already starting to accept it.
Strangely, it was beginning to feel familiar.
“This used to be an unlicensed workshop my mother operated.”
Victoria explained while looking around the restaurant.
Separate from the laboratory filled with strange tools and chemicals, the restaurant facilities connected to the building were surprisingly clean.
No. 6, or rather Yukgap, asked curiously.
“Was your mother Korean?”
“No. She was British. She just had workshops all over the world because she loved traveling. This was one of them.”
“The equipment is surprisingly good for an illegal workshop.”
“Just because it was unlicensed doesn’t mean it had to be badly equipped. My mother was a professional alchemist. This much was normal.”
If she was really a professional, should she not have operated a properly licensed workshop?
Yukgap wanted to ask that.
Instead, he kept quiet.
Unaware of his thoughts, Victoria happily pulled away a cloth covering something in the corner.
A neatly prepared signboard appeared underneath.
“And I already prepared the sign!”
Victoria spoke proudly.
Yukgap carefully read the letters.
“Restaurant Shelley?”
“That was my mother’s maiden name. Her full name was Mary Shelley. She changed her surname to Frankenstein after marrying my father.”
Victoria’s full name was Victoria Frankenstein.
Apparently, Frankenstein was a surname inherited from her father.
“All right. In that case, try preparing this.”
Victoria suddenly pulled a completely frozen salmon from the refrigerator.
Yukgap stared at it.
“This?”
“I don’t know about anything else, but you looked good with knives. Show me what you can do.”
“Hah.”
Yukgap clicked his tongue lightly.
Then he accepted the salmon.
“Knife skills, huh.”
He pulled one of the daggers from his waist.
Six daggers of different sizes.
Their shapes varied, but by now they were as familiar as parts of his own body.
Yukgap took a short breath and selected one.
“Never thought I’d use this for something like this.”
He stabbed the dagger into the frozen salmon.
The blade was only about a single molecule thick and produced ultrasonic vibrations on its own.
Once even the smallest opening was created, the vibration could destroy the target from within.
