Chapter 83. The Village of Women (3)
“According to what I found online, there’s a small village nearby called Seodun-ri.”
Victoria explained as she got out of the truck.
“Apparently, it used to be fairly large when there was still a coal mine here. But after the mine closed, people gradually left until no one remained.”
Yukgap let out a dry laugh.
“Abraxas sure knows how to find places like this.”
In a way, it was the exact opposite of what one would associate with a military conglomerate.
A peaceful, quiet mountain village.
Was there really any reason for two Archons to be deployed somewhere like this?
While Yukgap was lost in thought, Robert’s voice came from the truck they had arrived in.
[Doctor, what am I supposed to do?]
At Victoria’s command, Robert had spent the day transformed into a truck.
He clearly did not like the current situation.
Yukgap answered casually,
“Scrap heap, stay here for now. The road gets too narrow from this point. You won’t make it up there.”
[We can burn every tree in the area and create a road.]
“Are you insane? What if you start a forest fire?!”
As the two began bickering, Victoria quickly stepped in to calm Robert down.
“We’ll be back soon. Just wait a little.”
With Victoria asking as well, Robert finally gave in.
[Understood. I shall remain here.]
“Good boy.”
Leaving Robert at the foot of the mountain, Yukgap and Victoria followed the narrow trail upward.
The path was barely wide enough for one person to walk.
There were houses scattered here and there, but all of them clearly showed signs of abandonment.
A village emptied of people, with only its remains left behind like a skeleton.
A bleak atmosphere hung over everything.
That was the scenery surrounding them.
“Does anything look familiar?”
Victoria asked from behind him.
“This might be the village where you used to live.”
Yukgap looked around before slowly shaking his head.
“I don’t know. Nothing comes to mind.”
He had been paying careful attention in case this place was somehow connected to his past.
But there was nothing familiar about it.
Everything felt as foreign as if he had never been here before.
“Does nobody really live here?”
Victoria muttered while peering into the empty houses.
Yukgap immediately warned her,
“Still, be careful. We don’t know where the Twelve Archons might be.”
“Hmm. There’s a useful method for situations like this.”
“What?”
Victoria cleared her throat.
Then she shouted loudly toward the mountain,
“Anyone home?!”
Her voice echoed throughout the area.
Yukgap, who had been tense because an Archon might be hiding nearby, stared at her in disbelief.
“What are you doing?!”
“That’s what people say in Korean dramas.”
Victoria merely shrugged.
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice came from somewhere in the distance.
“Who are you?”
Yukgap and Victoria both immediately turned.
A woman in shabby clothes was peeking at them fearfully from behind a tree.
She looked to be in her late twenties.
With no makeup and deeply tanned skin, she seemed older than her actual age.
“Huh. So someone does live here.”
Victoria looked intrigued.
Maybe the woman could provide some clue about the area.
Yukgap cautiously asked,
“Do you live here?”
“Yes?”
“We came because we have some questions.”
Yukgap took a single step toward her.
The woman immediately screamed in terror.
“Aaaaaah!”
She let out a long shriek and fled down the narrow mountain path.
Yukgap stared after her in confusion.
“What was that?”
What had he even done to scare her that badly?
Victoria clicked her tongue.
“Tsk, tsk. You really don’t know how to handle women.”
“You can’t just walk straight toward someone like that.”
“What did I do?!”
Yukgap protested.
Then he carefully watched the direction the woman had disappeared.
There was no doubt about it.
Even if they were hiding themselves, someone definitely lived here.
“What do we do?”
Victoria asked.
Yukgap answered without hesitation.
“We follow her.”
“And how are you supposed to know where she went?”
Yukgap lifted his nose toward the direction the woman had vanished.
Then he smiled confidently.
“Tracking is my specialty.”
“This much is easy.”
“This way.”
Yukgap followed the woman’s scent through the air.
Fortunately, she had not been especially fast, and she had left plenty of traces behind.
Tracking her was easy for him.
Before long, they found a trail packed down by repeated footsteps.
Judging by its condition, someone had clearly been using it until very recently.
Victoria noticed it immediately.
“What’s going on? The internet said nobody lived here.”
“Then the internet was wrong.”
The farther they walked, the more obvious the signs of human activity became.
Soon, they arrived at a small village built halfway up the mountain.
Every house had a thatched roof, and old-fashioned chimneys still stood beside them.
