Pathfinder

Chapter Eight

Garam thought the base camp of Mordred, who didn't even know about chocolate bars or sneakers, couldn't possibly be like her own, so she timidly asked him. Mordred responded in a somewhat gruff manner.

"It's nothing special. It's almost the same as here."

"Um, Mordred, is this the first dimension you've opened?"

"Well, it's not a secret, so I'll tell you. I've changed dimensions three times already."

Garam was surprised and couldn't help but keep her mouth shut. Three times? From what she had heard before, changing dimensions seemed to require a considerable number of paths.

"May I ask why you changed dimensions?"

"I just got bored. Wanted to see a more interesting world, too."

"Have you already activated your base camp?"

"No."

"Why?"

"It's none of your business."

Mordred stared at Garam with his emotionless eyes. It was a gaze that had the power to silence anyone attempting to appeal to him with morals, conscience, or emotions. The flickering firelight cast a strange, beautiful shadow on Mordred's face. Garam couldn't bear to look at that face and turned her attention to the ramyeon.

"It's going to boil soon. Are you going to eat?"

Mordred had a body that didn't die even if he didn't eat or sleep and that also never felt hungry. He nodded, as the smell from the boiling water seemed rather interesting to him.

"What's it called?"

"Ramyeon."

"Is it a delicacy?"

"No."

"Thought so. It definitely looks cheap."

'Well, then don't eat it,' Garam thought.

Mordred's attitude was truly exasperating, and Garam had to hold back several sarcastic comments. She couldn't understand why he was acting as if he was part of the upper class while lying on the ground. Nevertheless, Mordred was still her savior.

As Garam slurped up the noodles, trying to control her emotions, Mordred rolled a strand of noodles around his fork, raising it high enough to examine it.

"Don't you find this disgusting, like a worm or something? You eat it so well."

To prevent herself from uttering something rash to shut him up for a moment, Garam thought for a while whether it would be okay to just murmur “shh.”

Mordred stared at the noodles for a while and eventually put them into his mouth. His curiosity seemed to have won over his disgust and suspicion. Then he asked for another bowl. In the end, Garam had to satisfy her hunger that night with chocolate bars thanks to Mordred eating two-thirds of the two portions of ramyeon as well as all the broth.

* * *

Morning in the forest starts early. Nocturnal birds, once they go to sleep, are replaced by insects that have been preparing to take over throughout the night. Then, diligent early birds eat those insects as if mocking them.

However, it wasn't the cries of those unfortunate insects that woke Garam up. The sharpness of her senses, coupled with the damp morning air in the mountains, allowed no room for sleeping in. Garam's eyelids opened slightly. And then, they closed again. When they opened once more, they were more determined. Her eyes, clear and sharp, without a hint of drowsiness, were simply looking ahead. Without anything specific to focus on, her eyes soon fixed on one thing: the dew.

The dawn dew hung from the tips of delicate blades of grass, looking absurdly large. The dew, which seemed to have reversed the world, clung to the grass with all its might. Garam stared at the dew, which seemed to hang by a thread, intently but silently. And in the blink of an eye, the dew disappeared. Nothing happened then, except that an ant, startled by the sudden incident, became frozen in surprise.

Garam remained lying there. Her whole body felt heavy. Of all the things that had exhausted her in recent times, the eight days of intense mountain climbing were the most brutal. She had graduated from university just two years ago, so she wasn't very good at climbing.

For the first four days, she had relied on her mental strength, but a full day's rest after climbing mountains all day consisted of just lying on the ground and shivering in the cold. This had been gnawing at her body, rapidly wearing her down. On top of that, she wasn't exactly empty-handed; she carried a large backpack on her back.

That day marked the eighth day they had wandered the mountains. Contrary to Mordred's assurance that they would find it quickly, the morning of the ninth day was already coming.

The needle of the compass had become very short and was then shining golden, but finding the exact location was proving to be an insurmountable challenge. In terms of distance, it had only been about a two-day journey, but the way there was too treacherous. Facing a huge cliff that seemed to have split the mountain in half, Garam and Mordred had barely managed to cross over by knocking down a tree. However, after retracing their steps and circling the same place repeatedly, finding anything that resembled a path was proving to be difficult, no matter how much they searched.

Moreover, because of Mordred, who had claimed he could survive without eating and still asked for his portion at every meal, Garam's fatigue had doubled each mealtime. In her opinion, Mordred didn't seem to be particularly fond of Garam's base camp food. It seemed like he enjoyed the novelty of trying different types of food more than anything else. However, mealtime was the time when Mordred was the kindest during the day, so as a person with many questions, she had no choice but to accompany Mordred during his meals.

Garam, who had been lying down, got up. Stretching herself, Garam opened the gate to her now familiar base camp. She was going to get two days’ worth of food to bring back.

Initially, Garam had brought a backpack full of food, but after realizing that Mordred had no intention of helping with the heavy backpack or showing any kindness, she began to go back and forth to the base camp whenever she needed to bring two more days of food. Even so, the amount they both ate was not small, so it was still a burden.

Garam, as if opening the door to her home, effortlessly opened a dimensional gate and stepped inside. She went to the kitchen to fetch two days’ worth of food: instant noodles, spam, rice, and side dishes. She didn’t forget to bring snacks as well. The food and snacks, no matter how many times Garam took them, would return to their original state as if someone had restocked the items when she visited the house again. No matter how many items Garam took there, when she closed the gate, everything returned to its fixed original state. Thanks to this, Garam had hardly left her house for the past eight days.

After taking a shower, changing her clothes, and replacing the nearly empty lighter with a new one, Garam opened the dimensional gate again and entered.

"Let's go."

While Garam had briefly gone to the base camp, Mordred had been awake the entire time. In fact, Mordred never slept because he didn't need sleep. The reason he lay down at night was simply because the night sky was beautiful. That was all. No morning greetings or casual conversation were exchanged between Garam and Mordred.

Garam nodded her head, and as she walked past Mordred, who was already standing, she followed him. Her steps were mechanical. Her weary footsteps had completely lost their softness of the first day. Garam didn't bother trying to hide her tiredness. It's not that she had never thought about getting a good night's sleep at home and coming back again, but she couldn't sleep alone in the silent house. Even sleeping on the earthen floor, where bugs crawled and the cold air rose, seemed better than that.

As Garam walked, she took some mocha bread from her bag, cut it in half, and handed a piece to Mordred. Then, she also took out two small cartons of milk and handed one to him. Garam passed the items silently, and Mordred accepted them without a word. However, once the two of them finished the mocha bread and the sun rose to its zenith, there was no sign of a path.

"What are you devouring?"

Mordred asked when he saw that Garam had found a wild strawberry and was putting it into her mouth with delight.

‘Devouring?’

Garam, who didn't like the tone of that question, answered bluntly.

"I'm hungry."

"It's only just past noon."

"We only ate some bread and haven't eaten lunch yet, you know? Besides, we've been walking all this time."

Strenuous mountain climbing makes people hungry easily. Garam's complaining didn't sound gentle, but she answered firmly. Mordred nodded in understanding. Although it was difficult for him to empathize since he had forgotten the sensation of hunger 100 years ago, he understood that once hunger set in, it became difficult to move. Garam's steps were gradually slowing down, so he thought it might be better to take a short break.

"Well, let's take a rest here then."

Mordred naturally sat down on a large rock nearby. Garam sat down next to him, took out a canned beverage and a small wet wipe from her bag, wiped her face, and then took a sip. She satisfied her hunger with some Vienna sausages. They were quite good food. They didn't make her feel too thirsty, and they provided enough calories. However, for the past day or so, she had been having only sausages for lunch. If this continues, she might develop some sort of intolerance.

Garam's honest sentiment was that she wanted to find a path quickly and have a proper meal. Adventures were enjoyable, but she didn't like suffering. Nine days of continuous overnight hiking felt more like a hardship than an adventure. If she tried to lie down to rest, insects would crawl around making noise, and nocturnal animals would add to the commotion. The only solace was the beautiful night sky, but the nighttime winds were chilling. After sleeping on the hard ground and waking up, her body felt as if it had been vigorously pummeled.

‘Would getting a better sleeping bag maybe improve my situation?’

Garam planned to go to a sports equipment store to get a better one after finding the path.

Although she had been suffering for a few days, her body had become quite accustomed to it. She was now able to take breaks and have the luxury of looking around. Not long ago, all she could do was mechanically gasp for breath and eat whenever she felt hungry.

As she looked around, Garam saw some delicate flowers in full bloom right next to her resembling roses. They had glistening dust on their petals, and when the wind blew, it seemed as if the dust was scattering like particles of light.

"How beautiful."

She murmured without realizing it.

Almost instinctively, Garam reached out to touch the flowers, but Mordred quickly stopped her.

"Wait, don't touch them. If you touch them and then touch your eyes, you could go blind. If you eat them, your tongue could become paralyzed."

Mordred's warning startled Garam, and she withdrew her hand. Mordred's kindness was like this. His tone was gruff and stern, but he always seemed to care about Garam. That's why she couldn't bring herself to dislike him, despite his rude actions.

"Oh, thank you."

Garam expressed her gratitude, but Mordred waved it off and focused on something else.

While Garam was looking at Mordred, realizing that he was looking at something in a specific direction, she followed his gaze and noticed something glinting in the bushes and among the small leaves.

It might resemble dew at first glance, but it had a distinctly different color. After staring at it for a while, Garam realized that the light wasn't a reflection cast by something else. The light was being emitted from there.

"Your path. Which way is it?"

"A path? Ah, it's this way."

Mordred stood up abruptly and walked in the direction Garam had told him. Garam hurriedly packed the uneaten sausages and followed him. With just a flick of his fingers, Mordred shortened the height of the bushes. He then walked over to the trimmed bushes.

Finally, when they reached the source of the light, Garam was left speechless by the strange sensation it gave her. If there were reality in the picture or if animations were walking around in reality, would it feel like this? The light was shining between the bushes, but it wasn't attached to the leaves. It just hung in the air.

To Garam's eyes, it looked like a golden little bead. However, it had no weight, no temperature, and was something that would never be visible to an ordinary person's eyes. She could tell that much. The path was something that could only be seen by the eyes of the two pathfinders there.

"It's a path."

Mordred had said that, but Garam already knew it. Oddly enough, Garam was ecstatic. That ecstasy resembled the feeling of when one discovers a god or a great figure one thought was already dead, or the mysterious and inexplicable. Seeing her losing her words, Mordred glanced briefly at Garam and approached the path. He could feel that the creatures drawn to the scent of the sausage Garam had taken out were lurking in the shadows, observing them.

Garam seemed not to notice at all, but Mordred saw everything as if he had marked it all on a map.

"You should do this when you find a path."

The golden glowing bead disappeared in an instant as it was absorbed into Mordred's palm. Garam, who had been enchanted by the path, finally came to her senses.

"Oh, I see. Let me try too. Please bring it out again."

At Garam's words, Mordred merely cracked a vague smile, offering no response.

"Mr. Mordred?"

Anxious, Garam asked. Suspicion made her heart flutter slightly.

"There's no way to bring it out again."

"What?"

Blinking her eyes a few times, Garam belatedly realized the meaning of that statement.

"What did you say?"

"Such methods don't exist."

Mordred kindly repeated. Garam's face turned crimson with anger.

"Did you just steal my path?"

Mordred floated slightly in the air with a mischievous grin.

'Why did he tell me to knock down a tree to cross the cliff if he could fly?'

Garam thought, recalling all the trembling she had done while looking down. Garam couldn't help but huff and puff.

"Steal it? Watch your words. It was a cheap deal. Do you know how much it cost for me to buy all that knowledge? Did you really think I would just give you that for free?"

"But we’re in this together!"

"Huh, we’re in this together? What are you talking about? I simply taught you while my path was recharging and charged you a tuition fee. And I did it at a very cheap price. Right now, you might resent me for not being generous, but later, you'll be grateful to me, won't you? Anyway, what you should be worried about right now is not whether or not I got my hands on that little path."

Mordred's body was then hovering in the air, about a meter off the ground. As Garam contemplated whether to throw a stone or something, she furrowed her brow in response to his words.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you'll find out soon enough. It's better if you die."

With those words, Mordred concealed himself in midair. As Garam sighed in frustration, she suddenly heard a bewildering sound and lifted her head, and soon she understood the true meaning of Mordred's words.