Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 172

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Editor’s Survival Manual – Episode 172

ep24. We Escaped (1)

Light filtered through the curtains, and I surfaced from sleep in that soft, gradual way.
A familiar ceiling. A safe, quiet room. A plush bed.
And the kind of unhurried ease that needed no effort to shake off sleep.
Perfect.
I buried my face in the pillow, satisfied with my situation.
Fifty-seven hours.
That’s how long it took from when Cha Si-eon and I were deployed to suppress the Train Station until we returned.
It felt like we’d been trapped there for more than a week.
Just two days and nine hours.
My sense of time was shot, but either way, the disaster and torment and tribulation were over.
A body refreshed from bathing, clean and comfortable pajamas, crisp air.
Even the right amount of fatigue to aid sleep.
Good thing I was alive.
Zing—
My smartwatch vibrated lightly.
Some message had come in, but sleep was priority.
Zing—
Yeah, later.
Zing-zing-zing-
……What now?
I forced my eyes open and checked the name on my smartphone.
Of course.
The sender was Cha Si-eon.
You’re not tired……?
I just glanced at the message and tapped my smartwatch, thinking only of sleep.
But after reading the content, I had no choice but to get out of bed.
The message from Cha Si-eon was brief.

-I’m going to visit Lee Sol.

* * *

Lee Sol’s body recovered right after we secured the Core of the Train Station.
Like the rescuer from Ant Hill, her twisted frame repaired itself rapidly, and her consciousness—which had been murky for so long—returned to normal.
But the physical deformation had persisted for too long; she still needed observation.
So Lee Sol remained in the Contaminated Person Isolation Room.
Still, they said her recovery was progressing well, so I figured we should go and greet her warmly.
That’s why I came out—
But Team Leader Cha’s expression was oddly stiff.
What’s with this mood?
I sensed something was off and asked Cha Si-eon.
“Didn’t they say we should wait a bit before visiting Lee Sol?”
“Analysis Team 5 requested our presence.”
“They requested it?”
“Lee Sol has been refusing meals since regaining consciousness.”
“……?”
We barely saved her and she’s on a hunger strike.
What reason could there be for that?
Or has some other problem come up?
I belatedly understood Team Leader Cha’s mood.
That this visit wasn’t just about warmly checking in on her.
I sobered up and crossed the Management Bureau’s corridor.
Shortly after.
We arrived at the Isolation Room where Lee Sol was being held.
But we were met with an unexpected refusal at the threshold.
“Sol says she can’t see you, Team Leader…….”
The researcher attending to Lee Sol spoke while keeping us in the hallway.
“Why?”
“She remembers everything from when she was contaminated. She says she’s sorry and can’t bear to see her uncle…….”
“…….”
“I contacted you hoping she might listen if you came, but…….”
The researcher mumbled, looking troubled.
Then he spoke to us again.
“Sorry, could you wait a moment? I’ll try to convince her more.”
The researcher went back into the Isolation Room, and we were left waiting in the hallway.
She can’t see him because she’s sorry?
I never expected it to turn out this way.
But thinking about it, it would have been stranger if she’d greeted us cheerfully out of nowhere.
Lee Sol hadn’t been home in six months—she’d been trapped here.
Her body twisted more and more, and unable to control it, she’d caused a disturbance.
She’d hurt people around her, and in return received harsh treatment.
At such a young age, the trauma couldn’t be small.
It would take considerable time to process those experiences.
Click—
Shortly after, the researcher came back into the hallway.
His face had darkened further, and he shook his head.
“It won’t work today, I’m afraid. Sorry you came all this way.”
It seemed Lee Sol was stubbornly refusing the visit.
“Did she say what…….”
I was about to ask the researcher for more details when—
Cha Si-eon suddenly moved toward the Isolation Room door.
“Ah…….”
The researcher was flustered but didn’t try to stop him.
Neither did I.
Cha Si-eon strode into the Isolation Room, and the researcher and I followed.
In the middle of the spacious room, I saw Lee Sol in gray training clothes.
She was sitting on the bed, sobbing quietly.
Another researcher was in front of her, trying to console her.
“……!”
Lee Sol startled the moment she noticed Cha Si-eon.
She immediately hid her body behind the researcher.
As if she’d committed some terrible crime.
I could feel from across the room how much she was trembling.
But Cha Si-eon didn’t mind and walked straight toward her.
“Lee Sol.”
“…….”
“You have no fault. Come here.”
Cha Si-eon spoke bluntly.
His voice didn’t become specially gentle or affectionate just because he was addressing a fifteen-year-old.
If anything, it was more indifferent than usual, which made it feel oddly personal.
Like how you’d speak to family.
The natural, effortless command tone you’d use with a much younger sibling or a nephew who wouldn’t listen.
But Lee Sol didn’t respond to those words.
She wasn’t refusing either; the researcher caught between them sensed the awkwardness and quietly stepped aside.
With that, Lee Sol became visible.
She sat on the bed, head hanging low.
Like a child already in trouble, even though she hadn’t been scolded yet.
“Why won’t you eat?”
At Cha Si-eon’s pressing question, tears spilled down Lee Sol’s cheeks.
Cha Si-eon simply watched, and Lee Sol, who had been weeping silently, forced out a voice after a long moment and asked—
“……Did Dad die?”
“…….”
“Because of me?”
For the first time, Cha Si-eon hesitated at Lee Sol’s question.
He turned to look at the researcher, and the researcher, startled by that gaze, quickly shook his head.
The researchers even touched their chins, looking flustered.
A natural reaction.
They wouldn’t be stupid enough to let slip information about Lee Seob to her.
In the face of the researchers’ denial, Cha Si-eon looked back at Lee Sol and asked—
“No. Who told you that?”
“Dad came to see me…….”
……Dad came to see her?
“He said he’s okay now, said I should live well…….”
Wait.
Had he come to her the way he’d appeared in my dream and spoken to me?
“Did Dad die because of me? Was Dad alive……?”
Lee Sol spilled out the words, trembling.
Every time she said “Dad,” a sob mixed into her voice.
As if waiting for punishment in the face of a truth she couldn’t bear.
At her question, we too found ourselves at a loss for words.
We couldn’t lie.
But we couldn’t tell the truth either.
Your father spent two years in a state between life and death, abandoned.
But because of you, we decided to end him.
That was the best option.
No matter how you packaged it, that was the fact.
I couldn’t say such things to a child.
Silence continued.
Finding an answer in that silence, Lee Sol began to weep again, holding it back.
“……Why tell me now?”
The researchers sighed at the sight.
They’d just realized why Lee Sol had been refusing meals and crying.
Lee Sol continued to weep, and Cha Si-eon said nothing more.
Even when the researcher tried to console her, it was no use.
“I think we need to leave her alone until she calms down.”
Deciding there was no way forward, the researchers tried to send us out.
Cha Si-eon and I had no choice but to turn to leave.
“Just a moment.”
“……?”
“Could I say something to her briefly?”
I spoke to the researcher before we crossed the threshold of the Isolation Room.
The researcher looked puzzled at my request.
But it wasn’t an unreasonable ask, so they nodded after a moment.
Thinking it best to speak quietly, Cha Si-eon and the two researchers waited outside for a moment.
And twenty minutes later.
I called the people who had been waiting in the hallway back inside.
“Come in. Sol says she has something to tell you.”
At my words, Cha Si-eon and the researchers came in, looking genuinely surprised.
Lee Sol was still sniffling.
No—fresh from a bout of sobbing, her face was even more drenched in tears than before.
The moment Lee Sol saw Cha Si-eon, fresh tears began to pour.
But Sol steadied her breathing and spoke to Cha Si-eon, enunciating each word carefully.
“Thank you, Uncle. And I’m sorry for hurting you……. When I grow up, I’ll repay your kindness…….”
“……?”
Cha Si-eon was taken aback.
And with him as the backdrop, Sol also turned to greet the researchers.
“Thank you for taking care of me all this time, teachers.”
“Huh? ……Huh?”
“I’ll eat now…….”
Lee Sol pledged to eat with a face full of resolve.
The researchers welcomed the sight, yet they stared at me with confused eyes.
Cha Si-eon also looked at me and questioned with his gaze.
What the hell did you just do?
I answered with an easy smile.
Just middle school stuff.

* * *

Lee Sol finished a full bowl of rice and then cried a little more before falling asleep.
The adults who’d succeeded in feeding and putting a child to bed—especially the researchers who’d been fretting all day—looked like they’d wiped away cold sweat.
“She wouldn’t talk or do anything but cry since yesterday, so we were really worried…….”
The researcher exhaled in relief and muttered.
Then he laughed awkwardly and asked me—
“What exactly did you say to her?”
“Just the usual platitudes.”
“Platitudes?”
Lee Sol, you must be hurting a lot, right?
What did your dad say to you at the end?
He said to live well, didn’t he?
But if you skip meals, is that living well?
Would your dad really want to see you cry like this and suffer?
And if you keep crying, don’t you think it hurts the uncle who worked so hard?
……I just repeated things like that for twenty minutes, watching her reactions.
At my explanation, Cha Si-eon looked at me with clouded eyes.
As if suspicious whether what I’d done was consolation, persuasion, or gaslighting.
Meanwhile, the two researchers nodded earnestly.
“Indeed…….”
“This is the true importance of the humanities…….”
“That’s why people need to read books, I guess.”
“Sol listened well because she’s kind-hearted.”
The truth is, her father and her uncle did all of that.
Lee Sol’s experience was certainly painful.
But at least it wasn’t lonely.
She wasn’t isolated, and there was someone there to protect her to the very end.
So she could recover from anything.
Because those who’ve received good tend to become good people.
But the researchers shook their heads vigorously.
Then they said something unexpected.
“No, Agent. We’re genuinely awestruck by the greatness of the humanities.”
“We all cried when we read your will.”
A will.
A will!?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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