WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 35: Cavity (2)
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“SKELTON!”
I met Defender and his sister on the road to Pangyo.
They were riding an old scooter, but for some reason, Defender’s sister was at the handlebars.
Noticing my gaze, she shrugged and looked back at me.
“I’m a better driver.”
Defender, sitting awkwardly in the back, stared at my face.
“Have you not been eating much lately?”
“Why?”
“You look thinner than before.”
“I just don’t have much of an appetite.”
Defender’s sister studied me, then asked cautiously.
“If you don’t have any, want us to share some?”
“I’m fine. I just don’t feel like eating.”
They called it preserved food, but after two years of it, the smell alone made my stomach turn.
Maybe that was easy for me to say because I wasn’t starving.
“How much do you have left? I’ll share if you’re hungry.”
“I’m fine. What about you two?”
“Us? Maybe three months’ worth.”
Three months would go by fast.
Still, I didn’t need to worry about them.
Before these siblings sat around and starved to death, they’d kill someone else and take their food.
“Let’s move. Before the sun sets.”
“Sure.”
DentistKim’s home and clinic stood in an upscale residential district in Pangyo.
The neighboring Bundang New Town had suffered near-total destruction during the war, and Pangyo’s urban area had been bombed beyond recognition. But the suburban luxury housing district had barely escaped the ravages of war.
That was probably why it had remained an upscale neighborhood little different from before the war.
Before the NCRC left, high-ranking NCRC officials had requisitioned the mansions for themselves. After they left, the military took over and used them as official residences.
Contrary to m9’s expectations, the generals had chosen luxury homes over apartments.
Soldiers stood guard at the entrance to the housing development.
We had arranged this in advance, and DentistKim had supposedly informed the military, but walking up to fully armed soldiers still wasn’t easy.
Fortunately, the Corps Faction seemed to have maintained its discipline.
“Ah, Dr. Kim told us you were coming. His house is over there.”
A neat-looking officer pointed to a mansion in the distance with solar panels attached.
“Be careful on your way. Though.”
The officer added with a bright smile that suited his open face.
“It’s going to hurt a little.”
As befitted the Corps Faction leadership’s residential area, security was tight.
Fully armed soldiers stood everywhere, and I could see air-defense trucks equipped with anti-drone jammers.
There were a few civilians around, but they looked less like residents than contractors affiliated with the military.
“Is it this house or that one?”
By coincidence, there were two houses side by side where the officer had pointed.
Both had exposed concrete in that so-called industrial style, so from afar they looked like one building.
“Aren’t they the same house? Looks like the same person designed them.”
Defender’s sister looked over both houses as she spoke.
“Maybe.”
Defender took up his sister’s remark.
“When rich guys go into business together, they’re closer than brothers, aren’t they?”
I looked at the two mansions.
Their styles were similar.
Both were courtyard-style homes, with high outer walls surrounding the entire building.
The two mansions looked like twins, but their atmospheres were complete opposites.
The nearer house had peeling paint. The entrance bore scars from having been sealed off, as well as marks where the door had been struck with sharp and blunt objects.
Sandbags and barricades lay scattered everywhere, hinting at the troubles that had swept over the mansion.
The house next door, however, felt entirely different.
It was clearly the same design, but instead of suffering damage, it looked to be in excellent condition in every respect. There were even two soldiers guarding the front gate.
We went to the shabby house first.
Defender pressed the doorbell.
A shadow moved about on the second floor.
Soon, the door opened slightly, and a woman appeared.
She didn’t look particularly old, but a deep gloom hung over her face.
“Who is it?”
The woman showed her wariness beneath the rattling anti-burglary chain.
“Is this Dr. Kim’s house?”
Defender asked with a pleasant business smile.
The woman muttered something expressionlessly and pointed next door.
“The person called Dr. Kim will be over there.”
“Thank you.”
As the woman began to close the door, a boy’s sharp voice suddenly rang out from inside.
“They’re not Dr. Kim! That’s not Dr. Kim’s house!”
The cry sounded desperate.
The door shut before the boy could finish, muffling his voice. Soon, we heard the woman harshly scolding him from behind the door.
We left as the child began to cry.
As we headed toward the other, similar-looking mansion, Defender and his sister exchanged looks.
“Something smells rotten.”
His sister spoke first.
Then she looked at me and quietly asked,
“What do you think, SKELTON?”
“...I don’t know.”
Something was going on.
Anyone who wasn’t an idiot could tell.
But I honestly didn’t know exactly what the problem was.
My tooth still hurt, and I still wanted treatment.
Defender’s sister slowed down until she was beside me, then suddenly held her phone screen in front of my face.
[ How is it? Good thing I came with you, right? ]
That damn notes app.
“Yeah, I’ll give you that.”
When something was suspicious, it was better to have more people around.
That way, we could put up more of a fight and save each other.
Especially during treatment like dental work, where you were left defenseless, you needed someone watching your back.
Now that DentistKim seemed increasingly suspicious, companions weren’t optional. They were necessary.
Defender pressed the doorbell amid the tension.
Unlike before, the door opened right away.
“Hello?”
A middle-aged man with a pale face and many wrinkles around his eyes greeted us with a warm smile.
He wore a white doctor’s coat.
“Three people? Are you from Viva! Apocalypse!?”
“Yes. I’m SKELTON.”
“Ah, SKELTON. You’re younger than I expected.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Ha ha, nothing. Anyway, I’m the forum user who goes by the nickname DentistKim.”
We shook hands.
His grip was stronger than it looked, and rough calluses covered his knuckles.
While we shook hands, DentistKim’s eyes moved toward Defender and his sister.
“And who are these two?”
He seemed slightly wary.
Fair enough. Three strangers turning up together was reason enough to be cautious.
Still, having one woman among us helped in a situation like this.
He looked guarded when he saw Defender, but after seeing Defender’s sister, he signaled to the soldiers watching us from afar that everything was fine.
If all three of us had been men, the soldiers might have come over.
“Yes, they’re my younger cousins. We live together.”
“I see. In any case, all three of you are welcome. Please come in.”
DentistKim led us to the reception room.
The inside of the mansion was every bit as lavish as one would expect from a wealthy neighborhood.
The open space, the colors, the sheen in every corner, all of it had a polish you rarely found in an ordinary person’s home.
We sat on expensive sofas, looking around the beautiful interior that seemed to have suffered almost no damage from the war.
A woman who appeared to be DentistKim’s wife and a young girl sat on the sofa, staring at us.
The girl’s clothes were one thing, but the woman’s outfit did not belong in the apocalypse. Clothing that looked expensive, a necklace, other sparkling accessories, and a small, dainty watch around her wrist.
She was dressed exactly like a wealthy lady from before the war.
To maintain that kind of lifestyle in times like these.
Kim Daram, whom I could no longer contact, came to mind.
The glamorous woman called DentistKim over and whispered something in his ear.
“Ah, could we look at the goods before the treatment?”
Defender began pulling out what he had brought.
Inside plastic bags and newspaper were clothes and bags that had been considered luxury goods before the war.
The woman examined them one by one.
“Hmm. This one is a bit dated.”
She especially inspected the bags closely. I didn’t know much about luxury goods, but this one had the brand that was supposedly the most expensive at department stores.
As she put the bag down, she muttered,
“Still, genuine is genuine.”
Then she looked at me.
“Where did you buy this?”
“Pardon?”
“Did you buy it in Korea? Or overseas?”
“Ah, well.”
How was I supposed to know that?
When I turned toward Defender, he stepped in at once.
“London.”
“My mother bought it while she was traveling. She barely used it. She liked another one she bought on the same trip better.”
“I see. And that other one?”
“She used it so much that it got pretty stained. We didn’t think it was in good enough condition to bring here.”
“Ah, I see.”
Watching from a short distance away, it seemed the wife was the one who made the decisions in this house.
“Dear. The goods are fine.”
Once she gave the okay, DentistKim led us to the basement.
The perfect clinic we had seen on the community was proudly set up there.
“Now then, who would like to go first?”
Defender’s sister waved both hands in refusal.
So I raised my hand first.
“Please sit.”
Like a dentist before the war, DentistKim laid me back, put a suction tube in my mouth, shone a bright light inside, and poked and examined my teeth with all kinds of instruments.
“Ah, you have a cavity here. I don’t have any anesthetic, but you can bear it, right?”
“Yes.”
I was in a position where I couldn’t resist, but the Defender siblings were behind me. I wondered how much that really meant.
By then, I already trusted DentistKim.
If anything, I was curious how he could trust us so much.
Even with one woman among us, accepting several young people in their twenties and thirties, all in their physical prime, into his home without a word took the kind of ease that came only with considerable nerve.
Whiiiiirrr.
The nightmare sound I had heard before the war echoed through the basement.
“Raise your hand if it hurts. Hey, I haven’t even started yet.”
The treatment began.
I endured the pain, sometimes gritting my teeth and sometimes raising my hand.
Grrrriiiind!
“Ghk!”
“Bear with it. You’re quite the drama queen. You look so dignified, too.”
A little later, the treatment was over.
It was a success.
No, calling it a huge success wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Not only had I gotten the cavity removed in this ruined world, I had even enjoyed the luxury of having the empty space filled with amalgam.
I ran my tongue over the hardened amalgam and felt deeply satisfied.
Defender’s sister was next.
She had a large cavity in one of her molars.
“I think you’ll need a root canal.”
At the words root canal, Defender’s sister looked up at me with a tearful expression and held out her phone.
[ SKELTON HELP T_T ]
“...”
I had a feeling.
I subtly turned to DentistKim and asked,
“...Can she be anesthetized?”
“Anesthetic requires medicine. If you want to use it, you’ll have to pay more. It’s something we only use on VVIPs like the generals.”
“Would this do?”
I held out a local anesthetic I had brought just in case.
“Oh. Do you have a syringe?”
“Yes.”
Tears welled up in Defender’s sister’s eyes.
She tapped on her tablet, then showed me huge letters.
[ I L O V E Y O U ]
“...”
Just as I expected, Defender’s sister had the social skills of a beast.
She screamed just from getting the anesthetic injection, and I had to hold her still.
Once the anesthetic took effect, though, she cooperated with the treatment smoothly, and the clinic settled down.
“I’ll step out for a moment.”
Defender, who had been watching the treatment, left the clinic.
When I looked at him, he shook his head.
Apparently, he had nothing that needed treatment.
With the quiet hum of the handpiece engine filling the clinic, I briefly recalled scenes from the past and waited for time to pass.
“Ahh. M-my mou... mouth... won’t open...”
We left the house with Defender’s sister, whose cheeks were swollen.
DentistKim and his family saw us off at the entrance.
“Please be careful. If you ever need treatment again, come back. People from Viva! Apocalypse! are always welcome!”
He was kind to the end.
He was a little shrewd and calculating, but the treatment had been quite good. Seeing a family with some breathing room for the first time in a while had also put me in a good mood.
But when Defender approached me with an odd smile, the problems I had ignored seemed to unfold before me like a fan.
“Just as I thought. That guy’s a fake.”
It seemed Defender had gone next door while he was away.
I didn’t know how he had coaxed her, but the gloomy woman had told him about the tragedy that had occurred in this house.
The conclusion was exactly what I had vaguely expected.
To put it simply, DentistKim, who had talked about their ambitions for the future on the pre-war community, and DentistKim, who had treated me, were different people.
“...Apparently, he used to work under the original dentist. Right after the war, when rioters came here and caused trouble, he brought his family over, saying he would help his old employer. But that was the beginning of the real DentistKim’s tragedy.”
The perfect basement equipment and the certificates and plaques decorating the reception room did not belong to him.
The luxury clothes and bags worn by that woman did not belong to her either.
The same went for the expensive children’s clothes their daughter wore.
None of their belongings existed here.
The murderer and his family had stolen not only a family’s lives, but their entire way of life.
“...”
But his treatment had been perfect.
That family had posed no danger to me and caused me no harm.
They had treated us with kindness and courtesy from beginning to end.
As doctor and patient, it was hard to imagine a more ideal relationship.
“What should we do?”
Defender looked like he wanted to kill that family.
His sister felt the same.
They had no great sense of justice. They merely needed an excuse, and they wanted my agreement.
“...”
After thinking for a moment, I sighed and looked at them.
“Let them be.”
“...Shall we?”
That short exchange contained more than one might expect.
Defender clenching his left molar was probably part of the unspoken agreement.
There was no need to kill them.
In a sense, DentistKim who had treated me and DentistKim who had already died were not so different.
No, perhaps the new DentistKim was a better person than the old version.
Maybe Defender had considered even that in our brief exchange.
But then.
“Hm?”
Something came loose in my mouth.
I spat it out, and it was the amalgam that had just been put in.
Defender turned to look at me staring blankly at the amalgam in my palm and smiled.
“What should we do?”
“...”
The conclusion was the same, but it was also true that I hesitated for a moment.
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