I couldn’t go up to the restaurant, but unexpectedly, I was able to go even higher than that.
Near the very top of the tallest building in our country just below what could be called the rooftop there was a fairly large gap.
It had a structure that reminded me of the top of Sauron’s tower from The Lord of the Rings, resembling a giant meat fork. And between those towering prongs, there was a single, slender bridge.
For something attached to such a massive building, the bridge looked quite flimsy, resembling a fragile steel frame. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed more like a maintenance walkway than a tourist attraction.
Yet, this building had the audacity to call it the “Sky Bridge” and even charge an entrance fee.
I don’t remember which one of us suggested coming up here first, but somehow, we both agreed.
‘It’s a rare opportunity, so why not?’
And so, we ended up here.
The bridge didn’t look particularly trustworthy, but at least all the necessary safety measures were in place harnesses secured to our waists, safety officers standing by, and so on. The precautions seemed far more reassuring than the bridge itself.
This wasn’t just higher than a typical observation deck. It felt like we had crossed some kind of invisible boundary far beyond what was normal.
According to what I found online, tickets for the Sky Bridge had to be purchased in person on the same day. So my sister and I had come without much thought, only to somehow find ourselves standing here.
“……”
Now that we were actually up here, my sister looked as if she had completely forgotten how to speak.
Her pupils were trembling violently.
And honestly, I understood why.
Even my legs were shaking uncontrollably.
The battlefields of Irrelcia were mostly vast plains. Of course, there were forests some large enough to be called great woods and in the distance, towering mountain ranges that seemed to touch the sky. But there had never been a reason to climb those mountains, and even in the great woods, the expanse was wide rather than high.
I had stood on castle walls before, but they had never been this narrow. The wind had never howled this fiercely. The ground beneath my feet had never echoed with every single step I took.
No more than that nothing had ever been this high.
The autumn sky was clear. The sun hadn’t set yet, so I could see far into the distance. If we had been inside the building, I probably could have enjoyed the view in peace.
But… judging by how my sister was practically clinging to me, and how my own legs were trembling slightly, it was clear—we weren’t standing behind thick glass or solid walls.
We were standing on a thin bridge, barely wide enough for one person to walk across.
Even with safety harnesses, my skin crawled. No matter how much I reassured myself, falling from this height meant there wouldn’t even be a body left to recover.
“Ugh…”
My sister let out a faint, strained sound.
From what I had read online, they sometimes made people do jumping jacks up here. But maybe the instructor took pity on her because he didn’t make us do anything like that.
“If it’s too much, should we go back down?”
“N-no…”
I whispered softly, and my sister shook her head.
With her eyes tightly shut, she took several deep breaths before forcing them open again.
“…Ah.”
And then, she let out a quiet gasp.
I couldn’t blame her.
The weather was perfect, and the view stretched endlessly before us.
Somehow, the city stretched endlessly, a dense cluster of small buildings packed tightly together, continuing without pause into the distance. Among the relatively smaller structures, massive buildings jutted out unexpectedly.
No calling them “small” wasn’t quite right. After all, this was the heart of Seoul, where buildings towered everywhere.
It only seemed that way because the place we were standing was so unrealistically high. In reality, every single one of those buildings had multiple floors, and the ones sticking out were simply even taller skyscrapers.
It reminded me of a computer motherboard.
“……”
Just a moment ago, my sister had been too terrified to do anything, but now, as she gazed at the scenery, awe seemed to outweigh her fear.
Seoul stretched endlessly beneath the clear sky, reaching far beyond what the eye could see.
“It’s beautiful.”
She must have said that without even realizing it herself.
I simply nodded in agreement, staying silent.
By sheer coincidence, we were the only two people up here. It seemed we had managed to avoid overlapping with other visitors.
Without words, all we could hear was the wind brushing past our ears. The countless sounds from below never reached this height.
It was only now, after reaching this spot, that I truly grasped the scale of it all.
Each of those tiny buildings contained people. The cars, barely the size of rice grains from up here, were filled with people too. Even in the spaces between the buildings, people were walking.
From this height, they were too small to see properly, but every single one of them was living their lives, with their own thoughts and goals.
And among all those people, my sister and I had met.
And we were able to meet again.
What were the odds of that?
…At the very least, odds worth thanking the goddess for.
“Shi, Shihyun…!?”
The moment I sat down, my sister let out a startled cry.
But despite her panic, despite her trembling, she hesitated only for a moment before following my lead and sitting down beside me.
Pressed close together, we sat on the narrow bridge, our legs dangling over the edge.
“Shall we take a picture?”
When I asked, my sister gave a small nod.
Both of us stretched our legs out in front of us.
In the red jumpsuits the building had provided for safety, our two pairs of legs extended side by side, pointing straight ahead.
Click.
I snapped a photo with my smartphone.
Then, we took a picture together, our faces pressed close.
My sister still looked utterly terrified, and I almost laughed but I held it in.
At first, she had been trembling uncontrollably. But as we sat close together, the warmth and presence of each other seemed to calm her down, her shaking gradually easing.
For a long while, we simply sat there, leaning on each other for support.
Just like we used to when we were kids.
As if, in that moment, we were the only two people in the world.
*
“Whew…”
As we descended from the building, my sister let out a deep sigh of relief.
Honestly, even on the way up, the path to the bridge wasn’t exactly inside the building, so she had clung tightly to me the entire time until we were fully back indoors.
…Actually, even after changing out of our jumpsuits and taking the elevator down, she was still pressed right up against me.
Sure, she had always held my hand tightly whenever we went to amusement parks, but… this was even closer than that. Almost as if she no longer cared about the stares of the people around us.
Not that I had any intention of pulling away. If anything, I liked being this close.
Since we were already inside the building, we took our time exploring it before finally stepping outside. By then, evening had arrived.
We hadn’t managed to book a reservation at the restaurant inside, so we decided to head to a nearby Korean BBQ place instead.
I hadn’t been anywhere near a samgyeopsal restaurant in the past five years, but when it came to grilling meat, I was more than confident. I mean, I had survived five years out in the field.
When you get sick of eating preserved salted meat, you start looking for anything else edible. If I spotted something that could be turned into food, I’d catch it and prepare it right away.
Even a rat as big as a human forearm, when properly cleaned, could look like a decent meal. At first, we had hesitated, but after months of eating nothing but salt-cured rations, our perspective shifted. Out there, it wasn’t just food it was a rare delicacy.
We didn’t worry about disease. We had the Holy Sword and the Saintess on our side.
Of course, when we gave our reports, we conveniently left out the part about eating rat meat. That kind of story wouldn’t exactly boost morale among the soldiers.
…Besides, at least we were out on the plains, hunting wild animals. For the soldiers stationed on the battlefield, rats had a much worse reputation.
It wasn’t just that battlefield rats carried diseases they also fed on corpses. Even if the ones we ate had never touched a battlefield, to those soldiers, it would have seemed like we had eaten human flesh by proxy.
…Well, anyway.
Setting aside those grim thoughts, the upside was that I had become incredibly skilled at grilling food. That skill had even come in handy once, when I roasted a whole pig at a forward base during the war.
“Wow, this is so good!”
Watching my sister’s eyes sparkle as she ate the meat I grilled, I realized that, in the end, something good had come from all that suffering.
…Though, hopefully, I’d never have to use my rat-roasting skills again.