Chapter 117:How About You? (2)

The colleagues didn’t really care about the taste of the alcohol. Maybe it was because the drink was the one my sister had brought.  

Whether it was Korean beer or diluted soju in front of them, the colleagues drank without much complaint.  

And my sister was the same.  

After taking a big gulp of the first shot of soju, her face turned bright red. Actually, her face was already red, but now it was really flushed.  

It was only natural. The alcohol content of soju is more than three times that of beer. Even a small amount can cause a rapid rise in blood alcohol levels.  

“So.”  

Whether it was because of the change in tone or the alcohol kicking in, or maybe both, my sister started talking without hesitation, forgetting the initial awkwardness.  

“You all have known Shihyun for a long time, right?”  

At that, the colleagues looked at each other.  

It wasn’t wrong to say “a long time” because five years isn’t a short period. If I were in my 40s, I might have more relationships that are deeper than a five-year-long one, but I’m only twenty-five.

So, for me, five years is a substantial part of my life, and it’s fair to say we’ve known each other for a long time.  

However, if I were to pick the person I’ve known the longest, it would definitely be my sister.  

We’ve been together even before those five years. Though there was a gap of five years, my sister and I have shared many memories, even without considering that period.  

…Of course, the problem was that I couldn’t say that to her.  

“Yeah, that’s right.”  

The colleagues were well aware of that, too.  

Kalia, who glanced at me, probably said that because she knew.  

“How did you two meet? Are you from the same hometown?”  

The reason my sister asked that was likely because she remembered something I had said about my colleagues before.  

That I was from the countryside.  

…Of course, it was just something I had said to cover up, so it wasn’t true. I had never lived anywhere in Korea besides Seoul.

I had lived in the Kingdom of Irellexia, but calling it ‘the countryside’ didn’t make sense. To be precise, it was a ‘foreign’ country. It wasn’t just a place across a border; it was a completely different world.  

At my sister’s question, the four of them turned their gaze toward me.  

Had I told my colleagues that I had said something like that?  

…I don’t think I did.  

I thought about aligning the story, but I don’t think I ever actually did it.  

“No, I’m not from the same hometown.”  

Kalia, who had fully returned to her usual way of speaking because of the casual tone, answered like that.

However, despite speaking in her aristocratic manner, her voice remained careful. She must be being cautious because she still had feelings for me.  

Her gaze still shifted between my sister and me.  

She was probably trying her best to piece together the situation in her mind.  

By the way, Fia was sweating coldly.  

If I had to pick the person who could never lie among them, my colleagues would choose Fia without hesitation.  

When it came to ‘keeping secrets,’ they trusted her completely. All of them. But when it came to ‘making up stories,’ Fia was awful at it.  

Unlike Kalia, who had lived as an aristocrat and had many deceptive conversations, or Arna, who had accumulated vast experience through years of talking to people, Fia was a bit too innocent to be good at lying.

It wasn’t so much a matter of knowledge, but more likely because she had been communicating with the Goddess since childhood.

When there was no one else to talk to except the Goddess, there would have been no reason to lie. Even after she became a saint and started spreading the Goddess’s teachings, there would have been no need to lie either.  

So, when it came to a situation where she had to make something up, she was quite flustered.  

“But Shihyun… we did spend a long time together in our hometown.”  

It wasn’t a lie, but Kalia said it while hiding the details.  

“Hometown…?”  

My sister stopped for a moment after bringing it up, thinking, and then, with a determined look, asked,  

“Hometown… does that mean foreign?”  

“……”  

Hmm.  

Well, if you call it foreign, then yes, it technically is.  

Fortunately, the expression “foreign” didn’t seem to confuse my colleagues too much. They all nodded.  

“If it’s foreign, what kind of place was it?”  

Every time my sister asked a question, I felt like I was walking on thin ice.  

What kind of place… how should I answer?  

I could just mention a famous European country, and they’d probably understand if I said Fia’s hair color was dyed.  

But even if I said that, the more questions they asked, the deeper I’d fall into a trap.  

Even if the main ethnic groups were similar, the Kingdom was so unique that it couldn’t really be compared to any country on Earth.

It was a land that developed based on magic, had fought against the Demon King’s army for a long time, and was even an absolute monarchy. The architectural styles were similar to those on Earth but also strangely different in some ways.  

The more I spoke about my “hometown,” the more the differences between it and the countries of Earth would stand out. Eventually, I would reach a point where it would be impossible to cover it up.  

But Kalia didn’t stop explaining or say it was a secret.  

“It’s a place that no longer exists on Earth.”  

And she boldly answered like that.  

Everyone’s mouths dropped open. Me, my colleagues, even my sister who had asked the question, all stared at Kalia.  

For a moment, I wondered if she was going to reveal that it was another world, but I quickly dismissed the thought. She wouldn’t have said such a thing without careful consideration. After all, she was born and raised in one of the most prestigious noble families in the Kingdom, and she was also the commander of a knight order who had learned strategy and tactics.  

“I understand why you all might think that.”  

Kalia, receiving everyone’s gazes, crossed her arms and nodded, as if she understood everything.  

“You probably want to believe that our hometown hasn’t disappeared.”  

“…….”  

No, I wasn’t sure what she meant by that.  

Our hometown has disappeared? No, that wasn’t true. Irellexia was still standing strong. Unless a huge event happened in the next hundred or so years, it would remain the same.  

“But we must face reality. The reason our refugee application was accepted and why we became citizens of this country is because our country was destroyed during the war. In fact, none of the people here speak their native language better than Korean.”  

“Ah…”  

Now I understood what Kalia was getting at.  

It would be too obvious to just say I was born Korean, given my name and appearance. And it would be too risky to claim I had just naturalized in another country.

So, it was better to say that the country itself had disappeared, and they had no choice but to settle in this country.  

“Does that mean your hometown doesn’t exist anymore?”  

My sister asked with a somewhat serious expression.  

“That’s right.”  

Kalia nodded with a slightly stiff expression.  

“Actually, we don’t even know our hometown properly. We only heard stories from the older generation, our parents’ generation. In reality, we grew up in this country, and that’s why Korean culture feels more familiar to us.”  

“……”  

The three colleagues, looking at Kalia who was shamelessly lying like an aristocrat, stared at her blankly. But, given the situation, it wasn’t easy to tell that they were making a flabbergasted expression.  

“And Shihyun is a Korean expatriate who grew up in the same hometown as us during his childhood. There was an exchange between our parents’ generations, so that’s how we’ve been able to know each other. We’ve been able to depend on each other because of that.”  

It was a sloppy but, in some ways, a somewhat convincing story.  

It’s incredibly difficult to be recognized as a refugee in Korea, and even harder to naturalize while in refugee status.

Moreover, the four of them here only had their resident registration cards, with no other way to prove they were Korean. They didn’t have the educational background, qualifications, licenses, or awards that could make them eligible for naturalization.  

Yet, at the same time, it was easy to claim to be a ‘naturalized foreigner with a foreign name.’ After all, they had resident registration cards, and their names were foreign-sounding.  

…No, rather than the absurd explanation that they came from another world, this was a much more persuasive story.  

Honestly, it was a lie that I couldn’t help but admire.