Codename Vestia

Chapter 18: Joonie

Doyeong realized that Tora intended to knock him out.

“Tora! Stop!”

*Flap.*

The loud, echoing shout startled the birds, causing them to take off in flight.

Tora’s foot, which was just about to reach Doyeong, hesitated. A rush of wind brushed against his face as the air shifted. Seeing the foot stop merely 1 cm away from his face sent a chill down Doyeong’s spine.

Gamal, standing upright amidst the reeds, exuded an unfamiliar sense of authority for the first time.

Tora turned back and spoke.

“Marti.”

Gamal shifted his gaze from Tora to Doyeong.

“Doyeong won’t give up. He’ll find it eventually.”

Before Doyeong could ask what he meant by that, Gamal spoke again, almost as if talking to himself.

“But it’s fine because it’s Doyeong.”

Tora glanced at Doyeong once and lowered his foot.

“I agree.”

Doyeong looked at Tora, dumbfounded.

“If you were going to do this, why did you try so hard to stop me?”

Tora grinned.

“Because playing around with the Major was fun.”

“Doyeong, come here.”

Gamal spoke and started walking ahead. When Doyeong looked at Tora, he gestured for him to go forward as if telling him to follow. Doyeong followed after Gamal.

They trudged through the forest for quite a while. Doyeong glanced back at Tora, who was trailing behind him, and spoke.

“If you’re planning to bury me somewhere without anyone knowing, just make it painless.”

Tora had a look on his face as if he found that amusing.

“It’s because we’re going to a place outsiders can’t find.”

What was?

Doyeong wanted to ask but decided not to, as he didn’t think Tora would answer. Besides, it seemed like they would reveal it soon enough.

Gamal walked ahead without saying a word. Doyeong glanced back at Tora again and asked.

“And you?”

“Me?”

“What’s your relationship?”

Instead of answering, Tora asked back.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

If it were obvious, he wouldn’t have asked.

Just then, Gamal turned back and said,

“Tora is my son.”

“Son…?”

Doyeong looked Tora up and down. At first glance, Tora seemed a few years older than Gamal. Of course, since they were vampires, it was hard to judge by appearance alone…

“I gave him my blood.”

The doubt cleared with Gamal’s next words.

“Ah, that kind of son.”

He was referring to a beneficiary who became a vampire after receiving blood—what was now commonly called a “clientes.” Given their different ethnicities, it was obvious they weren’t biological father and son. Tora looked like a mix of native and white descent.

“So you had a clientes.”

As Doyeong muttered, Tora looked amused and asked,

“Did you think I was his husband or something?”

“We’re here. This is the place.”

At that moment, Gamal spoke and moved forward. Doyeong answered Tora and followed after Gamal.

“I thought you might be the third one.”

“Why the third, specifically?”

Tora grumbled, following behind him. But Doyeong no longer heard Tora’s words, distracted by the sight of the numerous people that appeared before him.

When John Smith was introduced to Pocahontas’s tribe or when Jake Sully was introduced to the Na’vi, they must have felt something like this.

The people, who appeared to be the native inhabitants of the island, were all looking at Doyeong. Most of them seemed more curious than fearful.

Doyeong glanced around the tribe from end to end. He understood now. Gamal hadn’t been hiding Tora; he had been hiding these people.

Doyeong turned to look at Gamal.

“You were hiding these people? Why?”

“Because we couldn’t trust the Major,” Tora said.

“The Major is quite different from our other guests. That’s precisely why we couldn’t introduce our tribe to the Major. We couldn’t predict how you would react.”

“That ‘to me’ part…”

Suddenly, Gamal started walking toward the tribe. Among them, Doyeong could see a few others who, like Tora, appeared to be of mixed descent.

Gamal extended a hand to an elderly woman, helping her step forward. Her blue eyes, set in a face as weathered as old tree bark, looked at Doyeong. She, too, was a mix of native and white ancestry.

Gamal spoke.

“Angela. Johannes’s granddaughter.”

Johannes’s granddaughter. Doyeong didn’t immediately grasp the significance of those words. But then, it hit him.

“He had a wife and children outside…”

Gamal shook his head.

“Johannes fell in love with Angela’s grandmother. He said he didn’t want to go back.”

“Then what was the letter about?”

“I asked him to write it that way,” Tora answered, smiling faintly.

“Johannes was a writer, you see.”

While Doyeong was left speechless, Tora also walked over to the people. Turning back to face them, he spoke from among them.

“Welcome. We are the Satadi Tribe.”

***

The people seemed joyful. They sat around a blazing bonfire in the village courtyard, cracking open something like peanuts and laughing boisterously.

Doyeong wondered what they had so much to talk about with people they saw every day, but there was no one among the tribe who could communicate with him, so he couldn’t ask.

Though there was no direct connection to the ancient Satadi tribe where Gamal had been born, these people called themselves “Satadi.” Their surname was universally “Satadi,” applied equally to everyone.

It was the same with their language. Even though it had no linguistic connection to the ancient Satadi language that Gamal spoke, they referred to their language as “Satadi.”

Doyeong looked at Gamal, who was sitting beside him. Gamal was also cracking open something that looked like peanuts. Noticing Doyeong’s gaze, he offered what he had just shelled.

“Want some?”

Doyeong accepted and tasted it. It was larger and had a drier texture, but the flavor was similar to peanuts.

As he looked around at the people, Doyeong murmured to himself.

“So, you weren’t living alone all this time after all.”
Gamal skillfully cracked open the peanut-like snacks as he responded.

“When I first came here, there was no one. When I woke up, there were people. At first, there were only a few. But gradually, there were more.”

It was likely that, while Gamal was asleep, people had migrated from other islands. If that were the case, with his passive nature, there was no way he would have driven out the people who had already settled there. They must have ended up living together, almost by default.

“But on the side we were at, there wasn’t a trace of human presence.”

Even if they had been determined to hide, it would have been difficult to conceal every trace so completely. There should have been signs somewhere, but even for Doyeong, whose job was to find such things, there had been nothing.

“The tribe members don’t go over there,” Gamal said.

“Why not?”

“Because that’s my land.”

“Do you have a deed or something?”

Doyeong couldn’t hide his cynical tone. But Gamal, perhaps having given up on understanding unfamiliar words, didn’t bother asking for clarification and simply replied.

“I told them it’s okay to go, but they don’t.”

Doyeong silently continued to eat the pseudo-peanuts. Then, as if the thought had just occurred to him, he asked a question that he wasn’t particularly curious about.

“Why did you live alone? There are plenty of men in the tribe.”

“The tribe sees me as something else,” Gamal answered, as if the question was not surprising.

“Something else?”

When Doyeong looked over and asked, Gamal shrugged.

“A god.”

Now that he thought about it, none of the tribe members sat anywhere near this spot. It didn’t feel like they were avoiding him; rather, it felt like they were showing Gamal the utmost respect as their elder.

It made sense. With his superhuman physical abilities and eternal life, there was no reason why he couldn’t be seen as a god. The only difference from other deities they might worship elsewhere was that he was a living, breathing being made of flesh and blood.

Being alive made it easier for the tribe to believe he could protect them more surely.

In fact, the tribe originally had a different name, not “Satadi.”

To be precise, they had different “names.” In the past, even this relatively small island had dozens of tribes. But as the tribes unified, it seemed they adopted the name of their god.

Doyeong gestured toward Tora with a nod.

“And what about him?”

At the very least, as a fellow vampire, Tora probably didn’t see Gamal as a god. But Gamal looked perplexed, as if he didn’t understand why Doyeong would even mention Tora.

“Tora is my son. I saw him born, and I watched him grow up.”

It wasn’t something he even needed to say. Across the way, Tora was lounging on a large sack like a beanbag, practically entwined with a young woman from the tribe, the two of them playfully teasing each other.

When Tora whispered something into the woman’s ear, it didn’t seem like he was saying anything particularly special, but she laughed as if it was the most delightful thing she’d ever heard. As their displays of affection grew more intense, if Doyeong had been a more innocent person, he might have felt a bit embarrassed.

But none of the tribe members seemed to find it strange.

Doyeong, too, came from a world where it wasn’t unusual for vampires and humans to love each other, but the Satadi tribe seemed to accept it almost as a law of nature.

“That guy goes outside, right?”

Doyeong asked with certainty. Although Tora had the look of a native version of Mars, there was a scent of civilization about him. Gamal nodded.

“Tora and Rato bring news from the outside world. They also bring back Flos.”

Hearing Gamal mention that he consumed Flos felt a bit jarring. There was even a hint of betrayal.

“But do you eat the flowers raw?”

“We’ve run out lately.”

“So, who’s Rato?”

“Tora’s twin.”

Doyeong hesitated.

“Is he also a Luas?”

Gamal nodded.

“Yes. Both Tora and Rato are my sons.”

“There’s another guy who looks just like that one?”

Doyeong couldn’t tell if this was good or bad news for the women. But then…

“Twins…”

Something seemed to stir in his memory, but it wouldn’t come to him. So, he cracked open another pseudo-peanut and asked,

“Where’s the other twin then?”

“Outside. Tora and Rato take turns going out. This time, it’s Rato’s turn. He brings back news and supplies.”

Now Doyeong understood why there were quite a few items among the tribe’s possessions that seemed to come from outside.

“Have you heard anything about Rato?”

Suddenly, Tora sat down next to Doyeong and asked.

Doyeong looked curiously at Tora, who reached forward and took a handful of pseudo-peanuts from Gamal’s lap.

“Why are you coming to me to find your brother?”

The woman who had been tangled up with Tora was still sitting where she was, looking a bit displeased that he had abruptly left.

Tora cracked open a pseudo-peanut and said,

“Rato hasn’t contacted us for a while now. Even when it’s long, he usually checks in every two weeks, but this time, it’s been over a month.”

“Sorry, but I’ve been stuck on this island for a month and a half. How does he usually make contact?”

Tora grinned.

“As if I’d tell you.”

Doyeong sighed.

“I told you, I’m not talking about the tribe.”