Yugeum and I were worried about something else. The lack of lighting didn’t really matter when it came to viewing the gems on display. Whatever the light shone on was sparkling anyway. But to think they were exhibiting things that looked insanely expensive at a glance, without a single guard.
“Do gemstone exhibitions usually get this big?”
As if I’d ever been to a gemstone exhibition before. When I pointed at an amethyst taller than I was and asked Yugeum, she shook her head as though she found it absurd too.
“This is my first time seeing one on this scale too. There’s a sapphire over there the size of my torso. ……It’s fake, right?”
“These weren’t here when I came yesterday.”
Seo Jihyeok said, flustered, as he looked around the exhibition hall filled with minerals while holding the android by the neck.
“That’s the light I fixed, and this place was completely empty. If something like this had been here, I would’ve picked one up and put it in my pocket.”
From a distance, Baek Aeyeong spoke as if she couldn’t believe him.
“How would you pick up something that size?”
Even the smallest gems were almost as big as a person’s thigh. They were jewels, sure, but jewels were stone in the end, so they had to weigh a ridiculous amount. I snapped my fingers and said,
“The cable car! It’s right at the end of the exhibition hall, so they must’ve lowered those from the First Undersea Base to the Second Undersea Base and moved them here.”
“The elevator isn’t that far from here anyway, so they might’ve used a few people and an automated cart, or moved them with a medic.”
Seo Jihyeok said, scratching his head. Shin Haeryang glanced lightly over the exhibits and frowned. I asked Shin Haeryang, who had fallen into an uncomfortable silence,
“Do you happen to know anything about minerals like these?”
“No. They’re dazzling.”
There were enormous crystals and aquamarines, as well as giant agates. There was even an emerald the size of a person’s head. There were rubies as thick as an arm, and the only minerals I could recognize were purple amethyst, because I’d once visited an amethyst cave, and cinnabar, which was dripping mercury.
The android soon started heading toward the diamond displayed in the center of the exhibition hall. Once we got closer, I realized the diamond was nearly the size of two adult fists. Even someone like me, who had no greed for gemstones, found myself wanting to take it after seeing that brilliance. It was so dazzling that none of the other gems displayed around it even registered. Looking at it, I understood why diamonds drew so much attention from people. It truly, overwhelmingly pulled the eye.
I understood why people gave gems like that to one another as gifts. With all the jewels gathered together and illuminated, nothing entered my eyes except the diamond displayed in the very center. Come to think of it, a friend of mine had nearly cried his eyes out over his bank account while buying one the size of a pinky nail for his wedding. If it was the size of two human fists, then how much on earth would it cost?
When we got within about six steps of the diamond, it looked as big as a medium-sized dog. At this size, it had to be a synthetic diamond, right? Natural diamonds were already hard to mine, and they probably didn’t come out this big. The android looked at us as we admired the diamond and said,
“This_is_the_mineral_that_has_endured_the_longest_time_here.”
Whatever the android said, Baek Aeyeong and Shin Haeryang were watching the path to the exit and checking for signs of people, and while I was looking up at the light pouring down on the diamond, Yugeum asked the android,
“How old is it?”
Since it was an android stationed at this exhibition, I figured it might know something, but I hadn’t expected it to actually answer. Maybe it was because I’d only ever seen androids on TV. Why did this feel so awkward? When the android answered the question precisely, I flinched in surprise.
“Approximately_4.5_billion_years.”
“……That’s about the same age as Earth.”
Was Earth 4.5 billion years old? Well, I did vaguely remember hearing something like that in earth science class, but it had been so long ago that I’d forgotten. I had trouble even remembering my own age every year. Geum-ssi, to think you remember Earth’s age. ……Wait, then didn’t that mean this diamond was created at almost the same time as Earth? Then this really was a natural diamond?
“Together_with_the_birth_of_the_star.”
The diamond’s radiance was almost blinding. I thought that even if every light in this exhibition hall went out, this one thing might keep shining on its own. It was a gem with that intense a light. Seo Jihyeok, who had been looking at the diamond, spoke to Baek Aeyeong while sitting on the android’s arm, and his voice was so loud that everyone else could hear it.
“Great White. Take the liquor out of your bag and put that in.”
I simply burst out laughing at that, and Yugeum stared at Seo Jihyeok as if she found him absurd. Shin Haeryang and Baek Aeyeong also looked at Seo Jihyeok in disbelief. Seo Jihyeok scratched his head and said to Baek Aeyeong,
“Judging by the way it’s displayed here, it belongs to that insane cult. And if this place gets flooded or a gunfight breaks out, nobody’s going to know whether one gem disappeared from here or not, right? Even if we take it, who’s going to say anything?”
Yugeum listened to Seo Jihyeok with her mouth hanging open, then immediately argued back.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t touch an insane cult’s gem. Even touching a sane person’s jewel would cause an uproar, and you want to touch the property of a cult armed with guns and occupying an undersea base? I don’t even want to imagine what kind of horrible thing would happen. And if the diamond is in the center of this exhibition, it must be incredibly important. If a diamond this size goes missing, they’ll search for it with their eyes blazing. They’ll never let us go!”
Baek Aeyeong gauged the size of the diamond with her eyes, then pointed out something else.
“How are you going to put something about eight kilos into a bag and leave? Carry something heavy on your back and your body gets sluggish.”
If we were going to talk like that, the cat inside my bag, which Baek Aeyeong had returned to me, seemed to weigh around six kilos. Baek Aeyeong had carried my bag with the cat inside on her back down the stairs, with two 1.5-liter bottles of water and a bottle of alcohol in her bag, and yet she had practically flown up and down the stairs without a single complaint. Apparently, if she had to choose between carrying a diamond that size in her bag and carrying a cat, Baek Aeyeong preferred the cat.
Then Seo Jihyeok looked over at Shin Haeryang, saw a face that looked as though not even a needle could get through, and immediately turned his head to look at me. I shook my head. I did have two bags, but one had a six-kilogram cat on my back, and the other had a snake inside. Even just the cat occasionally made my shoulders scream, and he wanted me to put a diamond in my bag?
Besides, when I’d only seen diamonds in photos or videos, I’d simply thought they were pretty, but seeing the real thing before my eyes, it sparkled so fiercely that it was a little frightening. It felt like looking at lightning.
Part of it was being overwhelmed by the radiance of a diamond the size of a person’s head, but since I’d never carelessly taken something that belonged to someone else, just imagining putting the diamond into my bag made fear seize me. I had never stolen or even snooped through anyone else’s belongings. I had snatched a bite or two of snacks or a sip or two of drinks from friends, but an object like that was different, wasn’t it? Seo Jihyeok seemed terribly regretful about leaving a diamond that size here.
“If we take just that one, everyone here would never have to work again for the rest of their lives!”
At those words, I thought of my family’s situation, and at the same time, since the company I’d joined had ended up like this and it looked like I wouldn’t even receive my first paycheck, I stared blankly at the diamond. Shin Haeryang spoke to Seo Jihyeok in warning.
“You should worry about getting your own life out of here.”
At that, Seo Jihyeok pouted so hard his mouth stuck out a mile, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of defying the team leader who had carried, piggybacked, and supported him all this time. Seo Jihyeok’s eyes busily darted among the others. Then he even looked at himself and frowned. Being in a position where he was being carried by an android, he gave up on the idea of entrusting the diamond to someone else or hugging it to his chest himself, and only let out one deep sigh after another. Seo Jihyeok looked at Baek Aeyeong, still unable to let it go, but Baek Aeyeong didn’t even meet his eyes. Yugeum looked, one by one, at the jewels displayed around her, then shook her head firmly.
“If I can get out of here alive, I can give up all those gems.”
Her tone sounded as if she was completely fed up with the undersea base. Baek Aeyeong looked at Yugeum, smiled, and held out her fist to her.
“I agree with that opinion.”
Yugeum looked flustered at the right fist Baek Aeyeong held out. She looked this way and that, then held out her own fist and lightly bumped Baek Aeyeong’s. I guess researchers didn’t do fist bumps like that.
Seo Jihyeok let out a big sigh. Then he clung to the android’s neck and kept saying things like, “What a waste, what a huge waste,” and “Ownerless gems are just lying around like that.” Emotionally, I could understand him very, very well. I wasn’t exactly free from money worries either. But with the state I was in right now, I wasn’t in a position to carry around jewels.
If I at least had the stamina of Baek Aeyeong or Shin Haeryang, I might have even attempted to take one. But ever since walking those god-awful stairs connecting the Third Undersea Base and the Second Undersea Base, I’d been walking with my legs trembling like a newborn deer. Especially after running tensely from the deep-sea aquarium into the exhibition hall just a little while ago, all I wanted was to collapse on the floor and rest. I was carrying the cat bag while crying inside only because the thing inside was a living creature. If it had been a jewel, I would have thrown it away long ago.
Baek Aeyeong, who was walking ahead, passed a ruby big enough to touch the ceiling and was now passing beside an opal the size of two large dogs. Behind her, Yugeum, Seo Jihyeok, Shin Haeryang, and I were walking in that order.
Even then, Seo Jihyeok was still asking the android things like whether he could skip all other services and just use a delivery service to send that diamond to his house, or whether the android could move it outside the undersea base for him. As Yugeum listened to the android’s flat voice respond to Seo Jihyeok’s chatter, she suddenly asked the android a question.
“What happens if you take a jewel and leave the exhibition hall?”
“All_elevators_cease_operation_and_an_alarm_sounds.”
A chill ran down my back. Goosebumps rose from my back to my neck, and startled by that answer, I turned around to see that Yugeum and Seo Jihyeok also looked horrified. Most of the undersea bases were connected by elevators, after all, and things like escape pods were designed not to be used unless it was a true emergency.