Chapter 397 |
The Bereaved V
I was confident in my acting.
I had already lived for tens of thousands of years, so it would have been more difficult not to have accumulated experience in any art form, regardless of the field.
I could even change my voice by mobilizing just a tiny bit of aura.
If I shaped the aura and overlaid it on my facial muscles, it could even function as a temporary disguise, a type of human-skin mask.
– Hayul, peekaboo! It's daddy.
– ...
– This is Jung Sang-guk. Daddy has come to his senses. I love Hayul very much.
– Die.
Looking across the entire martial world, there was only one person who would dare to challenge me at this level, and that was Oh Dok-seo, who had turned on her VTuber mode with [Side Story Creation].
But that kid, Oh Dok-seo, can't act as someone who has been time-sealed, right? It was impossible for her to empathize with Cheon-hwa in the first place, wasn't it?
Yes, she’s garbage.
Naturally, I, the Undertaker, had no choice but to be selected as the master actor to play the part of Yo-hwa’s ‘long-lost twin sister’.
Now, all that was left was for Yo-hwa to reminisce in her dream about the sweet childhood days with her precious sister, and recover her lost memories from the very beginning!
It should have been a truly perfect calculation.
“I hate you, unni!”
“...”
“You ate the chocolate ice cream I put in the fridge again, didn't you! I can only eat one of those a day, but you pretended to be me and ate mine too! I hate you! I really hate you, unni!”
Right before my eyes, or more accurately, in the ‘dream,’ a young version of Yo-hwa was screaming her lungs out.
All I had to do now was lower my eyebrows apologetically and bow my head to my lovely younger sister.
If I just did that, a reasonably ‘good memory’ would be imprinted onto Yo-hwa’s subconscious.
When she woke up later, although Yo-hwa wouldn't be able to remember every single detail of the dream's scenery, at the very least, a faint feeling of ‘I made memories with someone like family’ would remain.
But.
“Oh, really? But I like my little sister so much.”
My tongue, having already achieved a perfect state of oneness with Cheon-hwa through my supreme acting ability, moved on its own.
“Because you’re here, I get to eat two ice creams. I love you, Yo-hwa. But since I want to keep eating chocolate ice cream no matter how much I have, I think it would be great if I had just three more little sisters like you!”
“Hwaaaaaah!”
In the end, Yo-hwa burst into tears.
“I... I hate you, unni! Die! Waaah! Unni, just drop dead!”
– What is the matter, young lady?!
Crash. The housekeepers, having detected the crying from outside the door, came running.
And just like that, not only Yo-hwa but also Cheon-hwa immediately launched into an impromptu crying act.
“Hic, hwaaaaaah! Cheon..., Cheon-hwa unni... sob! Sh-she hit me... and scolded me!”
– What?!
“N-n-n-no! I’m Yo-hwa! I’m the one who’s Yo-hwa, but unni took my ice cream and...”
“Hwaaaaaah!”
“Sob, hic, waaaah, u, uwaaaaaah!”
The housekeepers' eyes trembled violently.
To reiterate, Cheon-hwa and Yo-hwa looked identical.
Of course, the family had its own ways of distinguishing the twins, like dressing the sisters in different clothes, but Cheon-hwa, who had been cunning from a young age, exploited those methods to act like her ‘younger sister.’
As a result,
“I... hic, I’m... the real Yo-hwa....... She’s unni....... Why, only me......”
Yo-hwa, whose ability to talk back was weaker than her sister's, was abruptly singled out as the culprit and made to stand in the hallway with both her arms raised.
Meanwhile, Cheon-hwa, who had slipped away from the housekeepers’ watch like an eel, was in front of her sister, pantomiming her crying face.
“I’m the unni, but why only meee...”
“Hwaaaaaah...”
“Heoeoeoeong.”
“Unni, I really, hate youuuu......!”
“Kyaahahahaha!”
Cheon-hwa burst out laughing and rolled around on the hallway floor. She rolled so vigorously that there was no need to dust the floor separately.
And as for the ‘me’ who was the actor playing this true personality of Cheon-hwa, the young Cheon-hwa.
The Undertaker squeezed his eyes shut in a corner of his mind.
‘This is a good memory?’
They deceived me.
“Hoe. Currently, the target codenamed ‘Yo-hwa’s’ favorability toward Cheon-hwa, when converted to a numerical value, is 5.”
Inside the child Yo-hwa’s dream.
A grand mansion in Sejong City. The twin sisters’ hometown.
Of course, the surrounding scenery was all just a dream. It was no different from a so-called ‘set’ that the Tutorial Fairy and I had built in collaboration.
In the backstage of the dream, where the flow of time was jumbled and mixed, Fairy No. 264 and I gathered to whisper back and forth.
“I see. So the maximum favorability is 10.”
“Hoet, no? It’s 100.”
“...”
“For reference, a favorability of 5 is a value even lower than that for a complete stranger. Hoee, the love between human siblings is so very, very scary.”
“Keuk.”
I scratched my head roughly. Ah, and of course, my current appearance was fixed as ‘Cheon-hwa.’
“This is strange. I had a feeling that the Cheon-Yo-hwa sisters definitely had a bond so close it was second to none in the world. But why is it that in their childhood, it’s like they were dying to kill each other...”
“Comrade Secretary-General. Then wouldn’t it work if you just acted out the part of an ‘ideal older sister’ for her to see?”
“No.”
Thump.
I plopped down in a posture that a young lady from a great mansion would never take, cross-legged.
A perfect example of a delinquent noble lady.
I furrowed my brow deeply and grumbled.
“Doing that would just be soldering over the hole in Yo-hwa’s heart with another lie, far from patching it up properly. I have to restore it as close to the true history as possible for Yo-hwa’s mental state to become sound.”
“Hoee. We fairies can become happy just by eating a sausage, but human psychology is so complicated...”
“I agree with you on that point.”
I looked around.
“Really, it’s hard to see even an inch ahead.”
The grand mansion seemed fixed when I just looked at it.
But the story changed when I focused all my senses.
– The young ladies, I tell you, this time again...
– The madam has passed away! It was an assassination!
– This is the police! Don’t move! We received a report that a murder took place here.
– Aren’t our young ladies so cute?
Whisper, whisper. Murmur, murmur.
Shadow-like phantoms were restlessly coming and going through the hallways and the garden.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out somewhere in broad daylight, while right next to it, cult members were chatting leisurely.
It was all mixed up. Time and space.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue.
“This is why I wanted to avoid entering someone else’s dream to look into their past if I could help it... This is no different from the void.”
“Hoe! Actually, Comrade Secretary-General’s dreams are unusually clear!”
The fairy bounced up and down.
“The vast majority, all humans except for the Secretary-General, dream about their past in this way!”
“I was aware of that.”
Whether one possessed the Complete Memory ability or not.
That alone caused the ‘dream about the past’ to be this chaotically entangled.
The facts of the events were twisted back and forth, and even the timeline was a messy, fluid wreck.
It wasn't a metaphor, it was literally the void itself.
‘Even if I want to shape the dream as I please, the situation won't allow it.’
Can you even imagine the difficulty, given that this is the state of things even with the tutorial fairies assisting?
The ‘Cheon-hwa’ I was playing, and the young ‘Yo-hwa’.
Just fixing these two characters and granting them each their own self-identity was a magical achievement in itself.
What about the other people? They all melted in the void poison.
For example, if you just look at the housekeepers who had rushed in moments ago to stop our sisterly argument.
– Y-y-y-y-y-young lady.
– They’resocutebothofthemsocuteIcouldjustgobblethemup.
– Sometimes I don't know who is who. So last night, I secretly peeled off the younger lady's fingernail. Now I will never confuse the young ladies again.
The housekeepers’ faces were melting like candle wax.
The wax was constantly alive and moving, at one moment forming into the shape of human eyeballs, only to melt again and stretch out their cheeks.
This wasn't something that started suddenly.
Earlier, when I was fighting with Yo-hwa over the chocolate ice cream, the housekeepers looked just like that.
It was just that Yo-hwa, without feeling any sense of wrongness, fought with her sister like a child.
‘...In the end, my hypothesis that there's a hole in Yo-hwa’s past was correct. That’s why the closer you get to the past, the more this void unfolds.’
But if there was something I was curious about.
‘Is it just Yo-hwa’s past that is uniquely rusted by the void poison like this? Or are the other colleagues in the Regression Alliance the same...’
It was at that moment.
Thud!
A footstep so loud that it made the entire wooden hallway reverberate rang out.
At that, the housekeepers, who had been chattering like shadows until now, all straightened up at once and lined up in rows on both sides of the hallway.
The fairy trembled.
“Hoee. He’s, he’s here again!”
“...”
I twitched an eyebrow and unfolded my cross-legged position. Then I stood up and assumed a graceful posture.
Like the daughter of a prestigious family, without a single flaw.
Thud! Thump, Thuuud! Thud!
The footsteps grew closer.
Before long, Fairy No. 264 had vanished, leaving me, as ‘Cheon-hwa,’ alone at the end of the hallway.
I bowed my head.
Thuuud.
The source of the footsteps, which had stopped in front of me, cast a shadow.
– Oh! Cheon-hwa! My proud daughter!
I bowed my head even deeper.
“Yes. Sir Cult Leader.”
The master of this grand mansion.
A dictator of a large-scale Taoist pseudo-religious cult, the likes of which were hard to find in Korea.
Based on the circumstances, he was the main culprit who had worshiped two separate Outer Gods, Infinite Void and the Mastermind, and finally caused their descent into the mortal world.
More accurately, this was the form of the father as remembered by Yo-hwa, the owner of this dream, a manifestation of a child’s terror.
– Aigoo, Sir Cult Leader! If even you, Cheon-hwa, call me that, your father will be quite hurt.
“Yes. I understand, Father.”
– Ahem! You have come of age now, how long do you intend to appeal to mere blood ties instead of being the successor to the cult! Today, I must go to the discipline room and personally take up the rod!
“Yes. I apologize, Sir Cult Leader.”
The flow of his words was inconsistent and messy, but I was quite used to it.
‘This is how void beings are.’
In times like these, I couldn't let the other party take the lead in the conversation. No matter how bewildering it was, I had to respond with confidence.
“A little while ago, I was reading the scriptures with Yo-hwa. That child was misinterpreting them, so as her older sister, I scolded her a little. She should be reflecting on her actions well now.”
– ...
Crackle, zzzzt.
The shadow cast on the hallway floor flickered and wavered, then stretched out as if it would reach the ceiling on the opposite side.
– Ooh, Yo-hwa did? Yes. That child has always been a bit slower than you.
– By whose authorityyyy! You two dare to touch the scriptures on your oooown!
– Did you review the part I taught you last time on your own? How praiseworthy. My daughter indeed. I am always so proud of you.
– It's contaminated. Contamination! It’s been contaminated! The sacrifices for the Taegeuk have been contaminated, they must be purified!
“...”
I didn't bother to reply.
A part of me was dumbfounded at what kind of memories were being planted in such a young child, but as a void expert, I calmly waited for the right timing.
– Yes, what passage were you studying?
I opened my mouth immediately. It was the question I had been waiting for.
“The name that can be named is not the eternal name[1]. It was the passage that says names do not exist for the things we ordinarily point to, and that a name is always nothing more than a temporary label.”
– ...
“That is how Yo-hwa understood it. But I reminded her of how you, Cult Leader, bound our names together with the single pronunciation of Cheon-Yo-hwa, and pointed out that not only the names of things, but even her name, Yo-hwa, is also an illusion.”
Zzzzt. Zzzzzzzzt.
– Ooh.
“So Yo-hwa, belatedly feeling ashamed, said she should have looked back at herself before discussing other things, and she voluntarily asked for punishment as she reflected on her actions.”
– Excellent!
The paper screens lining the hallway trembled at the ‘father’ shadow’s resounding roar.
– Yes! Cheon-hwa. Your words are truly correct!
– In the end, the scriptures are a precious treasure only to those who accept them as their own story, and for those who dismiss them as merely the writings of others, they are nothing more than trash abandoned on the ground.
– My daughters. You two sisters were destined from birth to be able to accept our scriptures entirely as ‘your own story.’
– Ah! What a great blessing this is! Truly, the gods of heaven and earth are watching over us! The Tao models itself on what is natural.
Beyond their melting wax cheeks, the mouths of the housekeepers all moved in unison.
– The Tao models itself on what is natural.
– The one who will become our living sacrament, my daughter, the successor of the cult, and the salvation of the masses, is so wise, I am truly happy! Do not neglect your training for even a single day, my daughter!
“Yes. Sir Cult Leader.”
– Uahahahaha! Ha ha ha ha!
Thuuud. Thud, thump. Thump.
The footsteps and laughter grew distant. The housekeepers, as if it were only natural, followed behind the cult leader with uniform steps.
“...”
A past from a time before the button for world destruction had been pushed.
Beyond the walls of the vast mansion, modern people were likely living their daily lives as if nothing was wrong, but the Cheon Yo-hwa sisters were already living in a broken miniature garden since back then.
‘Does this mean that someday, I, as a private tutor, will come here to teach the sisters?’
There was plenty of time.
With the help of the tutorial fairy, I could stretch the time within the dream as much as I wanted.
‘At first, I entered for the simple purpose of treating Yo-hwa’s psychology... But if I’m lucky, I might find a clue to the past.’
That wasn't all.
Step, step, step.
There was one more set of footsteps following the procession of the pseudo-religious cult leader and his followers.
A particularly small and quiet footfall. Unlike a resident of the void, it maintained a constant velocity, and within it, held vitality and a sense of presence.
I suddenly raised my head and our eyes met.
“...”
“...”
Nod. Nod.
Without either being first or last, we bowed our heads silently. The other person maintained a faint smile and walked away with casual steps.
An endlessly familiar sound of footsteps.
Watching the all-too-familiar back, I muttered inwardly.
‘Go Yuri.’
In this grand mansion where every character except for the twin sisters was infected with void poison and shimmered with noise, she was the only third party maintaining her own form.
My low monologue flowed into the hallway where I was left all alone.
“...Why on earth are you here, at this time, in this place?”
Footnotes:
[1] The opening line of the Tao Te Ching, a fundamental text in Taoism.
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