“……”
I found myself awkwardly sitting in front of a raft, staring at a skull chugging booze, and my mind went blank for a moment. My soles were firmly pressed against the deck, stabilizing my entire body, while my skinny arms rested carelessly on my bony knees.
Gulp
The transparent bottle held by the skull kept filling endlessly; every time it poured into its neck bones, it vanished with a swallowing sound.
As the skull quietly drank, it suddenly turned to me and spat out,
“Shit, what are you looking at? Never seen a patient drinking before? Scram.”
“…What?”
I thought for a moment that there was something wrong with the translation, so I yanked out the translator Kang Dorim had tailored for me from my ear.
The skull sneered at my confusion,
“сука блять.”
“…That’s definitely a curse word.”
Jo Yeon-seo, looking slightly embarrassed, explained that this skull was our only way across the river, and we’d tried various detours, all to no avail. She also added that in the world of dreams, one must adhere to the laws recognized as unconscious by its subject.
“Dream worlds usually operate by completely different laws from reality.”
Before I knew it, Jo Yeon-seo transformed into her Magical Girl outfit, wearing a generous purple dress. The neat yet dangerously precarious outfit reminded me of…
‘A patient gown… it looks like one.’
Due to her original depiction primarily featuring her psychic projections, she was illustrated in regular clothes in light novels. So, seeing the Magical Girl attire of Dream for the first time, I regrettably guessed where it might have been derived from.
“So how do we get that skull to take us across?”
“You need to give it something valuable from what you have. The more it was a gift from someone, the more it appreciates.”
As soon as I heard that, I instinctively clutched my smartphone deep in my coat pocket.
This is a no-go.
“That’s a bit difficult.”
“This is a dream land, so the objects here are merely copies of what you had before you fell asleep.”
“…….”
I paused, recalling the high school uniform Yuki had shown me last week, her beaming smile as she declared she’d show it to me first after locking the door. Ryota, my father, had looked at me suspiciously after hearing that.
‘Sorry, Yuki.’
It stung to think that I’d have to use the smartphone she gifted me against her, even if only in the dream world. To push those thoughts aside, I marched up to the skull and thrust my smartphone towards it.
“Just take it quickly; it hurts my heart.”
“Ah?! Wait! Don’t hand it to me like that…!”
Splash
The skull, as soon as it accepted the smartphone, tossed it into the river. The bright-colored smartphone sank deeper into the dark, deep waters, slowly vanishing into the abyss.
In a fit of rage, I summoned my Silver Sword and attacked the skull.
With a splendid silver flash, my sword strike cut through the skull in two, but it merely dissipated like mist, gradually merging back together.
The sight of the skull regenerating in the silver light was so beautiful, like moonlight over a foggy lake, that it only fueled my anger further.
“What the hell, you crazy skull?!”
“…The first item given by hand is always discarded. You have to give it by mouth right from the start.”
Yeon-seo demonstrated by taking out a high-denomination bill from her mouth and handing it to the skull. Cautiously receiving it, the skull set down its liquor bottle and gestured toward the raft.
“…….”
Since I already handed my first item by hand, I tossed a few candies, gifts from Elysion, onto the skull’s head, then sat beside Yeon-seo, who was already on the raft.
Creek
The raft let out a weak groan as it began to guide us across the vast, ominous mist blanketing the immense river. The river, appearing kilometers wide, rushed past us at a frightening speed, revealing nothing but impenetrable darkness beneath the frail raft. Was it just me, or did I hear eerie whispers echoing in the surrounding fog?
‘From afar, it looked like a narrow river, but sitting on the raft makes it feel as massive as the Han River.’
What kind of grim thoughts must it have taken to recreate such a creepy space as a dream?
“It’s really unsettling. It’s a dream where it’s dark, disturbing, and damp at night.”
Suddenly, as if reading my thoughts, Yeon-seo muttered, and I couldn’t help but stare in surprise at her soft demeanor while making such backhanded comments. She gazed at the distant shine visible across the river.
“When I first bloomed as a Magical Girl, my parents were still alive in my dreams, and I invited my grandfather over. I still vividly remember the horrified look on his face as he screamed.”
“Asha’s parents… So, they screamed when they saw their daughter?”
“Yeah. Ever since I fell victim to narcolepsy at a young age, I kept dreaming about having dinner with my parents just before the gas explosion.”
The unforgettable last happy moment in her life, in that dream, countless versions of Yeon-seo’s father and mother sat at numerous tables, eating alongside an infinite number of Yeon-seos. Thousands of people with the same face uttering the same phrases, lifting their spoons in perfect unison.
Her grandfather, invited into the dream, had to repeat the same actions thousands of times, while invited Yeon-seo joyfully repeated them at his side.
[Never… please never show me this again.]
[…….]
Upon waking from that nightmare, her grandfather confronted the decaying heart of his granddaughter and wept uncontrollably.
“……”
“To me, it was a beautiful memory; I miss it dearly… but for my grandfather, it must have felt like a waking nightmare, reliving that same dream thousands of times.”
“Th-That’s…”
Yeon-seo pinched my nose playfully while chuckling softly.
“It’s okay. Looking back, I don’t even know why I considered that scene beautiful.”
“It’s a memory with your parents. Naturally, it’s a good thing.”
“Maybe.”
As if cutting off my gentle consolation, Yeon-seo gazed dreamily at the light across the river.
It was just light amidst the darkness, diffusing in the mist.
“Maybe during the time I was trapped in narcolepsy, dreaming the same dream over and over, I was… dead. So twisted and withered that I couldn’t accept even my closest family…”
Death.
She slowly found death rotting within herself, captured by memories of days gone by. To break down this wall of memories surrounding her life, she spent time among people. And she had come all the way to Russia, her grandfather’s homeland, to see things she had never witnessed before.
“So… it really doesn’t feel like someone else’s matter. This dark, creepy scene may very well be the most beautiful memory holding Alisa’s tomorrow.”
“Indeed.”
We stayed silent while crossing the river on the raft for a while.
Screech
In the midst of our conversation, the skull kept pretending to have sore arms, subtly trying to pass its long oar to me, but I’d refused to listen, not wanting to cater to that wretched skeleton who tossed aside my precious smartphone.
As we continued toward that hazy, glowing area, three bears wearing black hats and holding vodka bottles blocked our way.
We attempted to ignore them and walk past, but the three bears moved as if they were soldiers in formation, perfectly synchronized to impede our path. Yeon-seo said it was her first time seeing bears after failing to find a way across the river.
“Why does everyone in this neighborhood carry around a bottle?”
“Hehe…”
Yeon-seo chuckled awkwardly, avoiding the question.
“Maybe if we give them something, it’ll work.”
Thinking it might be the same as with the peeved skull, I tossed a bundle of dollars, the only somewhat valuable item left in my pocket, toward the bears, excluding the Glass Star. The boldly thrown bills scattered in midair, fluttering down gracefully to the ground.
Growl!
The bears, abandoning their precise movements, began brawling with each other using the vodka bottles, scrambling to pick up the bills like crazy.
“Let’s move while they’re distracted.”
“……”
As Yeon-seo whispered that, she sprinted toward the visible light ahead of us.
“They might be the guards from the hospital.”
“Pardon?”
“That hat. It’s worn by the guards at the hospital where Alisa is admitted.”
According to her, these three guards, rolling around in the intoxication of their job, hardly received proper pay, so they privately accepted bribes in exchange for allowing patients to go out for drinks. It also seemed the curses spat by the ferrying skull mirrored those of an old man drinking in a corner of the hospital.
Perhaps…
“Maybe Alisa isn’t really asleep…”
She could have learned about the world through the sounds echoing from her hospital room, trapped within her sleeping body.
“……”
“……”
Imagining such a terrible thing urged us to quicken our pace, diving deeper into Alisa’s consciousness.
＊
Alisa, I hope you’re running freely in dreamland.
Alisa, your name comes from the lovely girl in a fairytale.
Alisa, one day when you wake up, let’s go see beautiful things in Murmansk, just you and me.
Alisa, I’ve finally found a doctor who treated a patient with the same symptoms as yours.
Alisa, mom and dad will be going to Europe for a bit. Don’t worry. We hired a guide who knows Europe very well.
Alisa, I love you.
You must wake up and tell me about everything that happened in dreamland.
[…….]
[Yes.]
[I love you too.]
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