As I walked a bit through the dark cave, I saw a light in the distance.
Splash.
While moving forward, I suddenly heard the sound of water. Since I couldn’t see well in the dark cave, I realized the floor was covered in water.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too deep, so I could walk. As I stepped into the water, it rose up to my thighs.
The water was really cold.
If I were an ordinary person, my body would have turned blue quickly, but I was fine. Just as I focused on crossing the water, something snagged on my foot.
Thud.
It felt like something bulky was caught.
Feeling around, I touched something soft and squishy, and something hard, then a piece of fabric. It didn’t seem dangerous. There weren’t any living things around anyway.
If there were, there would’ve been light.
But this place had none.
Splash.
Soon, I emerged near the entrance. The area around the entrance was littered with trees, making it darker than what I saw in the cave, but stepping outside, I could at least see my surroundings.
As the light shone in, the identity of what was flowing inside the cave became clear.
A half-melted corpse, bloated and floating in the water. A boy and girl wearing clothes I often saw at the Royal Academy. But I didn’t recognize any faces.
Moreover, the state of their clothing was a mess, as Kanna’s memory reminded me. It looked like clothes from totally different eras, styles overlapping.
That means it wasn’t a real corpse, but something someone made for display. The only ones who would do such a thing would be witches.
If you’re going to do it, at least keep the details accurate; it felt like I walked into a cheap amusement park.
Is the theme horror?
Thinking that, I walked along the path as if it was guiding me there.
There were no tree trunks to encircle the river, as if they wanted me to come out. When I stepped outside, I found the corpses of decapitated birds scattered everywhere.
And each bird had a different body and head.
It looked like someone had carelessly pieced them together, the severed edges and necks just didn’t match up.
They had realistic-looking meat and heaped blood, but they hadn’t used any living materials. The memories of a hunter or butcher told me this was not real meat.
I tried to ignore it and move on, but there was nowhere else to go.
A dead end. Heads littered like a thrown-together puzzle.
I picked up a head lying on the ground.
Quack! Peep! Tweet!
Every time I squeezed the head, it made bird sounds. The sound effects were amusing. It felt odd that the lungs should be necessary to make noise, or that the dripping fresh blood seemed too strange; those memories kept flashing.
After piecing all the bird heads together, a child, as if crawling out from between the thorns surrounding me, emerged from a jar with the lid open.
The child approached, tore a piece of clothing, and brushed jam onto their head before handing it to me. Upon receiving it, the child pointed to the hole they’d crawled through.
A story I remember flashed through my mind. I think it was about a medicine.
I put it in my mouth.
It was marmalade jam. The clothing was chewy like bread.
Well, there was no food actually entering my body. My internal organs felt hollow. Instead, my body shrank as if I had performed the right action. The hole the baby crawled from had grown far larger than my height. I walked back towards where the cave had been.
As I emerged from the rabbit hole-like opening, in the distance, a massive palace came into view. Is that the destination? What a fun story I’ve woven.
I have no idea what the goal is, but it feels like I’m walking through a fairy tale.
Strangely, there are many corpses, but doesn’t the overall narrative structure feel similar? The crows racing in the sky are all dead, and the mouse has already withered where it initially fell.
Now, we should have a growth potion and shrinking house?
“Who are you?”
As I recall fairy tales and walk, someone suddenly spoke to me.
I blinked. A girl with a small frame and long white hair. But she looked just like someone from my memory.
It was a familiar face. From long ago. A witch that had never existed in this world.
Hyungkesuni.
That rules out the theory that it’s the witch’s illusion. At least something has messed with my mind.
All living beings of the third world, including Victoria, have stopped moving. Of course, I can see very fast or should-be-quickening objects trembling slightly, indicating that time is only going by very slowly.
I thought the world had stopped, but it was just my mind playing tricks on me. The scale is much smaller than I thought.
Most importantly, there shouldn’t be Hyungkesuni right in front of me. She had fallen to the ground and melted away.
“It’s hard to explain since I’ve changed so many times.”
“Who doesn’t change? That’s why there’s something to define, right? A name.”
She asks for my name. Since I’ve never obtained a memory, I’m not sure if this is truly myself or just an illusion. But let’s give it a shot.
“Bell. Choseol, Rebecca. Pick one.”
And that’s what I said. However, Hyungkesuni shook her head. She didn’t notably react to Rebecca’s name and just shook her head.
“No, that’s not your name, is it? What I’m asking for is your true name.”
I wonder if she’s referring to the only person from my faded memory, or if the witch is trying to uncover my name.
“I don’t have a name. If you need a designation for my vessel, you choose one yourself.”
Then Hyungkesuni started giggling.
“Alright then, how about this name?”
Bounce.
She hopped down from the rock she was sitting on and pointed at me as she spoke.
“Outsider.”
That’s a term I’ve heard used in this world. But I’m the first person to ever call me an outsider.
Which side is it on?
“Call me that. I’d like to figure out how to escape from here.”
First, I asked the figure in front of me. Then Hyungkesuni—or the one imitating her—scratched her chin. At least this is an action Huynksuni never did that I know of.
Then she pointed her finger toward the castle visible in the distance.
“Go that way.”
Hmm. Right. She’s an easy NPC to understand. There’s no light in her heart. That means she’s not human. I nodded and was about to head that way when I suddenly stopped.
“Hey.”
“What’s wrong?”
She looked at me as if to say, “ask your question already.” So I asked her.
“What do you think of people who smile when they’re scared?”
At my question, her expression vanished. She froze, no longer moving or saying anything. She even stopped pretending to breathe.
I must have caused a logical error by saying something unexpected.
I ignored her and headed toward my destination.
The castle loomed ahead, and several places showed up that I needed to pass through. If I encounter someone from the past, who will I meet?
“Hm? An unfamiliar child. What business do you have at this old man’s house?”
I found a one-way road. I opened a door that appeared suddenly, revealing a familiar place. It was luxurious but had a modest charm.
In front of me stood an old man and dozens of headless busts around him.
I recognized him at a glance.
Tisah. But we’re not particularly close. My actual encounters with him can be counted on one hand. Even if it’s real, there’s nothing to discuss. So I just state my purpose.
“I’m heading toward the castle visible outside.”
I pointed towards the castle with my finger. Tisah, the old man, stared at me quietly. Then he got up and went to one side of the room and returned with something.
“Extend your hand.”
When I did, he dropped something. A key. The word “despair” was engraved on it.
“It’s the back door key. I hope it helps you on your way.”
“Thank you.”
Then Tisah walked to the window and opened it. Strangely, outside the window was not space but a corridor.
An old, dilapidated passageway indeed.
I climbed through the window and stood in the corridor. Inside the window, Tisah was wiping the busts with a cloth.
Leaving him behind, I continued down the passage.
It was suspicious how seamlessly the flow of our conversation and context guided me where I needed to go. What was the witch thinking when she made this?
A passage with earthen walls and no decorations.
It was like the place I lived in the First World, but it wasn’t a memory I held. It looked the same but was different from where I’d walked in my mind.
So after passing through the earthen wall, a small room appeared.
There were two people inside. One was a bear-sized man with a pale, gaunt face. The other was…
“I never expected to see a kid like you in a place like this. Have you lost your way?”
Joanna.
“I’m heading to the castle.”
“The castle? Do you know where that is?”
In response to Joanna’s question, the man answered.
“I know. You’re heading to a dangerous place.”
Yasle. Both Yasle and Joanna, as I remembered them, stayed silent. Seeing this, they must be fakes with only similar faces.
“But to enter the castle, you must be invited, or you need to get a key from a dangerous person.”
I silently pulled out the key I received from Tisah a moment ago. Yasle looked surprised and opened the first door in a place that had only the earthen walls.
“Then you can go this way.”
There were no questions.
I nodded, waved goodbye to Joanna, who was shaking her hand, and Yasle, who was staring intently at the key, and continued on my way.
It should be deep underground, but as I opened that door, I emerged in a city buried in trees. The place where a city once stood had trees growing over it, and the remnants of the city were nowhere to be seen.
Following the path where a wide road had once been, a slender stream of water flowed through.
I walked along there. The surrounding nature gradually began to dry up, and soon I found a place that looked unusually new.
Buildings rose in a circular shape centered around a round plaza. And in the middle of that was a white-haired girl I had recently parted from, standing with her back turned beneath a female statue.
And behind her stood another familiar figure. A girl, very similarly formed to the statue, with a surprisingly large chest for her small stature.
Rebecca Rolfe.
She waved at me.
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