Chapter: 649 – The First Wish (5) Fin
—
– Kim Ahri
—
After Songee’s dream ended, the three of us were left speechless.
What on earth did I just see?
“…”
Songee as a child believed animals could talk.
Back then, not only the adults but also the grown-up Songee brushed off those memories as childish fantasies…
But it wasn’t just a delusion.
Young Songee really did see a talking dog!
Kain spoke up calmly, “Was that dog named ‘Somi’ itself a chaos entity? Or was the dog caught up in some chaotic phenomenon?”
“I can’t conclude anything based on just that scene alone. We need to consider various possibilities.”
“Could other animals speak too?”
According to Songee, young Songee believed “dogs and cats can talk human language.”
“I bet talking cats exist too.”
“What about other animals? Could the pigeons on the street speak?”
“…”
As the conversation expanded, I found myself at a loss for words.
There’s only so much you can guess from fragmented scenes.
Kain didn’t seem eager to find immediate answers either; it felt like he was weighing different possibilities.
Through our conversation, Kain and I gradually regained our composure.
From a distance, it was just a glimpse of the endless chaos disasters that were going on in reality.
Kain’s words were proof of that.
“There were quite a few security systems in the mansion. There must have been laser turrets outside too, right?”
This meant that the chaos disaster response system infiltrated civilian life.
In other words, the loop Songee lived in was somewhere where common sense was twisted, not that different from reality.
“Installing such systems must have cost a fortune. Since both parents are veterinarians, money shouldn’t be an issue.”
“…”
Kain wrinkled his brow slightly, perhaps sensing something odd from the earlier scene.
Just then, a rough groan echoed.
“Ugh…! What is this -”
Songee appeared to be gasping for air as if she were fainting.
I quickly approached and grabbed her shoulder to calm her down, but suddenly, Songee hugged me tightly.
“Oh my.”
“Gah! Ugh!”
“…”
“… Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You really seem shocked.”
“D-did I hear that just now? It’s not just because of the blessing that I alone heard it, right? Ari, you heard it too, didn’t you? Oppa didn’t—”
“Relax. We all heard it. Affinity isn’t a power that only goes to ordinary animals, you know?”
“Yeah, true.”
In a way, chaos disasters resemble traffic accidents.
In South Korea, there are about 3,500 traffic accidents per day.
Not annually, but ‘daily.’ Someone gets hit by a car every 15 seconds.
Traffic accidents are common on a national scale.
Yet, for individuals, they’re often once-in-a-lifetime events, rare occurrences in life.
So it’s natural for Songee to be startled, even more so than Kain and me, who are viewing things from a distance…
Despite that, she seems to have lost her composure even more than I expected.
In terms of bizarre experiences, reality’s moon or the Ark should be much weirder.
“At first, I just thought it was a bit chilling… but the more I think about it, if the souls of the animals we raised at home were trapped inside them, that would be—”
I began to understand a bit.
What frightened Songee more than the scene before her eyes was the ominous and horrific possibilities that scene suggested.
“Stop, stop! There’s no need to let your imagination run wild in such uncertain circumstances.”
Kain nodded as he approached.
“The dream has already ended. We can analyze the content afterwards together.”
“… Oppa.”
“You should head outside for now. There are already quite a few teammates awake outside, so rest with them.”
After Songee exited, Kain suddenly turned towards me.
“What’s up?”
“Isn’t it strange? Songee’s growing environment has clearly been a world where chaos disasters were widespread.”
“That’s true.”
“No matter how you look at it, it felt like everyone didn’t really take her seriously.”
“Hmm… Let’s talk about it outside.”
“Right. Only one ally left now.”
And it’s Elena.
—
Elena’s dream was unfolding in a peculiar place.
It was dark, noisy, crowded with people, and everyone was quietly sitting and staring straight ahead.
It was quite a large theater.
In the dream, Elena appeared to be around twelve or thirteen years old, but since the real Elena had physically regressed too, there was no significant sense of awkwardness.
Kain whispered to me.
“She’s still not awake.”
“She can’t recognize us.”
“To her left are her parents… and to her right, is that family too?”
“She mentioned she had an older sister before.”
On the screen in front, a romance film was playing.
Elena’s eyes sparkled as she watched, and the sight of a beautiful girl looking enchanted created a picturesque scene.
She seemed to have aspired to be an actress from a young age.
At that moment, Elena’s mother slightly twitched and quickly turned her gaze.
Her eyes momentarily brushed past us, causing me to flinch, but she didn’t seem to register my or Kain’s presence.
She was just scanning around randomly.
Kain also observed the area, looking at Elena’s mother with a “What’s with the sudden change?” expression.
“Elena, Natalia! We need to leave right now!”
“Mom, what’s wrong all of a sudden?”
She began urging her daughters to leave mid-movie.
Surrounding people frowned, and some protested, but she seemed utterly unaffected.
“What is happening all of a sudden?”
“It seems she felt something. Did she find something?”
“Not at all. I have no idea why this is happening.”
Eventually, Elena and Natalia, the two sisters, were forcibly pulled out of the theater by their mother.
Interestingly, unlike young Elena, Natalia appeared quite familiar with the situation.
“It seems like your sister is used to this kind of thing.”
“I heard she lived in exile to escape a dictator. This probably isn’t her first such experience. But…”
Kain raised a question as if it were difficult for him to understand.
“Based on the circumstances, I feel like I saw a Russian secret agent or something.”
“That does give off that vibe.”
“What did you see?”
“Not at all. I’m not sure what Elena’s mother saw.”
Kain seemed to hesitate, wanting to say something.
As soon as the three women entered their home, a serious scene unfolded.
“Michael! Michael! Please, wake up…!”
The person presumed to be Elena’s father, Mikhail Ivanov, lay on the floor, convulsing.
There were no visible wounds, but the news on the TV and the overturned teacup on the table gave me a rough idea of the situation.
He had been sipping tea while watching the news, and the tea was poisoned.
“Looks like a poisoning.”
“Did Elena’s father die at this time?”
Natalia urgently supported her father and shouted to Elena.
“Elena! Call 999 immediately!”
“What are you talking about! I told you I can’t trust anyone!”
“Then you plan to let my father die like this?”
Given the situation, their conversation was rapid, making it hard to comprehend, but it seemed they were disputing whether to report something somewhere.
Elena was trembling, her expression filled with fear and confusion.
At that moment, she suddenly turned to where Kain and I were standing, as if realizing something.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
The moment the word ‘Korean’ escaped from Elena’s mouth, I could tell she was starting to regain consciousness.
“Ah! Huh? What the heck is this—”
Seeing her reaction, Kain quickly explained the situation.
“Ah, so this is my first wish-related dream?”
“Exactly.”
I stepped closer.
“Do you think you know something?”
Unlike some of the other companions who remained confused after awakening, Elena responded quite clearly.
“… Given the situation, it’s obvious. I would have felt anger towards Alexander Vasiliev and wished for a judgment of justice to befall him.”
“Alexander Vasiliev? Is that the name of a dictator?”
“Yes.”
Hearing that, Kain made an odd comment.
“It’s not Vladimir, huh?”
“What?”
“No, I mistakenly mixed him up with someone else. Did your father perish because of this?”
“Fortunately, no. An ambulance arrived in time. However, my father’s health has struggled since then.”
I grasped the rough situation.
A Russian dictator – Alexander Vasiliev, as well as an exiled diplomat named Mikhail Ivanov and his family.
Believing they arrived in a safe land, Mikhail’s wife and two daughters relaxed enough to enjoy a movie in the cinema for the first time in a while.
At that moment, Mikhail’s wife sensed something off, prompting her to hurry home with her daughters.
Fortunately, nothing happened to the three of them, but upon returning home, they found that Mikhail had consumed poisoned tea and was now lying there, bleeding.
What wish could Elena have harbored in such a situation?
Naturally, it would be hatred towards the dictator and a desire for justice to be served.
Lost in deep contemplation, Kain spoke up.
“I grasp the main storyline, but the details seem odd.”
“What part?”
At this point, Kain pointed towards me, looking puzzled.
“Ari, you’re a veteran agent of the Bureau and a high-ranking officer. I, well, used to be the head of the research lab and a pseudo-god.”
Elena muttered in disbelief.
“A pseudo-god?”
“I don’t know how impressive a secret agent working for a Russian dictator would be, but could he evade my and Ari’s eyes?”
“…”
Kain’s question echoed a thought I had in the theater as well.
I, too, couldn’t comprehend why Elena’s mother was suddenly acting that way in the cinema.
“I had a similar thought. I didn’t feel anything while watching in the theater.”
“That’s….”
“Assuming the secret agent’s skill is remarkably advanced, let’s say they can evade the gaze of the Silent Ones and even evade Kain’s sense in the shadows.”
For us, Elena’s dream appeared like a vivid movie.
Thus, spiritual detection was impossible, but if there was a secret agent, they should have been visible.
“How did your mother notice the presence of such a being? Did she have clairvoyance or something?”
“… Perhaps.”
“Perhaps?”
“She might have mistaken that moment.”
Was it really Elena’s mother mistaking things while in the theater?
“Her long years of surveillance must have weakened her significantly. It’s possible she mistook something like a nonexistent observer.”
That narration made sense.
Running from the scrutiny and pursuit of a dictator and then facing poison-laced tea back home is enough to drive anyone insane.
But this interpretation isn’t correct.
“Elena, while your mother could be mistaken, the hotel isn’t.”
“Huh?”
“If what happened in the theater was just an ordinary person’s delusion, then why would the hotel show us that scene?”
This too was a valid point.
Since the hotel presented the content, what happened in the theater wasn’t just meaningless delusion.
There was undoubtedly something incomprehensible happening.
Though Kain and I couldn’t sense it, it seemed Elena’s mother had caught wind of a particular circumstance.
“Who could be a mysterious observer that could evade us?”
But could such a thing go undetected by an ordinary citizen?
At this point, our thoughts froze.
Elena’s dream continued to unfold without pause.
Elena’s assertion that her father was alive was indeed true.
Mikhail began panting on the floor as he waited for the ambulance, while his wife and Natalia did their utmost to stabilize him.
“It seems the dream is about to end. Elena, do you still not understand?”
“Yeah.”
Just as I was about to sigh along with the weak girl’s words—
“Ah?”
For the first time, I sensed something.
“… Elena.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t stay here; go take care of your father in the bedroom.”
Elena tilted her head as if puzzled by what I meant, but she obediently followed my order.
Around the same time, Kain, who sensed an anomaly, whispered.
“… Is it alright for us to be here?”
“The beings in the illusions can’t recognize us, so we’re fine. Just need Elena to step out.”
With Elena’s parents and sister heading to the bedroom, it left only Kain and me in the living room, unnoticed by anyone.
And—
“…”
— Creak!
The existence behind the TV that Mikhail was watching— the newscaster’s eyes rolled around.
As if monitoring the space beyond the screen.
— Splash!
The moment the final companion’s dream came to an end, Kain muttered as if he had taken in something profound.
“Wow! Seriously, what kind of world did you all live in?”
Right?! I’m curious too.
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