episode_0029

I went to the kids’ room to bring a doll, and I met Pia. When I handed her the doll with joy and cautiously spoke, Pia pushed me.

As my body was sucked somewhere, everything in front of my eyes swirled seriously. Struggling, I shouted, “What’s going on?!” and spat out into the air, falling onto a pile of garbage.

People say that when you’re too flustered, you can’t speak properly, and that was exactly my state.

“Hahaha! Success! I did it!”

I heard the sound of a primitive man laughing and dancing. I looked at the man who seemed like a homeless person, lying on the garbage heap.

“What is this place again?”

In the comedy world, sudden time-space shifts often occur, so I quickly regained my composure.

“If only this guy is here, it will be a masterpiece…!”

The man approached me, smiling widely with his mouth open. With several missing teeth, he looked even scarier. Approaching with a broken cane, the man clearly seemed insane.

“Huh? I feel like I’ve seen this person somewhere before.”

As I tried to examine the man closely,

Crash!

Something fell on the man’s head. The garbage, and even I, were thrown backward. Springs popped out everywhere on the bed, and although there were no injuries, I was completely disoriented.

“Indeed, waiting was a good decision.”

A man with a thin shirt with flower patterns and pointed shoes, looking like a thug, had his hands in his pockets, stepping on the homeless man carefully.

“Ugh…”

The trampled homeless man spat out foam and trembled like a fainted frog. I slowly started to move back.

“You brought quite a nice item.”

The man who was in front of me disappeared in an instant, and then I heard the man’s voice from behind. Startled, I turned around, and the man with a sly smile suddenly grabbed my back.

“Wouldn’t it be perfect if you just hand over that item you took before? Right?”

“Yes, that seems to be the case.”

A beautiful woman with her hair tied high appeared next to the man. Seeing the rough-looking man and the haughty-looking woman, I instantly realized who they were.

“Sacheonwang Jisorang and his right-hand man Baekru!”

A thunderbolt rang in my head! In an instant, my body shrank.

“Well, since it seems like we’ve harvested everything we need, let’s go now.”

“What about that?”

Baekru, the beautiful woman, pointed at the man writhing in the garbage pile.

“Should we capture him and use him as a slave or as material for something?”

“Then I will do that.”

Baekru shot away and instantly moved next to the homeless man.

Zzegueok.

Unpleasant sounds came from Baekru’s shadow, and dozens of black hands began to emerge.

Chururruk!

Dozens of black hands wrapped around the homeless man’s body and swiftly dragged him into the shadow.

“Should we also store ‘that’?”

As Baekru’s gaze turned towards me, my body trembled.

“Y-yes, let’s just stay calm.”

Even though I had a sense of humor, I didn’t want my limbs to be disassembled or to enter the belly of a monster, so I looked at Baekru pitifully, pretending to be harmless.

An expression like a abandoned kitten!

Baekru, who was looking at Jiso, glanced at my face and froze on the spot.

“Are you going to put me in such a pitiful place? Really?”

It was a gaze full of meaning.

“If you put it in there, it might go crazy. Just take it like this.”

“…I will put it in a safe place.”

“Is that possible?”

The cat’s small eye strategy failed miserably. Thinking about being swallowed up in the shadow, tears welled up.

“Yes, I will transport this cutie well.”

“Well, if you say so.”

Jiso tossed me lightly as if it were nothing.

“Wow!”

I fell onto the shadow of a white deer.

Swoosh.

With an ominous sound, I was sucked into the shadow.

“Huh?”

Soft.

The first thing I felt was an unbelievably soft and fluffy texture. Reflexively opening my tightly closed eyes, I saw a pink sky.

“What, what is this place?”

I immediately started looking around.

“Hehe.”

A unicorn with pure white wings walked around, and fluffy animals rolled here and there. The ground was as white and fluffy as clouds imagined by children.

“Surely, Baekru’s shadow should be no different from a terrible hell, right?”

My mind went blank at the sight that seemed to shatter the knowledge of the original work. I staggered to my feet and began to explore the sparkling pink world.

***

“Hehe, yes. This is Baekru’s world where Baekru puts things he likes.”

“I thought it was a place like hell…”

“Hell? Are you talking about the demon realm? Well, there is no such place. Baekru’s shadow contains two worlds. Maybe what you said refers to the other side.”

The unicorn kindly explained various things.

“It’s the first time a human has come here.”

“The first time?”

“Yeah, Baekru really likes cute things, but not so much humans.”

The unicorn looked at me with its large eyes as if amazed. Then it laughed and said,

“You are pure and that’s good.”

“…What does that mean?”

“Oh, I guess young humans might not know. We unicorns are -”

“No no no! Don’t say it!”

Oh, clutching my chest, I knelt down. It was nice to be able to get help from the unicorn, but my heart ached and tears flowed.

“Your heart is tender, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… let’s go with that.”

Sniffling, I hugged the round, soft puppy. He wagged his tail vigorously and licked my chin.

At first, I thought Baekru had forced the animals to fatten them up, but they say this little guy was always like this.

As I healed while smelling the puppy’s baby scent, the sky suddenly split open in a rosy pink color. From above, a giant hand reached down and grabbed me.

The puppy, who had been in my arms, tumbled out and collided with the unicorn’s leg, stopping abruptly. The unicorn looked down at me and said,

“Farewell, human! Guard your purity well!”

“Argh! I didn’t want to hear that!”

It’s obvious because it’s a child’s body! I laughed, but even in my past lives, I was pure. I didn’t want to be pure, but I became pure.

*Sob..*

While shedding tears of blood inside, I was pulled out of the shadows. Even though the black hand had come out, it didn’t let go of me.

Because of that, I was held in the air by the black hand. It wasn’t uncomfortable as it supported my lower back.

Woahhh!

Argh!

Kieeeek!

As soon as I came out, I heard a loud roar, screams, and the cries of monsters. It was dark around, as if it were night. The torches on the wall illuminated the surroundings, allowing me to grasp where this place might be.

“Prison?”

What filled my sight was a row of lined-up cells. It was too dark inside the bars to see clearly, but I vaguely saw human figures.

Clank, creak.

Following the unpleasant metallic sound, I turned my gaze to see a chubby man with a round face, smiling so obsequiously that it made me feel uncomfortable. He was opening a nearby cell.

“I’ve prepared it here!”

When Ottugi pushed the lantern he was holding inward, I saw a tattered cloth spread out on the cold stone floor. On one side lay what seemed to be a bed for confinement, and on the other, a sword with a missing handle rolled around.

“Ah…!”

I gasped and looked at the person inside the prison. Hair that looked gray as if it had been rolled in a dust pit, unfocused golden eyes, a beautiful appearance that did not hide even in the dirty environment.

“Iris!”

The original protagonist Iris was there.

“What? Do you really know each other?”

Jiso lightly whistled and smirked. He glanced back and forth between me and Iris, then nodded his head.

“Siblings who parted ways are meeting now? This is touching.”

Jiso muttered, “Their value will increase,” and hummed a tune.

“Put them together, we’ll use them for an event later.”

“Yes! Understood!”

“Oh, move them downstairs, not here. It’ll be more fun.”

Jiso grumbled and turned to Baekru.

“What are you waiting for? Don’t just stand there without putting them in.”

“…Yes.”

After a moment of silence, Baekru put me inside the prison. Then Ottugi approached, bringing a metal collar and fastening it around my neck. It was quite heavy, making my body sway.

“Don’t close the door. Move them right away.”

“Yes! Understood!”

Ottugi replied in a determined voice. Jiso slipped his hand into his pocket and walked away. Baekru stared at me for a moment, then followed behind Jiso.

“Hey, you two, follow me.”