episode_0047

Actually, there was no way to tell time, so it wasn’t certain, but it felt that way.

Irene sat, holding her breath.

She remained motionless in that state.

Even as the cold rising from the floor gnawed at her body temperature, even as the deep darkness grew mold in her heart.

She merely lay sprawled like a broken puppet.

“Aaaahhhh!!!”

“Stop, stop it—!”

“I don’t want to die!! I don’t want to die, stop it!!”

“No, no, no, don’t, don’t rip it off!!”

Perhaps it was because her will had been broken.

The screams echoing from the end of the corridor never stopped, and the fox could only listen to them, helpless.

Despair overflowed.

It was a terrible sensation.

A space that wore people down.

Even in such a setting, the reason Irene could maintain her sanity was.

Thanks to the voice that spoke to her through the iron bars.

The girl chirped brightly.

“Unnie Fox!”

“……Yes.”

“We’re alive again today! I was worried I’d be dragged to the laboratory while I was sleeping.”

“Do they… drag people away while they’re sleeping?”

“Sometimes they do. That’s why I need to mentally prepare every morning. It would be too scary to wake up lying on an operating table.”

“……”

“……Did I say something unnecessary?”

Irene’s expression hardened.

Anne timidly watched her reaction.

At the girl’s cautious demeanor, the fox soon relaxed and shook her head.

“It’s okay… I was just thinking of something else for a moment.”

“That’s a relief then.”

The girl smiled sweetly.

It was a pure smile.

At fifteen, she was old enough to prepare for adulthood, yet she was still young.

The fox inwardly replayed her own thoughts.

‘I wonder how they’re doing…’

She was thinking of her younger siblings.

Her beloved little foxes. They must be happily living in some suspicious hideout by now.

Irene mumbled without realizing it.

‘……If my siblings grew a little older, would they look like this?’

Looking at Anne, she inexplicably thought that.

A bitter taste spread in her mouth.

A fleeting moment of regret.

Sadness for her siblings fell.

She would never be able to meet them again.

Now, only a cold end awaited the fox.

Her chest ached faintly.

She wanted to stay by their side at least until they became adults, but even this fate did not allow.

Irene was sinking into herself.

Just then.

“You know, Unnie.”

“……”

“Me, you know. When I get out of here, I want to write a book.”

“A book? Suddenly…?”

“Yes! A book!”

Anne smiled sweetly as their eyes met.

The girl, who had been squatting in the corner, soon jumped up and replied.

“It’s been my dream since I was little.”

“You’re still little.”

“Hey! I meant when I was even littler! And fifteen is an age where you know everything, you know?”

“Is that so…?”

“Of course!”

Anne flapped both her arms as if feeling wronged.

She seemed to be trying to refute being called young, but in Irene’s eyes, she still just looked young.

Only children dislike being young.

“Anyway! I want to write a wonderful story.”

“What kind of story?”

“I’ll put in all the things I’ve experienced so far. Like weaving together a diary written day by day!”

“……Then isn’t that just a diary?”

“Oh, come on! Is there a law saying a diary can’t become a book?”

The answer came back straight.

The girl spoke of her dream with confidence.

She must have known it was an impossible wish, yet the light in her eyes did not extinguish.

Perhaps it was hope.

“I know. That it’s unrealistic.”

“……”

“Maybe I’m wishing for an outrageous miracle. If the demons outside heard my story, they’d laugh, calling it a happy delusion.”

Yes, it was just a delusion.

It was no different from a girl hanging from a cliff praying for a convenient miracle.

But.

“Still, sometimes… wouldn’t it be okay for such a convenient thing to happen?”

The girl smiled sweetly.

It was a smile with the unique purity of childhood.

“You have to have courage, especially in difficult times. Life becomes more beautiful the more you contemplate it.”

Irene was a little surprised.

To have experienced all sorts of terrible things as an experiment subject, yet still be able to sing of hope.

To speak of courage, not despair, hatred, resentment, or anger.

“Am I perhaps thinking too childishly?”

“……Well.”

The fox looked at the girl without answering.

Should she say she was admirable?

Or should she say she felt sorry for her?

Irene couldn’t decide.

She simply gently took the hand that was slipped through the iron bars.

“Hee hee!”

“What’s so good about a hand full of calluses?”

“Mommy said calluses are traces of effort. So Unnie’s hand is a pretty hand.”

“……Think what you like.”

The fox casually turned her head away.

The warmth of the hand kneading hers.

She tried to turn away from hope.

Irene simply closed her heavy eyelids.

***

Two more days passed.

It was already the sixth day since the fox had entered the laboratory.

She was slowly getting used to it.

The screams from the end of the corridor, the smell of blood in the air, even the dampness.

The disgusting things were gradually becoming familiar.

Though it didn’t mean the souls dying every day had become a given.

‘Now, two days later… I’ll be dragged to the end of that corridor too.’

The week-long reprieve the demon had given her.

Her limited time was already down to just two days.

Whether the experiment succeeded or failed… she wouldn’t be able to remain human anymore.

There was only a difference in method.

The proposition of death remained the same.

Irene awaited her execution.

However, there was a girl who stood at the threshold of life one step ahead of the fox.

It was none other than Anne.

“You’re next, little one.”

“You’ve been lucky to survive so far… but that ends tomorrow.”

“Director-nim personally commanded it.”

This was the news conveyed by a passing guard.

He mentioned that an experiment was scheduled for tomorrow and to be ready, and apparently, he added a taunt, saying she’d soon meet her mother.

A sudden death sentence.

Anne merely nodded.

“Understood.”

Her reaction was calm.

She didn’t cower, cry and beg, or faint on the spot.

She just smiled as usual.

The girl waited until the guards had left, then continued the story she had been telling moments before.

As if nothing had happened.

“Where was I… Oh, places I definitely wanted to visit in my life!”

Anne chattered away.

She had just heard she would die tomorrow. It might even be something more terrible than dying.

But even at such a moment, the girl was serene.

Irene gazed intently at her figure visible through the iron bars.

“I really wanted to go to the Academy! It must be a wonderful place, right?”

“Anne.”

“Mommy said only excellent people go to the Academy. Once I get out of here, I definitely will…”

“Aren’t you scared of tomorrow?”

“……”

She asked without thinking.

The chattering girl’s mouth closed. It was the first silence that had come.

A void lingered between the thick iron bars.

For a long time, neither spoke.

Neither the fox nor the girl.

Both were quiet.

It was a long time later that a voice was heard again.

Anne softly called out.

“Unnie.”

“Yes.”

“Unnie.”

“Speak.”

“The truth is.”

The girl squatted beside the iron bars.

She hummed as if deep in thought, then a complex smile touched her lips.

She timidly hugged her knees.

“The truth is, I’m scared too.”

“……”

A simple statement.

Though not a long sentence, an immeasurable depth lay beyond it.

The girl’s voice continued calmly.

“I’m scared. I’m sad, anxious, and I resent it too.”

“……”

“I lose sleep thinking I’ll wake up on an operating table, and when the guards pass by, I hold my breath as much as possible. Not once have I let go of fear.”

In the end, she was the same person.

She was still a lamb who hadn’t even reached adulthood, still needing someone’s fence.

“And the reason I smile despite all that is… because there’s nothing else I can do.”

The girl was helpless.

Faced with unreasonable misfortune, the girl could now do nothing but harbor hope.

Perhaps it was the sadness of life.

Her fragile voice slowly became moist.

“The truth is, I’m scared.”

It was an especially piteous plea.

“Mommy, Daddy, Unnie… I miss my family so much.”

Tears fell, one after another.

She tried to hold back her sobs, but muffled cries escaped.

The fox listened silently.

“If I had known this would happen, I would have told my family ‘I love you’ more often…”

A common regret.

A common sorrow.

A common wish.

“I don’t want to die.”

“……”

“I want to live.”

“……”

Irene bit her lip firmly.

It was a damnable pain.

Her fists clenched involuntarily.

After standing silently for a while, Anne, who had somewhat calmed down, mumbled.

“Sniff, I’m sorry. I’m not usually like this… It’s just that you’re the only one here right now, so I wanted to lean on you a little.”

“It’s okay.”

“Thank you.”

“What have I done for you?”

“I thought I’d die alone. But thanks to talking with Unnie, I don’t think I’ll be lonely.”

“Don’t worry too much. I’m following right after you.”

“……Is that supposed to be comforting?”

“Perhaps.”

Irene answered dispassionately.

The fox took the hand through the bars.

Anne laughed through her tears.

“Sniff, heh heh… Unnie’s hand is warm.”

“Is it.”

“Yes!”

They sat there like that.

With the cold iron bars between them, they waited for the tomorrow they wished wouldn’t come.

***

A day passed.

Anne had to leave the iron bars the moment she opened her eyes.

The girl, being led away by the guards, looked back and smiled brightly.

Leaving a short remark.

“I’ll be back.”

Naturally.

Anne did not return.

***

Anne’s screams had filled the corridor last night.

Her voice had wailed in agony until dawn.

Irene wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She wanted to share even a little of her pain.

The terrible shrieks gradually faded with time, eventually becoming a handful of silence and disappearing.

That meant only one thing.

Anne was dead.

“……”

There was no time for sorrow.

It was her turn next. The guards immediately walked to Irene’s iron bars.

Clang. With the sound of a key turning, the door opened.

“Director-nim is waiting.”

“Grab her so she can’t resist. She’s precious material, so transport her carefully.”

“Move and you die? Don’t even think about anything foolish.”

No less than five people surrounded her.

Each one was a black mage of high attainment. Though not as powerful as demons, they were skilled enough to easily subdue Irene.

Hope was nowhere to be seen until the very end.

The fox simply took lifeless steps.

Thud thud.

The sound of multiple footsteps echoed through the chilly air.

Thinking of last night, which still lingered in her ears, made the coming future terrifying.

A hollow laugh escaped her lips.

“Haha…”

Was she, in the end, just a child herself?

She wanted to collapse onto the floor immediately.

She wanted to cry uglily, calling for her Master.

No, anyone would do.

She hoped for someone to get her out of this place.

—*You never know! Maybe someone will appear like a prince on a white horse and save us.*

She needed those words she had dismissed as delusion back then.

If her life truly ended like this, she would leave too many regrets in the world.

A prince on a white horse.

A dream she hadn’t wished for even in her childhood, she now yearned for it as death stood at her doorstep.

Her churning stomach made it difficult to stand.

“……Save me.”

She uttered a word that wouldn’t reach.

She was already near the end of the corridor.

If she opened the door and went down the stairs, she would fall into an irreversible reality.

The fox’s shoulders trembled.

Thud.

Her long steps stopped.

One of the guards grabbed the doorknob leading to the laboratory.

Just as despair settled in.

“That’s enough.”

Slice!

The heads of the guards simultaneously floated into the air.

Behind the belated cutting sound, the cleanly severed necks of the black mages rolled on the floor.

Crash!

“……?!”

Irene was startled by the sudden scene.

Just as she was about to lose her balance and fall, someone who appeared behind her caught her arm.

It was a soft movement that enveloped her body.

“I finally found you.”

A familiar voice echoed in her ear.

Though the fox thought it impossible, she raised her head to look at the face.

There was deep blonde hair.

White eyes smiled sweetly.

“Miss Irene.”

“……”

Was she dreaming?

The person she least believed in appeared in her sight.

“I’ve come to save you.”

The boy whispered sweetly.

Irene stared blankly.

At the same time, an unidentifiable sense of relief washed over her.

The despair that had painted the world black just moments before disappeared, and a new light colored the scene.

It was an enchanting sight.

“You.”

Irene, who had been entranced, soon completely entrusted her body to the serpent.

Her voice moistened.

“……Why are you so late?”

“I apologize.”

Hot tears fell.

The boy calmly wiped them away. Each time his hand touched, warm body heat colored the fox’s cheek.

He was infinitely gentle.

“Everything is alright now.”

“……”

“You truly endured well. I’ll take care of the rest.”

In the darkening corridor.

Irene hugged the boy’s body tightly. As if she would never let go.

She buried her face in his warm embrace.

The serpent quietly accepted the fox.

“I’m truly relieved you’re safe.”

“……”

The two stood there for a long time.