episode_0172

A girl with a small body and a timid expression on her face. She carries a staff made from the skull and spine of a living person.

The most amazing thing is that this person is in here.

When this girl died, her appearance was almost like skin and she fell to where I was while still alive.

And then it twisted and disappeared without a trace as if it had never existed in the first place.

At least not the one referencing my memory.

In my mental world, it’s strange that there’s a hyungkesuni.

The Primordial Heavenly Lord said that I was the master, so I thought that the place I was in was a spiritual world like in many works, but there was a hyungkesuni. And Daegon said that I was a guest.

Is one side lying?

A demon from somewhere comes to mind.

What kind of place is this? The easiest and most certain way to find out is to come face to face.

I approached Hukkeshni.

“This is the third time we met.”

“The second one, I guess.”

Hukkeshni is saying something strange. The second time?

Now that I think about it, the mood of the dream suddenly changed. There were a lot of images of meat, corpses, and trash mixed together like in a cruel fairy tale, but at some point I started meeting people from the past.

When was it?

After I met Hyungkeshni, someone I knew came out. It wasn’t a corpse or an animal whose name I didn’t know.

Well then, I guess I should ask this question.

“What do you think about people who laugh when they’re scared?”

At my question, Hyungkeshni’s expression crumpled and he made a face of disgust.

“Are you trying to tease me?”

Yes. This is definitely closer to the real thing that I know. And the first Hyukshunni I met is not the Hyukshunni in front of me.

There is still no light or warmth, so it must be fake after all.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m kidding. You’re a witch, right? Answer the question.”

If it’s a place like the spiritual world, I guess I can talk comfortably. Hyungkeshni’s expression was distorted with disgust, and when I forced her, she looked up at me with a frightened expression and lowered her head.

“I think it’s miserable.”

He thinks he is miserable. It is not the real words of the savage, so it is just a worthless monologue.

“I will enter the castle you see ahead.”

Then, Hukkeshni looks at me, turns his gaze slightly away from me and looks back. Perhaps there is something behind me.

I don’t look back on purpose.

Probably a witch. A witch whose name I don’t know.

Since something started to change before and after I asked Hyungkeshni, what went wrong there?

If you’re following me, I have to show you till the end.

You can guess what lies beyond this pitch-black wall with no sense of depth.

“You know this is the opposite side of the exit door, right?”

I nodded at Hunkeshni’s words. Yes, I know. At first, it felt like watching a fairy tale, so I thought I would meet the Queen of Hearts if I went to the castle.

But I forgot about it from the middle. It wasn’t like a fairy tale, and suddenly only characters from the past started appearing.

So I was moving by inertia. And then I had a reason to go all the way to the end.

“Yes, I know.”

Hulkeshuni hesitates and wastes time. So I stare at her intently. When she catches my gaze, she makes a really disgusted expression and eventually walks towards the wall.

And then I hit the wall with my cane.

Woof!

The wall split open with a loud noise. The stones that made up the wall moved around to form a gate. But there was no gate, and deep darkness spread out endlessly inside.

And beyond that darkness, you can see a pure white castle.

I walked into the darkness without hesitation. I was buried in a darkness so thick it felt like I was suffocating.

My body is touched by darkness.

I don’t feel anything. It’s the cold I’ve always felt. I still feel it now. It’s a cold that’s getting stronger and stronger, and it’s impossible to get used to it. I’m going crazy because it’s cold. Am I going crazy because I’m cold? I start walking again. I have to walk to my destination without wandering.

“Kiaaah!”

Then suddenly a scream was heard from above my head.

A pitch-black lizard jumped down from above my head. When did something like this get up there?

The lizard screams and runs desperately towards the other side of the darkness, towards where I came from.

I can see wings fluttering faintly through the darkness. Is it a dragon or a lizard?

But it crawls as if it has forgotten to use its wings, as if it is desperately trying to escape from something scary. It is a lizard.

In the middle of that lizard’s body.

It’s the only one here that has light. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen that has warmth.

I guess she’s the witch who brought me to this place.

But have you forgotten? If you were stuck on my head, you should have remembered what I did so far.

The lizard ran and bounced off the invisible wall at the exit, and poor thing, it couldn’t go any further.

If I just take one step forward I can escape the darkness, but I can’t get out.

The area where the light reaches is in front of the nose.

But the body cannot come out of the darkness.

“Kick.”

In front of that lizard stood the ugly scorpion, laughing at the unfortunate man.

“You can’t go in this direction.”

“Open it! Open it!”

The lizards were screaming. It was a strange voice, a mixture of male and female voices. I looked at them and then started walking forward again.

witch.

It’s strange, but right now I want to see inside this more than her.

Besides, I still have some unused keys in my pocket. I wonder what they can open.

I keep walking forward, step by step, towards the castle that now seems close.

“Maleficent’s orders! Open the door! Open it! Open it! Why? Why! The magic isn’t working! Let me out! Let me out of here! Please! Please! It’s too cold in here!”

“Kihihi. You little punk. You should have run away when your head exploded from the memories in your dream, let alone your original consciousness. It’s already too late.”

The faint sound of the two of them talking lingers in my ears and then disappears. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard words like that from Hyuckesuni. And I also heard the witch’s name.

Now that I’ve gained some new information, I’m sure I’ll be able to put it to good use.

I walk forward thinking that way.

All the way.

The sound from behind me is now so small that I can’t hear it anymore. The distance is strange. It’s clearly a castle right in front of me, but no matter how long I walk, I can’t hear it.

I vaguely feel what this world is like.

If my guess is correct, we’re going to have to walk a really long way through this darkness.

Tap tap tap.

Walk for a long time with short steps.

Just a dark, cold space.

I had almost forgotten how much time had passed.

A city appeared before my eyes.

A dull city without color or sound, like a black and white silent film.

The city where the man in my faded memories lived.

A city to be missed.

In a way, I barely made it home. Not really, though.

When I look up at the sky, unlike the city, the sky is a bright blue. And I see a very tall tower. It is a building located quite far from where I used to live.

There is a story that it resembles a tower from a certain movie, so it looks like a castle from a distance.

But because it’s black and white, it shines particularly brightly. When you look at a black and white space from the outside, it’s either white or black. It’s one of the two.

But isn’t entering a place like this a trigger for some kind of awakening?

I really didn’t expect to come to a place like this out of the blue. I start walking. The neighborhood where the man in my faded memories lived. I know the way to the house where he lived.

It’s the path I’ve been hoping for in the darkness.

Walk that path.

And after a short or long time, I arrived at the door. The place where the door lock should have been.

I see a giant keyhole.

I took the key with the letters peeled off from my pocket and put it in.

Kang!

But the key doesn’t go in.

Huh?

Where did I get the key? Did I miss something I had to pick up? Or did I have to bring the witch back earlier? I could go back now, but it would be a lot of hard work.

So I walked sideways down the hallway and pressed the elevator button, but it still wouldn’t move, so I headed up the stairs.

I opened the emergency exit door to go down the stairs I came up from.

It doesn’t open.

What is this? Is this a bug?

I looked around but couldn’t find a way back. So I finally came back to the door. I tried to jump over the wall in the hallway, thinking I could get there if I jumped down, but the empty space was blocked by a solid wall.

The door lock has been replaced with a keyhole, and the key doesn’t fit.

Just in case, I rang the doorbell.

There is no sound.

This time, I’m knocking on the door.

But no one comes out even after waiting.

I guess I should have ignored the companion and left him behind. What should I do?

I was standing quietly in the hallway when suddenly I heard a noise.

The elevator opened and a man walked out.

Yes, it is me.

I know that face is mine, even though it doesn’t look like there’s any black paint over the eyes.

The man walked towards me, took a key out of his pocket and opened the door.

At the end of the key that I glanced at, there was the word ‘past’ written.

The door opens and a small house appears. A man enters, so I follow him inside.

He acts like he doesn’t recognize me.

A collection of all the memories I have.

If that’s the case, what should I do here?

As I was looking around the house with that thought in mind, the man changed his clothes, went into his room in a comfortable position, and turned on the TV.

And then suddenly he spoke to me.

“This is the exit door.”

As he says that, he points to the crackling screen.

“Is the theme park finished?”

“Have you done any self-reflection?”

“Impossible.”

There’s no way I could do that. When I shook my head in denial, the man smiled as if he had known I would do that.

“Right. Would we do something like that? When you’re done watching, go back.”

“Yes.”

Then suddenly I took out the keys from my pocket.

“Do you know what this is?”

“Do you think I know something you don’t?”

“It’s useless.”

“All memories of the past are like that.”

I guess I couldn’t find the room I was supposed to go into and passed it. I went inside the TV while having a silly conversation with the lower-ranking man. I’m not really worried.

Me. When I play a game, I’m the type that just abandons it once I’ve cleared the scenario and reached 60% progress.

I felt like I was falling from a great height for a moment, and then I opened my eyes in my bed.

A luxurious residence in front of the Royal Academy. This is the ceiling there.

I came back to my original world.

I don’t know what it is, but since I got a witch’s name, I guess everything’s fine. Plus, there’s a heavy metallic feeling coming from the butt area.

So the witch’s name is Maleficent?

That’s a very classic name.