episode_0281

Well, I really did die. It really feels real when I hear it from someone else.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m particularly emotionally moved. Rather, that would be a new reaction.

It was a life that was destined to end. Even so, it succeeded in protecting everyone in the end. What regret could there be in a death like that?

It really doesn’t matter.

really.

“… ”

“What are you thinking about?”

A voice suddenly came to my mind and woke me up. Seol Yu-jeong… no, it was older sister Yu-jeong, looking down at me and tilting her head.

“… It’s nothing.”

I shook my head as if to shake something off. There was no use in worrying about it. Didn’t you just hear clearly that I was dead?

“But…where is this place?”

I asked Sister Yoo-Jeong as if changing the subject. I can accept death willingly, but that doesn’t mean other questions are resolved.

Clear blue skies, fluffy clouds, endless shallow lakes…

It is certainly a magnificent sight, but it doesn’t look like heaven or hell.

“Your image is concretized by merging with the witches’ collective consciousness.”

Sister Yujeong, who had been staring at me blankly, opened her mouth.

“Group consciousness…? Image…?”

I tilted my head involuntarily at the incomprehensible answer. Sister Yoojung smiled as if she understood my confusion.

“Well, let’s talk about the difficult stuff later… ”

She sank to the floor with a thud. Then, looking at me, she banged her palm on the side of her body.

“Would you like to come over here and sit down?”

“… ”

Anyway, it wasn’t a problem that I could figure out the answer to by thinking about it on my own. I squatted down, keeping some distance from her.

-with a splash…

Even though I’m ankle deep in the lake, I don’t feel any moisture. My clothes aren’t wet either.

This was the part that made me realize that this was not a reality where the laws of physics apply, but somewhere else.

“Why are you sitting so far away? Even if you’re close, it’s been a long time.”

“No, I don’t like it.”

I shook my head awkwardly. Not only my appearance, but my personality as well felt timid and shrunken.

… Maybe this is my true self, hidden beneath the mask and the trained body. She said this is my image made concrete…

“Phuhut… ”

My older sister, who saw me trembling, covered her mouth and burst into laughter. Anyway, I wasn’t in a very pleasant mood.

“If you have any questions, ask this older sister. She’ll answer everything she knows.”

She said this as if she had guessed my confusion. I thought about it for a moment and then asked the question.

“You said earlier that you were a residue… a residual memory. What exactly did you mean by that?”

“Don’t think too hard about it. It’s just what it means.”

There was no particular emotional agitation in Seol Yu-jeong’s voice.

“You saw everything, right? You slept for a really long time.”

“… Maybe.”

She looked down at me and asked. I nodded, but I felt a little strange. Hmm, how long has it been since I was pushed back by a woman in terms of sitting height?

“Is that your memory? Or… ”

“Everyone’s memories. My memories, the witches’ memories. And Hyuk and those kids… Your sisters’ memories too. When they were captured by the witches, their extracted memories flowed into the hive consciousness. The dream you saw was probably a part of that. ”

She counted the numbers on her fingers and looked at me and said.

“Anyway, then… you must have seen how I died?”

“… Yes.”

“… ”

After hearing the reluctant answer, Sister Yoo-jung smiled bitterly. It was the first time she, who had always shown a bright expression, showed any emotional agitation.

“It happened because I was moving separately because I wanted to make a contribution. I got impatient. That shouldn’t have happened.”

“… ”

She looked at herself reflected in the water for a moment, then opened her mouth in a slightly subdued voice.

“Besides, at that time, the witch’s identity had not yet been revealed. If I had known they were such beings, I would have been more careful… ”

She was muttering in a regretful voice when she suddenly looked at me and grabbed my shoulder exaggeratedly and started shaking.

“Does that make sense? My last memory while I was alive was a tentacle monster lunging at my eyes. Ugh… That’s really scary.”

“… I guess so.”

I had no choice but to answer her joke, which was deliberately intended to stifle her sadness. I also knew very well why she felt impatient.

You can understand this just by recalling the conversation between the captain and the Heukryeon couple who were talking about dirty blood.

“Anyway, at first I thought he was dead without a trace. No, he was dead, but… ”

Sister Yoojung changed the subject and said.

“Some of the memories that flowed in as they ate my brain took shape again in the witches’ hive consciousness. That’s me in front of you.”

She tapped her head with her fingers.

“Well, it wasn’t like that from the beginning. For the first dozen years or so, I was floating around without a sense of self, mixed with witches. At that time, I was just a part of the vast memories they had absorbed.”

My older sister, who was absorbed in the story, looked down at me and said.

“Then, I managed to regain control a while ago. Thanks to someone destroying the nest and the witch’s higher consciousness that was suppressing her ego disappearing. Hehe, thank goodness. ”

“… I don’t think there’s any need to be thankful.”

I muttered, avoiding the teasing gaze. I’m not making a pointless remark. Sister Yoo-jung is already dead. But I ended up being trapped in this ambiguous form of a hive mind or something…

A sense of useless regret lingered on the tip of my tongue. My sister just smiled brightly as if she didn’t know what I was feeling.

“… You don’t have to be like that. I just wanted to talk to you once. No matter what anyone says, Hyuk is the one who handed over the position of successor to you.”

“… Now it’s all in vain.”

“What? Hehehe… ”

When I answered her grumblingly, she giggled. I asked her as if changing the subject to something uncomfortable.

“But if you were mixed in with the witches’ rituals… Is there any other information you found out? For example, their identity… ”

It was another curiosity that had been lingering. Everyone now knows that the witch’s body is a squishy alien life form, a heteromorph. However, other than the speculation that they arrived on Earth on a meteorite during the fall of the planet, little is known about their origins.

Of course, how could we know the origin of an alien life form that suddenly appeared out of nowhere?

“Ancient life forms born with the beginning of the universe. That’s the true identity of the witches.”

And she answered without hesitation.

“In some ways, you could say they’re creatures that are small universes themselves. The power they wield is a power that can be used because it’s in line with the creative will of the universe.”

“… That’s pretty grand. But I guess it makes sense. Power is a power that seems more like a miracle than magic. But when you say it’s the creative will of the universe, it sounds pretty plausible… ”

Well, I guess it’s no use finding out about that now.

“In the beginning, they were creatures that lived swimming in the deep space. They came to Earth to reproduce.”

“Breeding?”

“Yeah.”

Sister Yujeong nodded.

“They can only reproduce in an environment with a high particle concentration in the atmosphere. That’s why they send meteorites directly loaded with particles to places where they can feel life reactions. And they wait in hibernation, knowing when the particles on the ground will become abundant through the chain reaction of life. Then, when the minimum environment is prepared, they wake up and accelerate the erosion of the ground to create an environment suitable for them. What the witches call unity and destiny are linguistic expressions for such actions. After they finish reproducing on the eroded ground, they overload the particle energy to blow up the planet and use that momentum to head to the next planet… Is that so? ”

“… Thank you.”

The words flowed like a machine gun. I asked because I was curious, but honestly, I don’t know what they were talking about.

Now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem that important.

“But you said this is inside the witch’s colony consciousness.”

Perhaps the important question now is… something else.

“Can we get out of here?”

“No? I can’t go out.”

Sister Yoojung answered immediately. The speed was so cool that I was embarrassed.

“We’re stuck here forever. The two of us have to continue living here.”

“… ”

“Hmm? I don’t really like that face?”

She looked down at me and asked.

“Isn’t it normal for a guy to like being alone with such a pretty older sister?”

“… I don’t like older women. And those who are fifteen years older than me… sigh.”

For a moment, an ominous aura emanated from the side that made me feel like a witch had returned. I immediately closed my mouth and looked around carefully.

“Hmm, who would say he’s his little brother… ”

My older sister, who was glaring at me with her mouth pouting as if she was displeased, muttered.

“Your manners are really ingrained?”

“… I, I’m sorry… ”

“It’s okay. You’re still young, so you might make mistakes. Yeah, I understand.”

“… ”

“But let me make one thing clear. I died at nineteen. Do you know what that means? It means I’ll be nineteen forever, and you’re only a year apart. Aren’t we basically the same age? Huh? ”

“I was wrong… ”

I could only apologise in shame as the words continued like a machine gun. Soon after, the vicious aura disappeared.

However, it is true that I feel lost. Isn’t this the kind of situation where I can neither live nor die?

The view is nice, but… do I have to stay in a place like this forever?

“Do you want to go back?”

“Of course… ”

Sister Yoojung asked me a question, perhaps sensing my discomfort. I was about to answer right away, but for some reason I ended up keeping my mouth shut.

After thinking about it for a while.

I shook my head horizontally, not vertically.

“… No.”