Side Story – To You, Waiting at the Ending (3
by Afuhfuihgs
Side Story – To You, Waiting at the Ending (3)
Luna, having fallen into the darkness of the deep abyss-like canyon, tightly closed her eyes, anticipating the pain that would soon come.
Ttuk-
“…?”
Luna’s back touched the ground. Luna, feeling a chill down her spine, shivered and cautiously opened her eyes in bewilderment. She had clearly fallen headfirst, so how did her back touch the ground first? Moreover, she didn’t feel any pain.
“Yo, hello.”
“…Hht!”
Luna was so startled by the sudden voice that she flinched violently. When she looked up, a man wearing a peculiar mask was looking down at her. Strangely enough, the man covering his face felt familiar to Luna. It was like déjà vu, the feeling of seeing something you hadn’t thought about in a long time filling her mind.
Luna, getting up, moistened her dry lips with her tongue and cautiously reached out to the man. She suspected that she had already lost consciousness when she fell into the abyss of the canyon and was seeing a hallucination. The man, watching Luna’s snow-white hand approaching, pushed her palm away with the staff he was holding.
“Uh-uh, I’m sorry, but contact with my friend’s girl is a bit much.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I’m a kind person, you see. I even wore a mask on purpose because I was afraid of NTR-ing the joy of reunion.”
Luna tilted her head with a puzzled expression at the man who spouted nonsense. The man tapped his mask with his staff and introduced himself.
“Oh, my, I’m late for the self-introduction. I’m Ro, um… the King of Wizards. Call me Magic King rather than Demon King for short. Anyway, I never thought I’d actually meet you like this… Seeing you in person, I’m convinced that my friend’s choice was right. Everyone is cheering, saying you’re a beauty.”
Luna could clearly feel the suspicious man in front of her observing her appearance from behind the mask. He seemed to be alone, but he kept muttering to himself as if he had invisible friends. Luna, pursing her lips for a while at the sight of the man calling himself the Magic King, first checked who the friend the Magic King was talking about was.
“I’m your friend’s girl? Then… who is that friend?”
“The person you were trying to find, even at the cost of your life, is my friend.”
“…”
Luna fidgeted with her fingers without a word. She wasn’t sure if she could trust the man in front of her. She didn’t even know where she was now. What was clear was that it wasn’t the canyon. It was too dark to see clearly, but it definitely looked like the inside of a building.
“You look bewildered. Hmm, do you need a little explanation?”
At the Magic King’s suggestion, Luna readily nodded.
“To escape the influence of the world’s negation, the first condition is to escape the world. So, I lured you to the Canyon of Death. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to jump in without hesitation. Thanks to you, I lost the bet, but I don’t feel bad. I was able to see that my friend’s girlfriend is such a wonderful person. Ah, do you know what the world’s negation is? If you’ve even forgotten that, the explanation will be quite long.”
“I, I remember that.”
The Magic King, who started talking quickly without even taking a breath in between, continued to speak without paying any attention to Luna’s embarrassment.
“Good, then the explanation will be a little shorter. I feel a little disappointed? Anyway, your boyfriend, whom you cherish so much that you risked your life, was subjected to the world’s negation. That’s why you, your friend, and everyone around you can’t remember your boyfriend. The sense of loss you felt wasn’t a delusion, it was real. You lost the most precious thing. I sometimes get that feeling too. I definitely ate pasta a few days ago, but suddenly I want to eat it again today, you know?”
Luna couldn’t just let it go, so she held out her palm towards the Magic King, who was about to pour out words without a break. The Magic King, who was about to explain which pasta was the most delicious, tilted his head slightly and stopped talking.
“W-wait a minute! Boyfriend…? I had a boyfriend?”
“Had? No, you *have* one. For your information, I have the memories that your boyfriend gave me in my head. Even the emotions are stored intact in my memory, so I could see how much of a lover my friend is. Thanks to that, I learned about emotions in detail, and I even learned that this is true love!”
Luna, realizing that the Magic King was the type of person who would answer ten words for every one word you asked, decided to only ask the key things before the explanation got any longer.
“…I don’t believe it, but I understand for now. I have a few things I want to ask, is it okay if I ask?”
“Oh, of course. I have a lot of things I’m curious about too. Riddles are fine, and it’s also good to ask everything you’re curious about and then I ask you what I’m curious about.”
The Magic King, who answered that way, suddenly turned his head to the side where there was nothing, frowned, and said in a low voice.
“Are you crazy? Asking my friend’s girlfriend something like that. You’ve crossed the line, so you’re banned from watching for 30 minutes.”
Luna wanted to ask who he was talking to, but she decided to ask about the important things first. The most important thing was that the sense of loss she had felt so far wasn’t fake.
“Is my boyfriend… here? I mean, the boyfriend who was subjected to the world’s negation.”
The Magic King, turning his head back to Luna, raised both arms above his head and said.
“Yes, first of all, the ‘here’ you mentioned is a place called Labyrinthos. It’s a living labyrinth. I used space magic to whisk you away from the Canyon of Death-! To the inside of Labyrinthos, which exists on the outskirts of the outer universe. Ah! A round of applause for the administrator, ‘Patulga’-nim, who helped!”
Clap clap clap-!
Luna, who inadvertently joined in the applause, came to her senses and looked at him resentfully. The Magic King nonchalantly continued his explanation.
“That’s right, your forgotten boyfriend is somewhere here. With a very bad guy. Well, according to Patulga-nim’s explanation, he wouldn’t have killed him easily, so he’s probably still alive. That’s why I came all the way to Labyrinthos for my friend’s happy ending.”
“Magic King-nim, my boyfriend too… I’m sorry, but could you tell me what my boyfriend’s name is?”
The Magic King, who had been answering kindly so far, shook his head firmly this time at Luna’s request.
“…You have to figure that out yourself.”
“Is it because of the world’s negation?”
“No, the onlookers said they wanted to see you realize the precious person you had forgotten on your own. I think that’s more touching too.”
“…”
“Y-your name?!”
Luna stared at the Magic King, who was speaking in an acting tone while trembling his fingertips, without any expression for a moment. The Magic King, who slyly lowered his fingers and unnecessarily adjusted his mask, returned to his explanation.
“The reason I called you here to Labyrinthos is simple. I realized that I can’t find my friend here by any means. This labyrinth is alive, so the walls move arbitrarily, the paths change, it uses tricks, it uses magic, it reverses magic, and it’s a bizarre place that shakes your senses. According to the administrator’s explanation, should I call it a Cthulhu-only prison?”
As the Magic King explained, Luna could see the walls moving little by little, or the ceiling, which seemed to be made of solid marble, slowly flowing in a different direction like a river.
“But you can find my friend in Labyrinthos.”
“Me…?”
“Yes, it’s clear. God has planned even this next part. Maybe it was a predetermined ending from the beginning? Surprisingly, it’s common to write a story from the end.”
Most of the explanation was incomprehensible, but Luna was able to understand the key parts clearly. Thanks to throwing herself into the abyss of the canyon, the Magic King moved her to Labyrinthos, and she just had to find her forgotten boyfriend here. But she had no idea how she could escape the living labyrinth and find her boyfriend.
“…Ah!”
Luna checked the compass she was holding tightly in her hand. It was working fine. The compass was clearly pointing beyond the wall. She looked at the Magic King as if asking if that was it, but he just shrugged and didn’t answer.
“…?”
Was there a reason not to answer? Luna, tilting her head, gave up asking any more questions and decided to move in the direction the compass was pointing. The Magic King, who had said he had a lot of questions for Luna, silently followed behind Luna.
“There are many monsters born from chaos in Labyrinthos. You’ll be safe if I’m around. And I have something I must do at the tearful reunion of you and your boyfriend.”
Luna, who had adapted to the Magic King’s incomprehensible explanation, just nodded. If only that chatterbox’s mouth would be quietly shut, that would be good enough….
“Then, shall we do an interview while wandering around the labyrinth? The onlookers are quite interested. Honestly, I’m quite looking forward to it too. Okay, here’s the first question. What kind of person is the boyfriend I forgot? That’s the question. Just guess and answer what kind of boyfriend you think he was. Easy, right? It’ll be fun to see how different the boyfriend in your imagination is from the boyfriend you actually meet later―”
Luna sighed without realizing it.
The Magic King was too talkative. Navia, who was called a chatterbox, couldn’t even hold a candle to him.
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