“I’m a person of this world?
And this world isn’t a game?
I have no world to go back to?”
My brain was spinning at a brutal speed. At the same time, everything in the world spun with it.
Possibilities and hypotheses surged up at blistering speed.
At the same speed they were tossed out.
“That’s not all.”
Gong Isu dragged out an enormous number of words to persuade me.
Maybe the liquor was part of it, but more than that, I could clearly feel he was doing his utmost to speak.
“Believe me. You must not go back.”
Regrettably, what he said was an array of words too abstract and vague.
If I compress his speech into something I can more or less understand, it goes like this:
Gong Isu pried open the seam between heaven and earth.
Between the split horizons lay a vast multi-dimensional cosmos. Innumerable dimensions, glittering like stars.
Using the force of a singularity, he tried to send Kim Sinhwa to the place I had “originally been.”
The instant that power acted—
[zzzt]
—my skin tore.
Startled by the unforeseen change, Gong Isu screamed.
Beneath the torn skin, the guts and blood and bone all shattered into red mana-stone fragments and scattered in every direction.
Gong Isu frantically tried to gather the pieces. But it was already too late. Fragments of Kim Sinhwa running through his fingers.
Kim Sinhwa died.
The moment I exited this world, I could no longer exist as Kim Sinhwa and scattered as meaningless shards of magic.
But that alone wouldn’t have thrown Gong Isu into such shock.
From beneath the empty skin drifting in the hollow air, a hideous, colossal shadow emerged.
From the shadow extended a [hand]—beautiful, in the most literal sense.
The moment that hand stroked Gong Isu—he understood.
Kim Sinhwa has nowhere to return. Nowhere in this vast space-time can accept him.
The moment that hand stroked Gong Isu—he changed.
His body lost its shape and sloughed apart—like pudding that had been forced to hold a human form, he collapsed and spilled onto the floor.
The moment that hand stroked Gong Isu—he saw.
What had gone wrong? Across the far side of space-time, from the far right edge to the far left, those countless star-like lights went out all at once.
Gong Isu realized again.
[The world perished.] Darkness. As if the play had ended and the house lights were killed—everything went dark.
Gong Isu realized again.
[The world perished.] He had sent back something that must not be sent back.
Gong Isu realized again.
Even though [the world perished], his administrator did not permit Gong Isu’s death.
So, having lost his shape and melted, Gong Isu could do nothing in the void where nothing existed—he just pooled there, a small thing that could only be aware of itself and observe the surroundings.
Cosmic dust poured down over him.
If only he could not perceive the passage of time—but Gong Isu remembers exactly how long he remained pooled like that.
That time, so long as to be unfathomable, was...
I cut him off in a hurry.
“Let me summarize.”
I was worried that if I didn’t stop his recollection here, he might fall into delirium again.
“...All right.”
I raised a hand and spoke calmly.
“My world—the one I could go to—doesn’t exist. If I ignore that and try to go home, then—”
Like trying to reference a path that can’t be referenced, a bug occurs—
“—I die, and right there a monster bursts out, attacks the one who mediated my transit, and the world ends?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
If Gong Isu didn’t have the power to rewind time, only a truly horrific ending would have remained.
Not the first I’ve heard of it.
From the start, this is roughly why the current Gong Isu came to see me.
The [Kim Sinhwa] who tried to use the [Golden Hairpin] alone dealt catastrophic damage to the world and lost his limbs.
To fix that, the [future Kim Sinhwa without limbs] pointed to the [Veil-Ripper] as the cause—but—
This time, something burst out of my own body?
Layer upon layer.
It feels to the point of absurdity like everything in the world—ignoring rationality and plausibility if it must—is trying to stop me from going home.
But something’s off. There are too many contradictions.
Clues that had been adrift in memory feel like they’re slotting together on their own. But they don’t join cleanly.
A few things snag.
If I originate in this world—then what is the game called [Cthulhu World]?
Why do I know the truth of this world through that game?
Among the things I know are facts significant enough to shake the foundations of this world.
If this world is not a game, then what are the [bugs] that exist in this world?
Why is Yang Seoho so powerful?
And what about the memories of the real world and my life stamped in my head?
There’s too much that isn’t explained.
I tried to force some hypotheses in to assemble the clues—but—
No, there’s no need to twist it all the way into the overly complex parts.
To resolve all these contradictions, the choices I can make fall largely into two.
One choice needs innumerable assumptions and uncertain conjectures—
The other needs only a single assumption.
So which do I choose?
The latter yields a crisp explanation, but choosing that would...
I feel too sorry for Gong Isu.
In the end I answered, to the hourglass drifting hollowly in the barrier’s darkness,
“I understand.”
There was a certain conclusion mixed into my voice—and sensing it, Gong Isu answered in a voice like a wounded beast.
“...You don’t believe me.”
Damn it.
I don’t want to do this either.
“I just want to keep multiple possibilities open.”
“Kim Sinhwa! What I saw, what I felt—I—ah...”
He started to speak, then stopped, lowering his head.
“I see...”
His voice spilled out like a sigh.
In the barrier’s darkness, his fingers slowly appeared.
Maybe he only meant to make that stock gesture of clutching his head—but those long ten fingers reaching toward the hourglass...
Looked, somehow, like the giant fangs of a greedy monster trying to swallow Gong Isu’s head.
It wouldn’t have felt out of place to hear a
[crack]
right then.
“Senior.”
“No. Kim Sinhwa, you’re right. I admit it... even I wouldn’t be able to believe myself.”
His voice scattered like a breath.
“Senior. I think it’s better not to think any further right now. And I do believe in your sincerity.”
“My sincerity...”
At least, up to the point that Gong Isu has no intention of deceiving me.
But to trust everything he says, I have to break through too many contradictions.
Conversely—
What if what he saw was only hallucination?
What if they duped him to torment him?
No other hypothesis is needed.
“Right. I suppose that much is enough. But...”
With the touch of an abyssal being, along with his heart—his confidence and conviction and soul were crushed utterly.
And while others may pity his wounds, they cannot trust his perception.
That is exactly what the abyssal beings—the rulers of this world—did to Gong Isu.
“Kim Sinhwa. You can treat what I’ve said as the ill-omened prophecy of an untrustworthy fortune-teller. But at least remember it could be dangerous...”
Gong Isu spoke in a voice that held neither self nor certainty.
“Ah, of course. You do know my class is Mage, right? By nature my job makes me very superstitious, so don’t worry.”
A deep, despairing sigh.
“...I’m a little tired. Junior. Sorry, but could I sleep a little more?”
“Please do.”
“Thank you. If you shut this, does it block sound too?”
An odd question out of nowhere.
Keeping an everyday tone, I gathered up the table, chairs, and the jar of Dream Scent and answered casually,
“Ah—yes. If I close it, it blocks sound too. You won’t hear the outside from inside either.”
“Then close it. It’s been a long time since there were no voices in my head. I’m honestly—finally going to sleep in quiet.”
“Understood.”
Without further comment, I closed the barrier’s door confining Gong Isu.
The barrier’s door shut, and inside and outside were completely severed.
Even if the being trapped within screams or howls—those outside cannot perceive that cry.
Several days passed again.
A plump harvest-moon glowing golden.
The woods of Jangmyeong Mountain, changed into a place far gloomier and ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ more dangerous than when I was managing it.
“Why do you put the meat and bone in the ground?”
A low voice, and a sleek black shape approaching my side.
Dozens of eyes, each a long yellow slit, opening on each part of the body.
Four tails splitting in uncanny ways.
A cat from Saturn—Kongsoon.
I paused what I was doing and spoke to her.
“This is called burial. It’s a human custom.”
Kongsoon rolled the eyes on her thigh and hip to glance at the earth I’d turned, then said,
“A corpse from inside the mansion.”
“To be precise, a human named Heo Sanghyun.”
In case something happened to me, I’d shifted the rites so that, through the Wriggler, the surrounding mana would be absorbed to maintain necromancy.
Even so, Heo Sanghyun was found a corpse in the mansion’s living room.
I’m sorry, Sanghyun.
What was a little strange were the [Homunculi] sealed in the basement.
Those [Homunculi] that looked exactly like me were sitting in the mansion’s sofa and dining room in strikingly clean condition.
They had no ability to stand on their own—so they were merely [things], dolls that resembled me...
What happened in the mansion during the half-year I was gone?
“And these bones are a human named Jang Hyundeok.”
Saying so, I lowered a small pair of shoes and a silver flute into a second pit.
Kongsoon watched me with the eyes scattered over her body for a while without speaking—then said slowly,
“That meat and those bones—they still hold a fair amount of mana. If you wished, you could use them. Is that custom so important you must discard them?”
I gestured for Kongsoon to step back a little, then said,
“It’s not that the custom is important—it’s that doing something that feels meaningful makes me feel a little better.”
I stirred power and moved the surrounding soil.
[scrape-scrrr]
The remains of the two were buried beneath Jangmyeong’s earth. I added a sealing rite over them—to prevent anyone from using these remains in an unclean way.
I looked at the seal for a moment, then asked Kongsoon,
“This isn’t a question I’m asking out of curiosity, but—if I were to turn back time and make everything up to now not have happened, what then?”
Kongsoon’s long, long tails curled around her body and swayed.
“Then everything up to now would not have happened for you.”
“From my perspective, sure. But what about here? I know a time traveler.”
“The headless human?”
“If you know, that’s faster.”
Kongsoon came a little closer and whispered to me.
“If that burial is done, sit there a bit. Your body looks very warm.”
I did as she asked and sat comfortably on the dirt.
With a prim little motion of her tails, Kongsoon came over and curled between my legs. Maybe that was the signal?
Before I knew it—meow, meeeow, meo-ow—soft calls, as cats sidled closer.
I motioned that they could come, then continued.
“The time traveler I mentioned is named Gong Isu. From hearing his words and deeds, I began to think this world might adopt a parallel-universe framework. What’s your opinion?”
In other words, if I rewind and go back to the past—
Does this version of the future vanish?
Or does this version of the future persist like this—simply unobserved?
Kongsoon, purring for a moment in my arms, murmured as if to herself,
“You did not do something meaningless.”
“I wasn’t curious whether my act had meaning, but if there was anyone who was, they would thank you for that answer.”
Kongsoon’s tail swayed—tickling my chin.
“But a world that is not observed has no meaning.”
“I see.”
Meow—meeeow—mrrrow—nyaa—
Now a tremendous number of cats were winding around my body. Perched in the best spot and rubbing herself, Kongsoon suddenly said,
“The feed you stacked is running low. If you intend to leave, leave a year’s worth more. On the day it runs out, the obligation your familiar has been performing in your stead will end as well.”
While I was gone, the Wriggler had been caring for these hundred cats.
I glanced toward the mansion for a moment, then answered slowly,
“I’ll do that.”
I’d answered, but I sat there blankly for a while, wrapped in cats. The moonlight pouring from the sky was blindingly bright.
And at some point I made up my mind.
“I should investigate Hellistic first.”
People kept calling me a dogged, dreadful bastard, right? Call me whatever you want.
A few steps have been added to the middle, but nothing has changed.
I’m going to leave this world.
