Chapter 112 - The Former Companion IV

How much time had passed?

Beneath a night sky without even the ticking of a clock, only the brilliant booms of fireworks at regular intervals measured the length of the silence.

"An anomaly...? Me? I, Dang Seorin?"

Only after four fireworks had painted the sky red did she part her lips.

"That can't be right. What are you talking about, Undertaker? I'm the same. Nothing's changed since before. I can't be an anomaly..."

"Yes. Nothing has changed. But our abilities themselves are a kind of anomaly. Awakening, transcendence, ascension—however impressive the words we dress them up in, they're still utterly alien phenomena in the real world as it originally existed. Didn't you suspect as much, at least to some extent?"

"..."

I took a sip of coffee. While making her affogato, I'd made myself a café au lait.

"I'm not particularly fond of comparing a human being to a microcosm, but it's true that each person is a small space in their own right. Awakening an ability doesn't immediately turn you into a full-fledged anomaly. It happens slowly. Just as the void encroaches on the land, the transformation progresses through various processes and stages."

"... What fucking processes and stages?"

"I don't know everything either. But your case is clear, Dang Seorin. Once your golden scales began governing other people's personalities, your transformation accelerated rapidly."

"I mean, what does that even..."

"Shall we get into something a little more complicated?"

Let us compare an anomaly to a force.

Water falling, spilling a can of coffee on the floor, a ball dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa—we identify the force of gravity as the cause of all these events.

The same is true of anomalies, or the void.

Why do you drown if you walk to the right in Inunaki Tunnel? Why is the area where Meteor Strike falls devastated into a gray zone? Why do all objects and spaces in the hell of ceaseless suffering lose their boundaries and become mere qualia?

The answers are clear.

Because it is Inunaki Tunnel.

Because it is Meteor Strike.

Because it is ceaseless suffering.

Each anomaly has the power to bring about events peculiar to itself.

Just as gravity draws objects toward it, Meteor Strike simply possesses the property of reducing its surroundings to ash.

Anomalies each serve as causes, producing strange effects in this world.

We are left with no choice but to say, to identify it thus: This strange event happened because of that anomaly.

Conversely, the method of subjugating anomalies follows the same line of analysis.

Parts of Inunaki Tunnel are flooded precisely because the tunnel has become intermingled with the legend of the River of Three Crossings.

The myth of a river flowing through the underworld appears not only in the River of Three Crossings, but also in the River Styx.

Therefore, one can infer that carrying a gold or silver coin as fare for the underworld's ferryman will prevent drowning in Inunaki Tunnel.

Analyze the anomaly.

Dismantle what has been identified as the ultimate cause of an event, and reinterpret it: In fact, the anomaly itself is merely an effect brought about by other causes.

Reduce that otherworldly cause—the anomaly—back into the causal relationships of reality.

This was the strategy against anomalies that I had declared reliable around my hundredth run.

Purify this world by restoring its proper chain of cause and effect. Thus eliminate the voids that punctured it like holes.

That was the essence of the method I, the Undertaker, had established for fighting anomalies.

"Dang Seorin. Among all the people living in this city, on this land, is there even one who owes you nothing?"

"..."

"A young man named Yu Cheolwon lives on the top floor of that four-story apartment building. He used to suffer from insomnia. Five years ago, he underwent one of your witch trials, and thanks to you, every night, every morning, and thus every day of his life is refreshing. The cause of the event called 'Yu Cheolwon's daily life' is you, Dang Seorin."

"..."

"What is the cause that allowed a psychopath named Yu Jiwon to genuinely care about other people, to like them, and consequently to hold little evening parties with friends every week? Dang Seorin. It's you."

"..."

"Everyone in this city wakes up happy, spends the working day fulfilled and devoted to their job, happily passes the evening with loved ones, and goes to bed at night without a single worry. The reason this is true of not just one or two people but every citizen in the city is you, Dang Seorin. You alone."

"..."

"Simply ruling a city doesn't turn you into an anomaly. But this city can no longer even be distinguished from you, Dang Seorin."

Why is this city so happy?

Why does this event, or that event, happen in this city?

The answer to these questions:

Because it is Dang Seorin.

"This place is Utopia."

"..."

"A land ruled by a witch who can deliver a perfect verdict in every trial and fill the city with beautiful songs forever. The void most benevolent toward humans in the entire world. If you don't believe me... you can test it. Your Equivalent Exchange magic will now work on anomalies too."

"That..."

"You could give anomalies self-awareness, implant a past in them, and grant them human forms. Of course, it would take a great deal of trial and error, and even more time... But with luck, you might be able to turn the entire world into your domain, into the void called Utopia."

"..."

Silence settled.

The fireworks had stopped.

It grew quiet, as though the entire city were holding its breath. Even the cheerful humming of distant drunks and the witches' peals of laughter died down.

With each breath she took, lights flickered throughout the city. When the yellow lights blinked all at once for an instant, she gave a strange smile.

"Then, now... am I going to be subjugated by you too?"

"..."

"It sounds like a common enough story. The hero defeats the demon king, only to discover that the real mastermind was the king who'd supported him all along, so he plunges into the true final stage... His greatest ally turns out to be the final, ultimate boss. Isn't that a tired old cliché?"

"..."

"That's right, Undertaker. Now that I think about it, I can't remember you properly calling Busan 'Busan' lately. You've always called it 'this city' or 'here.' You'd suspected it for a long time already, hadn't you? That I'd fall into becoming an anomaly, and Busan into becoming the void."

"Yes."

"You really are a bastard. But—yes. You did warn me from the beginning. You said you couldn't predict what would happen. I'm the one who brought this about."

She stood up. Blackie leaped down.

TAP

A broom flew over from one side of the terrace and settled into her hand. She put on the pointed hat she'd left on the table.

"Brilliant. Fabricate news that the monster wave has been subjugated, and of course the whole city will throw a festival. I'd take time off if necessary to have a drink with you. My personal guards are scattered everywhere, and most of them will be dead drunk. Truly perfect timing, isn't it? Have you already won Cheon Yohwa over to your side, perhaps? ... Aha. I see. I was wondering why she so meekly bowed out of today's gathering."

"..."

"Even so, Undertaker, I can't give up my city. It's the oasis I barely managed to create in this fucked-up world. No matter what anyone says, I am human, and so are my citizens. No, from now on, I'll make us the only human species. So if you intend to subjugate me and this place, you'd better be prepared to die."

I stood up too.

"No."

Unlike her, I held no weapon. The sword cane made for me by a blacksmith who no longer existed in this world remained leaning beside me.

Because this story does not end that way.

"I won't subjugate you."

"... Huh?"

I gently took her hand.

It trembled slightly, but I pulled her toward me without minding.

In the exact opposite direction from a thousand years ago.

8

["There's venom in your eyes."]

["..."]

["You're the one, aren't you? Practically the only survivor from Busan Station. That eccentric who goes around asking people strange questions all the time."]

Long ago. In my fourth run.

My first meeting with Dang Seorin took place before I acquired [Perfect Recall].

I couldn't guarantee anything: whether our meeting really happened that way, whether rain was falling around us, whether we'd actually exchanged these words.

["Your name?"]

["... Undertaker. It's an alias."]

["Meaning you go around burying people? Not bad. A person's depth depends on how many corpses they've buried in their heart."]

But I remembered one thing with certainty, a truth I would never forget even if it faded.

["What do you say?"]

She had held out her hand to me then.

Perhaps it was intuition built up as a regressor. A black-haired witch, a broom in one hand and a pointed hat on her head. The moment I looked up at her, I already knew that a single unbroken line had become entwined with my endless life.

["Would you like to join our guild?"]

I took that hand.

Just as I did now.

Only the direction had changed.

"I will never hurt you, no matter what happens."

"..."

"It doesn't matter if you become an anomaly. Even if you turn this city, everything beyond it, or the entire world into the void. Even if you burn the whole world down, Dang Seorin. I'm still on your side."

"... Ah."

We were alike.

[Time Seal], the ability that had earned me the name Undertaker, ultimately did nothing more than give each person an eternally happy day.

Even if it was merely an imitation, a counterfeit, it was no different from the genuine article if nobody could tell.

The Utopia she had created was the same. Even if its people's happiness had been obtained through bargains with a witch, perhaps it was the best happy ending this world could ever reach.

This route was by no means a bad ending.

How could a world where Dang Seorin lived to the end, a city where her dream came true, ever be recorded as a bad ending by me?

"If you ever get tired of ruling the city and want to quit, we can leave together whenever you like."

"..."

"If you want to turn the whole world into your Utopia, I'll gladly become your sword and lead the way."

Her hand trembled.

Dang Seorin.

My guild leader.

"Even after becoming an anomaly, you allowed me to stay beside you. Whether you did it consciously or unconsciously doesn't matter. It makes no difference at all. You're the reason I live."

You are the cause of my existence.

Being able to remain together even after yielding our places to one another. That was the only difference between anomalies and humans.

However deep into the void we fell, that place would not become hell.

"So don't worry."

"..."

"We can go anywhere."

She came into my arms.

The city's lights came on. Witches crisscrossed the night sky. The noise of drunken revelers mingled with songs from the speakers.

Fireworks burst.

"... I want to travel."

"All right."

"Actually, maybe I shouldn't have given up the national roads. No, the railways. A Railway Management Corps or something. Instead of holing up in Busan, I should've built a train fortress like Snowpiercer and kept traveling all over the country, on and on. That would've been much more fun."

"Yes."

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and stroked her back.

"Dang Seorin."

"Yes...?"

"The truth is, I'm a regressor."

She looked up at me.

"A regressor...?"

"Yes. I'm repeating the world endlessly. My life has already come to an end over a hundred times. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm in the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon."

"..."

I told her.

Spell-Song Chanting burned her life away to spread her songs, but that lifespan was actually accumulating with each successive run.

"But in my tenth life, you told me never to reveal the secret that I was a regressor to you. You said you were greedy, and if you learned that secret, you'd always use up all your remaining lifespan to create a happy ending in the current run."

"Ah... I see. That's true."

Despite learning that I was a regressor, she quickly looked convinced. She had probably already formed some ideas of her own about my identity.

Then she smiled.

"What an idiot."

"Who? You in the tenth run?"

"No, you."

When I gave her a puzzled look, her amusement deepened.

"Why didn't you kill me as soon as each run began?"

"... What?"

"Idiot. The sooner I die, the more of my 'original lifespan' gets banked for me in the next run. If I originally had sixty years left, you could've passed those sixty years on to the next run every time... Why didn't you kill me?"

"Wait, what? How can you even say—"

I couldn't continue my protest.

Her eyebrows were right before my nose. A faint breath. The taste of the coffee I'd made her earlier, and the scent of ice cream.

The smell of grass freshly beaten down by a summer shower.

She slowly pulled away.

"..."

"Was that the first kiss of your life?"

"Well..."

"Ah. No. Don't answer yet."

She parted her lips and let a song flow out. A small pair of golden scales appeared above us.

She whispered playfully.

"Undertaker. Put all your memories of kissing on the scales. Whether you have any such memories or not. Not just from this run—from every run."

"..."

"Go on."

I did.

I didn't know what she placed on the right pan in exchange for my memories on the left.

Nor could I speak any longer of what memories I'd lost. Perhaps the scales had deemed themselves balanced; they shone brightly in midair.

"Good. Now close your eyes."

The ancient night sky. As golden light embroidered it like fireworks, she pulled on my arm.

"Now this is our first kiss."

Our shadows overlapped.

As fireworks scattered in the distance, a thought suddenly came to me.

Just as Dang Seorin was the cause of my existence, perhaps the cause of her existence had also been traced back to me.

If so, tonight was a moment in which the gentlest strategy for overcoming an anomaly had briefly existed.

And.

Though I could now never remember it, that certain memory she had erased with her golden scales had probably involved the very same person standing before my eyes.

9

There is an epilogue.

When I awoke and opened my eyes, I was looking not at Utopia's terrace, but at the ceiling of the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon.

Run 173 had ended.

"..."

Why?

What had led me to my death?

I offer the following hypotheses about the reason I died.

The first hypothesis: as soon as she learned that her lifespan accumulated across runs, Dang Seorin decided to die together with me.

Busan, Utopia, had not come into being without a price. The songs playing from the speakers, the Equivalent Exchange of the golden scales—everything originated in her Spell-Song Chanting.

The price of Spell-Song Chanting was lifespan.

However small the cost, Utopia's magic operated by burning her life as fuel.

Of course, she had secured thousands of years of that resource. But it was equally certain that the curtain would eventually fall.

Had she decided to conserve that fuel?

For none other than me.

For some final station we had yet to reach, a true ending a little better than this one.

... But there is a second hypothesis, entirely different from the first.

Perhaps she had not, in fact, died with me the moment our kiss ended.

Perhaps we'd continued living in the world of run 173 as though nothing had happened, spreading Utopia beyond Busan to the entire Korean Peninsula, and then the whole world.

After countless joys and sorrows, strokes of good luck and bad—after completing a grand epic, when her lifespan had finally burned away in full.

For some reason I cannot now imagine, might she have asked me to forget my memories from the moment of our kiss up to that point?

As a result, I would have regressed with memories extending only as far as my kiss with her.

Both interpretations can hold true at once.

I have no intention of digging into which hypothesis is correct. In truth, neither would be a bad ending from my perspective.

That gap in the moment, the blank page of 'Imperfect Recall,' the night sky filled with fireworks—I wish to leave them within me, willingly, as a single space of void reserved for Dang Seorin.

Forever.

- The Former Companion. End.