Chapter 214 - The Antipode XI

18

There is an epilogue.

It was summer when I returned to reality.

Summer was radiant.

The hell of blades, where sword points sprouted wherever you stepped, had vanished. The molten metal that crept into every alley and melted people's hearts had evaporated.

So had the silver bell that once hung from my wrist.

Those were not the only things that bid farewell that season.

"Hmm...?"

"H-huh? Why am I on the roof...?"

People could not remember what had happened up until a moment ago.

Noh Doha, Sim Aryeon, and all my other companions were no exception.

The people infected with the regression virus who had protested in the square were the same. Bewildered, they chatted among themselves or returned to their workplaces.

As though they had briefly drifted into a daydream.

"The Saintess...?"

Perhaps that dream had been a nightmare.

"I'm sorry, but who is that...?"

The Saintess of run 267 had disappeared.

From reality. And from memory.

"Commander Noh Doha. Do you truly not remember? What about the constellations?"

"Aren't those constellations the usernames you steal when you occasionally crap out an announcement on SG Net...?"

"No. There is someone who watches every awakened person on the Korean Peninsula with [Clairvoyance] and can send messages whenever she wishes with [Telepathy]."

Noh Doha frowned.

"What is that supposed to be? The strongest awakened you can dream up or something...?"

No one remembered the Saintess of run 267.

It was just like my [Time Seal].

Together with Nut's domain, she had sealed herself in a Reverse World that could no longer exert any influence on reality.

So that there would not be even the slightest chance of the goddess of the night sky interfering with me. So that my Regression would never be contaminated by an anomaly.

She had isolated her very existence.

"..."

Summer passed.

"Hweh. Comrade General Secretary. Even if we are residents of dreams, that's impossible. We can't enter the dream of someone who doesn't exist in reality at all."

I tried countless ways to cross into the domain where the Saintess was sealed, into the Reverse World.

Every one of them failed.

When we had gone to subjugate Nut, I could at least reach a glass membrane that I could see, even if I could not cross it.

Now even that was impossible.

The magic mirror had lost its function as a passage.

No matter what other means I employed, I could not draw any closer to the Reverse World where the Saintess slept.

"As you ordered, Comrade General Secretary, we searched every dream of everyone living on the Korean Peninsula, but we couldn't find a human with the traits you described anywhere!"

But there had been such a person.

"Someone who always asks for instant coffee packets, even though I can make her any kind of coffee."

"And she likes it even better if I secretly mix in a spoonful of cinnamon."

"She also has aqua-colored hair and eyes the color of water. The way she breathes and walks makes her seem as though she's quietly swimming underwater rather than moving on land."

"She has no interest in the trivial affairs of the world, so she's always expressionless and never joins in people's chatter. But she can still give herself up for their sake."

"She's intelligent."

"She likes crossing Jamsu Bridge when she goes for a walk."

There had been such a person.

"Hweh. Comrade General Secretary! We've devoted all our personnel to this for six whole years, but we still haven't found her anywhere!"

For some reason, the Saintess's home in Yongsan had become a ruin.

The tropical fish she had steadfastly raised even after civilization's collapse, the aquariums she had tended with care, scrubbing away the algae—all had turned to dust and vanished.

Even the table where we sat together for our Wednesday study sessions was gone.

With [Clairvoyance] and [Telepathy] gone, public safety on the Korean Peninsula deteriorated rapidly.

When awakened people lost their way in the void,

["Mr. Undertaker."]

["Someone is stranded. I'll give you their location now."]

there was no longer anyone to send me those messages. I could no longer rescue people as quickly as before.

No one thought it strange.

Summer passed.

When awakened people did not fully understand their own abilities, or, beyond that, did not know how to strengthen their skills,

[The 'Librarian of the Great Library' unlocks your true ability.]

[The 'Librarian of the Great Library' grants you a quest.]

[Upon completing the quest, a lucky break that strengthens your ability will be generated.]

there was no longer anyone to subtly guide them on my behalf. I could no longer help people on as broad a scale as before.

The notion that, whatever they did, "at least a constellation is watching me" vanished from people's minds.

So did the support of knowing that, whatever troubled them, "at least I can honestly confide my worries to a constellation."

No one thought it strange.

Summer passed.

With each passing season, the world without you drew a little closer to hell.

Only then did I realize.

From runs one through four, whose memories I had lost forever, and from run five, when I truly began living as a regressor, all the way to the present—

At every moment, somewhere in this world, a single watcher had been living quietly, watching over people.

Even the moments I had thought were the worst had not, in fact, been the worst.

To think that even a regressor who had lived countless lives still had so much left to learn about life.

It seemed I was not yet ready to live in a world without you.

Summer passed.

It was time to move on to the next run.

In truth, although I had never told anyone, there was one fear that dwelled within me at the time.

'What if the Saintess isn't there in the next run either?'

Run 268. The moment I opened my eyes in the Busan Station waiting hall, I ran straight to the souvenir shop.

There, I searched for the item I had always farmed without fail.

'It's here.'

The cheap souvenir silver bell, with its 9,900-won price tag, sat intact on the shelf.

I attached the silver bell to a bracelet, put it on, and rushed through the tutorial dungeon.

I displayed such overwhelming skill that, if there was "someone" watching every awakened without exception, she would surely take an interest.

Then:

[The 'Saintess of National Salvation' is astounded by your performance!]

[The 'Lord of the Red Horse' feels a desire to challenge your strength.]

[The 'Conqueror of the Alps' takes note of your actions.]

[The 'Chancellor in the Red Cloak' is wary of your skill.]

My knees nearly gave out.

I exhaled. Relief swelled in my heart.

'She's here. ... Yes, she's here.'

At last, I knew for certain.

The only one alienated from the flow of time was "the Saintess of run 267."

The Saintess herself had not been erased from the world after all. Perhaps, the moment she ascended to a God of Alienation-class anomaly, she had been treated as an entirely separate existence from the original Saintess.

Now I could tell my companions what had happened in run 267, but—

'But I can't tell them.'

SPLASH!

I went into the Busan Station restroom and washed my face with ice-cold water.

The city's water supply had not yet been cut off, and the tap water cooled my head sufficiently.

'I can't tell the Saintess what happened to her in run 267.'

'If she learns that such a possibility exists for her... she won't hesitate.'

Surely, someday, the same thing would happen again.

It was easy to imagine.

If a danger arose that threatened to destroy the world, the Saintess would activate [Time Stop] without hesitation and once again spend thousands of years alone.

'No.'

That was why I could not possibly tell her.

It was much like Dang Seorin's situation.

She had confessed that, if she learned the lifespan she had saved up already exceeded several thousand years, her greedy self would cash in those savings at the slightest sign of danger.

The moment the Saintess learned that she had such an overwhelmingly powerful trump card, she would be ready to transform into a God of Alienation-class anomaly again at any time.

'I can't let that happen.'

'I have to keep it secret.'

'This must never happen again—'

JINGLE.

It happened then.

The silver bell on my wrist swayed.

"...?"

It had happened without my noticing.

Apparently, after washing my face, I had unknowingly placed my palm against the restroom mirror.

'Huh?'

I raised my head and looked at the mirror. Its surface reflected my wet face and hair.

But that was not where my gaze went.

My palm.

My palm resting against the mirror.

'It's cold.'

For some reason, only the part touching that palm felt strangely cool.

In terms of temperature—yes.

Exactly like a body temperature of 15°C.

"...!"

I placed my other hand against the mirror. But no matter how I felt along the glass with the hand that bore no silver bell, I could not feel anything like it.

Only when I pressed the palm of my left hand, the one bearing the silver bell, against the mirror could I feel that 15°C temperature.

'Ah.'

She was there.

She is here.

"Saintess."

Without a doubt.

"Saintess, my voice. Can you hear it?"

It could not be heard.

I could no longer see her, either. I could not cross to the other side.

We could no longer converse. We could not exchange words. We could not sit in the same room reading books, sensing the contours of each other's breathing.

All that remained here were memories.

And the faint body heat I could feel when, with a mirror between us, I pressed my palm against yours—mine on this side, yours on the other.

Perhaps you, on the other side, were pressing your palm against the mirror just as I was now.

Stopped forever, together with your world.

"..."

But even this was enough.

'As long as you exist, we will meet again.'

That was a regressor's destiny.

I was profoundly grateful to be a regressor.

As the screams of those infected with the regression virus had shown, this destiny might be hell for some, but it was not for me.

If someone could remain grateful for life even after realizing that this world repeated endlessly, it would simply be because there was someone they wanted to meet again.

And a person could cross tens of millions of summers for a single reunion.

"... Please wait just a little longer."

We were beings at opposite poles.

I lived through time that flowed endlessly, while the Saintess remained at time's end. I enjoyed wandering outside, while she liked sitting quietly in her room, watching her aquariums.

Now there was a mirror between us.

"After you close your eyes for a moment and open them again, you will be back in that season."

I slowly slid my hand away from the mirror.

For a while, the prints of my palm and fingers remained white on its surface.

—And just before those prints disappeared.

I saw it clearly.

A print laid over mine in the mirror. The trace of a palm a little smaller than mine, of fingers a little more slender. For a moment, I saw them overlap.

A language in white.

"Yes."

"I'll see you in a little while."

Anomaly: 'Nut, Goddess of Night'

Aliases: Hell, Master of the Afterlife, Mirror World, Geocentrism, Eye of Horus, Moon of Parmenides, Regression Virus

Danger Level: Lv.5 God of Alienation-class (Alienation)

Subjugation in progress.

-The Antipode. End.