The Missing IV
“Undertaker. Even now, you could still back out,” Seo-rin said.
At this point, the golden scales were pouring light onto her shoulder. Her face, turned halfway toward , was partly hidden in shadow.
“We could just laugh, chat...”
“Travel together?”
“Yeah. We could spend the rest of this world—this 173rd cycle—together until it ends in destruction.” When I didn’t respond, she continued, “And that’s not all. If you don’t lose your mories here, at least you’d walk away with the knowledge that you fail all the way up to the 1000th cycle, right?”
She made a valid point. And yet when I looked into her eyes, I sensed a pitch-black current swirling in the well of her logic.
She was afraid.
Of what, you might ask? Afraid that the feelings we had managed to share here in the 173rd cycle would vanish so quickly and pointlessly.
It was a good instinct. In the next cycle, I’d be extra cautious to protect the National Road Managent Corps so its commander wouldn’t et a tragic end, and I’d set up all sorts of guardrails so Dang Seo-rin wouldn’t fall into Corruption.
This life is only for this cycle.
The 173rd-cycle Undertaker squeezed Seo-rin’s hand. Perhaps he felt the sa.
“Don’t think of it that way, Great Witch. You’re not parting ways with —just the opposite. You get to et the Undertaker of the 1000th cycle. Isn’t that lucky?”
She blinked. “What?”
“No person is eternal. Our personalities, habits, humanity—they can all change. In other words, this is an opportunity. You get to see what the man you gave your heart to becos after a few thousand years. That’s like a special event... So there’s no reason to be sad. If anything, you should be excited. Even in this vast world, who else but you would get invited to an adventure like this?”
A bemused huff escaped Seo-rin. “You call that a farewell line? There’s no trace of romance in it at all!”
“But it made you laugh, right?”
“I only laughed ’cause it was so ridiculous! You’re really sothing when it cos to ruining the mood. You go on about Three Kingdoms all the ti just to sound old and keep people from getting too friendly, don’t you?”
“Ah, you’ve caught .”
“...Idiot.” She waved her hand. “Just get going, already.”
At that, threads of gold poured out from the Undertaker’s chest and were sucked into the scales. His life in the 173rd cycle, his mind, the rights to his mories—they absorbed it all until his eyes lost their playful sparkle and grew vacant in a sort of suspended-animation state. Seo-rin’s expression fell into sorrow as she watched.
‘Ah.’
Simultaneously, the sa change occurred in —I went from floating around like a ghostly observer, separate from “Undertaker,” to suddenly feeling a violent pull. The golden light from the magical scales flared, illuminating the entire night sky and pouring into the empty shell of “the Undertaker.”
And then, my head was spinning. It felt like I’d broken the surface after diving in deep water. The next instant, I was looking at Seo-rin not from the perspective of a spirit but directly, with my very own eyes.
My self from the 999th cycle had truly “possessed” the 173rd-cycle Undertaker’s body.
A tense silence settled over the terrace atop the Tower of Babel.
It was a truly strange encounter. On one side was the Great Witch, still thinking and acting human yet controlling this Utopia city as if it were her limbs—a thoroughly Corrupted being. On the other side was the Regressor of the 999th cycle: a being who might be even closer to an Anomaly than the Great Witch, depending on how you looked at it. Both were doing their best to mimic humans, and in that sense, they were alike.
‘She’s on guard.’
I didn’t feel offended. From Seo-rin’s perspective, the of the 999th cycle was an unknown entity. Depending on how things went, she might need to use all her powers to confront .
The stillness of silence broke as my lips abruptly parted.
“Sotis, those shallow Wippa or dimwitted brother—”
A blink.
“—slur the governor’s na and call him a hypocrite, but that’s downright blasphemous. The governor was imperfect, just like any other human, yet he pressed forward, worrying about everyone’s morality. And in the end, he admitted even his own mistakes! How dare those brats like Aman compare themselves to him?”
Another.
“Anyone who disses the Governor is either a child who hasn’t lived long enough to realize human imperfection, or a narcissist who’ll never beco truly human no matter how long they live!”
Then one more.
Dang Seo-rin’s expression shifted from wariness to confusion, then realization and scorn, and finally, she breathed out a sigh—one of relief.
She lowered her broom with a slow, casual motion. “Welco, Undertaker.”
“Mm.”
“Even after tens of thousands of years, you’re still going on about that?”
My sincerity had been proven.
Dang Seo-rin and I—two problem children but the strongest in the world—joined forces. No one in the 173rd-cycle world could stand against us.
“But why is it you from the 999th cycle, not the 1000th cycle?”
“I have a theory.”
We spent the whole night on the terrace—it wasn’t like any of us actually needed sleep, anyway—holding a strategy eting.
“A theory?” she echoed. “Let’s hear it.”
“I think that the mont I got summoned and possessed this body, that might’ve turned this world into what we’ll call my ‘1000th cycle.’”
“Huh?”
I called it a theory, but I was nearly certain. “Think about it, Seo-rin. The ‘Undertaker of the 173rd cycle’ just died. And the ‘Undertaker of the 999th cycle’ left his own world behind to co back into this other past tiline. You could say it’s a bonus stage or maybe a 1000th stage.”
“Heh. That does make sense.”
“But strictly speaking, it isn’t a proper 1000th cycle so much as a bonus stage. We’ve distorted the tiline.”
A hidden history, not the official record. A side story rather than the main story.
Still, I had no clue why we ended up alone in a world empty of everyone else right before I was pulled here. But in this ssy Void, mysteries are never in short supply. Maybe we’d find clues later.
“So? You sacrificed your soul to summon your future self, so this must be a pretty big plan. What devious sche is the Undertaker of the 1000th cycle plotting?”
“Like I said, this is a bonus stage.”
I petted Blackie.
Oh, right. Blackie was the cat that Seo-rin was raising in this cycle. It looked like a normal cat, one befitting the commander of the National Road Managent Corps.
“I can pull off strategies here that would be impossible in the real 1000th cycle, like using Aura infinitely,” I offered by way of example.
“Huh? Aura? What about it?”
“Well, Ji-won actually...”
After hearing the truth about the silver-haired psychopath and the nature of Aura, Seo-rin’s face contorted in shock.
“N-no way! Yu Ji-won? Our operations officer is the one who controls all the Aura in this world?!”
“Not ‘controls’ exactly. She more acts as the caretaker. Anyway, that’s the gist of it.”
“You’re kidding! But she... she once got caught killing cats, and we forced her to get personality readjustnt via the golden scales...”
“She planned it, obviously—to avoid letting either of us suspect her real identity. She got her ‘safe’ status certified, so to speak.”
“This is crazy...”
Blackie owed on my lap. Thanks to my regressor’s mastery of cat-petting (I’d morized all the sweet spots through countless cycles), it had long since hit 100 favorability toward .
“And that’s not the end of it. Yo-hwa, well... Actually, there’s a being with the sa na who’s both a human and an Anomaly.”
Seo-rin tilted her head. “Huh? I know Lieutenant Cheon Yo-hwa quite well.”
“They’re homonyms in Korean, but the hanja are different.[1] Anyway, that person is both the ‘Infinite Void’ and a shrine maiden to the Hidden Mastermind—”
I was cut off as a commotion broke sowhere beneath the Tower of Babel.
“Hey, co on! Let through!”
“Even if you’re from the National Road Managent Corps, you still can’t just barge onto the terrace!”
“But I really have urgent news for Commander Dang!”
“We still have regulations—”
“Ugh! Would I co all the way here during a festival if it weren’t critical?! If I don’t report this now, our city is dood! Dood, you hear ?! If we’re late reporting this and everything goes to hell, are you gonna take responsibility?!”
“W-well...”
The rowdy atmosphere from the Utopia fireworks festival below seed to be rising to our floor. Seo-rin furrowed her pale brow.
“What is this?” she wondered. “I specifically told everyone not to co up here until after tomorrow afternoon.”
“Uh...”
She looked pretty annoyed, but I could only blink in like a dazed frog.
The voice drifting up the stairs was awfully, painfully, infuriatingly familiar.
“That’s...”
The real question was “why” and “how” did that person appear here now?
An unbearable curiosity filled my chest.
“Sorry, Seo-rin. I think that’s an acquaintance of mine.”
“What? An acquaintance? Of yours?” The expression on her face translated loosely to “no way” in human language. “The only person you’re close with these days is OldManGoryeo. You two have basically set up a whole private corner on SG Net.”
Ah, right... In the 173rd cycle, practically everyone in Utopia had completed Dang Seo-rin’s Personality Correction program. They sincerely believed that participating in “community stuff” was just a waste of life, ti that could be spent reading intellectual books instead.
Truly fitting for a Fallen One—a veritable Anomaly.
Feeling oddly nostalgic, I said, “Let them in. She must have sothing urgent to say.”
“...If you say so.”
Seo-rin waved a hand, and the magic activated shockingly easily. The locked iron door opened, and the troublemaker below was pulled in by so invisible force.
“Wah, huh?! Hiyaaaaaah!”
Dangling in midair, the person who was magically summoned sported short red hair and exuded a certain Aura of “utter newbie” from head to toe.
There was no hiding it.
“O-oh, mister!”
She flailed about in the air but sohow managed to et my gaze with desperate eyes.
We’d collectively agreed to call this hopeless being “Oh Dok-seo.”
Dok-seo was thrashing around, but her eyes brimd with genuine relief when she saw .
“Mister, it’s you, right? Right?! I’m so scared! I opened my eyes and found myself in this weird-ass place and—! And—! I looked all over Busan, and everything was totally different except for the Tower of Babel! What the hell is going on?!”
Seo-rin’s scowl deepened at the word “mister.”
“You...” she began warily. “Aren’t you a librarian under the Forbidden Books Departnt of the National Road Managent Corps? I don’t rember your na. Is that right?”
“Uh, y-yeah! Yeah! Seo-rin unnie, it’s ! !”
“Unnie...?”
Seo-rin looked perplexed—a perfectly natural response. Dok-seo wouldn’t formally join the Regressor Alliance until after the 555th cycle. It was only the 173rd cycle now.
So to “the Undertaker” and “Dang Seo-rin” of this ti, Oh Dok-seo was no more than a total extra.
‘Though the fact she rembers Dok-seo’s affiliation is so like Seo-rin,’ I mused inwardly.
Back in her days as Guild Leader of the Samcheon World, Dang Seo-rin morized every guild mber’s na and family situation. By the 173rd cycle, in which she also held the commander post, she couldn’t pull off quite that sa feat, but it seed she rembered the basics.
Anyway.
“Since we’re basically strangers, calling unnie at first sight is a gutsy move. You’ve got nerve, kid—I’ll grant you that much.”
“No, no. Wait, Seo-rin,” I rushed out.
“Huh?”
“That kid... That little newbie is definitely not the 173rd-cycle staffer from the Forbidden Books Departnt. She probably got dragged here from the 999th cycle, just like .”
Seo-rin’s eyes went wide. “What? You’re telling that in the 999th cycle, she calls unnie?”
“Well, among our mbers, she’s basically the youngest in spirit...”
“Uwaaah! M-mister, you’re still normal—hic! I’m so, so glad! If you were all weird too, then I— I... ”
For the record, the actual youngest is Lee Ha-yul in terms of physical age. Naturally, in no cycle did Ha-yul ever treat Dok-seo like a big sister. Whether she considered her even human was questionable.
“What is going on...?”
Confusion rippled through .
I understood why I got pulled back to the past. The Undertaker of the 173rd cycle made countless sacrifices and used Dang Seo-rin’s powers as a Fallen One to summon and my “future knowledge” for a ti. But there was no reason to drag Oh Dok-seo along. None at all.
So why?
Seo-rin let out a long breath. “Looks like this isn’t the right ti for you and to relax over drinks. I’ll summon Ji-won and the other deputy directors from the National Road Managent Corps. Sure, it’s late at night, but they don’t sleep much, anyway. There’s no threat of a Monster Wave attack, so...”
“Huh?” I tilted my head. “Deputy directors—plural? In this cycle, didn’t Yo-hwa alone serve as Deputy Director?”
“Um? Oh, yeah, that’s correct. Cheon Yo-hwa.”
I looked at her in confusion, and she mirrored that confusion right back at . We’d exchanged the sa line, but our interpretations differed sohow.
I repeated my question. “So there’s only one deputy director nad Cheon Yo-hwa, right? Did you appoint another one without noticing?”
“...What are you talking about?” Seo-rin frowned, clearly puzzled. “To win over Baekhwa Girls’ High Guild, you proposed we recruit their two top mbers into the National Road Managent Corps. That was your idea, Undertaker.”
Thump—my heart gave a jolt.
“Two top mbers? But from what I rember, Baekhwa Girls’ High was basically a dictatorship under Student Council President Cheon Yo-hwa.”
“...You’ve been saying weird stuff all night when it cos to the Cheon Yo-hwa business.”
Seo-rin’s lips seed to part very slowly.
“Student Council President Cheon Yo-hwa and Secretary Cheon Yo-hwa. Those two governed Baekhwa Girls’ High together as twin sisters. Right now, they both serve as deputy directors for us.”
That’s right.
It wasn’t until the 688th cycle that Cheon Yo-hwa sealed away the Mastermind and erased herself in the process.
For the present ti, the older twin sister was still alive.
Footnotes:
[1] In other words, they’re spelled the sa way in Korean and sound the sa, but the Chinese characters that define their aning differ.
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