[Was it truly a traditional Dokkaebi?]
"In my estimation."
[But the line of Korean Dokkaebi had all but dried up....]
"There's no law saying a new one can't be born."
[......]
A brief silence. Baek Mu-jin gazed up at the star-studded night sky and let the words fall.
"You're wondering which madman went and created a Dokkaebi in the modern era. Am I wrong?"
[...You misunderstand.]
"Talking with you always leads
to misunderstand a great deal."
[It's your imagination.]
"That too."
There was no rain, yet the sound of it still drifted across the rooftop garden. A sound that clung to the ear, hazily brushing past. The 25th-floor rooftop seed so serene that it wouldn't even permit a sumr downpour.
"Who knows how this Dokkaebi ca to be."
[...Could soone have created it artificially?]
"That, too, is impossible to say."
Dokkaebi were born through many circumstances.
"Soone must have gazed upon it for a very, very long ti, with a gaze entangled in connection."
From old objects or tools. Or from natural things—plants, especially trees—imbued with a spirit. From condensed yin-void energy, or from discarded objects.
But that one....
"......"
...Too early to speak of.
"It's far too old a story by now to try to piece together the ti I never witnessed."
[...Indeed.]
"Who could have imagined a young Dokkaebi being born at this point in ti?"
[You did, Chairman.]
"I rely didn't rule out the possibility. The young man in Seon-hae's stories was so deeply humane and honest. That was not sothing a self-aware Labyrinth could exhibit."
[True.]
"A Dokkaebi, at this late hour. What a remarkable thing."
Whether the vessel was an object or a living being, in the modern age, no one bestowed that depth of feeling. That volu of spirit and energy simply didn't gather anymore.
"For all practical purposes, traditional Dokkaebi are near-endangered."
[......]
"Thinking again that this old man is spouting nonsense that'll rattle everyone, are you?"
[...You misunderstand.]
"That makes two misunderstandings in under ten minutes from this old man."
[Yes.]
"Insolent thing."
[But 'near-endangered'—no Dokkaebi would take kindly to that label.]
"There are only two of them to speak of."
[But in Asia especially, there are quite a number of....]
"I do not count foreign miscellaneous spirits as Dokkaebi."
[...The foreign miscellaneous spirits would take offense at that.]
"Which is precisely why they are miscellaneous spirits."
Korean Dokkaebi valued promises and loyalty. They were innocent and humorous, and they loved people enough to live among them. They enjoyed alcohol, pork, and buckwheat, and lived by honest rules.
Though no longer as guileless as in the old tales, they remained spirits.
"Dokkaebi are nothing like the anger-managent-afflicted ghosts found overseas."
[......]
"What a foolish breed."
[It seems you've taken a liking.]
"What is rare, what is special—such things deserve their due value."
[Which part was rare, and which part was special?]
"Well."
If he had to choose the part most comfortable to share.
"It regarded
as a person."
[Was it a person?]
"Who knows."
[Surely not....]
The child Baek Mu-jin was rather fond of asked.
[...Was it a person?]
The sa words as before, but the aning was different.
[From what Seon-hae told , the appearance was that of a young man around twenty. If you're suggesting that a youth of that age beca a Dokkaebi, the possibility of... to begin with, a human becoming a Dokkaebi is....]
"What I saw was sothing uncommonly deep and clear—it appeared to be that of a pure human."
Baek Mu-jin clicked his tongue.
"I say all sorts of things in my old age."
[That's....]
"I said it, but it's not a certainty. I couldn't begin to count the years that have passed within this hotel. My eyes ached, so I closed them."
[Then it's been imprisoned?]
"Confined."
[Who on earth would do such a thing?]
"I suspect the first master of this Labyrinth, but I'm not certain."
There was too much to see, too much to touch, too much to feel. The screams and anguish layered upon each other hurt his ears, and the flesh of life and death rippling across every wall dizzied his eyes.
"Seon-hae said that in there, it seed like the only person."
Indeed.
"And rightly so."
In this pandemonium, only it had preserved its humanity.
"It appears to have been offered up as a sacrifice, and yet it beca a Dokkaebi on top of that. The situation has beco quite absurd."
[......]
"This is not a Labyrinth forged by sothing as crude as re slaughter. It would take deeper study and greater devotion to produce sothing this warped."
If sothing of this scale had been done, there was a suspect. However, the backgrounds in question were primarily not Korean, which left things uncertain. Baek Mu-jin organized his thoughts.
'One, yet two.'
Whether as a Labyrinth or as an individual, this was by no ans a common outco.
"If possible, I'd like it to be well preserved as it is."
[...Yes.]
"Do you find it tireso?"
[You misunderstand.]
"I do hope today's misunderstandings end within five."
[I'll keep that in mind.]
Baek Mu-jin's children mostly shied away from him. Or else they wanted to devour him.
[Is it a Korean Labyrinth?]
"That, too, is uncertain. All the actors bear the appearance of East Asians, but that could easily be changed at will. The point worth noting is why it was deliberately made that way."
[It must be because of the co-owner.]
"Given that it claims to be Korean and possesses that appearance and bearing, the essence is likely Korean. Did any of the records you searched turn up a young man nad 'Lee Yeon-woo'?"
[No.]
A sha, that answer.
[He doesn't exist.]
"Nowhere at all?"
[...What if it was never a person but rather a Dokkaebi that looked human? If a person called Lee Yeon-woo never existed in the first place and was only just now newly born, that would at least make so....]
"Then a human spirit could not have dwelled within it. Nor could a Dokkaebi barely a century old have developed that level of humanity. If a Dokkaebi that young displayed such seasoned social skill, there would be no room for excuses."
[But if a young man of that caliber leaves no trace at all in any record....]
"Then he was erased."
Baek Mu-jin was, at that juncture, genuinely impressed.
"Isn't it remarkable? It ans his value was so great that soone went to those lengths. Because a single human nad Lee Yeon-woo held that much worth, they invested that much effort to erase him from the world."
[......]
"What are you thinking? 'You misunderstand'?"
[Yes.]
"That leaves one. Best not to spend it carelessly."
[I'll exercise restraint.]
"Good."
Baek Mu-jin turned his gaze to the rooftop garden.
Naless flowers and trees ford an exquisite harmony. Tasteful lighting enhanced the ambiance of the night garden, and though it was far from dark, the stars in the sky were piercingly vivid.
A narrow stream trickled along the garden path. Small minnows could be seen swimming within.
'Alive, yet withered as though dead.'
A sign that this place, too, was ultimately a Labyrinth.
As if whispered by flowers blooming from bleached bones, the tranquility was excruciating.
"It was broken."
[...The young Dokkaebi, you an?]
"It had taken all of this Labyrinth's unwholeso filth into itself."
What it had been thinking, what process it had gone through—he couldn't say.
"That is why this Labyrinth, this hotel, is so peaceful. Because it swallowed all those screams and all that suffering alone, this place can be this clean and pure."
This was a paradise wrung from the crushing of a young Dokkaebi.
"All manner of spirits visit this place. Plenty of foreign miscellaneous spirits among them. And yet despite being of such high standing that it can ta them all, its body is endlessly frail. It would die from a single wrong breath."
[A wrong breath... surely you're joking?]
"I'm afraid I've never had much talent in that direction."
[......]
"Are you cursing?"
[No.]
"Child, you have such a warm heart."
Grieving over the tragedy of a youth whose face he'd never seen, choosing silence, letting sorrow color his voice. Things Baek Mu-jin did not possess.
A universal sense of responsibility toward humanity, empathy, or perhaps anguish.
"Don't."
Or you, too, will break.
Baek Mu-jin had always been afraid of that. He worried that the things he cherished would be swept away by those trivial emotions, crumbling and getting hurt.
An affection directed at sothing he could not empathize with.
"To summarize: a young Dokkaebi—perhaps once a young artist—captured by a Labyrinth that had systematically accumulated blood and suffering."
[An artist, on top of everything?]
"The material required such effort that they erased it from the world entirely. It would be harder to believe such material was not an artist."
[Every artist I've ever known was like you, Chairman.]
"Bad personality? So a kind and diligent young man like that couldn't possibly have been an artist, synonymous with terrible personalities? Is that what you wanted to say?"
[......]
"Go on, try saying 'You misunderstand.'"
[You misunderstand.]
"Fool."
But he understood. The artists Baek Mu-jin knew were mostly fiercely proud, self-absorbed, and insufferably arrogant.
It was precisely because they were that consud by their own work that they were 'artists.'
'So from this child's perspective, that one wouldn't look like an artist.'
It wasn't that artists who helped others and engaged in friendly exchange didn't exist. But such people tended to be reclusive in their own way, making them hard to comprehend for the youngest, who didn't know the workings of the art world.
How should he explain it so this child would understand? Baek Mu-jin continued in a flat tone.
"...It did, in fact, show talent."
[What kind of....]
"Quite adept at handling people."
Those eyes had seed to see right through Baek Mu-jin, and those ears to swallow every sound. Through nose, mouth, skin, and so unknowable sense, it had read him. It had happened in an instant.
'For a newborn Dokkaebi, its skill in handling humans was far too practiced.'
It had appeared similar to Baek Mu-jin's own, but was fundantally different.
'And that bell.'
The golden bell it used to summon and command its staff.
"...Dokkaebi each carry a toy of their own...."
Every ti the bell rang, one's gaze was forcibly drawn. Sotis, commands were issued.
Why had it been a bell with that particular power? Baek Mu-jin saw it as a vestige of the artistic talent the General Manager had possessed when it was still human. The talent to wedge oneself into another's world
and speak to them, uninvited....
"......"
Should that inhumanity, too, be regarded as soone's humanity? Baek Mu-jin could not say.
"...You were never able to beco an artist, so you wouldn't have an intuition for it."
[Then how did it seem to you, Chairman?]
"A young Dokkaebi, and, well."
Baek Mu-jin paused.
Perhaps once a student overflowing with talent. Now dead, turned ghost—and on top of that, devastatingly broken. Repeating what felt like an eternity of death and suffering within warped ti.
And yet, for the sake of nothing more than 'humanity,' holding the leash of this deep, dark Labyrinth.
"A monster, I suppose."
[......]
A brief silence settled. His son answered in a low voice.
[...A harsh assessnt.]
"It was the highest praise."
[It didn't sound that way to .]
"I understand."
But Baek Mu-jin rembered. When he had tried to peer into the General Manager's inner self, his vision was blocked again and again, and his hearing warped.
'Sothing is preventing
from perceiving it.'
A young Dokkaebi not yet a century old. One that had been confined to this hotel, ignorant of the wider world—and yet such a being had repelled the seasoned Baek Mu-jin's power.
All while apparently having no idea what it had done.
'What an enormously promising sprout.'
In truth, it had rely been the ga system's 'Presence Detection' activating. But for Baek Mu-jin, who didn't know the specific nature of this place, that was the only possible assessnt.
"Do not pity it lightly. Do not judge it carelessly. It beca a Dokkaebi under a Labyrinth's gaze, shackled to this hellish disaster, suffering and dying without rest."
[......]
"And still, it saved a person. It has lived as a human being all along, and still extends goodwill."
He still didn't understand it, but.
"From what I could see, it appears to have protected 'itself' to the very end."
What had it ant by the 'person called '? When he'd heard those words, Baek Mu-jin had genuinely wanted to ask. He'd refrained only because it was obvious he wouldn't get the answer he sought.
"If it were an existence easy enough for you to pity and easy enough for you to judge, could it truly have done all that?"
[You're telling
to kill even my human emotions.]
"...My insolent, foolish son...."
Baek Mu-jin lanted. How could he be this obtuse?
"With what hubris does livestock in its pen presu to pity a man who holds not a blade but coin?"
This was a Labyrinth so ferocious that a death row prisoner had to be brought as a live offering. And it was precisely that young Dokkaebi who had fashioned this place into a paradise. These were rely the deeds of its youth.
"Do you not worry about being devoured in a single gulp by that being?"
Baek Mu-jin knew. And knowing its nature, he knew too that there would never co a day when that Dokkaebi was weaker than it was now.
[Given that it prides itself on being human, there would fortunately be no cause for that.]
"That, we cannot know."
What did a Dokkaebi priding itself on humanity have to do with protecting this frail child? What guarantee could its 'humanity' provide for anyone's safety?
He hadn't planned on going this far, but irritation drew out unnecessary words.
"From what I could see, it appears to have been involved in Blood Magic."
The dangerous term elicited a violent reaction.
[...Pardon?]
"Yes."
[No, what do you an—]
The reaction was expected. Baek Mu-jin listened to his son's groan-like voice with a dry expression.
[Then has it beco so kind of cannibal...?]
"I went too far with the joke. Don't worry. I saw no sign of that."
[Then has the desire mutated into blood-drinking?]
"That wasn't the case either."
[For sothing that's not even human—let alone a young Dokkaebi—that's impossible. There's no way it could overco the instinct....]
"The desire may not be absent, but it can be endured."
[But....]
"Do you understand now why I called it dangerous?"
Baek Mu-jin knew what manner of being it was. That was exactly why he'd reached that conclusion.
"......"
[......]
Not that it doesn't exist—it exists, and it endures.
"Is that enough for you to understand?"
[...All the sa, knowing it's only nineteen years old, all I feel is sympathy.]
"The lens through which you see the world is as arrogant as ever."
To feel sympathy for a monster of that caliber—that, too, was remarkable in its own way. So said Baek Mu-jin.
***
At that very mont.
"......"
Lee Yeon-woo, in the Operator's Quarters.
"......?"
Having eavesdropped on the rooftop garden, he was in the midst of an identity crisis.
"What... does this an?"
"Hello?"
"I am decidedly not well."
, a Dokkaebi?
'I'm a person, though?'
A pitiful, young Dokkaebi?
'I'm a full-grown adult, though?'
Really?
'?'
Why...?
Can I just... not do that?
Reviews
All reviews (0)