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“What are you doing?” Woo Ragi immediately grabbed my hand. As a result, I clearly saw the line between his neck and head heal until only unblemished skin was left; the swordman’s head returned to its rightful place on the neck.
My mouth opened wide at that sight; I couldn’t school my attention. However, after locking gazes with Woo Ragi, I hurriedly tried stop my gaping and stared at him awkwardly.
“Can you see now?”
“Huh? Yeah…”
Unexpectedly, the first topic Woo Ragi raised was the state of my eyes. After tilting and massaging the previously cut region of his neck, he pulled at my hands once more. “Then, run.”
“….What? O-Okay!” I clasped his fingers and jumped over the gross, wriggling mass of tentacles. In the midst of that mass was the thing that had taken ‘Seo Dawon’s’ shape–the monster that Woo Ragi had cleaved in two. I deliberately averted my gaze.
* * *
I felt an uncanny sense of deja vu as I ran while holding Woo Ragi’s hand–it was as if I’d been here before. It wasn’t exactly like the ‘subspaces’ in vengeful ghost memory, but…
‘Isn’t this place structured a bit like Koo Hui-seo’s house?’
Although the ceiling of the main hall and the walls at both ends of the mansion were in shambles, the outside could still be seen through the holes in the half-collapsed structure–I was reminded of Koo Hui-seo’s mansion, with its wing-shaped winder staircases on both sides of the drawing room. I clearly remembered making a mental note because I’d wondered if his mansion resembled the interior of a European castle.
However, I wasn’t exactly certain–this place was so incomparably huge compared to Koo Hui-seo’s mansion. While gasping and running, I looked into countless rooms and endless corridors.
""
Woo Ragi said, “Do you remember the monster that had the key in its mouth?”
”Gasp gasp… What did you say?”
“Do you remember the key.”
“Ah! Yeah!”
At my confirmation, Woo Ragi pushed me to the opposite side without any notice, right into one of the open doors. When I looked around, I realized that I had entered an ordinary room that had white dust piled everywhere.
Disoriented, I looked back at Woo Ragi. At that moment, I heard a heavy thudding sound–like something had been moving–in the distance. “W-What’s that?”
“Be quiet.”
“……”
As soon as Woo Ragi placed a finger on my lips to quiet, a dark shadow fell through the room’s small window. The room quickly darkened–it was as if a solar eclipse had occurred. The light that had originally filtered through that small window vanished completely.
Worryingly, that sudden change was a result of the giant monster’s appearance just outside the window. I held my breath and looked at what little I could see of the monster’s body.
“Gasp…!” As the monster bowed its head and one gigantic eye peered through the window, I gasped in surprise. Its pupil was as big as the glass panes.
The sight was so terrible that I couldn’t help but freeze in place. However, the monster continued staring at me regardless. It held a ring, with a key attached, in its mouth–I realized then that this must have been what the swordsman was referring to.
‘I’m going to die…’ No matter what plans I thought up, there was still no way I could survive an encounter with that monster; I needed to run away.
However, Woo Ragi firmly held my hand with a nonchalant, calm expression. Also, strangely enough, the monster only looked into the room from the outside. Though I could see my reflection in its pupils, the monster slowly rolled its eyes inside its sockets to check the room’s contents.
Eventually, after observing the room for a long while, the monster rose again and gradually moved away, accompanied by its characteristic thudding sounds. I remained motionless until I could no longer hear it moving; only then did I turn my head stiffly towards the swordsman, “….W-What just happened?”
“I just stealthed us momentarily.” With that said, Woo Ragi flung my hands off cold-heartedly. I held my numb palms for a while before I collapsed to the ground–the strength had left my legs. I was just thankful that I hadn’t soiled my pants.
“Hey, by the way, did you see the key it held in its mouth?” Woo Ragi asked.
“What?”
“You didn’t see it?” Woo Ragi, in midst of asking if I’d seen the key, started kicking my foot with the tip of his shoe, as if he was bothered that I was still spaced out. I stood at attention because the swordsman seemed to be in a hurry, but I still couldn’t answer. I had no idea what he asked. “What are you asking me about? The key’s shape?”
“There was a jewel embedded in the head of the key.”
“Ah…” I recalled the appearance of the key gripped by the monster’s mouth. When I slowly thought about it, I did seem to have seen a red jewel on the round head of the key–just as Woo Ragi said. It looked like a ruby that had been carved and tumbled into a round shape; it had an impressive black pattern in the middle. At first glance, it looked a bit like a finely carved replica of a crocodile’s eye.
“I saw it…what about it?” I asked.
“It looked exactly like the Seo Dawon-impersonator’s peepers.” 1
“What?” Even though I wracked my brain, that ‘Seo Dawon’s’ eyes didn’t come to mind. Even after rifling through my memories, all I could recall was how the headless Woo Ragi had asked me to pick up his head.
Expression paling, I blocked my mouth to prevent myself from vomiting; at that sight, Woo Ragi folded his arms across his chest and shot me a contemptful expression. Still, considering how the swordsman had refrained from making a large tantrum, it seemed that he understood my current physical and mental condition.
Woo Ragi skipped past that topic and asked another question in a callous tone. “Then, do you know where we are?”
“W-Who knows…”
“You really don’t know?”
“No, how should I know where this is…” As I said that, I recalled how I’d found this place similar to Koo Hui-seo’s mansion, and my words trailed off.
Woo Ragi wasn’t even surprised at my reaction and said, “You’re the one who made this space, so think quickly: Are there any places or rooms that might help us escape? Or other things like that?”
However, I couldn’t agree with the swordsman’s conclusions. I bluntly asked, “What do you mean?”
“Huh?”
“Why would I make this space?! Are you blaming me again?”
It felt like the swordsman was pushing all the blame on me; however, Woo Ragi calmly answered back, “I meant that Koo Hui-seo contaminated your mind and dropped you into this space. In any case, since this dungeon’s base was formed using the information inside your head, the dungeon’s map must be somewhere in your brain as well.”
“What…?”
“Now that we’ve been here for a while, I understand… All your fears have been gathered here.”
I couldn’t keep up with the flow of conversation and looked dumbfounded. Woo Ragi reached out.
He pointed towards the area under the bed. There was a small skull and a skeletal hand sticking out. I covered my mouth with one hand–it all looked so familiar.
No matter how I looked at it, the hand looked like Lackey’s. The hand, though, was covered with dust as if it hadn’t moved for a long while.
Woo Ragi followed my gaze and confirmed what I was looking at. “While I was carrying around your blind self, I saw several things like that.”
“……”
“And all the paintings hanging in the hallway we ran through were all paintings of you.”
I had nothing to say to that–after all, I hadn’t seen such things. However, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the hand under the bed.
Woo Ragi was about to say something else, but upon seeing my expression, he approached and dragged me into his embrace instead. Then, he grabbed my head tightly with his hands and forced my eyes to meet his. “Hey, did you think of something when you saw that?”
“N-No….”
“Don’t think about anything weird. Got it?”
“B-But… It just moved…” I said, with a tearful expression on my face.
Woo Ragi’s expression was… he looked incredibly irritated–like he wanted to destroy everything. However, he gritted his teeth and said, “…Turn around, don’t look back, and leave the room.”
""
I left the room without looking back despite the clacks I could hear behind me. As soon as Woo Ragi slammed the door shut behind him, I could hear something hard crashing against the wall.
Looking at the shaking door, I asked the swordsman who followed me out, “…What should we do now?”
“Dunno. How many times do I have to say I’m not an expert in this field.”
“……”
Woo Ragi’s reproach was rather blunt. However, when he saw my tearful eyes, he reluctantly continued, “Can you recall anything about Koo Hui-seo?”
Footnotes
눈깔 (nun kkal) is an informal way to talk about someone’s eyes. Though it might be archaic, I thought peepers might be an equivalent localization.