Chapter 135
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Eschatologist VII
Shin Noah
9
I have witnessed the deaths of countless comrades. I have guarded their deaths, and I have watched over their deaths.
Perhaps this too is one of the reasons I was given the name undertaker.
Yet looking back now, the death of the Sword Star—Emmet Schopenhauer—always passed by too quickly, too easily.
- Old man! There's a tentacle there!
- Hm?
Old man Sho fought on the front lines, as befitting a dealer. Therefore, he inevitably died earlier than me, a supporter.
If someone were to request I paint a picture on the theme of
The scene where he was cooked into KFC chicken by region—front legs, hind legs, torso, breast meat—courtesy of the Ten-Legged One's tentacles. Or the sight of him fallen like a Dullahan who had lost only his head at the old Baekje Hospital cafe.
In either case, the death began too hastily and ended too abruptly.
Old Man Sho's final moments were never leisurely enough for him to murmur any last words.
The same held true when ending runs by mutual agreement. Those deaths were not 'Game Over' but merely a 'Continue' button, so there was no need to leave last words.
Therefore.
This was, in the truest sense, the first end of my friend I had ever witnessed.
"……Ah…… Ade, le……."
Splatter. Squelch.
Emmet Schopenhauer crawled. Toward Goyori. Pouring out jet-black coal-colored blood from between his shattered fingernails.
"……."
At the sight of my old comrade's ruined form, my sword hilt wandered, losing its way.
Should I strike his neck immediately to preserve his final dignity? Or should I let Old Man Sho close his eyes while gazing at Lady Adele's face, even if only within an illusion?
Click, clack. The blade wavered somewhere between drawing and sheathing.
At both ends of that short stride hung dignity in reality and happiness in dreams.
"Shh."
Goyori's whisper was a bit faster than my sword.
"Leave this to me. Guild Master."
"……."
Goyori had one eye closed, her index finger gently pressed to her lips. A soft smile played at the corners of her mouth.
There was a time when I truly loved that smile. Now I did not trust Goyori.
Yet in this moment, I released my hand from the sword.
Perhaps because I had been subtly brainwashed over the past week with Goyori.
Or perhaps, simply as an undertaker, I instinctively felt that the one who could give Old Man Sho a proper funeral was not me, but Goyori.
In my silent gaze, Old Man Sho crawled unsteadily forward.
"Ah, Adele……. Adel…… le……."
Finally, his ruined fingernails touched Goyori's feet.
Gush. The black blood Old Man Sho spilled stained Goyori's shoes like ink. The viscous blood flowed over her loafer shoes.
"Yes."
Goyori bent at the waist. With both hands clad in white gloves, she firmly grasped Old Man Sho's tattered hand, now covered in coal-black filth.
"Emmet."
"……."
Old Man Sho looked up with an expressionless face. Goyori was smiling gently.
"You've worked so hard, Emmet."
"……."
"My goodness. You look so exhausted. Did you come here after running around like that somewhere?"
"……, ……."
"Yes. You sometimes fixate on the strangest things and absolutely refuse to listen to anyone else. I'm always worried about you."
"………."
"Are you alright? You mustn't overexert yourself. I must always think of your health."
From Old Man Sho's mouth, only breathy sounds like 'uh-' and 'hoo-' echoed.
Thinking back, there were few beings with a fate as pitiful as that regressor.
His wife was a scholar. She had been invited to an academic conference at a Korean university. Old Man Sho had traveled with his wife to this unfamiliar land thousands of miles away.
Old Man Sho had no particular interest in this place to begin with. In the old man's mind, the Korean peninsula was nothing more than a gray zone he had never even thought about.
It was merely a place that held color only as 'a destination for a light overseas trip with his wife.'
Now, having lost that wife, what meaning could this land possibly hold for Emmet Schopenhauer?
I cannot imagine the sorrow of those who lose beloved family in a foreign land.
The journey given to Emmet Schopenhauer could only be a path to find his beloved wife.
And that reunion occurred in only two ways. Brief calls lasting mere tens of seconds. And illusions within dreams in this unconscious void.
"……. ……."
"Yes. You."
Goyori bent her knees. And she gently embraced Old Man Sho.
"I love you too."
"……."
With an exhaled 'ah,' Old Man Sho's body crumbled.
His skin became black ichor and flowed away, and the ichor soon became coal ash and scattered. For a long while. Old Man Sho's body apparently had much that could turn to dust.
The jet-black ash scattered across the ruins of the distant city.
Until then, Goyori remained on her knees, embracing the ash.
That must have been Goyori's way of performing a funeral for a human.
I moved my lips.
"…About the old man."
"Yes."
"Was he smiling at the end?"
Heave-ho, Goyori stood up. She lightly brushed off the ash covering her body.
Ash scattered in all directions, and coughing and sneezing rang out. Goyori smiled sheepishly.
"Who knows. Perhaps he was dreaming a happy dream. Which does the Guild Master hope for?"
"Which do you mean?"
"Do you wish for him to have smiled in my embrace? Or do you wish that, at the very last moment, he regained his senses, thinking this was ultimately false comfort?"
"……."
I could only fall silent.
Goyori gazed at me for a while.
Her long, curved smile seemed not to observe my face, but my heartbeat.
I hoped my racing heart could not be heard. Rationally speaking, it was something I could reasonably expect.
Rumble……
Just then, the city's ruins roared, swallowing all surrounding sounds and vibrations.
Goyori looked up at the sky.
"Ah. The bad ending of this place has ended too."
Goyori clasped her hands behind her back.
"Truly, now I can finally breathe a little. Thank you, Guild Master. Thanks to you, it has become somewhat easier."
"…What do you mean?"
"Haha. Lately, far too many powerful nightmares have appeared here. Just consider Cheon Yohwa and the Puppeteer you defeated earlier—I would never have been able to handle them."
"That's strange."
I furrowed my brows.
"In Yohwa and Hayul's eyes, you probably appeared as me. Wouldn't that make it easier to mentally dominate them?"
"Even though you said there couldn't be two Guild Masters in this world, the puppet left me alone and tried to kill me."
"……."
"Now then."
Clap. Goyori clapped her hands.
Then, we found ourselves located in the Busan Station waiting room.
This was proof that control over this unconscious world had passed to Goyori.
"You can leave whenever you wish now. Before, I didn't have enough power to help the Guild Master. But if you sleep here and open your eyes, that place will be reality."
"……."
"Lie down here, Guild Master."
Tap tap.
Goyori sat on a bench and playfully patted her thigh. Apparently she was trying to employ the lap pillow cliché again.
"Hmm."
The fact that I could now return to reality.
The fact that I had to some extent conquered this great void that could be called 'dream within dream,' 'world after bad endings,' and 'parallel world'—that was good news.
But there were many inconsistencies in Goyori's words.
If Goyori's purpose had been to cooperate with me from the start, why did she eliminate the fairy of the 264th tutorial?
Was it to make me dependent on Goyori, and thus borrow my hand to clean up the 'bad endings'—had she removed the variable of the dream demon in advance?
Above all.
"You. You're not simply an illusion."
"Yes?"
"A week ago. When introducing yourself, you claimed you were merely a result of my fears and phobias manifesting in my unconscious, and that you were a separate existence from the real Goyori."
Indeed.
Goyori had certainly said this.
-If I had to express it, wouldn't you say it's a manifestation of the Guild Master's fears and phobias?
-Of course, it's very sad that the Guild Master's unconscious fear took my form of all things.
But just now, Goyori had confessed.
"Then how did you almost die trying to approach Yohwa and Hayul? Before I set foot here, my fear wouldn't have materialized, and an existence like you couldn't have been born."
"……."
From Goyori's lips came sounds like 'mm,' 'hmm-.'
After a while, her lips curved.
"How strange."
She was smiling as if troubled.
"Guild Master… your 'memory' is very, truly very solid."
"……."
"It's not just that you have a good memory? Ah. Well. I think that explains many things."
"You are."
"I am always in this place, Guild Master. For thousands of years, and for thousands of years to come."
Step.
Goyori approached.
"Since you helped me, I'll help you too. Because the Guild Master has lived so diligently, far too much sediment has accumulated here."
"Sediment."
"Yes. Think about it. Originally, the Guild Master should never have witnessed the 'logout game' and met his end."
"……."
"But the Guild Master insisted on witnessing it. The nightmare of humanity that should have ended at merely the Ten Legs has continued to increase the further the Guild Master's footsteps advanced. Countless forms of endings have piled up. Ah."
Of course, Goyori said.
"I'm not blaming the Guild Master. I'm merely pointing out that the nightmares the Guild Master has witnessed have continued to pile up at the bottom of your unconscious, if nowhere else."
"……."
"When you gaze into the void, the void also gazes into you. It's a phrase the Guild Master likes, isn't it? Correct. The Guild Master has been raising such a void in your heart."
Step.
Goyori drew closer.
"So— I think it would be good to come down here occasionally and clean periodically."
"Clean."
"Yees. Like cleaning a house. When the Guild Master returns, I'll sometimes come out to greet you like this."
"…Are you saying you're my collaborator?"
"Of course, Guild Master. I'm your guild member to begin with."
"Then you could grant my request."
I said.
"Yori. Disappear from my dreams. That would be much better for my mental health."
"Haha."
Swipe—
Goyori reached out. Her palm gently covered my eyes.
Warm darkness of body heat.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that, Guild Master."
The breath of apple scent whispered right before my nose.
"Because, we are already one."
Fade to black.
10
There are afterwords.
First afterword.
Afterward, I safely returned to reality as Goyori had promised.
However, the tutorial fairies who should have been surrounding my bed were nowhere to be seen. Weren't they properly working at the casino?
It was truly bewildering. When I asked them if they weren't in the middle of conducting a ritual to send me into the unconscious world.
"Hoeh?"
The 264th fairy, whose head should have flown off in the dream, tilted her head perfectly intact.
"What are you saying, Secretary comrade? We can show humans the dreams they desire, but we don't have the ability to take them to such terrifying places."
"……."
"Dreams exist to be enjoyed, not explored like ruins! We not only never received such a command from Secretary comrade, but even if we had, it would be impossible to fulfill!"
The fairy giggled.
Perhaps it was just my mood, but it seemed like the scent of apples drifted from somewhere.
11
Second afterword.
Setting aside the fairies' story, one thing was certain—I had more or less conquered the 'dream within dream,' 'bad ending,' and 'parallel world.'
Starting the very next day, the effects of my conquest began to manifest.
First, testimonies appeared on SG Net.
-Anonymous: Slept like fucking shit this morning, feeling good so upvote ㅋㅋㅋ
└Anonymous: You too?? I've been having nothing but nightmares since going to the void, but today I seriously slept like a baby, no lie.
└LiteratureGirl: ? Same here, that's weird.
-[Yuldokuk]Sword Queen: Healthy sleep is essential in arduous training. Today too, I faced sleep in proper posture to glimpse the lofty realm of the void.
-[NationalPath]Scribe: Habits while awake carry over to sleep habits. Those suffering from insomnia should first reflect on their daily lives and check if there are areas to improve one by one.
-Anonymous: Idk about anything else, just being able to sleep properly like today every day would be all I wish for.
Probably similar phenomena occurred abroad.
As I always emphasize, mental state is extremely important to humans, and a healthy mentality largely stems from healthy sleep.
In that sense, could I, the undertaker, celebrate having succeeded in caring for humanity's collective mental state even a little?
"Good morning, Management Bureau Chief."
"Good morning my ass. It's a fucking morning. I only got three hours of shitty sleep because of someone, I feel like I'm going crazy. But you look so happy, it's really great to see……?"
"Ah."
…Thinking about it, I had failed to conquer the bad ending of the person who needed sleep health the most.
Next time, I should find Noh Do-ha's form first in the unconscious world.
12
Third afterword.
This last afterword is, in truth, not something that actually occurred in reality. It is merely a scene I, the undertaker, saw in a dream.
But why—aren't there such dreams?
Dreams so overflowing with realism that when you look back later, it's difficult to distinguish whether they were truly dreams or waking moments.
In that dream, I was dreaming Old Man Sho's dream.
As dreams often are, the perspective was unclear.
Sometimes I looked down at Old Man Sho from a 'third-person observer' perspective.
Sometimes I briefly possessed Old Man Sho myself, enjoying a 'first-person protagonist perspective.'
And beside me, Emmet Schopenhauer, was Adele.
-…….
-…….
We spent a pleasant day together.
Adele liked walking, and I liked walking with Adele.
-I know a good walking path.
-Really? How?
-Well, follow me and you'll find out.
To Adele, who knew nothing of Korea's geography, I revealed my hidden walking courses.
I had learned these paths throughout my regressions for moments like this. In Seoul, in Sejong, in Busan—I introduced to my wife the roads I had noted.
Adele rejoiced as if she had received a surprise gift.
-To think you had such sense!
Hearing that alone made the time spent investigating worthwhile.
Then, as the day was drawing to a close.
I was sitting on a bench with Adele when suddenly, from far away, beyond the blue hydrangeas and arborvitae trees, I saw a somehow familiar face.
My friend. The undertaker was standing with his back against a tree.
'Ah.'
In that moment, I realized.
That this scenery submerged in sunset was a dream.
'Right. I… before dying, I thought I wanted to see my wife.'
I wanted to grow old with you.
I wanted to live with you.
I wanted to die with you, die with you.
But I couldn't.
-Emmet?
-…….
I squeezed her hand tightly.
In the time now remaining, I murmured to Adele.
-Hey. I had a hard day today.
-Hm?
-After being separated from you, something really painful happened.
Then she was surprised.
She asked if that was so, if I was okay.
I gazed at my wife's face. As long as possible. As deeply as possible.
-Yeah. But it's okay.
I'm glad I survived until now.
For the first time, I thought that.
I was glad I survived, survived diligently. Perhaps it was closer to fleeing than surviving. Even so, I was glad I didn't disappear forever.
Because thanks to that, this moment could exist.
-Being with you, everything became okay.
I said.
-I love you.
And there my dream ended.
Though it was nothing more than a dream, I could only sit in bed for a while.
Was that dream merely an illusion entirely created in my head?
Or did I, with a passage opened to the unconscious world, briefly make contact with a scene Old Man Sho had truly once dreamed?
Or perhaps… was that very dreamscape the final illusion Goyori showed while embracing the 'Sword Star'?
'Which does the Guild Master hope for?'
Suddenly Goyori's voice came to mind.
'Do you wish for him to have smiled in my embrace?'
'Or do you wish that, at the very last moment, he regained his senses, thinking this was ultimately false comfort?'
I gave a bitter smile.
Yes. Even if Old Man Sho met a wretched end as a grotesque, I wished for his final moments to be peaceful.
If that dream was truly the sight Goyori showed—there was one thing I could only readily acknowledge.
That of all endings humanity could face, the ending met in Goyori's embrace would be the most tender in the world.
-Eschatologist. End.