A small figure with a cowed expression stuck on her face. A girl holding a staff made of the skull and spine of a person who was once alive.
It's most surprising that this person is in here.
When this girl died, she was almost like skin leather, and she fell to where I was while still alive.
And then she twisted and disappeared without leaving any trace, as if she never existed in the first place.
At least she's not someone who referenced my memory.
If this is my mental world, it's strange that Hyunkeshuni is here.
I thought this might be a mental world like those often seen in works because the Primordial Heavenly Lord said I was the owner, but Hyunkeshuni is here. And the Great Kraken said I was a guest.
Is one of them lying?
It reminds me of a demon from somewhere.
What kind of place is this? To find out exactly, confronting is the simplest but surest way.
I approached Hyunkeshuni.
"We've met for the third time."
"It should be the second."
Hyunkeshuni says something strange. The second?
Come to think of it, the atmosphere of the dream suddenly changed once. If there were many forms mixed with meat, corpses, and garbage like a cruel fairy tale, at some point I started meeting people from the past.
When was it?
After meeting Hyunkeshuni. From then on, people I know kept appearing. Not nameless corpses or animal carcasses, but.
Then, I should ask this question.
"What do you think about people who laugh when they're scared?"
At my question, Hyunkeshuni's expression crumpled sharply. And she makes a disgusted expression.
"Are you trying to make fun of me?"
Yes. This is certainly closer to the real one I know. And the Hyunkeshuni I met first is not the Hyunkeshuni in front of me.
Still, there's no light or warmth, so it's probably fake in the end.
"Yes. That's right. I'm making fun of you. You're a witch, right? Answer the question."
If it's a place like a mental world, I can speak comfortably, right? Hyunkeshuni's expression distorted with disgust, but when I insisted, she flinched and looked up at me with a frightened expression while lowering her head.
"I think it's miserable."
She thinks she's miserable. It's probably not the words of the real Hyunkeshuni, so it's probably just a worthless monologue.
"I'm going to enter the castle visible ahead."
Then Hyunkeshuni looks at me, slightly turns her gaze away from me and looks behind. There's probably something behind me.
I deliberately don't turn around.
Probably, it's the witch. The witch whose name I can't know.
Since something started to change before and after I asked Hyunkeshuni a question, what went wrong there?
If she's following me, I should show her to the end.
I can predict what might be beyond these pitch-black castle walls with no sense of depth at all.
"You're saying this knowing that this is the opposite side of the exit door, right?"
I nodded at Hyunkeshuni's words. Yes. I know. At first, it felt like watching a fairy tale, so I was thinking if I'd meet the Queen of Hearts or something if I went to the castle.
But I forgot from the middle. It wasn't like a fairy tale anymore, suddenly only figures from the past started appearing.
So I moved by inertia. And in the middle, a reason to go to the end arose.
"Yes. I know."
Hyunkeshuni hesitates and stalls for time. So I stared at her. When she received my gaze, she made a really disgusted expression, and eventually walks to the wall.
And she put her staff against the wall and tapped it.
Rumble!
With a loud sound, the wall split and opened. The stones forming the wall move neatly to create a castle gate shape. But there's no door, and inside, dense darkness spreads endlessly.
And beyond that darkness. I can see a snow-white castle.
I stepped into the darkness without hesitation. I'm buried in darkness so thick it looks sticky.
The darkness touches my body.
I don't feel anything. Only the cold is something I always feel. The cold I'm feeling now. A cold that becomes endlessly stronger, making it impossible to get used to. I'm going crazy from the cold. Am I cold because I'm crazy? I move my steps again. I should walk to the destination without wandering.
"Kiaaaaaah!"
Suddenly, a scream was heard from above my head.
A pitch-black lizard jumped down from above. When did such a thing get up there?
The lizard screams and desperately runs towards the opposite side of the darkness, towards where I came from.
Seeing faint wings fluttering between the darkness, is it a dragon, not a lizard?
But as if it forgot to use its wings, it crawls like a person desperately trying to escape from something scary. Like a lizard.
In the middle of that lizard's body.
It's the only thing here that has light. Among all the people I've seen so far, it's the only one with warmth.
I guess it's the witch who brought me to this place.
But did she forget? If she was attached to my head, she should have remembered what I've been doing until now.
The lizard was running and then bounced off as if hitting an invisible wall at the exit. Unfortunately, it couldn't go any further forward.
If it could just take one more step forward, it could escape the darkness, but it can't get out.
The area touched by light is right in front of its nose.
But the body can't get out of the darkness.
"Kik kik."
Hyunkeshuni stood in front of such a lizard. Laughing at the unfortunate person.
"You can't get out this way."
"Open it! Open it!"
The lizard shouts. It's a grotesque voice with male and female voices overlapping. I looked at them and then moved my steps forward again.
The witch.
It's interesting, but right now I want to see what's inside more than her.
Moreover, there's still an unused key in my pocket. I'm curious about what's inside that can be opened with this key.
I keep walking forward. Trudge, trudge towards the castle that now looks close.
"It's Maleficent's order! Open the door! Open it! Open it! Why? Why! Why isn't magic coming out! Let me out! Let me out of here! Please! Please! It's too cold here!"
"Kihihi. Half-wit. You should have run away when your head exploded from being overwhelmed by the memory in the dream, let alone your original mind. It's already too late."
The faint sound of their conversation lingers in my ears and then disappears. It's been a while since I heard Hyunkeshuni-like words. And I heard the witch's name too.
Since I've obtained new information, I should be able to use it well.
I think that as I walk forward.
Straight ahead.
The sound from behind is now too small to hear. The distance is strange. The castle was clearly right in front of me, but no matter how much I walk, the castle doesn't appear.
I vaguely feel what this world is.
If my prediction is correct, I'll have to walk for quite a while through this darkness.
Trudge, trudge.
I walk for a long time with short steps.
A dark space that's just cold.
Just when I had forgotten how much time had passed.
A city appeared before my eyes.
A gloomy city with no color or sound, like a black and white silent film.
The city where the man in the faded memory lived.
A city I should miss.
In a way, I've barely returned home. Not the real one, but.
When I look up at the sky, unlike the city, a blue sky spreads out. And I can see a tower rising very high. It's a building quite far from where I originally lived.
It's said to resemble a tower in some movie, so it might look like a castle when seen from afar.
But because it's black and white, it's shining particularly white. The black and white space looks either white or black when seen from the outside. That's it.
But isn't there supposed to be some kind of awakening moment when entering such a place?
I really didn't expect to come to a place like this out of nowhere. I move my steps. The neighborhood where the man from the faded memory lived. I know the way to the house where he lived.
It's the path I wished for in the darkness.
I walk that path.
And after a time that's short if short, long if long, I arrived in front of the door. And where there should be a doorlock originally I see a huge keyhole.
I took out the key with the letters peeled off from my pocket and inserted it.
Clang!
But the key doesn't go in.
Huh?
Don't tell me I was supposed to get a key somewhere, but I missed something I should have picked up? Or should I have brought the witch earlier? I could go back now if told to, but it seems like it would be quite a laborious task.
So I go to the side along the corridor and press the elevator button. But it still doesn't move, so I headed towards the stairs.
I opened the emergency exit door to go down the stairs I came up earlier, but.
It doesn't open.
What is this? Is this a bug?
No matter how I look around, I can't see a way to go back. So I eventually came back in front of the door. I tried to climb over the corridor wall wondering if I could go if I jump down, but the empty space is blocked by a hard wall.
The doorlock has changed to a keyhole, and the key doesn't go in.
Just in case, I pressed the doorbell.
There's no sound.
This time I knock on the door.
But even if I wait, no one comes out.
I guess I shouldn't have ignored and left behind the companion. What should I do about this?
While standing still in the corridor, suddenly there was a presence.
The elevator opened, and a man walked out from there.
It's me.
Although it doesn't look like the area above the eyes is painted over with black paint, I know that face is me.
The man walked up to me, took out a key from his pocket and opened it.
The end of the key I glimpsed has the word "past" written on it.
The door opens and a small-sized house is visible. As the man entered, I followed inside too.
He acts as if he doesn't recognize me.
The total sum of the memories I have.
If it's something like that, what should I do here?
While thinking that and looking around the house, the man changes his clothes, enters the room in a comfortable position and turns on the TV.
And suddenly he spoke to me.
"It's the exit door."
He says that while pointing to the crackling screen.
"Is the theme park over?"
"Did you do any self-reflection?"
"It's impossible."
There's no way I could do such a thing. When I shook my head in denial, the man smiles with his lower jaw, which is the only visible part, as if he knew it would be like this.
"Right. Would we have anything like that to do? If you're done watching, go back."
"Let's do that."
Then I suddenly took out the key in my pocket.
"Do you know what this is?"
"If you don't know, do you think I would?"
"It's useless."
"All past memories are like that."
I must have missed the room I was supposed to enter somewhere. I entered the TV while having a pointless conversation with the lower jaw man. I'm not particularly worried.
You know, I'm the type to just abandon a game after clearing the scenario at 60% progress.
I felt a sensation of falling from a high place for a moment, and I opened my eyes in my bed.
The luxurious lodging in front of the Royal Academy. It's the ceiling of that place.
I've returned to the original world.
I don't know what's what, but I got the witch's name, so let's say everything went well. As a bonus, there's also a feeling of heavy metal exhausting near my buttocks.
So the witch's name I obtained is Maleficent?
It's a very classic name.