Within a hollow fantasy where blue wheat fields and blood-red poppies ran riot. Beneath an indigo sky where a storm raged, blood-colored fog rose acrid.
The mindscape of a classical Labyrinth that gnaws away human reason.
"……."
In that clearing filled with the flames of crosses and a song that tore at the ears.
"……."
"What do you think?"
Wearing the body of 'The Devil,' which bore the form of an unfamiliar woman, Lee Yeon-woo asked.
"Do you suppose the 'lady' truly loved 'Greta'?"
"I don't… quite know, but…."
"It seems neither of them was a lie."
Not the lady's deception, nor the love she'd promised the girl.
"It kind of looks like she treated her as a tool, but to say it was purely a tool—that, what's the word."
"You seem to want to say attachment."
"Ah, right. Attachment."
In a way, it was obsession.
"That was definitely there, I think."
Saying so, Kwon Do-heon looked back at Lee Yeon-woo.
"But is it for real that you swapped bodies and you're still a woman?"
"When 'The Devil' of that time met the 'Lover of Dawn,' it mainly took a female form, so it couldn't be helped. I'm trying not to be conscious of it, so I'd appreciate your cooperation."
"So you are a man, after all."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Was 'The Devil' a woman, I wonder?"
Kwon Do-heon blinked and asked,
"They said its body was a mechanical doll, but in the end it was a person, right?"
"By that logic, the standard for what a 'person' is grows vague too."
Lee Yeon-woo wore his particular smile and rolled his eyes dryly.
"It's not much different from love."
"I don't have one bit of a clue what's supposed to be similar about them."
"Neither of them has any absolute standard anywhere, does it?"
Whether person, or love.
"In the end, I think it's a matter of how one defines it oneself."
"That's really, how do I put it…."
He felt like he'd heard something philosophical.
"You're like a teacher, Mr. Lee Yeon-woo."
"I heard something similar before you lost your memory, too, Kwon Do-heon."
"Then what in the world is a person made of?"
"Countless people have studied and researched to learn that one thing since the very beginning. Sadly, it seems no one has yet reached a clear, absolute answer."
There were, of course, 'persons' as defined in each separate field.
"To me, what the 'lady' showed looks like 'love.'"
"To me too… I think so."
"In that case, then, 'Greta' was loved after all."
"I don't know if it's okay to decide it by majority vote like this."
"Who's going to say anything?"
Everyone in the world lives this way.
"And thanks to that,"
Lee Yeon-woo gently wrapped the two eyeballs resting in his bare hand with a handkerchief.
"I can return the 'Lover of Dawn's' eyes to it."
"But you aren't 'The Devil,' Mr. Lee Yeon-woo."
"For now I'm wearing its body, and above all, I've gathered every fragment of the 'lady.'"
At those words, Kwon Do-heon looked at the system window.
▶ [Detail: Fragment of ■■■ (100%)]
Once he blinked,
▶ [Detail: Fragment of the 'lady' (100%)]
the content showed properly.
"That was the lady?"
"It seems she'd been together with the 'Lover of Dawn' the whole time."
The silver comb. The hand-mirror. The pendant.
And in the form of the cotton gloves.
"Thanks to that I thought I could 'Offer' faster than expected, but because of one old vampire things got troublesome—I have no excuse. I'll apologize once again."
"No, well, no need to say you've no excuse…."
Kwon Do-heon cautiously added a question.
"The cotton gloves would've been given by 'The Devil,' though."
"What form a thing takes is the heart of one who has no form at all."
"Then does that mean the 'lady' half-accepted 'The Devil' as herself, too?"
"Setting aside whether she has that much cognitive capacity or not—more than that…."
Rolling his eyes, Lee Yeon-woo added with his particular foxlike smile,
"It seems she was looking for a body to switch into."
"Huh? No, but, those cotton gloves… ah."
Kwon Do-heon, who hadn't caught it for a moment, presently realized.
"Don't tell me—'The Devil'?"
"You understood well. Whether the very mention was aimed at that or not, I don't know, but it seems 'Greta' was like that the whole time she went about searching for 'lady candidates.'"
"That's genuinely loathsome."
"In the end, you can think of the 'Lover of Dawn' as a being formed from the 'lady' and 'Greta,' along with various loves half-forcibly Offered."
"Consistent to the very end, really."
Having said that, Kwon Do-heon froze with a start.
"Hold on."
"Please, go ahead."
"Then that 'body to switch into' right now, that's—"
"Probably it'll be me."
"Are you out of your mind???"
"There won't be anything for you to worry about."
"No, ah…."
"I have no intention of taking the 'lady' from 'Greta' or replacing her."
Kwon Do-heon wanted to say that wasn't what he meant, but in the end, understanding that 'Lee Yeon-woo' wouldn't be overwritten by the 'lady' and vanish, he held his tongue. Lee Yeon-woo went on.
"I'm merely something like a vessel that holds the 'lady's' fragments. I'll keep that person's memories, and senses, and the frail soul that still remains despite being ruined by black magic."
He added, "Putting food in a vessel doesn't turn the vessel into food, does it." Kwon Do-heon understood what he meant, but even that explanation didn't change his odd feeling.
"But from the 'White Crow's' standpoint…."
"The odds are high it'll look one and the same."
"So that's what I mean—how is that any different from 'overwriting'?"
Especially since the man was, gender aside, hardly different from the 'lady' to begin with.
"And then if your body gets stolen again…!"
"I've never had my body stolen, though."
"…! …!!!"
Kwon Do-heon couldn't bring himself to counter with 'you did have your body stolen by The Devil.' It was because Dan-cheong had warned him any number of times. When conversing with a Dokkaebi, unconditional acceptance was necessary.
Watching Kwon Do-heon nearly go mad with frustration, Lee Yeon-woo laughed.
"Then it's about time we left this place…."
"Don't go."
"……."
Lee Yeon-woo's and Kwon Do-heon's eyes fell on a single pure-white crow.
"Don't go."
From the red eyes of the unusually tiny crow, teardrops were falling, one by one.
"You can't leave."
"That, don't tell me…."
"You mustn't leave."
Kwon Do-heon took a startled step back from the speaking crow. Lee Yeon-woo, who had of course been looking at the same thing, answered while gripping the 'Lover of Dawn's' two eyes wrapped in the handkerchief.
"It's 'Greta,' who's been playing the mini-game with us this whole time."
The figure looked very small, clean, and frail.
"It seems she was using the body of the only Familiar the 'lady' kept."
"Don't tell me that's why the 'White Crow'…."
"My thought as well."
"This is unreal."
The little crow, which had been hesitating at their conversation, edged closer with quick little steps. It appeared to be full-grown, yet it was small of body, its feathers white and its eyes red. Being albino, it hadn't been able to grow properly.
The crow came a little nearer and spoke.
"To me, to me…."
It was a tiny voice.
"This is all I have left."
"……."
"I'll leave quietly. I won't throw any more tantrums, I won't harm anyone, and I'll give back the white owl you like. I'll return the memories, too. So."
The White Crow pleaded, on the verge of tears.
"Give me back the 'lady.'"
The crow's small teardrops fell to the floor, drip.
"I didn't even know the lady was with me…."
Had she known, she wouldn't have committed such sins searching for 'candidates,' coveted a futile love, and wailed in loneliness. For the one she loved eternally had already been with her all along.
Gazing quietly at her, Lee Yeon-woo opened his mouth.
"Rawi."
His eyes were fixed on the little crow, but the listener was Kwon Do-heon.
"You have no memory, yes?"
"…Uh, I don't. About a year's worth, probably…."
"So at first it must have been hard."
As Lee Yeon-woo said this, his figure was returning, little by little, to the form Kwon Do-heon knew well.
"Placed in this situation knowing nothing, it must have felt only frightening and difficult."
Into a man with black hair, eyes where gold and black coexisted, wearing a black suit.
"Did you blame yourself, too?"
"……."
Hesitating, Kwon Do-heon opened his mouth.
"Yes."
He went on.
"I knew nothing… and I was stupid. The whole time I was getting the grown-ups' help in this hotel, the most I could do was fire a gun. I fought terribly with my dad, and at school I wasn't… much of a good student, either."
"But surely there's something you clearly know."
"I know how to see reality."
Even setting aside these 'eyes.'
"And now I know, too, that what that reality looks like… depends, in the end, on my own thinking. Just as I learned while I lost my memory and wandered the hotel."
Kwon Do-heon took a step toward the little crow.
"Who in the world says there's no such thing as eternal love?"
"……."
"For a bastard like me, whose every day is precarious—yeah, that 'eternal' thing looks incredibly hard. It feels absurd. Where in the world would there be such a thing, I think. When even family fights every single day."
"……."
"But someone like you, with plenty of time, who's beautiful and strong…."
A person, Kwon Do-heon found himself saying.
"—shouldn't get scared and give up in advance, but could put in as much effort as it takes to look for a real, proper love. You could've done that any number of times."
The red eyes of the White Crow blinked, blinked, and wavered.
"Why get scared before you even start, give up, and then obsess over someone else's love that's already passed and try to overwrite it? I'm going to live my life, and other people have the right to their own loves, too."
"I…."
"And so do you."
There was nothing impossible about it.
"The chances to find a life where you can really love someone are lying all around."
Watching the two of them quietly, Lee Yeon-woo opened his mouth.
"At first the 'lady' envied you and coveted that body of yours. But think about it. If she had the means to seize anyone's body, why you, of all people?"
"Because… I'm the body she's most used to."
"You weren't especially pretty, nor exceptionally healthy, nor very rich. You were sturdier than average, but achieving the 'lady's' ambitions with that body was impossible."
"But the lady—"
"Was your love truly, purely blameless?"
It wouldn't have been.
"Didn't you find her beauty and the difference in station difficult, even fearsome? Weren't you wanting the protection of a lady who wielded astonishing, godlike power, strong like an ideal mother?"
"That's right."
The little crow choked back tears.
"That's right, I did. But even so, I believed this was love."
Isn't that so.
"When you can't imagine a life without that person—if that isn't love, then what is it."
"At first it may have been a greed for beauty and power, but you, too, loved the 'lady.'"
It was only because she had no courage, because she was afraid, that she couldn't believe the 'lady' had come to love her. And so 'Greta' missed how the person she loved truly saw her.
A relationship much twisted and harsh, it was.
"So what if we called 'this,' too, love."
The obsession, the possessiveness, that stubborn insistence that it had to be you and no other.
"And that wish—that you would surely come find me."
"Ah…."
"Let's try saying that all of it was love, too."
Over Lee Yeon-woo's face, the 'lady' smiled.
"When you wake from the dream, Greta."
"Ah, ah."
"This time, I'll come to find you."
"Milady."
"I'll return your eyes to you."
The body that had been a little crow—the flesh of a commoner girl stripped of all color—reached out a hand.
"Milady, I…!"
"Then you'll see the world."
Lee Yeon-woo took hold of Kwon Do-heon's shoulder with his other hand and curved his eyes into a bright smile.
"I told you, didn't I."
Margareta.
That I love you.
***
And so Kwon Do-heon woke from the 'dream.'
"Feels like it's been a while."
"…Uh…."
"Rawi."
A white owl looked down at Kwon Do-heon and blinked.
"Sleep well?"
"…Senior?"
"Well done."
It was the white-owl staff member, Seome.
"Wh-what, what, what in the world is going on…."
"It's a kind of break room."
"Break room?"
"To put it in 'game' terms, I suppose you'd call it a world that's loading."
"Both of those are hard to understand."
"Mr. Lee Yeon-woo set up this spot for a little while."
Seome fluttered up and perched atop a birdcage that looked somehow familiar. Apart from that, there was nothing around. It was simply a space of white upon white.
Slowly raising the body that had been lying down, Kwon Do-heon looked about.
"There's nothing here."
"Because it's loading?"
"Whose intent was it to set this place aside?"
At that, ruffling his wings, Seome said,
"It's the opinion of Mr. Lee Yeon-woo and me."
"Seeing a bird talk really is uncanny…."
"What's so surprising about it now."
"Normally you couldn't talk in human words unless you were all covered up or hiding in a shadow."
"The constraints I take on as a hotel staff member can't be helped. But this place is a little outside the rules, so if Mr. Lee Yeon-woo grants me the convenience, I can use a small workaround too."
Seome continued in his particular even voice.
"Once you leave this place now, you'll return to where you were. By now the 'White Crow' has probably fled, and the half-wrecked banquet hall is being cleaned up."
"Uh, then, Senior, you…."
"I'll be leaving with you too, of course. Thank you. I thought I was the one who had to protect you, but in the meantime you grew up and even learned to protect me. Thanks to you, I've been freed."
"Mr. Lee Yeon-woo did almost all of it, though."
"That's true, too."
He didn't bother denying it, since it was a fact.
"I'd been hiding your memory from her, in secret."
So that the pure-white crow wouldn't throw a tantrum and swallow it.
"But sometimes it's happier not to remember."
"Why do you say something like that."
"It's all over. You can step outside this hotel now, and you can go home. You came to know the artists' world, but as things stand you could pull out of it any time you like. You know nothing, after all."
"That's weirdly infuriating."
"Say, Rawi."
Seome tilted his head and asked,
"Even so—are you curious?"
Of an ordinary high schooler, eighteen, a little clumsy with a gun and lacking any knowledge as an artist—a mage who'd endured long in the Gaps asked his opinion.
"About what you were like as an artist, and what happened."
"……."
Presently Kwon Do-heon opened his mouth.
"…Yes."
He was curious.
***
To change a person's life drastically, a year was more than enough.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter