Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Shadow Festival 3
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"..."
Even Nati hadn't anticipated this kind of reaction; he had no response. He wasn't openly showing surprise, but it wasn't an exaggeration to say this was the most flustered he'd looked so far.
Ibi wanted to snap back at that smug face of his, but her mind was too jumbled. Instead, she just dragged over a nearby chair and sat down. Dizziness hit her, and she pressed one hand to her forehead.
Silence settled over the group. When Ibi stayed still for a long time, Mina crept closer. She squatted down in front of Ibi and poked at her knee.
"Still, we have to try something. Sitting around waiting to die isn't an option, right, sis? Uh, sis."
Ibi just lifted her eyes to look at Mina, keeping her posture the same. Her mind was in such turmoil that she nearly snapped, What do you know? But she held back.
This wasn't Mina's fault, and Ibi wasn't so heartless as to lash out over well-intentioned words.
Instead, she turned her gaze back to Nati.
Of course, it was unclear if he'd truly intended to let Ibi die. It was also questionable whether he could have saved her in the first place.
It might have all been a misunderstanding. Maybe that moment hadn't truly been a split second.
Ibi forced her mouth open.
"I said... I trust you."
She wasn't sure anymore if that had been the right call.
"But since the words are already out, I won't regret them. Not now."
Her own voice coming out felt strangely foreign. She put force into each word as she continued.
"So tell me what I need to do to survive. I'll follow everything. As long as it's within my power."
Nati let out a deep sigh before answering.
"As I said, your death itself is fixed. If you can't avoid it, eliminating the cause might be the answer."
"Eliminate the cause?"
"Let's take out the new moon serpents."
It was a brutally simple solution that made all his previous lengthy explanations feel pointless. Honestly, from the listener's perspective, the first reaction was sheer absurdity.
"If that works, then why have we been going through all this trouble from the start?"
"We lacked information. Things have changed now."
"You said the new moon serpents are a hive mind, right? How do we wipe them all out?"
"We don't need to get every last one. In chess, capturing the king wins the game."
"The king?"
Nati nodded.
"Yeah, the king. Let's call it that for convenience. Or 'boss' has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
"Just tell me the plan already."
"Hm... The 'king' is the individual in the hive that holds dominance. If all the new moon serpents in Woncheon City are one body, think of it as the head. Usually, it's the oldest one in the hive that takes that position."
"Easy to say. How do we find it and take it out?"
"That's why I took Mina out in the previous loop. Well... considering we're having this conversation now, the plan must've failed."
Confused by what he meant, Ibi glanced at Mina beside her. Mina raised both hands and snapped them open like pincers.
The webbing between her index and thumb split wide open, all the way up to her inner elbow. Inside were densely packed teeth with no gaps.
"I go in, chomp chomp, gulp."
"I have no idea what that means, so you explain it."
Mina looked indignant, but Ibi ignored her and turned back to Nati.
"Hm... put simply, every new moon serpent has an origin object at its core. The easiest way to think of it is as their 'true form.' It's what they were before becoming new moon serpents, so it could be a living thing or an inanimate object."
"So destroying the leader's true form solves this whole mess?"
"Exactly. Only the king dies, but the entire hive loses its head and turns into mindless corpses for a while. I'd rather not resort to such extremes, but given the circumstances..."
"So, uh... Mina eats that true form?"
"Yeah. Same as disposing of any other object."
Ibi recalled a few months back, when Mina had chomped down and swallowed the Guest's wardrobe whole. It seemed they'd handle this the same way.
"Okay, I get that much... But what does this important true form look like?"
Nati formed a circle with his thumb and index finger.
"About this big. A bell, pretty rusted and worn."
Ibi said in disbelief,
"Something that small? How are we supposed to find it? We'd have to comb the whole city. What if it's buried at the bottom of a lake...?"
"It'll be a hassle, but not that bad. You and I already scouted and narrowed it down."
What was he talking about now...? Then it hit her.
"Lake Park?"
"Right. They've got an abnormal number of 'infected' swarming there. Means there's something important they need to protect."
"...It's still too big. And doesn't that mean it's dangerous?"
"Yeah. I underestimated them a bit, I'll admit. That's probably why the two of us failed."
Nati nodded gloomily a couple times. Watching him, he seemed utterly shameless, yet oddly willing to own up to his mistakes.
"But with this second chance—well, lucky us. Learning from failure, this time we all go together."
The sudden conclusion left everyone there baffled. All of us? To the park?
Nati turned to Aerin and added,
"Ah, not you, of course. You and Haewon stay here and handle things."
Then he looked toward the rest of the women.
"Ready to go, ladies?"
"Wait, hold on."
Kang Areum shook her head, looking puzzled.
"Leaving me aside, you're taking Ibi too?"
"Of course."
"It's dangerous."
"Leaving her here alone would be riskier. Even with you glued to her side, she still died helplessly."
"..."
"Anyway, that's not the point right now. Now that we know her foreseen death can't be dodged, at least having her close by puts my mind at ease."
"Fine, whatever. But how do we find that bell? That park's no small fry, you know."
"Well... we've got this."
Nati pulled out his fan with a flourish and snapped it open. Then he pointed it at the blankly standing Kang Areum.
"And this one's nose should come in handy too."
That was it. Nati dramatically swung the fan once, then slapped it shut against his opposite palm.
"Alright. That's the plan. Any more questions or objections? Raise your hand."
Mina raised her hand.
"Samgyeopsal party after we win."
Mina lowered her hand.
"Good. All settled? Let's move."
Nati headed for the door. The others, minus Aerin, followed him out of the Flower Mugwort Tea House.
It was 10:47 PM.
The walk from Flower Mugwort Tea House to Lake Park normally took 20 to 30 minutes, but the group reached the entrance in just 5. There was no time to waste.
Kang Areum scooped up Ibi and Mina, one in each arm, then hurled them into the night sky dotted with skyscrapers like they were on a Viking ride.
"I-I'm good on roller coasters, but this is aaaaaah!"
Kang Areum, left on the ground, took a couple running steps and leaped up, catching the two as they soared to ten stories high. In midair, she grabbed them again and chucked them further.
She repeated the process, using buildings as springboards, catching Ibi and Mina mid-flight, and tossing them onward. In this ridiculous fashion, they covered the 30-minute distance in 5.
"Wh-what the...?"
Finally touching down, Ibi leaned against a nearby fence and fought back the urge to vomit.
This time, Mina wasn't much better off; she collapsed nearby, buried her face in her knees, and sobbed. She kept muttering about killing someone—no clue who.
"Sorry, you two. But saving time is for the best, right?"
By the time Ibi and Mina regained their senses, Nati appeared out of nowhere to join them. He hadn't flown like the others, so no one knew how he'd kept up so closely. Everyone agreed on one thing, though: that face of his was infuriatingly punchable.
"Ha, up close it's quite the sight. I definitely underestimated them."
At his words, Ibi looked up. They were at the park entrance, with the lake and part of the walking path in view.
And the sight of the park made Ibi grimace immediately. It wasn't the park she knew. Even someone with zero prior knowledge would spot something wrong at first glance.
No, it was more like her everyday world had shattered in an instant.
The festival of shadows.
A grotesque, dazzling spectacle so horrifying she didn't even want to acknowledge its existence.