I Had a Nightmare
"Get up. Miryong, get up. Is this how it ends?"
"Mom..."
"Lie there and Dan Miryu will kill you. You'll die as miserably as the rest of the family! Is that what you want? You have to avenge your father and me! Get up! Even if it kills you, get up!"
"...Shut up."
"What? What did you just say...?"
"I said shut up. Stop chirping advice at me."
"You—you!!! I'm doing all of this for you! Do you have any idea what it cost me to keep you alive?! How dare you talk to your mother that way!!!"
"What do I care...? I already did everything I could. You don't even know what happened..."
"I know everything! Your mother knows everything! What parent in the world doesn't know their own child's heart!"
"Ha... If you know so well, then answer me. Tell me what I'm thinking."
"You think I don't know? You're furious. You want Dan Miryu dead. You want the revenge finished. So stop talking nonsense and—"
"Shut up."
"...What?"
"I said shut up. You don't know a damn thing. Trust the bastard who's actually worth trusting."
"You little bastard!!! Do you know what I went through to give birth to you?! What I felt, bearing you?! I gave my entire life to bring you into this world!!!"
"Who asked you to? I'm just what came of the two of you locking eyes and screwing. What was Dad thinking, sleeping with a woman like you?"
"I never slept with that man...!"
"Now, now. Let's leave the mother-and-son spat here."
"Y-you—why are you here?!"
"Well, now. I was curious who this wife of mine was, the one I never knew I had, and it was you? They say the axe you trust is the one that splits your foot. Had to die to learn that one."
"H-how did you get here...? This place is..."
"...Dad?"
"That's right. My boy, the one who takes after me. It's your dad. First time we've met."
"...Are you really my dad?"
"Where else are you going to find a father this handsome?"
"Get out! You're already dead!"
"Hey now. Read the room. Think how good I was to you back then. You can spare me a little time to talk with my son. I can't stay long."
"Shut up! Good to me? What did you ever do that was good!"
"This is why they say you don't take in a black-haired beast. Son, stay awake just a little longer. Your dad needs a marital chat with your mom."
"N-no! You can't!"
"Yes, I can!"
"Aaagh!"
"Jesus. You scared me."
Dan Miryong woke screaming. Dan Chuyeon, who happened to be right beside him, nearly jumped out of his skin. Cold sweat poured off Dan Miryong as he clutched his head.
"Damn it. What the hell was that."
The nightmare had a different grain from every one he had suffered until now. He was used to his mother raging and shrieking, but he had never expected his father to plant himself in the middle of it. Maybe, hounded by her for so long, the father he had only ever imagined had finally been sent out by his unconscious. Even so, their talk had been too concrete, too alive, as if both of them were still living.
Impossible.
The battle had left his mind in shreds. It had to have been a junk dream.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
At the voice calling him, Dan Miryong tried to turn his head on reflex.
"Ugh!"
His neck would not turn. It was as if something had fixed it in place.
"...This is worse than I thought."
"Th-that voice. Dan Chuyeon?"
He rolled his eyes and picked out the shadow at the edge of his sight.
"Yeah. It's me."
Dan Chuyeon leaned in, as if offering himself for confirmation.
"...What happened to me?"
"What do you think? You got your ass kicked by me and dragged back to our house."
Dan Chuyeon flashed a triumphant smile. Dan Miryong met it with a thin, sour one.
"Ha. Your own father's dead, and you're straining to look calm? Tch. Won't even kill the enemy who did it. Your head's rotten through."
"Oh my. Is that so."
Even under the cutting jab, Dan Chuyeon only twitched an eyebrow. No real feeling stirred. That composure baffled Dan Miryong.
He shouldn't be able to stay this calm.
Had the shock broken his mind? Or had resignation pickled him until his feelings died? The more he turned it over, the more he understood that the situation itself was wrong.
"How are you even alive? You should be dead."
"The Stone of Resurrection brought me back just fine."
"Cut the bullshit. You weren't supposed to be able to live."
He knew, because he had handled the Stone of Resurrection himself. Dan Chuyeon's condition then had been too far gone for even infinite life to heal. Life could restore any state, so long as some foundation remained to treat. With no foundation at all, not even Life could mend it. Making something out of nothing belonged to an omnipotent god, and Dan Chuyeon had been exactly that. He had burned himself down to the last of his soul.
"You don't have to believe me. I only stated the facts."
"...Rot in hell."
That ease was unbearably ugly. The privilege of the winner?
The door flew open.
"Dan Miryong's awake?"
With the sound came Dan Miryu's voice.
"...Dan Miryu?"
"Watch how you talk to Dad."
"Kh."
The brat's hands were vicious.
"I'm glad you woke."
"Glad? You're glad?"
"Damn it, how tight did you tie me? At least let me move my neck."
"A little late for this clumsy pity, isn't it? I thought you were dead, and here you are alive. I should have taken your throat, not your chest."
"You disrespectful little shit."
"Chuyeon. It's all right."
Dan Miryong heard Dan Miryu drop heavily into a chair.
"Would you look this way?"
"Are you joking? I'm bound tight. How am I supposed to move?"
"...I see. Excuse me a moment."
The view that had held nothing but ceiling shifted. His neck tilted on a diagonal, and the whole room came in.
This isn't a cell?
He had been certain it was some freezing torture room. It was the inside of an ordinary house.
"Is that a little better?"
"Refined hobby you've got. Tying a man up in a place like this. Was cleaning a torture room too much trouble?"
"Mm..."
Dan Miryu looked troubled.
"What's that face?"
"Don't be startled. Just listen."
He let the silence sit a moment.
"...You aren't tied. You're lying under a blanket."
"A trick? Don't talk nonsense..."
"I'm not lying."
Dan Miryu's arms slid beneath his neck and around his waist. The world rose. He saw the blanket. He saw legs and arms, perfectly intact.
"...What?"
Slowly, Dan Miryong understood that something was very wrong.
"As you can see, you don't feel a thing, do you?"
Dan Miryu pressed his fingers into the thigh, again and again. Dan Miryong felt nothing. Not the thigh. Not his hands, his feet, his legs, his torso. Touch had vanished altogether.
"...What did you do to me?"
"Dad didn't do anything. To be precise, I did."
Dan Chuyeon shot him a cold look. Dan Miryong snarled.
"Did you wreck my nerves?"
"Hey. Use some common sense. Lightning cooked your whole body. You thought you'd walk away fine?"
"The Stone of Resurrection..."
"I took it the moment you went down. The lightning was still in you."
Dan Chuyeon drove the point home.
"You're paralyzed. Head to toe. You'll spend the rest of your life with someone waiting on you."
"........."
Dan Miryong's face went rigid.
"Ha..."
So this was where revenge ended.
A cripple?
"...Why did you leave me alive? To mock me?"
He had been ready to die. Whatever the ending, he had meant to bear it. But now that it was here, he could not stand it. His throat closed. His chest boiled. His head spun.
"We have no intention of harming you."
The warmth in that voice disgusted him. That he could feel the sincerity behind it disgusted him even more. Those green eyes, steady as a mountain, filled him with hate.
"Fuck this. Just kill me. I can't live like this."
"Do you know what it cost me to save you? Don't you dare tell me to kill you."
"Chuyeon!"
"I know. I'll be quiet."
"Haa..."
It was wretched. Wretched enough that he wanted to die.
"Miryong."
"...Don't call me by my name."
Dan Miryu's mouth opened, then closed.
"...You'll need time."
He laid Dan Miryong back on the bed and drew the blanket up with care. That consideration was a shame Dan Miryong could not endure. Not screaming was the last of his pride. Screaming himself hoarse would not have changed a thing.
"Call if you need anything."
Dan Miryu and Dan Chuyeon slipped out. In the dark room, Dan Miryong only laughed, empty.
"...I had a nightmare."
The nightmare he had wanted so badly to escape was now the thing he longed for more than anything else.
"Is he awake?"
"Yes. But his body... he's completely paralyzed."
"Ah..."
Pity crossed Mi Soryeong's face.
"...The Stone of Resurrection still can't heal him?"
"It's impossible. It's refusing completely."
Dan Miryu touched the necklace.
"Has it done this before?"
"Among every head of the clan, I may be the first."
The Stone of Resurrection was a treasure meant to be protected, and at the same time a useful tool. Not once had it gone against its master's will. If it ever had, the heads would have recorded it without fail for those who came after.
"It's a mercy his mind is still intact."
With a body like that, there was no way his mind could truly be intact...
"...He'll need a little time."
"A few days may not be enough."
The words left a bitter taste in Dan Miryu's mouth. A chime rang twice. He checked his phone. A text had come in from the Phantom Thief.
Not a word from the Shrine Priest all this time. Why now?
"Are you going?"
"I'll talk with Mr. Phantom first, then come back."
He needed to understand what was happening.
"Go on, then."
"Yeah."
Dan Miryu headed straight for the house next door. And there...
"...Pardon?"
He had heard something he was never meant to hear.