The Abyss, the Girl, and the Lie (4)
The timing was utterly wretched, but unfortunately Lee Seha was still a guest. That meant I had to brew tea meant for visitors and follow Shinryong as she led our guest into the parlor.
Lee Seha, who had been sitting silently across from Shinryong, accepted the cup I offered and took a sip.
“Brown rice tea.”
She seemed to know her teas better than I expected. Apparently it suited her taste, because she drained the cup in one elegant gulp.
I had assumed she was the sort of novice who couldn’t tell one tea from another. Then again… even people who know nothing about tea can recognize brown rice tea by its flavor.
“Please speak. Weren’t you pondering a question just now?”
Lee Seha, who had been quietly watching Shinryong, finally addressed her.
Shinryong, who had been observing her in return, opened her mouth and spoke in a measured tone.
“…Very well. Tell me specifically what method exists to erase the Abyss.”
She wasted no words, flipping straight to the heart of the matter.
Lee Seha let out a soft, unpleasant chuckle before tapping the bag she had brought with her fingertips.
“We do not erase it. We must cut it.”
Her eyes burned with a manic obsession as she continued, voice rising.
“Cut and cut and cut again… until it is torn to shreds and not even a trace remains.”
Then, as if realizing she had shown an ugly side of herself, she covered her face with one hand, squeezed her eyes shut, and continued while staring at her bag.
“…Inside here is the weapon that can cut it.”
I stared at her, unblinking.
From the moment she spoke of cutting the Abyss, I watched her with eyes so profound that even Shinryong rarely saw them—eyes that no one, not even the Abyss itself, could ever hope to read.
“A weapon, you say.”
“Yes. It is a family heirloom passed down through generations by our ancestors.”
Lee Seha, however, paid me no attention whatsoever. Her gaze was fixed solely on Shinryong—the one possessing the greatest power in this place. She treated me, the one she had previously called weak, as if I were not even present.
“This coming Sunday, in the deep night when the full moon rises.”
At last, Lee Seha spoke the decisive words.
“Full moon…”
“I will use the divine instrument handed down in our family to cleave the Abyss.”
At the mention of a divine instrument, Shinryong’s expression showed considerable shock. She remained silent for a moment. Having heard both the condition of the full moon’s deep night and the term “divine instrument,” I began to suspect once more whether this girl was truly an Abyss Hunter. I questioned again the identity she had so firmly denied.
Lee Seha, chest puffed out with a triumphant smile and one hand resting over her heart, declared:
“Therefore, all you need to do is clear the surroundings so that I am not disturbed that night.”
Apparently finished speaking, she rose from her seat, picked up her bag, and moved to leave. As she approached the sliding door where I stood, she added in a voice soft enough for only me to hear:
“A weakling like you would do best to simply watch from the side.”
“A small, fragile flower like you—who can do nothing but receive protection—”
I offered no reaction whatsoever.
“Then I shall see you Sunday night.”
I remained standing there until she left the annex, watching her depart. Only after confirming she was truly gone did I clench both fists tightly, grinding my teeth.
Shinryong, however, remained seated for a long while afterward, seemingly lost in thought. Even so, I quickly swallowed my anger. When I looked at her with a puzzled expression and asked:
“Did you… discover something?”
The moment she heard my question, the tip of her tail twitched faintly.
“A divine instrument… a divine instrument, you say.”
She rose from her seat and met my eyes.
“Indeed. So such a thing existed after all.”
Her expression was that of someone who had found something terribly amusing. It was the first time I had seen her make such a face, and I was slightly startled by this new discovery.
Shinryong drew close and whispered in a low voice.
“…On that night, the Abyss will most likely swarm across the entire Great Cavity.”
I nodded at her words.
“Prepare for war.”
At her following statement, my eyes gradually widened as I stared into empty space.
With those final words, Shinryong did not even flick her tail—which had risen high into the air. Her two horns glowed with faint heat as she began walking with heavy steps toward the training room. She intended to spend the remaining time slowly surveying the forest she had not been able to examine while absent.
I stared fixedly at her retreating back, then clutched the sacred treasure sleeping within my embrace and made a vow. This time, I would protect everything with my own strength.
⁕⁕⁕
The following hours were filled with nothing but tension. Sunday arrived before we knew it.
During the past few days I had blocked the only trail leading into the forest with iron bars, ensuring no one could set foot inside. Shinryong had also meticulously checked that no other people remained in the woods. She made it clear that this war was strictly a struggle for survival between the Abyss and the forest.
Before the moon rose, Lee Seha had already arrived at the shrine. She knelt with both knees on the floor of the parlor, the bag placed before her, eyes tightly closed as she quietly prayed.
I saw her as I passed by, but an unpleasant sensation made me deliberately avoid her. Still, I could not deny that she was the hidden card in this war, and I resolved in my heart to save her first if anything went wrong.
Perhaps she sensed my gaze. Shinryong, who had just emerged from the training room, stopped me.
“If anything happens, protect yourself first.”
She spoke while grasping the sacred treasure I held against my chest.
“That girl is human and therefore extremely vulnerable to the Abyss. The moment she touches the pond, her entire body will be eroded before we can even reach her.”
I looked at Shinryong with eyes that had grown moist. Yet my resolve only hardened.
If that girl fails, secure your own safety first, she said. But I swore I would protect Shinryong even if it cost me my life. Even if this sacred treasure shattered. Even if my body were torn to pieces. I would repay the grace I had received from her time and time again.
‘Remain as you are, unchanged…’
Yet the moment Shinryong’s voice echoed in my mind, my body froze. She had already gone far away to prepare for the war against the Abyss, but those words kept circling inside my chest, refusing to leave.
Again and again…
I found myself facing the pond that had begun to writhe ominously.
“…You are finished now.”
But such a thing would never happen again. Just as Shinryong wished, I would remain myself. I would not be swallowed by the Abyss. I would stay as Niyu and remain with Shinryong for all eternity.
No matter how insufficient my power, no matter how weak I remained as Niyu, I would never return to my past self. I could not go back. I would grow stronger while remaining myself. Together with Shinryong, by her side, I would move forward.
Therefore, Abyss—you are finished here. Our long, hateful connection ends—
“Excuse me! Excuse me—!!”
It was then.
“…Who is it?”
“I clearly blocked the path…?”
At the desperate voice coming from outside, both Shinryong and I were greatly startled. At the same time, Lee Seha’s face suddenly filled with fear as she pressed close behind us.
The moment Shinryong approached the entrance and reached for the door—
“W-wait just a moment!!”
Lee Seha rushed forward with a terrified voice, trying to stop her. But she was a step too late. The door was already more than halfway open.
When Shinryong turned to look at Lee Seha after her belated cry, beyond the fully opened door stood—
“Y-you must stop right now—!”
A beautiful woman with an agitated, almost frantic expression. Her innocent-looking black hair swayed as she shouted desperately.
“What do you mean by that?”
Shinryong asked with clear wariness. The woman met her eyes, then looked at each of us in turn.
“The Abyss… the Abyss will soon boil over… You must flee right now, immediately…!!”
Her eyes were filled with terror as she pleaded. Shinryong glanced outside, then ushered the woman inside and closed the door.
I quickly brought her some tea. She drank it and gradually calmed down.
“I-I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself sooner…”
Once she had regained composure, she introduced herself.
“My name is Hvedrungr. I am a prophet from the frontier.”
The foreign-sounding name convinced me she was not from this country. More than that, I wondered why she was prophesying about the Abyss. It seemed Shinryong shared my curiosity.
“Can you continue what you were saying earlier?”
Shinryong’s voice was grave as she asked the still-shaken woman to explain her earlier outburst. Hvedrungr’s hands began trembling again. She glanced around nervously.
“T-there isn’t much time left… Your plan will fail completely…!”
Her gaze fixed on Lee Seha, who stood tensely beside me, and she screamed:
“Th-that blade!! It’s fake—!”
She thrust out a finger as if declaring the truth and recited her prophecy.
The Abyss will overflow, the forest will be dyed black,
and everything in the human world will be devoured by the Abyss…!!
Then, as if recalling another horrific scene, she curled into herself, clutching her head with both arms and letting out a groan.
“Huuuugh…!!”
I was startled by Hvedrungr’s accusation but remained calm as I quietly turned my gaze toward Lee Seha.
Lee Seha’s hands, still gripping her bag, were shaking violently. In a small voice she kept muttering, “No, no…” as if speaking to someone unseen. The words sounded less like a soliloquy and more like a plea.
Unable to control her emotions any longer, she suddenly glared at Hvedrungr like a madwoman and shouted:
“How dare you insult our family…!! A worthless prophet whose very name is unclear—!!”
She set her bag down, clenched her fists, and grabbed Hvedrungr by the collar with both hands, shaking the unresisting woman back and forth.
“This is our family’s ancestral heirloom, the strongest divine instrument…!! Did you truly think I would be fooled by your clumsy nonsense!?”
She stared down at the terrified Hvedrungr as if ready to kill her.
“I will cut the Abyss…!! No matter what, this time I will—!!”
Having vented her rage, she threw the woman to the floor. For a moment she looked down at Hvedrungr with utterly exhausted eyes, then slowly turned toward us. Her gaze suddenly locked onto me.
“…Three hours remain until the moon reaches its zenith.”
Her tone made it clear that if we would not help, she would destroy the thing sealed in the pond alone. At those words, I found myself looking toward Shinryong.
Shinryong sat before the terrified Hvedrungr without offering any reply or action. I waited for her decision as well. Growing impatient, Lee Seha strode up to me first.
“What will you do? If even you help me, I will gladly cut the Abyss together with you.”
She who had called me weak and worthless was now asking for my opinion. She sounded so desperate that my soft heart nearly made me answer the seemingly troubled Lee Seha that I would join her.
But then Shinryong’s voice filled the hollow room.
Everyone’s attention turned to her as she slowly continued. The expression on Shinryong’s face was one of compassion.
“We have received with gratitude the courage and kindness you showed in crossing the iron bars to warn us.”
To the still-frightened Hvedrungr she said:
“However, we shall settle things with the Abyss here today.”
Resting here would carry the risk that her prophecy might come true.
“Return to the city as quickly as possible and rest in peace.”
Shinryong rose, gently helped the terrified woman to her feet, and guided her outside.
“I apologize that our companion threatened you. Even if we fail, we will ensure the city suffers no harm, so you may rest easy on that point.”
Hvedrungr stepped outside with a dazed expression. She seemed unable to let go of her lingering attachment, clutching at Shinryong for a long while. Only after several minutes had passed since Shinryong finished speaking did she finally swallow dryly, blink several times, and leave her final words.
“Please… please be careful…”
After Hvedrungr departed, the outside world was covered in an even more sinister darkness than usual. It already warned us that a far deeper night would fall.
Lee Seha picked up her bag first and walked toward the pond, gazing up at the sky. Shinryong and I stood for a while where Hvedrungr had been, watching her disappear into the distance.
“…Did you see, Niyu?”
We spoke of her together.
“She had no shadow.”
The prophet Hvedrungr who had visited us possessed not even the faintest shadow that should have been cast by the moonlight. We had both noticed it while watching the spot where she had stood.
A faint smile formed on Shinryong’s lips. She looked at me and murmured a single quiet word.
“A god.”
I flinched in surprise and met her gaze.
“It seems the problem entangling that girl is rather complicated.”
Shinryong continued, instructing me.
“For whatever reason, the fact that an unnamed god came personally to warn us means… we must not take the prophecy she spoke lightly.”
She told me to begin this plan already assuming it had failed. I was to prepare for the absolute worst of all possible situations.
“I will finish preparations outside. Niyu, go and check on that girl first.”
I gave a firm nod, my expression solemn. For a brief moment I stroked the sacred treasure hidden within my shaman robes, then quickly turned back toward the annex where Lee Seha waited alone.
At that moment, Shinryong, who had been muttering to herself outside, began to chant in a majestic voice.
“Answer me, O heavens.”
“The land I tread is humanity’s final bastion and the last battlefield.”
“It is also the greatest line of defense for the gods.”
⟨ Summon the Legion of One Thousand and One Hundred ⟩
As she stood outside gathering every ounce of divine power in the vicinity, all the doors of the annex flew open with lively sounds. The vast divine power that drove away the descending darkness spread in every direction at a single gesture from Shinryong, bathing the entire area in a soft silver glow.
Having covered the whole Great Cavity with her divine power, Shinryong brought her hands together and formed a seal. From the eight sealed districts, dozens of silver soldiers made of mystery rose from the earth at her call.
Though an unnamed god had foretold our defeat, Shinryong had no intention of losing this war.
Yet…
That god had declared Lee Seha’s divine instrument a fake. Shinryong, while possessing no thought of defeat, seemed half-certain that the instrument was false. Nevertheless, she also appeared to harbor no expectation of victory.
Until now I had held only vague doubts about it.
“You’ve come.”
“…The divine instrument. You can use it, yes?”
I joined Lee Seha, who had been standing in the courtyard staring up at the full moon, and asked her about it.
“What do you take our family for? We are far more trustworthy than a useless weakling like you, so set your worries aside.”
Though her confidence lacked solid basis, Lee Seha showed no sign of expecting defeat in this war.
“We will win without fail.”
Oddly enough, I did not dislike the confident assurance of victory that flowed from her lips. Until now she had done nothing but say unpleasant things, yet… for some reason I was beginning to think that all of it had simply been because Lee Seha was clumsy at expressing herself.
Looking back, she had only spoken so harshly because I looked weak and she wanted me to stay safely behind. If one examined her words closely, they were actually full of implications that she would handle everything, that we should rest easy, that she would take all responsibility upon herself.
Therefore, rather than the boiling anger I had felt before, interest in the person called Lee Seha began to rise within me. Since the full moon was slowly climbing toward its zenith, perhaps I would soon learn the truth behind her identity as an Abyss Hunter.
“The time… has come.”
At last, in the deep night when the full moon rose, the orb reached its highest point. The pond of the Abyss began to bubble and seethe in an ominous manner, soon overflowing uncontrollably. An impossible quantity of malice surged across the courtyard.
“Ugh…!”
“Get back, Lee Seha—!!”
With one hand holding her bag and the other shielding her face from the storm of Abyss that blew against her, Lee Seha showed no intention of avoiding it.
Yet—
“I will cut it without fail…!”
With a click she opened the bag, pulled out a dagger that gleamed with brilliant radiance, and hurled the bag aside.
“With these two hands of mine—!!”
Her neatly arranged light pink hair whipped wildly in the wind, yet her eyes remained completely unshaken. They were locked onto the enormous shadow brimming with the Abyss’s malice that had begun to emerge from the pond.
I thought that even if I released my sacred treasure, removing that thing would not be easy. But Lee Seha moved with surprising lightness, nimbly dodging and slicing apart the figures that rushed toward her. At her unexpectedly skilled movements, I wondered whether this seemingly inexperienced girl truly hunted the Abyss.
Then—
“Se… ha…—”
A voice. A voice rang out.
Surely it couldn’t be. That voice.
“Lee Seha, it can’t be—”
It was unmistakably…
“Stop, Lee Seha—!!”
—All of it had been the Abyss’s scheme.