Ep.5 - The Twins on the Tower (2)
Ep.5 - The Twins on the Tower (2)
"A guest came, eonni. Really."
The girl with sewn-shut eyes put down her staff and crawled slowly.
The sight of her dragging her body with both arms as she approached felt quite eerie.
Kaede was already pale, trembling with her tail tucked between her legs, and my body likewise shrank back from an inexplicable eeriness...
Riko hugged me and said,
"Don't be scared."
"Ah, ahahaha! A guest, eonni! Hello everyone, hello..."
The girl with her eyes sewn shut smiled brightly and approached.
She crawled up to where Helen, Neva, and Chichi stood firm right in front of us, and she turned her head this way and that,
as if she were scanning each of us with those sewn-shut eyes.
Even though she couldn't possibly see.
"Ev-everyone's so cool. So cool. Such cool people. People? Eonni, they're people! People came all the way here! Ahahaha!"
Neva and Chichi left Helen's side and slowly approached Riko and me. Neva with her sword, Chichi with her staff, they stood in front of us, ready for possible combat.
Riko whispered to them.
"Don't even think about fighting. It'll be a pain."
"Then just stand still? Quietly just protect Delin well."
"What about Save? Shouldn't we Save first to be safe?"
"If we Save wrong here, we won't even be able to run and we'll all die, so just stay still. Please."
One of Riko's eyes surveyed the swamp around the tower. I also followed her gaze and looked around, but unlike the quiet swamp we had walked through so far, the surroundings were filled with all sorts of strange things.
"Wha-what is that...?"
The wriggling things looked exactly like a bunch of earthworms bundled together.
'No, maybe they were maggots, not earthworms?'
"Don't look."
Riko placed a hand over my eyes and kept me from looking any further.
I was so grateful I almost cried. In my terror-stricken state, I couldn't even turn my head. If she hadn't shielded my eyes, I would definitely have kept staring and passed out.
"Why, why did you come? Huh? Wanna play with us? Wanna play?"
Unlike her closed eyes, the girl's mouth moved freely, demanding an answer from all of us.
Helen answered.
"We have come to seek advice from the all-knowing Twin Sisters of Ibraphel-nim. Please lend us your wisdom."
"Wisdom? They said wisdom! Eonni, they said they came to ask! Ah, ahahaha! Kyahahahah! Kyak! Kyahahahah!"
What on earth was making her so fucking amused?
The girl began to laugh like a madwoman.
At that laughter, even the girl with her mouth sewn shut put down her staff and began to crawl slowly. One of the bells jingled, ddarang-ddarang-
"Uh, eonni. What should we do? Should we tell them? Tell them?"
"..."
"Ah, ah! Right. Right. What. What to tell them. Let's hear that first. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry."
Another bell jingled, ddarang-ddarang-
At that sound, the girls crawled around Helen in circles.
One crawled with her joints bending in eerie ways,
the other moved very slowly... like a slug.
"What should we tell them? Shall we at least listen?"
"Please tell us the way to cross to the Demon Continent. We wish to head there."
"Th-the Demon Continent? Demon Continent?"
The two girls stopped crawling and faced each other.
One blinked her eyes, the other opened and closed her mouth.
"Demon Continent, Demon Continent, Demon Continent... Demon Continent..."
After hearing the question, they crawled back to their own staffs, slowly, on all fours.
The third bell jingled, ddarang-ddarang-
"They say they're going to the Demon Continent. Demon Continent. Pfft, pfft. Demon Continent, they said... Kkihit... kkik..."
The girl with the unsewn mouth let out a mocking laugh,
and the girl with the unsewn eyes stared at us with contempt.
"They say they don't want to tell us that? What do we do? Huh? Eonni says she doesn't want to. Actually, I don't want to either. Kkit... kkihik..."
"Why is that? I've heard that you two always bestow wisdom upon humans."
Helen tilted her head.
"You, you can't cross. Khihik... kkik... can't cross."
As if it were utterly impossible, the girls shook their heads and climbed up their staffs to grab the bells, stopping them.
The jingling ddarang-ddarang sounds of the bells faded. What filled the silence instead were only the unpleasant noises of the things writhing around the tower.
"Let's just play here! Got it? You can't go anyway, so what... whatever..."
The writhing sounds drew closer. Kaede was already foaming at the mouth and on the verge of passing out.
"Fuck... that dumbass is useless."
Glaring at Kaede, Riko spat harsh words, then strode forward and shouted at the bizarre Twins.
"Stop bullshitting and tell us how to get there! Whether we go or not, we'll decide for ourselves!"
Everyone was surprised by her bold attitude.
But someone had to say it. If we stayed still, who knew what those Twins would do to us.
"Kkik, kkihik... kkit... kkihihit..."
The Twins, laughing unpleasantly, approached again, as if they had regained interest.
Helen again addressed them politely.
"That is so. We are only asking how to cross. Please lend us your wisdom and show us the way."
The Twins did not answer, but simply dragged their bodies and crawled closer.
This time they didn't circle near Helen, but came right up around Riko, and then sniffed with their noses...
"A man, isn't it? You brought a man? Ihik! Hihihihit! Uh, eonni. It's a man's scent, right? Eonni, you smell it too?"
They were talking about me. It seemed they weren't interested in Riko, but in the one she was holding—me.
"Alright. How about this? Just for three days, if you lend him to us, we'll tell you. How about that? Huh?"
They circled around Riko as they spoke.
The sight was so grotesque, like something out of a horror movie, that it would have made anyone recoil,
but Riko, without so much as a flinch, just pulled me deeper into her embrace so I couldn't see the Twins and shouted:
"Go suck a dick. You fucking bitches. You don't even have a hole to ram a dick into, yet you're talking shit. Should I carve one into each of your bellies?"
Everyone froze.
Riko, who had spoken; the Twins, who had been crawling nearby and heard the insults; Helen, who had been seeking answers from them; Neva and Chichi, who had been preparing for battle behind; ...and even Kaede, trembling further back.
"..."
In the silence, the Twins were the first to move.
Very quietly, or eerily... they crawled back toward their own staffs.
The next to move was Helen. She slowly approached Riko and me, gave a rather complicated smile, and murmured softly.
"You're quite fiery. Though it might lead us on a bit of a detour."
Next were Neva and Chichi.
The two women approached and took combat stances.
"...Now that you're on our side, that foul mouth of yours actually becomes useful."
"It was refreshing to hear, though. The next part is the problem..."
Last was Kaede.
Trembling, she drew her greatsword and stepped forward.
"Ev-everyone, just fight as I tell you... First, focus on protecting Seobang-nim..."
Ddarang-
One bell rang.
And then, following that bell, the remaining three bells also rang.
The four bell sounds resonated together, shaking the tower,
and because of that resonance, the view quaked.
Beyond the figures of the Twins, something dark seemed to undulate,
then it spread out in all directions, engulfing the entire tower.
The view darkened,
in a situation where I couldn't even properly see Riko, who was holding me,
Riko whispered.
"...Just keep your eyes closed. I'll handle it."
Perhaps the pitch-black field of vision had already changed into a new space; even though I squeezed my eyes shut, a strange light flickered beyond the blackness.
"O-oh my god..."
It was Kaede's voice. She was trembling as if terrified, but she cried out earnestly.
"Philmark and Helen, protect Seobang-nim and Miss Eva so they don't get caught in the fight. Chichi, help me cast magic...! Neva, fight while covering Chichi! So she can focus on magic!"
I couldn't tell what sight they were beholding, but I could vaguely sense it from the slight trembling of Riko's body—they were preparing to fight, facing something beyond human.
"Are you all already prepared to die? You're all so bold."
Helen said. Her voice was no different from usual, but carried a hint of awe and enjoyment.
"I don't care about dying."
Riko answered. Her voice was also the same as usual, but with just a trace of worry.
"It's just a pain in the ass to have to walk all the way here again."
A chill radiated from the surroundings.
It was a kind of chill I'd never felt in my life.
It was something far removed from words like fear or unease.
Their voices were heard.
No, rather than voices...
they were closer to sobbing.
"Hihik. Hik. Higik. Hihihik."
'Sobbing? No, mocking?'
I wasn't sure. But just hearing it, I was certain that fear had begun to quietly creep up inside me.
"Well. Since it looks like negotiations won't work, let's beat the information out of them."
Riko said. Her voice trembled a little.
"...They're a bit big to beat up, but..."