Outside?

Outside?

Both ahead of me and behind me.

Up, down, left, right, sky, and earth — an endless world of pure white.

It felt like standing in a field of freshly fallen snow.

"No, enough of that nonsense."

I was reciting everything I saw out loud, trying to pin my thoughts in place so I wouldn't think about anything else.

This place was inside a book.

Inside a page.

Fortunately, the page my hand had touched was a different one from where I'd stored the ice stones and Copy-Me earlier, so no dangerous situation arose.

Ge-ek-

"Right. Time to get out of here. Book! Let me out!"

The moment I finished speaking, the wall beside me shuddered and transformed into the shape of a single door.

I did wonder, just in case, what would happen if it decided to trap me in again.

Though I could always just dig back out through the wall.

Creeeak-

I opened the door and stepped through.

That's right. This was the sound a door made when it opened. I'd been straining to push open that ice door for so long that I'd almost forgotten.

Ge-ek-

Yagwang-i and I popped out onto the other side of the page.

The interior of the ice-filled castle.

The arms that had sprouted in droves from the floor were all gone.

"Phew. Right. I did think they'd never disappear, but thinking about it from inside the page — that thing had existed in this castle for ages even without a thinking subject inside it. I was worried it might have been parasitically surviving off the thoughts of the two guards."

So I'd wondered if it hadn't vanished because the two guards were still around, but thankfully it seemed completely gone.

Or maybe the intensity of my own thoughts — desperate as they were — had been so much stronger than those two far-off guards that the thought of it being utterly erased simply became reality.

"No, what does it matter. The only certain thing is that it's gone."

Right. End of that thought, right here.

I turned on the Gallery.

This part was the same as ever. Maybe the signal just doesn't reach the Backrooms Gallery from inside a seal like this.

Oh, right. What happened to the page where I stored 2P-Color-Me?

I picked up the book behind me and flipped through the pages.

Flap!?

For some reason the book was acting like a woman showing off her skin — no, you're a book. That's just your job.

"Did it disappear...?"

Apart ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the pages holding the various ice stones, there didn't appear to be any other pictures.

At most, just the page I'd seen when talking with the book.

Normally it cuts its words short, calling everything a waste of energy.

It copied my mind and learned to talk, which is nice, but it also picked up all sorts of weird stuff along the way.

"Honestly..."

Well, as long as nothing bad happened.

I tucked the book into my bag and headed back up to the first floor.

"The ice sculptures are all gone too."

Frankly, they had looked a bit like grotesque monstrosities.

I made my way to the back of the enormous gate.

I pulled a blue card ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of my bag.

It was the ice card the guards had given me in advance.

It hadn't melted at all, even sitting in my bag.

If it had, the book would have thrown a fit first.

Anyway — an object made of magic, one that even the monster couldn't copy.

They'd said that if I slid it into the gate, it would pass straight through and reach them on the other side.

From behind the gate, the card slid through—

"Whoa. It really passes through."

Honestly, I'd assumed I'd have to hunt for some crack or crevice to slip it through.

And so, after the card slipped cleanly across—

GRUUUUMBLE-!

With a tremendous rumble, the great gate began to open slowly.

This gate is solid ice too, isn't it...? The weight of it...

Yeah, it was definitely right not to mess with those Elite Ice Stone Sir-Sir-Sir-Sirs...

Through the slowly widening gap, the bright light of the outside world shone in.

And there, standing in the middle of it, two ice figures rose to greet me.

"You truly, truly defeated it!"

"Yes. It was difficult, but I did. Though what would you have done if I hadn't defeated it, and just asked you to open the door with the card instead?"

"If the monster were still alive, there would be no gap in the seal, and the card would never have passed through the gate in the first place."

"Aha..."

What a vicious mechanism!

You're telling me there was no escape route prepared for when I was about to be done in?!

But I couldn't possibly sass the Elite Ice Stone Sir-Sir-Sir-Sirs, so I kept quiet.

"It wasn't even that long a time. Truly impressive."

"Well, it was at least a few hours, wasn't it?"

"It has been five minutes."

"Excuse me?"

Isn't five minutes cutting it a bit short?

"Time barely flows inside the seal, you see. An hour in there is treated as roughly a minute out here, so to speak."

Aha! So that's why the Gallery wouldn't load — that sluggish loading feeling was actually real.

"I thought you'd spend at least days in there, if not more."

"Hmm... well, I suppose that's because you gave me good hints."

If I'd been listening to that thing's curse-of-knowledge-like precise power from outside, even awkwardly, I would no doubt have faced it in a far more strengthened state.

The fact that I could feel it growing stronger meant it took at least some time to power up.

Something already strengthened versus something that starts strengthening right in front of you — those are inevitably different stages of threat.

"So... how do I get out of this mirror?"

"Do you remember the direction you came from?"

"It was to the right of the main gate, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I think... oh."

A single enormous mirror, standing in the middle of the vast white snowfield, caught my eye.

So the system is: defeat the entity, and an exit appears again.

"Then... what will happen to the two of you?"

At my words, the two ice figures looked at each other.

"Our lifespan has already ended."

"We were merely bound together with the seal itself."

Sssshhh—

Slowly, from the tips of their bodies, they began to scatter into frost dust.

As one of the ice figures knelt, the other standing one gently touched his shoulder.

"You've worked hard all this time, Jek."

"It was my honor to serve at your side, Your Highness the Princess."

Sssshhh—

After a fierce flurry of snow swept past my eyes, the two of them had vanished without a trace.

Hmm... well. Right.

I'm sure there were circumstances they never told me about.

For now, it was time to go home.

I approached the mirror standing in the middle of the snowfield.

The moment I touched it, shwooop — once again.

"Time to go back."

I pushed my whole body into the mirror.

"Somehow, this feeling of being away for so long."

The Cave Cavity, returned to.

I sat down at the desk and slumped forward comfortably.

I'd moved the desk and chair from the fifth tunnel here as well.

Since it was the place that Grudge thing had possessed, I'd felt a little iffy about it — but I shook that thing down, didn't I? So I figured it didn't matter.

I turned on the Gallery right away.