Chapter 24
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 24
Inside was yet another box. What is this, a matryoshka?
Its dingy, unadorned appearance only lowered my expectations further.
"......Oh, for crying out loud."
"Tsk, tsk. Why keep it so tightly hidden? Why not open it here? I'll stand well back and just watch. Hm?"
The old woman coaxed me in a soft, wheedling tone, as if soothing a child.
Naturally, my answer was.......
"No thanks?"
"N-no?"
"Yes."
"Why not? Afraid this old woman might snatch it from you?"
Instead of answering, I took out the box and tucked it under one arm.
"Goodness. You really are an odd one. I won't lay a finger on it, so don't worry."
The old woman chuckled incredulously and walked on ahead.
I hurried after her.
Resolving to put off a proper inspection until after I reached the dormitory.
In the meantime, there was something that had been nagging at me, so I asked the old woman.
"You spoke as if you knew it well, but I take it you don't know exactly what it is?"
The old woman walking ahead answered.
"There's just a story tied to it. It was the first item I ever received after opening this pawnshop."
"The first?"
"It must have been over sixty years ago. I opened this pawnshop when I was around twenty."
......Sixty years?
That long ago?
"A pretty young woman came by, I believe. Goodness, she was bold and rough around the edges. Heh heh."
"......."
My steps, which had been slowing, soon came to a complete stop.
Stop—
I wasn't sure why.
Even as I told myself there was no way, I was asking almost on instinct.
"That woman....... Do you know her name?"
"Her name?"
"Yes. Perhaps Yoo So......."
"Good grief. What pawnshop takes items under real names?"
The old woman, who had stopped as well, turned back and grinned.
......That's true.
It really didn't make sense.
It had been sixty years.
I'd thought of Yoo So-young without even realizing it, but other than being the same gender and having similar personalities, there was no connection at all.
That was why I shouldn't get my hopes up over nothing.
Once that happened, my train of thought stopped following reason and kept drifting toward what I wanted.
Even I found the idea absurd, and I was letting out a hollow chuckle when—
"Though, I did hear what the people around her called her."
At the old woman's next words, all my senses froze.
"Leah....... I believe that was it. It was long ago, but since she was my first customer, she stayed in my memory."
It was a baptismal name and a pen name.
The other name Yoo So-young had first used.......
* * *
Once the visitor who had come after so long went rushing out in a fluster, silence settled in as it always did.
The old woman, who had been gazing toward the entrance, turned her head when she suddenly heard someone call her.
"My lady."
The buoyant voice came not from the door but from the opposite side.
The dark wall beside the iron bars rippled for an instant, and a woman in black stealth garb stepped out.
It was startling enough to make anyone faint, but the old woman merely rebuked her calmly.
"Did I not tell you to use the door?"
"I apologize. I was in a hurry, so......."
The woman prostrated herself quickly, then spoke again.
"What of the prophecy?"
"It was true. He really did come on the final day."
"Then that person truly......?"
"There's no doubt he inherited it. He was slow, but he could create things well enough."
"Ah......."
The woman, trembling faintly, bowed her head once more and cried out.
"Congratulations, my lady. Now that even the forgotten legacy has been delivered, we have a foothold for our next advance."
"Congratulations for what? I merely did what had to be done. Nothing will change right away, will it? Though......."
The old woman, who had been speaking as if it were nothing, suddenly gave a self-deprecating smile and looked at the woman.
"I must have gotten old after all. I can't even control a single emotion, yet I talk of accomplishing some great undertaking. Tsk, tsk."
"What do you mean by that......?"
"Heh heh. I foolishly mentioned that person's name."
"......"
The woman could give no answer to the old woman's words.
Mentioning 'that person' was a sensitive and delicate subject, and she feared she might make a mistake.
"Tsk, tsk. It's hardly such a grave offense....... What about the leader's movements?"
The old woman, who had not entirely disliked that reaction, quickly changed the subject.
"They're quiet. As expected, they seem completely unaware the legacy even exists."
"Heh heh. I see. Even that madman is human after all. Let us put it out of our minds for a while as well."
"Pardon?"
Unlike the startled woman, the old woman added calmly.
"The more conscious you are of it, the more obvious it'll be. Just leave it alone. That's safer. We've sown the seed; it'll grow on its own."
"Still, we must secure his identity......."
"Don't talk nonsense. The bond has already been formed. If we trust and wait, before long he will come to us of his own accord. Heh heh."
The old woman, full of conviction, bared her yellowed teeth in a bright smile.
* * *
The current time was 11:57 p.m.
Only a few lights remained on across Taehak that night.
The moment I closed the dorm room door, I let out a deep sigh that matched the mess in my head.
"Hah—"
It really had been a damnably long day.
Thud—
I set the box on the desk and downed a glass of water.
With my head clearer, I said the name I'd been turning over in my mind the whole way back.
"Leah......."
Could that person really be Yoo So-young?
And could this box really be something Yoo So-young had left behind?
They said it was a reward I absolutely needed.......
If Causality was the obstacle standing between me and Yoo So-young, and the weakening boundary meant there was now a connection between us, then the hypothesis was fairly plausible.
"But."
There was one serious flaw here that I absolutely couldn't overlook.
Time.
The old woman had said she'd received the box roughly sixty years ago.
"Good grief......."
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't explain that sixty-year gap.
Yoo So-young, who'd gone in before me, had somehow become someone from sixty years ago?
There was a limit to how much bullshit I could swallow.
Unless she'd invented a time machine or something, the idea was ridiculous.
This wasn't some sci-fi novel. Were the odds even 0.001%?
So there was only one answer.
"It was probably just someone with the same name."
It wasn't as if Yoo So-young were the only Leah in the world.......
But the problem was that even knowing that, I kept getting drawn in.
As if I were somehow that 0.001% case.
"I've really gotten stupid. I got lucky once and now I'm getting lost in impossible fantasies."
I couldn't keep going on like this, so I decided to check the item first.
I looked at the box sitting on the desk.
Judging by the box's size and weight, an accessory of some sort?
Clatter, clatter.
When I shook it carefully, whatever was inside felt fairly substantial.
Creeeak—
With mounting anticipation, I slid the lid open.
Then the inside was revealed along with a sharp, stale metallic smell.
"......."
And I fell silent for a moment.
No, I had no choice but to fall silent.
Because there was nothing at all inside.
"That can't be......."
Hadn't I clearly heard a sound when I shook it?
To check, I put my hand back into the box.
Grab.
Then, astonishingly, I caught hold of something.
It was a bizarre sight, as if I were clutching space itself, but the solid volume and smooth surface I could feel proved something was there.
"What in the......."
By everything I knew, an object like this shouldn't have been possible, so I immediately activated my trait.
[Activating trait, Appraisal.]
[Search successful.]
[Appraising as much as possible.]
[Pandora's Box]
[Grade: ???]
[Description: A box called the root of all evil, or the sole hope. The last remaining desire slumbers within. It can be opened with the owner's blood, and all further information is veiled.]
Good grief.
The Grade was just question marks, and the rest of the information was hidden.
No particular setting came to mind, but the name alone was familiar.
Pandora's Box was a famous treasure from Greek mythology, after all.
The story as I remember it goes like this.
Zeus, displeased that Prometheus had given fire to humans, gifts his brother a lovely woman named 'Pandora.'
The brother falls head over heels the moment he sees her, and Zeus hands 'Pandora' a small box.
Along with the words never to open it.......
But, as if that would ever go as intended.
It was a gift from none other than Zeus, the highest of gods.
Naturally, Pandora grows so curious she nearly goes mad.
In a state where she feels she might die if she doesn't open it, the box is finally opened.
And the result?
Whoooosh.
All manner of calamities pour out.
Greed, envy, resentment, jealousy, and so on.
Those soiled and contaminated emotions corrupt the once-immaculate world in an instant.
This was both a trap and Zeus's punishment for a mere human taking sacred fire.
That is the extent of the Pandora's Box story I know.
Bearing the exact same name as the thing before my eyes.......
"Hm......."
But it didn't seem to be merely the same name.
'The root of all evil' and 'the sole hope' stated in the description.
Those two phrases hinted at an unusual connection.
'The root of all evil' had already been explained, so fine, but hope had also been one of the calamities that poured out then.
Zeus had judged from a god's perspective.
That hope was an evil that made one abandon the present for an uncertain future.
Ironically, humans survived because of the expectations created by that uncertain variable.......
"I can open it, right?"
Anyway, I fiddled with the transparent box and thought for a moment.
But if I wasn't going to open it?
It was transparent, so I couldn't even use it as decoration, and there was no other use for it.
Once I thought of it that way, there was only one answer.
"It said it can be opened with the owner's blood."
I opened the desk drawer and took out a sharp dagger.
It was the Armament I had borrowed from Kang Cheol-min and not yet returned.
I don't know how Pandora opened it....... But as they say, strike while the iron is hot, so without hesitation I slashed my palm.
A sting ran through my palm, and red blood quickly welled up and dripped onto the box, soaking into it.
Drip, drip, drip.
More.
And more.
"......."
But nothing changed.
Was this not it?
I was wondering whether I'd taken the instruction too literally when—
[3%]
[4%]
A system message appeared in my vision.
I'd had a feeling, and sure enough.
Drip, drip, drip.
The number rose little by little in proportion to the amount of blood.
I thought I had offered quite a lot, but it was only just over 4%.
"This is brutal."
I kept at it until 5%, then slashed my other palm as well.
Blood dripped again, but the rate of increase was slow.
This clearly wasn't going to cut it, and I was mulling over where to cut next.
[10%]
[First threshold reached.]
[Pandora's Box recognizes you as its master.]
[Partially opening.]
The messages appeared, and the box began to change.
Screeeeech.
With an unpleasant scraping sound like fingernails on a chalkboard, black smoke began to rise.
Wispy—
The black smoke rose leisurely upward like a slender snake swimming along a river.
The sight was so eerie and ominous that goosebumps rose all over my skin.
"...At this rate, am I going to get X-ed?"
And with good reason.
Right now, I looked no different from a villain dreaming of an evil god's resurrection.
[The last remaining calamity, 'Greed,' begins to sprout.]
.
.
My intuition had been right.
Whoosh—
The black smoke that had been drifting aimlessly suddenly descended and burrowed into my right hand.
I had no time to feel it.
[You have absorbed Pandora's Box.]
[Achievement-754: The Man Who Awakened Calamity]
[3 days are granted as a reward.]
[Conditions met. A Hidden Quest is triggered.]
[Hidden Quest: Master of Calamities]
[Objective: Based on the power of Greed, seek out and absorb the calamities of the other Seven Deadly Sins that escaped from Pandora's Box.]
[Time limit: Automatically ends upon death]
"It was real?"
I went stiff as dry firewood.
And what was this Hidden Quest, anyway?
What, the Seven Deadly Sins?
What is this, Dragon Ball? Seek out and absorb the calamities?
It hadn't existed in the original novel at all, there was no reward, and even the objective and time limit were ominous beyond measure.
"No, what do you mean it ends upon death?"
It didn't even say I'd be absorbed into the World Setting.
Didn't it carry the nuance that I had become someone's target and had to survive?
I'd avoided the catastrophe of every kind of calamity pouring out like in the myth, but I was starting to think the losses outweighed the gains.
[Reward: Release of time restriction]
Release...?
"If that's the case, I have no choice but to take this seriously."
I stared blankly at my right hand, where the box and Greed had been absorbed and taken root.