We Will Be Together Forever (2)
-A curse shall descend.
What the hell is that supposed to mean…
It wasn’t a voice only I could hear. I could see everyone else looking around in confusion. Whatever it was, the sound was clearly echoing through the entire altar.
“Just now—”
“The priests should cast the purification spell once more…”
“Yes.”
Nothing catastrophic had happened yet, but hearing a voice like that was enough to put anyone on edge. Honestly, it was bad enough that I wanted to turn around and walk out of here on the spot.
Lee Sanghee and the party from the Second Unit were still keeping their composure, but our party looked a little rattled.
-A curse shall descend…
“Can you feel any mana?”
“No. Nothing. There’s no mana response… none at all. Not even divine power.”
-I shall bring a curse down upon the intruders…
“It looks like some kind of function built into the dungeon itself.”
“As for what kind of curse it is…”
“It’s hard to tell. It’s only a voice, after all.”
“For now, fall back—pull back immediately and prepare a divine barrier spell.”
That was when Lee Sanghee opened her mouth.
With the sound of wind rushing past, the world in front of me turned white in an instant.
I couldn’t say exactly what was happening. My head swam, and nausea surged up so fast I nearly gagged. It felt as if the world wrapped around me was changing shape, though even that wasn’t quite the right way to describe it.
It was incredibly difficult to explain what was happening to me right then.
I barely had time to think that everyone else must be suffering through the same thing when the scenery shifted, and a voice came from somewhere nearby, startling me.
-Why did you do that?
-Why… did you abandon me?
Damn it.
The woman standing before me was a stranger.
But I remembered her face.
She was the woman who’d been torn apart by the ghouls during the tutorial.
I’d had no choice but to look away if I wanted to survive, but I could never forget her.
Choosing food and water over her hadn’t been strange at all.
And I’d been sorry ever since.
“What the hell kind of bullshit situation is this now?”
She was dragging herself toward me, her guts dripping onto the floor. The sight was grotesque, and she looked exactly as she had when the ghouls were tearing her apart.
I frowned, but I wasn’t afraid. I’d already realized it.
This is fake.
Without a doubt, it was fake.
-It hurt. It hurt so much. I thought you’d save me… I really believed you would. But you turned your back on me.
“Bullshit.”
-You’re a piece of trash.
“Park Hye-young.”
Then Park Hye-young’s voice—Park Hye-young, who had been killed by Jung Hayan—stabbed into my ears.
Her arms and legs were severed, and her eyes, staring at me, were full of resentment.
Resentment that I hadn’t chosen her.
Of course, her case was a little different from the nameless woman’s.
There had definitely been another option that could have saved her.
But still.
There’s no need to feel guilty.
It was the most rational choice.
-You always defend yourself with thoughts like that. It was the rational choice. There was nothing you could do. It’s all very amusing. To me, you’re the same kind of human being I am.
“Do you have any right to say that? You psychotic killer bastard. I’m nothing like you.”
Jung Jinho.
The sight of him approaching with Kim Hyunsung’s sword lodged in his neck was rather grotesque.
-You’re no different at all. We’re the same kind of people. Selfish and greedy. Was Seokwoo’s death also for some kind of necessity?
The poor we’d killed—Yoo Seokwoo, along with Jung Jinho’s two lackeys—began appearing one by one. The people connected to me were slowly taking shape before my eyes.
Is this some kind of curse?
I didn’t think anyone else was seeing this. I hadn’t been conscious of it until now, but the scene unfolding before me was probably the kind I hated most in the world.
Apparently there was still a trace of guilt left in me. To be honest, it didn’t feel good.
-You killed them.
“Shut up.”
-Rationalization. You’re a cowardly man.
“What’s so bad about rationalizing things? Human beings are built that way. We’re designed to make excuses for ourselves, you idiots.”
-And you feel guilty.
“It’s a perfectly natural emotion, but I don’t regret it.”
-Trash.
“Is that all you’ve got to say? No matter how much you blame me, the fact remains that I’m standing here, and you’re all dead and looking at me from this place. That will never change. Even if I were given another chance, I’d do the same thing again.”
-One day, you’ll stand here with us too.
“Bullshit. That’s just what you want to believe.”
My vision began to clear.
The figures staring at me slowly started to disperse, and a wave of nausea rose up so fast it made my stomach lurch.
“Uweeeek.”
It was only natural that I vomited up whatever was inside me.
Seeing the corpses of people who’d already died once was not a pleasant experience.
Unlike the bold tone I’d managed to force out a moment ago, I was now soaked through with cold sweat.
My legs trembled violently, and even though I knew it was fake, my mouth kept drying out.
It’s fake.
-Do you really think so? Is it really fake?
Shut up.
Even after I’d returned to reality, the voices of those things kept whispering in my ears.
Damn it.
-You killed us.
Damn it.
-You’re the one who killed us. You!
Damn it.
It was more damaging than I’d expected. The revulsion surging through me was only natural.
As I breathed hard, I felt a hand patting my shoulder.
Startled, I immediately shook the hand off, and a calm voice spoke up.
“Get away from me—!”
“Are you all right?”
The person in front of me was Kim Hyunsung. Some of the tension in my chest eased.
This wasn’t that place.
“Ah… yes. I’m fine.”
Kim Hyunsung was slowly feeding mana into me.
What about the others…
They were probably all going through the same thing I was.
Just as I’d expected, the sight in front of me was beyond explanation.
“Aaaagh…”
Kim Yeri was trembling violently, clutching at her own body. She kept flinging her hands around, as if trying to bat something away.
More precisely, it looked like she was trying to shove away the people approaching her.
Her mouth kept working as if she wanted to say something, but it didn’t seem like the words would come out.
“Stop… stop. Mom… Mom! Help me. Save me. Mom… please…”
It was probably one of her memories from the slums.
Even at a glance, it was obvious she’d been through something horrifying.
Park Deokgu was curled up, not saying a single word, just shaking all over. Seeing him huddled there like that made it easy to guess what he was looking at.
Sun Heeyoung was crying too, so I guessed she was seeing memories from that time as well. She wasn’t screaming, but blood was flowing from her mouth.
She was biting down hard on her lip.
But the most incomprehensible sight of all was Jung Hayan.
“Nooooooooo! No! Please. Please. Oppa. Oppa.”
…
“Please. I was wrong. It was all my fault. Please. Please… I was wrong. I’ll do better from now on. Please don’t abandon me. Please…”
Fuck.
Honestly, it looked serious enough that I felt uneasy. Tears were streaming down her face, and blood was smeared under her nails.
She had torn at her own flesh with her hands. Seeing patches of her hair missing made it look as though she’d ripped at her own scalp too.
She could barely breathe, and her voice had gone hoarse from crying so hard.
“Ah, no…”
…
“Don’t do that with that woman. Don’t, Oppa. I was wrong. No… no! No!”
I had a rough idea of what she was seeing.
Everyone else was shaking their heads too, reacting strangely.
Some of them were starting to wake up in places, but most had simply collapsed, retching or thrashing in confusion.
In Lee Sanghee’s case, she kept apologizing toward some unseen presence.
“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. I really am…”
I couldn’t be sure, but it felt as though she was apologizing to the guild members trapped here with us.
That was only natural, considering she’d been worrying about the survivors all this time.
Hwang Jeongyeon, who had been quietly crying, seemed to have awakened as well, and she was now glancing around nervously.
Aside from Kim Hyunsung, the ones who woke up were mostly those with higher intelligence.
It probably varied from person to person, but their mental attributes seemed to have some effect. Jung Hayan was likely a special case.
Because her mind is unstable.
She couldn’t push back what she was seeing.
“Kim Hyunsung, how long have you—”
“I only woke up a short while ago as well.”
“How much time has passed?”
“It seems like not much. I don’t really understand it myself, but…”
It had felt like at least several dozen minutes. It was hard to believe what had happened to me had taken place in the blink of an eye.
Of course, figuring out what was going on came second to dealing with it. After pushing the questions circling my head aside, I hurriedly asked Kim Hyunsung, “Is there any way to wake them?”
“It would be best to quietly send them mana. Divine power may be slightly more effective, but… Kiyoung-ssi, please take care of Hayan-ssi first.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Kim Hyunsung seemed to think Sun Heeyoung should be awakened first. Hwang Jeongyeon appeared to feel the same way, since she moved toward her own party’s priest with a tired face.
Once I steadied myself a little, the strange sensation binding me began to fade.
I quietly walked over to Jung Hayan as well.
“I have to kill them…”
What is she talking about?
“Kill… have to kill them all. All of them. Then I can become one with Oppa. Yes. Yes, that’s right. That’s what I have to do. Kill them all.”
She was muttering so softly that the others probably couldn’t hear her.
I had no idea what she meant by becoming one, but it sounded terrifying enough.
I approached quietly, took her hand, and pushed mana into her body. Slowly, color began to return to Jung Hayan’s face.
“I’ll always be with you.”
Of course I whispered that into her ear.
If it was Jung Hayan, she’d be able to pull free quickly enough.
It was right around then that I felt Jung Hayan’s mind beginning to return.
Her eyes were definitely open, but it felt as though consciousness itself was seeping back into her. Her rough breathing gradually steadied.
Even her trembling arms and legs stilled after a moment, and I could tell she was truly coming back to herself.
Her gaze, which had been fixed on empty space, slowly turned toward me.
“Oppa?”
“You okay?”
“O… Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
She threw her arms around my neck so tightly it was as if she was afraid of losing me.
My breath caught, but I couldn’t exactly make a scene about it.
“Oppa… Oppa. Oppa.”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Along with her shaky voice came a sound like soft sobbing.
She’d realized that what she’d just seen was an illusion. It felt a bit like comforting a child after a nightmare, but I didn’t mind.
-You’ll abandon her too.
The voices kept whispering, but ignoring them was only natural. It must be the effect of the curse.
-This isn’t the curse talking. It’s the voice inside your own heart.
It was probably only me who could hear it right now.
Even after waking, some people were still muttering to themselves in fragments.
-In the end, no one will be left by your side. Because you’ll abandon them all. The ones standing next to you will one day end up looking at you together with us. Definitely.
“Oppa, it really is you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s really Oppa…”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Jung Hayan kept speaking as if she needed to confirm it again and again. That alone told me she was hearing the voice too.
What that voice actually was remained unknown, and that uncertainty was the unsettling part.
I swallowed hard as I looked at the disheveled Jung Hayan.
This is bad…
I had the feeling something was about to explode.
Jung Hayan looked that unstable.