Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 219. Self-Deception
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Yoo Daon was basically gentle by nature.
There was no malice in what she said, and in truth, she never spoke to others with any malice either.
When the Butterfly's Dream incident first broke out, the version of her I saw could be described as wary of people, but not malicious.
In fact, she'd never once hurled an insult at me.
If anything, I'd unintentionally hurt her feelings with my own words at times.
But if that was a problem, it was a problem.
If she'd been spewing words full of malice, I could've brushed it off or fought back, but the issue was that Yoo Daon's words carried zero malice.
You can't spit on a smiling face, as they say.
And wasn't this exactly that situation?
"...You know me well?"
The one who spoke first was the Troupe Leader.
She stared straight at Yoo Daon, who smiled and nodded.
"Yes! I know you well!"
"...How?"
"We've spent quite some time together, haven't we?"
"Quite some" still amounted to less than a year.
The Troupe Leader's gaze fixed on Yoo Daon.
...
"You're not going to say otherwise, are you?"
Yoo Daon smiled as she looked at the Troupe Leader.
"It's bittersweet."
...
"Think of how many thoughts must've swirled in your head all alone."
Yoo Daon closed her eyes, then opened them to gaze at the Troupe Leader.
In her eyes.
"Am I allowed to live like this? How can I prove my worth?"
Pity had taken root there.
"That's how you kept gnawing at yourself, writhing in mental agony."
But. With that, she looked at the Troupe Leader.
"In the end, all it does is torment you-"
Yoo Daon's words didn't get to finish.
With a wave of the Troupe Leader's hand, threads from several puppets snapped.
-Crack!
"Kek...!"
Instantly, a thread coiled around Yoo Daon's neck, and with a gruesome sound, it snapped.
The Troupe Leader stared at us, thread still wrapped around Yoo Daon's neck.
Yoo Daon's body twitched as she raised her hand to her neck to pry it off, but
-Kwachak...!
The thread clung to her neck like it would never come loose.
"...How do I know Daon won't die?"
"How should I know."
Song Arin, standing beside me, answered my mutter.
"She must've already tested it by killing her after she said something that got on her nerves."
...
"And since she didn't die, now she's just keeping her choked out. That's probably it."
"You know her too well. Have you ever thought about it yourself?"
...
Song Arin shut her mouth for a moment at my words, then opened it again.
"Either way, this is our chance."
"...True enough."
Agreeing with Song Arin's mutter, I scanned our surroundings.
The number of puppets had noticeably dwindled from before.
The threads that had been controlling them were probably now wrapped around Yoo Daon's neck.
It wasn't the ideal method, but while Yoo Daon was buying us time, we had to make something happen.
I kicked off from my spot and charged forward.
Hoping the puppets' legs, now creaking audibly in my ears, wouldn't stop just yet, I ran.
If I could just land a physical blow on the Troupe Leader or engage in close combat—
But before I could, several puppets blocked my path.
At the same moment,
-Thud!
A massive boom echoed as the puppets slammed into the ground.
"You're here."
Jang Chaeyeon stood behind us, panting for breath.
Floating in the air was my body.
"...I tried to bring your sister too, but she vanished once I got her out."
Jang Chaeyeon muttered bitterly, carefully laying my body on the floor.
"Thank you."
"Yeah."
She nodded, then turned to the Troupe Leader.
...
The Troupe Leader looked back at Jang Chaeyeon, then slowly spoke.
"You're alive."
...
What did "alive" mean?
In her memories, was the Jang Chaeyeon she knew already long dead?
If so, what had killed her?
A flurry of thoughts raced through my mind in an instant, but Jang Chaeyeon didn't seem fazed.
As if she couldn't care less about the woman's words, Jang Chaeyeon clenched and unclenched her fist repeatedly before glaring at the Troupe Leader.
"In my life."
She muttered.
"Aside from just two people."
She raised her hand.
The air began to tremble.
-Rumble...
The ground shook.
From behind it all, Jang Chaeyeon stared at the Troupe Leader.
"Anything not human gets contained. That's it."
With a cold voice, she raised her hand higher.
"But you touched those two."
-Boom!
She clenched her fist, and at the same moment, the puppets clustered in the center before splintering into wooden shards.
Blood trickled from Jang Chaeyeon's nose, but she ignored it and swung her hand.
-Boom!
A colossal force hammered the Troupe Leader like a mallet.
...
The Troupe Leader released the thread around Yoo Daon and hastily blocked Jang Chaeyeon's attack,
"Koff!"
As Yoo Daon hit the floor.
"Daon—"
"I'm fine!"
Yoo Daon stood up, rubbing her neck, which bore no scar.
"Go!"
"...Arin!"
"Like before!"
At my shout, Song Arin responded and connected a thread to my body.
She'd grown accustomed to my body, and I'd grown accustomed to the connection—perhaps that was why it felt far smoother than before.
Together, we tore through the puppets like mad.
Not much time left.
The Troupe Leader, blocking Jang Chaeyeon with one hand, extended her other toward me, threads surging at my face.
But I didn't stop running.
—Tatak!
Yoo Daon thrust out her arm to block the threads.
They coiled around her arm like living things, twisting it grotesquely, and Yoo Daon grimaced in pain.
"Hup...!"
But she yanked the twisted arm in reverse, clearing a path for me.
"Jaeheon!"
...!
Now, nothing stood between me and my target.
My arms wouldn't move, though.
"Hup...!"
My left arm was already cocked back.
Song Arin, pulling the thread taut, yelled.
"Solar plexus—hard!"
At her shout, the fist shot forward fiercely,
-Pwak!
Slamming straight into the Troupe Leader's solar plexus.
Her body bent backward like a bow,
"Kuhk...!"
Unable to breathe properly, she let out a scream filled with agony.
The arm thrust forward, sending the Troupe Leader rolling across the floor several times.
"Agh, ugh...! Khek...!"
She writhed, clutching her solar plexus.
"...Acting all high and mighty."
Song Arin, now behind me, muttered bitterly as she eyed the Troupe Leader.
"And in the end, she's just human, squirming after a vital hit."
"For the record, Bad Me was totally fine even after a vital hit."
Song Arin stared at the beaming Yoo Daon.
"You weren't there then."
"Right?"
"So it probably wasn't as tough as now. She won with just you tagging along."
Yoo Daon blinked, and Song Arin gave a small laugh.
"It's him who's impressive. He survived with a deadweight like you."
...
"Enough."
This could turn into another fight.
With a sigh, I wedged myself between them.
"Good work."
Jang Chaeyeon tossed out the words as she watched us.
"...Yes. Thank you."
I always felt this way, but Jang Chaeyeon stepping in like this—did it count as help?
Surely she wasn't just watching us bicker and jumping in once I intervened?
"Still, you all made it work somehow."
"Somehow?"
The Branch Chief was the one who replied.
Her hair disheveled, she walked toward me with a hair tie in her mouth.
Her clothes were torn in places, her hair looking like someone had yanked it out, but the fact that she had no visible wounds was impressive in itself.
"Mmfph grrph mmf..."
"How about tying that up first before speaking?"
"...What do you mean 'somehow'?"
The Branch Chief sighed as she tied her hair.
"Do you know how many puppets came at me?"
"...Yeah."
Looking toward where the Branch Chief had been at her words,
"...Whoa."
Puppet fragments piled up like a mountain filled my view.
Most of them had gone after her.
"They swarmed me the moment they saw me."
The Branch Chief finished tying her hair up high, like some Joseon-era housewife, and glanced at the mountain of puppets.
"They knew I was the dangerous one."
She furrowed her brow slightly.
"Anyway. It worked out."
She turned to the Troupe Leader.
"We even captured her alive, so now we just contain—"
-Zing.
A sound rang out, and the Branch Chief vanished.
"...Branch Chief?"
No. Everyone was gone.
I was alone in the dark space.
"The play."
A weary voice echoed.
"Is a play precisely because it's not reality."
The Troupe Leader appeared before me, clutching her stomach.
With every step, she winced in pain.
...!
The floor gave way.
"All it takes is changing the stage."
I felt the floating sensation of falling into an endless abyss,
"And this too is just part of the drama."
The Troupe Leader's muttering voice came from the now-invisible darkness.
Manipulation.
A play is theater.
The Troupe Leader's specialty and talent: manipulation.
I realized.
Her highly developed hypnosis was nothing more than a cunning illusion of—
*
...
A sense of wrongness.
That was what Song Arin felt.
They were clearly discussing the containment procedure for the Troupe Leader with White Hair and the Branch Chief, but what was this eerie feeling?
"...Hey."
She nudged the man's arm.
"Yeah?"
He looked at her.
"At least one's down."
"...Yeah."
He muttered, staring ahead.
"Whew. I'm beat. Time to rest now."
"Rest?"
"Yeah."
"You always say that and never do."
"Haha..."
He laughed awkwardly.
"It happens."
...
"Oh, right, Arin."
"Yeah."
"Wanna hang out after this is over?"
...
She glanced around.
"I only hang out with people."
"What?"
She closed her eyes.
Suggestion.
She had no choice but to admit it.
She was inferior.
More precisely, her abilities were inferior to those of the Troupe Leader she was up against right now.
But there was one thing. One thing she was confident in over the Troupe Leader.
Something she'd been doing for over ten years since realizing her past.
...
Self-deception.
She layered the same worn-out suggestion onto herself.
Only this time, she overlaid reality on top.
-
The man who'd been talking beside her vanished.
The black-haired guy grinning away was gone, White Hair chatting with the Branch Chief was gone.
...
The Troupe Leader appeared before her, clutching her solar plexus.
All five of them stood on the stage.
The black-haired man lay there with a pained expression.
White Hair had her eyes closed as if asleep.
The Branch Chief leaned against the wall.
The man nestled in the Troupe Leader's arms.
"...How..."
"Sorry."
Song Arin muttered as she looked at the Troupe Leader.
"But I've deceived myself the most."
...
"And."
...
"Those two crazy women glare at me if this guy suggests hanging out just the two of us."
She replied with full confidence.