Chapter 269
Chapter 269
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 269. A New Sight
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No matter how much people can't remember everything, they tend to remember most things they should.
Like the memory of coming to a place like this. Or the question of why they remember this path.
"...It's my body."
Jang Chaeyeon glanced back, saw her own body, and muttered in a calm voice.
"How can you tell?"
"The chest."
"..."
Sometimes you just have no clue what to say.
I turned my gaze toward the entrance.
Is Yoo Daon okay? She has to be.
"What exactly is this?"
Even looking at it, I couldn't see much. So I couldn't even tell if what I was seeing was really just Jang Chaeyeon's body.
But if it was on display like this, there had to be a reason.
[Caption: Observer]
What the hell is this? Why is it labeled like that?
"Should we take it out?"
"...You sure that's okay?"
"It's not."
Jang Chaeyeon answered my question matter-of-factly as she looked at her own body.
She stared at it with a complicated expression, then turned her head back to me.
"But there's nothing else to check out right now."
I looked around at her words.
She wasn't wrong.
Right now, the only things around were headless mannequins and Jang Chaeyeon's body.
"Something feels off."
"What?"
"No matter how I think about it, there's no clear connection between this observer thing and this place."
Let me piece together what Jang Chaeyeon said.
Jang Chaeyeon—no, the Observer—had suffered inside the Cube for a long time, losing her sense of self in agony.
Or maybe her self shattered into pieces. Either way, it amounted to the same thing.
But what did that have in common with this mannequin body?
As far as I knew, there was only one thing that used a mannequin body and spoke with a human head.
Aestheticism.
So what connection did Aestheticism have with the Cube?
But it was weird that there'd been no link until now, and suddenly one appeared. It wasn't even related to art.
"I got it out."
While I was lost in thought, Jang Chaeyeon had already taken her body down and set it there.
"...It's warm."
"Huh?"
What?
Hearing her, I hurriedly touched the wrist of the body she was holding.
There was a pulse.
"...It's alive?"
"Why?"
Both Jang Chaeyeon and I voiced our doubts at the same time, and in that moment, a new question popped into my head.
"Chaeyeon."
"Yeah."
"Did you know about Aestheticism before you got caught in the Cube—before coming here, I mean?"
"...I did."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded.
"Got it. Do you remember how long we were together inside the Cube?"
"...A few months... maybe...?"
Jang Chaeyeon furrowed her brow as if she couldn't recall, muttering.
"I don't remember well."
"Me neither."
That was the problem.
Out of all that time, I only remembered a tiny bit.
It felt like we'd spent quite a while together. About a month, at least.
"..."
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon and I looked at each other.
"Maybe we were in there longer than a few months."
"Could be."
She nodded at my words.
If that was true, it was a problem.
For starters, this body and the Cube.
I'd thought we'd find something once we got in, but all we'd found were headless Jang Chaeyeon and the mannequins.
It wasn't nothing, but the lack of anything meaningful was the issue.
"Let's take the body and—"
—Crash!
Before I could finish, a massive noise rolled something toward us.
Jang Chaeyeon quickly raised her hand, and I drew my gun.
"Ugh..."
A familiar voice groaned. I hurriedly holstered my gun and ran toward the sound.
"You made it safely..."
Yoo Daon, her body twisted grotesquely, looked at me and smiled.
"Ah..."
Soon, her body began rapidly reassembling, like time rewinding.
Yoo Daon squeezed her eyes shut, brow furrowed, then smiled at me once she was back to normal.
"I'm glad..."
"Daon, you okay?"
"I'm alive, obviously."
With a groan, Yoo Daon stood up.
"But I don't think it's something we can beat in a fight. At least, there's no way I could."
"Absolutely" coming from Yoo Daon?
I exchanged glances with Jang Chaeyeon.
"Got it. You did great."
"Uh... yeah... ah...!"
Yoo Daon nodded, tried to stand, then collapsed with a scream.
"Daon, you okay?"
Doesn't she heal here or something?
"Ah, no, it's not that..."
Yoo Daon stammered.
"It's just... my body was shattered so much... there's still some pain lingering..."
"...Sorry."
Maybe I should've helped her fight.
"No! As long as you're safe, Jaeheon, that's enough for me!"
Then, with grunts, she got back on her feet.
"Here."
I offered my shoulder, and she leaned on it without a word.
"Just give me a minute like this."
"Sure."
"Find anything?"
I told her about Jang Chaeyeon's body and the mannequin torsos as she curiously looked around. She blinked, tilted her head in confusion, and glanced between Jang Chaeyeon and her body.
"Wow, it's really identical..."
"Yeah."
"..."
Yoo Daon stared seriously at Jang Chaeyeon's body, then looked at me.
"It's fascinating. It reminds me of what we saw at the art gallery?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm..."
Then she went quiet.
"You saw Arin?"
"Arin... she's safe for now. At least until I got grabbed, twisted up, and launched in here."
"..."
Time might be running out.
We need to go.
"Let's move."
"But it's dangerous... Maybe we leave Arin for now and go get someone like the branch chief?"
Yoo Daon looked at me and Jang Chaeyeon, and we both shook our heads at the same time.
"We don't even know how or when we can get back, and even if we do, we might not find this place again."
We'd come here for no reason at all. If they told us to find the entrance again, we'd probably fail.
"I guess you're right..."
Yoo Daon murmured with her eyes closed, then snapped them open.
"Then let's sneak Arin out!"
"That's what I was thinking too."
If we go in guns blazing, our chances of winning are slim.
If we can sneak Song Arin out, then the four of us can figure something out...
"Any other ideas?"
"Doesn't seem like it."
Staying here won't give us any clear answers. And we can't just wait around forever.
"Grab it?"
"Sounds good! Let's go?"
Yoo Daon smiled and nodded, and Jang Chaeyeon nodded too.
"Let's go."
Supporting Yoo Daon, who still couldn't steady herself well, I looked outside.
Nothing in sight.
"It'll be fine."
Yoo Daon smiled.
"It seemed like it didn't want me coming in."
"It might be waiting out there."
"I didn't just walk in—I was launched like a cannonball from way far away."
Yoo Daon muttered, fiddling with her spine.
"Probably won't come."
"...Got it."
We slowly stepped out of the building.
"I'll take the lead."
Jang Chaeyeon moved forward, and Yoo Daon and I followed.
Yoo Daon eyed Jang Chaeyeon closely, then whispered as she leaned on my shoulder.
"That body felt off."
"Huh?"
What's off?
I looked at Yoo Daon, and she kept whispering.
"The neck was cut super... grotesquely."
"...What?"
What does that mean?
Yoo Daon lowered her voice more.
"Really jagged...? Like that vibe."
"...Got it."
But why is she telling just me quietly?
"And."
She furrowed her brow slightly.
"No paint smell."
"Huh?"
"At the gallery... or with Aestheticism stuff, there was this intense paint smell."
As if recalling it, Yoo Daon gazed off into the distance for a moment.
"But not this. No paint smell at all. Just... Chaeyeon's scent."
"..."
No paint smell, just Jang Chaeyeon's scent.
"Okay, noted. But why whisper..."
"Well..."
Yoo Daon kept whispering to me when—thud!—something solid hit the ground.
Jang Chaeyeon hurriedly hid somewhere, and I pulled Yoo Daon with me to cover.
Footsteps approached.
"Ow... it hurts... hurts..."
Whining like a child, the Observer shuffled forward in Jang Chaeyeon's voice, sniffling.
-Thud.
It stopped.
"No. It doesn't hurt. But I had to pull up the memory."
It muttered in a chilling voice, stomped—thump!—and continued.
"I have to open my eyes."
Open my eyes?
"Find it, and forget."
It murmured, then started whining again like nothing happened.
"Ow... it hurts..."
—Crack!
A grotesque sound came from the sky.
I looked up hurriedly.
"...Holy shit."
I realized one thing.
Until now, I'd thought the sky I was seeing was just dark and murky.
It wasn't.
A massive eye was looking down at us.
"An eye..."
It was an eye.
Not the sky.
We'd just been staring at an eyelid.
"Found you!"
As it shouted, Jang Chaeyeon collapsed right there.
"Chaeyeon!"
"Jaeheon...!"
Yoo Daon grabbed me as I stared at her.
She clutched her chest in agony, eyes squeezed shut.
Then her arm went limp.
What the hell is—
Before I could finish the thought, excruciating pain hit my chest.
"Gah...!"
I collapsed.
*
"...Jaeheon!"
Yoo Daon snapped her eyes open.
She looked around.
What? What happened?
Where's the guy?
She hurriedly scanned her surroundings.
Where is he?
Suppressing her impatience, she moved.
Where am I?
The moment she thought that,
—whoosh...
Golden rain poured down.
And at the edge of her vision, black hair fluttered.
"...Me?"
Yoo Daon muttered blankly.
Drenched in the golden rain, Yoo Daon was crying.