Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 37. The Garden
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"It'll sting."
Yoo Daon leaned over and wrapped a handkerchief around my arm.
As the handkerchief touched the wound, a stinging pain shot through it, and my brow furrowed involuntarily.
"Hiss, it really hurts."
"It's only natural that getting stabbed with a knife hurts."
"Hearing that from someone whose throat was nearly sliced by an axe makes it a bit less credible."
Yoo Daon shot me a glance before tying the handkerchief a little tighter.
"Ow!"
"First aid complete!"
She laughed, flicked the end of the neatly tied ribbon with her finger, and looked out the window.
"By the way, this is bad. I have no idea where we are."
"Tell me about it."
I stared at the pitch-black mountain path where I couldn't see an inch ahead.
We had no choice but to rely solely on the car's headlights, and we didn't even know the way.
"No signal, right?"
"As expected."
Song Arin nodded with a sigh in her voice.
After safely escaping, the first thing I checked was whether the connection between Jang Chaeyeon and Song Arin was still intact.
I wondered if the method link would break if something happened to Jang Chaeyeon's body or if we got too far away.
When I asked Song Arin, she said she still felt that strange sensation whenever she looked at me, so Jang Chaeyeon seemed to be safe.
On top of that, I tried calling headquarters, but as if by some cruel promise, we were completely out of range.
"Aren't you worried about the Team Leader?"
"Oh, the Team Leader."
Song Arin's sullen remark brought the Team Leader to mind.
"He'll be fine."
"You have a weird faith in him."
"He's the type who deserves it."
Even in that Butterfly's Dream incident, he came back without a scratch and returned to duty before me.
If the day ever came when the Team Leader died, it wouldn't be without at least a missile or something equivalent dropping right in the middle of a city.
That said, unlike the rest of us, he had zero combat ability, so we couldn't drag him around with us.
I brushed over my throbbing wound once and looked at Song Arin.
"Arin."
"...Sigh. What."
Song Arin took a deep breath and met my eyes.
"By any chance, how much do you know about the Mountain God incident?"
"The Mountain God incident, huh."
Song Arin narrowed her eyes and fell into thought.
"Honestly, not much. Probably about as much as White Hair knows."
"I see."
She calls Jang Chaeyeon White Hair. Does that make me and Yoo Daon Black Hair?
I smacked my lips at Song Arin's words and sank into thought.
There was somewhere that would give a detailed account of the Mountain God incident...
I pulled the manual from my pocket.
"...I didn't think of that."
Song Arin sighed, stroking her forehead as she looked at the manual.
I focused and opened it.
Let's see, Mountain God... Mountain God...
Soon the manual flipped open to the page I wanted.
[Office Manual]
[PRV - 'Mountain God' - Containment Team Lee Seonghun's Record]
[The object was first discovered 30 years ago in XX City's YY District.]
[As is common, entities referred to as 'gods' are inevitably influenced by the <Redacted> religion, which gathers the most faith, resulting in a form blended with folk beliefs and popular religion.]
[Damage from the incident: <Redacted>, <Redacted>, <Redacted>.]
...
"Any luck?"
"Not none."
I couldn't grasp the details, but one thing was crystal clear.
The weakness of that mountain lodge owner I saw first, and the background of the baby-like statue.
At first, I thought it was messing with my eyes like the Cube incident, but it wasn't.
'You who do not understand what God has spoken—now those words have become truth, so be it here.'
'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'
All of it was literally the background and weakness.
So... the god who died 30 years ago returning is the background.
But what's the weakness?
Reading it literally, doesn't it mean there is no weakness?
My head started to ache. Let's look away for a bit.
I recalled what I'd seen in the manual.
'Entities referred to as gods take on a form blended with folk beliefs and popular religion.'
'If gods existed, we wouldn't need the Management Bureau, right?'
As I thought about that part, something Song Arin said on the train came to mind.
While I was fiddling with the ribbon end on the handkerchief tied around my arm in the passenger seat, lost in thought, Yoo Daon cleared her throat and called me.
"Jaeheon."
"Yes."
"If it's okay, shall we get moving again?"
"Yes. Let's do that."
"Got it. Then I'll look for an exit or a village first."
After discussing among ourselves, we decided that finding the exit and calling for help was one option, or if not, searching for a village, Jang Chaeyeon, or even the Team Leader if possible.
Yoo Daon skillfully released the handbrake and shifted gears.
Such deft handling. Anyone could tell she knew how to drive a standard sedan.
I'm only licensed for automatic.
She could probably handle a forklift later on.
The car rumbled to life, jolting along the broken pavement.
"If the connection to Chaeyeon breaks, tell me right away, Arin."
"I know."
Song Arin grumbled as she twirled a strand of her hair with her finger.
"White Hair will be fine."
"You sound confident."
"If she were the type to die easily, she'd be dead already."
Her voice carried a strangely assured tone.
Silence fell.
Aside from the occasional jolt as the wheels hit poorly maintained road, no one opened their mouth first.
"This is the third time on this road now."
Song Arin spoke up, arms crossed.
I snapped my head up and looked back, having been mulling over the weaknesses, phrases, and backgrounds repeatedly.
"Pardon?"
"It felt off, so I marked that bent tree and kept circling, and we keep coming back here."
Song Arin continued, gazing outside.
"Even though Black Hair kept changing directions, we end up back here."
...
Yoo Daon and I fell silent.
"We're going in circles. No way we're finding the exit."
It seemed we'd hit the worst imaginable scenario perfectly.
"Then escape is off the table for now."
"I'll check somewhere else."
Yoo Daon said determinedly and pressed the accelerator again.
How long had we been driving around outside?
"Something's visible."
"Yeah. I see it too."
A faint light appeared.
The kind of light from a village with people.
"A village?"
"Looks like it."
Yoo Daon and I peered intently toward the light.
"Should we head there...?"
"We don't have much choice right now."
What could we do in this situation where we couldn't even turn back?
Even if it was dangerous, we had no other way out.
"Driving there seems like suicide no matter how I think about it, so shall we go on foot from here?"
"Sure."
We quietly opened the doors and got out.
If it's visible to the naked eye, it can't be too far.
"What do we do once we're there?"
"We need to hypnotize as many people as possible."
At my words, Song Arin hesitated before replying.
"...Fine. If that's what you want, I'll do it."
Maybe I should just keep her linked to Jang Chaeyeon forever.
"And then?"
"Well. Find Chaeyeon... and then track down the culprit and overcome or destroy it."
"Easier said than done."
Song Arin let out a deep sigh.
"Assume everyone's a devotee and proceed with caution. Don't trust anyone."
"Yes!"
"I won't trust them even if you tell me to."
With Yoo Daon answering brightly and Song Arin grumbling behind me, we slowly walked toward the light.
*
Sure enough, the village wasn't far.
"Lights are on, but... it's eerie, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
I had to agree with Yoo Daon.
It didn't feel like anyone lived there.
Lights were on, but there were no animal cries, no human voices—none of the signs of life.
"...It feels like a doll village."
Yoo Daon muttered uneasily as she stepped into the village entrance.
"I'll take point. You two keep some distance and follow."
Yoo Daon and Song Arin both nodded at her words, and we followed behind her.
The oppressive atmosphere grew stronger the deeper we went into the village.
Yoo Daon, who was leading, suddenly dropped flat and signaled us urgently. We quickly crouched down too.
A human shadow was visible through a window.
Eating something? Two silhouettes were projected against the glowing orange window.
As Yoo Daon started crawling forward on her belly,
A sense of wrongness hit me.
I peered through the window.
They sat on chairs but showed no movement for eating.
Like dolls.
"...These aren't people."
I whispered, pointing at the silhouettes beyond the window.
Song Arin and Yoo Daon looked too and widened their eyes in realization.
"You're right."
"So this really is a house of dolls?"
Yoo Daon whispered as she scooted closer.
"Still, let's be careful."
We'd been chased by clay dolls at the lodge before.
"If they're all like this, I'll really be useless."
Song Arin muttered bitterly as she crawled along the ground.
Sometimes crawling, sometimes crouching low, we kept scanning the surroundings.
As Yoo Daon said, Doll Village fit perfectly.
Not a single sign of human presence.
The text floating above their heads was identical.
[Name: Human]
[Age: -]
[Trait: -]
[Talent: -]
[Background: Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.]
[Weakness: All humans are destined to die and return to dust.]
It felt like lightning struck my mind.
"...They say God created humans from the earth."
I spoke as we crawled slowly, and Song Arin and Yoo Daon turned to look at me.
"Yeah."
"What if this place is paradise?"
"Paradise?"
"Like how Adam and Eve were born in the Garden of Eden—what if this is the Mountain God's Eden?"
Song Arin froze at my words.
"The birth of a god."
"Pardon?"
"It's urgent."
Song Arin looked at me and Yoo Daon with a grave expression.
"We don't have time. If we don't resolve this now... it'll escalate to a Class 4 disaster."
"What do you mean—"
-Thud!
Yoo Daon's head exploded like it burst.
Blood sprayed, and she collapsed forward, bracing herself with both hands on the ground.
"Kehok! Kehok!"
Her head regenerated as if reforming, and Yoo Daon clutched her throat, coughing.
"Ah, dirt got in my mouth!"
"Fall back!"
Amid Song Arin's urgent shout, a clay doll reached out its bloodied hand and tilted its head to the cloudless sky.
As if waiting to someday become human.