Three-Way Meeting
The first memory of ■■■ was a void in which nothing existed.
Had it been able to feel temperature, half its body would have been burning away while the other half froze solid—a hellish environment—yet ■■■ remained perfectly fine.
Why am I in a place like this? And who am I?
Intelligence and selfhood were unnecessary for an Observer, so ■■■ had no such questions.
But ■■■ knew at least the mission it had been given.
Observe civilizations, and record the meaning of life that they determine.
As inscribed upon it from the moment of its creation, ■■■ set out for the first star system logged in its database.
Welcome, child.
The moment I saw those words, I froze as if I had turned into a mannequin.
It hit harder than the time my father had brought up an embarrassing childhood incident at a drinking party. I couldn't move.
Did the letters just appear automatically when I opened this page? Then why Hangul? Who, and how, could write something that didn't even exist in this world?
Questions chained one after another, but I didn't have the luxury of sitting around philosophizing by myself.
Another sentence was already being written.
I've already heard a great deal about you from Hoyeon. I should like to speak with you, if only briefly. Would that be all right?
"...Who are you?"
There was no chance of an answer, but I had to ask. Who on earth was I talking to right now?
I was so rattled I even briefly entertained the delusion that I wasn't the only person sucked into this novel—that this was another Korean who was friends with Hoyeon and would be well-disposed toward me. I couldn't think straight.
That was how confused I was.
But whether it had heard my question or not, another sentence appeared in the book.
I am the mother of the Baek Hoyeon you just put to sleep. The name On Byeolbi will be more familiar to you. Call me whatever you prefer. I have no wish to wake my sleeping daughter, so let us continue this conversation in writing.
The moment I read that sentence, every question resolved at once.
Ah. So it was On Byeolbi.
If it had been anyone else I would have been suspicious, but her—her I could believe.
I knew the power she had displayed in the final battle of the original, so of course she could do something like this.
Still, in the original she hadn't been able to observe because of the Holy Power enveloping the entire continent. Had she simply been holding back, able to pierce through whenever she felt like it?
...Seriously, how were we ever supposed to beat this?
Understood. But why do you wish to speak with me?
She was somehow showing me goodwill, so I matched her tone as best I could and tried to get through this situation.
Fishing for information was out of the question. One wrong word and it wouldn't be an army that came flying to the academy—it might be an entire mountain range.
As a mother, does one need a reason to speak with a man who has caught her daughter's interest?
I see.
I shouldn't have asked. I couldn't see her expression, which only made the anxiety worse. There was no way to tell if something was a mistake even when I made one.
Then first, I should like to ask you this. What do you think of my daughter?
About Hoyeon...
...Honestly speaking, I had been thinking of her a little as a one-person escape pod for when everything went wrong.
Of course the biggest reason was for the happy ending.
Hoyeon's mere existence risked twisting the narrative.
I had planned to use her as a wild card—to exclude an unstable element that could ruin the story, and with a bit of luck, skip the invasion event of Part Two entirely.
Whether that would actually lead to a happy ending, I didn't know. The author had never said a happy ending would come if the invasion simply never happened.
I was just running on the vague information that conquering every heroine would lead to a happy ending.
All I had was knowledge of the original and a body that was only somewhat sturdy. I had no real confidence those two things alone would be enough to succeed.
So maybe that was why I had been thinking of Hoyeon as an escape hatch.
...I wondered if I could fool Byeolbi, but I couldn't exactly write that I was treating her daughter as a lifeboat.
I think of her as a precious friend—the first one I made after coming to the academy.
So I made something plausible up and wrote that instead.
A friend. You say the same thing my daughter does. Then as a woman—what do you think of my daughter?
Fortunately or not, it seemed she didn't have the power to read other people's thoughts. Or perhaps she knew from the Hangul and was simply letting it slide.
But the sentence she wrote froze me all over again.
As a woman?
What on earth was she talking about?
You did something rather bold at the lockers. If only he had come on as aggressively as you did, how nice that would have been.
...So she had been watching. A sigh escaped me on its own.
If I may ask—how have you been watching? This continent is shrouded in Holy Power. How are you seeing any of this?
Even if I found out, there was no way to stop her from watching me, and the future where Jeongho beat me to death for reading the diary wouldn't change—but I still wanted to know.
There's a convenient medium lying right beside you, isn't there? I know what happens around that child, at least. You say such embarrassing things so casually. "Just between friends," you said.
So she had been watching and listening through Hoyeon. Another question answered.
Then... is this your daughter's diary?
It is.
...Having done what I did to Hoyeon was already more than enough irreversible damage, and now I had gone and opened Pandora's box without even realizing it.
Would you tell your husband that I request, if nothing else, a merciful end?
I had thought Hoyeon's only means of contacting her parents was letters. There was a diary that allowed real-time two-way communication all along.
And Byeolbi had been monitoring Hoyeon in real time the whole time.
It was so absurd I laughed hollowly.
Set your mind at ease, child. He knows nothing of this.
If Jeongho didn't know, no army would come, and I wouldn't die the moment I met him.
The relief was short-lived. The fact that if I stayed close to her I would eventually have to meet him still filled me with dread.
Jeongho took terrifyingly good care of his own people. Family went without saying.
Which meant he would definitely summon her someday just to see his daughter.
And if some random mutt he had never seen before was hanging around her, the next scene wrote itself.
And no matter what you do to Hoyeon, so long as you do not endanger her life, I will not stop you.
...Excuse me? Weren't you supposed to cherish her?
Do you not cherish your daughter?
I wrote it as if possessed by bewilderment. Just a moment ago she had seemed to treasure her daughter, and now anything was fine as long as I didn't kill her?
Of course I cherish her. If that child asked it of me, I would destroy the world itself. But I do not wish for the answer she gives to change because of me.
Answer? What was she talking about? I wanted to ask, but a strong premonition told me I absolutely shouldn't.
Depending on the answer she offers after she has seen the world, I will decide how to proceed from there. You of all people should know what that means. Conduct yourself wisely.
It was a threat dressed as permission—behave yourself. I didn't need to ask what she would be deciding.
Probably the future of this world, or of humanity.
Nothing more was written after that sentence, so I quietly closed the diary and put it back where it had been.
...To summarize what I had learned:
Hoyeon had a direct means of contacting her parents. Her mother was monitoring her constantly. And if Hoyeon wished it, this world could end.
Could I really handle this? My confidence was eroding by the second.
"...Nnngh."
Of all times, Hoyeon woke up.
The shock of facing Byeolbi hadn't even faded yet, and knowing she was watching right now made me feel crushed.
"You—why are you here...?"
"Huh? What do you mean, why am I here...?"
I hadn't prepared an excuse yet and had been planning to just go with whatever happened—but she seemed to have forgotten everything.
"Did you forget what happened?"
If she had truly forgotten, at least this tangled mess of thoughts wouldn't get any more complicated.
"...You didn't do anything weird, did you?!"
The way she suddenly covered herself with the blanket and said something out of nowhere made it seem like she really had forgotten.
"...I swear I absolutely didn't. Friends don't do things like that."
I waved my hands, making it clear that whatever she was thinking, it wasn't that.
"Right...?"
Watching her suspect me first and then convince herself on her own, I almost thought this was easy—but knowing who stood behind her, I couldn't treat her the same as before.
"...More importantly, how did you get into my room?"
Ah.
How was I supposed to explain this? If I told her what had happened, she might remember and demand to know what the hell I had done to her.
But saying nothing at all would look even more suspicious.
"The door... was open."
In the end, a pathetic excuse was all I had. There were probably better ones, but with my current brain this was the limit.
The way she stared at me without a word told me it hadn't worked.
Yeah, too half-hearted.
But then she said something completely unexpected.
"Then let's go get lunch."
"Lunch...?"
So she hadn't been silent because she was about to interrogate me.
In that moment, words flashed through my mind.
Door. Sleep. Mealtime.
Ah—on the first day, she had woken me up for dinner.
"...Isn't that why you came?"
She seemed to think I had woken her up to go to lunch together, the same way she had done for me.
"Ah, right. Let's go have lunch together."
I didn't want to create any more room for misunderstanding. Leaving the still-drowsy her behind, I stepped out the door first.
She followed without a word, so we headed straight for the dining hall.
...What was I going to do from here?
Worries about the future and worries about her pressed down on me alike.
I tried hard to reassure myself that it absolutely wasn't because of Byeolbi.