The Collapsed Wall
The floor and ceiling had flipped upside down. The space was utterly void. No, perhaps unsettling was the better word, since the place was packed with a foul, corrupting energy that made “empty” feel far too clean.
What the hell is this…?
I fought to keep my composure, keenly aware of my heartbeat steadily climbing. At first I wondered if I’d blacked out from some explosion and lost my memories. But that delusion lasted only a second. From the far end of the corridor came the faint presence of another person.
The voice belonged to someone utterly drained of strength. I followed the sound and found a shabby door that looked as though it had once known magnificent glory standing alone at the end of the hall.
Step.
Huh?
I couldn’t hide my bewilderment. My body was moving, yet the steps that carried me forward were completely foreign, flowing naturally without any input from my own will.
The whispers became a conversation between two people. The sensation of my consciousness alone drifting through the air dominated me, but I was slowly growing accustomed to the discomfort.
I passed through the open door and stepped inside the chamber. A knight so young he looked almost like a boy. And an old man seated upon a throne that was already half-destroyed turned his head toward me.
The old man, meeting my eyes, coughed several times before muttering in a frail voice.
A voice that was definitely not my own passed through my lips and reached the king.
Is this… the banquet hall?
It was the same hall where we had first met the king called Noya upon arriving at the castle. Yet before I could look around, my gaze dropped downward.
I had no idea what any of it meant. Nevertheless, I responded naturally to the old man’s words, and the moment I raised my head the world went dark.
“Ugh…”
Someone groaned, and the scenery began to shift as though a video were fading out.
“Mom…! Mom!”
“I-I don’t want to go! Please! I want to stay with you!”
This time it was a plaza. Toppled statues, withered trees, and half-demolished buildings in a riot of colors filled my vision. Children clutched by knights struggled desperately not to be torn from their parents. The parents wept. Some bit their lips until they bled; others fainted while staring at their own children. Yet not a single person defied the knights carrying out the royal decree. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they couldn’t.
Stop…
Parents and children being ripped apart forever. Having grown up in an orphanage myself, I couldn’t truly grasp the feeling.
Stop it…!
That didn’t mean my heart was so dried up that I couldn’t sympathize with the grief etched across their faces. Yet despite the emotions swirling inside my head, the words that left my mouth were something else entirely.
Using the king’s authority, I ordered the knights. Bring every child in the city to the castle. Every child from every place touched by light. Lead all those little bundles of blood to the royal palace.
Rain began to fall. The parents’ resentment rose toward the heavens, but the bloody tears in their eyes were indifferently washed away along with the rain. I turned my head and looked away. My vision slowly left the city and rose toward the top of the castle.
Huh?
There, I spotted a familiar blue light. It was the same portal we had used when entering the first floor of the tower. The distance might have tricked my eyes, but it was unmistakably the portal the rabbit had opened.
The instant I recognized it, I snapped out of the illusion.
“Huk!”
Someone else’s memory. Was this what those past-life experience segments on television felt like? I drew in a ragged breath. Reflecting on the life I had just lived through, I looked down at my hand.
In my palm lay a faded, crumbling Memorial Piece. The gem had lost all its power; it dissolved without leaving a trace, and an inexplicable bitterness washed over me.
“Ahjussi, are you hurting somewhere?”
Han Gamin’s worried voice called from behind me. The child rolled up in the blanket also tilted her head, so it seemed only I had seen the vision.
I explained everything I had witnessed to Han Gamin in careful detail: a place that looked exactly like the first floor of the tower yet radiated a completely different atmosphere, the knights dragging the city’s children away, and the version of “me” inside the memory who had given the orders.
“That… is it the story of this place?”
“Probably.”
At her question I retraced the memory. The atmosphere had been entirely different, but the background was identical to the tower’s first floor—almost too identical.
“What do you mean, kidnapping? And what plan was the king talking about?”
“I don’t know either. But one thing is certain…”
Somewhere in this castle there was a portal leading to the second floor of the tower.
“The path to the second floor… we might find it more easily than I expected.”
The portal I had seen in the vision had triggered an intensely unpleasant sensation—the same feeling I’d had when I realized I was being brainwashed. It seemed to be the result of my magic power and Quick Comprehension clashing with some kind of curse.
“Anyway, what are we going to do with her?”
While I was thinking, Han Gamin jerked her chin toward the child swaddled in the blanket. At some point the little girl had been staring at me with wide, round eyes. Honestly, instead of gaining information we had simply gained more baggage. Simply silencing her and sending her away left a bad taste in my mouth, yet figuring out a proper solution felt equally impossible.
“Hng…”
At that moment the little girl cautiously opened her mouth. Her earnest expression and fidgeting lips suggested she had a lot to say.
“Um… could you please untie me?”
The child squirmed uncomfortably. Seeing her face gradually crumple into tears from how tightly Han Gamin had bound her, I felt a twinge of pity.
“Gamin, untie her.”
“What? What if she runs out and tells everyone?”
“It’s fine. In a way, she’s a victim too.”
Looking into the child’s red eyes, the faces of the struggling children from the vision overlapped with hers. Children who had been forcibly separated from their parents. I still didn’t know the king’s exact purpose, but I didn’t believe this girl would harm us.
“Th-thank you.”
Surprisingly, the child thanked us. Since she had heard our entire conversation, she seemed to vaguely understand her own situation.
“If there’s anything I can help with, I will. Oh, and…”
As the blanket that had bound her slipped away, the child smiled with relief and looked at me.
“I remembered my name.”
An unexpected harvest. At that moment we had successfully recruited a child who knew more about the first floor than anyone else to our side.
Laurent Sagard.
A resident of the tower’s first floor and a maid who worked in the castle, Laurent naturally possessed extremely detailed knowledge of the castle’s inner workings.
“Ah! I remember! That friend’s name is Clara! She’s really good at sewing!”
“The guests’ rooms are usually on the third through fifth floors, and the dining hall is right there! At the end of the second-floor corridor!”
“And this is a secret, but there are tons of hidden passages in the castle, you know? There’s even one that leads to Noya’s room—I’ll show you later!”
Under Laurent’s guidance we freely explored every corner of the castle. At first I had planned to undo the brainwashing on Park Jocheol and the others, but once we began roaming the interior I realized it was wiser to postpone rescuing people. What good was regaining their senses if walking down a corridor or wandering around for a few minutes turned them back into idiots?
The Laurent before us already wore a half-dazed expression, and Han Gamin—who had left the lodging with us—was already trailing behind me while letting out airy “Ehehe!” giggles.
After wandering in circles we finally reached the royal training grounds. Leading my two half-broken companions, I cautiously stepped onto the field where soldiers were training.
“What business brings you to the training grounds?”
As we entered, the knight overseeing the soldiers’ drills approached and spoke to me carefully. On closer inspection, he was the same knight who had guided me to the castle when I first arrived on the first floor.
What surprised me was—
Family…?
The man named Von Gregory had a face that looked exactly like the knight from my vision. If the knight in the memory had introduced his father, I imagined he would look just like this.
But my stray thoughts were cut short by the knight’s next words.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“Ah… I just wanted to watch. It’s my first time seeing sword training in person.”
“Is that so? Hmm… There won’t be much worth watching, I’m afraid.”
To avoid revealing that my brainwashing had been completely lifted, I forced a bright smile similar to Han Gamin’s.
Grin.
The knight flinched.
“…Ah, yes, yes. Go ahead and watch, then.”
In truth, I had not come here without a plan.
‘Quick Comprehension (C-)’ activates.
Resisting status ailment ‘Hallucination (C-)’.
Resisting status ailment ‘Brainwashing (D+)’.
Resisting status ailment ……
Resisting status ailment ……
As expected. The closer I drew to the training grounds, the more wildly my Quick Comprehension skill rampaged, like an airport metal detector sensing nail clippers buried at the bottom of a bag.
And right in the center of the training field, as if on perfect cue, sat a statue roughly the size of a small child.
It definitely feels the same.
The same unpleasant energy I had sensed from the portal in the vision emanated from that statue. If it was that large, would I have even noticed it without the skill?
“Ahem… Nice spot.”
Idle curiosity tugged at me, but I decided to follow through with the plan I had prepared. I dragged over a wooden chair and sat in a position where the soldiers could see me clearly. Han Gamin, who had come to stand beside me, smiled brightly.
“Hehe. Ahjussi, why are you sitting in front? Wouldn’t sitting on the side let you see better?”
I simply smiled back at her.
Yes. It wasn’t a seat chosen so that I could see well—it was chosen so that the soldiers could see me well.
And the reason I had sat here was—
“Hmm… It’s not very impressive, is it?”
Twitch. Twitch.
At the single mutter that sounded like a casual remark, several soldiers swinging their swords flinched hard enough for their shoulders to jerk.
Is it working?
Having confirmed their reaction, I began openly critiquing their swordsmanship. To be precise, it was closer to outright criticism, but that hardly mattered. I had come here to pick a fight.
“Ah… That’s not how you’re supposed to hold the blade.”
“Ah… With that little power, could you even cut fruit?”
“Ah… Guess I expected too much.”
Of course I was a complete novice when it came to swordsmanship. I had never practiced kendo, and the only blade I’d ever held in my life was a kitchen knife. Not knowing anything was more natural. But nothing angers people more than an amateur pretending to be an expert.
As if on cue, several soldiers began glaring at me.
“Man, it’s noisy.”
“Keep it down, will you?”
The soldiers’ expressions gradually grew hostile. It was the first open animosity I had seen since arriving here. And when men’s pride is wounded, there is one immutable law that always follows.
“If you’re so confident, why don’t you show us yourself?”
In other words: if you’ve got a problem, do it better.
“Oh, is that allowed?”
I cheerfully picked up a nearby wooden sword at the soldier’s challenge and stepped down onto the training ground. Even Han Gamin, who had been grinning nonstop because of the brainwashing, showed a flash of genuine surprise.
As I approached, several soldiers watched me with clear mockery and displeasure. Their expressions seemed to say, Just wait until you get properly caught. A little unpleasant, but I no longer cared about their reactions.
From the very beginning, my target had never been the soldiers’ swordsmanship or their pride.
First, I need to smash that thing.
A statue the size of a grown person. No matter what happened afterward, breaking it—even if by “accident”—seemed like the best move for our future.