The Great Sinner
Sharp-leaf-kin — so named for ears like pointed leaves.
The moment Hoeyeon saw the girl's ears, that was what came to mind. She had spent so long looking at Gayul's ears and wondering what they had originally looked like that the association was instantaneous.
"…Alright."
Even as their feet touched the ground, the descent remained soft and unhurried.
The walls were pure white, but the floor was pitch black. Though the entire party set foot upon that dark surface, the white girl still did not so much as stir.
"…She seems… alive, at least."
The girl appeared to be seated in a chair. What she wore was less clothing than an enormous sheet of pure white cloth, with holes cut for her head and hands.
She was breathing, but only barely. Her skin was paper-white.
Every gaze in the room turned to Gayul.
Gayul swallowed, then slowly approached the white girl. She lowered herself onto one knee so their eyes would meet at the same level.
"…You there."
There was no response. Drawing closer made no difference either.
She simply breathed, faintly.
Slowly, Gayul extended her hand.
Waving it before the girl's face produced nothing.
Gayul's fingertips touched the girl's cold skin.
The girl drew a breath of normal strength, then let it out.
Gayul yanked her hand back at once — but the alarm proved unnecessary.
"…Haa…"
Color returned to the girl's skin, leaving behind that paper-white pallor. It was several seconds more before she moved.
Slowly, her eyelids lifted.
The girl's eyes were an extremely pale gray.
"…Heokhyeon. Has a great span of years not passed?"
That she could speak at all struck Gayul once; the name that left her lips struck her again. Gayul felt as though her very soul had been shaken.
"And so — you bear wounds, do you?"
The white girl looked at Gayul's face as she spoke. Then she raised one hand and laid it against Gayul's cheek.
In the next instant, Gayul's ears — the ones that had been clipped away in her childhood — became long and pointed, as though they had never been cut at all.
With trembling hands, Gayul traced the shape of her own ears.
When no one could manage a single word, the white girl tilted her head.
It was a thoroughly human gesture.
"Is the honored one not Heokhyeon…?"
"…I am that person's descendant."
Whether the ancient being before her would understand was doubtful, but Gayul opened her mouth and answered.
"Heokhyeon's daughter was Ahwa; Ahwa's son was Yunhwan; and I am Yunhwan's daughter — Gayul."
In order, those were the names of Geon's first, second, and third emperors.
The pure-white girl listened in silence, then asked,
"The honored one is Heokhyeon's descendant?"
At the question, Gayul — once the emperor who had ruled all under heaven — bowed her head, cold sweat running down her brow.
"That is so."
Before the incomprehensible ancient presence standing before her.
The pure-white girl looked at Gayul, then at the faces of Arang, Yujeong, and Hoeyeon, and then back at Gayul — the only face among them that resembled one she knew.
"What do you seek, that you have reached this place?"
"…There are several things I would ask."
"Granted."
The girl's manner of speech was gradually coming to resemble their own. It was far too swift to be mere mimicry of what she had heard.
"Who are you?"
"…This girl, you mean."
Drawing wisdom of this era's speech from somewhere, the girl spoke.
"This girl is the greatest sinner since the birth of this world — the Great Sinner — and was once a sovereign who reigned above all things."
Her voice was calm.
"Whatever you honored ones ask, this girl shall answer. But before that, there is one thing I would have answered first."
"Ask."
"Is Heokhyeon dead?"
"He passed away roughly a hundred years ago."
"Is that so. How enviable… enviable, and enviable still…"
The girl lowered her head and murmured.
"How did you come to be connected with my great-grandfather?"
"He came seeking this girl. More precisely — he who sought power entered this far, and by chance discovered her."
Having said this, the girl looked at Gayul with puzzlement.
"Was it not severed? How has this come to be?"
"Severed — meaning?"
"The corridor bound to Heokhyeon's blood… come closer."
Still seated in her chair, the girl beckoned to Gayul. Gayul hesitated, but approached as instructed.
"As expected, you inherited the corridor. What was severed is…"
The girl touched Gayul's face and neck several times, then sighed.
"That dagger from the other realm. So it leaked through after all. This girl's sin — no matter how she tries to contain it, no matter how she tries — in the end, it seeps out…"
"You said we might ask anything."
"I did. And so it remains."
"Then — would you tell us what this sin of yours is?"
The girl blinked once, and began to unravel an ancient tale.
"This girl was arrogant. Unsatisfied with having risen to a seat higher than any other in this world, she schemed to live upon that seat forever."
Her eyes were hollow — even emotion itself had withered away across so vast a stretch of years.
"She succeeded in creating the formula for an immortality spell. But to enact it, even gathering all the mana of this entire world would not have been enough — so she devised a plan to draw power from another world. She would open a path, obtain immortality, and close it at once."
The girl shut her eyes.
"Even if something dangerous emerged, she believed she could control it. She was wrong. She was arrogant."
When emotion had dried up, it seemed her tears had dried with it. She spoke only in a flat, arid tone.
"Masu poured forth. They tore the hole wider of their own accord and punched new holes through. Even this girl could not fully stop them."
The sound of breathing.
"And so this girl remains here, preventing the things of that world from leaving this city."
Gayul suddenly realized that the chair the girl sat upon was a strange shape.
"Even so, from time to time, things of that world leak outside. And rarely, among the beings on the other side, there are those who push objects through to this side."
"If I may."
Gayul asked in a trembling voice.
"Might I… lift this cloth?"
"Do as you wish — though it is unsightly."
When Gayul took hold of the hem of the cloth — far too large to be called clothing — and raised it, everyone in the room caught their breath.
What the girl sat upon was a black throne.
And her body was connected to it.
Black tubes extended from the throne into her back, her legs, her belly, her chest — into every part of her without discrimination — fusing her and the throne into a single mass.
"Originally, these were meant to gather mana from the atmosphere and deliver it to this girl. She could once stand and walk — but after that day, still greater power was required, and so it became like this."
The girl remained, as ever, calm.
"…Then."
For the first time, Hoeyeon spoke.
"You have been like this… ever since that day…"
"That is so."
The girl spoke calmly still — even now.
"This place is the prison of a sinner: the girl who obtained immortality, repenting for eternity."
An immeasurable span of time.
Time so long that history had become myth, that not even her name — not even her existence — was remembered; time that threatened to unhinge the mind merely to imagine it.
Through all of it, alone, a girl atoning.
"Gayul."
Hearing her name, Gayul flinched. She let the cloth fall from her hand, and the white fabric once more concealed the instrument of her eternal punishment.
"The power the honored one inherited was a portion of the mana this throne gathers, linked so that it would cross space and reach Heokhyeon's blood."
"…"
"When the honored one lost her power — were you not stabbed by a dagger of this form? Image."
At the girl's single uttered word, a pair of daggers appeared before their eyes.
Twisted, alien in form, of an ominous make.
"! That's right. And these are—"
"A moment. Wait just a moment."
For the first time, Arang cut into the conversation.
"Are these not the daggers guarded in the Hoin's Godo…!?"
"What — so it is as I thought!? Then…"
Unable to follow the exchange, Hoeyeon and Yujeong tilted their heads in unison.
The four of them came back outside for the time being.
Sitting on the stone steps with the white-lit door at their backs, they could hear the masu growling and glaring from a distance — but the beasts neither charged nor hurled weapons of any kind.
"We're really going to eat like this?"
"…It cannot be helped."
Yujeong said as much, but once she started eating, she ate well enough.
"Krrruung… krrrrrrrrr…"
"Hiiikiiiik! Kirik! Kkariririk!!"
Apparently the masu could not even approach, and the frustration was driving them to a frenzy.
It was hardly an appetite-stirring soundtrack, but as Gayul had said, there was nothing for it. They ate in silence, drank water in silence, and said nothing at all.
Too much information had flooded into their heads all at once.
"The sky is blue."
Arang observed.
"The weather's autumn weather, too. The climate and the air seem the same as outside."
"If people can't pass through, could animals?"
"Who can say?"
"I feel bad for the animals… Sajeo, do you have a favorite animal?"
"Me? You mean pets? If I had to pick one, dogs?"
"…"
"What? Nobody keeps a fox as a pet. Wait — Arang, don't get sulky…"
They were making small talk because small talk was what they needed.
"Mm. Come to think of it, Yujeong — would you take a look at my ears for a moment?"
"Huh? Sajeo, Gayul-ssi wants you to compliment her ears."
"When did I ever say such a thing!"
"Oh… they're pretty."
"I-is that so."
"I have wondered this for some time — does blushing so easily come of your own nature, Gayul, or is it a trait of all Sharp-leaf-kin? Ah, Hoeyeon, do not touch them. She will go into heat."
"I wasn't going to!"
"I guess this isn't really the mood for it, huh? But they really are long and pointed. About a finger's length…?"
"That is not — it is not a matter of mood…"
"Come to think of it, that means when we go into human villages or cities now, there are three of us who need to hide…"
They kept up that sort of chatter for a while, until Hoeyeon sighed and picked up a shard of stone.
"So. If we put those daggers in chronological order."
Drawing on the stone steps with the shard, Hoeyeon went on.
"A Main from another world — something smarter and stronger than a masu — found the hole too small to cross through itself, so it shoved a pair of daggers through, and they fell on this side."
She sketched two daggers passing through a round hole.
"They're incredibly dangerous objects, but somehow or other they got out of Geumdo, and somehow or other they ended up under strict guard in the Hoin's hidden village."
She drew people with fox ears and tails standing watch over the two daggers.
"Then somehow they were stolen, and my… grandfather…"
"Call him the General from now on. And call my blood kin the Teacher. That seems to be how they are addressed within that group."
"When the General fought Gayul, he stabbed her with one of those daggers, and that severed Gayul's power. End of story?"
She drew pointed-eared Gayul being stabbed by a strange dagger, then set the stone shard down.
"…What even is all this…"
Yujeong muttered.
Everyone felt the same.
The scale of the situation had suddenly ballooned beyond all measure.
"…Gayul."
Hoeyeon spoke. It occurred to her that this might be the last chance she would have to ask.
"What is it?"
Looking at her lover's face turned toward her, Hoeyeon asked,
"Do you want to be emperor again?"