EP.105 The Answer We Had Been Searching For Was Not Far Away (1)
Shhhhhhhhhh-
Throughout history and across cultures, when humans are deep in contemplation, they often choose bathing as their accompanying activity.
Ancient Archimedes shouted “Eureka!” while soaking in his bathtub, and we modern people also tend to frequent the shower when we need to contemplate life, human existence, and the origins of the universe.
Parang was no different.
The fact that she was standing in the shower getting drenched, despite having no need for showers thanks to her skill, meant that something was deeply troubling her.
Dreams are usually forgotten upon waking, but last night’s dream wasn’t just memorable – it was practically etched into her brain.
Shhhhhhhhhh-
As the pleasant water droplets tapped against her scalp, Parang fell deep into thought.
‘Who was that… no, what was that thing?’The entity she’d met twice in her dreams, wearing her face, saying ‘I am you.’
“Sigh…”
Parang clutched her head. Thinking back to all the web novels she’d read in her previous life, such beings often turned out to be truly oneself. Either a future self, a past self, or a self from another world…
She couldn’t dismiss it as just a meaningless dream. The Parang in her dream was definitely not just a creation of her unconscious mind.
The problem was that the dream Parang was exactly the type of being she wanted nothing to do with.
Emanating an ominous aura while threatening Parang – no matter how she looked at it, a confrontation seemed inevitable.
As if that eye monster wasn’t causing her enough distress, now this doppelganger was acting up in her dreams. And from the way it spoke, it seemed likely to show up again in the future.
Plus, since it claimed to be Parang, it was exceptionally skilled at getting under her skin.
“You’ve been betrayed.”
The conversation from the dream remained vivid.
“Betrayed… you say.”
Parang pondered for a moment before hastily shaking her head.
‘It’s just nonsense. I can’t let myself get caught up in such obvious attempts to manipulate me.’
Right. It’s absurd. Who could possibly betray Parang?
At least among those close to her, those she regularly interacts with, there was no one.
‘Maybe…?’ Letting suspicion grow about those around her would be falling right into that damn thing’s trap. Parang decided not to think about it anymore. ꭆ₳ℕọʙĘS
‘The question is how to deal with this…’
Though she was helpless this time, she absolutely refused to be pushed around like this next time, or the time after that.
But this was equally troublesome. How does one defeat an entity that appears in dreams, talks trash, and disappears?
‘Maybe I should buy a dreamcatcher.’
Parang couldn’t help but smirk. A dreamcatcher, really.
At that point, Parang’s contemplation ended. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with anything better than a dreamcatcher.
Which meant that pondering this problem any further would be meaningless.
Besides, it was almost time for the appointment.
Parang turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.
‘Let’s forget about it for now.’
Today was the day she would meet the friend she had been searching for.
The day she would meet her precious friend who she thought was dead, who she thought she could never meet again.
Right now, she wanted to give herself over to excitement and anticipation. Come to think of it, maybe that cursed being had appeared in her dream targeting this moment too.
The more she thought about it, the more calculating and detestable that being seemed. If it was going to so blatantly try to get under her skin, Parang’s best response would be to completely ignore it.
Parang cast all the gloomy memories to the far corners of her consciousness.
Looking at the clock, it was eleven-thirty. The meeting was at twelve.
Parang energetically left her house and dove into the sea.
#
And so, the East Sea!
Parang arrived at the meeting place.
Right here where she was floating, Alice Melville had been dragged into the deep sea in Titan’s grasp.
If one were to go all the way to the bottom, they would probably see the enormous footprints Titan had left behind.
Parang anxiously turned on her phone to check the time.
Eleven fifty-four. Fifty-five…
‘Huh?’
As Parang kept looking around restlessly, expecting Alice to pop up at any moment, something caught her eye.
Swimming over like lightning to get a closer look, she saw a familiar aberration that she knew well.
A T-shaped red body with oddly dopey-looking eyes in the middle.
It was a Capulus.
‘She said she was watching through these…’
That’s what Alice had said, in the memory Parang had looked into.
When Vertea heard that the Capulus were Alice’s CCTV, she nearly flipped out.
And now, for such a Capulus to appear in this place…
‘Alice must have sent it.’
There was no other way to think about it.
‘But what am I supposed to do with it?’
Parang was momentarily dumbfounded. She understood Alice had sent it, but what was she supposed to do with it?
‘Wasn’t she coming herself? No, that couldn’t be right.’
Could she be riding inside the Capulus?
So Parang tapped here and there on the Capulus’s body, looking for anything suspicious, until she discovered something.
Right below the Capulus’s eyeball, there was tiny writing.
Touch the eye.
‘The eye?’
And so Parang mindlessly placed her hand on the Capulus’s eye, and,
Whoosh-!!
At that moment, she felt her whole body being sucked into somewhere.
“Wh-whoa?!”
Startled by the sudden impact, Parang unconsciously closed her eyes, and,
Flash-!
When she finally opened her eyes, she found herself standing in an unfamiliar place she had never seen before.
‘Where is this…’
Parang was standing in the middle of an underwater cave.
Peculiarly, the rock forming the cave was entirely red.
‘What is this? A hallucination? Teleportation?’
No, it couldn’t be a hallucination. Parang couldn’t have hallucinations underwater.
‘So did I really teleport or something?’
She hurriedly tried to check the depth gauge on her left wrist, but instead of the gauge, there was only a black suit sleeve.
‘Ah.’
Right, she had broken her suit.
Parang held her forehead, berating her past self.
Depth assessment abandoned. From the fact that the cave walls’ color was clearly visible despite there being no light source, she could only determine that this was the aberration layer.
As she looked around trying to assess the situation, something touched her arm.
Poke-
When she turned around, the Capulus was staring at her with what could be called a ‘gotcha’ expression.
Parang jumped back in surprise.
‘Geez, you scared me…’
Looking at it from a distance, this Capulus was much smaller than the ones Parang usually saw.
Roughly measuring against Parang’s height, it was 1m vertically and 2m horizontally.
Exactly one-tenth the size of the ones she usually saw.
Parang remembered seeing these before.
‘Right, from that memory…’
They were the same size as the small units that had delivered artifacts to Han Si-woo and the Slayers.
‘Oh? Come to think of it…’
Parang looked at the Capulus once, then at the cave wall once.
After putting the Capulus against the cave wall and comparing once more, she was certain.
The Capulus and the material making up this cave were the same substance.
The cave walls were exactly the same red color as the Capulus.
Parang proceeded along the cave, harboring countless questions in her heart.
Fortunately, there was no confusion about which way was forward or back. The Capulus beside Parang kept nudging her back, pushing her in the right direction.
The cave was a straight passage with consistent height and width. This was an impossible formation to occur naturally.
Moreover, the walls that had been rough earlier became smoother as they went along. No matter how you looked at it, it was more like a tunnel than a cave.
And finally.
Reaching the end of the corridor, Parang encountered stairs leading upward.
Parang could feel it instinctively. If she climbed these stairs, she would meet Alice.
Ten million different emotions stirred within her.
Parang carefully recalled the path she had walked until now.
With the first step, their first meeting.
With the second step, the happy moments.
With the third step, the day she couldn’t protect her.
With the fourth step, the moments spent searching for her with everyone, consumed by madness.
With the fifth step, the memory she had clearly witnessed.
And so, one step, then another.
Though she could have swum up instantly, Parang climbed the stairs one step at a time with her eyes closed.
After what felt like an eternity, Parang finally reached the top of the stairs.
She took a deep breath and opened her closed eyes.
There she was.
A girl with beautiful purple hair.
A girl in a white dress with a small, cute face.
Her precious friend.
Sitting alone on a chair in the middle of an empty room, waving at Parang with a smile.
Parang raised her arm to rub her eyes, then looked ahead once more.
It wasn’t an illusion. Alice was really there.
Since seeing Alice in the memory within that pendant, Parang had been practicing something every day.
Parang practiced not crying every day.
She wanted to show a smiling face to Alice when they finally met again.
And while practicing not to cry every day, Parang realized.
That she would inevitably cry the moment she met Alice.
Before Parang could even make a conscious decision, her body moved first.
When she came to her senses, Parang was already tightly hugging Alice and crying like a child.
Because if she didn’t hold on tight like this now, it felt like she might fly away again at any moment.
Alice quietly patted Parang’s back.
In Parang’s ears, she heard that lovely voice she thought she’d never hear again.
“It’s been a while.”
Her voice too was thick with undisguisable tears.
“I missed you…”
Parang responded with a tearful voice as well.
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