Chapter 397
He had confidence in his acting.
Having lived for tens of thousands of years, it was easier said than done to avoid accumulating experience in any art form, regardless of the field.
He could even alter his voice with just a hint of aura.
By shaping the aura to overlay facial muscles, he could create a temporary disguise, functioning as a form of imitative facial mask.
"Ha-yul, peekaboo! It's Daddy."
"..."
"It's Jung Sang-guk. Daddy is back to his senses. I love Ha-yul so much."
"Die."
His genius acting skills were met with great praise from his fellow colleagues!
Across the entire martial arts world, there was only one person who dared to stand against his level, and that was Oh Dok-seo, who had activated VTuber mode through [Side Story Writing].
However, Oh Dok-seo, due to time-seal, couldn't engage in acting, could she? It was impossible for her to empathize with Cheon-hwa, after all.
How pitiful, indeed.
It was only natural that he, the Undertaker, was chosen as the best actor to play Yo-hwa's "lost twin sister."
Now, if Yo-hwa could just reminisce about her cherished days of childhood and recover her lost memories from the start in her dreams, it would be perfect!
It was truly a flawless calculation.
"I hate you, sis!"
"..."
"You ate the Choco Ice Cream that was in the fridge again, didn't you! I only get one a day, and you ate mine by pretending to be me! I hate you, sis!"
In front of his eyes, precisely within the 'dream,' a young Yo-hwa was shouting in frustration.
At this point, he just needed to appear apologetic, bow his head to his adorable younger sister, and say sorry.
If he did so, a somewhat 'good memory' would be imprinted in Yo-hwa's subconscious.
Even if she wouldn't remember every detail of the dream upon waking, at least she would have a faint feeling of having shared family-like memories with someone.
However.
"Oh, is that so? I really like my little sister."
Already achieving a perfect state of union with Cheon-hwa through his unrivaled acting skills, words danced off his tongue with a mind of their own.
"Thanks to you, I can eat two ice creams. I love you, Yo-hwa. But I always want more and more Choco Ice Cream, so it would be great if I had just three more sisters like you!"
"Huaaah!"
In the end, Yo-hwa burst into tears.
"I hate you, sis! Die! Waaaah! Sis, just die!"
-What is happening, Miss?!
Thud, thud. Upon hearing the cries, Yo-hwa's household staff came running.
Thereupon, not only Yo-hwa but also Cheon-hwa instantly began their crying act.
"Sob, huaaang! Ch-Ch-Cheon-hwa. Sis, Cheon-hwa... hic! She hit me... and scolded me!"
-What?!
"Who-uh, no, no! I’m Yo-hwa! I'm Yo-hwa- Sis stole my ice cream..."
"Huaaaah!"
"Sob, huaang, huuueeang!"
The staff's eyes wavered violently.
Reiterating, Cheon-hwa and Yo-hwa looked exactly alike.
Of course, the family had devised special ways of differentiating the twins, such as dressing them differently, but naturally cunning Cheon-hwa ingeniously exploited these methods to behave as her 'sister.'
The result?
"I... sob, I'm really Yo-hwa... She's the sister... Why, only me..."
Outspokenly inferior to her sister, Yo-hwa found herself simply pointed out as the culprit, her arms raised in the hallway.
Meanwhile, having slipped from the staff’s watch like a slippery fish, Cheon-hwa stood before her sister, mimicking her crying face in pantomime.
"I'm the sister- Why, only me—."
"Huaaah..."
"Huuuueeang-."
"Sis, I really hate you...!"
"Kaaahahahah!"
Cheon-hwa laughed uproariously, rolling around the hallway. She rolled so vigorously that they wouldn't need to dust anymore.
The true nature of such Cheon-hwa――as an actor embodying young Cheon-hwa, 'he' was.
The Undertaker had quietly closed his eyes deep in his mind.
‘Is this supposed to be a good memory?’
You tricked me.
13
“Wow. Currently, the target's codename 'Yo-hwa' has a favorability rating of 5 towards Cheon-hwa.”
Inside young Yo-hwa's dream.
The grand mansion in Sejong City. The home of the twin sisters.
Of course, the scenery surrounding them was nothing but a dream. It was no different than a 'set' created in collaboration with the tutorial fairy.
In the backstage of the dream, where time swirled and flowed chaotically, he and Fairy No. 264 were whispering back and forth.
“I see. So, the maximum favorability is 10.”
“Nah, what? It’s 100?”
“...”
“For reference, a favorability of 5 is even lower than that for complete strangers. Wow, the feelings of siblinghood among humans are terrifying.”
"Ugh."
He scratched his head. Of course, his current appearance was fixed as 'Cheon-hwa.'
“Strange. From my sense, the Chun Yo-hwa sisters seemed to have been closer than anyone in the world. So why were they at each other's throats in their childhood...?”
“Comrade Secretary. Then, wouldn’t it be okay to just act as the ‘ideal sister’?”
“No.”
Thud. He plopped down in a position no young lady of a grand mansion would assume, pulling into a cross-legged stance.
It was the epitome of a delinquent young lady.
With his brow furrowed, he grumbled with lament.
“Doing so would not heal the hole in Yo-hwa’s heart; it would merely seal it again with falsehood. Only by restoring matters as close to the actual history can we ensure Yo-hwa's sound mental state will be preserved.”
“Wow. We fairies just have to eat a sausage and we’re simply happy, but the psychology of humans is exceedingly complicated...”
“On that note, I agree.”
He looked around.
“Truly, it’s impossible to discern what's ahead.”
Upon cursory observation, the mansion seemed fixed.
But with heightened senses—it's a different story.
-Miss, they are at it again...
-The lady has passed! It’s an assassination!
-It’s the police! Don’t move! We received a report of a murder here.
-Our young lady is so adorable, isn’t she?
Whispers and murmurs.
Shadowy figures wandered tirelessly along the corridors and gardens. Bang! Somewhere, a gunshot rang out in broad daylight, while nearby, churchgoers casually chatted away.
It was a tangled mess. Time and space were scrambled.
"Tsk."
He clicked his tongue.
"This is why I typically avoid diving into others' dreams to peek at the past... It's almost as if it's all emptiness."
"Hey! Actually, Comrade Secretary's dream is exceptionally clear!" the fairy chirped exuberantly.
"The vast majority, excluding the Secretary, dream in such ways about their past!"
"I was aware of that."
Possessing perfect memory or not significantly affected how tangled 'dreams about the past' could get.
Facts fell into disarray, and the chronological order devolved into utter chaos.
Not just as a metaphor, but truly representing absolute void.
‘It’s challenging to mold the dream to my liking in these conditions.’
Even with the aid of the tutorial fairies, if this was the best they could muster, imagine the level of difficulty involved.
Fixing 'Cheon-hwa' as he was acting, and 'Yo-hwa' from childhood as key characters, providing them self-consistency was magical in itself.
What about the other figures? They were all melted by the void poison.
For instance, take the house staff who frantically rushed over to break up the sisters' quarrel over chocolate ice cream――.
-Ah, ah, the, the, the mem mem mem mem mems.
-I told you both are so cute I’d just love to nibble on you both since you’re just that cute.
-Sometimes I can't tell who is who between the two of you. So I discreetly peeled off one of the little miss’s fingernails last night. I shan't confuse them ever again.
The faces of the staff dripped like candle wax.
The candle wax continually animated, sometimes reforming into human eyes or melting down to stretch out the cheeks.
This wasn’t a sudden phenomenon.
Earlier too, when bickering over chocolate ice cream, the staff had appeared that way.
Only Yo-hwa wasn’t aware, simply behaving like a child arguing with her sister.
‘Ultimately, my hypothesis about a hole in Yo-hwa's past was accurate. This void manifests as we draw closer to the past.’
Yet one curiosity remained.
‘Is it only Yo-hwa’s past that is uniquely consumed by this void poison? Or do the other members of the Regression Alliance suffer similarly…?’
At that moment.
Boom!
A stomp resonated loudly enough to shake the wooden corridor.
All the staff who were chattering like shadows immediately straightened up and lined both sides of the hallway.
The fairy trembled.
“Hee. It’s, it’s coming again!”
“….”
My eyebrows twitched, following which I uncurled my cross-legged posture. Then, I stood up, adopting a demure stance.
Poised like the daughter of an impeccable noble family.
Boom! Thud, Boom! Boom!
The footsteps drew nearer and nearer.
Before long, Fairy No. 264 vanished, leaving ‘Cheon-hwa’ standing alone at the corridor's end.
I lowered my gaze.
Boom.
Standing right before me, the source of the walking shadow loomed.
"Oh, Cheon-hwa! My proud daughter!"
I bowed even deeper.
“Yes, Master of the Order.”
The owner of this grand mansion.
The dictator of a large taoist cult rarely seen in Korea.
One venerated both Mughan and Heukmak, deities shrouded in obscurity, as gods and was accountable for forcefully bringing them into the present world.
More accurately, this was how this dream's owner, Yo-hwa, remembered her father――a manifestation of a child's fear.
"Hey now, calling me Master! Even you, Cheon-hwa? That saddens your father."
“Yes, understood, Father.”
"Ah huh! You’re grown now, yet when will it end to plead on family connections instead of following the order as its successor?! It seems I must personally head to the lecture hall to discipline you!"
“Yes, I'm sorry, Master.”
The conversation's lack of coherence was disinterestingly familiar to me.
‘Such is the nature of voids.’
Amid such cases, it was crucial not to relinquish conversational control. No matter how rattling, I had to respond with confidence.
“A little earlier, I was reading the scriptures with Yo-hwa. Since she misunderstood the interpretation, I scolded her as an elder sibling should. She’s likely reflecting suitably by now.”
-…….
The shadow streaking across the floor hesitated and undulated, then stretched upward to envelop the opposite ceiling.
“Oh, Yo-hwa, is it? I see. That child has always been a bit slower compared to you.”
-Under whose authorityyyyyy!! Both of you meddle with the scriptures!!
-Did she review the parts I taught last time? Truly wonderful. As expected of my daughter. You're always commendable.
-Tainted. Tainted!! The offerings for Tai Chi have been tainted, thus purification is necessary!
“……”
I maintained my silence.
Half-amused as to what memory could be embedded in such a young child, I waited patiently as a professional of emptiness.
“So, which passage were you studying?”
I promptly responded. This was the very inquiry I had hoped for.
“Name that can be named is not the eternal name. The passage implying that names ascribed to things are always temporary tags rather than permanent existences.”
-R…
“Yo-hwa understood it thus. However, I reminded her that you tied our names together as Cheon Yo-hwa, indicating not only the names of things but even her name was ephemeral.”
Sizzle. Crackle.
"Ah."
“Hence, feeling embarrassed belatedly, she vowed that before discussing other matters, introspection was required, voluntarily seeking punishment.”
“Excellent!”
The booming acclaim from ‘Father’ shook the shoji screens lining the corridor.
"Exactly! Cheon-hwa, you spoke rightly!"
"In the end, scriptures are cherished treasure only to those who accept them as their own story, and mere rubbish on the ground to those who regard them merely as others’ words."
"My daughters, you two were preordained from birth to wholly internalize our scriptures as ‘your own stories’."
"Ah! How profoundly blessed we are! Truly, the heavens and earth favor us! The Dao abides in nature!"
Beyond the wax-dripped faces, the maids' mouths moved in unison.
"The Dao abides in nature."
"Our living sacrament, my daughter, the successor of the order, a beacon of salvation to all, is so wise! Truly joyous! Never stray far from discipline, my daughter!"
"Yes, Master of the Order."
“Hahaha! Ha ha ha!”
Boom. Thud, boom. Thud.
The echoes of footsteps and laughter gradually faded. Naturally, the maids followed the Master at a measured pace.
"......"
A past untouched by the world-ending button.
Beyond the vast mansion’s walls, modern people likely lived their lives unfazed, yet the Cheon Yo-hwa sisters resided in this broken model garden even back then.
‘Does this mean that someday, I, as a private tutor, come here to teach the sisters?’
Time was ample.
With the assistance of the tutorial fairy, the length of time within dreams could be stretched indefinitely.
‘Initially, I entered this dream to heal Yo-hwa’s psyche... But if fortune smiles, I might uncover clues from the past.’
It was not just that.
Step, step, step.
Another set of footsteps discreetly followed the procession of the cult leader and followers.
Particularly small and composed footsteps. Unlike a dweller of the void, it moved at a steady pace infused with life and presence.
Raising my gaze in that instant, our eyes locked.
“......”
“......”
Without a word, we both bowed our heads, giving quiet acknowledgment. The other maintained a pleasant smile, continuing away with a serene demeanor.
An utterly familiar set of footsteps.
Watching the unmistakably familiar figure recede, I murmured inwardly.
'Go Yuri.'
The sole third party maintaining their form amidst this mansion where all people save the twin sisters were distorted by void poison noise.
Left alone in the corridor, my soft whisper filled the silence.
"...Why, in this time and place, are you here?"