Chapter 398
Why was Go Yuri here?
In fact, not even the fairies managing the server that created this 'dream' knew the answer.
"Oh no, sorry, Comrade Secretary-General."
"We're just trying to replicate the past as closely as possible with the data of Codename Yo-hwa and the settings you inputted, Comrade Secretary-General...!"
"But if we change the data, we might delete someone’s existence? Are you going to use the 'Annihilation of Existence' power passed down to you through generations, Comrade Secretary-General?"
I shook my head.
"No, that's not necessary. Or rather, absolutely do not do that."
"Ooh."
"Our goal is to restore Yo-hwa's past as faithfully as possible to the true history. If there are unavoidable discrepancies, we should tolerate minor distortions, but we must not intentionally ruin it. Remember that."
"Ooh, got it."
The fairies saluted in unison.
"But it feels like Comrade Secretary-General's appearance and way of speaking are gradually becoming more like Codename 'Cheon-hwa'! Personally, I think it's adorably charming!"
"......"
"The passionate support of the people! With this, our Red Empire can endure for another 200 years!"
I confiscated their sausages.
The fairies cried with tears streaming down their faces, but I easily ignored them and cautiously explored the mansion.
'The tutorial fairies are outsiders. It's inevitable they don't know about Go Yuri.'
'Then I'll have no choice but to ask the insiders, the cult members here.'
Above all, I was the cherished heir of the cult, one of the successors designated as a future deity.
Though still young and limited in my actions, gathering information by mingling with the cult members was a simple task.
However.
- Shh, Miss.
- You mustn't talk about that woman!
Even the shadow-like cult members lurking around the mansion had conflicting opinions about 'Go Yuri.'
- Ah, the lady would be sad...
- She's very dear to the leader.
- What? What are you talking about, miss? There is no such person in this sanctuary.
- Miss... That's an odd question.
- She's your new stepmother, isn't she?
"......"
The testimonies conflicted.
One cult member said Go Yuri was the leader's lover, another denied the existence of such a person entirely, and yet another claimed she was the leader's new wife after his previous one passed.
It wasn't that someone was simply lying. How could my discerning eye, skilled in discerning truth from performance, be deceived?
All of it was true.
It was as if...
'... Information about Go Yuri, too, has become a scrambled mix across time and space.'
It was bewildering.
Even a mere void was already an abyss difficult for human intellect to fathom, but with Go Yuri involved, it became maddening.
I sought out my sibling, the only—or one of the select few, if including myself—who maintained 'identity' in this void of a dream.
"Yo-hwa."
"Hmph! I hate you, sister! Go away! Die!"
"Here, chocolate ice cream."
"I love you, sister! Live forever!"
I casually inquired of my sister, Yo-hwa, the great philosopher who placed chocolate ice cream on the boundary between life and death.
"That really pretty woman by father's side."
"Uung? Teacher?"
"......"
I froze.
『 Teacher. 』
That title, here of all places.
"...Sorry, Yo-hwa. Lately, I've been so distracted that my memories are fuzzy. Since when have we... studied with 『 Teacher 』?"
"The scriptures! Daodejing!"
Yo-hwa laughed brightly.
"Teacher teaches the scriptures much more easily than other adults! And she never scolds us!"
"Really...?"
"Yeah! But sister is strange. You really love Teacher a lot too, don’t you? Why ask suddenly? ...Oh?! I know! You’re trying to drive a wedge between me and Teacher, right?!"
"Not drive a wedge, incite discord."
"Same thing! Silly sister!"
"Our little Yo-hwa sure has a unique perspective compared to the National Institute of Korean Language."
"Huh? N- National... Institute?"
"The destroyer of language who calls 'netizens' 'netizen-jok' and the Internet 'network-grids' is the absolute authority."
"Eh, I don't get it at all..."
Yo-hwa's lips trembled as she furrowed her brows.
'Aww. How adorable.'
Unconsciously, my hand reached out to tousle Yo-hwa’s lovely head.
"Ungh..."
Yo-hwa furrowed her brows, glancing between my face and her hand (equipped with ice cream).
Then, with a refreshed expression of "Well, that's settled," she munched on her ice cream and allowed my petting, all while remaining calm.
'How adorable!'
Even though she shares the same blood and DNA, my sister is just so cute, so lovable, and naïve, practically a miracle and blessing for having been born under such a father, I wish she'd stay forever unchanging, continuously worshipping and revering this older sister.
'――Ah!'
I snapped back to my senses.
'No! I've been so immersed in Cheon-hwa’s emotions and acting that my thought process is becoming exactly like hers!'
Chills ran down my spine.
Indeed, the void. Even a seasoned professional like me could absent-mindedly lose my identity in its sinister grasp.
Yet, I had the ultimate safeguard in the form of [Perfect Memory]. As long as I retained my memories as the Undertaker, I'd always be able to reclaim myself.
Perfect memory—what a cheat skill. Envious that my senior was the only one enjoying its benefits.
"Sister. But this chocolate ice cream is strange."
"Hm? In what way?"
"The outside is chocolate, which is nice, but the inside is green. It tastes minty. Is this really chocolate ice cream?"
"Of course. All high-end chocolate ice cream these days have a green inside. It’s proof they're made with organic, natural chocolate. The slightly minty taste means it’s healthy."
"Is that so!"
"Only sophisticated ladies can appreciate the depth of this luxurious sweetness. Honestly, it's a bit much for me. How about you, Yo-hwa?"
"Uh, it's really delicious!"
"Really? Then our Yo-hwa can keep eating only this chocolate ice cream from now on!"
"Ugh."
While I was engrossed in cherishing warm sisterly memories with my adorable sibling.
Knock, knock, knock.
The sound from the door grabbed our attention.
I quickly signaled to my sister, who hurriedly swallowed her chocolate ice cream to erase the evidence.
In this fanatically strict household, even desserts were not freely allowed.
"Who is it?"
I decided to handle it myself to buy my sister a bit of time.
Upon hearing the voice from beyond the door, my heart couldn't help but skip a beat for a moment.
"It's me, Miss."
Go Yuri's voice.
"I've come because it's time for your lessons. May I come in, Lady Cheon-hwa, Lady Yo-hwa?"
"......"
My decision didn't take long.
"Ah. Please come in, Teacher!"
Hadn't my sister testified about it?
'Cheon-hwa' liked the tutor.
Therefore, no matter how much 'I' found Go Yuri's presence unsettling... I could not act against the established setting and rules.
If it were discovered that I veered slightly from the void, the anomalies would immediately seek to exclude such foreign intruders.
'If I were here to exterminate them, it wouldn't matter.'
But the goal in this void was neither extermination nor annihilation.
It was the restoration of the past. That was our sole mission.
Using a specialized restoration program to somehow recover documents that had long been sent to the trash and 'deleted' from the computer.
So.
As soon as the door creaked open, the reaction 'Cheon-hwa' was supposed to show was already decided.
"Wow—! It's Teacher!"
"Ahaha."
Go Yuri gracefully smiled at my seemingly exaggerated, wholehearted welcome.
"How have you been, Lady Cheon-hwa?"
"Yes! Wow, Teacher, how do you always look so pretty? And you even have a nice scent. I envy you, Teacher!"
"Thank you. But it is you, Lady Cheon-hwa, who is truly beautiful. My looks are just put together, but when you grow a little older, you will be the subject of admiration everywhere you go."
Go Yuri tilted her head to look over my shoulder.
"And you too, Lady Yo-hwa. How have you been?"
"O-Oh! Hello, Teacher!"
"Oh my."
Go Yuri walked over and stopped right in front of Yo-hwa. Hic! Yo-hwa looked visibly tense.
A white handkerchief slipped out of Go Yuri's pocket. The apple scent wrapped in the handkerchief seemed to permeate the room instantly.
With a gentle smile, Go Yuri wordlessly knelt and wiped the corners of Yo-hwa’s mouth with the handkerchief. Traces of chocolate lingered around her lips.
"Oh. Ah, ugh..."
Ignoring Yo-hwa's flustered state, Go Yuri quietly put the handkerchief back in her pocket and turned to me.
As if to convey she hadn’t seen anything.
"Shall we continue with our studies from last time, Ladies?"
"Y-Yes!"
As Yo-hwa responded with enthusiasm, while I also reciprocated the warm greetings, my mind, one part of it, cooled analytically.
I had sensed it vaguely before when I passed by her in the hallway, but now I was certain.
"..."
Go Yuri did not recognize 'me.'
---
Let’s rewind to the past for a moment.
Not too long ago.
Before I transformed into the young lady of a distinguished family, before entering Yo-hwa’s dream.
Specifically, an anomaly had been occurring since after the 1,000th cycle.
"Brother."
"Huh? What's up, Seo Gyu? It's rare for you to come to me first."
"I thought it best to discuss this directly."
SG Net. The library society bulletin board.
Originally a type of encyclopedia board set up so those who are awakened could learn strategies for themselves.
The celestial known as [The Librarian of the Great Library] managing this space was basically a fictional character, meaning the board itself was artificially created—.
"This. Look at this post."
"Huh?"
"The one you repeatedly warned us to be extra cautious of... the one with the pink... Isn't it about her?"
At some point.
The [Library Society Bulletin Board] began to overflow with information I was unaware of.
"What?"
"Look here. From this passage."
Most, or rather 99.99% of it, was frivolous nonsense. It focused largely on childish games of setting—marquises or barons and such.
However, among them, there was one post.
One too meaningful to dismiss as merely a lie.
"『At first glance, it seems like an anomaly that brainwashes the other party, but it is not. Brainwashing is merely a byproduct. 'It' actually reads the opponent's inner thoughts and subconscious, automatically producing the statements they most desire to hear.』"
"......"
"『Ability Name: Absolute Strategy. Auto Hunting. Truly communicating with 'it' is virtually impossible. However, if you can change your inner self, you may adjust the angle of your conversation.』"
"......"
"Uh, isn't it slightly different from the explanation you gave, but similar?"
An article about Go Yuri.
Information we couldn't have acquired even if we spent a fortune or sacrificed dozens of cycles was freely available on SG Net's [Library Society Bulletin Board].
"No. It doesn't make sense."
Naturally, I initially denied it.
"The posts automatically written by some anomaly here without us authoring them are all marked as private, right?"
"Correct."
"So the only ones who can read these posts are our members of the Regression Alliance. It must mean someone secretly provided this information about Go Yuri to be advantageous for us... Impossible."
Seo Gyu blinked.
"Then what is this, Brother?"
"It must be an anomaly acting out the Infinite Monkey Theorem."
"Infinite Monkey?"
"Yeah. It's a hypothesis that suggests that if you give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time to type, it will eventually produce works of Shakespeare."
"Oh..."
"It's just a coincidence. A coincidence. A mundane anomaly residing in the [Library Society Bulletin Board] keeps spewing gibberish, and by sheer chance, some of it happens to resemble information about Go Yuri."
Smoothly.
I took the smartphone from Seo Gyu and briskly scrolled through the post.
“Essentially a sophisticated fake news—.”
Then I saw it.
S U
The initials engraved at the end of the post.
“......”
Two alphabets, unsigned and unannounced, were all there was.
And I found it there.
“......”
"Brother? What's wrong?"
SU.
It was a testament. A cipher.
Known only to me in this entire world.
Let me remind you in case someone doesn’t recall, a conversation Oh Dok-seo and I had a long time ago went like this.
- That's it, isn't it? The prologue. The fake protagonist.
- I’m talking about the previous cycle, the previous cycle! In [Omniscient Regressor's Viewpoint] that I read before the Void's advent. The prologue has the exact same story.
Listening to Oh Dok-seo, the past me asked:
- So, is there a reason for the sudden head explosion mentioned in that novel?
- Of course. That guy was a real prophet.
The Seer.
Gifted with the ability to glimpse the future of this world, he saw far too many things, and his head exploded as soon as his prophetic abilities awakened—a tragic fake protagonist.
There were six prophets in total in this world, and without exception, their heads burst.
Even the prophet who awakened in Japan, known as ‘Y’, could not escape the fate of instant death.
However, just before Y's death, he used his last strength to write a dying message on the ground.
S U
It was the prophet's last will.
The first and last prophecy.
And.
‘…It’s a secret I haven’t told anyone.’
Therefore.
‘This document, is the real deal.’
I don’t know the cause. And I couldn’t know.
Somewhere, in some cycle, an 'Undertaker' used a passphrase that only an Undertaker would know to relay information about Go Yuri to me.
Perhaps even losing their memories in the process.
"Seo Gyu, delete this post."
"What? Ah, yes."
"And don't tell anyone about this. Not a hint. Understand?"
"...Yes, Brother. I promise."
Indeed.
Since that day, I had been armed with at least a minimal weapon against Go Yuri’s [Perception Distortion] and [Brainwashing], akin to a dagger.
Even in this cycle, where I've infiltrated Yo-hwa's dream.
For some reason, she appeared now as the 'tutor' of the twin sisters in this cult mansion.
Even right now, as I watched Go Yuri reading the Daodejing from across the desk.
‘I won’t be played by you anymore.’
I held that dagger.
While Cheon-hwa's eyes twinkled with bright smiles, my own dark gaze settled beneath them.
‘I will uncover your true identity, Go Yuri.’