[Episode 120]
Snap click.
I watched in a daze as a huge cog wheel rolled in front of me.
‘What is this?’
It was pitch-black on all sides, with only a huge cogwheel in the center.
I just frowned as I looked at the gears that slowly meshed and rolled.
I felt the weight of the years on the cog wheel, which felt difficult even to roll.
It’s a strange thing.
I was with Lucillion just now.
“Lucy?”
The small voice was swallowed intact in the endless darkness.
The sound that echoed and never returned showed how wide and endless this space was.
“dad! Laurent!”
Even if I scream out loud in fear, there is no answer. The silence ate away the sound, and fear came over me.
It was then that something ran in front of me and then passed by.
Startled, I turned my head and saw a small child running to my lap.
That’s…
“Is it me?”
The moment he murmured softly, the child stood tall. The child, who ran as fast as he could, stood on his seat and bent down to pick up something.
“Sorry, I almost forgot. phew.”
I, no child, laughed bashfully.
“The princess in the fairy tale will be happy. I want to be a princess like this too.”
What little Cha Miso picked up was a book.
At that time, I thought it might be my favorite Andersen’s fairy tale.
A fairy tale containing the dreams and hopes of children who had at least one in every family at that time.
These were things I once really liked.
“It’s cold anyway. You won’t be kicked out forever like this, right?”
The child, whose cheeks were slightly red and swollen as if he had been hit, murmured softly and hugged the book tightly.
“I wish I had been born as a man. Then I wouldn’t get scolded, and my grandmother would have loved me, right?”
The young me with an upset expression murmured softly. I just stared blankly at it.
‘When was that an enemy…?’
Why can’t I remember?
All of this scenery was so unfamiliar that I felt as if I was seeing it for the first time.
Before I knew it, I approached the child who was sitting on the swing and stamping his feet slowly.
Seeing my young self, it was because I wanted to say something.
“hi.”
However, a shadow fell behind the child and there was someone who spoke to me who was younger than me.
omg!
The startled young me opened my eyes wide and quickly turned my head.
“who are you?”
“A star keeper just looking for a lost soul? Or should I say a guide?”
“…yes?”
“Is it still difficult for our kid?”
A man strode out.
The man, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sat down on an empty swing next to the child.
“Do you know me?”
“You know very well, you don’t know, but I know you better than anyone.”
He spat out an incomprehensible word and gently touched the brim of his hat. The child’s head tilted.
“Are you lonely?”
“…uh.”
The young me blinked blankly. Then he shook his head, trying to swallow the dark emotions that were reflected at first glance.
“No! smile is brave You have a father, a mother, and a younger brother!”
“You’re still lonely.”
“…but not.”
“It’s not good to lie to yourself.”
In response to that resolute answer, the young me quietly kept my mouth shut. He frowned with a slightly embarrassed expression, but did not respond.
“Then how about imagining it?”
“Imagination?”
“okay.”
The man’s face was obscured by the shadow of the brim to the extent that it was strangely difficult to see.
“Don’t you want to be a princess in a fairy tale? Don’t you want everyone to love you because the hero saves you or you become the main character of that world?”
“I want to be!”
At the man’s words, I nodded my head coldly, my eyes twinkling.
‘I’ve been particularly fond of fairy tales featuring such warriors and princesses since the old days.’
I thought and moved my gaze to the man.
The man’s slanted smile was visible under the shadow that stretched under the brim. That smile somehow seemed creepy and disturbing to me.
‘I don’t have memories like this.’
I’ve never met anyone like this.
If I met such a unique, unusual, and mysterious person, there is no way I wouldn’t remember it, but I have no idea.
“Okay then, think about it.”
“But it hurts when you think about it.”
“Usually, yes, but what you think and imagine will become reality.”
“yes…?”
His expression crumpled, probably because it was such a strange story that I was speechless even when I was young.
“Yes, if possible, write it like a novel while drawing a picture in your sketchbook.”
“….”
“You will be a happy heroine.”
Large hands covered both of my young cheeks.
“Oh Chaga!”
I jumped out of my seat with a frightened expression on my face. The long-brimmed man laughed.
“Then you can be too.”
“…really? But only God can do that.”
“Why do you think it is God who makes the world? He has no desire, no want, no need.”
The man said meaningfully.
“The world is made by those who aspire. So, only if you are lonely and sad will the protagonist of the world you create be happy.”
“yes?”
The child’s eyes widened. The man got up from his seat as if he had finished what he had to say.
“It’s okay, because this memory will be forgotten anyway. Forgetting what you can’t handle is what you do best.”
“Uh…”
“Next time we meet…”
The man lightly touched the brim and looked at me carefully.
“Looks like it’s about time to dispose of it. All gears are broken. This will be the last time.”
“What kind of strange words have you been talking about, mister!”
The young Cha Mi-so must have been bizarre to hear. I jumped up and hurried away from the man.
The man didn’t chase me, he just laughed on the spot.
he took a step
It was only a small step, but the man was in front of me when I was younger. While the child was aching, the man reached out and rubbed my young cheek.
Then, the life of young Cha Mi-so disappeared, and soon countless unknown letters crawled up my body like worms.
The man who watched the densely packed letters climb up my body made me sit on a swing and gave me a book.
“Don’t forget, you are a being who can live only by dreaming the happiest dream in the most miserable world.”
He whispered one last time and disappeared.
As soon as he disappeared, the young me was back to normal.
His eyes were full of life, and the letters that had been creeping up his body disappeared.
“Uh… are Mom and Dad still mad?”
Little Chamiso jumped off the swing and ran towards the house as if she had no idea what had just happened.
“…what the hell is it?”
who is that person
I looked around in the dark again with a puzzled face.
“I can’t.”
Suddenly, I heard a young and familiar voice right next to me.
When I turned my head in surprise, the cogs still existed there.
But the slightly different thing is that I was in front of him. To be precise, there was a young tea smile.
“You cannot come here. You can’t handle it.”
“Why am I here…?”
“Someone tried to touch your memory by force outside.”
Young Cha Mi-so, who was looking at me carefully in the state of Eirin, smiled.
Now that I have a young tea smile, my vision is a little brighter now. Around the young Cha Miso were crayons, a smartphone, and a strange button.
The state of the giant cog wheel behind the child also caught my eye in a little more detail.
The cogwheel was in a miserable state, rusted here and there, corroded and collapsing. It’s amazing how it rolls.
“It’s okay to go back to your world and forget about it.”
As if she had to forget everything, the young Cha Mi-so said. I shook my head, unable to hide my embarrassment.
“I don’t remember meeting that man.”
“It wanders the original dimension world. It touches beings like us and makes them dream.”
“What about that dream…”
“Did you know that loneliness is the biggest driving force behind hope and imagination?”
It was clear that I was young, but somehow I only felt like I was having a conversation with a completely different person.
“And this is our last dream.”
“The end…”
“When the world is completed, the dream ends. Originally, it should have ended with ‘Cha Smile’…”
The young me just smiled clumsily and blurted out the end of my words. The kid didn’t say anything behind his back.
“So go back and forget it.”
“…What if I forget?”
“I can live happily like now. that’s what you dreamed of A life to be loved.”
At the words of young Cha Mi-so, I pursed my lips and clenched my fists.
Perhaps it was because I was still Eirin, and the younger Cha Mi-so looked quite right.
As I pondered over the story I had just heard, an uneasy thought crept into my mind.
Yes, it would be more accurate to say that I have a question.
“…Did I make it?”
I tightly closed my eyes.
“Eirin’s world is Charnett… Did I make it?”
“It’s what we made.”
“Why…”
“Because I was lonely.”
The young Cha Mi-so said calmly.
“Eirin will never grow up.”
There was no evil talk like this. When I frowned, Cha Miso laughed and picked up the crayons that were rolling on the floor.
A familiar figure was drawn in the scattered sketchbook. Nana in the form of a lizard, Richard the dragon, and Charne the father.
“Because our dreams only continue when we are children.”
Cha Mi-so, who added that she had to stay as a child while wandering the world forever, lowered her head slowly.
“The world needs people who dream and draw dreams. Only then will a new world be born.”
Adding that God doesn’t create anything, young Cha Mi-so looked very tired and exhausted.
“We are already very worn out. i ran away But sooner or later he will find us and melt us into children with new dreams.”
It was a cruel story.
I didn’t understand the words of young Cha Mi-so at all, but somehow I seemed to understand everything.
After a while, I slowly closed my mouth.
“So this world is our last dream.”
It was the moment when young Cha Mi-so resolutely declared.
“Whoever wants to.”
A space that no one thought could be torn apart was torn apart with pure white light, and a nostalgic voice was heard.
