Back then, I was young, so I believed everything Mom said.
I believed that Mom had killed Dad, and that neither Dokja nor I were at fault.
But looking back now, there were far too many things that didn't add up.
Even setting aside the question of why she would suddenly do it after all those years.
The strangest part was that back then, it was Dokja, not Mom, who was covered in blood.
If Mom had really killed Dad, she would have been the one attacking; shouldn't she have been the one drenched in blood?
So, I formed a hypothesis.
The hypothesis that it wasn't Mom who killed Father and that man—it was Dokja.
That man was always drunk, always trying to attack us, and Mom had always taken the blows in our place to protect us.
I imagined Mom, being beaten by a drunken man, just like any other day.
And what if Dokja, unable to bear it any longer, had picked up a kitchen knife to fight back?
What if that drunken bastard, unable to keep his balance, had fallen and—by some rotten stroke of luck—been stabbed by the knife Dokja was holding?
And what if Mom had taken the blame upon herself to protect Dokja from the consequences of that accident?
If this hypothesis were true, it would explain every doubt I'd ever had.
Human memory is distorted and eroded more easily than one might think, so it was possible that Dokja's own memories had been warped.
Of course, it was only a hypothesis.
A way to quiet the suspicions in my mind.
"Dokja. From now on, you're going to 'read it all again.'"
"Dokyun. I'm sorry for placing such a heavy burden on your shoulders. I apologize for not being able to care for you properly. Please, look after Dokja."
...You should have just kept those words to yourself. If you had... I could have kept hating you.
-Tap
-Tap
"Looks like Dokja's back. Everyone, get ready to move!"
.
.
.
"Are you really sure you don't want to take it, Mr. Dokyun?"
"Come on, not this again. Dokja gave it to you. And why are you the only one speaking formally to me?"
"I'm just more comfortable this way."
The reason Dokja had gone up to the surface was simple: to retrieve an item.
And according to Uriel, she had smashed a statue to pieces with a sword to get it...
She's my sister, but she really is something else.
"You said it belonged to a great figure, right? Do you know who it was?"
"Do you know of Samyeongdaesa?"
Samyeongdaesa? The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
"Ah! I know him! I remember seeing his name while studying for my Korean history certification."
Dokja had mentioned that Yoo Sangah was an elite among elites, and it seemed she wasn't lying.
I always felt it, but the world truly was unfair.
Some of us grew up getting beaten and never had the time to study, while others were beautiful and brilliant to boot.
"Life is just miserable for those of us with short education."
"Ah... I'm sorr—!"
"Well, even without the personal circumstances, I probably still wouldn't have studied!"
Perhaps not attending school had actually made me a better adult.
I'd earned tuition money, skipped the military...
Well, none of that mattered anymore.
"Just in case, I pressed my palms together in prayer before Samyeongdaesa's statue, and this fell from the sky."
Wow. She can lie without even blinking...
If I weren't around, Dokja would have become one of the greatest swindlers in history.
Just look at her, lying with a solemn expression and a prayer pose, not a single flicker of hesitation.
If that isn't the talent of a con artist, I don't know what is!
"...I believe Master Samyeong sent this item for the sake of Korea. Just as he did during the Imjin War, perhaps he wishes to save the nation once more..."
[Me: I heard the whole thing from the Constellations, so where is this blatant lie even coming from...]
[Bihyung: ...My thoughts exactly.]
[Dokja: Ah, as long as the problem is solved.]
"Ahem! More importantly, let's get ready. We'll be at Chungmuro soon."
I heard Yoo Joonghyuk was in Chungmuro... if I see her this time, I'm going to kick her.
The score is 1:1 now; it's time to decide a winner.
No matter how strong Yoo Joonghyuk has become, could she possibly match me, having raised my stats to the scenario limit?
[A new sub scenario has arrived.]
"...Everyone, get back."
<Sub Scenario - Phantom Prison>
Category: Sub
Difficulty: D~F
Clear Condition: Escape the Phantom Prison within the time limit.
Time Limit: 1 hour
Reward: 300 Coins
Failure: ???
[The sub scenario - 'Phantom Prison' has begun!]
-Whoooooosh!
Wind?
The sub scenario began without giving us a second to prepare.
I had already experienced the difficulty of sub scenarios several times.
No matter what enemy came, I'd tear them all—!
[Oppa.]
"?!!"
[You always hated me, didn't you?]
"...No."
[Wasn't this what you wanted?]
"You're mistaken. I—"
[Congratulations. Now that I'm dead, you can stop working so hard and finally go to school.]
"Listen to me, the reason I did that was—"
[Attribute: 'Support Raised with an Abandoned Dream' is activating!]
[The attribute's skill grants immunity to the 'Phantom Prison'.]
"...It wasn't because I hated you."
So this was the nature of the Phantom Prison.
It forcibly drags out a person's memories to neutralize them.
Before any feeling of disgust, I felt only the pure malice of the one who created this.
[The Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is impressed by your mental strength.]
[100 Coins have been sponsored.]
[The Demon King 'Demon King of Wrath and Lust' is intrigued after seeing a portion of your memories.]
"I'm not in the mood for word games, Demon King."
Wait, what did it say?
"Your" mental strength?
"Yoo Sangah...! Oppa...!"
"...."
"Oppa?"
"So now you call for your coworker before your own brother?"
Damn it.
I couldn't bring myself to look at Dokja's face.
Do you have any idea how hard I worked to forget that?
"...Fine. I'm going to destroy this space. Sangah, cover me."
"Same as always, then."
I was Dokja's guardian.
Protecting Dokja was the one thing I had mastered.
A blue aura surged beneath my feet, and Dokja's breathing sounded clearer than anything else in the world.
...Is this it?
Despite the spreading blue aura, there was no visible change in the environment.
-Dash!
-Grab
"...I'm going to kill them all."
Kill them? Who? Dokja?
-Grit
"Oppa, wait!"
-Thump!
[I trust you know something.]
['It's a sign of demon slaying. That's why I gave you the mat.']
[....]
[There's really no need to worry. So please, let go of Heewon.]
[You have fulfilled the clear conditions of the sub scenario!]
[You have acquired 300 Coins!]
The images kept overlapping.
The Dokja of now, and the Dokja of the past.
I could feel the weight of my own sins.
-Slide
"Oppa? Why are you touching my neck? It tickles."
It's still so vivid to me... how can you be so unaffected?
The child who suffered even more than I did, yet could never say a word.
The child who only let her resentment toward me burst out at the very end.
I could see a rope around Dokja's neck.
I knew it was just a hallucination.
But it was so hard to shake off.
"I think I know what you saw. Not yet. It's not over yet."
"...Dokja."
"I'm really okay. Let's just focus on the fight in front of us."
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