The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

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The Pursuer X

19

The collection of spirit monsters by Cheon Yohwa proceeded rapidly. By the end of summer vacation, the Pokédex completion rate had already reached nearly 80%.

Victory was already assured.

However, the problem lay in the fact that with each spirit sealed into the hourglass (a substitute for a Poké Ball), the world seemed to suffer a slight hiccup.

“Huh? The world is shrinking?”

“Yeah. It’s quicker to see it for yourself.”

I boarded the flight with Cheon Yohwa on the airship.

Savoyea S-21, a modified rear seat panel. Originally a bizarre vehicle that circulates in Japan, I brought it along whenever I felt bored.

“Wow, it has two sets of wings! That’s so cool!”

“So you do know something.”

“Hehe, yeah! My mom always taught me to praise enthusiastically whenever someone proudly introduces something that seems kind of meh!”

“….?”

The airship soared past Jeju Island and reached the East China Sea. Cheon Yohwa, who had been lively and noisy, pointed to the horizon with a cry of “Ah!”

“Sir! What’s that?”

She pointed with her finger at a massive wall of fog.

It was as dense as something you’d expect to see in the movie “The Mist”, covering the entire horizon between the sea and sky.

“That’s the edge of the world.”

“The, the edge?”

“I realized it not long ago. My guess is that every time you wrest control of a spirit from the Void, the size of the world itself seems to shrink bit by bit.”

“Wow……”

“Let’s get closer.”

Vroom!

The engine sputtered.

Our airship approached the “fog wall”.

“Wow. I can’t see anything at all……”

“I’ve tried before, but we can’t go into that fog. It feels like an invisible barrier blocking us. A few days ago, we could go further, but sealing one more spirit has reduced our range to here.”

“Whoa. But how does trade work then? You often order international deliveries, but the news was quiet about this.”

“That’s the interesting part. Look.”

Swish-

A massive bow of a cargo ship emerged from beyond the fog. It was a container freighter, smoothly gliding out from the path beyond the fog wall as if it were natural.

“Whoa?”

“See that? Everything else in this world, aside from us two, operates perfectly fine. It’s just within this ‘fog wall’ that this separate world forms.”

“Um, I’m a bit confused… So, in reality, only the world inside the fog wall exists, but outside, it looks like everything is functioning normally?”

“Probably.”

The airship skimmed past the fog wall.

“This world is akin to an illusion created by the Void.”

The spirits of the hundred tales sealed by Cheon Yohwa were not just random entities; they were disciples of the Void.

Taking them from the Void was akin to stealing a part of existence itself.

“Analogous to taking memories from humans or data from computers. This world, this illusion, requires resources from the Void that are increasingly scarce. Now, there’s hardly anything left beyond the Korean Peninsula.”

“I see……”

“It’s been proven that everything in this world is nothing more than shadows mimicking existence.”

“……”

Cheon Yohwa’s words dwindled abruptly. Given the bizarre phenomena witnessed thus far, people were understandably overwhelmed.

“Let’s head back, sir. It’s getting cold.”

“Just wait a moment. There’s one more thing I want to show you. You’ll regret it if you miss this.”

“……?”

“Right now.”

I looked up at the sky.

The sun was setting. Crossing over to the west, the sun—perhaps just an illusionary sphere visible only in this narrow world—attempted to pass beyond the fog wall. At that moment, the fog clouds that bridged the sky and the sea were dyed entirely crimson by the sunset glow.

A short, soft breath escaped from the back seat.

“…Beautiful.”

Instead of clouds drifting lazily across the sky, the sunset, which used the entire horizon as its own mirror, was magnificent. As the sun died, the fog wall seemed to reluctantly absorb the blood it spilled.

The west of the world was filled with the glow of sunset.

And in less than five minutes, the sun sank completely beyond the fog wall. The glow vanished as well.

The aftermath of witnessing the quiet suicide of the sun lingered like a cloud.

“Why did such a sunset appear? The fog wall isn’t real fog, just an object.”

“I’m not sure either. Even in this world, which is nothing more than an illusion, that sunset beyond the fog wall is especially fantastical. Still, isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“A single fantasy is but a dream within a dream. Yet, dreaming of a fantasy within that illusion is considered beautiful somehow by us humans.”

The engine hummed. Throughout our return journey to Baekhwa High School, Cheon Yohwa remained quiet as if pondering my words.

She only spoke a word when we returned to the dormitory.

“…Thank you. Sir. I think I’ve figured out which spirit to capture last.”

It was summer.

Cicadas fell dead from the trees. Anonymous birds and insects scavenged the corpses lying on the ground. Late summer, a season slowly whispering death, the world was a scene of mass murder.

It was autumn.

Over the corpses of summer, maple trees cut off their outstretched palms and covered them. Everywhere in the world was a majestic funeral. We promised to call that red communal grave “autumn.”

And then.

“Delivery—”

I went out to the gate of Baekhwa High School and received a plastic bag of delivery food.

The deliveryman, who had priced his day’s earnings himself, adjusted his sky-blue helmet and got on his motorcycle.

Vroom-

The engine roared as the motorcycle slid onto the road outside the gate. And disappeared.

Beyond the fog wall.

“……”

Now the world was the size of the school’s walls.

Everywhere I looked, the sky was wrapped in white fog clouds. In the morning, cars gathered by teachers slipped out of the fog wall, and in the evening, the same cars disappeared on the other side of the fog wall.

As days passed, the distance from here to there, from inside the car to peace, was only the school playground.

The end of space. The silence of time. There was nothing there, but somehow the trio of life emerged silently and sank in the waters.

For a moment, the droplets that sprang up from a child’s hand game were soon the weight of existence. The world’s glow was embroidered on each and every rainstorm.

I stood still outside the student council room, staring at the white glass separating me and peace.

“How many are left now?”

“Two.”

It was winter.

Snow fell for the first time. Because this world was made in summer, it was the first snowfall.

Tock, snowflakes hit the glass. The quietest knock. Looking out the window, it was already a white fog right in front of my nose.

The world’s area is about 10 square feet of a studio apartment.

The size of the universe has been reduced to a student council room where only two people can barely breathe.

-……

-Goong… Goong… Goong……

-Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Crackle. From time to time, the spirits made a small noise as they wiggled on the shelves. The rest of the area that disappeared behind the fog was trapped in 98 glass hourglasses.

The last ghost of one left.

Cheon Yohwa watched it quietly.

“You must obey me.”

-Sorry, but that brainwashing won’t work on me.

The same voice as Cheon Yohwa.

The voice came from a full-body mirror on the opposite side. In the mirror, there was a figure sitting in a chair in a relaxed posture with the same hairstyle and uniform as Cheon Yohwa.

-”You know. No matter how much you try to brainwash me, it eventually turns into a command to obey yourself.”

Doppelganger.

A strange being who could only live as someone’s shadow. That was Cheon Yohwa’s final testament as an eternal disciple left behind.

“Why am I you? You’re just a spirit trapped in a mirror. I exist outside. You can’t move around, but I’m free.”

-“Oh, I see. Nowadays, people call twitching around in a 10-square-meter world freedom? Sorry, I’m stupid. I didn’t realize that prison on Earth was the freest place.”

“Are you kidding? A 10-square-meter room in prison would be like a luxury hotel.”

-“Yeah, I’d love to stay at a 5-star hotel. Really jealous.”

“I hate you.”

-“I hate you too. Just as expected.”

Cheon Yohwa sighed. Was this the right moment to intervene?

“Have some coffee and relax.”

“Oh! Sir… You didn’t have it delivered, you brewed it yourself? Wow, thank you.”

“No problem. It’s my little hobby.”

I had many hobbies, but being a barista was my favorite.

Finding satisfaction in bombarding caffeine to suit the taste buds of others was more rewarding than anything else.

After numerous trials and errors, Cheon Yohwa’s palate had found a compromise between “coffee is bitter” and “coffee is sweet.”

Espresso? Is this coffee? It’s more like herbal medicine. Macchiato? It’s sugary water.

Cheon Yohwa proclaimed the unification of left and right wings while establishing a new political party.

Expected to face criticism from both sides, Cheon Yohwa, like those who advocate for third parties, overflowed with baseless confidence. The party name was ‘Double Espresso Cream Latte.’

The cream is not mixed, served like ice cream. Chocolate is thinly sliced and lightly placed on top. The chocolate should be between 70% and 90% cocoa. Drink it yourself, mixing the cream little by little, so include a straw or spoon. There, done.

“It’s delicious…”

Cheon Yohwa had the happiest expression in the world.

“When the coffee is well-made, it feels so fulfilling… Sir, could you make this for me every morning? These days, without the coffee you make, my head starts to feel fuzzy around lunchtime.”

“Thank you for the high praise. But even though I really want to, it’s not easy.”

“Why?”

“Here, civilization is intact, so getting coffee beans, cream, and chocolate was really easy. But when I return to reality, I can only make it occasionally.”

“Hehe. You’ve added one more reason not to want to go back to reality…”

-”Heh. How delicious is it? Can I have a cup too, sir?”

“Shut up.”

Cheon Yohwa muttered.

The temperature in the room dropped by one degree.

“Before I really kill you.”

-”…”

Clink, clink, clink.

The 98 sand clocks on the shelf slightly trembled. In the middle of the table, the stainless steel kettle was rocking as it boiled water.

Phew. Cheon Yohwa gently blew the steam heated by the coffee to return the room’s temperature quietly.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Hm? Coffee is my hobby…”

“Not just coffee. Everything.”

“…”

“I know you have many secrets. But one thing is certain. No matter what happens to our school, you could have just ignored us.”

A blizzard blew.

“I sometimes imagine what would have happened if you weren’t here. Anyway, time is what’s left, so I often indulge in various fantasies.”

“I see.”

“I was scared of ghosts since I was little.”

White snow appeared from white fog and hit the white window. After hitting, the snowflakes were swept away by the wind and disappeared beyond the fog.

It existed because it was white, and it disappeared because it was white.

Existence’s blanching.

“My father is like the leader of a cult. Well, just the leader itself.”

“…”

“Do you know? Our house is huge. It even has a church-like facility underground. Every month, hundreds of people gather there, chanting strange incantations… My family name is Yeongyang Cheon. But my father insisted that I use the character for heaven as my surname, both at home and at school. Haha, weird, right?”

“…”

“Sir, did you see the strange talismans stuck at our school?”

“Yeah. I saw them.”

“This school is also run by our family. The principal just brought in a relative and seated him, but it’s practically my father’s. Most of the kids here are from the cult family.”

“…”

“So, one day, the sky suddenly turned bright red, and when the ghosts appeared, I just somehow accepted it. Ah, of course, it’s divine punishment.:

Snowflakes stuck to the window. Snowflakes endlessly bloomed and faded away.

Existence was in bloom.

“But we can’t just let the kids die.”

“…”

“Maybe this is our family’s fault. I couldn’t figure out how it came to this, being almost a runaway… But still, as the student council president. Because I was always called lady by the cult. I have to take responsibility.”

In the 10-square-meter room wrapped in the scent of white flowers, Cheon Yohwa’s story flowed.