Chapter 160

“To die again. I’m disappointed in you.”

The woman who said that had a kind and pretty face.

A face I knew well.

It was none other than Baek Sa-ra’s face.

On top of that, her outfit was the long skirt she had worn at 「National Theater」.

I looked at that appearance for a while, then lowered my gaze.

Then I answered in a dry voice.

“I think there should be a prior explanation before you express disappointment. If you suddenly say you are disappointed, I cannot reflect on it because I know neither the circumstances nor the reason.”

“That’s what you have to say right now?”

The woman with Baek Sa-ra’s face laughed as if dumbfounded.

“I thought there would be more of a reaction.”

“…….”

“Or would this form have been better?”

The woman’s voice changed.

I lifted my head again and swallowed a breath inwardly.

The woman had now become Lee Sol.

Lee Sol in a surgical gown.

“…….”

I still did not know exactly what was in front of me.

But it certainly seemed to have a bad personality.

I glanced beyond the woman’s shoulder.

All white.

A vast whiteness where I could not even tell whether it was empty or inside thick fog.

I was sitting alone in a coffin placed in the middle of it.

Just as I had been before dying, I was buried in white roses.

White roses, not white chrysanthemums or lilies.

Thinking it was a strange combination, I looked again at the woman sitting on the coffin lid.

Then the woman with Lee Sol’s face grinned.

“Fine. I’ll take a form that’s easier for you to deal with.”

As if doing me a favor, the woman changed her appearance once more.

Now the woman had short hair.

But she was still as small as a child.

And with a loose hoodie over that, she looked even younger.

……It was Author Na Bit.

“This is best, right?”

The woman smiled with Author Na Bit’s face.

Looking at that woman, I quietly swallowed my breath.

It was better than before.

But it was still foreign.

Such an arrogant expression on Author Na Bit’s face.

Even so, seeing that face made me remember.

Just as the woman had said, we had met before.

This was the third time, and each time we met, the woman had Author Na Bit’s face.

But when I died the first time, I had not recognized that face because of the shock.

Only the second time did I finally recognize that face, and that was why I had secretly left a trace.

And now, the third time.

I asked the woman who had revived the dead me, and who had claimed, “I made you.”

“Are you Author Na Bit?”

At my question, the woman smiled brightly.

As expected, it was an unfamiliar sight.

The author I knew did not smile as if looking down on another person like that.

“Who knows? If you were curious, you should have checked for yourself.”

The woman pulled my left arm.

Then she rolled up my sleeve and brushed her fingertips over the scar that was now almost invisible.

“I was kind enough to overlook you secretly writing it down.”

At the whisper the woman left by my ear, I pulled my body back.

The place the woman had just touched was where I had wounded myself with my fingernail.

The place where I had carved the letter B, no, the number 13.

“Coward.”

“…….”

I did not bother making excuses.

For the first time, I began thinking that this woman might not be Author Na Bit, but I did not question her about that either.

In truth, even the fact that I had died felt strangely unrealistic.

If I had to express how I felt now, it was like I had finally died while playing a difficult game and put down the console.

I was neither grief-stricken nor desperate.

I simply thought, so that is how it is.

Only one thing weighed on me…….

“Am I dead?”

“Yes.”

“Can you bring me back to life?”

“What?”

At my request, the woman burst into laughter as if stunned.

Then she tilted her head and asked back,

“What are you going to do alive?”

“I want to finish what I was doing.”

“What were you doing?”

What I was doing.

The 「Railway Station」 suppression operation.

Securing the core of 「Giant Siren」.

Saving Lee Sol.

Those had been the original objectives.

But the objectives I had once thought were achievable had now grown infinitely distant.

So I spoke miserably, like a gambler driven out of the gambling den.

“I want to revive the Bureau agents.”

That was something that had already happened.

But if possible, I wanted to make it something that had never happened.

“You dream big. Bringing dead people back to life. Are you some kind of god?”

But the woman mocked even this.

So I asked her back.

“Is it impossible?”

“No, not necessarily. But I’m debating it.”

Debating?

“Whether to bring you back to life or not.”

“Please bring me back.”

I asked at once.

At that, the woman furrowed her brows and smiled.

“You did not hear what I said, did you? I told you. I’m disappointed in you.”

“…….”

“You lost this time. A crushing defeat with no room for excuses. And yet you ask me to bring you back? Why should we go out of our way?”

“……Would it not be a loss for your side too if I died like this?”

“Hm?”

“You used this side because you wanted something too. If I die like this, everything you have done so far will come to nothing.”

“What? Pfft, ahahahaha!”

At my words, the woman suddenly burst into laughter.

I was taken aback by that loud laughter.

With Author Na Bit’s face, the woman laughed like a child, or like a demon.

After laughing like that for a long while.

The woman wiped the tears gathered in her eyes with her fingertips.

Then, with a face flushed from laughter, she whispered,

“I don’t care either way?”

What…….

“I don’t care who wins.”

What does that mean?

She does not care.

Were you not desperate too?

As if reading this thought, the woman murmured languidly,

“My younger sibling seems quite desperate, though.”

Younger sibling……?

“I mean the thing you call 「Big Cat」. That child is earnest. A little lacking too. It makes me wonder if the extraction went wrong.”

「Big Cat」 was her younger sibling.

The way she disparaged a sibling as lacking was indeed sister-like.

Only, it did not seem like something that should happen among the entities of Special Zones.

The “four living creatures” I had seen in the play.

Were they not merely on the same side, but something like siblings?

Then what exactly was their current situation?

“……That 「Big Cat」 bit you to death.”

“Ah, what have you been talking about since earlier, really!”

The woman burst into laughter again.

So my thoughts became even more complicated.

As if enjoying my confusion, the woman chuckled, then slipped her hand into my arms.

“Are you confusing this little one with me right now?”

Before I could even feel flustered, the woman’s hand came away again.

In that hand was a black bird.

It was 「Crow」, still limp.

The woman cradled that bird in her arms.

At that benevolent sight, I grew even more confused.

「Crow」.

The thing that made me.

Bird That Guides Souls.

And you, standing before me.

I thought they were all the same thing.

Were they not?

No, even if they were not the same, they should at least be on the same side…… shouldn’t they?

Swallowing my bewilderment, I asked the woman,

“What is that 「Crow」?”

“You should not ask me that.”

“What does that…….”

“Enough.”

The woman, who had been answering playfully, suddenly blocked my question.

“Either way, if you come back to life, you will forget everything, and if you die, you will know everything. So do not ask. Answer. I will ask again. Do we really need to bring you back to life?”

I could not keep up with everything the woman said.

So I stared at her in bewilderment.

Then the woman looked at me too.

The woman’s eyes were black and deep.

Endless, like an abyss.

That empty darkness began tightening around my breath.

When I flinched, forgetting to breathe, the woman smiled again and hid her eyes.

“This is your last chance. Now say it.”

Only then did I understand.

That this woman held my life in her hands.

And that this woman’s disappointment would operate upon me like divine punishment or heavenly luck.

“……You said earlier that you were disappointed.”

“Yes.”

“Then before you were disappointed, what did you expect from me?”

At my question, the woman smiled.

“An interesting story.”

A story?

“You were interesting. So I watched you with rare enjoyment.”

At the woman’s words, my head went blank again.

At the same time, I remembered.

-Everyone is watching you.

The message I had discovered in 「Hotel」.

Could this have been what it meant?

Had I been watched?

By the things that enjoyed my struggles?

Speechless, I looked at the thing with Author Na Bit’s face.

My heart seemed to freeze at the fact that, far from being someone used for a purpose, I was nothing but entertainment.

The disillusionment I had deferred for a long time rose up as if overflowing.

But the woman continued speaking, still smiling as usual.

“So we brought you back several times, but this time, opinions were a little split. You have already lost, so do we really need to bring you back again?”

The woman wore the outer skin of someone special to me.

But I no longer felt any affection for the being in front of me.

Rather, I was filled only with disgust, but I swallowed it down and answered.

“……Yes. Please give me a chance.”

Almost begging, I spoke to the woman who looked down on me arrogantly.

“Originally, people give three chances. So please bring me back one more time.”

“Three?”

At that, the woman burst into laughter again.

The woman laughed loudly, as if mimicking humans, then asked me back,

“How many times do you think we have brought you back?”

“…….”

At that moment.

I remembered a conversation I had forgotten.

-What do you mean, fourth?

-Does that mean I have already died four times?

The hair all over my body stood on end.

At the same time, I remembered all my deaths.

When I fell in the lobby of 「Hospital」.

When I was shot immediately after being pulled into 「Warehouse Club」.

When I was dragged away by the “three creatures.”

And when 「Delta」 bit me and I was covered in 「Ant Lines」.

I had died.

I had died every time, and those deaths had given me absolute terror.

To think I had forgotten this.

The moment I became aware of my deaths, cold sweat poured out.

I hurriedly covered my mouth.

It was to swallow down the nausea.

“You have worked hard all this time.”

As if pitying me, the woman spoke in a much gentler voice.

“So you may rest now.”

The woman said this while placing her hand against my cheek.

The woman was bestowing mercy upon me.

But I pulled the woman’s hand away and forced out my voice.

“……I cannot let it end like this.”

“Do you truly want to live?”

I was about to nod, but the woman spoke first.

“What if you alone are the only one who can leave here alive?”

“…….”

“Will you still live?”

It was an absurd question.

I could not answer.

At that, the woman smiled as if she had already obtained an answer.

“Yes, I understand.”