Infinite Regressor, Chapter 430 - I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

The Fourth Layer "Ah." The place turned out to be a gallery. "It's—it's the Guild Leader... hehe." Someday, at the plaza of the Tower of Babel, the world's last museum was crafted from a hodgepodge of available and unavailable materials. Yet, there was a difference here. Unlike exhibitions realized in the distant past reality, the exhibition before my eyes was far more extensive in the range and number of works. "Have you waited long?" "What? Oh, no." Sim Ah-ryeon, dappled in paint from head to toe, grinned wide. "By my sense of time, it's been a mere sixteen days or so. Everyone else left for the 'lower floors'... I was bored, so I just painted!" "I see." "Hehe." Sim Ah-ryeon approached me, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. Her face, smeared with paint, rubbed against my coat. Born into a world devoid of color, she seemed intent on transferring the formula of the only hues she allowed herself onto me. "Since no one else is here, it's really nice." "..." "I heard from Dok-seo. Apparently, I'm essentially the same as the Udumbara. Hmm. While it's an objective fact that I'm as beautiful as a flower, saying I'm fundamentally like a plant is such a strange thing..." I smiled. Whenever Ah-ryeon embraced me like this, trying to spread her colors, I would comb her hair, but unfortunately, I lacked a brush today. So, I used my coat to wipe the paint off her face. Ah-ha-. She flailed her arms in mock protest. "But. Since coming here, memories of my past experiences kept flooding back... I kind of understand now." "What are you talking about?" "To a flower, the world is just a few drops of water and sunlight. I also think that's about all I ask from the world. I resemble a plant in that humble aspect..." "That's a lie." "Huh?" "You don't just seek water and light; you're after sweet nectar and pleasant sunshine. You greedy little flower." "Ah! Oh—" Caught off guard, Sim Ah-ryeon was enveloped by my playful cheek-pinching strategy. "Hmph..." A silly noise escaped her lips. "It feels good..." She nestled closer to me, as if she were inserting a syringe into my innermost self. "What does?" "Why my former self... 'they' were willing to kneel before you, pretending to be a saintess, engaging in what was essentially a suicidal act. Now I understand." "..." "I wanted to know." Squirming. The tens of thousands of works hanging in the exhibition hall. From all the paintings created by Sim Ah-ryeon, combining her present and past lives, colors dripped down like poorly overlapped paint. "When I die. Knowing I'm in the process of dying, struggling to the end... What emotions would the Guild Leader experience?" "..." "I wanted to know, and I wanted to feel it. I was so curious about what shade those emotions would take. Honestly, it was hard to resist." "I've always admired how you treat me like your personal omakase course, Ah-ryeon." "I can't help it! You're my droplet and sunlight, Guild Leader." "..." The viscous colors crawled down the gallery corridor, converging around us. "I think most people wouldn't understand. To flowers, droplets and sunlight are food. Prey... But they're also the entirety of the world. A deity." Does the flower love the sunlight? "People might call it sacrilegious to devour the deity's flesh... But isn't everyone like that? Everyone's devouring the world's juices every day." Can one understand a flower's love? "All the while… living without knowing what they love or how they love it. Silly people..." "Your thorns are quite fierce." "Hehehe..." Sim Ah-ryeon bit my neck, not as an act of predation or affection. It was as if a sunflower was tilting its head toward its sunlight. "I won't die now." A ripple flowed through my shadow. "I understand now." All the paint dripping from the gallery pooled into my shadow, forming a shade of black. A color that wasn't dark because it didn't exist, but because it had layered together to create dark. Sim Ah-ryeon's voice rippled gently into my heart. "For watering me every day, without skipping a single day... For casting sunlight over my shade every day..." She looked up at me. A smile, the smallest yet most brilliant ripple a person can cast into the air. Had there been no laughter here, the sky wouldn't have been quite as boundless. "I was happy! G—Guild Leader." Time limit. 21 seconds. 'I too have been happy because of you.' Leaving these words in my heart to a person who requires no answer, once again. Dive. And onto the next stage. "…" The place turned into an underwater temple. It was originally an old house located in Dongbinggo-dong, Yongsan, Seoul, but the sight before me was a blend of that house with the underwater café of the Inunaki Tunnel. "Welcome, Undertaker." The Saintess, as always, sat neatly dressed in functional attire. "The area I've been assigned is the Mind's Fifth Layer. Since you've reached here safely, you should now feel relatively free from the external time constraints." She jumped right into discussing the plan upon meeting. It nearly made me laugh. The Saintess, like the other companions, would have had past loops of memories flowing back, staying true to herself even then. "The children each have a layer assigned to them. Is that Dok-seo's arrangement?" "Yes. But it also serves as a precaution, in case any anomalies block the passage." -Giglgle. Before the Saintess could finish her sentence, a little girl ran around the surprisingly vast underwater temple. -Woof! Woof! A large dog, devoid of form with only a shadow left, played in pursuit of the girl. It was the spirit of the Inunaki Tunnel. "As you can see." The Saintess cleared her throat. "As we get closer to the divine realm of the Dream within a Dream, the form of the location is becoming distorted. Time is also being warped." "That is only natural. Go Yuri has lived through the lives of hundreds of millions. Unlike ordinary people, time for her is endlessly overlapping." "Just like it is for you, Undertaker." "Yes." "..." "…" The Saintess shook her head in silence. Everyone is the oarsman of a small boat before a tumultuous sea. The tongue is the first oar that cuts through those waves. When a mute wind can't propel everything, everyone has no choice but to row their own path on the water. "Um, about the silver bell..." However, the route chosen by this seasoned oarswoman was in a direction even I found hard to predict. "Shouldn't it be returned?" "Excuse me?" She averted her gaze slightly. "That. It's proof of the original promise with Go Yuri, isn't it?" "…" "Having such a precious artifact as a gift for me seems undeserved." As she rolled up her sleeve, indeed, there it was—glistening, the tinkling silver bell. 'Unbelievable.' Even though the Saintess recalled the memories of the 267th iteration where she self-sacrificed to seal the Exiled God Nuit— Her first response wasn't an expression of gratitude or apology, but rather a query, 'Shouldn't this bell rightfully belong to someone else?' It was nothing short of astonishing. No matter how vast the universe might be, finding a capitalized 'T' of such magnitude would be a rarity. "Please accept it, Undertaker." "…" To open with emotions here would be the move of an amateur. As someone who graduated from the advanced studies of the Saintess with an A+, naturally, I had to corner her with logical chaos. "Understood." I nodded. "But did you ask for the opinion of the Saintess from the 267th iteration before deciding?" "What?" "Even if the memories were released from the Dream within a Dream, they're still mere incomplete afterimages. That silver bell was a gift to the Saintess from the 267th iteration, and the right to decide its fate lies solely with her." "…" "Can we truly consider the present Saintess as a perfect substitute for her 267th iteration? Hm. Can the Saintess freely decide the fate of a gift not inherently hers? That's my only concern." The Saintess had a bewildered expression. "But I think it would be disrespectful to Go Yuri." "Go Yuri used every tactic at her disposal to awaken you into a powerful being." She paused. Outside the underwater tunnel that encased us, shadows of sleeping people floated like fish silhouettes. "She orchestrated a death in an isolated warehouse, making sure no one could contact you, presenting the death artfully before your eyes as your sibling." "…" "Unfoldedly, as your childhood friend, your best friend, the one passage to the outside world, she meticulously unclasped your fingers clinging to the world's edge... one by one." I paused. Letting the shadows of fish pass over our faces a few more times. "Do you still think manners are necessary?" "…" "If you find yourself owing each other nothing, then you have to consider what it is you truly want." I smiled. "What do you wish to do?" The Saintess clamped her lips shut. It seemed as if the fish shadows were now opening and closing their mouths, speaking for her. "I accepted this unknowingly." "And I gave it to you unknowingly." "I think it was a mistake." "It's hard to forgive a mistake made unknowingly. Isn't it, Saintess?" "Yes." "Your sibling, childhood friend, and best friend made mistakes knowingly." "…" "Do you think you can’t forgive them?" A brief pause. "...No." The Saintess shook her head. "I can... forgive them." "Why is that?" "Because it was all done for people. In action, not just words. Not just for one life, but dedicating all of them. She walked the path she believed was best." "I see." I nodded. "Then please begin to forgive the mistakes from the past that you made unknowingly." "…" "If Go Yuri can be forgiven, then there is no reason you cannot forgive yourself." I placed the silver bell back onto her wrist. "Ah." "I hope the Saintess will be as forgiving to her own ignorance as she is to those she deals with." "…To myself." "Yes. There will be those who won't forgive. Even you may find it hard to forgive at times. But in those moments, I will be the first to forgive you, no matter what." "…" "Just as you have always done for me." Jingle. Covering the silver bell on her wrist with her right hand, she looked at me. "Will you accept it?" "…" Hesitation. And then, a soft but firm nod. "Yes." Like a blossoming flower, the Saintess smiled. "Reflecting on various iterations... I've realized something." "What is it?" "What I truly lack is courage." The silent cry of the sea. Waves ceaselessly broke around the path laid in this unreachable underwater expanse. If one knows how to navigate, those waves are no longer turbulent waters, but merely paths that remain. "Waiting alone holds no meaning. One must make the first move. You gave me that courage, Undertaker." "Ah, that's a relief—." The wave gently echoed. The fish shadows no longer loomed extensively between us. The gap between the two of us had closed significantly. Just now, she pulled my hand towards her and kissed me. "…" Astounded, my eyes widened. From those wide eyes, the reflection of her pupils was perfectly clear. The Saintess didn't pull away her lips. [As you advised me, Undertaker.] She spoke only through the passage carved by her own scars. I could feel the shadows of the water path that descended into the underwater temple enveloping my consciousness. [Yes, I did what I wanted.] Time limit. 20 seconds. [From now on, I'll be waiting for Go Yuri's response.] Dive. [This time, I won't wait as long as I did back then.] [See you in a bit.] And then. Onto the next stage.