Earlier, was it called the technical recital? The time period presumed to be when the "mirror" first came into being.
Newly opened sight was looking at that place.
The first voice I heard was Mr. Yi Sang's.
"I merely made a slight modification to Youngji-hyung's technology. I wanted to reflect every possibility as it is. So I'm thinking of calling this..."
Right after that, a very familiar word brushed past my ear.
"'Mirror.'"
...The technology Hermann loves and studies so much.
At the same time, a technology that changed the lives of countless people.
"I hope this becomes a... game that can make us laugh more."
It seemed... it had been made for the amusement of a small research circle.
······.
"Were you absent all this time because you were finding this? ...Dongrang, why are you smiling like that?"
"Your eyes are shining like crazy, but you're talking so viciously. It's funny."
"Yi Sang, could you tell this guy to shut up?"
"Could you hide that expression like a child tasting ice cream for the first time?"
In their ordinary conversation, there was a friendliness and innocence that could no longer be found in the people they were now. Even in the familiar faces that flickered in that place, and in the unfamiliar ones.
...So that technology was born in such a modest place.
[A mouth unable to hold back laughter. Exclamations bursting in surprise. Laughter turned toward one another. Eyes sparkling like stars. Pure joy felt by everyone present. All they had wanted was for all of it to become... a game.]
Even in Mr. Yi Sang's voice, heard as an inner monologue, there was a trace of joy in that scene...
Then, once again, there was darkness.
"Be quiet. You only need to... live as you are. As if you know nothing."
A voice I didn't know...
No, no.
I remember hearing this voice before. It was a little different, but...
...Mr. Yi Sang?
Just before I could grasp the identity of the voice.
Before I could even finish thinking, consciousness leapt away.
*
Even as Dongbaek slowly lost the last of her vitality, she kept glaring at Dongrang as if she wanted to kill him.
"The mirror... was not made... for this filthy... nonsense..."
"This is an important moment, so please refrain from harsh language. And I know. If it were Youngji-hyung, he would definitely have scolded me like this."
Youngji-hyung. The original technology of that mirror... if I had to guess, the glass window. Was he the one who made it?
Since he called it "scolded," he was definitely a friend from Mr. Yi Sang's past, and seemed to have been a decent person with enough authority to rein them in.
...Why is it that under good people, only those kinds of humans come out?
That bastard Stephanette's heir, and this bastard too. ...Both of them are from K Corp. Were they possessed by a demon or something?
"Ah, but do you know this? It's not like this is an age where people gather around toy-like technology and cheer. There aren't even enough people now for applause to sound as loud as it used to."
"······."
"You're just unable to forget it. Right?"
Dongrang kept smiling, but he sharply drove the knife into Dongbaek.
"You talk grandly on the surface about ugliness and whatever else... but that's just a justification you attached later to incite people. To achieve your goal. You, who want to erase the ugliness of technology, are becoming ugly yourself."
At those words, the Union members who had brutally killed the K Corp researchers naturally flashed through my mind.
...If their goal had simply been to destroy the Singularity, there would have been no reason to kill even those who were fleeing just to survive. Thinking about it that way, the two might not be so different.
Dongrang had no intention of stopping there, and kept pressing harder on Dongbaek's mind.
"And the fact that you hijacked the Lobotomy branch that had been my research site... you told your subordinates it was for investigating the Singularity, but you also figured out that there were technologies hidden there that could be used as weapons, like E.G.O, didn't you?
"Who do you think provided that precious information? Even Shurenne wouldn't have known. Want to play twenty questions with me and I'll tell you?"
"Don't talk like you know everything. You've always done that... and it was really annoying..."
"Haha, then I'll pretend to know one more thing. When we looked into the inside of Youngji-hyung's glass window... and when we glimpsed the world reflected in Yi Sang's mirror... back then, we felt a joy and division from which there was no return."
"······."
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After swallowing a brief silence while listening to Dongrang, Dongbaek opened her mouth as if she understood his question.
"Since the mirror was born... all kinds of interest groups rushed in ahead of one another.
"Yes... we think we left the association of our own free will... but... we all know it, don't we... that in truth we were nothing more than something torn to shreds and scattered... And that the cause was among us..."
"Dongbaek, even if you throw my technology into the Concept Incinerator, you can't go back to that pure time. You know that, right? Hmm... and even knowing that... you still can't let go of your obsession..."
"······."
"Ah, I see. If someone were to rediscover the technologies that were incinerated... you wanted some unknown people with different dreams to feel that same joy."
...Wait, what the hell is this now? Someone rediscovering incinerated technology, what?
No, no, no. I can understand the words themselves, but... that's the reason for terrorism? And against a Wing, no less?
There's no way the City had somehow transformed into a kind, dreamy place full of romance while I wasn't looking...
"Since we can't go back to the past... we'll make the past again and pass it on.
"Wow, that's a really fresh and cute idea, Dongbaek."
When Dongrang's mockery ended, our gaze naturally turned toward Dongbaek.
Clearly, the purpose was to hear her answer and the story of their past, but...
That thought vanished from our heads almost immediately.
"D-Dongbaek... your body..."
Because, before anyone noticed, bright yellow flowers had begun blooming from her body.
She was speaking while looking into empty space, as if talking to someone.
"Yes... hide it again... deep in the sand... for someone who will find it someday... Because we... weren't the ones with any special right to discover that technology..."
At the moment that phenomenon progressed, I even felt an inexplicable pressure. A mysterious force... as if it were pushing us away.
The crisis alarm rang in response to the incomprehensible phenomenon, and I forcibly roused my brain, which had been resting for a moment, to activate my eyes.
And only then did I fully understand what was happening.
"As you said, I must have deceived myself and everyone else and pushed forward what I wanted... because the ground we dug... was simply fertile..."
"That's hurtful. Are you pretending not to know the effort we put into cultivating that land, even giving up flower-viewing and only swinging hoes?"
...E.G.O.
"We were inexperienced youngsters back then, and the moment you can't forget was nothing more than a beautified instant. But did even your comrades who gave their lives know that? You just shouted a plausible cause to gather comrades. In truth, it was nothing but a cloud floating in empty air."
"No... but... only now do I truly understand myself. So shouldn't I personally cover the soil and plant the sprout? The bud has already withered away... and our fruit has long since gone stale... so cover it again... break it down... so that another fruit may bear..."
The prisoners also seemed to realize that the phenomenon was related to E.G.O.
Indeed, since they had actually used it many times, that was only natural.
And because of that, they knew E.G.O's side effects all too well.
Ms. Rodion, who could not possibly fail to know this, looked toward the prisoners and asked with a worried expression.
"Hey... is it really okay to leave them like that? You know... when you use E.G.O, your mind doesn't exactly keep working properly..."
Even to me, who had never used E.G.O, it was clearly a technique that dealt a heavy blow to the mind.
If you overused it, E.G.O would seize control of your body, and you'd either attack your allies or go completely limp and start spouting ominous nonsense.
Then, as if he had realized something, Mr. Heathcliff asked with a slightly dazed expression.
"Hey... are you doing this on purpose...? Pushing them to the limit with provocation..."
"So that in the end they'll break themselves..."
Mr. Otis also seemed to have guessed that possibility and calmly joined in.
...Right, Dongrang had definitely said he was researching the Golden Bough.
If his provocation of her was meant to trigger E.G.O, then had he been planning this from the moment he first saw her... or from the moment he guessed her objective...?
The flow of thought continued like water, and the clues fit together like a puzzle, slowly revealing the outline of an answer wrapped in a veil.
Just a little more, and if I thought a few steps further here, I felt like I could grasp a clue about K Corp... but...
"...This time, to that pure time when we won't be there."
The sharp, pungent scent thickened until it gave me a headache, interfering with my concentration.
...Looks like I'm done thinking about anything else.
As petals slowly scattered and all the prisoners' attention turned to Dongbaek, only Dongrang showed no sign of agitation.
He simply continued shaking her mind, just as he had before.
"Ah, purity... There's no more embarrassing word than purity."
"Hey, snap out of it!"
Mr. Heathcliff shouted sharply, but Dongbaek showed no reaction at all.
What drew a response instead was Dongrang's gentle voice that followed.
"As expected, then and now, I'm the only one who can shake your heart this much, aren't I?"
"No, I feel more awake than ever. I've always wanted to be a bud that would burst and bloom at any moment.
From her body, blooming more brilliantly than ever before, vitality returned...
"Covered all over in fragrance... Even if this is a painful path of mine that no one else can understand..."
And then,
"I'll leave behind what comes next, thick and fertile, like fallen petals."
The camellia blossoms in full bloom.