Time flowed on and on, until it showed a scene of Yi Sang working alone in his research.
Season-wise... it was still spring. The time when flowers were blooming.
[That spring day, I made a small mirror. I named it "Yeonsim."]
In his hand was a modest little hand mirror.
So that must have been the first finished product of that "mirror." Yeonsim, huh... what an unusual name.
[And then, after stripping away countless noises and distortions, I happened to catch a signal. It was only within Yeonsim that I finally met you.]
You? I widened my eyes at a word that usually should not have appeared, and looked at the hand mirror. In it, Yi Sang was reflected... no, was that really Yi Sang? A different version of him, with a different personality... himself. Yes, that expression fit best.
[Beautiful and composed... my left-handed one.]
The mirror was showing him from another world.
For him to call that person "you" meant that, to Yi Sang, this was someone that significant.
"A pleasure. I am..."
"Yi Sang, you say. This is quite an odd experience."
To Yi Sang's question, the Yi Sang inside the mirror answered with surprising ease.
Calling both of them Yi Sang was a little awkward. The Yi Sang in the mirror was reflected in reverse, so... should I call him Sang, sir?
Mm... the Yi Sang in the mirror, or Sang, sir as a nickname, lowered his gaze slightly, then soon looked toward the hand mirror Yi Sang was holding.
"That mirror you hold..."
"It is called Yeonsim."
"Yeonsim(硏尋), then..."
"Because this was made by grinding away at things... and even at the heart itself, until it shone."
"I see. So all Yisang were earnest about research."
The conversation between the two Yisangs flowed like water, until Yi Sang's gaze suddenly shifted behind Sang, sir.
More precisely, to the... what was that. Wings made of multicolored glass shards?
"You have wings sprouting from you."
"...What do you think of my wings?"
"...Splendid. They look very warm and... free."
[We looked into one another and looked out from one another.]
Along with that monologue, the perspective of the self-awareness depth that had been paused in Yi Sang's room accelerated once more.
The place it eventually reached was the Nangsulhoe of the Guhinhoe.
It was a familiar scene to us: the moment Yi Sang first revealed the mirror to the world.
"I only applied a slight modification to Youngji-hyung's technique. I wanted to reflect every possibility as it was."
"The stars seen lying here are truly far away... and yet, it seems they could be seen this close after all."
Ah, right. I had to act too. The voice of Hong Lu, speaking through Youngji-hyung's mouth, brought me back to my senses.
...The side effects on my eyes were worse than I expected. Maybe because we'd been fighting nonstop without any rest.
"You disappeared all this time just to find this? I thought you liked rice more than bread, so I figured you'd gone back to S Corp..."
...That's a joke, right? No matter how you slice it, there's no way Yi Sang would abandon the Guhinhoe and go back to S Corp alone.
"Still... it's not bad."
At Dongbaek's slightly tsundere remark, Dongrang wore an expression as if he could barely hold back laughter.
"Dongrang, why are you laughing like that?"
"Your eyes are shining like crazy, but you're saying it so viciously. It's funny."
Dongbaek's brow crumpled at Dongrang's openly teasing words.
"Yi Sang, can you tell this bastard to shut up?"
"Could you hide that expression like a child tasting shaved ice for the first time?"
As expected of friends, they were childish.
Anyway, with the mirror's unveiling, the members of the Guhinhoe who had attended the Nangsulhoe were showing all sorts of reactions.
Some were surprised, some had their eyes shining, and some just stared blankly with a look of wonder.
Since there was no line, the guest I was acting as in the Guhinhoe must have been the third type.
He had a complicated expression that was more than just surprise or curiosity... but what lingered at the end was joy and exhilaration, so I supposed that was fine. Ah, maybe he was simply holding his tongue because he was a guest.
Most of the people here were reacting that way, but oddly enough, there was one person who hadn't said a single word.
Don Quixote, or rather, the role she was playing. That peculiar person who, from the start, had said absolutely nothing at all.
His identity was Gubo.
...As for why those two such mismatched people had been paired together, I'd leave that aside.
Dongrang, who liked to stick his nose in things, tapped the stiffly standing man on the shoulder and spoke.
"Gubo, say something too. How long have you been in the Guhinhoe, and you're still standing there like some guest?"
"...Everyone has already spoken. What more is there to say?"
"...If you're going to be the token outsider, at least be sociable about it. You're so prim."
At Dongbaek's jab, Donquibo's head turned toward the mirror with a sulky air.
Seriously, why were those two matched up? Was there really nothing about Don Quixote that resembled that guy... no, wait, was there not?
Just as I was about to get lost in idle thoughts again, Hong Lu diligently continued acting.
"I see... so this is... the way you see the world."
"...The world as I see it."
"You know? Every technique hides the maker's romance and wish. Finding that is part of the fun for those who watch. It would be good to remember that."
Right after Youngji-hyung finished speaking, Dongrang pressed Yi Sang further.
"Yi Sang, then what do you intend to do with this technique?"
"What to... do with it?"
"Youngji-hyung's glass window has already started making the rounds. I hear researchers from other Nests are showing interest too.
"Honestly, there weren't many guests coming to see this place before, but now it's gotten to the point where we'd have to hand out numbered tickets just to make people line up. So if you present your own technique here as well..."
"Dongrang, I have no intention whatsoever of presenting this."
In the middle of Dongrang's long speech, Yi Sang suddenly cut him off.
...Really? The honor and glory he'd gain as a researcher from presenting that would be considerable, wouldn't it?
Even I felt surprised by the old Yi Sang's words, and Dongrang, who always wore a bright smile, was painted with astonishment.
"...None? Not at all?"
"I simply... thought it might be nice to keep it as a moment when we burst out laughing among ourselves."
"...Hey, what on earth are you thinking..."
As Dongrang, who seemed to have momentarily stopped thinking at the words "a moment when we burst out laughing among ourselves," was about to say something, Dongbaek suddenly cut into the conversation.
"Pfft... Yi Sang. That's the second funniest thing I've seen so far. The first was... you know, I was feeding milk to the yellow one, and then suddenly it licked that guy's head... khh..."
"Th... that... should probably be left buried now..."
...Dongbaek had targeted Yi Sang to tease him and ease the increasingly serious mood, but Dongrang's stiff expression did not relax.
No, to be exact, it had returned to his usual infuriating smile... but it didn't feel like he was actually smiling.
For some reason, it felt like he had lost his composure, and that made it seem like something was off...
[The pupils of people are truly sparkling and hot. They seem as though they might burn me, so I deliberately looked away from them. But just because one does not look directly at a subject does not mean one finds it distasteful.
Even without looking, one can still seep in.]
Regardless of the suspicious circumstances, Yi Sang's emotions deepened and the play proceeded smoothly.
At the Nangsulhoe, each person tossed out a few lines and revealed their impressions.
In the process, Rodion, who had roughly finished her turn and was watching from the sidelines, asked Faust outside the play,
"By the way, is that... the same as the mirror we're using?"
"Strictly speaking, it is something similar. Limbus Company uses specially modified mirrors."
"You invented something incredible, Yi Sang..."
"What I or Youngji-hyung did was... not invention, but discovery."
Yi Sang briefly corrected Rodion's words.
Not invention, but discovery... indeed, there may have been traces of such technology somewhere in the City. Usually, one wouldn't go out of one's way to say so, though.
Then, Meursault, who had been quietly observing the proceedings, noticed something and carefully opened his mouth.
"T Corp... would not have welcomed the creation of a technology that could peer into another world without permission. You understand that what matters is not the act of peering into another world, but the fact that it was done without authorization."
"I had suspected as much... but I thought it would be fine since we considered it a game among ourselves. It could not have been a more careless decision."
A careless decision, huh...
So that means they'd end up entangled with T Corp in one way or another after this.
As far as I was concerned, I would have preferred it to pass peacefully, but if that had happened, Dongbaek wouldn't have lunged at Dongrang like she was trying to kill him.
...I-I'm tired. I don't know how many times I've said it, but I feel like I'm going to die.
Regardless of my complaints, the self-awareness depth kept shifting perspectives.
No, was this even a perspective shift? It felt more like it was moving to places that had little to do with anything...
Countless scenes flashed before my eyes. Just as I was feeling the strangeness of it and trying to do something, at some point, in an unknown place... the change stopped.
That place was completely unfamiliar to my eyes.
It felt as though entirely new information I had never seen or heard before was being forced into my head.
Somewhere in the City I had never heard of or seen before, a single guess brushed through my mind.
...The Outskirts. No, beyond them.
If there wasn't even a similar sight anywhere in the City when I searched through my head... then it was probably certain.
Ha. I never thought I'd end up seeing a place like this, of all things.