[There was a crack within the Nine.]
[Those who once conducted their research with faces soaked in purity and wonder had already shrunk back from the peak, and in their place, unfamiliar sounds began to fill the space.]
[Steady footsteps, the ticking sound of identity verification, heavy, low voices.]
In the research lab, still weighed down by the same somber atmosphere as before, the play resumed with Ms. Otis's words.
The setting was Guhinhoe. The time was autumn. The cast was all of Guhinhoe... and a number of T Corp tax collectors.
The one who spoke, as I said, was Ms. Otis, Sangheo. The one listening was Sinclair, Ahnung.
"Why... did you expose Guhinhoe's location, Ahnung?"
"...Anyone would have done the same. They said if I didn't reveal the source of the technology... I'd be forcibly repatriated to S Corp."
At Ahnung's whimpering, Dongbaek flew into a rage.
"Then you should've gone back to your homeland and bitten your own tongue off and died!"
Of course, getting angry changed nothing.
Even so, the T Corp tax collectors only continued, mechanically, to detain and arrest the members of Guhinhoe one by one.
The officials slowly drew near, and the first to be taken was Ms. Ishmael.
"W-why are these people dragging me away? Why is it a crime that I couldn't hand over the technology? You said my technology had no value! You said it yourself, Yeongji! Help me! I don't want to be taken away!"
"......"
One was dragged off. Watching that, Yeongji-hyung swallowed a quiet groan.
I was a little curious what had happened to the one who was taken in the original history, but there was no way to know now.
...Did they die?
Ah, just in case, this is a story outside the play, but it seemed they weren't actually harmed all that much even if they were taken. When I checked with eyes that had now grown strangely used to people coming back intact, every Ms. Ishmael was fine, so that must be right.
Anyway, amid that chaotic situation, Yeongji-hyung seemed to steel himself and took on a solemn expression.
"No matter how I think about it... there's only one way. If I go back, everything will be over. If I hand over the glass..."
"If you get taken in, Guhinhoe is finished too. Do you know what they'll do with the glass technology?"
Dongbaek cried out.
...Would that have changed anything?
Watching Guhinhoe crumble apart, I felt a cold ache.
Sara... what on earth is my role doing right now? I haven't seen them in ages.
As I stared blankly at the scene, Yi Sang's voice calmly explained what was happening.
[Even if cries of anguish circled through the space, nothing changed.]
[Thus, there were those who held out, refusing to let their technology be taken... and]
"I knew my turn would come. And... I thought I'd never see you again."
[Those who were taken away with composure... and]
"Hiding away has gotten boring now. I decided to walk my own path. Let's not see each other again, if possible."
[Those who walked out on their own feet... and]
"I met a child who resembled the sea. Not like glass... nor like a mirror, but I like the things reflected in the sea's ripples and waves. Since I have no way of knowing its depth, I decided to follow it."
[And those who left behind incomprehensible words and vanished without a trace.]
[And so... winter was coming.]
That was it.
With that final monologue, the chapter came to a close.
If this flow continued, the next season would probably be winter.
...Every time I watch these stories, I can't help feeling more and more uneasy.
Until a moment ago, it had only been suspicion, but by now I can slowly be certain.
This pain is... the resentment my role would have felt if they had truly witnessed this scene.
Other people are asking Faust the same sort of question, so I doubt I'm wrong.
"......"
Even so, there was nothing I could do.
All I could do was empathize with their suffering and feel sorry for it.
In truth... it was practically nothing.
...The resentment of many piled up, and that accumulated resentment led into winter, which brought the cold.
Guhinhoe had, for all practical purposes, fallen apart.
[It seems each of them wished to preserve a different moment.]
[Some wished to remain frozen as they were. Others wished to move forward.]
[I...]
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"A report has been filed regarding possession of unauthorized technology."
From outside Guhinhoe's hideout came the sound of T Corp's tax division pounding hard on the door.
...So this is the end.
The Wings had moved directly. If it had come to this, it meant there was no turning back. Being pursued by the Wings was such a brutal affair—was there even anything left besides a bad ending?
Before long, the door would open, and then—boom. The current Guhinhoe would surely be wiped out.
It was a hopeless situation by any measure, and yet Dongbaek's eyes were still full of fighting spirit.
"I already sent a letter telling Yeongji to evacuate in advance. Before those bastards take it, we have to hide the glass and the mirror in the basement. I'll move them with Dongrang, so... the rest of you hold the door."
Would that really change anything?
A negative thought flashed through my mind, but the remaining prisoners threw all their strength into blocking the door.
Was this part of the script or genuine feeling... no, did it even matter?
Anyone who had followed this far would have had a special attachment to Guhinhoe, and those prisoners who were influenced by that feeling would naturally become sincere as well.
Well... even if they all threw everything they had into holding the line, there would be a limit to what the bodies of researchers who hadn't even received proper physical enhancement procedures could do.
As expected, the effort to hold them back soon reached its limit, and the door opened.
And through that opening, someone who was clearly a high-ranking T Corp tax collector strode in.
The only fortunate thing was that Dongbaek had succeeded in moving everything related to the glass technology down to the basement.
The high-ranking tax collector from T Corp swept his gaze across the empty interior of Guhinhoe, then fixed his eyes on Dongbaek and spoke.
"Where are Guhinhoe's leader, Yeongji, and the glass technology?"
"......"
"This is the price for the time you spent incorrectly. Open the basement."
"Even the basement's existence..."
Hm? That's odd. No matter how powerful T Corp is, they can't possibly know the blueprints or current status of every building in T Corp. And even if they could, verifying it would be a huge pain.
There's no way they'd pour that many resources into a single group like Guhinhoe, so how could they know about the basement so matter-of-factly...
"One of us betrayed us. That missing bastard from yesterday... was it his doing?"
Ah. Right. There could be a traitor. I'd been putting too much weight on the Wings and missed that.
Dongbaek's answer cleared up the question neatly... but come to think of it, knowing that doesn't help anything. If they get caught after being found out, it's over. The danger is still the same.
In that hair-trigger situation... Sangheo, Ms. Otis, spoke.
"That no longer matters, Dongbaek. We need to run."
"...You all, want to see one last spectacular fireworks show? Fireworks are pretty flowers too, if you look at them from far away."
That insane woman. She really had lost it. She's going to blow herself up here? Was she really that desperate not to let them take the technology?
Even as a third party, it was a scene that would make anyone recoil, and Sangheo was startled enough to ask back.
"Dongbaek, don't tell me you're planning to..."
"One last question. There really isn't a traitor among you, right?"
At Dongbaek's words, three of the four people left in the room each reacted in their own way.
Yi Sang, Sangheo, and Dongrang.
From the script, it seemed Gubo made four as well, but he had no lines in the script.
Was he just silently holding his post?
"Would there be any doubt?"
"What an absurd question."
"......"
Everyone denied Dongbaek's suspicion, but one person—Dongrang—remained silent.
...Wait, Dongrang. No, seriously? Why aren't you saying anything?
After staring at Dongbaek for a moment, he finally spoke in a low voice. Calmly. In a way that was almost nauseatingly serene.
"...It was me, Dongbaek. I sold Guhinhoe out."
"......"
Before the explosion, Dongbaek's stunned face as she looked at Dongrang flashed by.
BOOM—!! KWA-BOOM──!!!
[The last thing left in sight was the sound of the explosion, and Dongbaek's face, half burned away... And...]
[Our... Guhinhoe, burning without any color.]
And how much time passed after that...
Tap, crackle...
The flames that had raged for so long weakened, and soon only the faded remains of Guhinhoe, not even gray with ash, were left there.
"......"
There, Yi Sang quietly swallowed his silence alone, then slowly—but directly—looked at Dongrang.
"No, Dongrang. You did not speak honestly to Dongbaek. Dongbaek... never knew. That is why she lived on, endlessly suspecting one of us."
...What?
The moment Yi Sang finished speaking, the background shifted again.
Wooooong──
Before long, the fixed location became the viewing room where the giant eye, the pool of blue liquid, and the unshaken Dongbaek had been.
There... Dongrang's voice, lazy and irritating, finally rang out, words I had not been able to hear before.
"It was me, Dongbaek. The one who informed on them that day."
"I knew it... I knew it...!!!! You... filthy traitor!!!!"
Hah, so it really was true.
The informant... in other words, the one who shattered Guhinhoe.
The one who shattered Yi Sang's dream and confined him to that room...
Ha, hahaha... and after all that, he was going to make a place for Yi Sang in K Corp or whatever? Seriously, seriously, an obscenely cruel bastard who'd gone completely insane.
Wooooong──
Right after Dongbaek's scream, the world once again turned a murky, half-dead ash gray, and there Yi Sang quietly pressed Dongrang.
"So that is why Dongbaek's dying eyes were dyed with rage... and the tender [E.G.O] was broken, crushed by despair, and scattered like petals."
With all circumstances laid bare, every gaze at the scene turned toward Dongrang.
The room was filled with hostility. There, Dongrang...
"...You know, Yi Sang?"
He asked back calmly, quietly, as if nothing had happened at all.
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