C 132
"Suddenly, you appeared, and..."
I sat down, gently shook Laurent's body, and responded. Laurent showed no signs of waking up.
"Our beauty will arrive soon. I'll see you at the place where I saw you before."
"Laurent..."
"Oh, this girl couldn't withstand my power and just fainted."
"Ah..."
"If you let it pass, it'll be fine."
I thought he wouldn't lie because he was a god, but I didn't feel like leaving her like that on the cold ground.
"We have to go quickly. I can't stay here like this."
Arma reached out her hand to me. When I extended my trembling hand, Arma quickly took it.
Then, I felt as though my soul was being ripped out and forcibly sucked somewhere. I tightly closed my eyes due to dizziness and then opened them.
Where I was now was no longer the Duke's house hallway. It was that dark place like a wolf's maw where the gears were.
"God...?"
"Arma, you can call me Arma."
The girl flapped her wings and flew forward. I also furrowed my brow as I walked behind her.
"What kind of conversation is happening all of a sudden...?"
"I've been thinking of a way to separate you, the one from the other world, and the baby who protects this place."
"...What?"
I truly didn't understand the meaning of separation. When I opened my bewildered mouth, Arma smiled cheerfully.
"How you can fully become Eirin and how the girl who has supported this place for a long time to prevent it from collapsing can fully become Cha Miso."
The steps I followed behind Arma suddenly stopped. In the distance, I saw gears turning with a creaking sound.
Although I couldn't see it, the gears seemed to be turning even more forcefully. It didn't seem surprising if it collapsed at any moment.
"Do you see those gears?"
"Yes..."
"Each of those gears is a life you've lived up until now."
Arma took my hand and began moving forward again.
While I walked slowly behind Arma, I couldn't take my eyes off the massive gear.
There were dozens of gears gathered. They were both large and small gears. The one in the middle was the largest.
"That's your entire hard life."
"...Why?"
"It's the number of worlds you've created."
The top-leftmost gear was about to collapse. It had rusted and lost its color, so every time it moved, it threw off iron dust.
"The world has an end."
"...It's the end."
"Just as a novel has an ending, the story you create will end when the main character disappears."
"..."
I moved my lips and then closed them again. I wasn't sure what to say.
"The world created by beings like you isn't always perfect. Out of every hundred, ninety disappear. Of the remaining ten, more than half disappear when the main character's story ends."
"..."
"Even if only a handful of main characters disappear, the world is left with the remaining beings."
The more I listened to Arma, the more my head hurt. I didn't want to admit that my entire life had been taken advantage of.
"And a god is assigned to those handful of worlds that have been completed."
In the end, the process is to gain a bit from a normal world to give to God.
The voice she added was chilling.
"...So."
What happens to people like me who have lived a hundred unfortunate lives to create a hundred worlds?
The reality I was about to discover was so terrible that I held my breath and swallowed the words I couldn't say.
However, Arma continued speaking as if she had responded to my unspoken questions.
"The soul of the 'dreamer child' living in the swamp of misfortune to create the world breaks as dozens of lives repeat."
Arma told me that the human soul isn't so strong, so even if you erase the body's memories, the soul still remembers everything.
"So, the necessary process is extinction. It's actually called the washing process. The soul of the 'dreamer child' that can no longer be reborn is cut into pieces to create a new soul."
"Ah..."
"Like taking seeds from a dying plant and growing a new one."
I was left speechless at the additional comment.
Doesn't that mean it's a soul that doesn't rest even after death?
It was terrible that a child who had to live an unhappy life for others had to be unhappy even in death.
"Your life should have ended with Cha Miso."
"..."
"But your final wish finally created another personality. Even the star guardian who handles you and recovers you probably didn't expect that."
"...You mean."
Are you saying I created this little Cha Miso inside me?
"Cha Miso made you."
"...What?"
Are you saying I'm not my body?
I looked at Arma with trembling eyes.
The back of my head shuddered at the shocking fact. As my breathing grew heavier, Arma approached and placed her small palm on my forehead.
"To be precise, Cha Miso split you in two. To prevent a collapse."
Before I knew it, we had arrived in front of the gear. Behind Arma, my younger self... No, young Cha Miso was there.
"When...?"
"That day, the day we met the star guardian."
It wasn't Arma who responded, but young Cha Miso.
"I didn't want to die. So, I resisted desperately..."
"..."
"I was here when I regained consciousness. And you created the world in my place."
"What...?"
As I stepped back hesitantly, young Cha Miso smiled faintly.
"You are my loneliness."
"So, what the hell am I?"
"Of course, Eirin and Cha Miso. We, who were one, were divided that day, so God Arma's words that she created you are wrong."
Arma shrugged at young Cha Miso's words. I couldn't quite grasp the information that came in immediately.
"Think about it. Did you really read the novel 'Adopted!'?"
"..."
As I covered my head with both hands, little Cha Miso smiled bitterly.
"I..."
My head throbbed as if it was going to explode.
"I locked many of your memories to protect you. So that you can live as a happy Eirin without falling apart."
"...Why?"
"It's something you and I desperately wished for. A world where my kind and gentle father, my younger sister, my brother, my grandmother, my grandfather, and my maids all love me."
So, are you saying all of that was created from my imagination and forced to happen?
It was when I touched my forehead.
"In the first place, since additional guests have arrived, let's talk together."
Arma quickly blocked the space between young Cha Miso and me.
Unable to properly organize what I needed to say or wanted to say, I obediently nodded.
"But an additional guest..."
"If they're here, you must act as if you're popular, beauty."
"...It seems like a serious conversation is taking place."
When I turned my head toward the familiar voice, Lucilion and my father were there.
"Dad...?"
"Eirin."
Dad naturally crouched down and opened his arms to me. I tried to run on reflex, but my steps abruptly halted.
"Did I imagine that too?"
Because I imagined it and hoped for it, did everything become real like my dream?
"Eirin."
A familiar voice sounded.
"It's okay, come here."
Hearing my father's voice, I took a deep breath and approached slowly.
Even though I thought it might be a lie, I thought my father would accept everything.
"Now that all the main characters are here, shall we start talking?"
My father squinted his eyes as he held me in his arms. Arma clung to young Cha Miso.
"Now Cha Miso's personality has split in two. One is the young Cha Miso here, who controls Cha Miso to prevent her from collapsing."
"..."
"And the other is Eirin, who was somehow trying to live in solitude."
Arma looked at me and young Cha Miso and said.
"Originally, 'Dreamer Children' were beings controlled by wandering entities called 'Star Guardians.' Normally, it wouldn't be easy to steal a dreamer child's soul from a star guardian."
We nodded at Arma's words. Then Arma smiled.
"But these are special circumstances. Eirin's desire created a perfect world through the control of young Cha Miso."
"A perfect world?"
Lucilion asked again.
"Yes. Because in creating the world, our clever babies created a great and wonderful god to help them and even a vessel to contain it."
Arma said, thumping her chest. The eyes of young Cha Miso and mine opened at the same time.
"To conclude, you can be free. In exchange..."
Arma's eyes slowly reached me.
"You must die, Eirin."
