Episode 117

Bang, bang!

“Student! Hey, student!”

The sound of someone roughly pounding on the door and an annoyed voice rang sharply in my ears.

“Ugh….”

I squirmed under the covers before slowly prying open my dry eyes.

Chirp, chirp, chirp—

Through the tiny window of the cramped one-room goshiwon, barely five pyeong in size, I could hear birds chirping.

TL/N: A pyeong (abbreviation py) is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square kan or 36 square Korean feet. Gosiwon are cheap and cramped residential facilities for students, workers, and the urban poor.

“……?”

Still not grasping the situation, I blinked several times.

“Student! Today’s the day you pay the rent, remember?!”

Dust floated visibly in the beam of sunlight pouring through the window.

There was black mold spreading in the corners of the ceiling.

Right. I remember now.

When I first moved into this goshiwon, I scrubbed like crazy, swearing I’d wipe out every speck of mold — but in the end, it never disappeared.

“Damn it.”

This would have been unthinkable in Sierra Drenihan’s room.

Which means…

“Should I just come back later?”

Reflexively, I jumped up from the floor and opened the front door after taking only a few steps.

Beyond the door, I saw a startled face.

“Oh my gosh, you scared me! Weren’t you sleeping?”

It was a familiar face.

It was the landlady I’d seen countless times — all through my university days and even after starting work.

Even though I wasn’t a student anymore, she never stopped calling me that.

“Ma’am, what day is it today?”

“What’s gotten into you? Are you still half-asleep? It’s rent day!”

She sighed and shoved her phone screen in front of my face.

Seeing the date displayed, I sucked in a breath again.

“……Was it a dream?”

“It’s not a dream! Pull yourself together, student!”

Not a dream? That made no sense.

I had come back. Back to before the accident, before I became Sierra Drenihan.

* * *

“Here you go.”

Even as I handed the crumpled envelope of cash to the landlady, I was still out of it.

“Student, you’re acting weird today. Is something wrong?”

“…Nothing’s wrong.”

She tilted her head suspiciously but eventually turned away.

Click.

The creaky door shut, and at last, I was left standing alone in the narrow room.

“W-what is this.”

I was sure I had coughed up blood in Ludwig’s arms.

I really thought I might die like that…

“I wasn’t expecting this.”

I clenched and unclenched my fists. The vivid sensation told me this was reality.

My body ached like I’d just woken up from a deep sleep.

“Was it… just a dream?”

Eighteen years of living as Sierra Drenihan — all just a dream?

But the last thing I saw, Ludwig’s twisted expression, was still so painfully vivid.

The fear in his face choked me up.

“…….”

After eating an old hamburger from the fridge and dragging myself through a shower, I somehow found myself getting ready for work out of pure habit.

“I must’ve finally lost it.”

Muttering to myself, I left the house, boarded the subway, then a bus.

And after a bit more walking, the building that housed my dreary job came into view.

I spent the whole day working like a machine with a missing screw.

And by the time evening rolled around and I stood up to go home, my head felt foggy.

The memories of Sierra Drenihan — whether they were a dream or reality — were slowly fading.

On the way home, I sat in an empty seat and habitually pulled out my phone, intending to reread “The Tragic End of Twisted Love” for the first time in a while.

But no matter how much I searched the platform, the novel didn’t show up.

[No results found for ‘The Tragic End of Twisted Love.’]

“Why isn’t it showing up?”

The tragic, twisted novel I’d been obsessed with — what had happened to it?

No matter where I searched, it was gone.

As if it had never existed.

Eventually, I turned off my phone and closed my aching eyes.

Today was just weird, through and through.

Crossing the street where I once had the accident, I checked the road several times before finally getting home safely. I washed my exhausted body.

After making a simple dinner and watching TV for a bit, it was suddenly time for bed.

I lay down under the blanket, feeling worn out by the strangely unfamiliar day, and quickly drifted toward sleep.

As my heavy eyelids began to fall—

[…….]

“Mm, huh?”

Just as I was about to fall asleep, a strange noise woke me up.

I jolted up in bed and heard the sound of a drunk shouting outside through the open window.

“Seriously, if you’re drunk, just go home quietly…”

I grumbled and tried to lie back down.

[……!]

But the moment I lay down, I heard it again — a small sound, like something tickling my ear.

It wasn’t the drunkard’s voice this time.

[What are you doing here?]

My eyes snapped open.

And in front of me, I saw someone — a figure sitting there.

“KYAAAAH!”

[You’re loud, you brat.]

“Wh-who are you?! I’ll call the cops for trespassing!”

As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw a face — so beautiful I couldn’t tell if it was male or female.

I stared hard at the figure, then murmured,

“…Askan?”

[Now you recognize me.]

“Why is Askan here…?”

[There are no dimensional restrictions for a spirit. In fact, because your body is healthy here, I’m able to manifest more clearly.]

His long blue hair was semi-transparent, and his silver eyes gleamed brightly even in the dark.

He was so stunning he looked utterly unreal.

“So… living as Sierra Drenihan wasn’t a dream?”

[What a foolish question. Of course it wasn’t.]

Hearing that, a tear suddenly fell from my eye.

Askan’s eyes widened in genuine panic.

[W-why are you crying?!]

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and muttered,

“Thank goodness… really.”

The Drenihan family, Ludwig, Arzen — everyone I had spent my life with as Sierra, all the memories we shared — they weren’t just a dream.

The reason I had been so out of it all day must have been the sense of loss.

It was too painful to accept that I had become completely alone again.

And above all, it was driving me crazy — the memory of that man, whose face I couldn’t stop seeing, who looked like he couldn’t live without me.

I grabbed Askan’s arm and asked,

“What’s happening to me? Is Sierra Drenihan… dead?”

[Not dead, just barely alive. She’s barely hanging on.]

“I’ve been sick for a long time, but it’s never been like that. Why…?”

[It’s not the illness. Your body was cursed.]

“Cursed?”

Askan sighed like it was a major headache.

[Looks like the curse was placed fairly recently. Have you had contact with a dark mage?]

“No, not that I remember…”

[Hmph, for such a powerful curse, it would have to be cast from close range.]

He spoke while casually munching on some snacks I had left lying around.

[Because of the curse, your soul was forcefully expelled from Sierra Drenihan’s body. I spent a long time searching for you.]

“Then… what about me? Can I ever go back?”

[The descendant of Bergaus is working like mad. The curse should be broken soon. When that happens, your soul should naturally return.]

Askan spoke as if to reassure me.

“Ludwig…”

[I’ve never seen someone so insane. Day and night, he’s tearing the Empire apart, dragging every wizard and physician he can find. He’s offering every rare elixir known to man just to save you. He even managed to figure out the mechanics of the curse on his own. It should be undone soon.]

“W-wait. How many days has it been since that day?”

[About half a month.]

“But it’s only been a day here…”

[Time flows differently between dimensions. But even with just fifteen days, he’s going crazy more and more each day.]

Askan shook his head.

“…….”

I covered my face with my hands and said,

“It feels like I messed everything up by interfering with the original story.”

[Original story?]

I caught myself and flinched for a moment, but then thought — maybe it was okay to tell Askan.

After all, he was interacting with me naturally, even when I wasn’t in Sierra’s form.

“Actually…”

I told Askan everything.

About the novel, about living in Sierra Drenihan’s body, about everything I had gone through.

After listening quietly, Askan finally spoke.

[To be precise — you didn’t enter a novel. You saw the future.]