EP: 84
Even without the consent of the parties involved, the messy wedding proceeded quickly. While Muriel was kissing the fake Kaiton without a moment to breathe, the staff presented the ring. Then Kaiton leaned his forehead against hers, briefly catching his breath, and slipped the ring onto Muriel’s hand. He whispered sweet words non-stop.
Muriel knew that it was now the time to stop this childish play and find a way to get back to the real world, but when Kaiton pulled her in with his sweet words, she couldn’t push him away.
“Now, if there is no one who opposes this marriage, let the sacred ceremony of these two people in love…”
Bang!
It was then. The heavy door of the wedding hall opened loudly. It was Kaiton. The real Kaiton, wearing a black cloak and the blue talismans hanging on his ears, with a fierce expression.
“Muriel Storm!”
At Kaiton’s voice, Muriel unconsciously took off the veil she was wearing and flipped it over the fake one’s face, then ran away. She didn’t know why she did that. It’s just that she didn’t feel ready to reveal her mind to Kaiton yet, so her body moved first.
The fake Kaiton created by the Dream Butterfly was the embodiment of her true feelings, so she wanted to hide that from him.
Since Kaiton was blocking the only entrance, Muriel grabbed the fake Kaiton’s hand and jumped out of the window.
“Ouch.”
She thought she wouldn’t feel any pain since it was her subconscious, but jumping from the second or third floor (?) the impact made Muriel unable to even straighten her legs for a while, and she groaned in pain.
“Muriel? Are you okay?”
The fake Kaiton, with a face that didn’t look like he felt any pain and a worried expression, knelt in front of Muriel.
“Let’s run for now. Cover your face properly!”
Muriel limped but urged the fake Kaiton. However, she started to think that maybe she should give up at this point. Just running wouldn’t be enough to shake off Kaiton, he’d probably catch up quickly, but she would most definitely never be able to outrun by running with a limp.
Honk.
She looked up at the sound of a honk coming in just in time and found a blue sports car. The door slid open smoothly by itself, as if telling her to get in. The Dream Butterfly seemed to be trying really hard to grant Muriel’s wishes. Muriel, realizing where she was, was momentarily stunned, then snapped out of it when, as if urging her, the car keys fell at her feet.
“Ha…!”
It wanted her to run away?
Vroom.
The supercar carrying the fake Kaiton, whose face was covered with a veil, in the passenger seat, roared with a refreshing exhaust sound as it sped down the road. It was Muriel’s first time driving, but she had no hesitation in stepping on the accelerator. In this unrealistic city that only imitated Seoul, the cars were sparsely scattered, and Muriel skillfully avoided those fakes as she drove rapidly.
She kept glancing at the rearview mirror, wondering how the people here would react to Kaiton flying with his cape fluttering. But what caught her eye was Kaiton, hunched over on a small motorcycle.
“He’s not flying…?”
Kaiton seemed determined to chase the supercar with the really small delivery motorcycle. His appearance looked dangerous, and although she chewed her lips nervously, Muriel didn’t slow down. It’ll… it’ll probably be fine, she thought. But as if trying to prevent Kaiton from reaching her, the cars that used to clear the way for her started to block the motorcycle’s path, obstinately obstructing it.
“Can he not use magic here?”
“Magic…?”
“Hey, try using magic. Anything will do.”
“What are you talking about, Muriel? Magic?”
The fake Kaiton’s expression showed that he had no idea about magic.
Ah… so instead, he was using a motorcycle…
Muriel, who realized that magic did not exist here, fixed her gaze on Kaiton, who was chasing her dangerously. It would be dangerous to speed like that without magic…
“Does it not matter if we die or get hurt here? This place is like a subconscious… it has nothing to do with reality, right?”
The cars on the road rushed towards Kaiton, seemingly determined to stop him in his tracks. However, amidst all that, the fake Kaiton looked at Muriel and smiled softly. It was as if he was telling her to focus on himself without worrying about foreign elements.
“Tsk…”
Finally, Muriel realized how pathetic she was for being deceived by his face and not being able to distinguish between the real and the fake.
This… wasn’t Kaiton. The real Kaiton was the one chasing her with a terrifying expression over there…
“..You won’t get hurt or die if you’re with me. Let us be happy, Muriel.”
“Don’t joke around!! I’m asking if I’m going to come back to life if I die here. Answer the question properly!!”
The anxious Muriel shouted at the fake who evaded her question with vague words. Just when she thought she should give up on running, she heard a huge crash. The noise was tremendous. A car seemed to have intentionally rammed into the motorcycle, which was now in pieces, and Kaiton, bleeding, was lying far away.
Gosh!
“Kaiton!”
Upon seeing that Kaiton had fallen, Muriel did not slow down, instead, she quickly turned the steering wheel to make a U-turn. In the process, she collided with many cars, but Muriel only increased her speed. Thump, thump. Screech. Crash. Every time she hit the cars, the impact was transmitted fully, yet perhaps because her heart was racing like crazy, she didn’t feel any pain.
“Ah…”
Seeing Kaiton lying on the asphalt, bleeding, a severe sense of foreboding washed over Muriel. She felt a terrible sense of deja vu. Was the nightmare she had warning her about this? She had guessed that the dream, where she saw herself bleeding and dying among monsters on a night of disaster, was actually about Kaiton’s future. However, she never expected to witness Kaiton collapse like this in broad daylight on Seoul’s main road, with no stars of calamity rising and no monsters.
“Kaiton…”
“….”
“Kaiton… Get up.”
Muriel carefully knelt in front of Kaiton and lifted his head. Kaiton couldn’t open his eyes. Muriel gently wiped his cheek, only to see her own hand stained with red blood. The same was true of her pristine white dress. Because of its snowy whiteness, the vivid shadow of death in deep red came into her eyes more starkly.
“Huh….”
Tears dripped down all of a sudden. As if replacing the breath she couldn’t properly exhale, the tears continued to trickle down. She was scared that the dream might become a reality. Ominous thoughts automatically reached for the worst-case scenario. Muriel tried to drown out the sound of her own sobs, checking his breathing. A Faint but warm breath touched her cheek.
“Haah….”
Muriel, who breathed a sigh of relief, jumped up and grabbed the fake who was approaching her by the collar. Since he was tall, she couldn’t properly meet his gaze, so she pushed him down to the ground.
“Is this guy okay?! He’ll be fine, right? How do we get out of here?! If we leave here, he’ll be back to normal and fine, right?”
Muriel urged the fake without giving him time to answer. For the fake Kaiton, keeping Muriel, the host, attached to this world was his most important task. It was crucial for the dream butterfly to stay here long enough to heal and leave the cocoon. So, the fake revealed some truth to Muriel so she wouldn’t leave this place because of Kaiton.
“Getting hurt here is just an illusion. If Muriel doesn’t want it, that man will recover quickly. So, don’t cry. I don’t want to see you cry.”
“But he’s still bleeding… he’s not okay at all!”
“Give him time to rest. He’s not just a figment of Muriel’s imagination, so his recovery might be slower.”
“…Are you sure?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t lie to Muriel.”
The fake did not mention that the longer they stayed, the closer they would be to death, since this was a space the dream butterfly had created to take the life of the host. The dream butterfly’s goal was to lure Muriel with sweet desires and gradually make her die, not to make her die while struggling in distress.
The Fake affectionately whispered as he swept away fallen stands of Muriel’s hair with his hand.
“Let’s go to the room. You want to give him a place to rest, don’t you?”
***
Kaiton, lying on the bed, seemed to be just peacefully asleep. Just as the fake had said, given time, Kaiton’s wounds would gradually heal.
Muriel leaned against the bedside table with a sigh.
The bedroom they were in appeared as a random space that manifested when they opened any door on the road. Muriel had opened the door to a cosmetics store, but when she entered, a cozy bedroom appeared.
No matter which door they opened, it led to a new bedroom. The rooms connected endlessly, and there was no way to find a door leading outside. Yet, the windows in the room showed a snowy wilderness.
Thud. Thud.
“Be quiet!!”
Muriel angrily shouted at the fake trapped in the closet. She didn’t want Kaiton to catch the fake when he woke up, so she separated him and brought him to a different room, but each time, the fake would stick to Muriel’s side before she could even close the door. No matter how much she expressed her anger, glared at him, or tried to persuade him, nothing worked. On top of that, he had the face of an opponent Muriel found hard to resist, and tried to make intimate contact whenever he saw a gap. Unable to bear it any longer, Muriel tied him up and locked him in the wardrobe.
“I told you to be quiet! Give me some new clothes! This dress is a nuisance!”
Muriel burst open the closet door where the fake was trapped and shouted. The dress reminded her of unpleasant memories, so she wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.
“Uh… umph?”
As the fake intruder muttered as if about to say something, Muriel warned him with a stern look not to talk nonsense and then untied the rope that had been tightly wrapped around his mouth. She found the rope on a table next to the bed, and Muriel couldn’t understand why such a thing would be in the bedroom. Furthermore, it was made of a creepily smooth and luxurious material that she found shady. Who on earth has such tastes… damn dream butterfly.
“Shall I help you take it off?”
That was the first thing he said as soon as she untied his mouth.
“Today is our wedding night, Muriel.”
“This crazy….”
Shut up, please. Muriel shuddered and sealed the fake intruder’s mouth even more tightly.
Yes, she wouldn’t deny that she had feelings for Kaiton anymore. The despair she felt when she thought he was dying, or the temptation of this fantasy with his face, made it clear. However, if asked if she wanted this Kaiton with a screw-loose… No. Absolutely not. She could swear, with her hand on her heart, she didn’t want such a cheesy Kaiton.
Muriel felt repulsed by the dream butterfly that twisted her desires at will. The fake certainly looked a lot like Kaiton, but something was different about him.
“That’s not what I want… A little more…”
Muriel’s gaze fell upon the sleeping Kaiton. Even in his sleep, he couldn’t rest peacefully, and he was frowning. He had the same terrifying face that scolded her with a fierce expression, even though he would have leaped into this place without hesitation to save her.
“Yeah… Something like that. So grumpy… That’s the real Kaiton.”
