Chapter 50

Meanwhile, while Kang Ihyun, Jeong Suho, and the Lord of Chaos were frantically searching for her and tearing through her unconscious, our Shin Bitnari, who had unintentionally trolled them on a grand scale, was…

“…Huh.”

She opened her eyes to the rustling sound of trees swaying in the wind. Sunlight flickered through the leaves and dazzled her. When she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, a blue sky and a meadow just as blue came into view.

“Where in the world am I?”

Unable to grasp the situation, Nari only looked around, then stared straight ahead. Only then did she notice that a status message hung before her eyes.

[Deep World :: Entered level %$#!.]

“Wait, what?! No, no, no, what level is this. Hey! Hold on! Lord of Chaos!”

No matter how much she called, there was no answer. Sweat began to bead along Shin Bitnari’s spine. She remembered the Lord of Chaos saying that if she became trapped deep in the Deep World, even he would not be able to rescue her.

“Hey… this cannot be happening. Who dies trapped in their own unconscious.”

The one who is about to be me. With that thought ready to burst out, Shin Bitnari covered her face with both hands. She hesitated a long time, wondering what she should do like this, but then she heard the sound of someone running toward her.

“What is that?! Who is there?!”

By reflex she tried to pull out her half-scissors, but her inventory would not open. She lifted her head with a start and blinked at a familiar face.

“…Nari?”

“Kang Ihyun?! Hey, perfect timing. Get me out of here… no, wait, why are your clothes like that?!”

“Pardon? What about my clothes?”

Kang Ihyun stood there wearing a hat with rabbit ears, a dapper suit, and a monocle. He pulled out a pocket watch and gasped.

“Oh no, we are going to be late at this rate! Nari. Why did you only arrive now? We must depart at once!”

“No, wait, what is this! Hey, wait!”

Kang Ihyun scooped her up and sprinted straight ahead. Still not understanding what was going on, Shin Bitnari finally looked down at her own outfit.

…A black apron dress with a ribboned headband. Only then did she realize what kind of situation this was.

Ting! Something popped up in front of Nari. A message window appeared, similar to the indirect messages from her Constellation.

[A quest has appeared!

To escape Deep World level %$#!, see the fairy tale through to its end.]

“…You have never once followed my directions, not even once.”

Apparently her damned unconscious had scrambled around and turned this into something like “Shin Bitnari in Wonderland.”

“Still, is this not overdoing it? How did Alice get out again?”

“Pardon?”

“No, never mind. Just run for now.”

“Got it!”

If she followed the contents of the Alice story, maybe she could leave this place. With that thought, Shin Bitnari wrapped her arms around Kang Ihyun’s neck.

After a long run, Kang Ihyun skidded to a stop. It was the rabbit hole. A black tunnel stretched downward without end, gaping wide at them.

“T-That is the rabbit hole...”

Even if it was a dream, her body still felt fear. Nari reflexively tightened her arms around Kang Ihyun.

Then she felt his gaze. When she lifted her head, their eyes met, and Kang Ihyun smiled at her with his usual kindness.

“It will be fine, Nari.”

“…I am scared to jump in.”

“It has always been fine when you were with me. Right?”

Nari looked at him again. Perhaps because he was a product of her unconsciousness, he looked even more dependable than usual.

Maybe she relied on Kang Ihyun far more than she had thought. The realization embarrassed her, and she nodded twice with a flushed face.

“…I will trust you.”

“I will not betray you.”

With that, Kang Ihyun leaped into the rabbit hole. No matter how many times she experienced it, the terror of falling never became familiar, so Nari squeezed her eyes shut.

Even so, it was not that frightening this time because she felt the hand gripping her tightly and the warmth that came with it. Just as she half opened her eyes, thinking they must be nearing the bottom,

“Wah!”

She was flung aside. It was even onto a marble floor. Nari banged her knees squarely and curled up for a long while, enduring the pain.

“Ugh, seriously. Hey, Kang Ihyun…!”

He said he would not betray her! She snapped up her head to complain, then blinked. No one was around her.

She was trapped alone in a very, very small room. It was so narrow that a slight movement would brush a wall on every side. All she could see was a cake on a table and a letter.

“Agh… my knees. At my age I am getting a frozen shoulder…”

Rubbing her waist and knees, Nari approached the table and slid the letter free. It read, “Eat me.” She sighed and looked down at the cake.

It was slathered with lumpy whipped cream, had clumsy chocolate pen drawings, and a single strawberry on top. Nari scowled.

“…This is annoying.”

It was the same shape as the cakes she had often made with her father as a child. Hunter work was always like that, but whenever her mother was late coming home, Nari always felt anxious.

Her father would buy ingredients with Nari and Suho and make a strawberry cake to comfort them.

Back then Nari believed it was her mother’s favorite food. They would make a big, ugly cake and keep it in the refrigerator. Strangely enough, a day or two later her mother would always arrive home.

As soon as her mother returned, she would take the cake from the refrigerator, and she and Nari would scoop it up with spoons right there. Saying, “Whipped cream is better the next day,” her mother always smiled, her face full of wounds.

Without proper tools, the whipped cream spread with a spatula never formed pretty shapes, and a child’s strength could not draw neat lines with a chocolate pen.

But it would taste good when they ate it. It always had. Whipped cream was better after a day.

“What am I supposed to do with this…”

She usually avoided thoughts like these on purpose. Even in dreams, the Lord of Chaos had been with her, so old memories did not surface.

Nari let out a long sigh. Remnants of the past never disappeared and kept tormenting her. Even though there was no going back, those memories always chased after nostalgia.

Clink. Having cleaned the cake plate, Nari set it on the table.

“All right, I finished it, so now I should… whoa, this feels weird.”

As a sensation of shrinking ran through her, Nari grabbed both shoulders. It felt as if she had become a lump of dough.

Her body, which had been the size of the room, kept getting smaller, smaller than the table and the chair, and finally as tiny as a mouse.

“Thank goodness the clothes shrank with me.”

Looking up at the table and chair, which now towered over her, Nari noticed a tiny mouse hole door she had not known was there. It was exactly her size.

“This feels familiar.”

She thought she had seen that door somewhere often. It felt like a door she saw every day, but she could not place where.

It did not matter right now. She had shrunk, and there was a small door, so of course she had to go through it.

After brushing off her skirt, Nari stood and opened the mouse hole door. A white, old-fashioned corridor stretched out.

Srrk, srrk. A regular sound reached her ears. As soon as she realized it sounded like paper being turned, the corridor shifted into a wide room.

“…Ah!”

Looking around, Nari realized what door this was. It was the Guildmaster’s office of Sanctuary. Perched on a mushroom, Kang Sujin wore feeler-like antennae on a headband and puffed a pipe while flipping through multiple documents.

“Guildmaster?!”

Even within her unconsciousness, Nari had never imagined she would meet her boss. She yelped.

“Guildmaster?”

Kang Sujin rolled only her eyes to check Nari’s face, then returned to the papers and blew donut-shaped rings of smoke from her pipe.

“I have never hired anyone like you.”

“Ah.”

Nari touched her face. Right, she had never shown Kang Sujin her original appearance. She had thought she could gloss over it in a dream, but this place was unexpectedly strict.

“And judging by your appearance, I doubt I will be hiring you in the future either. So do not use the word Guildmaster against me.”

“W-What. Why?! I am incredibly strong, okay?! I even passed the grade 2 mock battle you assigned, didn’t I?!”

Irritated at her own unconsciousness, Nari pointed a finger at Kang Sujin. Sitting on the mushroom and smoking, Kang Sujin snorted.

“Sanctuary values potential above all, remember. In you, the limits of growth are far too obvious.”

Kang Sujin turned another page. Even so, Nari had her pride as the secretly strong type, ranked number one in the world, and her temper flared.

“Limits you say! What Hunter has a limit to growth! Was that not on your paper?!”

“That’d be the real ‘Kang Sujin.’”

Kang Sujin finally lifted her face from the stack of papers. This was Nari’s unconsciousness. If so, what was Kang Sujin in front of her?

“I am the part of your unconscious that can play the role of the ‘adult’ who says the hard things you need to hear. In reality, Kang Sujin must be the most fitting person to play that role.”

Nari accepted it and pouted. Since this was Nari’s Deep World, Kang Ihyun and Kang Sujin were products of her unconsciousness.

That meant everything they said through their mouths was no different from Nari speaking to herself. Grumbling inside, she dropped honorifics and spoke plainly.

“...Then how do I overcome my limits?”

“There.”

Whoosh. Kang Sujin blew another ring of smoke from the pipe. The smoke floated up and drifted behind Nari. At some point, the door she had used to enter had vanished, and a new door had appeared.

“...Why is this level such a hassle?”

“Because we cannot let this be noticed right now. So we chose the method of a fairy tale. To anyone who sees it from the outside, it will look like a very strange and curious dream, and that buys time.”

“Noticed? By whom?”

Nari blinked at the ominous words. Kang Sujin looked down at her for a long moment, then buried her face in the papers again.

“...Oh, by copyright. This is a fairy tale whose copyright expired long ago. What are you doing? Go on.”

“What are you even talking about, seriously…”

Muttering at Kang Sujin’s words, Nari turned her body. From beyond a red door with a black cat-shaped handle came the roar of water.

A cat. The thought made her feel a little uneasy. As she turned the knob, a small voice came from behind.

“Miss Shin Bitnari.”

“Ugh, what now!”

Nari spun around. The place where the mushroom had stood a moment ago was empty. Only the Guildmaster’s office of Sanctuary remained, hollow and still.

As she stood there blankly, words reached Nari’s ear.

“This time it is sturdy. There are more characters now. That must mean you have built that much healthier social ties.”

So please, do not forget this time. With those final words, the lights in the Guildmaster’s office of Sanctuary clicked off.

Nari glanced at the darkened office for a moment, then turned back again. She opened the door with a creak.