TL/ED – Miso
“S-so you’ve beco a Marionette…?”
“A Marionette?”
“They’re like slaves that Dark Night controls.”
I looked down at Damyu without a word.
She was a woman who sohow resembled a snake. Honestly, she didn’t look particularly intelligent—if anything, she gave off the impression of being rather dim.
But the fact that she had co to find at this hour ant sothing.
“What’s with this path…?”
“The ground’s weird?”
“…Eek.”
When she gasped in surprise, I looked at the ground to find it had beco sothing sludgy and was sinking in.
Was that the kind of world she was living in? It seed like her trail had been found because she failed to control her power.
I sighed and pointed to the bushes behind .
“Hide in those bushes.”
“Oh, okay.”
I sat calmly on a nearby bench, pretending to admire the garden, when two guards approached and bowed deeply.
“Leader-nim. Mass will begin soon.”
“Is it that ti already? How many have gathered today?”
“Almost everyone.”
Perfect. I nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Very well. I’ll be there shortly. You two go ahead.”
“Yes.”
Long after the guards had left, Damyu erged from the bushes with a dumbfounded expression.
“Withered Grass and Piercing Blood…? You’ve been using them as guards?”
“Are they people I knew?”
“Whether you knew them or not, they were the reason you ca here in the first place. Ah, no, this isn’t the ti for that.”
Damyu shook her head vigorously, then spoke with a grave expression.
“I know this will be hard to believe if you’ve lost your mories—well, you probably won’t believe it anyway—but it’s the truth, so please hear out. Undercurrent-nim, you’re not actually one of Dark Night’s subordinates. In fact, you…”
“Ca here to kill her.”
“Yes. Wait, what?”
Damyu was nodding along when she suddenly froze in shock.
“You haven’t lost all your mories?”
“Unfortunately, I believe I have lost them all.”
I sighed and rubbed my head.
I rembered nothing except coming here and pledging my loyalty to Dark Night.
Not my childhood, not the things I’d done. Nothing at all.
“Then how do you know that?”
“Because I offered up my mories of my own free will.”
“…What?”
“Exactly as I said. The only mory I have is asking Dark Night to erase my past mories since they were useless, and to make into a faithful servant.”
“Um… Then wouldn’t it be correct to think that your past mories really were useless? That was the judgnt Undercurrent-nim made.”
“?”
I let out a light laugh at the absurdity.
“Based on everything I’ve observed and concluded since then, this country is one massive hell, and Dark Night is a monster so vile that calling her trash would be too generous. There’s no way I would have pledged loyalty to sothing like that. The past —this Undercurrent—knew that, which is why he offered up his mories.”
“Why? Why would he do that?”
“He must have known. That if I saw this situation, with or without mories, I would act the sa way. He infiltrated this place fully prepared to sacrifice his mories from the start.”
“…??”
“And it seems today is the ti.”
I strode forward, and Damyu hurried after , asking:
“The ti?”
“Yes. You’re probably part of Undercurrent’s arrangent. Your appearance must be the signal for to act.”
“Um… I ca to rescue Undercurrent-nim because I thought sothing had gone wrong…”
“He would have calculated that timing too. Stop being a nuisance.”
“W-wait a mont. Isn’t that too much speculation? How could he possibly know that his self without mories would act that way?”
“Because I would have done the exact sa thing.”
I had heard all the basic information from Number 1 and Dark Night.
About the Fallen, the nation, its deford structure, the Livestock and the Family.
When I thought about what I would do to bring down Dark Night in this situation, I reached only one conclusion—the sa thing he had done.
“C-can’t you just run away…?”
“What?”
I turned around at the absurd suggestion. Damyu swallowed hard and protested.
“Honestly, I don’t see any chance of winning…”
“Hmm. Go on.”
“I’ve seen a lot while I was hiding too.”
A flicker of fear crossed her expression.
“Look at this city. It seems like more than half of the Fallen from the Lower Tier have been swallowed up. If all these people are Puppets, Marionettes that follow Dark Night-nim’s orders absolutely, then she was terrifying before, but now there’s no way to resist her.”
“I made it that way.”
“Y-yeah, that’s what it looked like. The Fallen were following orders well… Anyway, if you have your wits about you, instead of fighting, you should count yourself lucky and escape.”
“Duly noted.”
I nodded and smiled at Damyu.
“It seems this Undercurrent fellow really didn’t trust you.”
“…Huh?”
“How could he not explain a single thing to you? Are you really his ally? Doesn’t seem like it.”
“…”
“I’ll explain as we go. Listen.”
I headed toward the Cathedral. A Cathedral I had built.
“What do you think was the first thing I searched for after learning about the Fallen, Puppets, Crimson Circle, and all that common knowledge, and recognizing Dark Night as the enemy I needed to kill?”
“A way to escape?”
“What is the Burden of the Puppet World?”
“…Huh?”
“The Puppet World has absurd power compared to anything else. It can freely control people under contract—or even without one—manipulate mories, and even remove people’s Burdens. But a Fallen’s World couldn’t be that generous. The Burden is a thousand tis the ability—isn’t that why the Fallen die early?”
“I don’t think it’s quite a thousand tis…”
“No, it is.”
I grimaced in disgust as I dodged to avoid the wriggling eel brushing against my cheek.
I found myself wondering how the past had managed to live with this kind of World without killing himself.
“It was clear that Puppet must have a Burden too, so I thought about what it could be—and I figured it out.”
“What is it?”
“She has to keep her contracts.”
“…What?”
“If she promised to remove soone’s Burden, she has to do it. That’s her Burden.”
“That’s her Burden? That’s way too simple! Wait, she uses all those abilities and all she gets is that one thing? If she keeps her promises, that’s the end of it!”
“It won’t end.”
I shook my head quietly.
“Dark Night distributes contracts. The Fallen pledge unconditional loyalty in exchange for having their Burdens removed, and she transfers those Burdens to the citizens of Manganji Kingdom—the ones she calls Livestock. The Livestock are forced into contracts to accept those divided Burdens.”
“Then what did the citizens receive in exchange for taking on that Burden…?”
“They received this hell. A hell with no conflict, no suffering, no strife—but also no free will.”
A well-constructed hell.
“This contract works because Dark Night is truly insane. Because she’s out of her mind, the Puppet World genuinely considers this place a paradise.”
“…I understand even less now.”
Damyu replied with a serious expression.
“Then for Dark Night, increasing the number of Fallen puppets just ans gaining allies at no cost? Why would you do sothing like that?”
“First, to gain her trust.”
I shrugged.
“As you said, increasing the pawns she controls benefits only Dark Night. If I kept doing that over and over, she would have no choice but to believe I was unconditionally loyal.”
“That doesn’t seem worth it… What’s the second reason?”
“Dark Night can manipulate specific parts of mories. If the original Puppet can do that, then a copy like should be able to as well, given permission. I needed that ability.”
“Why?”
“You’re about to see for yourself.”
When we arrived at the Cathedral, a large crowd had already gathered.
“O-oh! Number 33-nim!”
“What is today’s Mass about?”
“Who is the woman beside you…?”
Fallen dressed in white robes.
A place I had created by personally bringing in Fallen, granting them certain mories, and spreading a religion that proclaid Dark Night as the one true god.
Damyu stared at incredulously.
“What is all this? Are you going to make them fight Dark Night?”
“I rely gave the Marionettes their settings. Order them to attack their master? That’s absurd. Unless I could control the puppet master’s hands, that would be impossible.”
“Then why…?”
“These people made a contract with Dark Night. They beca her faithful dolls in exchange for having all their Burdens transferred away.”
I said only that much before climbing onto the pulpit at the front of the Cathedral and spreading my arms wide.
“Everyone. Under Dark Night-nim’s benevolence today, are you happy without any suffering?”
“Yes! We are happy!!”
“Truly?”
“Yes!!”
“That is sowhat troubling.”
“…Huh?”
Leaving the bewildered Believers, I took a deep breath.
These people should have been re dolls. Dolls that would sit blankly even if soone cut off their arms. Marionettes that obeyed only Dark Night’s commands.
But I had granted them life under the pretense of efficiency.
I had restored so of their mories. Made them able to converse. Made them able to judge. That alone had given them vitality. They had beco humans capable of action.
Of course, their absolute loyalty to Dark Night remained unchanged. If I tried to incite a rebellion here, they would just say the Leader had gone mad and execute .
That didn’t matter.
Humans who could think, who had mories, who knew happiness—they possessed a weakness that dolls never would.
The ability to beco unhappy.
“Damyu. Go outside, count exactly two minutes, then co back.”
“What?”
“Now.”
Damyu hesitated but, seeing the gravity on my face, quickly left.
By then, the Believers inside the Cathedral also sensed sothing wrong in the air and grew uneasy.
“L-Leader-nim?”
“Everyone, please calm down. I sent her out because today’s ssage may be slightly uncomfortable for so.”
“I-I see… But who was that woman just now…?”
“Just a pitiful little lamb. Though not as pitiful as myself.”
Mass was familiar to . I put on a gentle smile and cald the Believers.
“The truth is… I, who should be guiding you all, still carry traces of sin due to my insufficient faith.”
“Huh, how could that be…”
Everyone murmured in surprise.
Sin referred to Burden. The news that the Leader of all people still carried Burden changed everyone’s expressions.
None of that mattered anymore. Using my World, I slamd the doors shut, let out a sigh, and continued my Confession.
“Moreover, rather than cutting away that sin, I have tested it multiple tis with the blasphemous thought that it might be useful. Yes. I am a sinner who has committed high treason.”
“But Leader-nim, soone as knowledgeable as you—why would you…”
“In the process, I also ca to learn sothing quite dreadful.”
I felt the small walls before tremble and close in.
I released my World.
“And so, I have arranged today’s gathering in hopes that you might experience my sin for yourselves.”
“What do you an??”
Before long, sothing strange occurred.
One Believer was uncomfortably tapping at their throat when suddenly, the breath they exhaled turned into water droplets and floated up toward the ceiling.
“…”
“…”
Everyone watched in confusion until one person suddenly shot up from their seat, clutching their throat.
“Guh, gack… I can’t… breathe…!”
“Shit, what is this!”
Hmm.
Even after knowing I could do this, it was my first ti actually doing it.
The sensation was quite horrible.
“O-open the door…!”
“It’s locked! Cough, gurgle…”
“Urk.”
Gradually, most of the congregation floated upward.
Rather than floating, it felt more like they were rising through buoyancy.
Not one of them could breathe, and their bodies gradually turned red from the tightening pressure.
Every single one struggled to survive, but eventually, they realized.
Realized what?
What could they possibly do? Where, what, how?
What thod could they use to survive this?
As despair gradually filled their eyes, I wasn’t faring well either. Even as I felt my throat constricting, my gaze remained fixed on one thing.
Threads.
I clenched my teeth and stared at the threads holding the Believers.
If my hypothesis was correct, and if they wanted to survive—
-…Snap.
“…Whew.”
Before long, one of the threads wrapped around a Believer’s arm snapped and fell away.
It was the first step.
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