A single blue butterfly drifts through the air.
It slipped lightly between the Sinners and, with the faintest touch—almost as if it were floating through empty space—flew freely to settle on a puddle.
The sight was graceful, pitiful. The way it cut through that cold stillness... it resembled the blue boy I had once glimpsed between the field of possibilities.
"....."
"...It's a butterfly."
"Hmph. Do you really think an ordinary butterfly would be flying around a place like this?"
Ms. Faust's observation was met with a sneer from Ms. Ryoshu. Not that she was wrong.
Still, a butterfly in a place like this... It couldn't be a lost one. And I'd never seen a butterfly that looked like that before.
Sinclair stared at it intently, then said, "It feels like it's telling us to follow it."
"So the Abnormality finally shows itself after not even a glimpse?"
"....."
...Mr. Yi Sang's reaction is odd.
""
"I agree. I, too... have become curious."
Mr. Yi Sang volunteering an opinion was surprising. He's usually the type to just follow whatever drifts by.
Is there something to that butterfly? It is suspicious, certainly...
"··· ··· ···. ···"
"What are they... saying?"
"They were not saying anything. I was listening."
"There is a consistent pattern to it... but interpretation is impossible. It feels like some kind of code. They're using a system of phonetic and cipher patterns."
"Ah..."
At the very back of the Sinners' line, Don Quixote had turned to look behind her.
"Truly... it seems this was a matter that could only be resolved by staying close to the Manager..."
As Dante widened the distance slightly, the merfolk Mr. Meursault had pinned down began to be covered in pale mucous.
Immediately after, crack. With a sinister sound, Mr. Meursault severed its airway.
"....."
There was one thing that had kept bothering me.
Were they really unable to speak? Those symbols with a fixed pattern... if this had been back then, I might have been able to decipher them.
It would require the tedious process of keeping one merfolk restrained and recording the vibrations over and over, though.
Could it still be possible if I studied it for a long time? With the two smart ones and Mr. Meursault added in, maybe it could be done.
Hmm... no, let's not. It would be needless labor, and more importantly, I have a bad feeling about it. I'm sure the result would be something profoundly disgusting.
For now, let's follow that butterfly.
Along the way, there were no shortage of merfolk left behind.
Every time, at every encounter, they rushed at us while emitting vibrations with an eerily consistent pattern.
I feel like I can understand the meaning contained in them. I just don't want to.
No matter how strong my stomach is, I could tell without thinking too hard that interpreting their speech would cause a clear emotional disturbance.
...For the first time in a while, I felt nausea rising. Haa... probably not information worth sharing.
Excess always comes with a price. I decided to take that price on entirely by myself.
I haven't even done anything, and I'm already tired. I'd like to rest soon.
The merfolk that kept springing out every time we followed the butterfly offered us no comfort like a break.
Then, suddenly, I noticed the number of merfolk had visibly decreased.
"The number of merfolk is... getting smaller and smaller..."
If even Sinclair noticed, then it was certain. Which meant... the destination the butterfly was guiding us toward was near.
As that thought crossed my mind, a suspicious figure came into view ahead.
No, was "figure" even the right word? He didn't look like an ordinary human at all.
Because where his head should have been... instead of a human head, a round tank with a peculiar internal structure was floating there.
For a moment I was stunned by that mysterious sight. Then a voice echoed softly through the space, as if speaking underwater.
"Your journey here was not exactly pleasant, I take it."
And the butterfly we had been following slowly folded its wings and descended.
Into the man's swaying head.
His voice, clear despite having no mouth, did not resemble the merfolk's or the Abnormalities'. That is... a human being.
And yet, not very human at all.
At that blatantly abnormal appearance, most of the Sinners could not hide their confusion.
"...!"
"You said there wouldn't be any proper survivors..."
""
"Hey, clock-head! Is that your friend?"
"If it's a Distortion, is it like... that chicken shop owner from that idiot?"
Since it wasn't an artificial body and it wasn't an ordinary flesh body either, it had to be either E.G.O or a Distortion. One of the two.
But for a Distortion, it was far too rational. Could E.G.O even take a form like that? What in the world...
"You are full of surprise. This is merely one way of accepting the world. It is not reason enough to be so startled."
"Ooh... the head... it's swaying..."
"My name, the one who waits for the day I shall one day meet beneath a sky where the stars have gone dark, is... Rim. Call me Rim."
"....."
At the name Rim, Mr. Yi Sang showed a strange reaction.
...Does he know him? But there wasn't anyone named Rim in the last self-reflection. An alias? Hmm...
"I have no intention of exchanging names, so I'll keep this to questions. State your reason for being here. You did not come to a place like this, where only mad merfolk exist, without a clear purpose. There was certainly only one boat anchored to the drilling ship—the one we arrived on. So how did you..."
"If I were to cross the sea, I would not need a ship. I came here solely to see you."
"Wow~ I feel popular all of a sudden."
"You are the ones heading toward the place where the golden light of the branch shines."
...What? He knows that too? Then... the objective narrows quite a bit.
Ms. Rodion, who had naturally reached the same conclusion as I had, asked Rim a question.
"If you know that and still came to see us... does that mean you're here to tell us where the Golden Bough is?"
"Hah, it looks more like he came to get in the way of that..."
"Correct."
"...Why has he been acting like this lately? Honestly."
"It's fine. Mr. Gregor has always been like that."
"You, you..."
"Easy now. There's no time to be fighting each other."
"Tch... We'll see about this later, all right?"
"If you try to find the branch inside this building, you will only come to realize the futility of time."
...Ah. So Dante had been unusually unable to find the Golden Bough because it wasn't in this branch?
"Then where are we supposed to go!"
"You have already experienced that the branch is not the only thing drawn to the Bough. You even had one you finally obtained taken from you."
"Tch..."
"Ah, how do you even know that?"
"...Even the whale that should have been wandering only the outskirts is fully feeling that dazzling radiance."
"You mean the whale that was supposed to stay out in the outskirts because of the Golden Bough came all the way into this U Corp lake inside the Nest?"
"Without question. And the frail Bough within this building was swallowed whole by it. The Abnormalities here, too, surrendered themselves to that pull and departed with the grand yet delicate whale. So what you pursue no longer rests here."
He was suspiciously kind. I don't know why he'd be this benevolent.
Enough that even Hong Lu asked him back.
"Why are you telling us this information?"
"No matter whose hands the Golden Bough falls into, no matter what use it is put to, it is but a small flutter of wings. We merely... guide the resonance of that flutter in a better direction."
"We? Who are you talking about?"
"Those who will become the masters of the stars, watching over all things and waiting for the right moment. And at the same time, those of us who cannot all become the same star."
The red pattern on his head flashed briefly, then vanished again. It was a familiar pattern. At most I'd only seen it once or twice, but still.
Then, perhaps because he spoke as if he knew everything? Mr. Yi Sang suddenly asked him a question.
"Then do you also know the end of the Poetry Club? Do you know how the friends of the past collapsed? Did you merely... watch that as well?"
"....."
"Mr. Yi Sang, was he perhaps... one of your old friends?"
"He is one of the faces you also briefly encountered."
...Really?
"One of the people who scattered when the Poetry Club... split apart. He told me he was going to the sea..."
Going to the sea... Ah, I remember. So it was him. That person who had only passed by, whose name had never even been spoken.
"Yes. I was once one of them. I'll answer you, Yi Sang. Did I merely watch? You say the Poetry Club came to ruin, so for someone else it must also have been a beginning. You should know that best, should you not? Whether that state is an end or a beginning—objectifying it and defining it is so meaningless. Shattering must have been a beginning for Yeongji, too."
"....."
After hearing Rim's answer, Mr. Yi Sang fell into thought for a moment. And then... he soon gave his reply.
"I see... you cast it aside long ago, then."
"I have been made able to see the trunk of the world. A single, simple, important trunk. If one can feel only that, then everything else... is merely. Like fallen blossoms... fleeting."
"Just answer me this one thing. If, as you say, the whale that swallowed this place ate the Golden Bough... and if that Bough really does... ease this white phenomenon... then..."
Ms. Ishmael could not continue, and only drew a quiet breath.
"What you are thinking and hoping for would be correct."
"...I see."
"That should be enough of a signpost."
"Are you running off somewhere again?"
"Back then, I only knew where the sea, the river, and the city were, and merely remained there... but now I wish to reach them directly with my own wings. That is all."
As Rim showed signs of leaving, Ms. Otis reacted sharply.
"Wait... you think we'll just let someone who knows information like that walk away so easily?"
"I'm sorry, but even if I seize it in my hand now, it will only slip through and cannot be held. Well then."
When he finished speaking, he disappeared 그대로 into the puddle of water on the surface.
The departure was as calm as his mysterious, dreamlike entrance.