CH 308

“Ugh!”

I cut through the air and fell endlessly, and soon, my back hit hard on the ground.

Rubbing my tingling back, I raised my upper body and saw a hallway surrounded by stone walls.

‘What kind of fairy tale is this?’

The results I had with Ha Tae-heon up until now were all different.

Contrary to Cinderella, who was adorned with gold and marble floors and splendid jewels, this place was filled with only a musty smell and stone walls covered with black vines.

Above all, I was concerned about the doll’s eyes and Abel’s voice, which I had seen just before the surroundings changed.

“You were the cause!”

I’m the cause, what did that mean? Did she even notice my ability to intervene?

‘If Abel had found out about the intervention ability…’

I had to meet my teammates again as soon as possible. I couldn’t predict how the Praus Cult would react.

I got up and looked around the darkness. Unlike the fairy tales of Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella, this time I was alone.

I’m at loss. It was difficult to make a decision because I didn’t even know what fairy tale this was or where it was. If there was a window, I would use my ability to go outside, but there was none.

The hallway that stretched on either side was dark and there was no end in sight. I didn’t know if I should go left or right.

It was the time when I was about to move to the right first after thinking for a while.

Kagak, kak, kagak.

The sound of sharp things scratching the stone wall came from behind. I turned my head and frowned at the sound of fast approaching.

‘What?’

Amidst the ominous squeaking noises, the energy of the talented person wafted. My feet stopped and my whole body was tense.

Not long after, a tall man emerged through the darkness and appeared with a giant silver scissors. Kagak, gik, and sharp scissors dragged to the ground were the real source of the noise that had been heard before.

However, it was the face that caught my attention more than the nonsensical weapon. He covered half of his face with a black mask, but it was enough to tell who the other was.

“Team Leader Park Geon-ho?”

Hearing my call, Park Geon-ho blinked slowly and swung the huge scissors he was holding like a sword.

“Kuk…!”

I hurriedly raised my wind ability and soared into the air, and then the ground I had just stood on shattered with a roar. Tududuk, a cloud of smoke rose as the shattered pieces of stone scattered.

“Wait a minute, Team Leader Park Geon-ho!”

A sharp blade of scissors cut through the smoke and swung towards me.

I barely dodged the attack without being able to counterattack, and even when I called out to Park Geon-ho, he didn’t show any reaction and continued to attack.

Is he under mental control? No, is that person Park Geon-ho in the first place?

I wasn’t sure because of the black clothes he was wearing and the mask that was covering his face. There was a possibility that he really was Park Geon-ho, so I couldn’t attack him at all.

‘What should I do?’

Should I just leave that person who might be Park Geon-ho and run away? I was terribly anxious about the consequences of giving up on a teammate I barely met in an unknown place.

Kwaang!

Scissors that narrowly missed the side of my face smashed the stone wall. At the same time, my body, swept away by the explosion, lost my balance and bounced off the hook.

“Ugh!”

Kuung, I flew away and the back of my head banged hard against the opposite wall. My eyes were shaking and there was a ringing in my mind.

My body trembled and the headache kept rising. In the meantime, Park Geon-ho, who was walking in front of me, lifted the scissors while stepping on my thigh.

“……!”

Seeing the tip of the scissors that were aimed at my heart, I bit my lip and twisted my upper body with all my might. Instead of a heart, the tip of a pair of scissors that had passed through a long cut across the shoulder was stuck to the wall.

I really thought I was going to die at this rate, so I pulled up the wind to push Park Geon-ho away. But before I could even use my ability, Park Geon-ho was hit hard from the side by something and fell out.

A man in a pure white robe stood in front of me. Long black hair that fell between the hem of the softly dishevelled clothes caught my eye.

Park Geon-ho, who rolled on the ground due to the man’s kick, couldn’t get up easily. The man who saw it lowered his sword without hesitation.

“No, wait!”

When I saw the sword wielded into someone’s neck, who might have been Park Geon-ho, I was shocked and before I could stop him, Park Geon-ho’s head was cut off. Gasp, Park Geon-ho’s head, which fell down, tightened my breath.

“Gasp…”

“…Yi-gyeol, Han Yi-gyeol.”

“Gasp, uh…”

I gasped for my breath, clutching my chest. As if drowning in water, all the sounds around me seemed distant.

The person holding me, unable to make me come to my senses from the shock of seeing Park Geon-ho’s head separated from his neck, lifted my head and forcibly put his fingers in my mouth.

“Breathe, breathe and look straight ahead.”

At those words, I opened my eyes, which had been tightly closed in pain. Park Geon-ho’s body, which had fallen behind the man, was seen. No, it wasn’t a body…

‘Doll?’

The cleanly cut cross-section of his neck was like a piece of wood. There was no red blood that a human being should shed.

As I slowly regained my sanity, the man pulled his hand out of my mouth and laughed bitterly.

“Are you awake now?”

“…Cheon Sa-yeon.”

The man with long hair, unlike usual, was undoubtedly Cheon Sa-yeon. He said after examining my exhausted condition and the wounds left on my shoulder.

“It’s Abel’s doll. It’s a model made that resembled Park Geon-ho on purpose. It’s hard to tell the difference at a glance because all the unnatural parts are covered with clothes and masks.”

“The energy… I thought it was Team Leader Park Geon-ho.”

“She must have aimed for that. It’s because you can’t check the energy properly because you were avoiding attacks. You would never have been deceived if you had seen it and knew it was fake.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who got up first, held out his hand. When I held it, Cheon Sa-yeon easily lifted me up.

“What fairy tale is this?”

“It’s not a fairy tale. Abel, who was trying to play with us, must have changed her mind for some reason after Cinderella.”

“That hair or clothes?”

“When I lost my mind and woke up, I was wearing this outfit. My hair was much longer than this and I had it cut in a hurry.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who grabbed his hair and let it go, continued the explanation.

“The fairy tales were mixed at random. I’m probably waking up as Rapunzel, but I don’t know if other members of the team have anything to do with the Rapunzel fairy tale.”

Fairy tales were mixed? Those words reminded me of Abel’s voice I had heard just before coming here.

Abel created a space called fairy tales to kill us. But did she notice that I was the cause of the situation that went against her own intentions? So she released her killer doll instead of her original plan?

It was just speculation without any evidence, but there was a certain possibility. Cheon Sa-yeon said to me, who was lost in thought.

“It would be better to start treatment first.”

* * *

As I walked to the end of the hallway along with Cheon Sa-yeon, I found a stairway leading up. At the end of it was a room with a bunch of clutter.

“It must really be Rapunzel.”

Looking out the window of the room, I realized that this was a tall tower. Outside the window, a starry night sky and a wide forest spread out.

“Come here.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who was rummaging through all sorts of things, beckoned me. There were bandages, gauze, and disinfectant on the table.

I took off the blood-soaked shirt and sat down on the chair. When Cheon Sa-yeon wiped the blood with a clean cloth, the wound was clearly visible.

“Hm, it’s not an injury that can be treated with just a bandage.”

“I know.”

The flesh had been cut properly, so it would have been meaningless if only the bandages had been applied because the blood continued to flow.

I felt once again how much strength Min Ah-rin had given me. If Min Arin had been here, this injury would have healed quickly.

“I’m going to disinfect and put gauze in the wound. Can you stand it?”

“If I can’t stand it, will you make me faint?”

“I can give you a hug.”

“Get lost.”

When I resolutely refused, Cheon Sa-yeon, who smiled as if he knew I would do so, sprayed the other cloth with disinfectant. Soon after, a stinging pain, like dozens of needles piercing my shoulder, spread.

“Hu… ugh…”

When the sterilization was finished and the gauze was inserted through the cut, the pain that had been barely endured became so terribly severe that made me groan.

While I was biting my teeth hard and barely holding back the moan, Cheon Sa-yeon stopped the bleeding with skillful hand movements and a bandage wrapped around my shoulder tied the ends tightly.

“I have to find Healer Min Ah-rin first.”

A cool hand touched my hot cheek, which had risen from heat as I endured the pain. I got up from my seat, trying to ignore my throbbing shoulders.

“Even if you find Min Ah-rin-ssi, it will be no use because you can’t break the mental control. Do you have any clothes left here?”

“If you don’t mind being similar to me.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who opened the old wardrobe, pulled out one of the clothes and handed it to me.

It was a white outfit, resembling the robe worn by Cheon Sa-yeon. Unlike Cheon Sa-yeon, who wore a shirt inside, I, who was naked, fastened the front and tied a waistband.

“Han Yi-gyeol. The clothes you were wearing look like the party clothes you wore in the Cinderella fairy tale. Did you just wake up?”

“Right. As soon as I came here, I was attacked by that doll.”

As soon as I answered casually, I noticed the strange part of Cheon Sa-yeon’s question and immediately asked back.

“Wait, so you came here before me?”

“It would have been the same when I came over here. But I woke up two days ago. It seems to me that you are the last to wake up.”

All the smiles on Cheon Sa-yeon’s face disappeared. His face was half covered by the shadows created by the moonlight, revealing chilling displeasure.

“As soon as I woke up, I killed the witch doll and walked around the tower, dealing with the dolls I encountered. Han Yi-gyeol, the one you met… There are dozens of dolls that look like Park Geon-ho.”

“Dozens? So we still have a long way to go?”

“Not only Park Geon-ho, but also other guild members and dolls that resemble Ha Tae-heon. It could be not just in this tower, but in this entire space.”

“If other mentally-controlled people encounter that doll…”

“It’s not good.”

The doll modelled after Park Geon-ho, whom I had just met, had some fighting skills, although everything was fake. It was clear that the mental-controlled team members wouldn’t be able to beat the doll easily.

“I looked all over the tower for two days, but there was no one but me.”

“We’ll have to go outside the tower and look for them.”

I immediately understood what Cheon Sa-yeon meant and turned my gaze to the window.

The window was large enough for one person to get out. As it was a tower in Rapunzel, it was very high, but it wasn’t a problem because I had my wind ability.

“Let’s go right away.”