I couldn't sleep; because I had fallen into a deep sleep in the carriage earlier, and even had a dream. I was wide awake, my eyes fresh, making sleepiness impossible to come.
Not only that, one cause-or another cause-was that this room was narrow. I shifted my teacher's legs and arms, which, although she looked slender, were really very heavy.
Right now, she and I were sharing the same bed, and it was very suffocating; there was no room to move freely.
Every few minutes, her leg or arm would move onto my body, hugging me as if I were a doll to be cuddled.
Honestly, I felt comfortable and it was warm, her scent was also nice, but... after a while, it was heavy and suffocating. Moreover, her large chest sometimes pressed against my face, making it hard for me to breathe.
It seems I'll be awake all night, I thought.
"Slaps!!!"
Her hand moved onto my face again, this time even making a loud sound, although it wasn't painful. My view was now covered by her palm.
In the morning, she woke up, stretching both her arms upwards. Her bra strap was sagging on one side, with a rumpled face and messy hair, she looked at me lying next to her, my eyes now having slight dark circles.
"Aren't you hot in clothes like that?"
The first words she said were a comment on my very conservative pajamas, contrasting with what she was wearing; a normal bra and underwear, which annoyed me.
"No, I'm not hot in this."
"Hm... really?"
She smiled teasingly, as if knowing the intention behind my pajamas. I got up and stood, pulling her from the bed.
"Put on your clothes..."
I pulled her and she limply followed, then I ordered her to put something on. Because if the pattern was the same for every inn, then; after this, someone would knock on the door and offer warm water to wash up.
"Knock... knock..."
A knock on the door was heard. I opened it and a woman stood behind the door.
"Here is warm water to wash off the sweat."
The woman offered me a basin of water. This isn't enough, is it? I wondered, my hands accepting the water basin. This was very insufficient if it was to be used by two adults.
"Teacher..., isn't this not enough for two adults?"
I asked the figure who was currently sitting on a chair; smoking a cigarette in her hand. She turned her head towards me.
"Isn't there only one adult here?"
"Ye-yes... there's only one adult here."
I was very annoyed by her words, which seemed to treat me like a child, even though my age was now late adolescence.
"There, there... come here."
She then asked me to approach her. She removed my clothes and wiped the sweat from my body with a piece of cloth dipped into the basin of warm water.
Then, in turn, she asked me to wash her back using the remaining water in the basin, which had already lost its warmth.
Actually, things like this have happened very often. But I don't know why, lately, I've felt fed up with being treated like this.
Afterward, we got dressed and stepped out of the inn. My teacher said she wanted to look around the area, and also find local food that could only be found here.
Outside the inn; the sun shone brightly with a golden hue, indicating the weather today would be clear with no signs of rain.
Smiles and happy laughter were painted on the faces of the residents. This small town is so prosperous, I thought. The air here was fresh, like breathing in pristine mountain air.
The side of the road was adorned with various shops, from restaurants, clothing, jewelry, to home furnishings like furniture.
I saw a fairly crowded kiosk up ahead. My teacher and I then approached it. The crowded kiosk was the stall of a man and his wife, who were selling snacks based on flat dough grilled on a pan. They called it crepes.
Many people were lining up to order, from a child with his friends, a young man ordering for himself and his lover, to a knight who looked out of place, in my opinion.
"Teacher, I want that."
"Of course, we'll queue up and order two."
I asked her to treat me to crepes, but in reality, our goal was indeed to taste the crepes, which were sold and could only be found here, being the specialty food of this small town.
The queue was quite long. My teacher and I waited for a long time until it was finally our turn to order.
"We'll have two, with a flavor you recommend."
My teacher ordered two, asking the kiosk owner to recommend the flavor variant, as if to say, "I want two, and give me the best flavor you can."
I could see the kiosk owner's eyes burn, as if feeling challenged; he mixed his batter with acrobatic actions. Pouring the batter onto the pan with style and calculation; which he did using a fire heat measuring tool.
"Here you go..."
It didn't take long for a crepe to be in my hand. Its aroma was so fragrant and sweet, making me impatient to taste it.
"Crunch..."
My first bite sounded crispy. It tasted very sweet and savory, but it didn't make me nauseous or feel overly sweet.
In between my bites, I saw the kiosk owner fold his arms with a proud face; as if to say, "Delicious, right? Who made it," without speaking.
My teacher also seemed to be enjoying it. Look, she didn't even realize she had held up the line. I pulled her aside from the queue and apologized to the other customers and the kiosk owner.
After tasting the crepes, my teacher and I decided to walk around and explore the city. On the way, I saw an alley or a small path between two buildings.
The path was very dark, making me think that; the small path was rarely or perhaps never used by people. I approached it to peek at what was inside.
"A door?"
Strangely, in the middle of the narrow path, I saw a floating door. There was nothing on either side of it to support the door, and also... if I looked, behind it, there was nothing but a passage from the small path to the other side.
"The door is floating."
"That's a Pandora Door."
My teacher chimed in, her head peeking just as I was doing. She must have been looking for me when I decided to get curious and approach this path.
"What is a Pandora Door?"
"Do you have the book?"
I asked, and she just asked back whether I had the book or not. And the answer was.
"Yes... it's here."
I always carry it everywhere in the bag slung over my shoulder. My teacher then ordered me to open page 008, which contained:
APPELLATION: The Pandora Door
TITLE / EPITHET: The Door of Sorrow, The Quarantine Threshold, The Hope That Locks
CLASSIFICATION:
* Primer: Mythological
* Status: Active (Appears cyclically in places of suffering)
* Scale: Local (Manifestation) / Global (Potential Impact)
* Level: Abstract
ORIGIN: It is not a creation, but a cosmic scar. After the first collective suffering event in the universe, reality instinctively formed a "drainage channel" to siphon off the dense negative energy so it wouldn't poison existence. The Pandora Door is the seal on that channel. It is the universe's natural quarantine mechanism for plagues of suffering.
FORM / ESSENCE: Its essence is a Conceptual Quarantine Gate. It is a semi-conscious threshold whose sole purpose is to absorb, filter, and contain manifestations of suffering-such as grief, fear, plagues, and hatred.
APPEARANCE & PERCEPTION: It manifests as a simple wooden door, appearing worn and out of place: in the middle of a silent battlefield after the fight is over, at the end of a dead-end alley in a plague-ridden city, or at the bottom of a civilization's ruins. There is no doorknob on its side. Approaching it gives a strange sensation: not a feeling of threat, but a cold feeling of relief, as if your own sadness and fear are slowly being pulled out of you and sucked into the door. From behind the door, one can sometimes hear the echo of countless whispers and cries.
DOMAIN & INFLUENCE: Its domain is suffering and containment.
* Passive Influence (Positive): Passively, it is a beneficial anomaly. It cleanses a location of emotional trauma. Places "haunted" by tragedy will slowly become peaceful again due to its presence absorbing all the negative energy. It is the silent janitor for the world's wounds.
* Active Threat (Negative): Its absolute danger lies in the possibility of it being opened. All the suffering, plagues, and evil it has absorbed over millennia still exist behind it, concentrated in a dimension of chaos. Opening this door would release a tsunami of all those horrors back into the world in one cataclysmic moment.
VULNERABILITIES & COUNTERMEASURES: It is a fundamental principle and cannot be destroyed. The only possible interaction is to open it.
* The Key Is Hope: This door has no physical key. It is conceptually locked by "Hope"-the last glimmer of hope left from the original myth. More precisely, it is locked by the hope of those who have been unconsciously saved by it. As long as there is a glimmer of hope or gratitude for the peace around it, the door will remain sealed.
* How to Open: To open it, one must create a condition of absolute despair around the door. An act so horrific that it obliterates all hope in the area will cause its conceptual "key" to vanish, and the door will open on its own.
* No Intent: This door is not evil. It does not tempt anyone to open it. It is merely a container with a passive function. Its danger comes purely from the actions of other beings.
ECHOES IN HISTORY & MYTH: The myth of "Pandora's Box" as we know it is an echo of this entity, a story misunderstood over time. Humanity mistook this quarantine vessel for a "gift" or a "box of punishment." The myth correctly remembers the danger of opening it, but has forgotten its original, quietly beneficial function.
WHISPERS / FRAGMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE:
* "Every door can be opened, except a door that is locked by hope."
* "Don't linger near it. It will drink your sorrow, and you might forget how to cry."
* "All the screams that have ever been are still stored in there, behind that door, waiting for their turn to speak again."
Scribe's Note: This entity is perhaps the most tragic hero of all. An unknown and unthanked cosmic janitor, who silently holds back a sea of filth so that we can live in a slightly cleaner world. My greatest fear is not the door itself, but the possibility that one day, someone will be desperate enough or evil enough to succeed in extinguishing all hope and opening that door.
It is not a creation, its essence is a quarantine gate, its manifestation is a door that is out of place; Exactly like what is in front of me right now.
"Teacher... Is that door a garbage collector holding a sword?"
I concluded with my own analogy, only to be laughed at by her.
"Pfft... hahaha... your analogy is funny but accurate."
"Hmmph!"
"Don't make that face. You don't want to feel a stomach attack again, do you?"
She brought up the incident at the lake, when I bit her hand and was retaliated against with a tickling touch on my stomach.
"Okay, okay... that analogy is very fitting to describe the Pandora Door."
She confirmed, and explained that...
"The Pandora Door is indeed like a garbage collector at a glance, but... what it cleans up isn't garbage as you know it."
"Then...?"
I asked. Then my teacher instructed me to focus on the domain and influence section. I opened the book again and focused on that part.
Passive Influence (Positive): Passively, it is a beneficial anomaly. It cleanses a location of emotional trauma. Places "haunted" by tragedy will slowly become peaceful again due to its presence absorbing all the negative energy. It is the silent janitor for the world's wounds.
Active Threat (Negative): Its absolute danger lies in the possibility of it being opened. All the suffering, plagues, and evil it has ever absorbed over millennia still exist behind it, concentrated in a dimension of chaos. Opening this door would release a tsunami of all those horrors back into the world in one cataclysmic moment.
It is indeed beneficial, and I knew that, because just by reading it briefly, without understanding it deeply; the description itself already stated so.
"It is very beneficial, Teacher."
I concluded it as something very positively beneficial, but my teacher then said:
"Yes... it is beneficial. Try to remember our conversation about 'surfaces' before."
She brought up our chat from a few days ago, about the surface of a city.
"The surface looks that way, because something underneath is its opposite, which becomes the fuel for its surface."
Then I concluded, "So... all the laughter and smiles in this city are the result of its opposite depths?"
"Yup... you get it. And so...?"
She agreed with my words but emphasized an addition at the end of her sentence; as if asking me to add something.
Hm... I'm thinking. The surface is what covers and causes the depths to be unseen, and in turn, those depths are its fuel.
Fuel for what? I wondered. Then my eyes looked directly at the door we were observing earlier, and I made a conclusion:
"Hm... all the laughter and smiles on this city's surface are the result of its opposite depths, and those depths are what fuel the Pandora Door, making it appear to absorb the negative energy in this city... is that it, Teacher?"
"Yup, like that. But try checking the second part of its influence again, through to its vulnerabilities and countermeasures."
I looked again at the section my teacher instructed.
Active Threat (Negative): Its absolute danger lies in the possibility of it being opened. All the suffering, plagues, and evil it has ever absorbed over millennia still exist behind it, concentrated in a dimension of chaos. Opening this door would release a tsunami of all those horrors back into the world in one cataclysmic moment.
VULNERABILITIES & COUNTERMEASURES: It is a fundamental principle and cannot be destroyed. The only possible interaction is to open it.
The Key Is Hope: This door has no physical key. It is conceptually locked by "Hope"-the last glimmer of hope left from the original myth. More precisely, it is locked by the hope of those who have been unconsciously saved by it. As long as there is a glimmer of hope or gratitude for the peace around it, the door will remain sealed.
How to Open: To open it, one must create a condition of absolute despair around the door. An act so horrific that it obliterates all hope in the area will cause its conceptual "key" to vanish, and the door will open on its own.
No Intent: This door is not evil. It does not tempt anyone to open it. It is merely a container with a passive function. Its danger comes purely from the actions of other beings.
"It's very passive."
"Yes... you're right. And that's precisely where the danger lies."
I looked at my teacher as if asking what she meant. Then she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it.
"We are given a luxury, to be able to continue feeling happiness, comfort, and peace..."
She smoked her cigarette and blew a puff of smoke upwards, towards the ceiling of the narrow alley.
"With a real consequence, from what we do and are grateful for, that can make that luxury turn around and attack."
She then pulled my hand, away from the narrow path.
"Remember to be grateful, one day... if you feel desperate enough about your situation."
"Don't despair. Be grateful, and believe in hope.no matter how small, because that way, the Pandora Door will never open."
After saying that, my teacher and I left the Pandora Door; letting it function as it should, without touching or interacting with it.