"...Do you know, Yi Sang?"
At Dongrang's quiet question, Yi Sang's gaze sank.
Was he guessing what the man was about to say?
"If you can hear the ticking clearly at the front gate, that means the T Corp Tax Collection Office staff are inside the house. Most of us have received their visit. It's an unforgettable experience. But you wouldn't know that, would you? A high-class architect like yourself must have been enjoying T Corp's benefits."
At Dongrang's words, Yi Sang's eyes were dyed with complicated emotion.
...This is hard to just leave alone. I should do something, maybe...
Unable to stand the pitiful scene, I reflexively reached out to try and do something, but then. Dongrang and I happened to... very happened to make eye contact.
What I read there was emptiness. Self-disgust. And, and...
For a moment, I had the strange feeling that I understood what was in his heart.
At the same time, my hand, having lost its destination, drifted through the air.
...Ha. What the hell am I even trying to do?
Dongrang looked at me for a moment, then naturally averted his eyes and resumed pressing Yi Sang.
"Usually, the first visit is sudden and quiet. They appear without warning, so most people are caught off guard... But there's still pride and conviction for Guhinhoe left in their hearts. They know that. But they also know they've branded into us the fear that they can come back at any time."
"......"
"From the second visit onward, things change. They know where my time came from, and where it will go. They hold my past, my present, and my future in their hands. In other words, the shape of my weakness and desire is entirely in their grasp."
Even as he said that, there still seemed to be a trace of fear in his eyes.
...Honestly.
"What would you have done? Would you have made a different choice from me? And really... can you say that with such certainty?"
A broken laugh. A shattered dream. A vanished conviction.
With those words, in which nothing remained but emptiness, the Golden Bough... reflected Dongrang's past.
Yes, the view goes dark.
*
"Organism."
A calm voice came from the darkness.
...The identity was probably a T Corp tax collector.
Considering the location and the situation, probably...
'......'
Even though I didn't particularly want to know, the voice kept speaking.
"I heard that, among other things, you're especially interested in regenerative treatment for animals."
With that, the view brightened, and the guess proved correct. This was probably the scene where they were trying to coax Dongrang.
The location is... a road?
"Are you familiar with K Corp, which has recently been collaborating with us? One of the rising Wings, a city overflowing with emerald light. I thought they might be interested in your technology."
"......"
Dongrang's expression looked dark.
How many times had they visited him? What had they said to him...?
Questions kept sprouting, but there was no one to answer them.
Instead, what stood there was only a pitiful young man swept up by the times, and a civil servant pressing him with cold detachment.
"...As you know, opportunities like this don't come to everyone."
It wasn't hard to guess what Dongrang would say next.
The world once again reflected a faded gray.
"And so, Dongrang, did you finally have your wish granted?"
"......"
*
The view faded again, and this time it reflected the clear past.
Not a script or anything of the sort. It meant it had truly begun to show the prisoners' pasts.
What was revealed was Guhinhoe's research lab, reduced to a wreck.
What remained there were Yi Sang and Gubo. Just the two of them.
[Guhinhoe's explosion shattered everything to pieces, and it brought my own everything to a halt.]
[To stop means the cessation of interest... indifference.]
[It meant I no longer cared if I weathered away and was trampled underfoot.]
[But then, there was one who seized my arm.]
"You're just going to stand there and let the T Corp Tax Collection Office staff drag you away? You, of all people? Have you finally gone mad, Yi Sang? You must come with me..."
- Click, clack.
Before Gubo could even finish speaking, a man strolled leisurely in among the T Corp staff.
His clothes had absolutely nothing to do with T Corp no matter how you looked at it... and yet, as if it were of no concern at all, he entered naturally and then quietly stood before the remaining members of Guhinhoe.
"...Oh dear, looks like I'm a bit late."
"Seosan... why are you here...?"
"Long time no see. Should I call you Gubo, then? Hmm... I had originally planned to come a little earlier. This is troublesome. I've had the lead stolen from me."
He seemed utterly unconcerned whether the people around him were staring or not. Though his attire was ordinary, there was something about him... a faint madness that hadn't existed in the script I had read.
Had something changed in his state of mind over the months he'd been gone?
At that moment, my gaze instinctively went to the ring on the ring finger of his left hand.
What was there was... an unusual ring wound around twice.
...Docent?
"What should I do, what should I do... hey, Gubo."
"...What is... it."
"It seems like if I take Yi Sang away from here, there'll be trouble. I'm not at that level of authority, after all. So, the thing is..."
His body, shaking as though he couldn't contain himself, suddenly went still.
"Looking at your face, it seems you've got a backup plan... Then I suppose it's fine if you take him. But... I'd like it if I could see his face on a non-regular basis. He always brings inspiration to my work."
"......"
"I'll take your silence as agreement. Then I'll be off. I don't have much time."
- Hm-hm, hm-hm~
Humming an incomprehensible tune, he ended the conversation however he pleased. Just before he turned back toward the exit, he abruptly stopped walking.
"Ah, right, Yi Sang."
"......"
"Next time I see you, I hope you'll have a little more vitality. I'm not fond of gloomy works."
[Just like that, he appeared and departed. And then he took Gubo's silent hand and left with him.]
[What else could I have done there besides follow him?]
[Even if he had told me to let the T Corp Tax Collection Office staff take him, I would have nodded.]
[Even if he had told me to put all the mirror technology into the Concept Incinerator, I would have done so.]
[Even if he had told me to stay hidden there and pretend not to know anything, I would have obeyed.]
[How many of the nine survived and fled...]
"I do not know."
With Yi Sang's gloomy monologue... the depth of self sinks even further.
...Where does the end of this self-depth lie?
*
The screen kept shifting, and the view showed a relatively distant past.
At this self-depth, at this point in time... probably Stephanette?
"Please don't be so sad... I don't want to dodge the years that are coming by way of your tears..."
That's right. This time it wasn't her youth, but the later years of her life, the version of her I'm relatively familiar with.
"Those tears should be used for people who need them more desperately. Don't forget, you are... an unnamed star for all who suffer..."
...She really is a mad saint. Just look at how she maintained that much dignity and kept her position as a Wing's representative in this city.
She's dead now, of course... but even accounting for that, she's still worth a very generous evaluation.
What comes after this is... ah.
The self-depth begins to show a point slightly later.
The timeframe is... after Stephanette's passing.
"Ms. Stephanette has passed away, and... our K Corp wishes to express its condolences in honor of her noble will..."
So this is the executives. Talking about noble wills and all that while having no intention of doing any such thing...
Then, a voice a little more familiar than the others cut off the executive who was speaking.
"Why beat around the bush like that? The thing you really want to say is something else, isn't it? Who among us will sit in the next representative's seat..."
"...Mm."
"Ahem..."
"Well... isn't the way to sit in the representative's seat simple enough? Who contributed the most to this Wing and this Nest, and who revived it..."
Hah. What a crazy bitch, saying something that outrageous in an official setting.
No. Rather, if her faction was strong enough that she could say that and get away with it, maybe that wasn't the problem.
Wait, if it's someone like that, maybe I know her...
While I was lost in thought, the two executives aside from the woman whose voice had accelerated the situation began arguing.
"I've been extracting tears in her stead since the time Ms. Stephanette grew too frail from age to speak properly..."
"What, that 'a heartache that is both tender and warm' nonsense? Isn't your job just buying picture books and having your subordinates read them to her? The amount of tears has been dwindling, too."
"...Have you finished speaking?"
"Heh... w-wait."
Thud! Crack...
"See? This is what happens when you speak carelessly. You knew my personality and still ran your mouth like that?"
"Ghk... if the board members learn about this, they won't just sit still... th-they..."
"I'll finish you off before that."
Thud! Thud! Splash, slap...
One excited executive starts beating another with the intent to kill.
"......"
In the middle of that scene, a woman leisurely walked out and looked into a certain cylinder... more precisely, the inside of a container holding something that was shedding tears.
"Ah, our Ms. Stephanette... you were endlessly kind to the very end. It's not as if tears had to be shed nobly, after all."
Ah, ah! I didn't know from the name alone, but seeing her face, I get it.
She was definitely the woman who seemed most likely to seize real power after Stephanette's death.
"Everyone, I think I've found it."
Probably the most cunning and most ideal leader currently in K Corp.
At the same time, the one serving as Dongrang's direct superior.
"The way to sit in the representative's seat is very simple. K Corp's revival."
Was that woman Alfonso... or something like that? Damn, I would normally have remembered.
If I hadn't heard the name just now, I might not have known.
"All that remains now is the board's vote."
At Alfonso's quiet, gentle words, Don Quixote reacted fiercely.
"Cease this...! That someone must live imprisoned, seeing only despair, for the sake of all..."
"It won't reach them. This is a fragment of a scene about tears, not about Yi Sang..."
Faust stopped Don Quixote with logic, but did that really matter?
No matter how much that idiot seems to have no sense of consequence and a brain made of bricks, she probably knows that resisting this recollection is pointless.
Or maybe not. If it's Don Quixote, perhaps...
Just as I was about to begin a serious consideration of Don Quixote's intelligence, Dongrang cut into the conversation at exactly that moment.
"Ah, you may not know this, but that one singularity saved the lives of countless people. It was as though someone was fulfilling the dream I had failed to realize long ago in my stead."
"......"
"If I were the one inside that container... I would have given everything I had in gratitude. All of it, without leaving a single thing behind. So all we can do is... look at it with gratitude and respect. Like gazing at the star of one's homeland."
...To be grateful and respectful while doing that kind of thing. Selfishness really has no bottom.
I hate Wings for exactly this reason. They go on about ideals and whatnot with their mouths... but the way they cling to profit is so ugly there's nothing lower.
Ah. Am I really all that different?
"......"
Tch. Let's bury that thought.