Chapter 65
#065
1.
Gukbap, jokbal, budae-jjigae. And Jinjo have one thing in common.
The original is different.
I’ve only experienced fake-Jinjo fear twice so far.
According to Boksuni, fake-Jinjo fear is a kind of hypnosis.
A spell that exaggerates the fear a prey feels toward a predator.
The reason I ended up pissing myself like a country mutt that had just met a dog catcher in the last loop and became Boksuni’s loyal servant,
wasn’t because it was powerful hypnosis in itself, but because my brain got rewired by the conviction that ‘this bastard is the real Jinjo!’
However.
The original real-deal Jinjo fear was different.
The moment I met those flashing red eyes.
“…Ueh.”
Not even a finger can move.
If Jinjo said, ‘Stop my heart and die,’ I felt like it would happen just like that.
“Come closer.”
My body moved of its own accord, as if tugged by invisible threads.
“U… ngh… yame-rong….”
At this rate, if I touched the Omniform, Kisara’s gonna show up!!!
Fortunately, my body stopped just before reaching the Omniform.
-Splat
Jinjo’s hand seemed to blur, and then my cheek was scorching hot.
Droplets of blood hung from the tips of her nails.
Jinjo licked the blood with a flick of her tongue and grinned, revealing her fangs.
That smile had none of the silly, goofy side of Boksuni’s ‘waralalala’ act.
“You have good blood.”
Uu….
This isn’t Boksuni.
My Boksuni isn’t this evil!!!
More importantly, why?
I knew Jinjo was alive.
Because Boksuni said Jinjo had gained perfect immortality in exchange for the commandments.
But her walking around here with both eyes wide open was a different story.
I desperately tried to fit the pieces together.
Twilight Resource Development had sealed Jinjo away.
They were conducting Project Z and fake-Jinjo experiments to control that blood.
And there was a high probability Overnus Pharmaceuticals also had a hand in those experiments.
So this was all a lie?
No.
No way.
Too many circumstantial pieces pointed to Jinjo having been ‘sealed.’
I moved my eyes and looked around.
The suspiciously abundant sacred ropes hanging everywhere, and the Omniform.
Jinjo had stopped before crossing the sacred rope.
Most decisively, the alert that popped up when I entered this world.
[This is the most noble prison, ‘Depth 0: Shrine of the Red Moon (赤月)’.]
“Uwo….”
I let out an exclamation in a slurred voice, my tongue numb.
I think I’ve got the gist.
No, what the hell….
I thought if they said she was sealed by Twilight Resource Development, it’d be some lab or something….
It was just house arrest?
Twilight Resource Development, do your damn job properly.
If you’re going to seal her away, at least keep her in a containment tube or something!
At the very least, put up a Beware of Dog sign!!! This is how people get bitten!!!
My head spun.
‘So you were the one who carried off that half-finished idiot?’ What the hell did that mean?
Judging by the context, the half-finished dimwit seems to be Boksuni….
But how does the imprisoned real Jinjo know that?
Then.
“Lady Tsukimiya, what’s wrong? The barrier is reacting… huh?”
I heard a presence nearby.
I darted my gaze and saw a man in a sharp suit standing there, looking flustered.
That one’s got Twilight Resource Development written all over him.
“No, how did an outsider get in?”
Hello?
I’m very confused too. Would you mind hearing me out first?
“Ueoor? Eowaa-u…. Eeooeu-… Ouwueou?”
I spoke as earnestly as I could, but it seemed my sincerity didn’t get through.
Before long, the suit-clad man came toward me with a face gone ghostly white.
“You rat bastard! Where are you from? How did you get in here…”
-Splat
A grotesque sound, as if meat had been shoved into a hydraulic press and crushed, erased the suit-clad man’s bewilderment.
Warm blood splattered all over my face.
It was the suit-clad man’s blood, reduced to a handful of gore.
“Eh…?”
“Do not mind it. He was my errand boy.”
Jinjo said it casually, radiating scarlet mana.
No… it does concern me.
The errand boy had become something that used to be an errand boy…?
I figured there weren’t any sane people among mages, but this woman is seriously nuts too.
Then.
-Gooooooo
The sacred ropes throughout the shrine trembled violently.
What flowed out from the sacred ropes was a complicated string of characters, like verses from scripture.
Tens of thousands of those glowing lines instantly bound Jinjo’s body like a spiderweb.
“Annoying, honestly. I barely even moved.”
Jinjo’s brow furrowed slightly.
As she gave a little shoulder twitch, as if pouting.
-Kiiiiiiiik
The thousands of strings binding her screamed as they were pulled taut.
The air rang with the vibration of a bridge about to collapse as the strings burned and gave way.
Overwhelming power. The clash of that and the restraint suppressing it.
Okay.
I understood it clearly.
Jinjo really was imprisoned.
She was just the kind of out-of-spec existence that could pop my head like a raspberry even while confined.
“It looks like we don’t have time for a long talk.”
She looked down at the golden inscriptions wrapped around her arms with disgust, then.
turned her gaze back to me.
“There is something I wish to ask of you.”
Jinjo casually waved her hand, and the pressure eased.
I couldn’t move my body, but I could speak.
“The one and only Red Moon! Head of the Tsukimiya clan! This lowly speck seeks an audience with Lady Jinjo!”
I didn’t fully know what was going on.
Then just grovel! Suck Jinjo-sama’s ass like crazy!
“How grandiose. Stop it. What else would you be doing but mocking me, trapped in a birdcage?”
Jinjo gave a self-mocking laugh, snorting through her nose.
“How did you come to this prison?”
“Yes! I touched a strange stone in the Old Sewers and got sent here!”
“A stone? Ah, you mean the keystone?”
“I’m not sure what a keystone is, but it was a rock tied up with rope!”
“Ah, now that you mention it, there was something like that. It’s in my memory.”
Huh?
She seemed less hostile than I expected.
And unlike her first impression, I could actually talk with her.
I had been prepared to risk the end of the loop after seeing what she did to her errand boy, but…
“So it was you who ran off with my replica?”
“Th-that’s right.”
Thank goodness.
Those red eyes, filled with interest and curiosity yet painted over with a heavier weariness—
seemed to be showing me some measure of favor.
No.
That was a mistake.
“Then, are you from Twilight Resource Development or Overnus Pharmaceuticals? Which is it?”
Her tone was as casual as ever, but having died plenty of times, I knew.
The answer to this question would decide my life.
Ha… damn it, Boksuni.
When you get back, you’re getting the waralalala big-bro treatment.
Mom, can’t you keep her in line?
I’d give Boksuni, who looks exactly like Jinjo, the Bae-bang-gu treatment a hundred times over.
I’d have to make it back alive first.
“Don’t you dare lump me in with those filthy traitor bastards!!!!”
“Oh?”
“I am unaffiliated! I’m neither Twilight nor Overnus!”
This answer was the truth and the optimal play.
Think about it.
Jinjo clearly held bad blood toward both Twilight and Overnus, the ones who had brought down the RCD Foundation.
Much more so if she was trapped like this.
“If you’re neither, then by what connection did you steal my replica away?”
I got through, for now.
Jinjo crossed her arms as if to say she wanted to hear the reason.
“The reason I stole it was….”
The second fork in the road had arrived.
Bluff my way through with a vague answer.
VS
Tell Jinjo the whole truth and explain that I have nothing to do with either faction.
Honestly, the latter looked better than trying to be clever with some half-assed trick….
But can I really say this?
Jinjo is sealed away, after all.
Won’t I just end up making myself dangerous too?
“Speak. There is no one listening, is there?”
I glanced at the pool of blood.
Well, there wasn’t exactly another choice anyway.
“Because I wanted to save my sister.”
“Your sister?”
“She has an illness that can only be cured by being turned into a familiar. I secretly stole what was being kept at Geumniga so I could make her into a ‘doll’ familiar.”
“You can’t make a familiar out of just that half-finished shell, can you? Even if you did, it would die.”
“Yes! To make a familiar without the replica dying, I’d need a ruby…”
I gave a rough rundown of the situation.
Jinjo listened to me with a serene smile, and her eyes curved into crescents.
“How droll! How droll indeed! To think the two factions would be made fools of by the trickery of a mere commoner!”
Jinjo giggled, smiling with a seductive charm Boksuni could never imitate.
“It has been a very long time since I’ve enjoyed a clown act this delightful.”
At this point, I should be safe… right?
Jinjo reached a hand behind her head and fidgeted.
Her long hair rustled loose.
“Take it.”
I reflexively caught what Jinjo tossed at me and looked at it….
It was a butterfly-shaped hair ornament decorated with all kinds of jewels.
“T-this is?”
“Payment for your clowning around. Even selling just the jewels would fetch a fortune.”
Oh, yeah. It does look like that.
Even if I’m clueless, I know this isn’t some ordinary trinket.
Whoa, whoa!
It wasn’t safe after all, it was a jackpot?!
“Go and mess them up to your heart’s content.”
“Wreaking havoc is my specialty.”
I answered the client’s request with a spirited grin.
2.
After that, we wrapped things up with a brief exchange.
I turned my back and ran to the keystone.
It’s a shame we didn’t have more time.
There was still a lot more I wanted to dig into.
There had been an unexpected hiccup, but...
The initial goal had been achieved.
Anyway, treasure hunting was a success!
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure the aftermath would be neatly wrapped up, either.
But according to Jinjo, killing an errand boy wasn’t even a first for her, and since nobody would know I had come here, she’d take care of the aftermath.
What else was I supposed to do?
I couldn’t exactly ask her to vouch for me.
I had to trust her.
I put on the wetsuit as fast as I could and touched the keystone.
“Logout!”
-Gurgle-rumble
Just like when I came in, I returned to the bottom of the submerged tank.
As soon as I undid the weight tied to my ankle, my body floated upward.
“I’m back!!!”
“Master!”
Boksuni, who had been waiting anxiously, greeted me with a blooming smile—then her eyes narrowed fiercely.
“You little brat! What took you so long? What if the cleaner had caught me and dragged me away!”
The moment I took off the wetsuit, Boksuni started pounding me with her adorable little fists.
Man….
It’s hard when they’re this alike yet this different.
“Didn’t you say you’d be coming right back up!”
“Hey now, don’t be like that. Look here.”
“What did you do… huh?”
“I found the treasure.”
Boksuni’s eyes went wide when she saw the butterfly brooch.
“Waaah…!!!”
“Boksuni!! We’re rich now!!!”
“Master! Are you a genius?! Amazing! Was that really down there?!”
Though we had started as a vague alliance, we’d been through hell together.
We hugged each other in tears and bounced up and down.
“So where and how did you find it?”
“Trade secret, idiot.”
“Why not! I want to know too! I’m curious!”
“I’ll tell you slowly later. The bends are killing me.”
I had thought about this a bit.
Fake-Jinjo had kept insisting she was Jinjo.
Even when I teased her and called her fake Jinjo, she held firm.
But if I actually said I’d met the sealed-away real Jinjo, I figured she’d go, ‘Uuuh, then does that mean I’m really the fake one…?’ and have a meltdown.
Dealing with a woman having a meltdown is such a hassle.
And on top of that, I still had to think about how to safely cash in this hair ornament.
Well.
I’d tell her gradually later.
“Boksuni! Tonight we’re having a drinking party! Load up as many glutinous rice cakes as you want!”
“Then a hundred! I shall eat a hundred!!!”
“You can eat two hundred!”
“Two hundred!!!”
For tonight, it was enough to be drenched in the wine of victory.
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