Chapter 70
On the third day after filming wrapped.
I had returned to a fairly peaceful daily life.
The biggest change was that I no longer had to go out every few days to film, rub shoulders with people, and appear on TV.
Thanks to that, I could resume the hobbies I'd had little energy for during filming... In many ways, it was an ideal situation for managing my stress.
I didn't know the exact reason, but my insomnia hadn't been acting up much lately, either... To put it bluntly, life felt worth living.
"What the fuck? They charge sixty thousand won for a game like this these days? And they haven't even fixed the bugs or optimized it properly?"
...Of course, that didn't mean the world was a place where one could live without any stress.
Wherever you went, the world was overflowing with land mines that could cause stress, so you always had to be careful.
The game itself was already expensive enough, yet some games shamelessly sold DLC, while others charged the price of a finished product for years of early access without ever officially releasing. Then there were games that claimed to launch worldwide simultaneously while blocking people from playing them... In any case, this hobby wasn't something worth properly engaging in, either. They acted like they were desperate to fleece everyone they could.
[...Then just buy games that have been proven reliable, right? There are plenty of other games. You can wait while playing something else, see what people think, and buy it if it seems worth it.]
"You're more sensible than a human, Tokkaengi..."
It was such a perfect answer that I had nothing to say. How dare a rabbit say something so reasonable? It annoyed me.
"This is obviously a conspiracy by Abyss Ones who deliberately make games like this to extract negative emotions. Let's storm their base right now, Tokkaengi."
[Abyss Ones spending hundreds of millions of won over several years to make a game just to obtain negative emotions... At that point, shouldn't we count them as Earthlings...?]
"Shut up. Whose side are you on? Are you an Abyss One, too?"
[If I'm an Abyss One, then what does that make you?!]
Well, obviously, I was joking. I must have had a lot more breathing room lately if I could make jokes like that. I wouldn't have been able to do anything like this in the past.
My recent results had been fairly good, so dispatch requests weren't coming in as often... I was tired, but I still had money left over from filming, so my bank balance had some room to breathe. It was fair to call these the most peaceful days I'd experienced in my eight years of living as Alice.
As for the letters, I was reading them whenever I had the time. I'd pay closer attention if one stood out, but most of them didn't have much to say. Since there was no deadline anyway, I had been setting aside an hour or two each day to deal with them. I'd gotten the hang of it as I read more, too, so I felt like I was picking up speed and could finish within a few days.
Ah, and Mia's letter—the one she'd said she was preparing something incredible—
* * *
"Ah. This is my letter. Here, Senior. Please check it quickly."
"The envelope itself looks incredibly thick..."
"That just means I worked really hard on it. Here. I won't ask you to read it all right now. Just show me your reaction."
"...Something about this makes me nervous."
I accepted an envelope that looked much thicker and heavier than an ordinary one and carefully opened it. A sheet of letter paper emerged.
The paper was folded, so I thought I'd better unfold it first. But when I unfolded it...
-Fwoooosh
"..."
"Hehe. I worked really hard on it, you know."
-Fwoooooosh
Because I was sitting when I received it, the paper reached the floor before it had fully unfolded. Even when I stretched my arms as high as I could, it still wasn't all the way open.
So I stood up and unfolded the paper, but it kept unfurling for a long while, extending across the floor as if I were laying out a red carpet.
It continued on and on like one of those incredibly long scrolls covered in densely packed information from a fantasy movie or game. At this point, it was impossible to call it a letter.
At a glance, it was covered in an incredible amount of text. I could see a few drawings and photographs here and there, but the writing still made up the overwhelming majority of it.
"What on earth did you make?"
The sight was so overwhelming that I felt something close to awe, and I completely failed to keep my expression under control.
Since she knew my real personality, I'd been much more relaxed about staying in character around her. Even so, this was an exceptionally intense expression—one I had never shown anyone else.
I belatedly realized my mistake and returned to a more ordinary expression, but Mia had already seen everything and was staring with sparkling eyes. It was far too late to manage my expression.
"What was that expression just now? It was so incredible it could awaken my dangerous tastes!"
"It was your imagination. Alice would never make an expression like that."
"What kind of expression was that? I barely got a look! Show it to me just once more!"
"I'll pass. And put your phone down. Don't even think about taking a picture."
"Aww."
I lightly patted both cheeks to loosen my facial muscles, cleared my throat once, and spoke again.
"How long did you spend writing this? This really isn't a letter anymore. I knew you were preparing something incredibly elaborate, but this one thing must be ten times the length of an ordinary letter."
"I remember it being around fifty-seven thousand characters. Or maybe I'm wrong."
"At that length, it's not a letter anymore. It's a novel..."
I still couldn't find anything to say as I looked at the overwhelming length of paper spread across the floor.
I'd expected her to unleash something enormous, but this went beyond my expectations. Even the drawings and photographs visible here and there showed that she hadn't written it carelessly. She had genuinely poured her heart into this letter, and it had ended up this long.
"Now you understand how much I love you, Senior."
"If you have something to say, just tell me directly instead of going to all this trouble and hurting your hand..."
"I told you, there are things that can only be conveyed through a letter!! You don't understand a woman's heart, Senior!"
"Where did that come from?!"
* * *
"...Because there hadn't been another letter quite that incredible."
It was actually fortunate. After seeing a letter like that, if any other letter had remained in my memory, I would have been afraid to find out what kind of bizarre spectacle it might have put on.
Aia's strange letter had stayed in my memory, but for a reason entirely unrelated to its length...
Ah, and I still hadn't finished reading Mia's letter. It was so long that I was reading it in sections. Mia herself had said it was fine if I didn't finish it all at once. Apparently, she'd written it over multiple sessions, too.
[The final shoot with Black Rose is next week, right?]
"Christmas was almost here, after all. We'd said we'd put the date ticket we got as a prize to special use."
Since Christmas Day was a holiday, I felt sorry for the filming crew, so we'd decided to shoot on Christmas Eve in the afternoon. Apparently, the production team had suggested it first, and Black Rose's side had accepted. I was unemployed and had nothing else going on, so I agreed without much fuss.
Mia did sound disappointed when she heard that we'd be filming on Christmas Eve, but it wasn't a problem.
"Christmas already...?"
[Another year is coming to an end. I hope the Abyss Ones stay quiet for the rest of it.]
"No chance. The end of the year is actually the best time for them to be active."
The year-end season, when people sent off the old year with a mixture of joy and regret while looking forward to the next one, was a time Abyss Ones particularly loved.
They enjoyed taking positive emotions as they rose and driving them straight down into the abyss.
That didn't mean we could say, 'Abyss Ones will appear at the end of the year, so let's not get excited and stay quiet.' How many people were there in the world? If humanity could unite that easily, there would be no wars or conflicts, and the world would be peaceful.
The especially cautious people who valued their lives sometimes went into bunkers before an Abyss One even appeared, but most people simply went about their daily lives quietly, hoping that they could make it through the next year without incident, just as they had survived this one.
Ah. Of course, there were also plenty of people who enthusiastically celebrated the end of the year outside, regardless of whether an Abyss One appeared. Magical girls who enjoyed having fun were mixed in among them, so even when an Abyss One really did appear, they tended to handle it surprisingly well.
Anyway, nothing would happen for the time being, so I could take it easy today, too. Maybe I'd tear into some chicken for the first time in a while...
-Brrrr
"...Who's calling? Is it an ad or a loan offer?"
My phone, which almost never received calls except for things like that, had started ringing.
It was a number I didn't recognize. Since an area code was displayed, it wasn't a cell phone, but calls like this were usually spam.
Normally, I wouldn't even answer a call like this and would simply hang up... But perhaps because I was in a good mood, I thought it might be something important and picked up.
-Click
"Hello."
"Ah, hello... Um... Is this Han Sejin?"
"...Who is this?"
"Ah, r-right. This is Officer Baek Soeun from XX Police Station... The thing is... Ms. Kim Suk-ja has... passed away, and your name was mentioned in her will. Would now be a convenient time to speak?"
The moment I heard the word police, my heart lurched, but the news that followed quickly cooled my head again.
...There was only one person in my life who could be the deceased person she meant.
"...Yes. Please go ahead. You're talking about my landlady, right?"
"Um... First, I'm sorry to be bringing you such unfortunate news... Let me explain everything properly. At around 10:20 today, the late Ms. Kim Suk-ja was found dead at her home. Our team was dispatched after receiving a report and confirmed the situation... An autopsy hasn't been conducted yet, but considering the deceased's age and surroundings, natural death due to old age is the most likely cause. There were no signs of significant external injuries or traces of drugs, either."
"...I see. I understand. But what does it mean that I was mentioned...?"
"To be precise, it wasn't only Han Sejin who was mentioned... The deceased left instructions concerning Han Sejin and Miss Kim Shina, who reside in the building she owned... It seems she left the building to the two people currently living there, with both of you receiving ownership."
...That old lady. Why would she do something like this without telling me?
"F-first of all, this isn't some kind of voice-phishing scam. Elderly people sometimes ask whether the police really handle things like this... but the police have undergone considerable restructuring since the Abyss Ones began appearing. So... this is one of the things we handle now... If you'd like to verify the facts, please visit XX Police Station in person and ask for Officer Baek Soeun. We'll explain everything to you there."
"...I understand for now. Is there anything I need to come in and do in person?"
"Actually... the deceased had no relatives, so no guardian has been designated to handle matters following her death. We contacted you regarding the will, but... we also wanted to ask the two people mentioned in it whether they were willing to take responsibility for those matters... Regardless, I think you'll need to visit because of the will."
"...Did you contact me first?"
"Ah, yes. We'll contact Miss Kim Shina afterward. If it were merely a matter of your name being mentioned in the will, that would be one thing, but this concerns an inheritance of real estate. We'll explain everything later, but there will be tax issues and various administrative procedures, so... we plan to contact her as well."
I could already picture the depressed expression on her face.
Still, it couldn't be helped. This wasn't a minor matter. From their perspective, it would be troublesome if I claimed I would speak on her behalf when real estate was involved, too.
"...I'll take responsibility for the arrangements. It would only be proper to hold a funeral for her, at least."
"Thank you... Please visit as soon as possible, ask for Officer Baek Soeun, and we'll explain everything to you... Ah. There's one more thing I should mention regarding the will... The deceased didn't precisely state that she was leaving the property to 'Han Sejin.' She stated that she was leaving it to the people residing there."
At those words, the heart that had lurched once before started beating ominously again.
No way. Why now, of all times?
"As stated, Miss Han Serin, who is currently living there with you, is also an heir. It seems the two of you will have to come to an agreement about what to do."
"..."
"...Mr. Han Sejin? Hello?"
"...Yes. I'll discuss it with you when I visit later."
...Damn administrative paperwork.
I didn't even want to look at the paperwork, but on paper, this house had two residents registered.
One was, naturally, me.
And the other one was...
-Crack
Alice herself—the one who had vanished from the world ten years ago.
My twin younger sister, Han Serin.