Chapter 71
Images were reflected, distorted, and mirrored.
An image reflected in one mirror spread to another, and that image spread to yet another, creating countless reflections and turning one person into tens, hundreds. In facing mirrors, countless images were copied as if leading to another world, and as mirrors became walls, dividing the world into sections, they were endlessly copied and reflected, adding to the bizarreness.
And at the end, where the image became like a dot, it began to move.
Was it the owner moving?
Or was it the figure in the mirror moving?
A scene that seemed to shake one's self and drive one mad just by glancing at it.
In the center of it all, the fortune-teller was playing with cards.
He would place a card on his finger and spin it like a top, shuffle them for fun, or repeatedly flick and catch them.
He looked like a magician playing with cards, or a clown whiling away the boring time waiting for customers with tricks.
Rustle.
As the fortune-teller continued his hand tricks, something unusual happened at the entrance of the tent.
A very small sound was heard, as if something brushed past.
"Oh my~ Is someone coming?"
It was a small sound.
The kind of sound an insect might make when its wings hit something while flying, or the sound something with many legs might make when crawling without caring about noise, or the sound a spider might make when it slipped and fell from the ceiling.
Such a tiny, tiny sound.
However, although the sound was small, it was continuous, revealing a clear presence.
Rustle.
A sound was heard.
The small sound crawled from the tent entrance and moved along the wall.
Rustle.
Another sound was heard.
This sound, like a bird flapping its wings, pushed the air and leaped through space, flying up to the sky and filling the ceiling.
Rustle.
The sound of stealthy crawling was similar to that of a snake crawling on the ground upside down. The sound of scales rather than a soft belly crawling on the ground had a bizarreness that made one's hair stand on end. The sound of sand brushing against scales and the sound of writhing movement even made one imagine that it might be something snake-shaped, not a snake, crawling on the ground and looking at you.
And all these sounds began to converge in one place.
This resembled the sound of a swarm of insects flapping their wings, and was very similar to the sound of small leaves rustling on an eerie night.
"Darling, are you here?"
The fortune-teller smiled as if he had been waiting when he saw the flying insects forming a mask-like shape in front of his eyes.
Then he stopped playing with the cards and stood up.
The insects that had taken shape began to speak, slowly moving their mouths as if a person were opening their mouth. Mosquitoes flying around making thin sounds acted as vocal cords, and moths helped by making sounds as they collided with each other.
[ He-llo- How- are- you-u? ]
A slow voice that seemed to have static.
A thin, turbid voice that seemed mixed with noise.
It was a voice sufficient to give one goosebumps just by hearing it, but the fortune-teller answered with a smirk as if the voice didn't bother him.
"I'm not fine, darling. How–"
"Could I welcome you when you’ve pulled a stunt like this, you bastard."
A feminine voice speaking mockingly with one corner of the mouth curled up.
And following that, a low, thick voice came from the mirror.
"You son of a bitch. I thought I smelled something inhuman, did you hatch your offspring and come?"
"Darling. Where did you learn the manners of releasing disgusting insect offspring in front of someone else's business?"
"The smell of your offspring was so strong that it couldn't have been just for a message–"
"Did you go bathe somewhere in blood and fill your stomach with rotten corpses? Your body reeks of a stench that stings the nose. How does the smell permeate even though I made a boundary with the tent?"
The fortune-teller glared at Jinseong while stroking his beard.
The fortune-teller glared at Jinseong while taking a boxing stance.
The fortune-teller inserted cards between his fingers, ready to throw them at any moment.
The fortune-teller was pointing his finger as if excited.
Numerous.
So many images of the fortune-teller that it was hard to count.
The images, reflected and copied and multiplied, were each doing different actions while looking at Jinseong.
From the other side of the facing mirror, the fortune-teller came towards him crossing the wall, and the fortune-teller standing upright on the floor was changing shape as his form shattered and broke. In the image formed in the air, the fortune-teller was surrounding Jinseong while walking on air, and on the wall erected on the ground, he was walking in an endlessly wide space, mesmerizing with steps that didn't know where they were going.
[ We-ell the-en. ]
[ I just came to say hello, is this how you treat me-e? ]
The individual fortune-teller became a colony, and the colony soon became an army.
Although the body made of insects seemed to be surrounded by an army, Jinseong spoke as if he felt no pressure at all.
"Greetings are for people. Not for you, you monster spawn."
"I think I know who you are. There was a lively one among the pretty ones, aren't you the sorcerer sticking to that pretty one?"
"I thought she was ordinary because there was only a faint smell from the pretty one, but what bad luck."
"When you passed by the tent, you were so bizarre. I almost threw up, you know?"
"And leaving insect offspring in front of the door was really shitty. You ba-stard."
"I felt it then. Ah, a monster spawn will come here today."
The numerous fortune-tellers spoke alternately in a woman's voice and a man's voice, and drew a card from their hand. What was drawn from the deck mixed with playing cards and tarot was the Sun.
It was a card depicting sunflowers blooming brilliantly in yellow and vermilion as if piercing the sky, and a woman in a dress smiling among them.
"I was just interested because the pretty one was lively, but a monster spawn came?"
"Sticking to your younger sister like that, you're worse than those Habsburg dynasty bastards. Why don't you just marry her? You're like a bastard your own mother wouldn't recognize."
"Oh my, such insults won't work. Looking at the smell, it seems you're not even of the same blood."
"Well, there's no way such a monster spawn's sister could be human. Hahaha!"
Flames bloomed in their hands as they spoke provocatively to Jinseong. The sunflowers drawn on the Sun became blazing flames, and the flames formed shapes, shimmering and undulating like blooming sunflowers. At a glance, it looked like the shape of a sunflower, and it was also similar to a very small sun blooming in their hands.
The inside of the tent, where a chilly light lingered as if the dead were lighting flames at a grave, instantly became a place of banquet with all kinds of flames floating around. And they began to move, emitting a light that tempted people like the lanterns used by death gods to guide lost souls.
"You shitty monster spawn! Get out of my house right now!"
And with the erupting angry voice, the lights all began to draw lines at once.
Like falling stars dropping horizontally, the lights reflected and multiplied in the mirrors all flew towards the insects at once. It looked like flames wriggling their tentacles, and it was also similar to numerous soldiers simultaneously firing tracer bullets in pitch-black darkness.
Crack!
Thud!
Rattle!
The mask tried to disassemble again and hide everywhere as insects, but in the tent where vision was distorted and space was twisted, it wasn't easy to avoid. Because of this, the insects were hit one by one by the blazing flames and fell to the floor as ashes, and eventually, not a single insect remained and all of them disappeared completely.
Thus, all the insects disappeared.
The bizarre mask-like shape also disappeared.
The sound that had stimulated with mixed static also disappeared.
But the fortune-teller didn't let his guard down.
"Don't let your guard down. It can't be this easy."
"Oh my, I know that."
"It will definitely come again. Again... Ah, damn. You disgusting bastard."
One of the fortune-tellers twisted his face.
"Was this bastard a summoning sorcerer?"
Darkness was growing from where the insect corpses had gathered.
The ashes were dissolving into the darkness to become paint, and that paint was spreading and spreading like black being painted in the light, forming a shape.
That which seemed to be made of shadows had already formed the shape of a person, and for some reason, it was dancing a shoulder dance happily while tearing its own head with its nails, creating a long mouth corner reaching to its ears.
"I thought it was a jiangshi sorcerer or voodoo sorcerer. Fuuuck. Why does a necromancer bastard smell like that?"
"Maybe it's because he killed a lot of people?"
"Just how many did he kill for the smell of blood to be like that? It seemed to be coming from inside, not just the skin, did he eat human flesh for every meal since coming out of his mother's womb?"
"Maaaybe?"
The fortune-teller glared at it as it twisted its body and danced a shoulder dance, and drew a card.
Some fortune-tellers drew cards with wands depicted.
Some fortune-tellers drew cards with swords depicted.
Some fortune-tellers drew cards depicting a vampire lady with blood dripping from her mouth, wearing a languid expression.
Thus, numerous fortune-tellers drew cards like swords or guns and surrounded the dancing evil spirit.
And amidst that threat, the evil spirit showed its dark red mouth and sang.
"The lady next door is getting married-"
Dirty blood dripped from that wide-open mouth.
"The bachelor from the house behind is going to hang himself."