Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World Chapter 61

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠“So what kind of curse did you end up putting on them?”

 

“Hm? …Ah, is that what’s bothering you?”

 

Leaving the three unconscious students in the gym storage room, Yoo Hwashin and his group headed toward the science lab. 

 

“Yeah, that.”

 

Hwashin laughed at Cha Jaeha’s question.

 

Hwashin had leaned down and whispered something different into each of the three trembling students’ ears as they sat on the floor.

 

Upon hearing the curse, they had lost consciousness on the spot. Unlike Jin, who let out an impressed ‘Whoa,’ Cha Jaeha seemed genuinely curious about the nature of the curse.

 

“I didn’t do anything. I just told them to sleep.”

 

“….How is that a curse?”

 

“Ah! Of course, I did add one thing while telling them to sleep.” 

 

Hwashin came to a stop. Cha Jaeha halted as well and looked at him.

 

With lowered eyes, he spoke with a sorrowful expression. There was anger there too, somewhere beneath it.

 

“I added that they should never forget, for the rest of their lives, that I cursed them.”

 

Cha Jaeha rested a finger on his chin, seemingly pondering this. After a moment, another question followed.

 

“You said your Word Command manipulates mana. Does that spell really work on those guys too? And even if it does, what meaning does it have?”

 

He sure has a lot of questions.

 

“To answer your first question: yes, it works. After all, this place is also a space where mana flows. Ask me about the specific skills later. Even I find it hard to memorize all the secondary effects attached to them.” 

 

Hwashin began walking forward again.

 

“Second. What is the meaning of a curse that has no substance?” 

 

A questioning gaze fixed on Hwashin.

 

“Right. In the end, the ‘curse’ you cast is something that doesn’t even exist.”

 

Cha Jaeha thought Hwa-shin’s words were inconsistent. A curse to not forget the fact that a curse was cast? Where in the world does such a curse exist? 

 

Even if it were a curse, what suffering did it bring?

 

At that question, Hwashin laughed once, loudly.

 

“Exactly. That’s the scariest part.”

 

“What?”

 

The expression that followed was a smile as cold as ice.

 

“Cha Jaeha. Do you know how terrifying it is to fight something that doesn’t even exist in this world?”

 

The path to the science lab was short. At the same time, it was long. The words Yoo Hwashin casually tossed out pierced the heart like icicles.

 

“You do, don’t you?”

 

“….Let’s say I do.”

 

“A curse is something you can barely endure when you know it can be broken. If the curse cast on me is being unable to speak, I endure by thinking of the single word I will one day utter. If I become unable to use my abilities, I wait for the day the seal is lifted.”

 

The most frightening part of the curse I cast—

 

“It can never be lifted. And they won’t even know what kind of curse they’re under.”

 

For their entire lives.

 

“As long as they live, they’ll suffer. Until they die. They’ll fear and dread and tremble over a curse that can’t be undone and has no form. That’s quite painful, you know? I would know. I’ve experienced it.”

 

“Yoo Hwashin, you—”

 

“Ah! Everyone, these stairs just don’t end. Isn’t it strange? Is it just my imagination that I feel like we’re walking through a maze? Hmm? Hmm?” 

 

Cha Jaeha’s words didn’t continue. Jin had slipped in between them midway.

 

The timing of the interruption was quite exquisite. In fact, they were circling the same space over and over. There was no way the hallway going from the 1st floor to the 4th floor could be this long and complex.

 

It wasn’t that Cha Jaeha merely felt it was long; the boundaries of the area had actually expanded.

 

Slide. Hwashin immediately opened a window and leaned his body out. With his face protruding outside, he looked upward. Let’s see, the 4th floor is…

 

“Looks like we missed something.”

 

Only the windows on the fourth floor, where the science lab should have been, were shrouded in black mist.

 

*** 

 

Mueum was seized by a strange sense of déjà vu. It felt as though he had been circling the same spot in the corridor endlessly. No, this wasn’t merely a ‘feeling.’ Mu-eum halted his steps.

 

“Lee Suho.”

 

“H-Huh? W-What’s wrong?”

 

In addition to gravity manipulation, Jeong Mueum possessed several auxiliary skills.

 

Among them was an A-rank skill called Spatial Perception, which in reality wasn’t particularly useful. Building layouts were mostly the same, and at best it helped locate unseen basements during civilian rescues.

 

However, its accuracy was so remarkable that he was satisfied with it. It was helpful even today, in figuring out the nonsensical structure of this hallway. 

 

Mueum pointed toward the ceiling.

 

“Undo this. We’re going in circles in the same place.”

 

“W-What are you talking about?”

 

“….Ha.”

 

Outside, it was a bright day, but this hallway was excessively dark. The sunlight lost its power exactly one centimeter beyond the window. This space was being ruled by something else. No, the expression ‘distorted’ would be more accurate.

 

The form of the invisible hallway was a maze. A messy maze with no exit. Stairs hung from the ceiling, and the hallway he thought stretched in a straight line was actually curved. The door to the science lab grew further away with every step they took. 

 

“Even if you didn’t do this, I was going to stay with you anyway.”

 

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“I’m serious. Do you think I bowed my head to my hyungs and came to find you for nothing?”

 

In truth, he wasn’t sure what kind of confidence he’d had.

 

Talking about a new world or whatever, promising to take responsibility for this dungeon or whatever.

 

‘What if my hyungs are sick of me.’

 

Mueum repeated in his mind Hwashin and Cha Jaeha’s answers from memory.

 

The words saying he didn’t have to take responsibility unburdened him of more than he expected. However, he wanted to repay their trust. 

 

“Lee Suho, you have to undo this.”

 

It was his final warning.

 

The protagonist of this dungeon had already become a curse. He had turned into a curse and created a ghost story. That ghost story became a space of its own, and the endings available to such a ghost story were extremely limited.

 

This ending was the worst among the ones he had imagined. 

 

“Lee Su—”

 

“Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.”

 

Like a broken wind-up doll, Lee Suho repeated the same word. When Mu-eum turned back and reached out toward him—

 

It was already too late. A violent gust of wind shoved Jeong Mu-eum backward.

 

Urgh. Only after barely fixing his feet to the floor with gravity manipulation did Jung Mu-eum manage to open his eyes.

 

Whoosh.

 

A wind as sharp as a blade cut through his shirt. Blood flowed from the flesh sliced by the wind. 

 

Lee Suho had both hands clamped over his ears, eyes tightly shut. The same black hemisphere as before slowly rose from the floor. Jeong Mueum bit down hard on his lip. The joint of his thumb ached inside his clenched fist. It had been careless of him to think he could resolve this quickly.

 

How could someone who can’t even save himself know anything? 

 

For the first time in a while, the window revealing the novel’s plot appeared. Its contents were slightly different.

 

「 Lee Suho realized that he was a ghost. No, he was something worse than that. A curse. A wandering specter haunting the school. Loathsome and detestable, worse than filth. A foul spirit lingering in the trash yard, dreaming only of revenge.

 

What use is living, he might laugh bitterly—yet his life had already ended.

 

A foolish human endlessly trying to relight a candle that had already burned to ashes.

 

The ‘curse’ could not abandon this place. This place alone was his only refuge, the space he could return to, the place that told him it was alright for him to exist.

 

But ‘Jeong Mueum’ was different. 」

 

Jeong Mueum’s eyes trembled. For the first time, his name appeared within the plot.

 

「 If this child were here, could I be happy even in this place? Not as a curse, not as a specter or spirit, but as a human being. Could I live ordinarily?

 

But at the same time, he thought.

 

In the end, he was nothing but a curse. Excessive desire will invite disaster. But isn’t desire a natural urge? Let’s stay here together forever, together, together.

 

Don’t reject me. Talk to me. Face tomorrow with me. 」

 

Lee Suho’s story was listed in a messy jumble. The letters were entangled, and several gaps were visible between the sentences. But Mueum could say nothing about the story laid out before him. No, he had lost his words. 

 

‘I… can’t save Lee Suho.’

 

Mueum tightened his grip around his headset. Before he knew it, the ‘whispers’ that had tormented Lee Suho surrounded him.

 

It felt as though both legs were sunk into a swamp, unable to move. The whispers crawled upward like sludge.

 

– Hey, why do you look like that?

 

– The way you talk is weird. Do you talk to other people like that too?

 

– There’s a reason people don’t like you. See? I’m not the only one who thinks so.

 

– Just die.

 

The endless murmurs sounded as though they were directed at him. If he listened any longer, he would go mad.

 

Jeong Mueum raised his hands to grab his headset. Both hands trembled like winter trees.

 

It wasn’t there.

 

His shoulders, where the headphones should have been, were empty. Startled, Mueum looked around. They seemed to have been blown away by the strong wind from moments ago. Damn it.

 

The curse climbed higher along his legs, burning and intense. There was no escape. He would never escape this place.

 

‘What do I—’

 

CRAAASH—

 

It was then.

 

With the sound of shattering glass, one of the corridor windows exploded into fragments.

 

Light seeped in through a crack in the pitch-black space. From that opening, a head of silver hair abruptly popped through. A yelp followed as he dropped with a thud onto the floor. Cha Jaeha and Jin came in right after him. Without hesitation, they stepped firmly on Hwa-shin’s back as they climbed down.

 

“Guys~! That hurts!”

 

“If you hadn’t sent the kid to the science lab in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened.”

 

“No, Mueum said he wanted to go there, so how was I supposed to stop him? But weren’t you there too, Jaeha? You know, just because you’re the protagonist, you shouldn’t live so recklessly. Do you know how much I’ve cherished you…. are you listening? Are you listening, Cha Jaeha-ssi?”

 

“Hwashin-ssi really cherishes that rotten personality, doesn’t he? By the way, have you reconsidered transferring to our Overseas Cooperation Department?”

 

“I’m not sure about transferring, but ‘rotten personality’ is a nickname only I’m allowed to use, Jin-ssi.”

 

“Was it?”

 

“Are you both insane?”

 

As always, their banter poured out without fail. Mu-eum stared at the three of them blankly. What on earth… are they doing?