"First things first. That resident bird from the fan's description. Wouldn't it mean a magpie?"
"Why a magpie, of all birds?"
"When you think of our country's bird, it's the magpie, isn't it? It shows up all over paintings and folk tales. And besides...."
Go Gyu-min went on to explain the grounds for his guess.
Listening to him, my eyes flashed.
The threads of a quest that had seemed hopeless were slowly coming loose.
"Good. For the final confirmation, we need to dig deeper into the Jangsan Tiger."
"But I feel like the illusions will only get dirtier from here. For example..., showing us the scenes we fear most...."
"Fear?"
"You know the kind of thing. A trauma, or tormenting someone tied to you...."
Jang Si-woon's face darkened sharply as she speculated. So did mine.
Go Gyu-min, by contrast, wore the same indifferent expression as always.
"Then I suppose I'll never get drunk on any hallucination? I'll wake you both up."
"...Are you certain?"
"Dead certain. I'd even bet on it."
"No. I'd rather not go as far as betting."
Honestly, I half believed and half doubted.
A person with not a single relationship or past that could serve as a weakness — and he entered this museum?
Then what on earth had Go Gyu-min wished for?
But he spoke with such overflowing confidence that there was nothing to do but trust him.
"I'll get you out somehow, so you make sure you find the beast's opening with that knife."
Still — if the perpetually grumbling Go Gyu-min was willing to go this far, it had to be worth attempting.
***
From before sunrise, we moved out in search of the Jangsan Tiger.
Too anxious, we hadn't even managed proper catnaps.
We'd spent the night devising a way to solve the quest, so we needed to try it as soon as possible.
"......."
And yet, however far we walked along the white powder the Jangsan Tiger had left, not even the tip of its long tail came into view.
Everyone's faces, resolute at first, were slowly going slick with sweat and fatigue.
"But what do we do if we follow this path all the way and the Jangsan Tiger doesn't show before sunset?"
"Please don't say horrible things, Mr. Go."
"Pessimistic thinking is my specialty."
I could see Go Gyu-min and Jang Si-woon slowly sharpening at the edges too.
Keeping silent between them, my lips were in truth going bone-dry as well.
'The sun is up....'
Sunlight seeped into the cave, and before long the sky beyond the cave's holes turned fully bright.
Morning had only just arrived, so there was time left before sunset, but....
The anxiety cut everyone's words down to almost nothing.
"Wait a moment."
Jang Si-woon suddenly stopped walking and spread both arms.
Her eyes went wide as she scanned the surroundings — that intuition of hers seemed to have fired again.
"Do you hear it?"
Go Gyu-min and I pricked up our ears to listen.
Now that she mentioned it, a very faint sound was drifting from far away.
.... .... ....
Chir.... .... chiree....
Chirp.... chirp.... chirp....
"A bird is crying! The resident bird.... Look over there! It's magpies!"
Jang Si-woon pointed her finger toward the sky above the cave.
A flock of magpies was flying across the sky.
"It really is just as Mr. Go deduced — the fan's resident bird must be the magpie!!"
When I brought up our talk from before dawn, Go Gyu-min pulled up the corners of his mouth.
He even raised a thumb, as if to say he'd earned his keep.
With Go Gyu-min's deduction falling into place, hope of success came back into view.
Chirp.... chirp.... chirp....
"......."
Unlike the two of us, giddy with hope and losing our composure, Jang Si-woon was still wearing a dubious expression.
Had she sensed the uneasy aura hanging around us?
"But it could also be the Jangsan Tiger imitating them."
Chirp.... chirp.... chir- chirp-chirp-skreee-kik-kik-kee-kee-gik-gik-kreek-
Right then.
The instant Jang Si-woon's words ended, the birds' chirping suddenly warped into something uncanny.
The sound of a fork scraping glass. The sound of foil being torn without mercy.
A noise sharp enough to raise gooseflesh rang through the cave.
"?! What is that sound?"
"Look over there!!"
Jang Si-woon lifted her head and pointed at the sky.
The flock of magpies flying overhead had suddenly turned to bone.
Like pterosaur bones on exhibition, bird skeletons wheeled through the sky, painting a grotesque scene.
'Wait a moment....'
The sun was moving as if a video had been set to fast-forward.
Between the streaming clouds, the sun sank lower and lower.
"The sun, the sun is setting...!"
"That's impossible. The sun only just rose!"
Jang Si-woon and Go Gyu-min cried out at the unbelievable sight.
Time was rushing past at a mad pace.
'How much time has passed?!'
I angled the blade to reflect the sky. As I thought — the sun still hung high above.
It hadn't set. Even so, more time had passed than we'd assumed.
'There's no way time flows this fast. This is fake.'
It was the Jangsan Tiger's scheme to throw us into a panic.
"It's a hallucination. Everyone stay calm!"
"...!"
Go Gyu-min's and Jang Si-woon's gazes swung to me at the same time.
"Don't worry. I'll-"
"Break my illusion, will you? Kh, khk, khk. I have already heard your entire plan."
"?!"
In an instant, a voice that changed with every syllable rang out.
Startled out of my skin, I trembled and looked toward the source of the sound.
Just like yesterday, the Jangsan Tiger was sowing confusion through its illusions.
"Let us find the weakest sound inside you."
"I don't have anything like that."
I focused my mind so as not to be bewitched by the Jangsan Tiger.
To steady my heart, I deliberately answered it out loud.
At that, the Jangsan Tiger snickered and sneered at me.
"Impossible. All things under heaven have a weakness. And I seek out the one bound to yours. For example...."
I felt fingers rummaging through the inside of my skull.
The Jangsan Tiger's voice was seizing my brain, hunting for a weakness.
The one bound to my weakness.
"Then you must have a weakness too?"
"......."
Before the Jangsan Tiger could read who that person was, I hurled the question in a rush.
At my provocation, the Jangsan Tiger fell momentarily silent.
"I am a being born to mock humans and trample them underfoot. There is no such thing as a weakness in me."
I gripped the dagger in both hands and raised it.
A black mass was reflected on the dagger's blade.
A black mass hanging in the empty air. The Jangsan Tiger's voice — its bravado, its lie.
"Then I'll carve my way into that lie."
"?!"
"Both of you, get close to me!"
As we'd planned in advance, Go Gyu-min and Jang Si-woon pressed in tight at my sides.
Now was the time to cleave falsehood with this Unbending Dagger.
"Yaaaaah-!!"
I swung the dagger with all my strength at the mass I'd seen in the blade.
In that instant, light burst from the dagger, and the black mass hidden all this while was revealed to the eye.
I stabbed down and split the mass in a single stroke.
Crash-!
With the sound of breaking glass, a completely different world unfolded.
'Did we get in?'
A dim night. Deep in the mountains stood a single isolated house.
Perhaps because its owner lived secluded in the mountains, the thatched cottage was old and small.
I looked back and forth between Go Gyu-min and Jang Si-woon.
Even though the two of them had drifted away from my side, nothing in particular happened.
"Seek the painter in the deep ravine...."
The Jangsan Tiger's eerie voice pierced through the paper panes of the door and burrowed inside.
We followed the sound into the house.
A painter was working with a fine brush dipped in ink.
He was so absorbed in his rendering that he paid no mind even to the trembling of the oil lamp.
Just then, a black mass came creeping close and slipped into his ear.
"The magpie is surrounded by countless mountains."
"......."
"And over the beast beside it, drape a white hide."
"...I will need white pigment. Master."
The painter's pupils were hollow and empty, and the hand that worked the brush moved as if it were not his own.
'Aaargh...!'
A pain came, as if a rope had been lashed around my brain and cinched tight.
I clutched my head and screamed.
[The leaflet's ink has... faded....]
-Current Status: [■■■...■□]
For an instant, the leaflet flashed before my eyes like a burst of light.
But before I could even properly read it, I sank back into the world of the illusion.
'I have to see more!!'
The Jangsan Tiger was trying to expel me from its memory.
My head felt ready to burst at any moment, but I gritted my teeth and held on, refusing to be shoved out.
"?!! Wh-what is the meaning of this?"
The painter looked at his finished painting and gasped in shock.
Though no wind blew, the oil lamp swayed perilously and the paper fluttered.
'The painting is smeared over with markings of the Jangsan Tiger.'
A magpie completely encircled and hidden by tall mountains.
And a beast draped in a white hide, grinning viciously.
"Now that the passage is sealed, this beast cannot come out. Not unless it returns by another road."
The moment I heard the Jangsan Tiger muttering that to itself, the description of Go Gyu-min's fan rose to mind.
Name: Chirping Fan
Description: The resident bird cries. Let each sing in their own way.
The resident bird is the magpie. And the beast that had been with the magpie in the painting must return by another road.
Called out by each of us singing of the beast, in our own way.
'That's it!'
Now we had to get out of this place, fast.
I turned my head, searching for Jang Si-woon and Go Gyu-min.
'Si-woon...!'
Jang Si-woon was clutching her head in agony, just as I had earlier.
This time, the Jangsan Tiger was attacking her mind to force her out.
Watching Jang Si-woon suffer without even being able to scream, my heart turned urgent.
'The dagger — where's the dagger?'
At some point the dagger had slipped from my hand and driven itself firmly into the ground.
The moment I reached for the dagger, the ground receded far away.
However I leaned my body to grab it, the distance to the ground would not close.
'If we all end up trapped in this illusion-'
The fearful thought sent a chill down my spine.
"Hi-yaahh-cha!!"
THWACK-
Right then, a heavy impact landed on the back of my head.
My brain rang — bzzt- — and my reason returned.
My blurred vision slowly found its focus and sharpened.
Go Gyu-min was supporting me, his face full of worry.
"Ugh, urgh...."
"Young Kim, are you all right?"
"Mr. Go.... Owww...."
"You're the one who intruded into the Jangsan Tiger's mind, so the way out had to be found through you too. There was no other choice."
As I clutched the stinging back of my head, Go Gyu-min cleared his throat.
"The Jangsan Tiger wasn't just a beast that shaves away time. Young Kim, you nearly had it bad."
"Pardon...?"
[The leaflet's ink has faded.]
-Current Status: [■■■□□]
Gah.
At some point, two bars of ink had vanished.
To think it could shave off health through a mental attack.
I had very nearly been retired by the Jangsan Tiger.
"Quite a lot of time has passed. The sky's already starting to take on the colors of sunset."
Go Gyu-min tipped his head toward the sky.
As he said, a yellow cast really was spreading through the sky. Soon it would redden fast.
I could tell just how long I'd been tied up inside the illusion.
"Ugh...."
"I hit you with a fan, so it shouldn't hurt too much. Honestly, now I see why Si-woon the student favors physical attacks."
Go Gyu-min laughed sheepishly and gave the fan a flourish.
To produce a striking sound like that with a fan — that was impressive in itself.
Jang Si-woon, for her part, just blinked blankly, as if she had no idea what he meant.
"Si-woon, student. Are you all right?"
"Yes. It's nothing."
"......."
Jang Si-woon calmly wiped away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
It didn't look like nothing at all.
With little time left, and the two of us drained of health besides, we had to finish this quest fast.
"It's just as you said, Mr. Go. You really did break the illusion."
"With any other illusion, it wouldn't have worked. I keep no one in my heart, so there's no voice for the Jangsan Tiger to imitate."
Go Gyu-min let out a hollow laugh and shrugged.
The one the Jangsan Tiger kept in its heart — the target bound to its weakness — was the beast in the painting.
Jang Si-woon and I each have someone like that too.
But Go Gyu-min, exactly as he'd boasted, hadn't been touched by the Jangsan Tiger's attack at all.
"This is why I've lived a life with no one to answer for."
"You little wretches."
As Go Gyu-min let out his scornful laugh, the Jangsan Tiger revealed itself, shaggy with white fur.
Furious, it seemed, at having its weakness discovered, the Jangsan Tiger huffed and snorted through its nose.
"Now, then. It's time for the beast that will crush that thing to come down."
Snap-
Glaring at the Jangsan Tiger, Go Gyu-min spread the Chirping Fan wide.