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Translator: thursdays Editor: Yahiko PR: LightBrin
3.
Little by little, the world shrank.
First was beyond city limits. Then the downtown area.
[The degree of the trauma’s implementation is decreasing.]
[The data cannot be recovered.]
From the outskirts of the city, erosive darkness encroached the streets. Writhing. Slinking. The darkness was like a tentacle, alive and moving. I decided to call that ominous, dark fog the Void.
“…I’m going to school a bit early today.”
Many things became unseeable. I could no longer see people’s faces. I couldn’t see the church’s steeple. I couldn’t see the signs plastered on the walls of the shopping mall like bark on a tree.
The world was marked by the Void.
“I have to go to the farm and feed the rabbits.”
However, there were things that I could finally see now.
“The farm?”
“Yeah. Behind the school… Well.”
The Constellation Killer sighed.
“There’s no way someone like you would know. Anyway, there’s a place where we raise rabbits and chickens. I have to feed them.”
‘Was there such a place?’
Thinking back, the orphanage had an area to raise animals, too, although it soon disappeared. In the past, did middle and high schools have animal farms?
“Why do you have to feed them? Shouldn’t there be someone else in charge?”
“…There used to be a club for animal care. But last year, a foreign woman broke into the school at night and jumped off the roof with a newborn baby. Don’t you remember? The baby fell into the farm. Since then, applications to the club completely stopped.”
It was the first I was hearing about it. However, the Constellation Killer’s tone implied he was talking about a very infamous incident. It seemed a bunch of things had happened at this school.
“Why did a foreign lady come to a school in a whole different country with a kid…?”
“A teacher here apparently fathered the kid by accident while on a business trip abroad.”
“……”
“It was a middle school teacher, not a high school one,” muttered the Constellation Killer.
“Anyway, we don’t have an animal caretaking club anymore. The middle school class presidents are supposed to take turns feeding the animals, but… There’s no way middle schoolers are going to stick to it, you know? So the security guard, me, and some middle school kid take care of feeding the animals between the three of us.”
That was…
A corner of the world that I never knew of.
The animal farm.
There, we imprisoned rabbits and chickens in cramped cages, making that small space their whole world.
Was it not being properly managed? The smell of chicken and rabbit urine was effusive. The feed, which had carelessly been poured in great quantities at once, was repeatedly soaked by rain and dried again, making it reek.
“Ah, seriously. Someone just pretended to do the work and left again.”
The Constellation Killer frowned.
“If they were gonna do this, they should have just skipped out instead. It’s worse than if they didn’t do it.”
“Should I help?”
“It’s fine. I have to take care of it anyway.”
The Constellation Killer rolled up his sleeves.
“Just stand there. Or go to class first.”
The Constellation Killer took out the rotten heap of fuzz. He threw away the straw in a large sack. Then, he took out a broom and a rake from storage and cleaned up the hutch.
He seemed well-versed with the task.
The Constellation Killer picked up a rubber hose and sprinkled water over the farm.
Shaaaa—
In a world where most things could not be seen, a world corroded by the Void, a high school student sprayed water at 6:40 a.m. behind Shinseo Middle and High School. It was tranquil. The water reflected the color of the dawn.
“……”
I was peeping between the cracks that had opened up in the world.
[How filthy.]
[How can you be even dirtier than the math teacher?]
[You smell really bad.]
The world.
It was shrinking.
[The degree of the trauma’s implementation is decreasing.]
Starting with the things that were meaningless to the Constellation Killer, no, to ■■. Step by step.
[The data cannot be recovered.]
The mountains surrounding the city were engulfed in the dark fog. The world was cornered. As days passed, the Void gradually tightened around us.
The roads ended.
-■■, ■■ ■!
-■■■.
On the broken path, specters constantly disappeared and reappeared. They flickered. In [the Constellation Killer’s world], it didn’t matter at all where people came from or where they went.
Humans weren’t characters in this world.
Weeds coiled in the gaps of the blocks on the sidewalk.
[The degree of the trauma’s implementation is decreasing.]
On one edge of the dump, there was a drooping ginkgo tree that had not been cut down.
[The degree of the trauma’s implementation is decreasing.]
In the evening, the red sun set.
[The degree of the trauma’s implementation is decreasing.]
Finally, the Void completely surrounded the school.
“……”
Raviel was standing at the school gate.
Beyond the gate was pitch black darkness.
“Raviel.”
School had been dismissed.
As specters walked in front and were absorbed by the Void, Raviel stood, quiet and still. She didn’t turn her head even when I called out to her.
“That’s right. I did feel that something was wrong.”
She only whispered.
“If you think about it, it’s weird that I asked to be called by my foreign name. Ban Si-ah. That is the name I was given. But for some reason, I felt obsessively that I should be called [Raviel].”
“……”
“I cannot even recall how I met you. No. Saying that I can’t think of it is misleading. I received a confession from you at the school festival last year. Prior to that, I thought favorably of you. It was easy for us to start dating.”
Raviel turned to look at me.
“But I wonder if that is the truth. Gongja, our love is not so simple. We would never love so easily.”
“……”
“Kiss me. Right now.”
I carefully placed my hand on Raviel’s shoulder. With my left hand, I held her chin. I lowered my head a bit and met her lips.
“Mm. As expected.”
Raviel smiled.
“It’s pounding.”
She touched my ear.
“There is no lie in my love. I wouldn’t love you so much just because you’re a bit handsome and talk well. But to say that we’re a couple that will go down in the history of Shinseo Middle and High School… Tell them to shut up. You and I are the best couple in the entire universe.”
“…Yes.”
“If my love is not a lie, then my memory must be distorted. This, now, must be a hallucination or a dream. Gongja, am I dreaming of you? Or are you dreaming of me?”
“I am dreaming of you, Raviel.”
“Oho. How fascinating.”
Raviel crooked her finger and stroked a chin.
Not her chin—mine.
“I will be the only partner you love.”
“Yes.”
“Even when you dream, even if it’s only a dream, it is only appropriate that I am always in the position of the one you adore. I am the only one who deserves that place.”
“It’s true.”
“I praise you, my lover. You love me very well.”
Raviel laughed.
“Now, close your eyes.”
“……”
“Don’t you dare open your eyes. Call out my name with your lips. Understood? You cannot open your eyes. If you open your eyes by yourself, I will punish you.”
I closed my eyes.
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