LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 193
“Ugh…”
Song Ah Rin looks at me while pinching her nose.
“What is this?”
“It’s the workshop.”
This must be the workshop the Team Leader mentioned.
“…”
Yu Da On, with her eyes closed, sniffs the air.
“I think this is the strongest smell of blood I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
She nods.
“Wow… Um, it’s really strong. And it’s not just any spilled blood; it’s blood that’s been oozing out really slowly.”
“Slowly oozing blood?”
“Like, they deliberately cut themselves slowly or torture themselves.”
Yu Da On continues speaking while looking ahead.
“You shouldn’t let blood flow all at once. You can cause pain by making it trickle slowly in various ways, or during surgery or… something like that.”
“…”
It must be true since it’s Yu Da On, who knows this kind of stuff. It feels like I’m poking around her painful memories.
“Are you okay to go inside?”
“I guess we must…”
Ah Rin sighs, and Jang Chae Yeon and Yu Da On step inside.
I follow their lead.
The clean interior catches my eye.
“The inside is cleaner than I expected?”
Yu Da On mumbles, and immediately Jang Chae Yeon pats her back while Ah Rin smacks her arm.
“Quiet.”
“You shouldn’t say that.”
“Y-Yeah…?”
I turn my gaze from the flustered Yu Da On and glance around.
The wooden desk is primitive, and there are no separate chairs.
On an easel is a single canvas, with a painting that seems unfinished.
Behind it is a closed wooden door.
I inspect the painting.
“…”
A white-haired woman is twisting someone’s neck.
The white-haired woman reaches out with a miserable expression, while the other woman has her neck twisted.
Maybe the body and face of the second woman aren’t fully drawn yet, so I can’t recognize her.
However, even though it’s an unfinished painting, I could tell who the white-haired person was.
“…”
Jang Chae Yeon, the owner of the painting, looks perplexed.
“…Me?”
“…Do you know her?”
“No. I don’t.”
Jang Chae Yeon shakes her head slowly.
“I don’t kill people like that.”
“…I see.”
It takes me a moment to understand the meaning behind Jang Chae Yeon’s words.
“…Only when necessary.”
“I understand.”
She’s not someone who would kill for fun.
Nodding as a sign of reassurance, I start examining the painting again.
It isn’t a properly finished painting, to begin with, so it’s not something I can thoroughly inspect.
As I carefully study the painting, I spot words written beneath the canvas.
<Please give it a title>
I look at the painting, but the translucent window doesn’t come to mind.
“The door here is closed.”
Song Ah Rin, who’s been fiddling with the door, looks at me.
In times like this, it’s best to take the easiest approach.
“Chae Yeon.”
“…Yeah.”
As Jang Chae Yeon nods and reaches out, the door shakes with a tremendous sound.
-Bang!
However, despite the loud noise, the door doesn’t budge.
“…Huh?”
Jang Chae Yeon murmurs in confusion.
“It doesn’t break?”
Yu Da On scratches her cheek while mumbling.
“It doesn’t seem like Chae Yeon wouldn’t be able to break it.”
-Thud!
When I punch the wooden door, the sound echoes.
“See? It’s just a regular wooden door.”
There was nothing else to see.
“Maybe Chae Yeon’s strength has weakened?”
Yu Da On glances at Jang Chae Yeon, who snaps back at Yu Da On with a glare.
“That’s not it.”
“Um…”
As Yu Da On keeps poking at Jang Chae Yeon’s arm, she suddenly yelps and pulls her hand away from the door.
“…”
Ah Rin stares intently at the door, resting her chin on her hand.
“There are things in this world that can’t be solved with strength.”
“Yeah?”
She looks at me while fiddling with the door.
“If everything in this world could be solved with strength, the Isolation Team would have smashed everything.”
“Then…”
“Right. There might be some mechanism.”
Song Ah Rin mutters as she brushes the door.
“At least in my experience, that’s how it is. If not, the Branch Chief would’ve likely smashed all containment objects with his own hands.”
Wasn’t that what happened?
“Anyway, got it.”
“Yeah. I’ll think it through a bit too.”
As she says this, Song Ah Rin brushes her hand along the wall.
Turning my gaze from her to the canvas, one thing has been bothering me the whole time.
<Please give it a title>
The words on the canvas catch my eye.
“…Title.”
“Yeah?”
Jang Chae Yeon approaches me, looking puzzled.
“…”
Jang Chae Yeon gazes at the words on the canvas.
“Do you think we need to decide on one?”
“…Honestly, I don’t know.”
“…”
After staring at the painting for a moment, Jang Chae Yeon lets out a deep sigh.
“It might be right to do it.”
“Chae Yeon… Should I do it?”
“No.”
Jang Chae Yeon shakes her head slowly at my words.
“I don’t want you to bear the emotional burden of my work.”
“That’s not emotional burden.”
“…I’ll do it.”
Jang Chae Yeon smiles faintly and then takes a deep breath after a moment of contemplation.
“It’s something that won’t happen.”
She murmurs, and the words are engraved on the canvas.
<Something that won’t happen>
-Squeak…
The door opens.
“…”
Jang Chae Yeon frowns, while Yu Da On looks beyond the door.
I too glance over her shoulder into the room.
It’s quite a dark room.
Yu Da On squints and mutters, “This time, it seems like a sculpture studio…?”
“A sculpture studio?”
Peering beyond Yu Da On’s shoulder, as she said, this time a sculpture studio was indeed prepared.
Once again, there was a wooden door at the end, and as expected, it was closed.
A pull and push revealed a body lying in the middle.
A female body.
But it was made more of a material resembling wood than stone.
To express it, it felt like a body of Aestheticism.
And, again, the neck was missing.
Could this be a reserve body?
“But what’s lying here…”
“That’s a mannequin.”
“I was just about to say it was a mannequin…”
Cutting off Yu Da On’s words, Song Ah Rin spoke up, and Yu Da On murmured back in a timid voice.
“But it’s strange.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a faint sense of self.”
Song Ah Rin approached the mannequin while frowning.
“It feels similar to a human.”
“A human?”
“Maybe it feels like a sleeping person. It’s kind of unsettling. I’ll be careful not to wake it up.”
Song Ah Rin cautiously tiptoed and began looking around.
“…There’s something here.”
Soon, she peeled a sheet of paper off the mannequin’s torso.
“Please give this artwork a name.”
“Again?”
What’s there to name for just a body?
What’s the reason for just sitting here?
“Why are we doing this?”
“I don’t know.”
In response to my question, Song Ah Rin furrows her brow in annoyance.
“Honestly, if we were dealing with a typical anomaly, there would be a reason to it.”
“…”
“You know we’re dealing with something that doesn’t obey common sense.”
“It could just be playing with us.”
“Honestly, that’s not impossible.”
Song Ah Rin nods.
“It’s about confidence.”
“Confidence?”
“That no matter what happens, they believe they won’t be caught by us.”
“…”
They must have good reason to be confident.
Thinking back to my encounter with Aestheticism.
Yu Da On and Song Ah Rin, pricking their hands.
And Jang Chae Yeon, knocked out after a self-inflicted strike.
And that Critical that never worked.
Honestly, I’d prefer not to meet them personally this time either.
“…Anyway, we need to give it a title.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
At my words, Yu Da On, Jang Chae Yeon, and Song Ah Rin all turn their gazes toward me.
“…Can I do it this time?”
“Oh, I’m not trying to put pressure on you, Jae Heon!”
Yu Da On, catching my gaze, hastily waves her hands, responding.
“I just think that you would be better at naming this stuff than I am…!”
“I think so too.”
Jang Chae Yeon nods along.
“…Well, I, I wasn’t trying to pressure you either…”
Song Ah Rin twists her hair.
“Honestly, in this aspect, you always lead the way.”
“…Alright.”
Yeah, it does make sense for me to do it.
Nodding, I look over at the mannequin.
Honestly, even if it’s a name.
“Mannequin.”
The door doesn’t open.
“Is that too random?”
“You’re giving advice while not even naming it yourself. Want to name it, Ah Rin?”
“Geez, I wasn’t swearing or anything.”
Song Ah Rin grumbles.
“…Aestheticism’s Likeness?”
Again, the door remained closed.
This is really tough.
“Aestheticism’s Knockoff? Ideological Anomaly?”
“…I always believe in you, Jae Heon, even when your naming sense is lacking!”
“Just wait a bit. I’ll come up with something good.”
Yu Da On says supportively, but I have no words to offer.
I’ve never even raised a puppy, so what name could I come up with?
I just intended to make something out of what was available.
“…”
But then again, giving it a too-nice name also felt scary.
“…Art?”
At that word, the paper falls.
<Proof of Art>
And then, the words were inscribed on the paper.
-Phoo!
<Thank you.>
The mannequin disappears, leaving the paper behind.
“…”
-Squeak…
The door swings open.
“It feels like it’s about time to leave.”
We found the Team Leader, and now we just need to figure out a way out of here.
“Shall I lead the way?”
Yu Da On turns toward the door again, and then…
“…Huh?”
She utters in a puzzled voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, um…”
Yu Da On mutters while gazing ahead.
“…”
As Jang Chae Yeon follows Yu Da On’s lead, inhaling deeply, her face turns pale, and soon she covers her mouth with her hands.
Following her gaze, I see what was once a mannequin lying there.
And, a person’s head.
“…”
The issue is that it looks like a mosaic is over the head, making it barely visible.
“…”
Even when I squint, it seems as if my eyes are ‘refusing to see,’ with static interfering with the view.
In front of me, a translucent window appears.
[Name: Proof of Art]
[Age: Created just now]
[Specialty: – ]
[Talent: – ]
[Background: A masterpiece, born here.]
[Vulnerability: – ]
“…Sister…?”
Jang Chae Yeon murmurs in shock.
Sister?
-Crack!
The static crackles.