277 – A repeated story
I watched the situation closely for a while, but as expected, nothing special happened in the quiet forest.
Franken didn’t come back either, not knowing what to do, so he just stood there for a while.
“Sister. Now let’s go back quickly.”
She was leisurely spending time interacting with animals, then looked up at the sky and called out to her goddess.
Is this the end? Just go back like this without anything happening?
“There’s still a lot of time left before dawn. “Let’s go a little longer.”
“You also have to think about the time it takes to get to the door. “We went into quite a bit of depth.”
“It’s okay. “My younger brother is worried so much that he’s in trouble.”
Despite her younger brother’s urging, the Goddess did not go back and instead lay down on her seat and stretched out on her godson.
Her feeling is quite different from the goddess I knew.
She had always been a mature and dependable supporter, but now she seemed like a childish and stubborn young lady.
“···I’ll be leaving in a little while.”
“After all, my younger brother is the only one there.”
Now, the goddess is sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed, holding her head with her hands.
Eterina sighed as she looked down at her older sister and looked around her and spoke calmly.
“I’ll take a look around and come back, so please wait.”
“Don’t go too far and be lost.”
“Hmph.”
The two goddesses separated for the first time since coming down to earth.
She thought for a moment about who she should be next to, but for some reason, she decided to follow Eterna due to her mother’s attraction.
Anyway, it seems like the goddess is deep in sleep and won’t move.
As we went deeper into the forest, the dense trees began to cover the sky and become covered in darkness. Since it was already the middle of the night, it soon became completely dark to the point where it was difficult to see what was right in front of us.
I ended up losing track of Eterna, who was ahead of me, and was left alone in the dark forest.
“···It’s difficult.”
Even if I try to go back now, I don’t know where I came from.
Because I couldn’t see an inch in front of me, I lost my sense of direction.
Feeling at a loss, she just kept moving as fast as she could.
If it weren’t for the occasional sound of insects in the grass, I might have been confused as to whether I was in the forest or was abandoned alone in a dark space.
Then, at one point, a small cluster of lights appeared from afar.
Not knowing what that light was, I walked closer to it.
As the distance narrowed, the shape of the light source slowly emitting light became clearer.
It was none other than a small fox.
A white fox shining alone in a dark world.
“You… Why does it feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before?”
It didn’t seem strangely unfamiliar. I couldn’t get that feeling of discomfort out of my mind, as if I had experienced a similar situation in the past.
I naturally lowered my body and stretched out my hand to stroke the fox’s head.
He did not reject my touch but accepted it calmly, then ran forward and looked back again.
As if he would guide you and tell you to follow.
There was no reason to refuse, so I continued to walk through the darkness, following the fox’s light.
No matter how long we walked, another light source appeared in the pitch-black darkness.
This time, the light was much bigger than the white fox. When I got closer and checked, it was the warmth of a fire burning in a cabin.
“A cabin?”
Who lives deep in the mountains like this?
I snooped around the window and took a peek inside, but inside the house, only the fireplace was burning softly and there were no traces of people anywhere.
I stopped in front for a moment and carefully approached the door. Whatever it was, it was too dangerous in that dark forest. I needed a place to stay until dawn.
As I slowly opened the door and went inside, the cozy warmth warmed my body lazily.
I was trying to relax in the cozy atmosphere, but I came to my senses belatedly and looked around.
A strangely familiar interior scene. It felt like it wasn’t my first time here, and I thought I was forgetting something important.
Here…
It looked the same as the inside of the clock tower.
“It’s late.”
At that time, someone’s voice was suddenly heard.
When I turned my head, I saw Franken sitting on a chair in a dark corner, leisurely drinking coffee.
It was there from the beginning, but I didn’t see it?
If not, did he suddenly appear after not being in this place?
“What happened…?”
“It’s not a big problem. “You just got caught up in the story.”
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Immersion. The words he had warned me about at first came to mind later.
I sighed and leaned against the wall to gather my thoughts.
“Did you prepare this cabin? So that I can wake up from my immersion?”
“Well.”
“What is that white fox? “For some reason, it feels familiar.”
Franken put down his coffee cup, looked at me, and gave meaningful advice.
“Don’t try to understand every situation.”
“···What?”
“That’s the main reason you become immersed. Trying to understand. Just focus on seeing with your eyes. “You will understand everything after you see it anyway.”
It was somewhat undesirable advice, but for now I had no choice but to nod in understanding.
“Okay.”
“Well, even if I say it like this, it won’t be easy. “At first, I was completely immersed in it every time for a while.”
The guy cast his gaze toward the window and muttered with a faint expression.
“Because it has no choice but to be like that.”
“···How many times have you repeated this story?”
Franken smiled bitterly at my question.
“How many times do I have to explain it to you for you to understand? The passage of time has no meaning in this gap. This means that counting the number of times is meaningless. I’ve been looking out the window for an eternity. “I’ve watched it my whole life, and I’ve been immersed in it my whole life, losing myself and living as a character in the story.”
While I was trying to understand those difficult words, he looked at me and asked.
“What about you?”
“···Me?”
“Did you forget? I’m not the only one who’s stuck in time. Do you think it’s been a while since you entered the niche? There is no concept of ‘wait’ in this. “How many times do you think you’re watching this story over and over again?”
···How many times have you already seen the same story?
I’ve already spent my whole life here?
That can’t be possible. My memory is intact. He came into the gap, talked to Franken, and started looking out the window.
During that series of processes, the passage of time I felt was only half a day at most.
It’s all an unpleasant joke.
This is so absurd that no one will believe it.
“Ah, time to move on to the next story. Then, just enjoy it. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Dawn began to rise outside the window.
The darkness receded, the world became bright, and in an instant, I was back in the sky temple.
I looked around, but Franken was nowhere to be seen.
Once I was alone again, I tried to think about what I heard earlier.
“Is it you again?”
This time, my thoughts could not continue due to the presence of Eterna, the goddess of time, who approached nearby and spoke to me.
“I’m curious. “Who are you to be watching us?”
I’m curious about that too.
What on earth is Franken’s intention in showing me this scene? Are you confident that you will be able to understand everything at the end of this story because of what secrets are hidden?
“Actually, yesterday I thought you might be a member of God. “I thought they noticed us trying to get down to the ground and were watching us.”
Being a member of God’s family…
If an apostle could also be called a member of the household, wouldn’t it be completely wrong to say so?
Because I was the apostle of her older sister, the goddess.
“But since nothing happened after I went down to the ground yesterday and came back, that’s probably not true. “To be honest, I’m not even sure if you’re really there or if I’m just mistaken and talking to myself in the air.”
Even if I tell her that she is right here and that I am not mistaken, she cannot hear me anyway.
On the contrary, it only gets more immersive, so all I can do is just sit back and watch.
“The timelines are different anyway, so you can’t have any influence on me. So, let me tell you something special. Actually, I almost ran into a human when I went down to the ground yesterday. To be precise, we only discovered a hut inhabited by humans from afar.”
A cabin? Wasn’t that what Franken prepared for me?
If it actually happened in the past, how could the interior of the cabin be the same as the interior of the clock tower?
“Maybe today too, my sister will ask me to go down to the ground. However, since it has an aversion to humans, it is obvious that it will be disgusted if you talk about the hut. I don’t know what you think of humans, but I’m honestly curious. The essence of God’s creation. “The infinite potential of humans is, in a sense, similar to time.”
Eterna seemed to treat me not as a human, but as a transcendent being.
Of course, it would be difficult to predict that a mere human would jump across the timeline and one-sidedly watch over the goddess like this.
“I miss you. “What kind of being is a human being?”
I felt something strange.