TMBIPYMEN Chapter 40

The two turned their heads toward the source of the sound and didn't blink once, but saw nothing. The rustling sound didn't come again either.

Yustar, who hadn't lowered his guard, said quietly, "It might have been a small wild animal."

But no answer came from Layla. Yustar knew she was trembling. And in a situation like this, such a reaction from Layla was never a good sign.

"Layla?"

Yustar called to her without taking his eyes off the ominous half-remaining house foundation.

"Layla, snap out of it."

Layla, who had been maintaining a quiet silence as if her consciousness had been stolen by something, flinched and her shoulders shook. The sound of her drawing in breath came—an urgent sound as if she'd just survived the threshold of death.

"It's there," Layla said.

The moment Yustar turned to look at her, Layla suddenly shook her head.

"No, it was there. It's gone now."

"What was there? The sink?"

Layla shook her head again. She could feel her heart pounding.

It was as if it were beating not inside her chest but in the palm of her hand. Yes. As if she'd taken her thudding heart out and was gripping it, the sensitive pulse at her fingertips was making her body thud, thud, thud... resonate.

Swallowing dry saliva, Layla took a step back.

"It's not the sink. That... was there. I can't explain it precisely. But I'm certain it was 'the Seeker.'"

"Did you see what it looked like?"

At Yustar's question, Layla frowned briefly like someone suffering a headache, then nodded with an ambiguous attitude.

"I didn't want to see it... but I just saw it. A child, a young child. I don't know if it was a boy or girl. But it was a child under ten years old. I'm certain."

Layla's chest felt tight because she didn't know how to explain in words what she'd seen.

She felt like pulling her tongue out, slapping it against the ground several times, stretching it until it was soft and supple, then putting it back in. Maybe then she could speak a little better?

But there was no need for that—fortunately. Though Yustar hadn't seen what Layla saw, he understood much just from her reaction.

First, that there was some backstory to these ruins, and second, that something from the sink was likely roaming throughout the village.

"Layla, let's leave here for now..."

"Yustar, wait. Over there..."

Layla rubbed her bloodshot eyes with her palm and licked her parched lips.

"I want to go look over there."

Yustar looked directly down at her face.

"You don't need to push yourself, Layla. We can learn more about this place first, then come back with the members."

But Layla was stubborn. "No," she said. It was a firm voice rarely heard since leaving Ridgecarse.

Layla continued, "There's nothing there now. It's gone. So it would be better to go look now."

She looked up at Yustar. Her red eyes seemed to ask, 'Is it really impossible?' No, that wasn't a question. It was close to pleading.

Yustar shrugged as if he had no choice. And when he tossed the strand of hair that had fallen over his shoulder back behind him, absurdly enough, the gesture looked so graceful that Layla found herself slightly impressed.

"All right. But remember. You must stay right beside me."

After getting one more confirmation, Yustar pulled a small box from a leather pouch and handed it to Layla.

Layla knew what that box was the moment she saw it.

She also knew what would be inside if she opened the lid. It was the slender chain Yustar had used. The one he'd used to bind the children's ghosts in Ridgecarse, and to catch his grandmother's ghost at the royal palace.

"Keep it with you. Just in case something happens."

Layla opened the box lid and picked up the chain. It truly looked like nothing special from the outside. It was too thin, and even had darkened discolorations in places. It looked like a cheap necklace chain dug up from an old grave.

"I don't know how to use this."

"It doesn't matter. It's designed to work automatically even without using your own magic. It's a magical tool that possesses its own magic power, though a very small amount. I've been carrying it continuously too... Anyway, it will help. Put it away carefully."

After saying that, Yustar carefully moved toward the house foundation.

Layla put the box in the leather pouch attached to her uniform, then strode boldly across the stinging nettles and thornbushes.

Confirming with her own eyes that even the sharpest thorns couldn't scratch the uniform made her steps more daring.

The house foundation reeked of a musty smell mixing dead wood, mold, and moss. Another pungent stench also wafted—a smell that might come from rotting earth.

Yustar grabbed a handful of soil from beneath the remaining foundation stones, then let it fall back down. No vitality could be felt from the crumbling dirt pile. Nothing would grow here. At least not for several years.

"This way," Layla said.

She walked around to the back along the house foundation that had only corners remaining.

There was more debris there. The dead trees and furniture pieces smashed to bits and lodged haphazardly in the soil evoked a chaotic battlefield.

Yustar asked, "Was it here? The 'Seeker'?"

Layla nodded.

"It was here, definitely. But I don't sense it now. There's nothing. Except for the unpleasant smell."

"Can't you see why this place became like this?"

Layla looked around the ruins for a moment, but what was visible was everything.

Was it even possible in the first place to see through the 'memories' of things without life? Though Yustar had spoken as if it were naturally possible, Layla shook her head.

"I can't see anything."

Yustar quietly released a sound between a sigh and a groan through his lips. And he took a few steps toward what had once been the backyard.

The moment she saw his back, Layla flinched again at that sensation of her heart moving into her palm. Every hair from her nape down to her lower back stood on end.

There was something behind her.

Layla swallowed a scream and whirled around. In doing so, she nearly tripped when her foot caught on a piece of wood lodged in the ground, but such things were minor problems.

"Yustar."

Her breathing roughened. Perhaps her voice was too small, or perhaps Yustar was absorbed in examining the surroundings—no answering sound came.

"Yustar, look over there."

When Layla raised her voice a little more, Yustar finally turned his head. The next moment, the emotion he felt was exactly what Layla had felt. Fear.

In the forest where no one had been, between the dead trees, people were standing. They were all smiling with agonized faces, and twitching their shoulders and shaking their bodies as if they wanted to flee somewhere.

But none of them could move. Their feet wouldn't budge an inch, as if stuck to the ground.

Layla recognized one of their faces. A woman whose head covering had slipped askew, hiding half her face.

The texture of the withered apple that had rolled from the basket she'd been carrying suddenly revived vividly. So realistically that for a moment Layla mistook herself for holding an apple in her hand.

"That person..."

Layla, struggling to steady her trembling voice, pointed at the woman's apron. A small handprint stamped in mud was still clearly visible. Not smudged or wiped away at all.

"She's the person who bumped into the children earlier."

Yustar looked again at the person Layla indicated. She was twitching her fingertips while wearing a smile that might come from a nightmare. Like a broken wind-up doll jerking about.

"Do you see, Layla? All these people... have handprints on them."

Layla's gaze moved from left to right, then right to left again.

He was right. Every person standing in a row had those muddy handprints on them. The locations were all different, but they were clear enough to recognize from a distance. And she could also tell that the shape of all the handprints was identical.

"I think that's the 'Seeker's' mark."

Yustar nodded in agreement with her words. Originally, the person caught by the 'Seeker' becomes the next Seeker, but these people were clearly just being continuously chased. Like that man they'd seen at the branch. Then...

"The Seeker came," someone whispered.

The moment Layla and Yustar turned toward him, the same sound came from the opposite side.

"The Seeker came."

"The Seeker has arrived."

"The Seeker found us."

The whispers grew louder. They gathered and became a buzzing noise. Yustar drew his sword from its sheath, and Layla gripped the box in her pocket tightly.

The dead trees made rustling sounds. The people now wore even more grotesque expressions. Their lips turned inside out to reveal teeth, and throats like gaping holes showed.

"You're It."

In an instant, an old, small wardrobe appeared before Yustar and Layla's eyes. It stood there as brazenly as if it had been there from the beginning.

By the time the two grasped the situation, the wardrobe door had already opened. A young child with hair short on one side and long on the other was hanging inside the wardrobe, limbs braced against the floor. The child giggled.

"Find me."

The child's body dropped with a thunk and sank downward, disappearing. Simultaneously, Layla realized that something solid and invisible had violently wrapped around her body.

"Yustar!"

The moment Layla screamed, Yustar tried to grab her hand. But Layla's hand slipped away and disappeared without a chance to grasp it, as if oiled.

"Layla!"

Simultaneously with Yustar's scream, the wardrobe door slammed shut with a bang.

Then the people standing in a row in the forest began disappearing one by one. They vanished quickly, leaving only collapsing sounds like sand dolls crumbling.

"Layla! Damn it, Layla!"

Yustar pulled and kicked at the wardrobe door, but it wouldn't budge. The moment he raised his sword to forcibly break the door handle, the wardrobe vanished from his sight in the blink of an eye.

The tip of the flashing sword dropped onto the dirt. Yustar looked around the empty ruins with a helpless expression, and curses spilled from his mouth.