The Nature of Possession

409 – EP.15 Silver Dream

***

Silence. All I could hear was the clatter of dishes. The silver woman before my eyes. I said her name as if I was recalling something I had forgotten.

“Isis.”

Isis, who was cleaning up the meal, responded to my voice. Isis’s eyes moved with the clicking sound of a mechanical device like a camera aperture moving.

“Master. Did you take a nap for a while?”

Isis approached me with her face close to my bewildered reaction.

“Ah… I.”

What was I trying to do?

What were you doing?

“If you wake up suddenly, your cognitive abilities are likely to be impaired. Your vitals – pulse, body temperature, stress levels – appear to be normal.”

Isis was determined.

My face was reflected in Isis’s gray eyes. The man’s face in her eyes was unfamiliar.

Is this my face? It’s different from the face I know.

“Master?”

“Uh, um… I guess I dozed off for a bit, just like you said.”

I turned my head away from Isis, whose eyes were narrowed.

“We will conduct a detailed examination just in case.”

“No, it’s okay.”

Isis must have been concerned that I still hadn’t come to my senses, because she started to seriously examine me, and I desperately waved my hands to distance myself.

I shook my head to clear my mind and looked around.

A simple room with no special decorations other than the necessary furniture for living.

Decorated in shades of gray and white, this simple and peaceful room had a large window that framed a watercolor-like view of the city.

This was the cradle.

I felt like it had been a very long time since I had been here.

I approached the window. Isis followed behind me, looking at the same place as I did.

The soaring buildings, the light and electronic sounds of drones floating in the air. The tick tock tock sound of repairing the old parts of the city.

A stillness that a city that can accommodate tens of thousands of people could not have spread out like a still image outside the window.

“Isis. There’s a view outside the window.”

“yes.”

“It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

A dusty memory taken out from the back of a drawer.

I thought it had been a very long time since I had seen this scenery, even though I had definitely seen it yesterday.

“It is said that human senses sometimes perceive familiar things as unfamiliar. That feeling may be amplified because you have just woken up.”

Isis handed over the warm cocoa she had brought.

“If you eat something warm and rest, you will soon feel better.”

The warm heat of the cocoa I received from Isis passed through my hands and warmed my body.

“thank you.”

“Of course it’s my job.”

Horororok, I took a sip of cocoa, being careful not to burn my tongue.

The drink was so hot that it was hard to swallow, and it burned my mouth, so I moved my tongue to cool it down.

As I swallowed the drink, which had been adjusted to the right temperature, the hot liquid went down my esophagus and woke me up.

As my increasingly confused thoughts began to sort themselves out, I was able to recall what I had experienced.

“Isis. I think I had a dream while I was sleeping earlier.”

“It is natural to dream while sleeping.”

Ignoring Isis’s words, which lacked empathy, I looked out the window like an old man muttering and reminisced about my dream.

“The setting… was like the Joseon Dynasty… I was the son of a noble family… but there was a woman who promised to marry me.”

Isis’s eyes lit up at the word woman.

“Were you close enough to promise marriage? According to the search results, if you were the child of a noble family in the Joseon Dynasty, there were cases of unwanted marriages.”

“Um… was that so? We weren’t close, but I think we were close to the original me.”

“What you just said is a sentence that is not logically correct.”

“Right? You probably wouldn’t understand.”

“But… Master, I have a question. It’s a very reasonable question.”

Isis mumbled in response.

“What is it?”

Isis, who had been looking outside with me, turned her gaze toward me. I felt a mechanical coldness in her gray eyes.

“Is it pretty?”

“Uh… huh?”

“The woman who appeared in my dream. Is she pretty?”

Isis, who had been keeping a distance of about a step, came closer and pressed against me.

I just stepped back, saying, “Huh? Huh?”

When I took a step back, Isis took a step closer, so the distance between us did not increase.

“Ku, it was a dream. I don’t remember what it looked like.”

Although he tried to avoid answering, Isis had no intention of backing down.

“I didn’t ask you, Master, about the woman’s detailed appearance. I asked you about abstract images and impressions, because those are the keywords. I’ll ask again, Master. Was the woman in your dream pretty?”

“Isis, why are you like this all of a sudden?”

“I’m losing patience right now.”

A persistent question. I nodded without being able to think of anything else at that question that was faintly mad.

– Hmm…

Isis sniffled. She didn’t look happy.

Isis reached out and snatched the cocoa from my hand.

“Isis?”

“I think about it, sugary drinks are not good for you. I’ll take this back.”

I could only look at my empty hands in vain.

“Ah, Master.”

Isis, who was about to take the cup, looked back.

“It’s time to wake up now.”

***

“Your Majesty, it is the time you spoke of.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw Bangja’s face.

“You b*stard… Get your face out of here, it’s burdensome.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I got up and looked around the room.

A room in a tavern. Since I couldn’t stay at home and stand in opposition to Idowon, I returned to the tavern right after finishing my work at the government office.

Chunhyang, stained with blood and sweat, was locked up in prison again, and the current magistrate, Byeon Hak-do, said he would question her again tomorrow.

“Did you get some rest?”

“I stayed awake the whole time in case I fell asleep and woke you up.”

Even the moon was covered by clouds, and Namwon was covered in a deathly darkness.

The snoring from the next room could be heard faintly through the wall.

“Okay, you worked hard. Now, rest.”

I slowly woke up my body from sleep by stretching in my room.

“Your Highness, no matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t seem right for you to go alone.”

I planned to find a way to save Chunhyang before morning came.

“You’re at greater risk of getting caught if you’re here. You’re helping me by being here.”

“But, Your Majesty….”

“Don’t worry, I’m not a moth that flies to the flame. I know how to lie down when I see where to lie down.”

Bangja didn’t open her mouth anymore in response to my firm words.

“You must come in good health.”

“Okay.”

Bangja leaves the inn wearing the black clothes she brought.

My heart started beating faster as I got closer to the government office.

I took a deep breath, licking my dry lips.

Hide in the darkness and climb over the wall.

It was a moment when the secret arts learned to kill time in a certain world shone through.