Chapter 9 — The Sorcerer Who Masters The Dream (4)

His literally-cursed body was forever catching at his ankles, yet Shin Hweein excelled at learning and at every kind of physical skill alike.
To commit Do Yumi’s movements to memory the moment they passed before his eyes, and then mimic them, was no trouble at all for him.

One has only to press this push-button and work the wrist well. In short: the frozen confection that issues unceasingly from the mouth of this machine must be stacked high without toppling over.

But there was no meaning in learning if one stopped at imitation.
One had to bring further thought to bear and develop the method.
He had mastered in an instant what Do Yumi had taught him, and, not content with stacking the ice cream handsomely, he piled an even more exquisitely balanced helping atop that, squeezing out the cream to fashion an ornament much like a crown.

To put it in the terms of su-pa-ri, the discipline-theory of cultivation by stages, he had vaulted the su of keeping to the master’s teaching in an instant and crossed straight into the pa, the stage of breaking the form and adding one’s own application.

“Here. Two vanillas.”
“Why does this mister seem a little proud of himself? …Thanks for the generous serving, though.”

When he handed across the two ice creams, stacked so handsomely and balanced so exquisitely, Do Yumi pulled a sour face, took them up nonetheless, and went on her way.
Shin Hweein watched her departing figure with a composed expression.

He had escaped the situation where the dream ended before he could even hand over the ice cream.
Now he had to watch and see how long the dream would carry on without any further intervention of his.

That way I can know how much time of action I am allowed.

Mercifully, Do Yumi’s dream was detailed only in the parts connected with herself, so no other customers came to call.
Both elbows propped on the counter, his body leaning into it, Shin Hweein brooded over how he might rescue her and Seonwoo at a single stroke.

If I drag her out point-blank, her memory cannot be preserved. Yet for her alone to realize on her own that it is a dream would come to the same thing: her memory wiped, the whole simply restarting from the beginning. The method that remains, then, is to make her overcome the nightmare herself, before she realizes it is a dream.

The root of this nightmare was Do Yumi’s own desire.
What, then, if Do Yumi, while dreaming the nightmare, were to become aware of another desire opposed to it, and amplify it?
The premise of the nightmare having collapsed, the sorcery would naturally come undone.

To the ear it might sound like nonsense, but in the course of learning sorcery one had to face such situations often enough.
Take, for the most immediate example, a curse.
When one curses another, one must also bear an immense reaction upon oneself, and the only way to lessen that reaction is to handle curses often and grow skilled at it.
But to use curses to such a degree, the probability is rather higher that the reaction will reduce one to a state worse than never having lived at all, and how could that be anything but a paradox?

Ordinarily it would be impossible. But just now there are variables. The Taeju Doryeong, Do Seonwoo. And I, who handle the dream sorcery.

There were clues he could put to use as well.
The relationship between Do Yumi and Kim Hyeonwoo; the relationship between Do Yumi and Do Seonwoo.
And further, though it did not appear directly in this dream, perhaps the most important of them all: the relationship between Do Yumi and her elder sister, Do Yuna.

If he could ferret out another desire that slept deep in Do Yumi’s heart and stir it, if, to put it in extreme terms, he could in the end have her cast Kim Hyeonwoo aside by her own hand, then he might break this nightmare somehow.
Of course, the dream-demon who had made her dream the nightmare might intervene at that moment to have her dream a different one; but at the very least, in that one instant, the nightmare would be loosed and her memory preserved.
Then it would be enough for Shin Hweein to step in at that moment and subdue the creature.

Right, easy enough to say in words, but how, then? Sorcery… seems possible. Yet to wield sorcery openly before her eyes is not a wise course either.

Use sorcery in secret, so that Do Yumi would not detect it, and stir her desire so that she would not detect that either?

As he let out a sigh at conditions that felt only suffocating, the scenery around him began once more to distort.
Shin Hweein’s expression hardened in an instant.
The collapse had come faster than he had thought.

Even with my having barely interfered, the rate is this? Earlier, I do not think it was this fast.

No, even granted it was the same nightmare, there was no guarantee that Do Yumi would mechanically repeat the same thoughts; some margin of error was naturally to be expected.
But if the margin grew too great, it would be hard to attempt anything properly.

“Mister, two vanilla ice creams, please.”

Just as Shin Hweein was weighing whether it would be best, for now, to stand by once again, the world returned without fail to its first state, and Do Yumi stood before his eyes.

“Understood.”

Course fixed, Shin Hweein nodded to Do Yumi without a word, then set his body in motion with composure and ordered his thoughts.
Just once more, let him take the measure of the time.
Of course, in this very moment her bodily condition was worsening with every passing instant, so there could be no needless drawing-out.
This would be the last time he watched the dream collapse.

“Here. Two vanillas.”
“Whoa, what is this?! Is this any business, stacking it up so prettily…?!”
“Heh.”

It would have been well had he sent Do Yumi off with a response perfectly identical to before, but her eye was sharp, and he had slipped a little.
Mercifully, though she regarded the self-satisfiedly smiling Shin Hweein as if she were looking at some odd creature, Do Yumi said nothing in particular and went away.

Shin Hweein saw her off with a tense expression, then leaned back against the wall with a long breath.
And then, all at once, his gaze fell upon the machine that dispensed the ice cream.

He was curious about the taste of it.
In Do Yumi’s dream, could he taste something of his own that he ate?
And if so, how different was it from the thing outside?

No, now that I think of it, I have never once eaten a frozen confection.

Even picking and choosing food that was easy to digest, his stomach was forever taking some hurt; there had been no way he could have eaten ice cream, which on top of being cold was a dairy product besides.
But to think it through the other way around: this was, after all, only inside a dream, so no matter how much ice cream he ate, surely no harm could come of it.

Yes, let me eat one here first, then eat the frozen confection in reality and compare the taste. What could be wrong with that?

Having at last arrived at that thought, Shin Hweein, though he knew no one was there, cast a needless glance outside, gave an unnecessary ahem of a cough, and stepped over to the box where the cones were stacked.
Glancing about him once more to be sure no one was watching, he took up a cone and pressed firmly on the button that dispensed the vanilla ice cream.
And with more care than he had taken even in making Do Yumi’s, with all his heart and skill, he stacked the ice cream up.

“…Oh.”

Looking at the ice cream at last completed, Shin Hweein let out a low murmur of admiration.
Had Shin Myeongin seen it in her childhood, would she not have been jealous of even this much?
Pressing flat with his hand the smile that rose unbidden to the corners of his mouth, he sank his teeth into the ice cream.
In his mouth a cold, sweet cloud melted away.

“It is… good.”

This time he could not hold the smile back.
His worry had been pointless.
Having never eaten anything like it, he could give no specific description, but the sensation of the ice cream melting in his mouth, exotic and at once whetting the appetite with its sweet fragrance, was a most singular thing.

“Yet whether it be like the real thing or not, I cannot tell. Aye — as for chocolate, I have a fair number of times smelled the fragrance beside Moa as she ate it, so this ought to be easy enough to judge.”

Having rattled off this needless excuse though no one was listening, Shin Hweein made short work of the ice cream he held, cone and all, as though a crab were hiding its eyes, and then took up another fresh cone.
He made out a chocolate ice cream of even greater completeness than before and took a bite.

“—It is good!”

In a most unrefined manner, he had ended up crying out loud.
For an instant it was so good he had even forgotten why he had come to this place.
What was more, he was convinced now that food eaten in a dream was the same as the thing in reality, or at the very least ninety per cent or more like it.
Whether that was because he himself held the authority of a dream-demon, or because it was a nightmare crafted by another dream-demon, or owing to the natural disposition of Do Yumi or the Taeju Doryeong, he could not tell.

That leaves green tea. I am fond of green tea, of course, but whether it pairs well with ice cream I do not know. I must verify it directly.

Already, though the result of the experiment had been declared, Shin Hweein was taking up the next cone without hesitation.
In the midst of it he caught the press of a gaze and turned his head, and there, floating in mid-air, Do Seonwoo was looking at him.

As though he had meant to do so from the very first, Shin Hweein pulled out one more cone and asked the boy.

“…Will you eat?”
“Yeah.”

The two sat side by side nearby, licking at their ice creams, and spoke of the present situation.
While Shin Hweein explained the situation to him step by step and turned over the means of waking her, the boy, licking away at his vanilla ice cream, nodded and answered.

“Auntie wants to succeed. She always says so.”

That was a clue greater, perhaps, than the boy himself knew.

“Succeed, you say. From the position she is in now?”
“Yeah.”

Seonwoo nodded with confidence.
A smile half made of relief hung at the corner of Shin Hweein’s mouth.

“That is a thing to be marveled at. I had wondered whether, hauled in here against her will, she might in her heart have given herself up to despair.”
“Auntie always wanted to leave the house.”
“That… aye, so she would have. I had failed to think of it.”

Seonwoo having come to him, the dream would soon collapse once more, but now it did not matter.
The boy’s words had given him his bearings.

“It is fine now, she even laughs. Far, far more than when she was at home with Mama.”
“Is that so. That is a relief.”

He had learned that Do Yumi was not only looking behind her, but seeking to step forward.
That being so, neither could he go on forever enjoying this dream and avenging himself for the ice cream he had been unable to eat in childhood.
It was about time now to slip out of this place.
Surely the ice cream eaten outside would be far more delicious.

“Around her, everyone is a good person, she says. A little more than she deserves, she says.”
“Ha ha… of course — Father Lucas is a man so good as to cause one worry. Lest he worry the more, we must hurry, and go out together with her.”
“Yeah.”

When he lifted his head, he could see the sky warping.
This, likely, would be the last time.
What sorcery he ought to use, and how, had just come to mind as well, thanks to this green tea ice cream.

“Ah, but Auntie is still afraid of Uncle, all the same.”
“Bearing the sins she does, she fears me. Were she upright, there would be nothing to fear.”
“It’s not that, Uncle. I’m afraid of Mama and Auntie.”
“Mm?”

The world was crumbling down.
Licking away at the masterwork vanilla ice cream Shin Hweein had crafted for him, the boy gave a small laugh.

“And now I’m afraid of Uncle too. Hee hee.”
“That is…”

Why he should be afraid of him, and if he truly were afraid, then how he could speak of it with so much laughter.
Before he could ask the reason, the world warped utterly, then resumed its own shape.

Do Yumi stood before Shin Hweein’s eyes, and after regarding him with an expression he could not quite read, she put the same demand to him as before.

“Vanilla, two please.”
“…Understood.”

Turning his head to pick up a cone, Shin Hweein denied the thought he had just had.
It was not the same as before.
The demand, yes, was the same, but the manner in which it had been delivered was different.
At first it had not been like this.
In the middle, too, it had altered again.
Then, by what spur had her behavior changed?
That the time she took to realize this was a dream was growing ever shorter would have to be connected to this as well.

A matter that will end soon at any rate. For now, let me concentrate on stacking the frozen confection.

His skill at making ice cream had already passed beyond full ripeness, yet for some reason his speed at this moment had slowed even more than when he had made his very first one.

“What is it, are you making some kind of artwork?”
“A moment.”

The final stage of su-pa-ri theory is ri: to step entirely outside what one has learned and set up a new law of one’s own.
Shin Hweein did precisely the opposite.
He resolved to draw a thing scarcely yet known into the realm in which he had confidence.

This cone-shaped wafer is paper, narrow in breadth but long enough to inscribe upon. The frozen confection that issues at the press of the push-button is, if balance is not kept, a thing under which the letters collapse, and on top of that, a brush and ink-stick of great thickness.

Whatever the materials might be, paper, brush, and ink-stick were here.
With these, then, he might unfold sorcery as he pleased.
Of course, were the stimulus great, she would presently recall that this was a dream.
It would be best to give gentle suggestion only, and that repeatedly.

“There — it is done.”
“Why is only this one like this? It is pretty, but… still, if it spills while I’m eating it, you’ll not get off lightly.”

In token of warning she gave him a sidelong glare, took up the ice cream, and paused for an instant.
She tilted her head; but saying nothing in particular all the same, she turned to go, and at the sight of it a smile rose at the corner of Shin Hweein’s mouth.

The motives a human has for wishing to succeed must be many. What success would you seek, you who are even now still in the grip of the shadow of Do Yumi and Kim Hyeonwoo?

It was, perhaps, a happy household.
The very thing this nightmare was now drawing.
But this was a nightmare for the reason that Kim Hyeonwoo was not her husband, and Do Seonwoo was not her son.
What she wished to draw was the figure of the future, yet its specific image was caught upon the past, and what should one call that, if not a nightmare?

So in place of such a futile fantasy, Shin Hweein had brought the possibilities she might attain were she actually to succeed to her mind by suggestion.
With Shin Hweein’s own sorcery-power alone it would have been somewhat hard, yet by adding the dream sorcery he had gained this time, he had fashioned it readily enough.
That she had loved Kim Hyeonwoo would, in great part, have been because he was her elder sister’s man.
A love without any real substance; it was about time to wind it up.
Were she to succeed, she could meet a far better man than Kim Hyeonwoo, build a household beyond any comparison better than Do Yuna’s.
Should it come to that, there would be no further need for her to cling to the fact that her face resembled her elder sister’s.
As a rule, it is the lesser of the two who minds being told they resemble.

“There remain not a few questions unsolved, but… it has succeeded.”

He saw Do Yumi, who had been walking slowly, come to a sharp stop.
Immediately after, the conical paper hat that had sat upon Shin Hweein’s head flew off; this little ice cream counter shop, and of course the cones inside it and the ice cream machine as well, likewise vanished.
The surrounding amusement-park facilities, of course, were melting away in the same instant.
But this time they were not being reassembled.
They were vanishing utterly, leaving their empty places exposed.

Soon, in a dream-space dyed wholly white, in which one could not even properly feel the distances, Shin Hweein and Do Yumi were left standing, facing one another.

“…Ah.”

Looking at him, Do Yumi let out a vague exclamation; toward her, Shin Hweein moved his step.
Perhaps because the space still belonged to a dream, though he had walked but a few paces, he had already arrived right before Do Yumi.
When he faced Do Yumi, who was looking at him with both eyes wide, a laugh rose to him of its own accord; mastering the muscles of his face with effort, Shin Hweein spoke to her.

“Well — it seems you have succeeded in casting off your fantasy of Kim Hyeonwoo by yourself?”
“Of course — I went and made it as a mudang, why would I marry a man with no eye at all for people like that?!”
“It must have been a nightmare. You have suffered greatly.”
“Th-then — say — about what you showed me a moment ago…”
“Hush.”

Setting up one finger to silence the woman who, even as she stammered, was about to put some question to him, he flicked his eyes toward the empty air.

“—Uncle!”

— Krrk… kheeeeeek!

In the dream, Do Seonwoo had positioned himself to bar the white monster that had intruded at some point, and he was calling to Shin Hweein with an aching urgency.
Shin Hweein’s expectation had struck true.
The dream-demon had come once again to Do Yumi, who had overcome the nightmare.

“For the moment, watch from there. If spiritual power remains to you, lend it all to ‘Seonwoo’.”
“To Seonwoo…”

It would seem she had not thought that name would come from his mouth.
Coloring her face red with shame, Do Yumi in the end nodded.
Shin Hweein nodded back to her in like manner and flew up into the sky.

Now, at last, it was time to put the dream sorcery to the test.