A gentle, softly glowing flame was stroking my hair.
No, something with a warmth like flame, but also with the sense of body heat… a fragment of the Elder.
Warmth and an image.
I blinked.
“Am I… dreaming?”
[Yes. Your weary journey has made you doze off for a bit. Come, sit here for a while…]
A familiar hand took hold of mine.
My eyes drifted closed.
Before I knew it, I was leaning against the bed, receiving the Elder’s comforting pat on my back…
“…Do you—”The words came out suddenly.
“Do you really think I did well?”
[Of course!]
[You did your very best, and thanks to you, the children came back alive and smiling. That’s all because of your efforts, and your good fortune.]
“……”
[Don’t be so hard on yourself. No one else could have done better than you. Even if you went back, you couldn’t have done it better than you did.]
For some reason, I felt choked up.
To be emotionally supported by someone had a power that shook a tired heart.
‘But…’
A suspicion came over me.
‘It feels like she knows my real identity.’
I’d felt it in the previous conversation with the Elder, too. She seemed to know all about the items I had.
‘Maybe it’s because this is a dream.’
She must already know about me.
Then, maybe, is this also a ploy to make a spy let down their guard?
Rather than suspicion, it was a strange feeling, closer to disappointment.
Like realizing your grandmother had some hidden motive for being so kind to you…
And anxiety.
But…
[And really, who in this world has no secrets? Who is without fault?]
Once again, the hand patted my back.
[The important thing is to always keep a little light burning in your heart. If you ever realize, ‘Ah, I’ve lost my way,’ then sometimes you need to check your footing so you can turn back.]
“…Thank you.”
I steadied my breath.
[Yes. I’ve become an old woman for whom it’s hard enough to know even those in my own care… Life is so complicated, with all its quarrels and troubles, I don’t really understand much of it.]
It was a gentle way of saying she wouldn’t reveal my true affiliation to the Disaster Management Bureau.
…Or about my suspiciousness.
“……”
The hand patting my back lifted away.
There was a hint of excitement in the gesture.
[But the elderly have their own kind of wisdom, you know. And…]
[They have gifts to give, too.]
Before I knew it, I’d sat up and was perched on the edge of the bed.
As always in dreams, the context had shifted, but it didn’t feel strange. Because this was a dream.
And this gentle request as well.
[Take your trinket out of your pocket, would you?]
“……”
Before I knew it, I’d taken the item out of my pants pocket.
A round accessory marked with an X.
Memorial Popsocket
The item that let me read the <Dark Exploration Records>, displaying past memories concisely as text.
But it had cracked, so I hadn’t been able to use it anymore.
[Ah, I remember this.]
[All the kids put these on everything these days, the administrators must be so upset. The dokkaebis didn’t even throw a party for eight days just to make one of those.]
A hearty and kindly laugh.
[But this one is… a little different, I think. Let’s see…]
The Elder put on her reading glasses and peered at my popsocket.
In the crack of the popsocket, the adhesive left by the government agent pretending to be a dokkaebi in the dokkaebi workshop was still there.
“Um. He said that adhesive would set within a month… but even though a lot of time has passed, it hasn’t changed at all.”
[Hmm? Ah… I see. Since that fellow wasn’t a real dokkaebi, just a human in disguise, it’s no wonder he didn’t know.]
[That person is more of a strange creature. But it looks like they were imitating something from our workshop.]
[But if you treat something made by street riffraff like a knockoff, things just won’t work out.]
The Elder infused the popsocket with fire.
“…!”
The popsocket, which had been burning brightly, suddenly sparkled as if all the old grime was scrubbed away, and the crack disappeared.
[There you go, it’s now properly bonded.]
“…! Thank you…”
[But the important step isn’t finished yet.]
[You have to make a wish for what you want it to become.]
“…!”
Come to think of it, I’d heard that at the dokkaebi workshop, too.
– Wish for what form you’d like it to take. Then, it’ll transform into a splendid trinket!
But things had been moving so frantically that I’d barely paid attention to that part.
‘This time, I’ll try to be conscious of it.’
I politely put the popsocket back into my pocket.
“Thank you.”
[Grapes, you really are so polite.]
I could feel a look of fond satisfaction.
She patted my head again.
It felt as if the warm fire seeped into my entire body, burning away all pain and contamination…
[This old woman would love to give you a dried persimmon, but… it seems our time is up.]
Huh?
[Your drowsiness is wearing off!]
“……”
I opened my eyes.
Before I knew it, my head was nearly bumping into the bed in the hospital room, and I reflexively straightened up.
A person startled awake from a nap.
“…!”
I quickly raised my head.
I saw the two agents looking back at me, smiling.
And… the Elder, still lying sound asleep in bed.
“Did you greet her properly?”
“…Yes.”
The clock in the hospital room showed the same time as when I’d entered.
I had literally just ‘nodded off’ for a moment.
And even in such a brief nap, a dream had visited.
“……”
I looked down at myself.
The tumors and ulcers that had sprung up across my body… were all gone.
“…Thank you.”
I bowed deeply toward the sleeping Elder. The agents smiled and patted my back.
“Then we’ll come again next time, Elder!”
I followed the two agents out of the hospital room.
The Elder, still peacefully sleeping with her eyes closed, seemed to be seeing us off…
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