BXBX NOVEL Chapter 112: Hide and seek.
Empty and solitary, that was the best way to describe where he found himself.
"Seriously—" Ha Joon was fed up, a heavy sigh leaving his mouth.
\'At this point, I can\'t tell if I\'m mad or just happy I finally got to shout at my dad. That\'s one off my bucket list.\'
Ha Joon settled on the ground, whipping out his phone from his pocket. To his surprise, his phone was unaffected by the whole thing; he could access anything on his phone.
Opening his playground could forcefully pull him from the illusion he was currently in, but at that moment, his goal was different.
Horror kids in the woods.
Kids in the woods with illusions.
Illusion forest.
He kept searching through his search engine, and with little influence from his 『Knowledge of the Gods』, he couldn\'t find anything related to the kids until he typed—
Lost kids in Camelot\'s forest.
And just like that, a documentary of exactly what he had been through popped up.
His eyes widened.
"Well, I\'ll be damned, it worked."
Scrolling down, he began to read about people who had faced the exact same thing, and from the information he got, 98% of them never returned to the real world. The remaining 2% gave a detailed way to break the curse.
As he continued, he stumbled upon an article, one that highlighted the children\'s point of view.
(Mother was a witch. The brown people didn\'t like her very much.)
So the story went.
("What\'s a witch doing in Camelot?" they would always yell. Mother was tired, she didn\'t want to abandon me and the other witches. We moved to the forest to hide from the people; we didn\'t want to be a bother to the other citizens.
The king hunted down the other wizards and witches. Mother was scared, she told us not to ever leave the forest. Daina accidentally did so and was caught by a man with armor and a sword, he cut her down. Mother tried to save her, but the king said she should be executed in front of everyone.)
Ha Joon kept reading.
(Mother refused to tell them where the rest of us were hiding until they burned her to death. The bad people burned down the forest too.
It was hot. It was painful. We cried, and no one saved us. Why are we burning? We didn\'t do anything. Why are the bad people hurting us?
It hurts… It hurts. Mother always told us not to harm people, but to greet them with a smile. I\'m sorry, Mother, but a smile is bad to do right now. I want to die… I want that more than I ever wanted a good life.)
Ha Joon finally got to the end of the article.
\'So that\'s how it is.\'
He stood up, looking at his hand.
\'Do I say I understand where these kids are coming from? No, that would be an insult to what they\'ve been through… Humans… Humans...\' Ha Joon looked up at the sky. \'I will never understand.\'
Ha Joon turned his gaze to the forest, and somehow he knew exactly what to do.
He found his resolve.
Slowly, he began to walk into the forest. The deeper he walked, the more he felt the numerous eyes observing him.
\'These kids never had the childhood they wanted… I can pretty much guess why their souls still linger.\'
Finally, he found one of the kids, a boy standing in front of him, his eyes glowing.
Ha Joon smiled.
"Hey there."
He sat on the ground with a small groan as he raised a finger. "Why don\'t we play together?"
The kid was a bit taken aback by this, his glowing eyes dimming.
"Mr. wants to play?" the kid asked.
"Of course, I\'m not an old man yet. Just tell me what you want to play, and I\'ll do it 10x better."
The kid smiled. "Everyone! Come, this Mr. said he\'ll play with us!"
One by one, children started walking out of the bushes, laughing as they gently sat around Ha Joon.
"Play with us!"
"Yayyy, play with us!"
They chanted.
Looking at the kids, Ha Joon could still see the burnt scars on their bodies.
He forced a smile. "Yes, yes, Big Bro wants to play, so how about we play hide and seek? When I find you, it means you\'re everything and nothing."
"Everything and nothing? What is that, Mister?" one of the kids asked.
Ha Joon placed his hand on her head. "It means... you\'ll find peace."
They smiled. "Let\'s do it!"
Ha Joon stood up and covered his eyes. "I\'ll count to ten. 1... 2."
The sounds of the kids giggling as they ran into the bushes echoed in his ears.
\'These little kids are exactly why I do what I do…\'
"10! Here I come!"
He began to look for them.
"Found you..." he tapped the shoulder of a kid who was hiding behind a tree.
The kid laughed, his body glowing.
Ha Joon kept at it, finding more and more of them.
He made sure he got every single one, their spirits following him around to find the next one.
Until—
He found the boy, hiding close to a rock.
Ha Joon settled near him, his hand on the boy\'s shoulder as he uttered, "There… I found you."
The boy didn\'t seem angry, nor sad. But his expression was one of peace.
He looked at Ha Joon. "You found us."
"I sure did," Ha Joon responded.
"We are everything and nothing…"
"You are... everything and nothing." Ha Joon repeated with a sad smile.
The kids leapt onto him from all angles, hugging him by the neck and arms as they laughed, their bodies fading.
"You\'ll come visit us sometime? We want to play more games with Mister."
Ha Joon smiled. "Of course."
"Lies," the boy spoke.
"You\'re right... and that is perfectly alright."
All the children had faded, all except the boy.
"You\'re a weird mister."
"I know." Ha Joon smiled, holding back the urge to tear up.
"Thank you... good sir."
The boy disappeared, leaving only Ha Joon sitting in the empty forest.
[Congratulations, you have completed a side quest.]
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