Chapter 609 – The Doll’s Knight
In the end, Seong-il, unable to figure out the exact use of the item, decides to try the item and holds a kaleidoscope up to his eyes.
“Oh…”
When he held the kaleidoscope to his eyes, various sights appeared in Seongil’s eyes. The world, divided like a slice of pizza, was different from each other.
‘Is this… A southern country?’
A beastman with the head of a dog or cat lives there. The warm sunlight and the sandy beaches of the impressive city.
Seong-il realizes that it is a southern country in the world of alchemy because it is a familiar place she has seen several times.
‘This place? Why all of a sudden…?’
Seong-il is momentarily puzzled by the sudden appearance of Namguk.
‘Was I missing something here?’
At that time, I was wondering about the southern country that appeared out of nowhere. A familiar scene appears in front of Seongil’s eyes.
‘Uh, is that…?’
A kaleidoscope that changed the screen rapidly to reveal something. It shows Seong-il a giant mother tree, a specialty of the southern country, out of the blue.
‘…Dig into the ground?’
The kaleidoscope, which showed the mother tree for a while, suddenly switches the screen to the ground and starts digging into the ground.
‘That’s…’
A gross, gigantic insect that appeared in a kaleidoscope shortly after digging into the ground. Some like maggots. Bugs, some like beetles, clung to the roots of the mother tree and sucked the sap.
‘These are the parasites the mother tree said. Come to think of it, I promised to get rid of the mother tree and those things.’
Seong-il realizes that the disgusting insects in front of him are the parasites he heard about when talking to the mother tree a long time ago.
‘I said that they wake up when the rainy season arrives in about half a year, so I should be able to catch them next month…’
Even if Seong-il continued to ponder, the kaleidoscope did not show any other scenery of the southern country. For this reason, Seong-il starts looking at other landscapes instead of southern countries.
‘Ah, this is easy to understand.’
A kaleidoscopic landscape, perhaps the world of Mythology Academy. There, you can see wizards rejoicing after obtaining a secret technique imprinted with superpowers.
‘…I have to deliver the secret technique, but how should I do it…’
At that time, Seong-il is tired of how to pass secret arts naturally. The kaleidoscope suddenly illuminates the mother tree once more.
‘Uh…?’
Since the kaleidoscope must not have changed its perspective for no reason, I realize that this holy day is a kind of revelation.
‘If I help the mother tree, will there be a way to solve that problem…?
I don’t know what it is, but when I feel like I’ve got a clue, Seong-il stops looking at the world of mysology in the still kaleidoscope and looks at the last scene.
“Here…”
A sight seen for the first time in my life. The rustic yet beautiful scenery of the fishing village confuses Seongil.
‘It’s the first time I’ve seen it… What kind of world is it?’
A situation where you can’t even get a sense of where the world is in front of you. Seong-il, embarrassed because of this, was desperately rolling his head. Two children with familiar looks appear in front of him.
‘A cute girl with red hair and a boy with black hair…?’
At first glance, the two men and women appear to be boys and girls between the ages of 16 and 17. Among them, the man’s face had a clumsily fluffy beard, giving the impression that he was a little younger than the girl.
‘Boys are pretty compliant, but girls are just cute.’
In fact, objectively, the girl with red hair was quite beautiful.
However, as she traveled all over the world, beauty was a holy day after all, so the girl in front of her seemed to give him the impression that even though she was quite beautiful, he did not notice it.
『Theo!! Have you finished preparing for your coming-of-age ceremony?”
『…What are the preparations!! All you have to do is go on a pilgrimage.”
『He!! Stupid? Terrible wild beasts may appear on the pilgrimage route!!
Perhaps the girl had a higher level of mental maturity, she scolded and led a boy named Theo.
‘Uh? Have you seen this… Somewhere?’
Seong-il realizes that he has clearly seen this situation somewhere and desperately tries to recall the memory.
Slurr…!!
While Seong-il agonizes over his troubled expression, a new scene unfolds in front of him.
『Cultist!! You can’t take this artifact with you!!』
“Do you think we can’t take it just because you’re blocking it? For the sake of Anazura-sama’s resurrection, please pass on the secret treasure left by the puppet knight. Then I’ll save your life.”
‘Puppet Knight…?!’
Seong-il finally succeeds in getting a hint about the game through the lines that come out of the mouths of the men wearing bizarre masks who block the boys and girls.
‘I had fun when I was young… The Doll’s Knight.’
Seongil naturally recalls the classic 2D games he played as a child.
A vague memory because it’s been a long time. However, as he tries to recall related memories, his body, strengthened by nanomachines and martial arts, desperately helps Seongil to gather fragments of his memories.
A fantasy game world. There was a custom of sending an adult child on a pilgrimage there. Because of this, the male protagonist Theo and his childhood friend Milli, who just came of age this year, go on a pilgrimage to keep the custom.
Not long after leaving the pilgrimage, a man and a woman encounter a huge earthquake near the village, so they hurriedly evacuate to a high place to avoid danger.
While they were barely avoiding the earthquake and trying to go on a pilgrimage again, a cave was accidentally revealed through an earthquake in front of them.
Interestingly, the cave has beautiful patterns written in places that clearly appear to be letters, which fascinates the two boys and girls.
Because of this, Millie, a tomboy girl who couldn’t hold back her curiosity, led Theo into the strange cave.
And two pairs of beautiful iron dolls found there. The two men and women, curious about the appearance of dolls that look like warriors and wizards respectively, hold onto the dolls as if possessed…
Then, an intense light spread all over the place. The two men and women who were directly hit by it passed out on the spot from shock.
Then, the two men and women struggled to pick themselves up and got up from their seats. Surprisingly, not only did they realize that the two dolls were subordinate to them due to a mysterious power, but the dolls were not just dolls. Realize that it is a relic left by a heroic puppet knight who performed legendary activities hundreds of years ago.
A steel doll that transformed into a small doll at some point. However, thanks to the knowledge imbued with magic, the two protagonists are excited to realize that the doll is only a small doll on the outside, but when the owner infuses it with will, the doll can transform into a sophisticated doll the size of an adult man, capable of displaying the abilities of a knight and a wizard, respectively. Do.
However, they didn’t know. Until now, this opportunity, which was considered just luck, was actually the starting point of an adventure with great danger.
‘Ah, after reading this brief description of the game, I definitely remember what kind of game it is.’
After reading the explanation that popped into my head at a glance, vivid play memories came to mind. Seong-il recalls that this game is a game in which two young male and female protagonists wander the world in search of the records and legacy left by the “Puppet knight” A long time ago.
‘This game… Interestingly, except for the two main characters, there was a feature that the companions kept changing every chapter, right? The experience of changing colleagues has the characteristic of being handed down, so I had to raise them all well…’
Since the main characters are two children, the production company seemed to think that the concept of them behaving like munchkins and defeating enemies was unreasonable.
For this reason, the production company placed ‘temporary companions’ to help the two boys and girls in each chapter, and they all used to have great background settings.
‘A reclusive archmage, a powerful thief hiding his identity, the head of the kingdom’s intelligence agency trying to thwart the empire’s conspiracy, a pirate taking over the sea, etc… All of the supporting characters are attractive and strong, so I’m happy every time I get a new ally in a chapter. I did.’
‘It was a lot of fun when all the temporary colleagues I’d grown up with so much affection appeared as a team in the final chapter…’
Seong-il recalls the memories of playing in the past and falls into thoughts for a while.
‘Come to think of it, the unique thing about this game is that the enemies are two groups with different goals, right? The ‘Church of the Four Gods’ wants to resurrect ‘Anazra’, the god of death, using the dolls made by the doll knight, and the Grand Empire wants to conquer the world with an army of dolls made with doll manufacturing technology.’
Seong-il recalls the settings one by one and realizes why the kaleidoscope introduced him to the world.
‘…Here is the puppeteer the Onmyokan investigator told you about!!!’
Since the keyword that penetrates the game is ‘doll’, Seong-il realizes that the kaleidoscope is the doll master he has been searching for so long.
‘By the way… Most of the dolls appearing here must be finished products…?’
Most of the dolls appearing in the game are relics left by the now-deceased ‘Puppet Knight’, and only the replicas made by the Grand Empire in the latter half of the year excavated the secrets.
‘The dolls of the Grand Empire are life-size, and they are evil objects that forcibly insert a living human soul, so the box is very different from my alter ego doll, and I don’t want to use it…’
At that time, Seong-il’s head hurts because he couldn’t accurately grasp the kaleidoscope’s intentions. The screen of the kaleidoscope still attached to his eyes changes and reveals a new scene to him.
『Oh ho ho ho!! For Anazura-sama’s resurrection!! I will kill all of you!!”
‘That woman…’
A woman wearing a bizarre mask and hood and bringing many of his men. She looked at her heroine, shouted her angst, and then ordered her men to attack.
‘That woman… Is Ira?’
Seong-il did not know who she was at first because the dot character was realized in reality. However, after hearing her unique hair color and way of speaking, she realizes that she is ‘Aira’, a gag character belonging to a religious cult who consistently appears from the middle of the film.
‘Maybe it was the setting that she was originally a good girl, but she fell into a cult and was brainwashed?’
Seong-il was a comedian with a strong image, so I couldn’t memorize her settings carefully. He turns on her augmented reality to look up her material about her.
“Hoo…”
Seong-il succeeds in figuring out an interesting fact from the setting book he finds.
‘Ira wasn’t simply brainwashed, her soul was twisted because of the circlet filled by the cultist?’
Interesting setting. In the setting book, not only was Aira inherently good and kind, but surprisingly, she was listed as the only descendant of the now-forgotten ‘puppet knight’ family.
‘The cultists who wanted to make the body of an evil god using the artifacts left by the puppet knight kidnapped her Aira when she was young? To rob her doll from her…’
But the set-up prize. Aira unexpectedly comes out as enduring the cult’s harsh torture. Tired of tormenting her, her cult is shown to have forced her soul to become evil by wearing her evil circlet, which sealed away her ancient demonic soul.
‘Somehow… Every time he gets beaten up by the main character’s group, his personality changes little by little…’
When I didn’t know the behind-the-scenes setting, I thought it was because he just had a four-dimensional personality.
‘So, as we entered the second half, Aira suddenly helped the main character’s group? Especially, that’s why I became friends with the apostle of the last cult…’
Seong-il is very interested in the setting that he did not know when he was young.
‘If Ira is physically or mentally harassed, her circlet’s soul will be destroyed little by little, and she will eventually come back to her senses…’
Her intrigue is short-lived, but Seong-il wonders why her kaleidoscope is showing her.
‘Well, I understand that Aira has a secret secret. But why are you showing me? The only direct descendant of the puppet knight family?’
The time when her surname frowned and wondered. As if reading his thoughts, the kaleidoscope changes the screen to show a new scene.
‘This…’
A new sight appeared before my eyes on Holy Day. There was a child who looked like Aira and an old man who looked like her grandfather.
“Ira. In fact, there is a secret in our family.”
“To? Which?”
『It is the secret technique of making dolls.』
‘No way…?’
Seong-il listens quietly to the story of the two men and feels her head frowning.
『It is a secret technique that the ancestor, the doll knight, made in his later years. It’s a secret technique to carve trees into guardian dolls.”
