By Zephyria 
An adult female-type Aberration wearing a dress appeared on the left side of the spotlight-lit stage and began to sing. The sound of the song gnawed at the nerves more uncomfortably than a mere voice. Separately, the music sounded familiar, and Jeil Heon murmured the title in a low voice.
“〈Brindisi〉?”
“Oh, I know that one. It’s from La Traviata, right? Should I start inciting them?”
“But it’s strange that the singing starts as soon as it begins. Moreover, the introduction to 〈Brindisi〉 is for the male lead tenor, but that part was skipped. According to the exploration records and survivor testimonies, it was said that the opera’s format was followed exactly.”
Meanwhile, as 〈Brindisi〉 ended, the stage went dark, and the spotlight shifted to the right side of the stage, where a new female-type Aberration appeared. This time, the song was not 〈Brindisi〉, but 〈O Soave Fanciulla〉 from La Bohème. This was also a song sung with a tenor, but only the soprano was heard.
Then, the song of the Aberration on the left was heard again.
“I think it’s 〈Casta Diva〉…”
“Is that from another opera too?”
“Yes. It’s from Norma. There’s no regularity at all.”
The group in the adjacent box seat felt the strangeness as well. Song Hilda’s voice came through the in-ear.
Team leader, there has never been a case where the entire play wasn’t performed. This is a completely new pattern. Could it be a gala concert?
“Yes. I thought of that too, but even for a gala, it’s suspicious that only two sopranos are repeatedly singing.”
It’s ambiguous… How do we figure out the Viewing Method?
Yoo Jiha frowned as he listened to the discussion between Jeil Heon and Song Hilda over the in-ear. The soprano entities singing as if competing with each other, and the entities in the general seating who split in half to cheer or shout insults every time the spotlight shifted. It felt like he almost understood, but the answer slipped through his fingers. He felt that if he could read the essence of the Aberrations, he could pinpoint that faintly shimmering feeling…
His hesitating gaze turned toward the general seating. Victims who might still exist at this very moment. And victims who would certainly exist here in the future. He had the power to save them.
“…Mister, I won’t be dragged onto the stage the moment I look at it, right?”
With those few words, Jeil Heon seemed to realize what Yoo Jiha was thinking. Suddenly, the weight of the air between the two changed.
“Jiha.”
The low resonance contained a firm expression of opposition. Fearing that his resolve would waver if he looked at Jeil Heon’s face, Yoo Jiha did not take his eyes off the opera glasses.
“I’m not saying I’ll just blindly look; it’s just that I feel like I might figure something out. I’ll just read it with the true eye and close my eyes immediately.”
“It’s dangerous. Let’s move on to the next viewing.”
“But what if there are victims down there?”
“…”
“This might be the last chance for the victims…”
Though he couldn’t completely hide the tremble, there was a vivid determination in his voice. After a long silence, Jeil Heon covered his forehead and gave instructions to Song Hilda via the in-ear.
“Jiha will read the stage with his true eye. If he is dragged onto the stage, I will immediately storm in to rescue him, so please return to the entrance and prepare for the next viewing. If the situation cannot be resolved by rescue, I will close the Aberrant Realm.”
…Understood.
It was a notification from the only Agent capable of closing an Aberrant Realm single-handedly, both in the past and present. Song Hilda also seemed to want to dissuade him, but she remained silent. Not daring to look at Jeil Heon’s face, Jiha looked slightly toward his chest and asked.
“Is it okay to close the Aberrant Realm because of me?”
Since the Otherworld is like a mirror that reflects and mirrors reality, anomalies are proportional to reality. Thus, no matter how many Aberrant Realms are closed before they naturally vanish, new ones are created within the same total volume. Furthermore, the closure of an Aberrant Realm requires the sacrifice of Agents. Because of this, he had heard during new employee training that the Management Bureau chooses to explore and find escape methods to reduce victims rather than closing every discovered Aberrant Realm.
“The Management Bureau isn’t such an inflexible organization that it would force a rule to never close a realm even when Agents and victims might be sacrificed.”
“…”
“Even if it were that kind of stubborn organization, I would definitely save you.”
Jeil Heon stroked Yoo Jiha’s hair and gripped his shoulder tightly before letting go.
“So do what you want to do, Jiha.”
“…Thank you for giving in to my stubbornness.”
“You want to save the victims. Whether it was at Eight Phases Mental Hospital or here, you’ve grown into a person who knows how to look after others.”
The words, spoken almost to himself, contained worry, anxiety, and a bitter sense of regret.
“Wear this. It’ll protect you from the worst-case scenario.”
Wearing the field jacket Jeil Heon had taken off and handed to him, Yoo Jiha lowered the opera glasses and closed his eyes.
Even now, human corpses used as props lay on the stage. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t afraid. However, this was the ‘usefulness’ he had barely found for himself. He didn’t want to back away and say he couldn’t do it.
He opened his eyes and looked at the stage. Just as he had no trouble reading Jeil Heon and the Blind Eater in the darkness of Room 404, the true eye easily pierced through the unlit opposite side of the stage, so the props are beautiful. The prima donna’s song completes the stage, but the props enrich it, so how could they not be important. The stage is the song and the song is the prop so they are one and the same and I am the protagonist of the stage oh how ecstatic on this brilliantly shining stage I shall complete this song…
“…!”
In an instant, his back felt searingly hot, and his dazed, drifting consciousness snapped back. Simultaneously, the stage, which had been drawing closer with a strange sense of distance as if paper were folding, was suddenly covered in pitch black and vanished.
“Nam Jiha!”
Leaving behind only a single shout from behind, his consciousness was sucked away and plunged into darkness.
* * *
Chilling air that felt like it was slicing through skin beat against his entire body. Opening his eyes with a low groan, Yoo Jiha flinched reflexively at a faintly shimmering light source. Fortunately, it wasn’t someone shining a flashlight on him. His limbs moved normally, and there was no pain. He hadn’t become a prop on the stage.
That didn’t mean he was in a confirmed safe place. Yoo Jiha felt around his surroundings with fumbling hands. Even though there were no lights, the entire space was dimly visible. It was a square, metallic space, and in the corner, something thick with a reddish tint was stacked neatly. It felt like a small warehouse.
And he was alone.
Rather than the chilly internal temperature, the reality that he had been separated from the group in the Aberrant Realm froze his heart. What do I do? What do I do? He couldn’t even guess where this place was. Yoo Jiha curled up, wrapping his arms around himself.
He constantly ruminated on the nightmare of Eight Phases Mental Hospital, where the fear of being isolated alone had never been fully forgotten. That time when he was chased alone by an Aberration that rushed at him in a frenzy, demanding the alcohol in his blood.
Back then, it was because Park Jun-yeol had thrown him as bait, but this time, he had brought it upon himself. His hunched shoulders shriveled miserably. He shouldn’t have been so stubborn; he should have listened to Jeil Heon’s warning.
He had succeeded in reading the stage with the true eye. He had a rough idea of what the Aberrations on the stage were imitating and what kind of entities they were.
But what was the point? He was isolated before he could even convey his hypothesis.
‘…Someone like me shouldn’t have acted so recklessly.’
He couldn’t tell if the trembling was due to the cold or the fear. No, perhaps it was guilt.
Something similar had happened in the past.
Around the time when his father and grandmother would raise their voices because of their young son, yet never completely severed ties. Around the time when he faithfully visited the family home in his hometown for family events or holidays.
It was his father’s hometown, where his grandmother openly mistreated him, five aunts were not particularly friendly, and cousin siblings who subtly excluded him felt unfamiliar, but Yoo Jiha never once showed that he didn’t want to go.
Because an abandoned child must never show such feelings.