MDL | Chapter 1.6

The prince’s eyes widened at the eerie sensation of the pen tip scratching his skin. Overwhelmed, he lost his balance, staggering and collapsing onto the wizard…

The brave prince, who had dodged hundreds of silver needles, could not escape the wizard’s dark curse. He fell into a deep, hundred-year slumber… Ah, finally…

The wizard, pinned under the prince’s body and unable to move, smiled triumphantly…

Ding!

…But then?

At that very moment…

Ding!

Ding!

Ding-a-ling!

The wizard’s eyes darted around in surprise. Beyond the prince’s shoulder, beyond the trees surrounding the mirror pond, beyond the Forbidden Forest, toward the small kingdom where the prince had spent his entire life… far, far into the distance.

Ding!

Ding-a-ling!

Ding!

The prince’s eyelids, which had been drooping with drowsiness, snapped open. The loud noise echoing through the world must have chased away the approaching sleep. The prince also turned his head, gazing far, far into the distance, toward his kingdom.

Ding-a-ling!

Ding!

Yes, everyone… it was the sound of bells.

Yes! Bells! Don’t you know what bells are? Bells! The kind of bells that made Cinderella leave her glass slipper behind as she ran down the stairs¹!

Midnight! Twelve o’clock! No, zero o’clock! The moment when one day ends and a new one begins! Those bells! Bells, I tell you! Damn it!

Which came first—the first toll of the bell or the moment the wizard’s feather pen scratched the prince’s cheek?

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

The bell tolled twelve times. The prince slowly turned his head toward the wizard. The wizard also slowly shifted his gaze to the prince. Their eyes met. The wizard looked at the prince with a face that still clung to a thread of hope. But the prince…

The prince’s swamp-green eyes showed not a trace of drowsiness.

Which came first—the first toll of the bell or the moment the wizard’s feather pen scratched the prince’s cheek? Yes, the answer to that question is now clear.

The prince’s birthday had passed.

The prince had safely reached his twenty-seventh birthday.

The prince had escaped the touch of the evil curse.

Rejoice, rejoice!

Be glad, be glad!

…

…

…

The wizard was sad. Tears welled up in his eyes, making it hard to see the prince’s face right in front of him. But he could still make out the wound he had left—the thin, long streak of black ink on the prince’s cheek.

A sob escaped him.

“Your Highness… Your Highness…”

Crying like a child, the wizard reached out to the prince’s cheek. He rubbed at the black ink streak with his fingers, trying to erase it, and gently touched the red scratch.

Though the pain of failing to put the prince to sleep was great, the wizard seemed even more heartbroken by the wound he had inflicted on the prince.

…

…

…Yes, that’s right. It’s strange.

…

The prince let the wizard touch his cheek for a while. Now that he had safely passed his birthday, the prince had nothing left to fear. The wizard’s feather pen, the hundreds of needles, nothing in this world could put the prince into a hundred-year slumber.

The silver moon at the top of the forest watched over the prince and the wizard.

The cold moonlight, like frozen metal, flowed down the prince’s raven-black hair and soaked the wizard’s fingers.

Soon, the moon would set.

Then true night would fall.

A night without the sun or the moon, a night with no light in the sky, a truly pitch-black night.

What kind of night would it be?

The first night the prince would face without falling asleep. The night when the prince’s fate, repeated tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times—every time you, your children, or your parents opened and closed the pages of a book—would finally break free from its orbit.

What kind of night would it truly be?

I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. From now on, this story is beyond my control. There’s nothing I can predict or control. All I can do is observe and follow the prince’s choices from the outside.

Huh?

Am I crying?

Haha…

“No way. Why would this storyteller cry while telling a story? You must be joking. You’re all so… mischievous.”

“Why are you crying?”

……

……

……

The Prince asked the wizard.

Like someone who had been slapped hard across the face, the wizard hunched his shoulders. He withdrew his hand, which had been caressing the Prince’s cheek. Then he buried his face in his palms. The dull, tattered sleeves of his robe completely covered his weeping face.

But the sound of his crying—the sorrowful sobs escaping through his tightly clenched teeth—could not be hidden. Ashamed, the wizard hunched his shoulders even more.

It was then.

Despite all the commotion, the Prince’s white horse, which had been circling the mirror-like lake without fleeing, pricked its ears and suddenly neighed.

As if in response, the sound of hooves came from the east side of the forest. It was the sound of someone galloping relentlessly toward them, pushing through the thorny bushes that blocked the path like a barrier.

The wizard’s sobs subsided. He wiped his tear-streaked cheeks with the ragged ends of his sleeves and turned his head toward the direction of the hoofbeats. The Prince, too, momentarily shifted his attention in that direction.

Before long, a sturdy black-maned gray horse emerged, carrying its rider.

Ah, it was a girl with fiery red hair and golden eyes like a lion’s heart.

A girl as beautiful and dignified as a Valkyrie from the distant northern lands. Her slightly sun-kissed skin complemented her lush red hair perfectly.

“Whoa, whoa.”

The girl pulled on the reins to stop her horse. Then she looked down at the two men lying on the ground in an awkward position. A look of confusion crossed her face.

“Uh, um, excuse me… gentlemen?”

The girl spoke politely.

“I’m terribly sorry to bother you in the middle of your… business, but…”

Huh?

…They weren’t busy at all!

What kind of misunderstanding was this? But you, dear readers, know the truth, don’t you? The Prince and the wizard were not busy at all!

“If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask you something?”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

The Prince replied. The girl looked at him, tilting her head as if she felt a sense of déjà vu.

“I think I’ve lost my way. I’m on a journey to find the Prince who has fallen into a hundred-year slumber due to a wicked curse. I’m here to wake him up. But this forest is so vast, and it’s hard to find my way. I feel like I’ve been going in circles for a while now… Which way should I go to reach the Prince’s castle? Do you know?”

The Prince furrowed his brow.

The wizard also frowned.

The Prince and the wizard exchanged glances, their faces twisted in discomfort. A long, awkward silence followed.

The Princess, waiting for an answer, also furrowed her brow.

“Gentlemen?”

The Princess urged impatiently. But the silence persisted…

Oh, this is awkward.

……

……

……

“Excuse me! Which way should I go?”

Unable to hold back any longer, the Princess raised her voice slightly. At that moment, a sharp, nervous laugh burst from the wizard’s mouth. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha! The mirror-like surface of the lake rippled faintly from the wizard’s laughter.

With a look of suspicion that this might be a madman, the Princess calmed her startled horse, which had taken a step back.

After a long laugh, the wizard shouted hoarsely:

“You’re too early, Princess!”

“What?”

“You should’ve come a hundred years later!”

…That’s right. It seems she arrived a hundred years too early.

Even if the Prince had fallen asleep on time, the Princess’s appearance is a hundred years premature! What does this mean?

Do you know, dear readers?

Yes, that’s right… It means exactly what it sounds like.

The story has twisted. The Prince, remembering his past life, stubbornly refusing to sleep, wielding a shining white sword—all of these were just precursors.

Somewhere beyond our knowledge, the story was collapsing. Cracks were forming in the world, and time and space were twisting like a pretzel. If this continues…

Ah, ah…

Something even more terrible will happen.

Through the cracks in the world, something truly horrifying will pour in. The world will be destroyed!

This is no laughing matter.

The destruction of this world means you will never again be able to read countless stories, countless books. No matter how much you rewrite and revise, the stories will lose their purpose and drift aimlessly. Characters will say and do things that don’t align with their personalities or goals! Scenes will fall apart without coherence! Things that belong in one story will suddenly appear in another! Sentences and words will break off midway! Would you want to read such a disordered, nonsensical story? No, could such a thing even be called a story?

Damn it, if this continues…

The wizard abruptly stopped laughing. Then he bit his lower lip so hard it nearly bled.

There must be a way…

A way…

The wizard’s bloodshot eyes, red from crying, turned to the Prince’s sword.

…There is a way.

Just one.

“Ah!”

The Princess let out a sharp scream. Her gray horse suddenly reared up, kicking its front legs wildly. The Princess pulled on the reins and stroked its mane, trying to calm it, but it was no use. As if tied by invisible strings around its neck and legs, the gray horse thrashed about madly. The Princess couldn’t hold on and tumbled off the saddle.

“Fafnir! Come back!”

It seemed the Princess’s gray horse was named Fafnir.

Ignoring its owner’s desperate cries, Fafnir bolted into the dark forest like its tail was on fire.

The Princess stared blankly in the direction the horse had disappeared.

It was then.

A sound of something collapsing shook the forest.

A terrifying roar.

It was like the sound of an ancient stone tower, built to reach the heavens, crumbling. Like a lightning bolt striking a sharp spire. Like a long-dormant volcano erupting. Or perhaps all of these combined.

The wizard, lying flat on his back, was the first among the three to sense the anomaly.

“Prince! It’s dangerous!”

He screamed as he called out to the Prince, grabbing him and pulling him close. In the chaos, the Prince also clung to the wizard, and they rolled several times.

The ground rumbled violently. Then, the spot where the Prince and the wizard had just been split open with a crack, and the solid earth collapsed into a deep, gaping hole. They had almost been swallowed into it.

“What… is this?”

The Prince muttered in disbelief. But soon, he stood up with a determined expression.

 It was because of the screams.

The screams coming from outside the forest, in the direction of the Kingdom. The small, peaceful Kingdom—the Prince’s homeland, where the King and Queen resided, where knights and citizens lived—was now echoing with the desperate cries of its people.

“Prince! Prince! You mustn’t go! It’s dangerous!”

The wizard shouted, but the Prince, gripping his sword, leaped onto his horse’s saddle. Unlike the Princess’s Fafnir, the Prince’s white horse didn’t flee. In fact, it would’ve been better if it had! As the Prince tugged the reins and clicked his tongue, the horse, as if it had been waiting for this moment, began galloping toward the Kingdom.

“Whoa, whoa…”

The Princess, too, had somehow managed to retrieve Fafnir, who had fled into the depths of the forest.

“Is it that way? Is that the Kingdom I’m looking for?”

The Princess asked this, but without giving the wizard a chance to answer, she spurred her horse and dashed off. Left alone, the wizard stomped his feet in frustration before breaking into a run in the direction where the Prince and Princess had disappeared.

Haha, well, what else could he do? He had to run.

He had no horse to ride, so what choice did he have? They didn’t even offer him a ride—how heartless…

Yes, and so… the wizard ran.

He ran desperately, gasping for breath, stumbling over jagged rocks until his toenails bled, until his knees trembled, until his lungs felt like they were about to burst.

With his face red as a boiled octopus, the wizard finally reached the edge of the forest, the border of the Kingdom.

And there, he saw it.

A scene straight out of hell.

You might ask, do the concepts of heaven and hell exist in this story’s world? …Who asked that? Where are you sitting? Raise your hand! No, I’m not trying to pick on you. Haha, it’s a sharp question. Does this world even have a unified mythology as its foundation? Does it have meaningful culture or religion? Is the political structure of the so-called Kingdom as disorganized and haphazard as it seems? What about the geography, the climate, the clothing of the people? These are all meaningful questions. They’re worth thinking about.

But let’s save that discussion for another time.

Right now, yes, right now… what the wizard is witnessing is far more important.

The world full of gaping holes.

Can you imagine your world filled with pitch-black holes? Holes puncturing the blue sky, holes opening up right next to where you stand, or even beside your face. Holes appearing out of thin air, vast voids with no walls or floors.

……

……

……

……

……

The scene was like a vision of hell.

If the end of the world were to come, it would look like this. The black sky, with the round moon hanging like a silver plate, was crisscrossed with white cracks. The wizard lifted his head and gazed at the night sky, riddled with fissures. At that moment, one of the cracks split open with a loud crack, and a piece of the night sky began to fall toward the people below. It was like an ancient castle wall, crumbling after thousands of years.

At first, it was small, the size of a pebble, but as it neared the ground, it grew to an unimaginable size. Yes, the distance between the sky and the earth is vast. People screamed and scrambled to get out of the way. But how could humans possibly gauge the size of a falling piece of the sky? It was far larger and wider than anyone could have imagined.

“Save me!”

“Ahhh!”

“Damn it, what is this!”

“Run…!”

The cries of those who couldn’t escape in time were crushed beneath the falling piece of the sky, shattered into fragments. But even those who managed to avoid the falling sky couldn’t rest easy. From the black void left behind by the fallen piece, dark, writhing monsters began to pour out.

Creatures with no eyes, nose, or mouth, with no discernible front or back—no, could they even be called creatures? They were monsters, their forms vaguely resembling arms, legs, torsos, and heads. They blocked the path of the fleeing people, opening their maws wide… yes, they did have mouths… and began swallowing people whole.

“This way! Everyone, evacuate this way!”

Knights from the palace had set up barricades near the moat. At the same time, they tried to guide the citizens to safety, armed with swords and shields.

“What is this! Damn it! It won’t die!”

But it was no use.

The mysterious black monsters didn’t fall even when struck by swords. Even when the knights formed a shield wall, it was futile. The monsters devoured not only people but also metal, wood, animals, houses, and even discarded trash. They swallowed everything that existed into the abyss of their stomachs. One poor knight swung his sword at a monster to save an old man who had been half-swallowed, but the monster simply gulped down the sword embedded in its body. The knight, struggling to pull out his sword, was sucked into the monster’s depths along with the old man…

The wizard, who had emerged from the forest, stood frozen in place, watching it all. The scenes of this small world’s destruction were etched into his eyes.

“Hel… help…”

A boy trapped under the rubble of a collapsed roof reached out toward the wizard. He looked to be about thirteen or fourteen, with messy brown hair and thin limbs. A monster was approaching the boy. The boy, paralyzed by terror, couldn’t even finish his plea for help. The sound of his chattering teeth drowned out his words.

The wizard simply stared at the boy. He stood rooted to the spot, unmoving.

The boy stretched out his trembling hand more desperately. His quivering fingers were pitiful to behold. The inky black monster drew closer. The boy opened his mouth wide, trying to scream, but no sound came out. Fear can paralyze a person.

The wizard shut his eyes tightly.

The monster swallowed the boy. The only mercy was that the monster had no teeth. The boy didn’t suffer the agony of having his limbs crushed or his body torn apart. He was simply gulped down into the monster’s black throat.

The wizard opened his eyes.

The monster that had devoured the boy was now right in front of him. It opened its maw wide, ready to swallow the wizard’s head whole.

The wizard peered into the monster’s throat.

There was nothing.

……Nothing at all.

It was like the voids puncturing the sky and earth. Beyond the monster’s throat, its stomach was an endless abyss.

The monster suddenly closed its mouth.

Then opened it again.

Closed it once more.

It was as if it wanted to swallow but couldn’t. Like trying to peel a prickly chestnut, the monster repeatedly opened and closed its maw above the wizard’s head. Then, seemingly disheartened, it turned away and left to find other prey.

“Prince…?”

The wizard muttered absently as he watched the monster’s retreating figure.

Of course, the Prince was there too.

In the heart of the collapsing world, at the center of this hellscape, where just an hour ago his small, peaceful Kingdom had stood.

When the Prince emerged from the Forbidden Forest and stood at the edge of the Kingdom, he was just as shocked as the wizard. The Princess, who had caught up to him, was also left speechless by the scene before her.

“…Is this really the Kingdom where the Prince who fell into a hundred-year slumber lives? What I heard from people… is very different from this. A place teeming with such… grotesque beasts… Is this truly…?”

The Princess, who had been unable to speak for a while, finally managed to stammer out her words.