**#332. Side Story 2. The Girl in the Marble (8)**
—
“Is someone there?”
The voice belonged to Noah.
Curiosa, worried that Noah might just pass by, answered urgently.
“Here! I’m here! There’s someone here!”
“Unni? Don’t tell me you followed me in? But why…?”
“W-Well, I had business in this labyrinth too!”
To be exact, I had business with *you*.
Because you’re the one holding everything of mine.
There was a moment of silence on the other side of the wall.
Then, with a sigh, the voice spoke again.
“Phew… There aren’t any monsters, but the structure is so complicated you could get lost forever. Let’s meet up first!”
Rustle, rustle.
There was a sound of something being unfolded.
“I’ve gone in and out of this labyrinth a few times, so I’ve drawn a map. It only covers a small portion of the entire maze, but if we keep talking as we move, we should be able to meet up.”
Mapmaking.
It was a skill any respectable explorer had to learn, since whether or not you had a map could greatly impact the safety and success of an expedition.
*A map, huh? That’s pretty serious. This is too detailed to be just a byproduct of my current traits.*
Curiosa silently admired it.
“Did that oppa come with you too?”
“Oppa?”
“The white-haired one.”
“Oh, yeah, he came with me.”
“Then he probably dropped in at a different entry point. This is a place you can’t escape without expert help… that’s bad.”
After a moment’s thought, Curiosa replied.
“He’ll probably be fine.”
“He’s your companion, and you’re not worried?”
Worried? Me? About that brat?
She tried recalling his face for a moment…
Not even a little worried!
That kid could be tossed into a volcanic crater and still climb back up saying something like, “It was a little warm, but otherwise fine.”
*I’ve got my own problems. Why would I worry about someone else?*
That was Curiosa’s honest thought.
The girl from the past and the woman from the future began moving with the goal of meeting.
“If you’re where I think you are, there should be a corner ahead. Turn right there!”
“Oh, I see it. Got it.”
Moving wasn’t too difficult.
Though the maze’s structure sometimes made them drift apart, they kept drawing close again, using their voices and the map as signposts.
Whenever a long corridor appeared and Noah paused her directions, Curiosa filled the silence through the wall with questions left unasked in the cabin.
“Are you on good terms with your brother?”
“My brother? Hmm, umm, well…”
And so, the movement continued for several hours.
In truth, the greatest threat to labyrinth explorers wasn’t terrifying monsters or deadly traps.
It was loneliness.
An emotion innate to humans—one that only grew more intense the more it was dwelled on.
Prolonged time in enclosed spaces bred solitude that could crush even seasoned explorers’ minds.
Just like a hideous mint-chocolate cookie crumbling helplessly in Curiosa’s hand.
Powerlessly, so very powerlessly.
In that regard, a mirror maze—with reflections everywhere and even orientation hard to maintain—was a perfect torture device for the mind.
And again, in that regard—
“We used to fight a lot. Constantly arguing over food, teasing, hitting each other.”
“Right, right. Siblings are the ultimate nemesis.”
Their conversation had a positive effect on them both.
Between the girl and the woman, there was no room for loneliness to wedge in.
“But still, when I look at him, my heart aches. He’s my only family in this world. I have to look after him. Who else would?”
I really did care for my brother back then.
Curiosa realized that point was one thing she and her past self still had in common.
Then suddenly, she noticed.
*Huh…?*
The hazy reflection of Noah in the mirror had grown startlingly clear at some point.
Curiosa was taken aback.
And so was the Noah in the mirror—her reaction confirming again that the figure currently reflected was none other than Curiosa herself.
Why had the image become clear?
What had changed from before to now?
*Compared to when I first entered the labyrinth…*
There was one obvious difference.
She had spoken much more with Noah.
And with each conversation, she had become more convinced that the “real me” wasn’t the current Curiosa but the past Noah.
That was the only possible reason she could think of.
“…Unni? You’re still alive and breathing in there, right?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”
Worried by the silence, Noah’s voice came again through the wall.
The jolt brought Curiosa back to her senses—and raised a question.
Why hadn’t she asked this earlier?
“Does your mirror show anything right now?”
“What it shows? Well, it’s a mirror, so of course it shows me! Although it’s a tiny bit different from my real self.”
Her heart began to race.
Curiosa pressed on.
“Different how? In what way?”
“It’s me, but cooler!”
“Specifically?”
“Um, just cooler!”
“No, seriously.”
“When I look at it, I’m amazed!”
Noah’s description was truly catastrophic.
Based on her words—and Curiosa’s own grown-up intuition, honed through countless conversations with the white-haired brat—she could now visualize the image in the mirror.
It was a girl explorer.
Equipped with more professional gear, skin sunburnt and scarred, looking like a much more seasoned veteran.
“I’ve thought a lot about it. Why does the me in the mirror look different? Is the mirror just twisting my image for fun? Trying to confuse people?”
“…”
“I had a lot of theories, but in the end, they all led to one thought. Maybe the reflection is how *I* see *myself*.”
Curiosa felt queasy.
Noah’s words matched the very thought that had just been going through her own mind.
*Exactly what I was thinking.*
Maybe Noah was more than just a reflection of her past self—maybe she was actually representing her *present* self.
Just like she had been acting as an explorer in a familiar cabin.
That made Curiosa angry.
“I’ve dreamed of being an explorer since I was little.”
No. That can’t be.
That should *never* be true.
Being an explorer was a job forced onto her by the doctor—a construct of the *false me*.
The words *“I dreamed of being an explorer”* should *never* come out of Noah’s mouth.
“Your dream wasn’t to be an explorer.”
“…Huh?”
“You must’ve dreamed of something else.”
“My dream was to be an explorer.”
“Don’t lie.”
“No, really. I never wanted to be anything else—”
“I said it *wasn’t*!—!”
The room rang with her voice.
As Curiosa stood there breathing heavily, realization hit her.
An awkward silence followed.
Then came a reply.
“I don’t know why you’re acting like this… but it really hurts when someone talks about my dream like that.”
“I-I didn’t mean to—”
Unfortunately, there was no time to explain.
The floor and walls began rotating, changing the labyrinth’s structure.
**RUMBLE—! THUD!**
The change stopped.
“Noah? Noah! Damn it!”
She must have been moved somewhere far away. Noah’s voice could no longer be heard from the other side.
Curiosa was left in hollow silence.
“I didn’t mean to upset her…”
“But it seems like you did.”
“…Huh? That voice…”
The brat?
Curiosa approached the mirror at the end of the corridor and tapped it with her finger.
*Tap, tap.*
“You there?”
“Yeah. I’m on the other side.”
It seemed that the structural shift had brought them back into contact.
“Hearing your voice fine means I really didn’t need to worry, huh. But what do you mean, it *seems like* I meant to upset her?”
“I caught the last part of your conversation. I was nearby.”
Ray added:
He had seen the emotions reflected in Curiosa through the mirror wall.
The emotions she held had been clear anger—undeniably directed at Noah, with the intention to provoke her.
“No, I didn’t mean…”
“Emotions don’t lie.”
“…”
Curiosa fell silent.
She couldn’t argue.
The ability to *see* emotions.
Perhaps this kid could read a person’s emotions better than the person themselves.
“And Noah wasn’t lying either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That her original dream really was to be an explorer. She wasn’t lying.”
“What would *you* know?”
Curiosa snapped again.
Her voice was sharp, but Ray remained unfazed.
He simply paused a moment, organizing his thoughts, and then spoke again.
“Curiosa, this place is made from a fusion of your past and present memories. I can’t draw a clear boundary on which parts come from which time.”
“…”
“But one thing’s certain. You and Noah share the same kind of emotion.”
The emotion Ray referred to was a soft lavender: curiosity and inquisitiveness.
“No, that can’t be…”
“You’ve always been full of curiosity since childhood. The doctor’s curse just amplified it unnaturally.”
At that moment, the labyrinth began changing structure again.
**RUMBLE—!**
“What are you talking about—!”
“You haven’t changed at all.”
Ray’s voice quickly faded before she could ask any questions.
**THUD!**
The transformation ended.
A heavy silence settled in.
*I haven’t changed?*
Ray’s voice echoed like a lingering thought.
Left alone, Curiosa stood still for a long time.
Then she started walking.
She needed to move—anything to release the heat building in her head.
That curiosity was originally Noah’s emotion?
That it had only been amplified by the doctor’s curse?
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.
If that kid were in front of her now, she would stretch his cheeks and ask what the hell he meant.
**Tap, tap, tap—**
Curiosa walked without end.
She had no destination.
Like someone deep in thought, she wandered aimlessly through the labyrinth, walking for the sake of walking.
Minutes passed.
Tens of minutes.
Hours.
And over that time…
Her resistance to Ray’s words slowly wore down.
> *“You and Noah share the same kind of emotion.”*
“…”
*Tap.*
Her steps stopped.
Curiosa had to admit it.
She had understood his words—but had been pretending not to.
*If what the brat said is really true…*
Then Noah’s act of being an explorer wasn’t just a product of her current traits.
It meant Noah had always been curious—had always dreamed of becoming an explorer.
“…This is insane. Curiosity was always something I had…?”
Curiosa let out a hollow laugh.
