A Flag Named Bran

[R: Bran was a kind of flag.]

You can imagine a scene like that.

It may be somewhat old-fashioned, but when a flag is raised and begins to flutter, certain things begin.

A sports match.

Or perhaps a war.

For example, a signal.

That something is about to start.

[R: In a ruined world, there had never been such a tall, solid, and perfect building. Only after receiving the preliminary invitation and stepping into ‘Bran’ did the candidates truly realize their own situation.]

[R: And that this place was, in a sense, another world, and that the one who invited them was truly a being different from themselves.]

Now that I think about it, even in WWC, the opening showed the exterior of Bran.

A towering white fortress built of pale bricks, and white walls stretching so far that their ends could not be seen.

And that was all.

The interior of Bran barely appeared in the game.

Because the quests themselves took place outside.

“Why that expression?”

Caliban asked.

“If you’re human, step aside. If you’re a ghost, state your name.”

He was hanging upside down from the ceiling of an arched doorway I was about to pass through.

“Hahaha, I’m neither.”

“Then get hit.”

I was about to smack his forehead—then paused.

“You’re hanging upside down. Why isn’t your hood falling off?”

Is it made of steel?

“That’s because it’s an illusion.”

With a pop, Caliban appeared beside me and casually draped an arm over my shoulder.

“Really now, why the long face, my dear? You said you were bored, so we came outside the greenhouse.”

“What’s wrong with my expression?”

More importantly, doesn’t his back hurt?

“Hahaha, of course it hurts. You’re so petite, my dear. What am I to do?”

“Have you considered that the problem might be you being nearly two meters tall? If you’re going to complain, take your arm—”

I stopped mid-anger.

He had read my expression again.

Caliban shrugged.

“What can I do? Your expressions are all similar. Are you scolding me for being perceptive? How cruel, my dear.”

I really should stop associating with this bastard.

“Enough. Take your arm off.”

“I can’t. I’m sharing body warmth with my poor, heartbroken roommate. Hahaha.”

The fact that I had just decided to cut ties became meaningless, as a curse nearly burst out of me.

Right before that, Caliban spoke first.

“So it really was there?”

“Hm?”

“That’s the kind of expression you had, my dear.”

“Ah.”

So that was it.

“Seems like the edited game version you made didn’t show Bran’s interior?”

“Well, it barely did.”

At most, in the beginning, maybe the hall or the dormitory.

Even then, the dormitory, though within Bran’s outer walls, was a detached building, so calling it truly inside Bran would be inaccurate.

“There was lore about various facilities, sure. But I never actually saw them.”

And besides.

“After the territorial war starts, there’s no narrative reason to show it anyway.”

“Hahaha, true enough.”

All the main characters were preliminary candidates, and the only resident of Bran—

No, the only non-human—was Caliban.

“…….”

So I must have unconsciously thought of it as an ‘unimplemented’ area.

“But it was there.”

That’s what surprised me.

“Of course it was.”

The illusion of Caliban hanging upside down shattered into colorful fragments of light and scattered.

Carried by the air, they looked like butterflies from afar.

“You just never paid attention. It was always there. Here. And there.”

I narrowed my eyes and turned to the side.

The Caliban with his arm over my shoulder had also shattered and flown away.

So that was an illusion too.

“It’s easy to think something doesn’t exist if you don’t see it.”

Despite that, his voice continued.

I followed it like a compass.

“It’s always here. And there.”

Listening to him, I looked around.

Bran’s interior, seen for the first time, was strange.

In many ways.

Should I call this a ruin?

A relic?

Or something else?

From the outside, it was hard to imagine, but the inside of Bran resembled a large shopping mall.

Or maybe a residential complex.

Wide corridors, and smaller spaces lining both sides.

Whether they were truly shops or apartments, I could not tell.

I examined the displayed objects, wondering if I could identify their purpose, but everything was frozen white and shattered beyond recognition.

I absently rubbed my arm.

It was not as cold as outside, of course, but seeing frost and icicles tangled everywhere made me feel……

Eventually, I reached a large, round hall that seemed like a lounge.

“Hello, my dear.”

Caliban suddenly appeared before me without a sound.

“Welcome. I welcome you.”

He bowed exaggeratedly, one hand over his abdomen, bending deeply at the waist.

I snorted, of course.

Seeing him like that washed away the strange mood from earlier.

“You can never be serious.”

I looked around again and frowned.

“Is it mostly like this?”

“Haha, similar enough.”

Hearing that, I understood why the dormitory had been detached.

And why Caliban had mostly stayed in the greenhouse.

“If it’s all like this, you can’t really use it for anything.”

“Correct.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

“Haha, what would be difficult about that?”

The answer came lightly.

Well, for a grand mage like him, this would be trivial.

And yet he left Bran like this.

“You were too lazy. How slothful.”

“Hahaha, isn’t this nostalgia in its own way?”

“Say that somewhere else and you’d get smacked instantly.”

I approached something that resembled a window and looked outside.

It was nothing but pure white.

Just like in the corridor before.

“What are you looking at, my dear? Was there something you wanted to see?”

Without thinking much, I replied.

“I thought it wasn’t winter here.”

“Ah.”

“Outside the game—where I used to live—it’s winter now. Record-breaking cold, they said. It snowed heavily. Within hours, so much snow fell that both cars and people could barely go outside.”

At that point, I tried to recall the memory.

Was that how it was?

“Haha, so that’s why you stayed home.”

“Well, if you go out, all you see is snow. It’s boring. Building snowmen and shaping snow ducks is fun for a day or two.”

“What a pity. It’s similar here.”

“Right. It’s the same here, so it’s boring.”

Blizzards everywhere.

Every landscape covered in white snow.

As if the world had been buried and preserved beneath falling snow.

“I want to see spring.”

If it was all similar, there was no need to explore further.

I leaned against a cold wall and cast my gaze forward.

A long white corridor stretching ahead.

Icicles hanging in rows.

Above, a transparent glass ceiling.

Now showing nothing but a white blizzard……

“…? Why?”

Caliban had come right in front of me and was looking down quietly.

I turned my gaze to him and asked.

“Going to make a ver.Spring edited file for me?”

“Haha, that’s difficult, my dear. An edited version is about rearranging what originally existed like a puzzle. It’s not about creating what never was.”

“That was a long way to say no. Then…….”

I was about to suggest returning to the greenhouse when I stopped.

“Caliban?”

He was gone again.

I looked around for a long while before spotting him far away, nowhere near where he had just stood.

“What? Where are you going?”

Reflexively, I chased after him.

“Caliban!”

In the white, frozen ruin, only my footsteps echoed sharply.

Tak. Tak. Tak-tak-tak-tak. Tak-tak-tak.

“…….”

Only my footsteps.

“Caliban.”

Realizing that, I stopped chasing him.

Playing tricks again.

That bastard can never be serious for even a moment……

“Hey, if you keep messing around with illusions, I’ll just go back to the greenhouse alone—”

I was about to say that.

Receiving no clever reply again, I shuddered and turned around.

I intended to retrace my steps.

“…….”

The path was easy to recognize.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Red.

Blue.

White.

Light spread across the ruin once filled only with frost and ice.

Color bloomed.

Red petals carpeting the gray floor like a rug.

Green vines climbing cracked pillars.

Blue light spreading wide like stars.

In the brief instant I turned my head and looked back, the ruin transformed into something like a jewel box.

The mage cloaked head to toe in a robe stood there, arms open wide, smiling at me.

“How about this.”

His face remained hidden beneath the robe.

He stepped forward.

Neither slow nor fast, I followed him.

That is the usual pace of someone enchanted by something.

With each of Caliban’s steps, color bloomed.

As if dancing.

As if gliding.

At the silent, lighthearted end of every step.

“Jewels?”

I had thought they were flowers, but soon realized they were not.

When touched by my foot, they made a hard cracking sound.

Glittering fragments.

“Fake.”

Caliban answered readily.

“I can’t bring true spring. I’m not a god.”

I looked up at the walls and ceiling as he spoke.

Jewel vines winding upward.

A golden net spread across the glass ceiling.

‘So that’s how he made the greenhouse.’

“At best, a fake spring. Yes. This is all I can give you.”

Without looking at him, I replied.

“Figures.”

It was certainly not spring.

The air was still far from warm.

‘The frost remains.’

But unlike before, the frost now resembled embroidery sewn with silver thread.

“It’s okay. This is enough.”

Looking down at my feet, color bloomed beneath them as well.

It was beautiful.

“It’s truly enough.”

Like someone stepping onto untouched snow, I kept walking.

Color bloomed.

And bloomed again.

Again.

And always.

Continuously.

“I’m happy.”

It was not a lie.

In that moment, I felt slightly elated, like a child.

A rare occurrence.

Sometimes, even knowing something is fiction, it can immerse you more deeply than nonfiction.

You marvel.

You rejoice.

You love.

‘Maybe I should retract what I said about how he seduced so many non-humans. If he shows something like this, anyone would…….’

For a brief instant, a strangely cold thought brushed across my chest.

But I soon forgot it.

Sometimes, it is better not to think too deeply.