The white bird sang into his ears.
Chirp chirp–!
It was the only source of light brightening up the dark workshop. He was scared his surroundings would turn dark if the bird was to fly away from him.
– Come here. Quick.
Despite him reaching out in an attempt to grab it, it slithered and slipped past his fingers… and continued flying away as if teasing him.
– Hey I can’t see anything. Come here. Come light everything up.
Moments after he thrashed his arms around, the white bird approached him and diligently flapped its wings. Staying in mid-air, it met his eyes.
This time when he reached his hands out, the bird quietly rested on his palms. Emanating with radiant light, the bird lifted the darkness and brightened up the world. As long as the white bird was with him, he didn’t have to worry about losing his path in this vast land of darkness.
Chirp chirp–♬
It sang yet again as he brought his face close to the bird; to his precious friend who gave him a new life.
Knowing his intention, the small bird rubbed its head on his cheeks.
Let’s live a good life this time, he pledged to himself.
“Let’s live a good life together.”
Chirp chirp–♬
He brought his lips to the forehead of the white bird.
It happened immediately after that. The world flipped into a brilliant one full of radiance. Even though there was no sign of darkness anywhere, the bloodstained white bird with half of its feathers gone was hurriedly flying to the distance.
Rather, it was closer to an escape. As it was urgently fluttering its wings, something white struck the bird and in a fright, the bird responded by flapping its wings even harder. It staggered but continued retaliating against the invisible force but the flows turned increasingly bigger before eventually clouding the bird.
He shouted. Run. Dodge it.
Fluttering wings, wobbling body, plucked feathers. Within that continuation of destruction, one of the white bird’s wings was suddenly grabbed from behind. It then rotated in an angle it shouldn’t.
He watched with eyes torn open.
.
.
.
That was the end of the illusion. He opened his eyes and realised he was still at the public trial.
Until now, Yu Jitae hadn’t been focusing on the trial.
In all honesty, he did not really feel anything no matter how someone was to reprimand him. It was true he had done bad things that were indeed worth being reproached.
Being called incompetent also failed at ringing his heart.
He was weak. In the 3rd iteration, he was weaker than the current Yeorum and in the 4th iteration, he was weaker than the current BM. Among the brightly shining talents of the world, it was true that Yu Jitae, who was the epitome of averageness, was incompetent.
A new fact he learned was that he had been selected based on his willpower. The strongest willpower within the entire humanity… for that to be the case, he thought he was quite weak-minded.
But regardless,
From some point in time,
Yu Jitae couldn’t help but be focused on the public trial. To be exact, it was when they started mentioning the Vintage Clock’s personality.
The reason for coming into this place was to find the personality of Vintage Clock. Even though using all the curse words in existence to swear at him was easy to disregard, mentioning the 30 second gap easily shook his heart.
At last when the 1st Judge’s memories seeped in;
[Hill of Stars] – at the place Yu Jitae had been to. When the blue star that the white bird used to rest on like a nest was replaced by a blurry darkness like other dead stars…
He felt something grabbing him by the collar, dragging him all the way down to the gutters of the abyss.
However, since there was not enough evidence, Yu Jitae waited despite what was going on. Even though his blood was boiling within, he could still control his impulse. It was based on the thought that there was no way it would ever die – Vintage Clock had never died among the countless iterations of life.
Thus, he waited.
Through the next question,
And the one after that,
He waited on and on.
Once, there was a time when he hated the bird. He thought it was on the same side as the one who had shoved him into the circulation of Providence.
However, Vintage Clock did not condemn him for thinking that. It was always sorry and tried to support him in any way possible.
The Vintage Clock was the only existence he could rely on. Even when the world returned in time and the whole world left him behind to disappear, the sole reason he could avoid being alone was because the Vintage Clock had always been with him.
It supported him whenever he was about to crumble from fatigue; it seeked him, supported him and was always willing to help.
He had to be with it even if he didn’t want to; and he could always rely on it in spite of his resentment.
So that was most probably affection; and attachment.
Thus, that guy dying was something Yu Jitae simply could not believe.
That was why he waited.
He waited for the clone to find an actual trace of the Vintage Clock…
***
The clock tower was tall.
“Ha, haak…”
Collecting his breath that threatened to escape through his chin, Clone 2 reached his arms out. The rugged trees and rocks pierced through his hands and legs as his body that was no different from a normal human’s cried out from pain.
More than anything, the biggest problem was that his hands were losing more and more power.
Slipp–!
The moment his hand slipped down, his other hand had to bear through a crazy amount of weight.
“Kuuk…!” Letting out a groan, Clone 2 looked down. The wide village now looked tiny after climbing hundreds of metres.
There was nothing to support his body and everything would be over the moment he fell. With a gulp, the clone clenched his teeth.
Blood seeping out of his cracked nails were flowing down his fingers, his hand and the wrist all the way down to his arm. That was in turn making his hand more slippery so the clone cursorily wiped the blood off with his clothes before pushing his body up again.
From time to time, there was a doubt budding in his mind.
Why am I doing this?
A Shadow of an Archduke pays infinite loyalty to their lord.
That was an unchanging fact.
But as an entity that could think by himself, the clone started to think that this strenuous effort he was putting in might not be stemming from such loyalty.
On a certain day after separating from Ha Saetbyul, Clone 2 had asked him one day. It was on whether it was possible to meet someone again after a separation or not.
This was his reply.
– How can you restrain hearts from walking away, when you can’t even control your own.
– Trying to selfishly hold other people back is greed.
There were a lot of encounters; a lot of relationships. Those were the words of a man who had to lose the deep and broad relationships forged through time again and again.
– But if you long for them, they sometimes come out in your dreams.
And that was why he did not go to sleep – it was in order to keep those longing memories buried and away from sight.
Clone 2 re-defined the reason behind his unbelievable desperation. Funnily enough, or perhaps insolently so, it was sympathy.
The clone was being sympathetic to Yu Jitae’s situation.
Clone 2 found him pitiful.
That was his impression from the very first moment of their encounter. It perhaps might be because of self-pity. Since Clone 2 was created based on the 1st iteration’s Yu Jitae, his sympathy might be a result of seeing his possible future self.
But whatever the case, Yu Jitae needed the Vintage Clock so the clone wanted to find the Vintage Clock as long as it was here.
That was why he was climbing the clock tower.
His arms were bursting. The ripped palms were shrieking from the constant pain while the shoulders and elbows were long disjointed, creaking with every movement.
Even so, Clone 2 pushed his hands forward, and used his legs to support his body for the climb.
At the end of such long and hard work, Clone 2 finally managed to reach the face of the clock.
There was a place to rest his feet but there was no time to rest, because his emotions were shaking fiendishly over time.
Mana was the manifestation of will, and a swaying will had an effect on the activated authority. The world interpreted by Conceptualisation was shaking and so was the entire scenery in his eyes.
Clone 2 therefore had to crawl. Stepping on the wooden structures on the face of the clock, he reached the hour hand that was pointing at 1 o’clock. It was so enormous that the hour hand alone was bigger than Clone 2’s body.
He wasn’t confident in moving this thing.
However, there were things in the world that simply had to be done. That was what the young Yu Jitae thought.
“Uhhkk, kkuhhggg!”
Using his entire body, he pushed but the heavy hour hand refused to move.
“Uggghhh! Ahhhhkkk—!”
Clone 2 persisted. He couldn’t stop just because it refused to be pushed – it had to be pushed no matter what.
His already disjointed shoulders ripped and cracked audibly. It was the result of his sheer mentality squeezing out more power than what his body could handle.
But even so, the hour hand did not move. His stifled breath clogged his throat and stole blood from his head but the hour hand still stubbornly refused to be pushed.
Stopping the push, Clone 2 had to feel his entire body feeling heavier like wet cotton.
“Fuck! Please just move!”
Frustration was embedded in his tears.
Pausing the push, Clone 2 resentfully glared at the enormous hour hand.
“Go! Just freaking move, you fuck!”
He swore but it was all in vain.
That was when the second hand located closely to the face of the clock came down scraping past him. The clone had to dodge it as a sudden thought flashed past his mind.
Hands of a clock only moved clockwise by nature. So wouldn’t there be a bigger limit in moving anti-clockwise? With that in mind, he changed positions and tried to push the hour hand clockwise but he still could not move it because of his insufficient weight.
The clone thought to himself.
The hour hand, minute hand and the second hand were all stuck right next to each other. Despite the immense size, there was little gap in between.
And the second hand was bigger than an average pillar of a building and it was bound to be tremendously heavy on top of that. The power source allowing something that heavy to move must be a remarkable one.
If that was the case,
Between the stopped hour hand and the moving second hand—
“…”
…If he inserted his body between them.
Immediately after thinking that, Clone 2 laid his body on top of the unmoving hour hand and straightened his body perpendicularly off the face of the clock.
It would most likely be impossible to withstand that enormous second hand with his arms, so he placed his waist at where the minute hand would go, clasped the hour hand with his upper body, waiting to resist the second hand with his lower body.
The minute hand would probably strike his waist in the middle.
He wasn’t sure whether this would work or not. A possible future of his body being crushed and broken to pieces appeared in his mind.
It was frightening.
Even though it was within a conceptual area, the pain in his fingertips was real. The uncomfortable sensation of dried blood and his coarse wrists cracking open like the barren wastelands was also real, so having his body cut in half would be as painful as death.
However, Clone 2 waited. He waited for the second hand to go a lap around towards himself.
Click–
Suddenly, the ticking sounds of the clock felt a lot louder than before.
30 seconds. With a clicking noise, the second hand passed mid-way and started climbing up again.
45 seconds. With another click, he could soon see the rising second hand with his eyes.
50 seconds. Click–. The second hand was in full sight. With every passing second, it drew near.
0 seconds. Click–! The second hand was right in front of him.
And soon,
The second hand approached him
Click–!
Thuudddd! The moment it landed on his body, Clone 2 almost fainted immediately.
The large pillar came down smushing his lower body. The shock was so immense that it emptied his mind. He didn’t even have the leftover strength to discern what was happening to himself.
But time was heartless. With another passing second, the second hand came further down moving the hour hand alongside it. There was less restriction in a clockwise movement as the clone thought.
The clone withstood it with his whole body. For the whole 60 seconds. His shoulders, his waist and ribs echoed with noisy cracks that were unbelievable to be from his own body.
However, he endured it.
He had to bear through it.
Even if his body were to crumble,
Even if he were to die here.
Everything was for Yu Jitae who had suffered for far too long. It was not some cheap sympathy – for the clone, this was his mission.
Another colossal impact struck his waist – it was the minute hand striking his body. His entire body quivered but fortunately, it remained in one piece.
Each second felt like a century.
While his body was slowly crumbling to pieces, the second hand did not rest and continued pushing Clone 2 as well as the minute and the hour hand.
Like that,
At last when the hour hand reached 12 o’clock.
– Diiiiiiinngggg—!
The clock tower began to cry aloud.
Alongside an enormous sound wave, it quaked the world.
The clock vibrated as the second hand paused for a very split moment. Clone 2 who had been keeping track of the time with his acute senses successfully left the gap in that split second.
However, this was not the end of his role.
This vintage clock with an alarm system had a unique feature. The large firmly-shut double doors above the face of the clock were pushed wide open as some mechanical device bursted out from within.
This world was a world interpreted by [Conceptualisation (SS)]. There had to be something Yu Jitae was familiar with and Yu Jitae was a human living on Earth.
Therefore, there had to be a wooden cuckoo coming out and crying at this given time, but the large nest coming out of the doors was empty.
There was no cuckoo inside.
Carrying his broken body, Clone 2 pushed himself forward using his arms and legs that refused to move properly to climb the face of the clock. He didn’t even know how he was able to move at this point.
Even so he climbed up, and the moment he approached the empty nest of the cuckoo–
“Ahh……”
Clone 2 devastatingly crumbled to his knees.
Resting on the nest was a white bird.
“N, no… No…”
Still and breathless.