Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 4: Wonderland-3

The news of the new White Rabbit slowly spread throughout Wonderland. Some trembled in fear of the new adversary, some wagged their tongues at Heart, who had put his trust in an unknown force, and some were hoping to steal the same stolen position.

The rumor’s focal point, SoYoon, was sleeping in the home of the previous White Rabbit. She slept until noon and woke up to find her suit wrinkled. She threw the suit onto the bed and went inside the bathroom. It was sparse, but there was a place to take a shower. SoYoon turned the shower lever. Water red with rust flowed out.

Wonderland had a public bathhouse type of area. As she searched her memory, the water turned clear. She washed herself with the water that still smelled of rust. It was cold, but she was glad that it had come out at all.

There was no towel, so she dried herself off with her shirt and went into the dressing room. “Staff Room” was written on a placard nailed to the door. The interior was filled with the previous White Rabbit’s clothes. She chose a loose t-shirt, cargo pants, and a unisex-style cardigan. She strapped on a belt to prevent the large pants from falling down. Underwear and pants—SoYoon made a mental list of the things she needed to buy.

Somebody knocked at the door.

Knock, knock. Bang, bang, bang. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

The strong pounding made the glass door shake. Outside, a man was mumbling in annoyance.

“Oh, come on. If the door is open, at least tell me it’s open.”

The man opened the door and came inside. It was Heart’s minion, who had escorted SoYoon to the house. Finding SoYoon in the dressing room, he scowled at her and exclaimed, “How could you still be getting dressed when he’s called for you?! Hurry up!”

“Called me?”

SoYoon’s hearing was exceptional. There was no way she wouldn’t have heard someone calling for her. Realizing that she didn’t know what he was talking about, the man started to get angry.

“The cell phone! I gave it to you! The one that the previous White Rabbit used! Look! It’s right here!”

The man grabbed the black item that SoYoon had tossed onto the table. It was the size of her hand and looked like the receiver of a landline with a keyboard attached.

“This is a cell phone?”

“What the—? It’s turned off. This is rare, so you must not have known…”

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“That piece of junk?”

The man was right. Even the government agents had similarly designed cell phones. But SoYoon had only seen these agents while out on missions. During missions, they swapped their phones for walkie-talkies, so this was actually the first time SoYoon had seen a cell phone.

The man, seeing SoYoon so confused, smirked as if he understood something. “Oh. Are you trying to assert your power here because you came from the Outhouse? I’m sorry, but I’m not falling for that.”

Outhouse. This was what the residents of Wonderland called the world outside its borders. It was obvious that he was trying to assert his dominance by using a term that only someone who lived in Wonderland would know.

“You’re the one trying to assert dominance. Quit making a fuss about something you would see in a museum and get to the point.”

At SoYoon’s icy tone, the man shut his mouth. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

“The point.”

“…Heart is calling you,” the man answered. “It has something to do with White Rabbit’s business, and he needs you to know about it.”

SoYoon stepped outside wearing the previous White Rabbit’s black mask and sword. “Lead the way.”

Ten minutes away from the previous White Rabbit’s house was Heart’s house. Heart’s house was a four-story mansion. Men in suits circled the exterior, and SoYoon couldn’t help but get the feeling she was watching a scene from a mafia movie.

The man led SoYoon into Heart’s office. Heart was sitting behind a desk reading documents when SoYoon walked in. He smiled.

“I realized this when the race started, but are you full of yourself or just plain stupid?”

Was it this world’s norm to be confrontational the moment a person saw another?

SoYoon slumped onto the sofa without answering. Heart stood up.

“You see, I don’t hate arrogant people or stupid people. But…”

SoYoon’s white hair fluttered due to an unexpected wind. At the same time, she pulled out the knife she had hidden and stabbed the back of the sofa. Heart’s leg—which had been aiming for her head—stopped in midair as the knife barely missed him. Then he laughed maniacally.

“If you think you can get away with being cocky just because of your exceptional skills, you have another thing coming. If you get on my nerves, I don’t care what happened at the Caucus Race. I’m going to chop off your arms and legs and sell you off to a brothel.”

“Cocky? Who?” Questioning Heart, SoYoon played back the conversation she’d had with the man who’d tried to hit her.

The cell phone. He had called her. What was so important about that clunky piece of junk?

The black mask that pulled up to the rim of her nose not only blocked her mouth but a majority of her face, so that the only expression anyone could see of SoYoon was that which she revealed through her eyes.

Staring into the brown eyes, Heart lost his motivation and put down his leg. “The cell phone. I left you a message to come early in the morning.”

Heart went back to his desk, picked up the clunky object, and returned to her. Other than it being red, it was no different from phones seen in museums.

“That’s a cell phone?”

“What, have you never seen a cell phone before? You don’t look like one, but are you a country bumpkin?”

In Wonderland, this hunk that they called a cell phone represented a culture shock to someone accustomed to the slim smartphones from SoYoon’s homeworld. She chose to remain quiet.

Heart’s anger diffused easily, and he started to explain how to use the cell phone. “You press these buttons to call the person you want. If you press this, you can leave a message. This cell phone is for those who have no powers, so you can use another one if you want…”

“I don’t have powers.”

“Yeah, right.” Heart scoffed at SoYoon’s response.

SoYoon didn’t react.

A few moments later, Heart’s lips drooped. “Really?”

Here, it was magic, not science, that made the world go round. In this world, most people were born with magical powers. But, of course, a dimension jumper from Earth would have no such powers.

SoYoon hesitated for a moment. Could she tell him the truth about herself? He was friends with Jung BoSang. Even now, Jung BoSang could have information about her. She reached a decision quickly.

“I never had powers when I was born. I’m an agent created experimentally.”

An experiment. It was the term used by the government research facility to excuse themselves from the atrocities they performed on humans.

Powerless at birth. An experiment. An agent. The words pieced together in Heart’s mind to create her story: a girl born powerless, dragged into experiments to become an agent. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, so SoYoon didn’t think she needed to add any more to the story.

“Help me find a person who can release me from the locator spell. And also someone who specializes in poisons.”

The thing that needed to be handled quickly was not the spell but the poison. SoYoon and Heart both reached the same conclusion.

***

And so, SoYoon was introduced to the man standing in front of her now.

Duke. A native of Wonderland. Ae was a genius when it came to potion knowledge. Immensely thin with grotesquely long, slender arms and legs, he reminded her of the grim reaper.

“You’re the new White Rabbit, aren’t you? You look younger than I imagined. How old are you? 15? Younger? I’m 20. Same as Heart.”

“…17.”

Embarrassed by the fact that she was in the body of a teenager with the mind of a 32-year-old, she lifted her head. But there was something she had gained from this exchange—Heart’s age.

“You are really young. Will you be okay? White Rabbit’s task won’t be a walk in the park. Don’t worry. I’m not after White Rabbit’s position. I’m just worried as an older adult about whether someone so young will be up to the task. Here, drink up. It’s black tea I got as a gift. I know many people outside of Wonderland, so I get a lot of gifts. If you want, I can ask the people I know to send you to a safe place.”

Duke said this in a slow and soft tone, yet due to the monotonous manner of his voice, SoYoon felt bored. She looked into the teacup that Duke had given her. The inside of the white cup looked simple, yet there was a pleasant aroma coming from the tea within.

“What would you like to complement the tea? Pound cake, almond cookie, lemon cookie…?”

“Antidote.”

SoYoon cut off Duke’s droning with a straightforward request. His yellow eyes blinked, looking perplexed, and he smiled.

“You must be busy. Wait a minute. I have to bring the syringe. I need to draw some of your blood to test the neutralization reaction.”

“You don’t need to.”

SoYoon pulled out her knife and cut her finger. Drops of blood formed at the tip of her pale fingers. Before the blood dropped to the floor, Duke hurriedly grabbed a glass to catch it. Then he reprimanded her, “That’s dangerous. Don’t ever do that again.”

Duke took the glass and entered a room. After quite some time had passed, he returned holding a small bottle. Inside the bottle was a dark pink liquid that reminded her of cold syrup for children.

“How much is it?”

“100 thousand carol. It’s better to ingest it before eating, but because it could cause damage to your stomach, if you’re not in a hurry, I would recommend eating it after a meal. Have you eaten yet? Um, if it’s okay with you, would you like to eat with me?”

After receiving the antidote from Duke and paying the 100 thousand carol, SoYoon stood up. Duke mumbled in embarrassment and stood up also.

“Sorry. I’m too talkative, ain’t I? It’s been a while since I’ve had visitors… You haven’t even touched your tea… Do you like coffee instead of tea? Or can you at least take off your mask…?”

Duke slumped, deflating. It was hard to believe he was the same age as Heart, for he seemed quite naive. SoYoon replied as she started to leave, “I may not hate black tea, but I don’t like black tea with a sleeping draught in it.”

It was true. Duke was a necrophiliac pedophile. He especially liked the corpses of teenage boys and girls. He preferred to use tranquilizers or sleeping pills to catch them off guard. This was also the reason that SoYoon had cut herself when he’d tried to draw her blood.

After SoYoon left, Duke pictured her sparkling eyes beneath her white hair and smiled.

“It was a pleasure.”