What he said was terrifying the more I thought about it.
He looked at me and sighed. "As for that curse you mentioned, you must have heard about it from them, right? That woman? Or the you from before?"
I said nothing. I simply could not process all the information he had given me.
He said, "I have heard that legend too—the Kingdom of Yan, the Embroidery Woman, the curse. But I don't believe it. First of all, I have always doubted that curse. Lawlessness—that would mean a single curse plunged this world into disorder and overturned every rule. But do you really believe this is a world without rules? No. All the rules are still here. Isn't the clear divide between the living and the Living Dead a rule? The living cannot enter the Living Dead's territory, and the Living Dead cannot move about in the living's territory. Before the chaos began here, that was an ironclad law. Anyone who violated it came to no good end."
I nodded woodenly. Strictly speaking, that really was a rule.
He continued, "Rules are not as complicated as you imagine. They are actually very simple. For example, isn't it a rule that timekeeping devices are forbidden in this world? Isn't it a rule that they are not allowed to possess firearms? Once you violate those rules, some mysterious force punishes you and leaves nothing but ashes of you. So do you still believe the curse is real? No. It is merely a legend. Someone deliberately created the illusion that this world truly has no rules."
"So the Kingdom of Yan does not exist? Neither does the story of the Embroidery Woman and the ruler of the Kingdom of Yan?" I asked.
He smiled. "The Kingdom of Yan did exist. It was the