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What is the Heart Demon?

It is what narrows a person’s view, making them unable to see far ahead.

It takes numerous thoughts that should branch out and forces them into a single path, causing the fierce current of wisdom to dribble and falter, rendering it lesser than a drought-stricken stream.

Thus, the Heart Demon makes those who have fallen yearn for that single drop of water as desperately as a traveler suffering under the scorching sun on a cracked desert.

Imagine someone who hasn’t drunk a drop of water for three days, on the verge of passing out, stepping into a room filled with jewels. Will they even be able to see it properly? If within that room filled with jewels lies a single drop of muddy water, can they truly choose the treasure over that drop?

Let’s say there’s someone lost in the mountains during a pitch-black night. Will they find it within themselves to pause and wonder what lies beyond that mountain, what beautiful flowers might bloom beneath their feet, or what this scenery looks like?

Normally, the sounds of nature would delight them, but those sounds would now seem like threats of wild beasts or something supernatural. Everything beneath their feet, regardless of appearance, becomes a potential hindrance, or worse, something that could trip them and send them tumbling down the mountain. All they can do is exert every effort to escape the mountain.

Such is the nature of the Heart Demon.

It prevents you from looking around.

It eliminates relaxation and forces you to fixate on one thing.

Is concentrating on something a bad thing? No, it is not. If devoting all your strength to achieve something is bad, then isn’t the artisan’s touch also bad? Reaching your goal with utmost sincerity is never a bad thing.

However, both deficiency and excess can become issues.

If you’re lacking, you’ll lose the strength to reach your destination and inevitably fall down. If you’re excessive, reaching the destination might become difficult, or even if you do, it could end up being less than what you could have achieved.

The Heart Demon is a wall, a shrouded night, boiling emotions, and darkened eyes.

What Pierre has is such a Heart Demon.

It’s a problem arisen from excessive obsession, too much of a burden.

It would have sufficed with just enough firewood to illuminate the room; instead, he shoved in so much that his house caught fire! What could have been a medicine if put in moderation, he tossed in recklessly until it became a deadly poison.

What is this?

It seems grand but isn’t that rare.

There’s no need to even illustrate it with capable people. The Heart Demon is something everyone experiences, big or small.

Must one be left in trance to have a Heart Demon? Must one be driven insane and shatter their magical circuits to possess a Heart Demon? Is it only when one doubts their faith and wrestles with skepticism that they have a Heart Demon?

No, that is not the case.

The Heart Demon approaches everyone.

It hinders you from achieving your goals and prevents you from improving.

It’s any obstacle one faces while undertaking something.

It can be something as light as whispering, “Oh, it’s just a memory,” or something that one may need to grapple with for a lifetime.

That’s all there is to it.

The shaman named Pierre is merely held captive by a somewhat grand and persistent Heart Demon.

Perhaps it could have been something easily shaken off.

No matter how extraordinary the seed of a plant sown, what comes out initially is but a sprout; similarly, Pierre’s Heart Demon might have started as something trivial. Unfortunately, it has grown far too large by now, and, like elites who have entered a cult, he might be making the mistake of perfecting an error himself as he tries to correct his own folly.

What can be done? Just as oneself is the only one who can truly govern one’s heart, a Heart Demon must also be governed by oneself.

But is it truly possible to govern your own heart?

Just a shift in hormones can spin human emotions wildly.

Just by basking in sunlight each day, emotions change, and hormones change simply by consistently doing seemingly insignificant exercises like walking. So, can humans truly control their emotions?

Unless one can control and secrete everything starting from hormones, can one truly claim to have control over their emotions?

Even the physical body is like this.

How complex would it be when we move to the mind and soul?

So, all we can possibly do is give our utmost effort….

Then, what is the best option in the current situation?

For Pierre, the best is likely to research what he refers to as the “clue” he has found.

Probably something about existence and perception.

He likely intends to fill more than half of this city with replicas of humans.

Park Jinseong could somewhat guess what Pierre was planning.

The words he uttered – mirror, shadow, perception, existence.

Their common point lies with the other.

The necessity of perceiving another subject.

A shadow cannot exist alone.

A mirror image cannot exist alone either.

Some may argue:

“I stand alone and saw only myself, so how could I need another?”

But I ask, can the reflection in the mirror and the shadow truly be called oneself?

It originates from oneself yet is separate, reflecting oneself but not perfectly oneself.

From the moment it exists, it has become something different, and thus, it needs the other… the “real body.”

The real body must exist, and only after the real body perceives can something exist in the world.

From the perspective of the shadow, what reason do they have not to consider them its root and the other?

What Pierre intends to do is quite similar.

If the original human is the root, then the created replicas are the shadows.

But what happens if that shadow is regarded as the truth?

Just like Narcissus, who fell into a pond, oblivious to the reflection being a mere phantom and drowned, will merging with the shadow cause one to lose the meaning of their existence and wither away?

But at the point the original body is gone, what remains is just one. So can we truly call that a shadow? What reason is there to declare that which can exist alone without the original is the truth?

However, even if it’s acknowledged as the original, can we truly say it is real if it’s not like the root?

Pierre’s experiment surely stemmed from such queries.

“Just what is he pursuing? Is he aiming to research the difference between shadows and reality? Is he trying to find out if shadows transform into truths? Or does he desire the shadow’s shadow? Or is he studying the difference between truth and the beguiling fake?”

What he truly desires is uncertain.

The topics that could intertwine with that experiment are indeed limitless.

Especially when limited to the theme of “shadow.”

However, if there’s any certainty, it lies in one thing.

“Majority.”

Pierre Martin seems like he won’t stop until more than half of the people in this city are replicas.

How can I be so sure?

“If he observed the changes in the shadows through the recognition of substantial entities, should he not also look at how substantial entities change through the recognition of the shadows influenced by the majority?”

To achieve multiple outcomes from one means is simply wasteful.

Especially when it doesn’t require anything special and can naturally be observed if it’s ongoing.

No matter how much the Heart Demon torments him, not doing this wouldn’t make sense.

“Haha, if that happens, this city will fall under the hands of a single shaman.”

At that point, this city would truly belong to Pierre.

He could manipulate it freely, like an artist performing with shadows.

As for the others?

They could either become audiences, replicas like other “shadows,” or perhaps the materials for something else.

But that choice wouldn’t be theirs to make.

They would merely act according to Pierre’s will….

“Hm. Quite an intriguing experiment…”

Park Jinseong slowly raised his head, piecing together Pierre’s intentions.

And then, he noticed the brightly shining fluorescent light.

Is it time to go? The flickering fluorescent bulb dims intermittently.

Inside, insects were trapped, leaving dark specks all over.

“It’s meaningless, so meaningless…”

To Park Jinseong, Pierre’s experiment felt precisely like that.

It glimmered like starlight but couldn’t compare to it.

Black insects are merely unrelated to the darkness between the stars.

One might briefly show curiosity, but nothing more than that.

Is it because the paths are different, or is Pierre Martin’s experiment genuinely devoid of meaning?

I don’t know.

That’s a question even Park Jinseong, who pondered it, couldn’t answer.

The solution is influenced deeply by the surroundings.

Just like the shadow Pierre Martin so yearns for.

Yet, if there’s one thing that is certain…

“Oh, shadow ensnared by the Heart Demon, Pierre Martin.”

Pierre Martin’s experiment was not beneficial to him.

 

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