In Lily’s Garden.

Editorial Team in the Nebula

The translator’s time began to stretch out like one long page, and the gray doll folded the page, turning it into a book, then divided it into several volumes. These books, containing the records of the translator’s time, were placed one by one in the shelves of the horizontal city. After finishing the classification of the books, the gray doll started to rewrite the records of the translator’s past, which it had seen in a dream.

It was a record of a place with a building designed in exposed concrete, paired with dark brown wooden bookshelves.

There was also a record of a scene crossing between an Italian house, where a red wallet sat on a wooden bookshelf next to the bed and beneath a window.

The translator, still sitting in a café until nightfall, continued recording all the scenes reflected in their eyes, and soon, a man began to appear in those reflections. The translator began writing this down as a film script, and the man’s role was that of a composer in Italy, the ghost’s lover.

– The Translator’s Script

Standing behind the invisible ghost, gripping its right arm while choking it, the man buried his face in the ghost’s neck, inhaling its breath. The ghost’s form was revealed as it rescued the man from drowning, emerging in a grand flow. Even though the man was always chased by the ghost, whenever he woke from his dreams, he sought out the ghost. Before his eyes, the man started seeing the ghost’s ink.

The man dragged the ink with his pen, and once the score was completed, he began playing the piano. Beautiful melodies filled the room, but the man wore a sad expression, tears falling from his eyes. Knowing the existence of the ghost, he now wished to finally let go of the spirit he could never truly meet.

As the melody played, the ink flowed, drifting into the office of a military officer. The ink settled onto a book in the officer’s library. The camera captured the officer looking out the window at a red flag waving in the wind, but as the camera circled from the left to the right, the flag changed color to blue. The officer’s uniform also shifted with the change in the flag, and as a book fell from the shelf, the officer turned, noticing a breeze coming through the slightly open window a sign of the ghost’s presence.

The ghost’s hair began to flutter.

As the camera zoomed in on the flowing strands, Eve appeared, brushing past the ghost’s hair.

Eve’s eyes met the officer’s, but the officer could not see her—only sense her. Eve picked up the fallen book.

‘I’m not on your side because I like you. It’s because I share the same goal as those who want you dead. Do your best, my king. I’ve placed all my bets on you. Be my knight on the chessboard, move for me. Entertain me. I’ll be watching. I aim to replace the pope. The French spy, the Italian mafia, there’s only one mission. Move, my dolls. Look at the hand I’m holding. Can you beat me?‘

“A particularly sunny day in front of the Roman temple, Socrates witnesses the inscription on the pillar.”

Eve wrote her line into the book and tossed it back onto the floor of the officer’s office. Her eyes then caught sight of a red wallet on the desk, but she quickly vanished. The camera focused on the red wallet. However, instead of showing the officer’s office, it cut to the dark brown bookshelf, and the scene shifted to a woman choosing a book, her back brimming with anticipation as she ran forward. She opened the chosen book and began to read one of its pages.

“I aim to replace the pope. The French spy, the Italian mafia, there’s only one mission. Move, my dolls. Look at the hand I’m holding. Can you beat me?

A particularly sunny day in front of the Roman temple, Socrates witnesses the inscription on the pillar.”