197 Chapter
197 Chapter
"Please!"
Baek Saheon was practically shrieking.
And yet, even in that state, he still tried to keep his voice as low as possible—as if he only wanted to escape the encroaching supernatural disaster without being noticed.
However, Agent Cheongdong did not release his restraints.
He merely glanced at the gold stick I was holding, the one I had taken from Baek Saheon's pants pocket, and asked a question.
Special Prize.
"What does it mean that you drew that?"
"'What does it mean?' It means I’m fucked, that’s what! That’s why I have to get out of here before the festival labor duty begins. Right now, from here—"
"Do you die?"
Baek Saheon froze.
I interjected and asked again.
"But earlier, the person who pulled that stick was being congratulated. And I heard they get an important role in next year’s event…?"
"……."
Baek Saheon’s lips moved silently, but no words came out.
But his eyes—his eyes were gleaming with fear and fury.
A taboo seal?
I met Agent Cheongdong’s gaze.
The agent gave a slight nod, then asked in an uninflected voice.
"In that case, explain how you obtained the direct line number to headquarters."
"Hah! Isn’t it one of the numbers your people hid all over the village?"
"……!"
"I already know. The whole village knows. We just pretend not to. But how do you even call with that number, huh?"
Baek Saheon’s voice turned derisive, almost spitting.
"Hold on. You were aware of the Agency’s guidance flyers, and still chose to leave them untouched?"
"Yeah! The outsiders drink the Shinsanju and ‘awaken to the truth of the world,’ then hang themselves or drown or rot at the bottom of a well—nobody cares. Whether they slip away or not, it doesn’t matter. They only manage things to avoid spiritual contamination!"
"'Spiritual contamination'? What kind of contamination?"
Baek Saheon clammed up again.
A cold bead of sweat slid down his jaw.
Another taboo.
Watching him crumble under supernatural fear and pressure left me with an odd sinking feeling.
...Because I’m reminded of myself?
But that was only from my perspective.
"So you’re unable to answer."
Agent Cheongdong had no reason to feel sympathy for Baek Saheon.
He was someone who had once killed people in a mountain lodge simply because they possessed a tape.
Because the Disaster Response Agency had designated them as evil.
And Baek Saheon—had a tape.
"If you know that much, then walk out on your own two feet."
"I told you I can’t!"
At the cold remark, Baek Saheon seemed to register the situation and darted his gaze around.
But then, his voice suddenly calmed.
"Hey, you know that thing, right? I know it too. The stone cairn in front of the pine tree. You put a rock on it, pray, and then the agents link arms on either side and walk you out safely from the village."
"……!!"
He was spot on.
If you walk ninety-nine paces east from the well, there’s a dried-up pine tree. In front of it is a stone cairn. You place one more stone atop it.
Then, while reciting ‘Turn back and look after me’ three times, if your party links arms and walks toward the entrance, you’ll return to the everyday world without incident… That’s the current rule.
That’s why it requires at least three people—and why two agents are deployed.
So don’t forget: the agents must link arms at both ends, placing the rescuees in the center!
"I—I've seen it all! Since decades ago, I’ve seen it! That’s how you get rescued, right? Do it for me too! I reported everything! That’s what you’re supposed to do!"
Baek Saheon’s tone was overflowing with desperation and rage.
But...
"That doesn’t work on village residents."
Baek Saheon froze.
"...What?"
"I mean, it won’t work for someone who lives in this village."
Exactly.
-
Repeating again: this method doesn’t work on villagers participating in the festival, so don’t try it carelessly. If you do it without preparation, you’ll lose your way between the village and reality.
"Villagers can’t escape safely using that method."
"...I don’t live here anymore. I live in Seoul."
Agent Cheongdong said nothing.
Baek Saheon lowered his voice in panic and pleaded.
"I—I only come here once a month, no, once every few months! Just for a few days! I don’t live here! I’m not one of those crazy bastards!"
"The criterion is whether you're wearing a feather from the festival."
"……!"
Baek Saheon's gaze dropped.
To his own chest, where a rooster feather still hung.
"~!!"
He twitched like he was going to rip it off—but quickly froze as if realizing it was impossible.
Then he muttered.
"I can’t?"
"……."
"No way. That can’t be. I’m an adult and I don’t live here. That means I’m an outsider. Then… Then there must be another way. You’re supposed to save citizens. You have to save the one who reported this."
Agent Cheongdong declared coolly.
"As things stand, it’s impossible."
……
……
"Then die."
……
What?
"Then all of you die."
Baek Saheon's mouth opened.
"Sansanbaekjisanbokjusiopgedaeirijaya! Sansanbaekjisanbokjusiopgedaeirijaya! Sansanbaekjisanbokjusiopgedaeirijaya! Sansanbaekjisanbokju—mmph!"
I rushed to clamp a hand over Baek Saheon's mouth.
A sharp pain split through my palm.
"...!"
He bit me.
"Agent Podo!"
"These bastards are stealing the Delegate! Stealing the Delegate! It’s contaminated!"
Agent Cheongdong pulled my hand away, and the moment the pressure left his mouth, Baek Saheon screamed again.
And—
"Sansanbaekjisanbokjusiopgedaeirijaya…."
Figures began to emerge from behind the abandoned house.
No—more than one.
***
I understood now.
"Please don’t cause such a ruckus in the village."
"That’s right. Ugh, what’s all this in the middle of the night? Our bathwater’s nice and hot—how about a soak and a good rest?"
"Can’t sleep? Maybe your stomach’s not settled."
I finally understood why Agent Choi had warned that if it looked like a villager was going to notice you, you should either hide immediately or overpower and stash them in the abandoned house.
The treatment had changed.
"Time to eat~"
After we were discovered at the well—
The ever-smiling villagers guided us back to a tile-roofed house.
But not to the small, cramped room Baek Saheon had been using—no, they moved our bedding to a spacious, luxurious room with sliding paper doors.
It wasn’t a suggestion. They simply did it.
They offered a bath. Brought out festival food. Alcohol, too.
"Drink up, nice and cold. It’s medicinal wine. Medicinal."
"Brewed with wild greens, herbs, and ginseng from the mountain. Restorative and sharpens the senses~"
Just like the ones who clung to the troublemaker who had thrown a cucumber to the ground.
Baek Saheon was nowhere to be seen.
The villagers had taken him somewhere.
"……."
A chilling premonition passed between our exchanged glances.
Did others who had seen the hidden Disaster Response Agency flyers and called for help… feel this same unease?
The villagers left the food and exited the room. Only the two of us remained. But faint presences still lingered beyond ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the door.
Then they were gone.
"……."
Agent Cheongdong approached the door and pressed his ear to it.
He waited until he was absolutely sure there was no movement, then carefully reached for the door to peek outside—
Wait.
I grabbed his shoulder, stopping the motion.
Then rummaged through the table, picking up the shallow candle used to keep the food warm.
I held it up near the sliding paper door.
—
Behind it, shadows of tightly packed bodies clung to the other side.
—
"……!"
They had been eavesdropping.
It hadn’t been that they’d left. The presence hadn’t faded.
Fuck.
The chill climbed up my throat and shuddered through me.
I casually set the candle down and tipped over a water cup instead, dipping my fingers in to write silently.
—
Would it be impossible to just knock them all out and leave quietly?
Difficult.
Agent Cheongdong replied quickly.
—
In ghost stories this blatantly religious, sleep is rarely the optimal solution.
"……."
Of course.
This tale must have been observed for a very long time. They must’ve tried all kinds of approaches.
What Agent Choi wrote down for me couldn’t possibly include every variation they’d attempted. Only the safest, most effective ones became formal protocol.
…And not one of them involved rescuing villagers from the disaster.
Even so—
—
How exactly do the outsiders who visit this village during the festival go missing?
—
I had to ask.
But—
—
Unknown.
—
…!!
—
After the festival ends, the villagers always let the outsiders leave.
And there were quite a few reports of people who only stayed one night or insisted on leaving mid-festival who managed to go.
—
But the problem is… some of them never make it home.
—
"……."
—
And even among those who do return safely, quite a few are found to have taken their own lives weeks later.
Most often using natural elements.
—
Chilling.
—I don’t know the exact cause of this situation, but a consistent pattern has been identified.
Entering this ghost story and following the guidance of friendly villagers—accepting their offers of a bath, food, and alcohol.
—It wasn’t clear which of the three was the true trigger, but now we’ve found a hint.
I recalled what Baek Saheon had shouted.
—The outsiders drink Shinsanju, awaken to the truth of the world, then hang themselves, drown, rot at the bottom of a well….
So that’s it.
The alcohol is the certainty.
I looked at the bottle on the table.
Clear liquor in an ordinary white porcelain flask.
But...
If drinking this reveals the truth of the world and leads to death… what does that even mean?
What kind of "truth" could do that?
In many ghost story worlds, "truth" is just a euphemism for hypnosis, brainwashing, mental collapse.
That’s scary enough.
But this—this is even more terrifying.
…A truth that is actually true, and just knowing it makes a person choose death.
A human who learns something they were never meant to know.
...This is bad news.
A chill swept across my chest.
...It would probably be safer to just leave.
My nerves were screaming that digging any deeper would be foolish.
And we still had one certain method left.
The emergency escape tool issued to Agency agents.
The five-colored sneaker laces.
"……."
I had already noticed Agent Cheongdong discreetly peeking under his jacket, clearly torn.
—Are we going to use it now?
Even if the person who reported the incident wasn’t technically one of the victims anymore, we had seen too many people fail to return home after the festival ended.
Though Agent Cheongdong was a stickler for rules, as an agent, he couldn’t ignore that reality.
—If there’s no way to quietly slip out of this room before the festival ends today, I will proceed.
He added, with a tired and guilty expression:
—I apologize. I spoke too harshly and gave the suspect a reason to act out irrationally.
No.
I should’ve known Baek Saheon would act like that….
I’d read so much about him on the wiki, and even lived with him at the staff quarters.
…Must be exhaustion dulling my judgment.
I shook my head and slumped down into a corner of the room.
It was already dawn.
The festival will start soon.
And then—
HiyAAAAAAAH!
As the music and noise of the festival rose outside, building toward a frenzy, we remained trapped inside the room.
They’re not leaving.
Even though the festival had started, someone still came by occasionally to reheat the food and drinks for us.
And there were always at least two people standing outside the door.
They weren’t trying to persuade or mislead us.
Just kind. But clearly, not interested in actually talking to us.
This is overkill.
I was stunned.
What the hell did Baek Saheon tell the villagers about us?
Something wasn’t right.
At this rate, we really might need to tie those laces and just get out of here.
Even Agent Cheongdong seemed to be leaning more toward that option when—
We heard a sound from outside.
"There were people causing a commotion over there… Can I report it here?"
"Yes, yes. They were fighting. Spilled food and—ohhh?"
"Yes, yes. They were fighting. Spilled food and—ohhh?"
There was a bit of chatter, then the sound of a crowd rushing off.
And shortly after—
Sliiiiide.
The sliding door opened, and a familiar face appeared.
"So there were people in here."
“…!!”
It was Deputy Eunhaje.
Agent Cheongdong’s eyes widened.
"You…."
"Shh."
The deputy held up a finger to his lips.
Then, scowling, he muttered, "What is this, some human trafficking cult village? They’re all trying to lock up their rogue family members and suspicious outsiders. Anyway, you two want to get out of this room, yeah?"
"Yes!"
"Then let’s go."
Deputy Eunhaje began leading us, skillfully sneaking us out of the tile-roofed house.
Somehow, almost no one was left inside.
"Why is the place so empty all of a sudden?"
"Between festival prep and a big brawl that broke out outside, the villagers all ran off to stop the fight."
"…Did someone, by any chance, incite that fight?"
"Who knows?"
Then Deputy Eunhaje winked.
It was you, wasn’t it?
A strange mix of panic and gratitude welled up inside me—I wanted to scream at him to stop doing dangerous things, but also hug him in thanks.
"Anyway, get going. This village is clearly not normal."
"……Thank you."
"For what?"
And so, guided out through a back exit Deputy Eunhaje had apparently scoped out earlier, we were greeted by the same landscape as yesterday.
[Receive the Blessings of Jisan!]
A village in the middle of its New Year’s festival.
HiyAAAAAAAH!
"Still a complete mess," Deputy Eunhaje muttered, scratching the back of his head as he looked back at us.
"Don’t get caught and dragged back to a room again. In this chaos, you should be able to quietly make it to the entrance without being—"
"Wait."
Agent Cheongdong frowned and cut him off firmly.
"Come with us."
Of course, Deputy Eunhaje looked bewildered.
"What? I told you—I have other business. I have to report on this place to make a living, you know?"
"It’s dangerous."
"You do remember that I’m the one who saved you two from danger?"
Agent Cheongdong sighed. He seemed both frustrated with the delay and genuinely determined to persuade the deputy.
It looked like he was truly concerned that someone who helped them this much might end up going missing. He clearly wanted to get him out safely, if possible.
But as for me...
I’m worried too, but I can’t tell which is more dangerous.
Even if the village seems worse right now, dragging Deputy Eunhaje away could get him punished by Director Ho for slacking off on his assignment.
Which was exactly what happened to me just recently.
Sigh.
My head felt like it was spinning.
And one more thing kept bothering me.
Is it really okay to leave Baek Saheon behind like this?
Of course, Baek Saheon wasn’t going to die—he was going to get promoted all the way to Section Chief. If this was his hometown, and I was just a temporary variable, then nothing happening now would disrupt the established timeline. According to the wiki, he wouldn’t die here.
But… that terror in his eyes was real.
Was it really okay to walk away?
I turned my head instinctively to scan the area—and spotted him immediately.
Baek Saheon.
"……!"
He was still here, carrying food and guiding people—helping with the festival preparations.
His eyes were sunken, but his expression was surprisingly calm.
And just then—
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
[Everyone! It’s time for the lucky draw! Receive your prizes and the Blessings of Jisan!]
The raffle was beginning again.
The villagers moved in unison, carrying the drawing boxes.
"We have to go now."
"I’m telling you—"
Agent Cheongdong’s urgency clashed with Deputy Eunhaje’s protests when—
"Blessings of Jisan upon you!"
The villagers were already spreading out toward the outsiders.
…At this rate, even if we’d sprinted straight for the gate, we would’ve gotten caught.
It was an unstoppable flow.
We were in their sights.
One of them approached us.
Naturally, our turn came almost immediately.
"Blessings of Jisan upon you!"
The raffle box was offered to me.
"……."
Wouldn’t refusing to draw be more suspicious?
There were too many villagers.
Can’t make a scene now.
If we wanted to leave without alerting those from the tile-roofed house, rejecting this and drawing attention to ourselves would be a mistake.
Even if I win, I just won’t take the prize with me when we leave.
After fierce deliberation, I reached out and grabbed the stick nearest me—
And then—
The golden tip glinted.
“…!!”
A stick with golden ends.
The same kind Baek Saheon had stuffed in his pocket yesterday.
Special Prize.
"……."
Suddenly, the world fell into insane silence.
I didn’t need to look to feel the gazes locking onto me.
And then—
"Aaaaaaah!"
"Aaaah!"
[They’ve come! They’ve come! The Blessing of Jisan has arrived!]
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow.
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow.
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow.
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow…
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow.
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow.
O Deputy, may you bestow blessings as white and scattered as mountain snow…
The chant echoed in waves.
I forced myself to tear my eyes from the stick and lift my gaze.
And I saw it.
From across the way—
Baek Saheon, holding the raffle box, grinning with pure ecstasy.