Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 45
“I-Is it really okay for just us to go? Is this right?”
“It will be fine.”
Probably.
Understanding the unspoken words, Go Young-eun swallowed a scream.
After Kim Sol-eum persuaded the superiors, he led his two colleagues out of the terrace room to ‘use’ the item.
‘He’s probably acting like this on purpose to seem logical.’
Since he told them the item owner was one of us, it wouldn’t look natural unless that person was the one moving.
…Though being lumped together with Baek Sa-heon as ‘us’ felt a bit unpleasant….
‘Still, he’s strangely quiet for now.’
But right now, she was much more concerned about what was about to happen.
“Then, I will take out the candle.”
“Yes!”
Go Young-eun handed back the paper she had received from Kim Sol-eum, and he unfolded it.
Then, something amazing happened.
A heavy, cylindrical mass of pale purple wax tumbled into his palm.
It was a real candle.
“…!”
The frame drawn with crayons remained like an embossed pattern, making it intuitively clear.
The candle that had been a drawing had become reality.
‘…Wow.’
She marveled, momentarily forgetting the situation.
Her mind swelled with anticipation at the brief explanation of what they would do with that candle from now on.
“Please wait a moment.”
Kim Sol-eum took a deep breath, pulled out a lighter, and tried to light the candle’s wick.
Flick.
The flame brushed across the wick and….
Nothing happened.
“…….”
“…….”
Why… won’t it light?
Kim Sol-eum even showed off the crazy ability to summon a third hand by flipping a coin into the air to try and light it that way, but it still didn’t work.
“…Ah.”
As if suddenly remembering something, Kim Sol-eum pulled out the manual for the candle kit and quickly read through it again.
“Is there a problem?”
“…….”
Then, with a somewhat dry expression, he lowered the manual.
“No. I’m not sure.”
Actually, he knew.
At the end of the instructions written in messy, dark red letters, under the ‘Precautions for Handling and Use’ section, there was a specific line.
‘Recommended Users.’
※ This toy was created to relieve the fatigue of modern Earthlings.
For safety reasons, aliens, extra-dimensionals, non-intelligent entities, gods, and all other non-human intelligent beings cannot use it. :)
‘…I might not be eligible.’
Since Kim Sol-eum wasn’t originally from this place.
A chill ran down his spine, but he knew that wasn’t the priority.
He had to hand it over to someone trustworthy.
Someone with a low probability of acting out, and who possessed social skills and morality.
“Sanyang-ssi.”
“…!”
“I’m counting on you.”
Go Young-eun eventually swallowed hard and took the candle.
Then she took the lighter and held it to the wick with trembling hands.
Flick.
The flame brushed across the wick and….
It caught fire.
“…!”
And as if light were shining from within the body of the candle, letters began to appear.
The keywords from the cards they had drawn.
[Honor] [Interference] [Deception]
—Do you remember the cards we drew when making the candle? They tell us what abilities the candle will have.
As the explanation she heard from Kim Sol-eum came to mind, other phrases began to float up from the candle as well.
The prayer holder shall lift this candle
Toward an
Honor
able subject,
By the power that
Interfere
s,
Must reveal a
Deceptive
appearance.
A blessing is granted to the prayer holder who holds the candle.
The Impersonator of Nobility.
Go Young-eun held the candle high.
A round ball of fire rose from the candle like a lantern, hovered over her head, and then vanished.
Then, her surroundings brightened faintly, like a soft spotlight.
‘Whoa…….’
“The effect is exactly as expected.”
Kim Sol-eum, watching with a faint smile, nodded and spoke.
“Up to two people around Sanyang-ssi are affected by the candle’s range, so Goat and I will follow behind you.”
“Yes.”
She wondered if they couldn’t have recruited someone other than Baek Sa-heon, but since Kim Sol-eum was the one who made this item, Go Young-eun nodded without a word.
Kim Sol-eum whispered again.
“However, there is something you must be careful of. …Do not look back at us. We only receive the effect by staying hidden behind the one holding the candle.”
“……Yes.”
“And do not look too closely at the candle. …Your mind could be eroded by it.”
Go Young-eun nodded slowly.
Tension gripped her shoulders, but she managed to regain her composure somehow.
This was her specialty, after all.
“Since you said the exit is on the ground floor… then we start from the 4th floor, the middle floor? That way, the number of variables is minimized.”
“Yes. That sounds good.”
The march began.
Thinking about what was about to happen was enough to chill one’s spine, but Go Young-eun grit her teeth.
I feel like I’m the biggest coward here, yet I’m the one holding the candle.
‘I have to do my best.’
She had no idea that the biggest coward of them all was right behind her!
Thud, thud.
The sound of three pairs of footsteps echoed in the bronze hall. Until they reached the 4th floor, the sound of the guide machines was strangely absent….
But it didn’t make her feel at ease.
Because their destination was….
“Found it.”
Right in front of a guide machine.
“…….”
The new recruits of the Field Exploration Team who had come up to the 4th floor followed the mechanical sound and finally found the guide machine in charge of the 4th-floor hallway.
Creeeeeeak.
“If you run away now and step out of the candle’s range, it’ll hunt you down.”
“I know that, okay?”
The chilling exchange between Kim Sol-eum and Baek Sa-heon made Go Young-eun’s heart go cold as well.
It felt as if those needle-like appendages would move at any moment to gouge out her eyes….
Go Young-eun swallowed hard and moved forward.
Step by step.
With every step closer, the image of the machine reflected in the candlelight wavered.
Standing before the grotesque, spider-like machine, Go Young-eun gave a slight nod.
“Hello.”
Creeeeeak.
The guide machine moved.
Eight needles were thrust into the air and then…….
They were soon neatly arranged and settled softly around the machine’s body.
Then the machine lifted its head and politely shone its gas lamp near Go Young-eun’s feet.
“…!”
It worked.
Go Young-eun swallowed.
The candle’s blessing was successfully being applied to her right now.
A blessing that allowed her to impersonate an honorable person.
—The first card drawn is the purpose of the effect, the second is the method, and the last is the essence of the effect.
—If you combine them well, it creates a deception that interferes with others for the sake of something honorable….
—It’s likely an ability related to impersonation or misdirection.
And right now, Go Young-eun was impersonating the most suitable ‘honorable person.’
The subject the guide machine was most friendly toward.
Namely….
‘A guest who has paid all their fees properly!’
Go Young-eun asked the guide machine in the calmest tone she could muster.
“If you disagree with my question, please stay still. If you agree, please nod.”
Silence.
“……Did the guests who finished their viewing and went home go to the upper floors from this 4th floor?”
…….
“Did the guests who finished their viewing and went home go to the lower floors from this 4th floor?”
Nod.
“……!”
It worked!
The one holding the candle was swept with a sense of triumph, but she barely managed to conclude the conversation.
“Thank you. I’ll be on my way to continue the viewing.”
The guide machine stood there quietly.
Until the three people within the candlelight left.
The moment they turned the corner, Go Young-eun couldn’t help but exclaim.
“It worked…!”
“Take it slow. The candle burns for about two hours, so the important thing is not to let it go out halfway.”
“Yes!”
And it repeated.
“Did the guests who finished their viewing and went home go to the lower floors from this 3rd floor?”
Nod.
“Thank you!”
It worked again. The three recruits moved on, now swelling with the thrilling hope of escape.
At this rate.
‘It’s either the 1st or 2nd floor…!’
The same prediction took hold in everyone’s mind.
Go Young-eun bit her tongue and tried her best not to get carried away.
‘Carefully, carefully!’
If she accidentally knocked over the candle, it was all over.
Unless she wanted to escape with her eyes, tongue, or limbs gouged out, she had to stay calm.
Just as she was taking a step with composure.
Grab.
Something grabbed her foot.
Go Young-eun froze and looked down.
There was a human whose eyes had been replaced by telephoto lenses.
In a disheveled state, the person had crawled along the floor, struggling, and grabbed the hem of her pants.
“Sanyang! Sanyang-ssi!!”
“…!!”
“Take me with you!”
The R Team leader.
It was Go Young-eun’s superior.
I watched the person in front stop in their tracks.
I knew why.
Because someone grabbing their pant leg was shouting desperately!
“Sanyang-ssi! Equipment—if you take me out of here, I’ll make you equipment! You can use the kind of equipment a Section Chief has right away! Huh?!”
‘Go Young-eun-ssi was in R Team.’
It seems he’s the R Team leader.
But he looked far too pathetic to be considered a team leader of the Field Exploration Team.
It wasn’t that his limbs had been collected as fees, but he couldn’t get up from the floor, as if they were all broken.
‘Did some internal strife break out?’
A team leader should have been able to hold out until the end with their own equipment and items, hiding here and there, so seeing him in that state alone made it almost certain.
The sense of impending death was right at his throat.
And in that situation, his team’s recruit had appeared holding an item that looked very extraordinary.
He had sensed it was his last lifeline.
“Sanyang-ssi! That’s an item, isn’t it! Haa, it—it looks good. Uh, let, let me go with you, okay?”
“Wow, isn’t he scared? Just blabbing away.”
Baek Sa-heon muttered quietly.
Then he said this to Go Young-eun.
“Shall we check if the monster machines come after hearing the noise? It doesn’t look like he can run away in that state anyway.”
“Pardon? What kind of bullshit is….”
“…….”
The R Team leader, who had been begging Go Young-eun, looked up at Baek Sa-heon.
the telephoto lenses flashed.
“Which team’s recruit are you?”
“…….”
“Ah. Right. It’s not important…. What’s important is getting out of here. But you see……. The item my team’s recruit is using is a candle? It’s a consumable.”
“…!”
“A flame… using a flame as a medium, yeah, is it for defense? Yeah, it looks like it…. Then, if I shake it like this, like this! What happens if the flame goes out?”
“Ah,”
Go Young-eun, who almost stumbled for a second, quickly steadied the candle.
‘This crazy bastard.’
Just as I was about to summon my dedicated equipment into the air and use three hands to tear the R Team leader off, the leader clung to Go Young-eun’s foot again.
“Even if I’m in this state, do you think I know less than some recruits?? Take me!”
“…You left me behind, Team Leader.”
Go Young-eun muttered with an eerily quiet voice.
“When the machine came out, you pushed me and ran.”
“…!”
Since the employees had all entered separately, I thought Go Young-eun-ssi had just been wandering alone because she couldn’t find her teammates….
So that’s why she was alone.
“No! I did what I could! I couldn’t just die trying to save a recruit, so I left you! You can take me with you now! If you’re in a position to help, a human should act like a human!”
The team leader shouted and clung to her as if in a fit.
Not even tears could come out of the eye sockets that had become lenses.
“If you don’t take me, it’s murder, murder! Just try to leave me behind. I’ll make sure to ruin that item. One way or another!! Uh…!”
Thwack.
“…!”
Slump.
The R Team leader’s body went limp and he collapsed to the side.
Baek Sa-heon returned his left foot, which had struck the leader’s temple, to its original position.
“…….”
And me too.
I withdrew the third hand, which had struck the back of the R Team leader’s head, back into my glove.
‘H-He’s still breathing, right?’
I didn’t mean for us both to hit him, but unfortunately, our timing overlapped.
At any rate, the situation seemed settled.
I looked at the fallen, shabby office worker in his 40s.
‘…I guess experience in the Field Exploration Team is still experience.’
He had laid out a sophistry that perfectly balanced the kind of pleading a recruit would feel guilty about and the kind of threat they would fear.
Go Young-eun was holding the candle steadily, but she seemed to be looking down at the miserable state of her direct superior with trembling eyes….
Then Baek Sa-heon spoke lightly.
“There. Now, should we just rip his head off?”
…What?
“We shouldn’t.”
“He’s going to die soon anyway, so it’ll be easier for him, and we’ll get the fee to use when we need a Plan B. There’s not a single downside, is there?”
“Think of Sanyang-ssi’s mental distress when cutting a neck. It’s hard to maintain composure after killing an acquaintance yourself.”
As Baek Sa-heon and I spoke back and forth, Go Young-eun-ssi’s face grew paler.
“No, what is this, no…….”
“What are you talking about? People will do anything to survive, I’m telling you she can do it.”
“She can’t. Don’t listen to him, Sanyang-ssi.”
“Sanyang….”
“Wait!”
“…….”
“…….”
“I’ll just… do this.”
Go Young-eun gripped the candle tightly, then kicked the R Team leader and pushed him into the corner of a dark sofa.
Then she let out a deep sigh.
“This way, he won’t be caught by the machines right away…. Let’s go. Before the candle wears out.”
“…….”
I nodded.
However, Baek Sa-heon frowned.
“Making things complicated. He’s going to die anyway.”
“…Since you saved your own life thanks to a kind person, why don’t you stop talking like that?”
“…….”
Go Young-eun let out a long sigh.
“Still, thank you both. I almost got caught up in that with my eyes wide open.”
“It was nothing.”
Surprisingly, Baek Sa-heon kept his mouth shut. I thought he’d be sarcastic or try to squeeze something out of her, so it was unexpected.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
We headed down the stairs again.
The bout of interference and the incident were over.
The goal was right before our eyes.
