Chapter 341

I swallowed.

The lion mask’s sacred, terrifying face was staring at me.

Those two yellow, jagged eyes moved inside the mask as if they were alive on their own.

“Did you know? Lion masks have all sorts of traditions depending on the region... and one of them is driving off evil spirits.”

“.......”

The lion mask’s mane poured over my shoulder.

It looked like the mask could open a snout full of sharp teeth at any moment.

“And isn’t harming citizens because you’re bewitched by that tin-can bastard an evil spirit too~?”

I watched that chilling thing draw closer.

Watched it....

“...No.”

And answered.

“I have no intention of impersonating an agent and stirring up trouble during a mass disaster like this.”

“Oh?”

“And you already know I’m innocent, Agent.”

“Why do you think that?”

The lion mask’s head tilted, its mane sliding down my back.

It felt cold. Wrong.

A bead of sweat ran down the back of my neck.

I need to sort this out properly.

Forcing down my rising panic, I spoke evenly.

“You wouldn’t have lent me agent equipment if you thought I was guilty.”

“...!”

“If I looked suspicious, you wouldn’t give me gear that helps someone escape. Isn’t that right?”

I barely turned my eyes to check my party.

Maybe they assumed we were having “agent talk,” because the two of them were watching the surrounding carnage instead of us, without much suspicion.

“If you really can distinguish evil by smell, then you should know I don’t have malice or guilt.”

Maybe he’d judged me sincere by watching the people I was trying to rescue—and how I treated them.

Please.

Trying to loosen the tension that felt like it was curling my fingers into claws, I continued.

“It’s true that I signed a contract with a Daydream Inc. director. But that has nothing to do with what I’m doing from this point on.”

“.......”

The lion mask swayed, moving as if it were peering into me.

“What are you going to do?”

“As I said, I’m going to rescue those two people. There are people I have to save. And....”

After a moment of conflict, I said it.

“If possible, I want to end this disaster.”

The lion mask fell silent.

Then the mask shook, and—

“You mean it!”

The mane whipped back.

I sucked in a breath.

In the same instant, the lion mask—back to its playful movements—grabbed my arm.

“Then I’m counting on you for the rescue, fellow agent!”

“...Yes.”

Hoo.

Watching the lion-mask agent return to being a friendly, affable agent, I let out a breath of relief only inside my chest.

But tension still coiled through my body.

...The lion mask still wasn’t letting go of my arm.

...Strangely, it feels like I’m standing in front of something out of an urban legend.

Because of that lion mask? I could barely feel any humanity from him at all.

The lion-mask agent twisted his head in a warm, familiar way.

But he didn’t move away from me, and he absolutely wouldn’t release my arm.

As if he’d drag me off the second I made a wrong move.

“So how did you end up letting that vicious tin-can bastard coil up inside you?”

“.......”

For the record, I didn’t even know who Mr. Tin-Can was.

One of Daydream Inc.’s directors, I guess.

But I can’t say something like this here—

—I signed contracts with two Development Division directors, and one of them is a local cooperative spirit who lost it after taking a bite and went insane. Oh, and before that I also signed an employment contract, so maybe I’m contracted to some other HR-side director too. Like octopus legs, you know?

...I couldn’t say that. I swallowed it and summarized broadly instead.

“You mean how I ended up contracting with Daydream Inc.?”

“That’s right!”

Then there was a simple, clear answer.

“I was tricked.”

“Ah.”

“And I’m looking for a way out.”

The lion-mask agent looked like he was sinking into thought. Then the lion mask’s white mane bobbed up and down.

“Mm. So you’re on leave so you don’t burden the Bureau?”

“Not only that... honestly, it’s for my own safety too.”

Because I was a spy.

But I wasn’t now, so it felt unfair....

“Sure, sure!”

Thankfully, he went along with it smoothly. Hoo.

Letting out a breath, I looked at the remaining stops.

...About eight minutes left.

So we’re almost at Se-gwang Station.

If I got detained by agents at a time like this and got delayed any further, I might not be able to find the Counseling Teacher at Se-gwang Station.

Then I’d lose everything.

I need to defuse this fast....

But then a suddenly colder voice brushed my ear.

“That’s strange too.”

“...Pardon?”

“Then how did a fellow agent who’s on leave even find out about this disaster and come in to rescue someone in this city?”

“...!”

“It hasn’t even been half a day—no, not even a few hours—since the disaster broke out. And yet you happened to find citizens to rescue and ended up here!”

“.......”

“Even if news got out, it’s too short. It’s awfully convenient!”

It was a sharp question.

And it was exactly right.

The timeline doesn’t match.

From the instant the disaster alert arrived, I’d already been inside this city.

And agents from other cities only begin entering Se-gwang Special City after a good amount of time passes.

So “I entered because there was a rescue request” wouldn’t work. Time-wise, it didn’t add up.

...I needed time to think of an answer. I didn’t have any. Damn it!

I need to turn it back on him....

As I racked my brain, I noticed something.

The agents in the front car, over there.

...!

“...If we’re going to talk like that, you’re suspicious too.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes.”

I spoke evenly.

“You aren’t from the Se-gwang City branch either, are you?”

“...cWhat makes you think that?”

“Look over there.”

Following my gaze, the lion-mask agent’s eyes went to—

the agents in the front car, handling the accident and explaining “supernatural disaster” to the citizens.

“The agents over there—and the lion-mask agent right in front of me—your jacket details are different.”

“.......”

On the front car agents’ jacket pockets, there were patches with the Se-gwang City logo.

The lion-mask agent checked his own jacket pocket—clean, with nothing—and lifted his head.

“...Fellow agent. You have extremely good eyes!”

“Thank you.”

But the lion mask didn’t waver.

“I’m just a temporary substitute who came to support this branch for a bit! So of course I had to deploy with them.”

Hoo.

“But your outfit... you said a cooperative spirit gave it to you?”

Get it together. Choose words carefully.

Cleverly.

“It is a cooperative spirit’s. And... he definitely knows I’m wearing it.”

I didn’t say he lent it to me.

But even that made the lion mask tilt his head.

“Strange. That cooperative spirit definitely knew too. That you’re suspicious!”

“...!”

“And yet he just gave you a jacket—makes you wonder if ghosts are wailing. Did you maybe bewitch a fox in reverse?”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know either. But I’ve never lied.”

“Mmm. Understood.”

The lion mask rocked as if it were turning upside down, then returned.

“Then back to the main point—let’s figure out your true intentions!”

“.......”

Damn it.

The lion mask stared at me.

That strangely swaying mane poured over my shoulder once again.

“How did you know today was the day the disaster would happen, pick the person you’d rescue in a flash, and end up standing right here?”

I thought the lion mask felt almost—uncanny.

He seems inhuman....

.......

Which meant, in other words, he might be able to bear truths a human couldn’t.

Then.

This might be a move that could change the situation.

...We didn’t have much time left until Se-gwang Station.

“Agent.”

I lowered my voice even more.

“What if this keeps repeating? What would you think?”

“Hm?”

“What if this disaster day has repeated tens, hundreds of times....”

I held his gaze.

“And what if I became aware of it—what would you think then?”

“...!”

The lion-mask agent froze.

***

In a rapid-fire rush, I conveyed what I roughly knew about “what happened on Se-gwang Special City’s disaster day.”

“So you’re saying we’re repeating May 4 endlessly... that’s what you mean?”

“Yes.”

“That’s....”

The lion mask swayed, unsettled.

—Honestly, I don’t know the details either. My memory is vague. I only know that it’s repeated hundreds of times.

In reality, I’d experienced peaceful Se-gwang City’s May 4 over six hundred times, so it was easy to speak more specifically, naming places.

His understanding was fast.

And the lion mask, sensing again that I wasn’t lying, let his yellow eyes drop darker.

“A time loop... I’ve seen supernatural disasters like that a few times. The trendy thing these days... what do they call it? Route stories?”

“...Loop stories?”

“Ah, right. That.”

The lion-mask agent snickered, saying he had a friend who liked that kind of thing—then soon let out a deep sigh.

“But that still doesn’t add up! From what I see, this mess isn’t a disaster where you get trapped inside some haunted drama video!”

“.......”

He probably thought I wasn’t sane.

But that was fine. Better than being suspected of having ulterior motives.

So I shifted the topic.

“Were you originally from headquarters?”

“That’s right. That’s right. I’m Blue Dragon Team at headquarters.”

The lion-mask agent, who’d suddenly started speaking more casually, revealed his affiliation in an odd, plainspoken tone.

...A team that had already vanished.

“.......”

“Normally I handle different work rather than rescue, but sometimes I come out for support duty like this. They say if you stay too long in the workshop, you start to get stained.”

Wait—workshop?

I looked at the lion-mask agent again.

His speech.

His sense of smell.

The way he spoke about goblinfire....

“Is your main assignment... infiltrating the goblin workshop and living as if you’re a goblin?”

“...!”

A memory surfaced—faint as if it belonged to a long-ago world—from when I was a new hire at Daydream Inc.

The agent from the goblin workshop who put adhesive on my phone grip.

—Mister Kim. Looks like you’ve got something good!

But after I joined, I never saw him again.

I never even heard him mentioned.

If he was an agent, you’d expect him to return to his post—or at least for rumors to circulate.

Unless, maybe, he’d lost his original self—no longer able to return from “acting like a goblin.”

Like Team Leader Hong, who’d left half of himself at a high school, and like the elder of Black Turtle Team 1.

Right here.

An echo-like existence trapped in a catastrophic disaster.

“...How did you know?”

“...You may not remember, but we’ve met before.”

“Hm.”

The lion mask let out a lamenting sigh.

And....

“Understood.”

The pressure I’d felt from him eased, just a little.

“No wonder I couldn’t take off the lion mask. I was stained by the disaster!”

He said something serious in a serious tone while thumping the lion mask, but with that comical face, it only looked exaggerated.

That was how he was accepting it.

The possibility that he, too, might be trapped on May 4.

Hoo.

I held back a sigh of relief.

...Instead of panicking, this agent seemed to be thinking hard about something.

“So... you were going to Se-gwang Station to properly confirm what the hell is going on.”

“That’s right.”

“Then I want to go too, but I’ve got a job assigned to me.”

The lion-mask agent looked back.

At the citizens in panic on the train.

“Even if your story about the day repeating is true, and even if the disaster ends, it doesn’t mean anything if there aren’t any living citizens left when the day ends.”

“.......”

“Someone has to protect the citizens and rescue them.”

I nodded slowly.

“You’re right.”

This stop is Se-gwang, Se-gwang Station....

“...We’re here.”

“Yes.”

The lion mask listened to the announcement in silence, then finally held out a hand to me and said,

“Alright. Then let’s do our best from our own positions!”

Then he hurriedly added, exaggerating the words,

“And don’t go thinking your position is under Daydream Inc.’s tin-can bastard!”

No.

Without thinking, I said,

“...It’s not like everyone at Daydream Inc. is a bad person.”

“Then name one, at least!”

I barely stopped my eyes from turning toward Reporter Eun Haje.

Instead, something else came to mind.

If these agents were the people who came into the subway and took control of the citizens....

They might be connected to the train shelter, too.

“Do you know a Daydream Inc. employee named Lee Kangheon?”

“Lee Kangheon? Never heard that name in my life!”

“If you do meet him, I hope you won’t be hostile right away.”

“Are you acquainted?”

“...A little.”

Thinking of the note he’d left behind, I nodded with a faint smile.

“Mmm. I’ll keep it in mind!”

Only then did the lion mask lift his head away, and in a voice that sounded like laughter, he said—his speech pattern restored, too.

“Agent! If you go near Se-gwang Station, you’ll definitely meet this branch’s Black Turtle Team agents. Try working with them! I’m counting on you.”

It meant our conversation was over.

“Yes.”

In the train that was starting to slow, I bowed my head.

“Thank you.”

The lion mask’s yellow eyes looked at me oddly.

The doors will open on the left, left....

And before the doors finally opened, the agent held out a hand and said to me,

“Fellow agent, if you’re alright with it, should we exchange names? Agent names, I mean!”

The lion mask was smiling playfully.

“I’m Agent Chogae.”

...!!

“Agent?”

I barely managed to speak.

“...I don’t think I can tell you.”

“That happens!”

The lion mask tilted his head.

“Then if you’re ever in a pinch, you can use my agent name. Hahaha—free pass for today!”

“...!”

Beep beep beep beep beep...

With the chime, the doors opened.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, don’t mention it! Let’s hang in there.”

“...Yes.”

Gathering my party, I slipped out at Se-gwang Station—barely safely—avoiding the press of the crowd.

Beyond the closing screen doors and train doors, I could see the lion-mask agent waving at me while trying to control the noisy crowd.

The train departed.

“...Hoo.”

“You had a long, detailed talk. You get a good grasp on the situation?”

“Yes. It was a very helpful conversation.”

I wanted to force even a faint smile for Reporter Eun Haje, whose face screamed the moment there’s time, I’m stripping you for information.

But I couldn’t.

Because of the surroundings.

“Agent....”

There were already countless people at Se-gwang Station.

People sobbing, people vacant, people crushed to death under the tracks while trying to board.

As if a wave of chaos had already swept through, despair clung to the place—flattened and smeared into everything.

“.......”

I knew.

I knew that all of these people would remain trapped in the station without rescue, and in the end, every last one of them would hang themselves.

And I also knew I’d been strangled to death by a noose in the resulting urban legend.

“.......”

“This way.”

We moved carefully.

High schooler Ryu Jaegwan kept trying to clear a path up front, but I did my best to stay ahead and stop him.

Reporter Eun Haje, unlike Deputy Eun Haje, was the type to charge first as well, so in the end we surged back and forth, pushing forward like a sprint through the gaps in the refugees.

“...They’ve already blocked all the exits.”

I ran, looking with a creeping chill at the shuttered exits piled up with things.

People who’d left friends or acquaintances outside were wailing in front of them.

We crossed the concourse toward the platform on the opposite side—

“There’s no station staff here either.”

“.......”

There were plenty of people on the opposite platform too, but there were more bodies over here.

With no trains coming, it looked like they’d simply laid the dead here in a hurry—stacked like stored goods.

And....

“This is the place you ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) were looking for?”

The mechanical room.

Pleasant Research Institute’s entrance.

“...Yes.”

A place I’d never entered even once until now—and probably the “place we had to go” the Counseling Teacher had mentioned on disaster day.

Right now, I had no idea what was happening inside.

Holding my breath, I grabbed the doorknob—

then realized I had to unlock it first.

Ah.

I hurriedly rummaged through my tattoo, trying to check whether I had an ID card from a research staff member disguised as “subway staff.”

But at that moment—

Footsteps approached from behind.

Clear, fast footsteps—someone walking with purpose.

Coming straight toward us.

“Agent!”

“...!”

At Ryu Jaegwan’s urgent call, I turned my head.

And froze.

Someone in a white lab coat was striding toward us without hesitation, weaving through the corpses on the platform.

But....

There was no face.

Where a face should be was empty—an empty blackvoidyoucanseeandcantsee

“Wow.”

Wow?

That kind of admiration—does it fit? That thing... that thing doesn’t have a face.

What is that?

I reflexively tried to step back, then remembered there were people under my care and planted my foot hard.

Hold it.

And....

“What’s with a person looking like that.”

Exactly!

“He’s really handsome.”

.......

......!!

Wait.

With trembling eyes, I looked again at his lab coat.

...He’s wearing an ID badge.

Pleasant Researcher

Lee Jaheon

“Do you have authorization to enter the mechanical room?”

This is insane.