Chapter 344

I looked at Researcher Lee Jaheon—no... Section Chief Lee Jaheon.

He didn’t look like a lizard anymore, but even so, I naturally imagined those reptilian slit pupils.

"...Since when did you remember?"

"? I always remembered."

In an instant, an enormous wave of relief spread through me—and I almost burst out laughing.

"I see...."

The tension drained out of my shoulders.

Phew....

Maybe I’d been under a much heavier pressure than I’d realized.

Being dropped into an unfamiliar time with not a single familiar face, and trying on my own to save acquaintances who had no memories.

...It must have been hard.

[Mr. Noru....]

[However, strictly speaking, you weren’t alone. Your friend was always with you, comforting and guiding you with witty remarks.]

Th-there is that.

Thanks.

[Oh, think nothing of it!]

Let’s not say something like, What I meant was acquaintances with physical form, and then have the host pop out going, Oh, understood perfectly!

I decided to enjoy this relief, even if only briefly.

It meant I didn’t have to do the rescuing alone—there was someone who could cooperate with me to save other people.

And besides.

Come to think of it, it’s more natural that Section Chief Lee Jaheon has his memories, just like I do.

Because he’d fallen into this place under conditions that weren’t all that different from mine.

We both got out of the loop and then... well, we died.

Did I really have to put on that whole show at the door with an ID card....

Feeling a little embarrassed, I was about to quickly rewind that part in my head when—

"Then I will state again."

"Yes?"

"Attempts to go to the surface floors here, including the rooftop of Se-gwang City Hall, are not recommended."

...!

Like being splashed with cold water, my mind snapped back to the situation.

The Counseling Teacher had suggested we go to the rooftop....

And the Section Chief cut it off.

When I turned, the sacred being was smiling as he looked at the researcher.

"Do you have the right to say that?"

"A recommendation does not require qualifications."

But the Counseling Teacher didn’t ask some empty question like, Oh, were you two acquainted?

He simply ignored Lee Jaheon’s words in silence, focused on me, walked up, and with his one remaining hand, clasped both of my hands like a friendly older relative.

Then he spoke softly.

"Agent."

...While looking at his own agent jacket I was wearing.

"In truth, my jacket wasn’t at a Bureau branch. It was in the counseling office."

......!!

He knows I lied.

It couldn’t mean anything else.

But there was no hostility in the Counseling Teacher’s eyes.

If anything, there was an inexplicable goodwill.

"Yet I can feel my consciousness from you...."

"......"

"Have you ever been counseled by me?"

Ah.

I nodded slowly.

He smiled faintly.

"I thought so. But I remember every client I’ve counseled, and strangely, I can’t remember you."

"......"

"You helped me from the very beginning. So perhaps... you’re an existence that some version of me arranged for my own sake, long ago. That thought occurred to me...."

......

"If that’s the case, would you be willing to help me?"

I lifted my head and looked at the Counseling Teacher.

At Hoyuwon’s face.

"...You want to go to the city hall rooftop and search for your fox marble? Betting on the chance it was used in the experiment there?"

"Yes."

"You can’t guarantee what it looks like up there right now."

"Yes."

I took a deep breath.

"...If Se-gwang Special City’s surface has become a place where anomalous phenomena can’t exist, then you might not be able to exist there, either."

"......"

The Counseling Teacher fell silent for a moment, then spoke.

"Even so, I don’t want to turn back while there’s still a method I can try."

"......"

"Outside, someone is probably struggling with everything they have to rescue citizens and bring this disaster to an end. I have to try, too."

Ha.

Seriously....

Pressing my fingers to my eyes, I said,

"I’ll go with you."

"...!"

A smile spread across the Counseling Teacher’s face.

"Thank you."

"Mr. Noru."

Wait.

"Section Chief."

As if I were grabbing and steadying a Pleasant Research Institute researcher, I spoke vaguely to Section Chief Lee Jaheon.

"I think we need to find out how Director Ho came to be."

"That means...."

"Yes. The meaning you’re guessing."

Please don’t make subject-inference remarks in front of the Counseling Teacher that make the entire meaning obvious.

Instead, I spoke vaguely again.

"Maybe... we can prevent the tragedy that will happen afterward."

"......"

If we succeeded in retrieving the orb, maybe we really could stop this disaster day and bring the urban legend to an end.

Even if not, we might get information or a hint.

"And I have something to ask of you, Section Chief."

I couldn’t see Lee Jaheon’s face, but I swallowed.

"I want you to get the other two people on our exploration team out."

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!

The fire alarm blared intermittently again.

I turned urgently to the other two.

"Agent...!"

"Student Jaegwan. Listen carefully."

Grabbing his shoulders, I said,

"Once you’re out, get on a train and go to the farthest station from here. Exit there, and go outside together with that researcher. Got it?"

"...What?"

"He’s someone you can trust. He’ll protect you both, no matter what."

"......"

All kinds of questions seemed to rise in the high schooler’s eyes, but in the end, he asked quietly.

"Then, Agent... does that mean you won’t come with us?"

"It’s fine. I’ll follow later."

"How exactly do you plan to escape later...?"

"That isn’t something you need to worry about. Focus on your own safety more than an adult’s, understood?"

"......"

But instead of answering, the high school student, Bronze Agent Ryu Jaegwan, stared at me like a block of wood.

My impatience spiked.

"Jaegwan...."

"Do we really need to do that?"

Reporter Eun Haje cut in.

And as if taking Ryu Jaegwan’s side, he spoke.

"From what that researcher said earlier, it sounds like the subway station is safe. Then we can just wait there."

Ah.

"Well, we can take a quick look around to see if there’s anything else to find, then go out right away. And I want to get a few station interviews too."

After some thought, I nodded.

The people who had evacuated into Se-gwang Station stayed alive at least until they fell into despair that no rescue was coming.

Either way, most crowded places in Se-gwang City are probably already contaminated.

No matter which station it was, the area around it would be a hellscape—so it might even be safer if I joined up and left together.

Even more so if the Counseling Teacher was with us.

We have to go and come back before this corridor is swallowed by the fire.

My mind was in a hurry.

"......All right. But if I can’t come before this place burns down, you have to move first. I’ll get to the subway some other way."

"......"

Reporter Eun Haje seemed like he’d already noticed my face-saving line, but he simply nodded.

But he didn’t miss this.

"By the way, how do you know that handsome guy? You didn’t recognize him earlier."

"...He looked different when I met him."

Aaaagh.

Vaguely smoothing it over for the puzzled reporter, I moved toward the approaching Section Chief.

And once more, I said firmly.

"We’re going up."

"I see."

Section Chief Lee Jaheon went quiet for a moment as if thinking, then pulled something from his pocket and held it out.

"Take it."

It was a button-shaped item... no, wait.

This is "We Help"?!

Why do you have this... ?

Wait.

...In the first place, why is Section Chief Lee Jaheon here as a Pleasant Research Institute researcher?

I’d woken up in Se-gwang Special City as someone from the profession I used to work in. Which meant....

Lowering my voice so no one else could hear, I asked.

"Section Chief. In the past... were you ever a Pleasant Research Institute researcher?"

"Yes."

...!!

"I’ll correct that. It wasn’t Section Chief Lee Jaheon. However, 'we' were, at one time."

What does that mean?

But the moment I saw the "We Help" button in his hand, one memory flashed through me.

-Is the reason for purchase the purpose of escaping to a safe location from your current coordinate position? This is not recommended.

-There is a record of failing to escape.

"...Did someone among the Pleasant Research Institute staff try to use this button to escape, and fail?"

"Yes."

......

"Are you currently... fulfilling that role?"

"Yes."

...I see.

Looking at Section Chief Lee Jaheon with no face, I made a guess without meaning to.

Could the unit that came out after receiving the researcher’s call back then have also been the Section Chief?

"At the time, the rescue request activated three days after the disaster date. Considering the difference in environmental conditions, use in the current situation is recommended."

Right. Since this was the day the incident broke out, the situation could be different.

"...Thank you."

I bowed my head and took the item. Section Chief Lee Jaheon nodded.

Without thinking, I asked,

"Then... what does 'we' think about this situation?"

"I do not know."

...?

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

"...!"

The fire alarm blared again.

"If you’ve decided, you must move quickly. The probability that the time remaining until the fire spreads to this floor is under forty minutes is high."

Swallowing, I nodded.

"Let’s go."

I looked at the Counseling Teacher holding out his hand.

Inside his grip, I saw small red berries.

"......"

I took them and swallowed one.

"If you feel dizzy or feel a strange impulse, take more immediately."

"...Yes."

And so the group split in two.

Lee Jaheon, Eun Haje, and Ryu Jaegwan went to the subway entrance.

And we....

"I see the elevator."

To the emergency stairs.

"......"

The elevator still looked intact. It shimmered with a magically dazzling appearance, but if we rode it, it would only take us to a hell of fire.

So we opened the emergency stairwell door beside the elevator.

Creeeeak.

The door opened with a strained sound, as if it hadn’t been used often, and the stairwell revealed itself.

It looked like an ordinary, old emergency stairwell.

And in the middle of the landing, it said—

[B3]

"I understand this institute core floor’s emergency stairs were designed, just in case, to connect immediately to city hall."

"......"

"So from here on, it’s a real space—without the flashy anomalous phenomena like the institute."

In other words, it also meant we’d already stepped onto the third basement floor of Se-gwang City Hall.

I took a deep breath.

"...Confirmed."

I turned my smartphone off.

Indoors, the radius was too narrow anyway—dodging with disaster alerts would be meaningless.

"In a place like this, the right way is to see with your eyes, listen for signs, and avoid. If we’re going straight to the rooftop through the emergency stairs, there’s also a chance we won’t encounter any entities at all."

"I see. You’re skilled."

"...Thank you."

I took the lead and began climbing the stairs.

At a slightly faster pace.

Step, step.

Until we left the basement levels, there was no sign of anything.

Only the sound of me and the Counseling Teacher walking.

"......"

[1F]

Soon, we entered the surface floors.

Step, step.

The stairwell was strangely quiet, and now it was even bright with sunlight pouring in from outside.

It almost felt like we’d come in together after lunch to take a walk and exercise.

Step, step.

...Splat.

I stopped.

"Just now."

"I’m fine."

...Behind me.

I heard something melt and fall to the floor.

A sound I’d heard before.

...When I’d cut off Hoyuwon’s hand.

That hand had sagged and dropped to the floor with a similar bursting sound....

"Right now, you—"

"Don’t look back."

"......"

I stopped my head.

As long as I didn’t turn around, the only thing I could confirm from behind was the Counseling Teacher’s calm voice.

It continued.

"If you don’t mind, could you keep talking with me as we walk?"

"...Yes."

I took a deep breath and started walking again.

Step, step.

"Is there anything you’ve been curious about?"

I swallowed.

If I had to find a topic....

"...What exactly is nine-fox disease?"

"You know that too? That is... one of the methods I use to treat my clients."

The voice behind me brightened slightly.

"Do you know about the role-reversal technique used in counseling?"

"...You mean the thing where people in group counseling take on someone else’s role and talk, so they can understand each other more deeply... that?"

The Counseling Teacher’s voice laughed warmly.

"You know it well. Exactly. It helps make that technique smoother."

"I see."

"Of course, in the past it really was an illness. More like a scheme for eating people’s livers...."

Splat.

The sound of a huge mass falling.

"...!"

Gripping the handrail, I barely managed not to look back.

The pouring sound, the sound of someone misstepping and staggering, and the vibration traveled through the handrail.

Th-this....

"Don’t look back."

"......"

"Keep walking."

This won’t work.

It really does seem like he’s disappearing because he’s an anomalous phenomenon.

Then—then....

...!

As I moved my steps again, slowly, I spoke in the most casual tone I could manage.

Cold sweat dripped from my chin.

"You have a lot of counseling techniques. You really are an impressive counselor."

What about the opposite?

Instead of talking about anomalous phenomena, I kept talking about a realistic identity.

"You were popular at school too, weren’t you, counseling everyone?"

"Ha-ha...."

"It’s hard to find a good counselor. Later, if you open an office, give me a business card, Counselor."

Step, step.

"That’s right.... I’m a counselor. A counselor. Counsel...or."

Splat.

Something fell again. Tension shot up to the tips of my hair, but....

This time, it ended there.

Hurry.

Next.

Next, something even more grounded about his identity....

Ah.

"That’s right. You’re a counselor."

"......"

"A very capable counselor. Your name is...."

So.

"Your name is Hoyuwon."

"Was it?"

"It is."

"Nice. Is it Ho as in protect, Yu as in clear, and Won as in help? 'Protecting the heart, reflecting it clearly like a mirror, and helping people.' That’s a very counselor-like name."

"...Yes."

Step, step.

"It truly is. Mr. Hoyuwon. A young counselor living in Se-gwang Special City—what a good name you have."

"Ha-ha-ha... thank you."

I kept walking.

...Now, I couldn’t hear anything behind me melting and splattering onto the floor.

Only our footsteps.

"......"

I let out a small, but deep, sigh of relief.

And then—

[12F]

"It’s the top floor."

The end was in sight.

I climbed one more level in the bright emergency stairwell, toward a landing with no floor number posted at all.

[Rooftop Access Door]

And gripping the door....

"Let’s go."

I opened the rooftop door.