Chapter 69: The End of the Ghost Story (2)

Han-su wanted to make his own limitations clear, regardless of anything like pride.

"Su-myeon, ......Chief, you're overestimating me."

Of course, Su-myeon had his own reasons for trusting him.

The ghost stories he had encountered in the form of a game.

Setting aside whether that really was a game or not, Han-su was none other than the protagonist of the main story.

Han-su himself had no way of knowing that, but he possessed that much resourcefulness and ability.

Still, hearing the man himself say something like that left Su-myeon feeling a little strange.

And once that uncomfortable title was added on top of it, he felt as though the gimbap he had been eating had gotten stuck in his throat.

"For now, I understand what you're saying."

Su-myeon swallowed a mouthful of ramyeon broth with a sigh and nodded.

Maybe he had been using Han-su as though he were something to be exploited.

Because of his experience with the almost paranormal 'UTG game,' there had certainly been times when he had looked at Han-su not as a person, but as a character he could make use of.

Even if all of that had come from his belief that Han-su would be able to handle it, it had still been rude.

Once that thought occurred to him, Su-myeon felt a little sorry toward Han-su.

From Han-su's perspective, he had gone from being an ordinary police officer to becoming a member of this bizarre organization.

If Su-myeon simply threw a set of safety rules at him and left him to survive on his own, he was probably still nothing but confused.

"Let's not bother calling each other by titles like that among ourselves. Unless it's actually some kind of official situation......."

Would an organization this unusual ever even have anything that could be called an official situation?

In the end, they were probably just going to play at being a deadly serious special agency among themselves.

Su-myeon felt as though these awkward titles fit him like clothes that didn't belong to him.

But setting that aside, he wanted to take some of the burden off Han-su.

If Han-su ended up quitting over something like this, Su-myeon would be the one in serious trouble.

"We're all risking our lives together... because there's someone we want to find, and that's why we're cooperating, aren't we?"

It was morning....

No, broad daylight, and yet Su-myeon suddenly felt like having a bottle of soju.

For Su-myeon, even reality itself had become one continuous stretch of unreality.

To the point that distinguishing what was real and what wasn't had become almost meaningless.

But even so, the people living alongside him were real.

Inside ghost stories and in reality alike. Humans, at least, were beings that possessed a truth of their own, as distinct as their individual causality.

"You can just speak casually to me too. I mean... aren't I a lot younger than you?"

"......Then."

Han-su seemed to think for a moment before answering Su-myeon's attempt to lighten the mood.

"You can call me casually too."

Seriously, the guy was stiff.

Su-myeon let out a small laugh at his plain response and nodded.

"Yeah, all right. Han-su hyung."

It felt awkward for no particular reason, but it wasn't bad.

Almost like they had become something closer to real comrades.

"......And I'm not that much older than you."

At Han-su's quiet addition, Su-myeon nearly spat out the ramyeon he was eating.

Come to think of it, there was only a three-year difference between them.

Sitting around having a conversation like this between two grown men suddenly felt a little embarrassing.

Su-myeon needlessly stuffed a large bite of the remaining food into his mouth.

After finishing a hearty meal, the two headed to the Governance together.

***

Ju-hee had been on the phone with Hyeon-seok since morning while getting ready for work.

She too had barely managed to get home the previous day thanks to Hwi-yeon driving her.

And now, while Ju-hee bustled around saying she was going to work in that condition, Hyeon-seok was trying to stop her.

"Ah, I told you, I'm really fine."

If this had been her old company, she would probably have been putting on stockings and a skirt while glaring into her closet in search of a blouse that wasn't wrinkled.

But things were different here.

What she wore hardly mattered, and the work itself was of a much more rewarding kind.

Separate from how grueling the job was, Ju-hee liked things better now.

"You don't have to get involved in things like that anymore, do you?"

At the voice of her younger brother coming from the phone she had put on speaker, Ju-hee frowned.

Picking up something that was closer to a padded jacket than a proper jacket, Ju-hee snatched up the phone as though someone might overhear them and lowered the volume.

"I can't do that. I'm the only one here who still has someone missing...!"

How could she shamelessly walk away from this now?

At Ju-hee's words, Hyeon-seok answered coldly.

"That high school kid found the person he was looking for and left. And do you really think Su-myeon is the kind of person who'd blame someone for doing that?"

Hyeon-seok was only pointing out the facts, but Ju-hee shot back.

"He's a high school student! I'm an adult."

If they were talking about conscience and basic decency, Ju-hee wasn't exactly wrong.

But the unusual nature of dealing with ghost stories was far beyond something that could be judged by ordinary morality alone.

It was work that meant staking one's life, so the weight of it was different. Even if someone quit because they didn't want to die, they could hardly be blamed for it.

Of course, people might feel disappointed, but that would only be a matter of emotion.

No one could call Ju-hee immoral for leaving.

And yet.

"...You're really going to keep doing it?"

For nothing more than that?

At Hyeon-seok's voice coming from the speaker, Ju-hee couldn't answer for a moment.

His point was valid too.

Ju-hee wasn't continuing this work simply because of her conscience.

Hidden beneath it was a true desire that, in a way, was closer to greed.

So what if I quit this job now? I'm supposed to just become an office worker again?

"...."

Ju-hee felt a little embarrassed by the thought that flashed through her mind.

She had thought she was already past the age of being swept away by emotions and impulses, but apparently she wasn't.

She had genuinely become invested in entering ghost stories, rescuing people, and exploring the unknown.

It was frightening and exhausting, but the sense of fulfillment and the results that followed were greater still.

On top of that, there were even special companions who shared secrets with her.

At this point, Ju-hee couldn't imagine leaving this life behind and returning to her ordinary routine.

Once she admitted to that embarrassingly emotional truth, she found herself wanting to get to work even faster.

"...You got plenty out of all this yourself, so you're one to talk."

At Ju-hee's eventual retort, Hyeon-seok sighed.

He had only been trying to stop her because he was worried about his family, but just as Ju-hee said, he had benefited considerably himself.

With the wealth of a major conglomerate behind him, after being rescued from White Night Land, he had received follow-up treatment in a somewhat different direction from the other survivors.

A state agency had contacted him directly.

'How real and how important are these anomalous phenomena called ghost stories?'

Hyeon-seok had decided to go all in for the people trying to determine that.

There was astronomical value hidden in the special phenomenon known as ghost stories.

How many figures from political and business circles might be among the countless people who had fallen into them and disappeared?

Along with arguments like that, Hyeon-seok donated an enormous amount of funding.

The establishment of the Governance was the direct result of Hyeon-seok's active support and backing.

The reason the Governance had been created so quickly, and why Su-myeon had been elevated to a position without much opposition, was largely because of him.

No matter how much it was a government rescue organization, there was no such thing as operating without money or vested interests.

"In the end, you got connections out of it."

The government had agreed to look after Hyeon-seok, who was funding the Governance.

As long as Su-myeon continued attempting actual rescue operations through the Governance and succeeding at them.

The significance and weight of that role would only continue to grow.

With the state quietly helping Hyeon-seok's business, even the previously deadlocked succession structure of the family business had begun to tilt in his favor.

For Hyeon-seok, Su-myeon had done far more than simply save his life.

"The company doesn't really need me anymore anyway, and I'm more useful here."

At least that much, Ju-hee could say with certainty.

Even if her role wasn't perfect, Su-myeon had trusted her enough to leave his back to her.

Couldn't working alongside him, as a member of Hyeon-seok's family, be considered one way of repaying that debt?

"At the very least, I'm not quitting until I see his parents come back. So don't say anything else about it."

How many people in this era would ever know the feeling of standing back to back with someone and facing an enemy?

Ju-hee would never forget the pounding of her heart in that moment for as long as she lived.

Even if that lifetime were to end tomorrow inside a ghost story.

"...At least if something happens to me, there are plenty of people who'll remember me."

Hyeon-seok, who had already crossed through a ghost story himself, would remember her too.

And most of her colleagues at the Governance would remember that a person named Ju-hee had existed and had been there with them.

For Ju-hee, that was enough.

Once she went that far, even Hyeon-seok could no longer stop her.

"All right. Take care."

With that small farewell, the call ended.

Ju-hee looked at her phone for a moment, then put on sneakers instead of high heels ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) and left the house.

***

After yawning around twenty times beside Han-su as he drove, Su-myeon finally made it to work and was slightly surprised by what he saw in the office.

"When did you get here? Are you feeling all right?"

Ju-hee had been at work since morning, writing a report.

Sweeping back her naturally disheveled hair, Ju-hee greeted him with a light smile.

"Of course. I wasn't injured anywhere to begin with."

The report she had written neatly organized the plans and actions Su-myeon and Ju-hee had carried out together.

"I think the two of you only need to add what happened before you joined up with me."

But something about the contents felt subtly different.

The previous reports had been divided into individual sections because the purpose had been to select and extract safety rules from them.

This time, however, it was simply a chronological listing of events.

"This."

You're not telling me to reorganize all of this again, are you?

At Su-myeon's words, Ju-hee closed her mouth for a moment.

"Um, well...."

Just before her hesitation could start to frustrate him—

Mi-ae shot her hand into the air.

"I'll explain!"

At the strange atmosphere, Su-myeon nodded, and Mi-ae continued.

"We closed out the rules for The Witch's Forest as a concluded case, so now you only need to submit a situation report!"

......They decided it was concluded? On their own?

Of course, Su-myeon had acted hoping for exactly that outcome, but he had no idea how one was supposed to prove that a ghost story had actually ended.

What had everyone used as grounds to reach that conclusion while he wasn't even here?

When Su-myeon gave her an incredulous look, Mi-ae began reciting the evidence.

"Thirty-seven skeletal remains believed to belong to people who went missing in the ghost story you entered were discovered in Room 404."

"What?"

"Yep! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. And based on Agent Go's report, we've concluded that those bodies were likely all of the survivors who remained inside the ghost story."

Thirty-seven skeletal remains.

Agent Go Ju-hee's report.

Su-myeon had a pretty good idea what that meant too.

Because he and Ju-hee had ended the lives of the survivors who had still been living as dead bodies by the lakeside.

He hadn't counted them exactly, but if they were all added together, thirty-seven sounded about right.

"Some of the bodies still had their hands preserved, so we've already identified four of them!"

Mi-ae's explanation was concise.

There was no emotion in her voice, which made it easy to understand, though it still took some time to actually absorb.

"And ever since Chief and the others returned, we've suddenly received dozens of delayed missing-person reports from around Seoul."

"We believe they're probably relatives or acquaintances of those skeletons. And...."

Hwi-yeon added the final point and suddenly handed Su-myeon a pouch.

Something heavy inside made a jingling sound.

"There were 111 of those coins scattered beneath the skeletons."

They were Rose Coins.

As Su-myeon felt the weight of causality in his hand, he began to understand the situation to some extent.

The Witch's Forest had lost all of its causality and disappeared.

There was enough circumstantial evidence to reasonably make that assumption.

Once Su-myeon, Ju-hee, and Han-su—the last living survivors remaining inside—escaped through the staircase, the ghost story had closed.

And as a result, every corpse left behind inside the ghost story had crossed over into reality.

Once the explanation was over, Su-myeon noticed the complicated expression on Hwi-yeon's face.

Dozens of corpses.

A ghost story that had lost its physical existence.

She looked unsure whether this was something they should be happy about or not.

"Anyway, isn't this a good thing?"

In that atmosphere, Mi-ae alone spoke up as though she couldn't understand why everyone looked so conflicted.

"Detectives are happy when they catch the culprit in a murder case. How is this any different?"

It did feel as though she could say that so easily because she had never entered a ghost story herself.

But when you really thought about it, she wasn't wrong.

The incident had already happened, and they had brought it to an end.

They had restored a place in reality for the people who had disappeared and made it possible for their families to find them again, so what they had done certainly had meaning.

Su-myeon nodded.

"Everyone worked hard. It may not be an easy method... but at least we've found a way."

An extremely straightforward way to bring a ghost story to an end.

Make sure there were no living humans with causality left inside it.

As the solemn atmosphere loosened, however faintly, into something closer to hope, Hwi-yeon spoke again.

"And the survivors you brought back are very curious about you, Chief. How about meeting them once?"