The smiles faded from the faces of the villagers who remained. They silently gathered up the broken cucumbers and carefully cleaned up.
As they brushed the dirt off the cucumbers, they kept muttering something.
“OChosenOnedeliveruntoustheblessingofJisanofthecountlesspeaks…”
That same prayer-like phrase from before.
“……”
I managed to tear my gaze away and kept walking.
“…This way.”
But do you know what the problem was?
Baek Saheon was also heading toward that very tiled-roof house.
‘Wait a sec.’No matter how I looked at it, was it really safe to go in there?
But since Agent Bronze was walking forward without hesitation, I didn’t try to escape.
‘…Agent Choi wouldn’t have lied in the tips section, would he?’
We approached the tiled-roof house.
“…Come in.”
The entrance was wide, and the wooden floor acting as a front hall was also broad.
But Baek Saheon, as if he disliked even stepping inside, carefully and quietly slipped off to the side and opened a side door.
But there was already someone standing there.
The middle-aged man with the megaphone from earlier.
“These guests will be staying here tonight.”
“Ah, come in, come in. Haha! Saheon-ah, take good care of them. No funny business.”
“……”
“May the fortune of Jisan be with you!”
Baek Saheon slowly nodded and led us inside.
The house was strangely large, with a repeating structure and paper sliding doors along the way…
A hallway lined with old wooden doors appeared.
Creak.
Baek Saheon opened one of them.
Inside was a small, lived-in single room.
There was one neatly folded bedding set and another set that looked hastily pulled out, covered in dust.
“Please sleep here.”
“Isn’t this your room? Where are you going to sleep?”
“……”
With an expression that said, ‘What a useless question,’ Baek Saheon turned sharply and opened another door for Assistant Manager Eun Haje. Then he disappeared down the hallway.
“He’s not even giving us what we paid for, huh.”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje shrugged and spoke to me in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Well then, have a good night. Let’s see each other tomorrow if we get the chance.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
I watched Assistant Manager Eun Haje enter the next room.
……Without a doubt, she must have recognized Baek Saheon. But she didn’t acknowledge him. She knew she wouldn’t be recognized herself.
‘She knows a lot about this ghost story.’
It meant she had come here with a clear purpose as well.
And Assistant Manager Eun Haje…… is part of Director Ho’s project team.
‘…What exactly is happening here?’
Given what Director Ho was demanding, which was an annihilation-sanctioned supernatural disaster, I couldn’t help but form a few guesses. No, if it were still from before, I certainly would have, but…
“……”
I’m tired.
Of everything.
I should just focus on the Wish Ticket…
“Agent Grapes.”
“……”
“Do you remember what you have to do?”
“Yes.”
This ‘Jisan-so Offering Ritual.’
When a rescue request comes in, the branch uses the supernatural phenomenon auto-responder to give the rescuee a location and time to meet.
So, go to the place we were given by the branch first.
“This is it.”
Agent Bronze showed me a note.
1AM
Village well
* * *After midnight, the tile-roofed house fell completely silent.
Agent Bronze and I slipped quietly out of our rooms and walked softly.
– As long as you’re not at the village guardian shrine after midnight, you’re relatively safe to move around.
– Still, don’t make loud noises on purpose!
“The well is to the east.”
We crossed the dark rural village, where only a few streetlights glimmered here and there, until we reached a place that looked like abandoned houses, as if everyone had left.
In the center was the well.
There, standing in front of the stone-covered well as if keeping watch, was… Baek Saheon.
“…!!”
His single eye turned to us and he spoke quietly.
“Are you really agents?”
In the next instant.
Agent Bronze lunged and restrained Baek Saheon.
– If you get caught by a villager late at night, hide as quickly and quietly as possible.
If that’s not possible, you ask?
Subdue them and hide them in an abandoned house!
And just as Agent Bronze was about to drag Baek Saheon roughly into an abandoned house—
“Hey! Isn’t it wrong for government employees to treat an informant like this?!”
“……!”
Agent Bronze’s arm paused.
“You’re the informant?”
“Yes! I’m the one who reported this!”
As Baek Saheon tried and failed to shake off Agent Bronze’s hold, he glanced at us and hurriedly lowered his voice.
“Please get me out of this village. …Tonight.”
“This sounds like a trap.”
Agent Bronze immediately said this to me in front of him.
“Villagers can leave at any time after the festival ends. There’s no reason they’d need help—”
“I can’t leave!”
Baek Saheon panted.
He searched our faces desperately, then swallowed hard and said,
“…Check my pocket.”
“……”
I reached into Baek Saheon’s pants pocket.
What I found inside was…
A lottery stick, the tip gilded in gold.
The special prize.
“I-I drew it on the first day…”
– Unfortunately, there’s never been a case where a villager was successfully rescued from the supernatural influence during the festival period.
If it were the rookie agent I’d picked for my team, he’d probably want to try rescuing that person at least once, so let me say this in advance.
– Hoobae-nim. Your sunbaes will be the ones to try that, so you don’t do it. If an agent tries to leave Jisan Village with a villager during the festival period…
“Get me out of here, please!”
– The agent will disappear too.
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