The Bronze Agent being dragged away by the employees.
I could picture that future in my head all too easily.
Because I had seen a very similar case on the very first day.
-Aaagh! Aaaaagh!
Just thinking of that “supply” being ground alive in the mixer still made cold sweat run down my spine.
And now to think that the veteran agent I had spent the last three days desperately searching for might have met that same fate.
The high schooler the Bronze Agent had been responsible for described what had happened as though vomiting it back up.
“At f-first, I felt a little relieved….”
On the first day, it seemed the agent had moved with the rescue target, placed him inside the tent in this section, then “cleared” the surrounding area and made some kind of arrangements.
The disturbance began on the second day.
“Originally… um, over there. That side.”
“…You mean us?”
“Yes. I think he was trying to find you.”
But instead of finding me, the Bronze Agent ended up finding something else.
“H-he, h-he came out…!”
He?
Everyone turned to look in the direction the high schooler was pointing, but there was nothing there except tent fabric.
“Ugh!”
Then the kid stood up, went outside the tent, and opened the flap of the neighboring tent.
And inside, lying there in a school uniform, was a person….
“…?!”
“Lee Subin!”
The high schooler I had been in charge of shot to their feet and ran to that tent, then turned back to me and spoke urgently.
“T-that’s him! The one we were looking for! Lee Subin!”
Ah.
The friend who had disappeared first, the one these high schoolers had come looking for.
“S-Subin?”
The high schooler called to their friend several times in a row.
But “Lee Subin” didn’t react. He lay there in the tent staring blankly into the air with his mouth…