I swallowed.
The numinous, terrifying face of the lion mask was staring at me.
Its 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 different traditions depending on the region… and one of them is driving away evil spirits.”
“……”
The lion mask’s mane spilled down over my shoulder.
It felt as though the mask might open its snout at any moment, baring rows of sharp teeth.
“Wouldn’t harming civilians after being possessed by Kkwangcheol count as an evil spirit too~?”
I watched that chilling thing come closer.
Watched it, and then…
“…No.”
I answered.
“I have no intention of pretending to be an agent and stirring up chaos in the middle of a large-scale disaster like this.”
“Oho.”
“And I believe you already know I’m innocent, Agent.”
“Why do you think that?”
The lion mask tilted its head, and its mane slid down my back.
The sensation was cold and strange.
A drop of cold sweat ran down the back of my neck.
‘I need to organize this properly.’
Suppressing my anxiety as much as I could, I spoke as calmly as possible.
“If you believed I was innocent, that’s why you lent me agent equipment, isn’t it?”
“…!”
“If I were suspicious, you wouldn’t have given me equipment that could help me escape. Would you?”
I barely managed to move just my eyes and check on my companions.
Apparently assuming I was having ‘a conversation between agents,’ the two of them were looking around at the devastation nearby instead of this way, without any particular suspicion.
“If you truly can distinguish wicked things by scent, Agent, then you should know that I have neither malice nor guilt in me.”
Maybe he had looked at those people I was trying to rescue, and at the way I treated them… and judged me sincere.
‘Please.’
Trying to relax the tension that made my hands feel as if they might curl in on themselves, I…