Chapter 035
An abandoned house where one was trapped after being bewitched by a changgwi.
Is anyone there…?
Once again, someone called out to a person from outside the front door of the abandoned house.
This time, it was a low male voice.
“N-no…! Wh-who on earth….”
The manager clamped a hand over his mouth and cried out.
Please open the door….
“……”
“A d-dead person, who is it? Who came? Huuugh… l-let’s run! Let’s run away!”
It’s so cold out here.
Hmm.
“Th-this time I absolutely won’t answ— uuuurgh??”
I walked over to the door.
And pulled the doorknob.
“Ueoeohhk?!”
What appeared when the door opened was….
“Wow, I thought I was going to die…. Thank you…….”
A perfectly normal human in an old navy uniform, with a slim build and light-colored hair.
“…!?”
“Manager Lee Byeongjin, say hello.”
I gave a crisp nod.
“This is the captain of Guard Team 3.”
“……??? …?!”
That’s right.
The very captain of Guard Team 3 who had been sucked into the Ghost Story with me.
His face is about to explode.
Manager Lee Byeongjin, his face bright red, pointed back and forth between me and the guard captain, then startled himself, bent his own finger back, and let out a bizarre groan.
“Wh-why… h-how…?!”
Why, what else.
*You told me yourself…. *
“Every single day like that, it comes once in the voice of dead family members, friends, neighbors…!”
You said it came once a night.
For the record, something similar is written outright in Darkness Exploration Record too.
When one is dragged into the abandoned house, each night the changgwi comes to the door and begs in the voice of a dead loved one, tormenting the victim with mental anguish and confusion.
‘Every day’ means the cycle is one day long.
But I couldn’t exactly say, “There is a magical record that supports your statement,” now could I.
“Instinct.”
“……”
For some reason, the manager ended up looking dazed.
Anyway, I was right, so please just let it go.
In the meantime, after confirming that the guard captain had come inside the abandoned house, I immediately shut the door and secured the handle.
Just looking outside sent chills down my spine.
“Thank you…….”
“It was nothing.”
I was honestly dumbfounded as to how this man had managed not to get dragged off by the changgwi and had made it safely all the way to the front door of this house….
Well… he is Guard Team.
What was even more surprising was that the guard captain wasn’t alone.
He was supporting someone.
“…And that person?”
The captain answered brightly.
“Look, I found the missing person!”
“……The missing person is this man.”
“Oh. I got mixed up….”
“……”
They’re a different gender to begin with.
I checked the person the guard captain had flung down onto the floor.
She was a stranger.
She was in an extremely bedraggled state, and without caring whether there were people present or not, she collapsed in the abandoned house and started wailing.
“Huuuuuh, it’s all over. It’s all over!”
“She kept doing that. Oh, this place is better……. I woke up in some kind of shaman house or something…. It was cold and dark and damp, so I didn’t like it there.”
“Aaaagh!”
“……”
What a mess.
All I’d wanted was a simple, sane colleague….
*I miss you, superiors of Group D…. *
Still, I took a closer look at the person crying her eyes out. She was wearing a filthy white lab coat, and there was a name tag pinned to her chest.
[Go Seonha]
Huh?
I immediately pulled out the small business card.
The one that had been tucked into the old book titled Path to Survival.
Go Seonha
Department of History, Jugang University
On the back, it had said, Leaving tomorrow.
“If you are the person this business card belongs to, did you test the contents of the book?”
“Hhk….”
The woman nodded.
“Yes…. But it’s all useless.”
“Wh-what? Wait! U-useless? What do you mean by that….”
“I mean exactly what I said.”
With a gloomy expression, Go Seonha pulled something out from her clothes.
“That’s—”
“If you go out from here and walk about a hundred steps, there’s a shrine just like the book says… that’s probably the ‘spirit shrine’ the book is talking about.”
“……”
“And this is a copy of the wooden plaque there.”
Go Seonha glanced at me with a tired face.
“From the look of it, you read that book properly too. …Do you happen to study Korean history? This was written in a style from several hundred years ago….”
No. I just have a monster friend….
“A-anyway!! Then, if so, d-doesn’t that mean all we have to do is follow what’s written on the wooden plaque?! Why do you keep crying and saying it’s all hopeless and not possi—”
“Because it’s impossible!!”
“…!”
“Mister, I’m not an idiot. I tried to do exactly what was written on the plaque. I got the three pickled plums, crushed them in a cup, scattered them outside, all of that. I did everything! I did all of it, but….”
“……”
Go Seonha caught her breath while staring into empty space, then held up the back of the paper as if shoving it in our faces.
“Read that.”
Brown, catching on, began reading it aloud.
“‘Prepare a melody to offer to Sangun. The more widely known it is in the world, the better its effect. Write down the lyrics and place them in the incense altar, and sing at full voice, clapping with each step and bowing once every thirty steps.’”
“A melody to offer to Sangun….”
“Exactly! That!”
Go Seonha asked, her eyes flashing wildly,
“Sangun is a tiger, right! So what comes to mind immediately? A melody related to tigers, praising tigers, anything, whether it’s a children’s song or a folk song.”
“Th-that would be…….”
Manager Lee Byeongjin began speaking haltingly.
“‘San-jung, hogeolira haneun…’”
“‘When it becomes Tiger Lord’s birthday,’ yes, that one! I thought of that too. So I was going to use it, but….”
Go Seonha lowered her head heavily.
“……You can’t use a melody that’s already been used.”
“…!”
“The space under the incense altar was already full of sheets of used lyrics! Of course ‘Sanjung Hoga’ was among them too……!”
Good heavens.
“‘Sangun is capricious and enjoys melodies, and thus does not receive the same offering twice’— no, sure, in folktales tigers smoke and dance and all that, but this kind of… this kind of thing!!”
Go Seonha shouted into the air as if breathing fire, then turned back to us and asked with a desperate expression,
“A tiger children’s song, a folk song, an instrumental piece… can’t you think of anything besides that Sanjung Hoga one? Anything, anything at all….”
Nope.
“No, right? Of course not!”
Go Seonha clawed at her hair.
“It’s not like we majored in traditional Korean music, and it’s not like we can search anything up, aaah, ah….”
“……”
No.
I hadn’t known it wouldn’t allow duplicates either.
In Darkness Exploration Record, there were three or four records of people carrying out the rite in the place they had reached after being bewitched by a changgwi, and each time, the song they used was different.
Everything from traditional music play-songs to instrumental pieces….
I thought that was just the collective-intelligence wiki writing down different songs for fun.
I hadn’t known a detail like this was hidden in there.
And even if I wanted to use the songs listed on that wiki, it only recorded the titles, not the lyrics or melodies.
Damn it.
The atmosphere in the abandoned house went cold.
“……”
Hoo.
With Brown’s help, I carefully read through the full Classical Chinese copied from the shrine plaque.
Then I asked,
“Ms. Go Seonha.”
“…Yes.”
“There are a few things I’d like to ask. Would that be all right?”
“What is it.”
“Have you been here since a few days ago?”
“……Ten days.”
Go Seonha’s face turned pale.
“But after two or three days, I started hearing some crazy old man wandering around… so I hid in the attic.”
The “crazy old man” turned toward Go Seonha with an expression that looked a little aggrieved.
“And then a few days later…… I heard the voices of kids too. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I just… when today became the full moon, and that mister was dozing off, I secretly went outside.”
“And then you tried going to the shrine to perform the rite.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
And moved on to the next question.
“But that’s strange.”
“What?”
“The rite plainly says a sacrificial offering is required, so why did you go alone?”
“……I’m not going to say something noble like I was going to sacrifice myself and save the kids.”
Go Seonha clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white.
“I was going to look first… and decide after that. But yes. While doing it, I figured out the situation. I saw the records left by the people before me too.”
“……”
“Today is the full moon. Once today ends, it’s all over! There’s no way we can last another fifteen days until the next full moon comes. Definitely… definitely, the ghost will open the door,”
“Yes. So the rite has to be completed before sunrise.”
Thinking of the talisman barely hanging onto the doorknob, I nodded on my own.
“But I’m telling you, it can’t be done!”
“No.”
I shook my head and got to my feet.
“I think it can be done.”
“What?”
“The rite.”
For the moment, I had thought of one alternative that seemed workable.
“I’ll make the preparations.”
“W-wait a second. No, even if, uh, even if something works, you still have to go find all the ingredients outside and prepare them… and everything I found has already been used!”
I looked again at what was written on the sheet with the copied rite.
Ingredients: 3 pickled plums, salt, ashes from burned peach tree branches, 1 doe-bak of well water
So I had to obtain all of that outside….
In the middle of the night, with the changgwi roaming around.
But as for a way to move around here safely alone….
Of all times, I do happen to have one.
Just for me.
“Shall I turn out your spotlight now, Mr. Roe Deer?”
“……”
Wow.
Do I really have to go out alone?
Without thinking, I turned to look at the others.
The heart of a coward was screaming, Please let’s all stick together and go, but my brain was grabbing me by the collar and telling me not to do something stupid.
Aaaah, this is driving me insane!
In the end, reason won.
“The rest of you, please wait here.”
Truthfully, I’d really appreciate it if someone came with me.
If by any chance someone was willing to volunteer and come along with me…… somebody is, right?
Surprisingly, Go Seonha raised a hand.
“…I’ve tried it before. At least I can guide you to where things are—”
“Ahem! D-don’t get in the way, just sit down, student.”
But Manager Lee Byeongjin sprang up in alarm and stopped Go Seonha.
“You can’t think of him as one of us! Huh? He’s not an ordinary person!”
“……”
No, that’s a bit much.
“Don’t get in the way, just mark the locations for him. Quickly!”
“Uh….”
Go Seonha looked dubious.
But after looking at me, she soon nodded as if she understood something.
…!?
Then she marked on the blank spaces of the copied rite where she had found the materials, and handed it to me.
“Ah! And… be careful of water.”
“……”
“A changgwi is a ghost that died being taken by a tiger and then serves the tiger as a slave. But… in the old days, it could also refer to a water ghost….”
Go Seonha swallowed with a pale face.
“A riverside, the sound of water, a stream— if you see any omen involving water, avoid it. Don’t even look. Just keep walking.”
“Yes.”
This is fucking terrifying…….
Anyway, the moment had come, and I stood in front of the door.
The guard captain said one thing.
“Oh…… you’re going out alone?”
“Yes.”
I could cry, but that’s how it turned out.
“If anything happens, I’m entrusting the people here to you.”
The Guard Team wasn’t exactly a department for protecting people, but still, he’d be a lot better than civilians. Especially if the opponent was a monster inside a Ghost Story.
But the guard captain only stared at me.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“You really don’t feel like an employee of our company…….”
“…?!”
“How interesting…. All right. I’ll just sit here then…. I don’t even have any equipment…….”
Then he sprawled down near the door.
“……”
Anyway, that counts as settled, right?
…Let’s go.
I silently took a deep breath, then pulled the doorknob.
Creeeak.
With the bleak sound of hinges, I saw outside.
Inside the dark, thick with fog.
It was deathly quiet.
“……”
Creak, thud.
The door shut behind me.
It was supposed to be a full moon, but the fog was so dense that not a single ray of moonlight showed through.
The deep darkness where pale things flickered vaguely in and out, tree branches swaying in the wind, the shadows of trees and undergrowth.
I barely managed to step forward.
Step, step.
“Friend, from this moment on, I shall extinguish your spotlight. Into the camera’s blind spot, behind the stage, you shall disappear….”
With every step, something dark like a deep shadow pressed down over me.
It feels strange even after experiencing it more than once….
Now I had grown faint and dim, quietly melting into the foggy forest.
“Whew. It works a bit more lightly here!”
Of course, that did nothing to reduce the fear. I felt like I was going to die of cardiac arrest.
[If you walk straight up-left from the abandoned house, you’ll see a very large tree. There’s a sacred rope tied around it.]
Even so, inside my head, the rough map, arrows, and notes Ms. Go Seonha had drawn were guiding the direction of my steps.
It was hard enough to tell front from back in this place, and I almost found myself admiring her for having somehow gathered ritual ingredients here.
Up-left.
How many minutes passed that felt like an hour?
“Ah, Mr. Roe Deer. I can see something over there.”
Just as Brown said, I started seeing something.
It was… a gigantic tree shrouded in thick fog.
Whoosh.
Every time its branches swayed, a strangely sweet scent drifted through the air.
…Peach.
Why does it smell when there’s no fruit on it?
It was definitely sweet, yet somehow it still felt unsettling….
A sacred rope was tied around the tree, and it was draped between two thick branches as well.
And beyond it, I could see a small field.
“Hoh, farmland? A tiny garden plot in the mountains— the aesthetic is rather decent. Still, it’s not to my taste!”
Brown spoke in a fairly lively voice, but my own mental state was nowhere near that lively.
Hadn’t that book I’d read earlier called this place “Sangun’s grave-site”?
And on top of that, these were the very places where the materials for the rite could be found.
This was absolutely a supernatural zone.
Being extremely careful, I slowly approached that area and circled around nearby, gathering the materials.
Pickled plums… found them.
[If you keep the big tree on your right and look left, you’ll see small trees. Plum tree.]
I picked up the fruit that had fallen under the plum tree, and near the giant peach tree I also picked up thoroughly dried branches.
For the record, I absolutely did not pluck fruit directly or snap off any branches.
Like hell I’m asking for trouble.
Standing alone in the mountains in the middle of the night would already be terrifying enough, but imagine standing alone in mountains where you had been trapped after being bewitched by a ghost.
And then on top of that, you had to complete a mission?
You would naturally become a safety-first type person.
…Good.
Lastly, I gathered the salt that had been scattered over an old stone cairn like a warding charm into a sheet of paper.
…Honestly, right before that, I’d nearly screamed while drawing water from the well when I heard something thumping against the bucket from inside.
Still, I got everything.
The surroundings remained completely silent.
I let out the faintest sigh of relief.
Now if I go back to the peach tree and retrace my route, I should come back to the abandoned house….
It was just as I was stepping carefully in reverse order so I could move accurately.
Something I hadn’t seen earlier caught my eye.
At the end of the sacred rope tied to the peach tree, a clean strip of silk was tied there.
Huh?
There were words written on it.
Unqualified one
Turn back
Wow.
I definitely shouldn’t touch that either.
Keeping a one-meter safety distance, I nodded to myself.
“You seem tense, Mr. Roe Deer.”
Ah. It looks like you need qualification to cross this rope.
“Hmm.”
No matter how I think about it, there’s no way someone who came here after being bewitched by a ghost would have that qualification—
“And yet, you do have the qualification!”
“…….”
What?
“Would you look at your wrist?”
I raised my hand and looked at the inside of my wrist.
The place where the theme park admission band had once been.
: Socius :
The tattoo on the spot where the membership pass had burned away was glimmering strangely.
“…!!”
Was that word… Socius?
A Latin word meaning something like companion, member, kin.
“Hoh, so it was a mark with a wider range of validity than I expected!”
“Whether that theme park mascot simply has broad connections or holds some other part-time occupation as well, I cannot say.”
“……”
“Well then, friend, shall we make use of your membership?”
I walked right up to the sacred rope and slowly stretched out my hand.
The swaying rope passed through my arm as softly as a lie.
“…!”
“As expected.”
Carefully, I took a step forward.
Into the orchard I had been granted permission to enter.
