Chapter 049
The light green magic medicine went down into Go Youngeun’s mouth.
Gulp. Gulp.
When the liquid vanished, and the glass bottle was completely empty—
“…!”
Go Youngeun lowered the bottle.
Her eyes widened as both her hands flew to her ear…….
And within those trembling hands,
just like fresh flesh sprouting over a wound, a rounded mass of flesh began to grow where Go Youngeun’s ear had been torn away.
Then, in an instant, it took shape.
The outer ear, the bowl, the lobe—all of them clearly formed on a framework of cartilage, and then…….
It became complete.
“…….”
“W-wow…!!”
Good lord.
“Ms. Go Youngeun?”
“Yes!! Ah! I can hear! It, it really worked….”
Touching her newly restored ear, Go Youngeun cried out as if she couldn’t believe it, then immediately turned on her smartphone and started examining her ear with the camera app.
As if it were only natural, she said it looked exactly like her original ear.
“Does it hurt at all?”
“Not at all! It just itched a little, then it was fine… wow, no, I think I can actually hear even better than before?!”
That was wonderful.
It really, truly was astonishing, even awe-inspiring, and I was genuinely relieved for her, but…….
‘…This could also lead people to make even more reckless choices.’
When the company’s manuals concluded that clearing a high-grade Darkness absolutely required critical physical loss, they sometimes issued low-grade regeneration potions as standard supplies.
And once people got used to doing that?
Employees gradually stopped thinking much of losing body parts.
The first time was hard, but from the second time onward it became easier.
‘Is that really a good thing?’
With a strange feeling, I turned to the side.
Baek Saheon was staring into the ornate box containing his own regeneration potion with a somewhat dark expression….
With one eye.
“…Um. Mr. Baek Saheon.”
“…….”
After hesitating, Go Youngeun carefully spoke to him.
“If one eye is impaired, the impact is greater than you’d think. Your sense of distance, your field of vision, and even your balance are all affected, so even though it feels like a waste, it might be better to use it and regenerate it.”
“Mind your own business.”
Go Youngeun nearly made a face that said, what kind of asshole is this, but perhaps because she felt reassured by having her ear back, she chose to ignore him instead.
After thinking it over, I added a word of my own.
“Since our work is dangerous, physical loss could happen again. Saving it for an emergency doesn’t seem like a bad judgment either.”
“Ah… that’s true too.”
“……!”
Baek Saheon’s pupils suddenly shook, and he stared down at the box with a serious expression.
‘Hey.’
Why do you suddenly look like you’re thinking, maybe I should just use it now, because I sided with you?
Anyway, I ignored him too and carefully put my own box away.
My chest was pounding a little as well.
It was my first time seeing such a famous, powerful, and yet not frightening symbolic item in person.
The symbol of Baekilmong Co., Ltd.
A magic medicine.
‘Let’s store it well.’
It was then.
“Um, Mr. Soleum.”
“Yes?”
“I’d been meaning to say this… and I really wanted to properly thank you.”
Go Youngeun looked at me and bowed her head.
“Thank you. Truly, truly… thank you.”
Pardon?
“At that time, you faced the machine alone and let us run away.”
“…You yourself were never really in immediate danger, Ms. Go Youngeun.”
She had already had her ears collected, so there was no more fee to pay, wasn’t that right? The only person I had really saved was basically Baek Saheon, wasn’t it?
‘And that rude bastard never even said thank you once….’
Just as rotten inside as I thought.
But Go Youngeun firmly shook her head.
“No. After that, you came back again to save us. You even lied and said the candle was ours.”
“…….”
“No matter how I think about it, there was no reason at all for you to do that. You could’ve just gone with the people from Group D.”
“Well.”
There was a reason, actually….
‘You’re telling me I should hand a candle over to those nerve-of-steel lunatics?’
Huh? This guarantees our safety now? Okay. Then let’s try this too and that too. We can put it into manual review and squeeze some points out of it.
I could already picture myself following behind them while they said things like that and did all kinds of insane things, until I collapsed from cardiac arrest.
There was a reason I had forced myself through the terror of wandering that insane exhibition alone to come find the two of them.
It was because there was an even bigger terror behind it…!
‘And…… if you can save someone, it’s right to save them.’
I had only done what I could.
So I simply shook my head.
“Anyone would’ve done that.”
“Do you really mean that? It doesn’t seem like it….”
“If we’re talking about contribution, then I honestly think you two should’ve been promoted too, and I feel a little sorry that I’m the only one who got promoted.”
Go Youngeun’s face went stiff.
“Oh, n-no. As for me… I don’t want to get promoted already.”
“…….”
“Ah, of course, I’m sure you’ll do well, Mr. Soleum!”
I suddenly felt like crying…….
“Um, but why do you think we should get promoted? You remember that every item and everything in the exhibition all came out of Kim Soleum’s pocket… right?”
For some reason, Go Youngeun looked at me as though I were a pitiful person.
“Hmm. People look down on you if you seem too nice at work, so wouldn’t it be okay not to speak so generously about others all the time…?”
Pardon?
No matter how I looked at it, I felt like she was judging me far too kindly because of the life-saver effect… but thinking of the Silver Heart, I simply lowered my head.
Let’s act kindly!
“……Thank you for the advice.”
Baek Saheon looked between Go Youngeun and me with a dumbfounded expression, but said nothing.
Then he got up and left without so much as a goodbye.
Well. Let him.
I exchanged another polite goodbye with Go Youngeun, then turned away.
And I thought to myself.
‘When should I start wearing the Silver Heart?’
Only when I went into missions?
Rolling the badge around with my fingers in my pocket, I started making plans.
Just then, a figure I had grown familiar with now came walking from the far end of the corridor….
A white lizard head.
“Group Leader.”
“Kim Soleum.”
It seemed he had gone off to speak with the team leader while I was receiving the award item.
Now even those vertical pupils were starting to feel a little familiar.
‘Is that the life-saver effect too?’
I fell briefly silent as I recalled the Lizard smashing the guide machine’s needle cleanly in two with that monstrous knuckle strike.
Then the Lizard’s vertical pupils shifted to the empty regeneration potion bottle and the box.
“Did you use it?”
“Pardon? Ah. Not mine. My batchmate here… Employee Go Youngeun used hers.”
“Hello, Manager! I’m Go Youngeun!”
Go Youngeun bowed briskly toward the unfamiliar lizard… no, the manager from another group.
The Lizard looked at Go Youngeun with those eyelidless eyes.
“I have a question.”
“Y-yes.”
“Are you the owner of the escape item?”
“…Pardon?”
“Three days ago, in the exhibition-type B-grade Darkness, were you in possession of a cognition-distortion item in the form of a candle?”
Ah.
“Ah… um. More or less….”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Go Youngeun caught my eye and seemed to grasp the situation, so she trailed off, but tactfully did not deny it.
Still, she must have felt the need to leave quickly.
“Yes. Then I’ll be on my way.”
With that polite farewell, she quietly slipped away in the opposite direction down the corridor.
‘Excellent judgment…….’
Feeling relieved, I took a bottle of water out of my bag and took a sip….
“Kim Soleum.”
“Yes?”
“Refrain from repeating lies.”
I almost sprayed it out through my nose.
“The more often you mention them, the less effective they become.”
“…….”
When had he figured it out?
But first things first, I bowed my head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yes.”
“I thought it would be difficult to persuade them to waste precious escape time unless it sounded like it was more than just a batchmate possessing an escape item.”
“Yes.”
If he were truly pissed off, answering in single syllables like that….
‘…His voice sounds calm, though.’
That’s just the kind of person he was—no, the kind of lizard.
I cautiously raised my head.
Incredibly, the Lizard was… smiling slightly!
“All humans lie.”
“…….”
“What matters is the purpose and result of the act.”
It sounded almost philosophical.
‘…Does that mean it doesn’t matter much because I lied with good intentions, and the result was good too?’
“…….”
To hell with it.
“I’ll still be more careful next time.”
“Yes.”
That was the end of the conversation.
The Lizard Group Leader returned to being the impassive reptile with vertical pupils again.
‘I already felt his personality was somewhat out of step with ordinary people….’
It felt like I had realized that even more deeply just now. In a good way too.
I picked up the box containing the regeneration potion I had received as an award from the chair.
-Friend, is all your business finished now?
Just then, Brown spoke from inside my pocket.
At work, we had agreed not to chat idly so no one would realize I possessed a Good Friend while I was on desk duty… but since the timing fit, maybe I should ask just once.
I drew the stuffed doll slightly out of my pocket so that it draped over the edge.
‘Brown. The employee standing next to me right now.’
-Ah, you mean Mr. Roe Deer’s tall and handsome supervisor?
‘Right. What does he look like to you?’
-Hoh.
A brief silence passed, as though Brown were examining him piece by piece.
-His eyes, nose, mouth, and even his hearing organs all appear perfectly intact!
‘…As a lizard?’
-A lizard? Hahaha, Mr. Roe Deer, I see you can make mischievous comparisons too. Whom are you trying to tease? No matter what, calling him a lizard is a bit much!
“…….”
Brown didn’t see him as a lizard either?
Could it be… was I really the only one seeing him as a lizard?
“Kim Soleum.”
“Yes, Group Leader.”
I made up my mind again. From now on, never let even the syllable “liz” leave my mouth.
“We’re moving.”
Manager Lee Jaheon turned and started walking toward the elevator.
I followed the lizard while acting casual and asked,
“Should I return to the office?”
“No.”
Hm?
“…Then where are we going?”
“To a restricted area whose access opens at the senior staff level.”
“…!”
“I will explain how to use it.”
It was here.
At this company, the higher an employee’s rank rose, the more varied privileges they gained.
They could be welfare benefits, abilities, or places.
“With Kim Soleum’s promotion to senior staff, permission has additionally been granted for use of three facilities.”
In front of the annex, I received a file folder from Manager Lee Jaheon.
- Facility Security Team Loan Warehouse
- Annex (free equipment production twice a year)
- Fox Counseling Room
“From this point on, Kim Soleum may take armaments out of the Facility Security Team Loan Warehouse.”
“…….”
“You may also use Twilight-grade Darknesses in the annex to customize dedicated equipment without a superior accompanying you, and if necessary, you may register with the Fox Counseling Room.”
Benefits I had already known about.
And several spaces I had not known personally, but which were recorded in the Darkness Exploration Record, were now being opened to me as well.
A slight sense of accomplishment and thrill.
And anticipation.
‘There are more methods now that I can use to survive in this insane world setting…!’
But everything had two sides.
Better treatment meant that the company wanted something from the employee in return.
In the case of this company….
‘Danger.’
As befitted a company that dealt with Ghost Stories, most things accessible only to higher ranks implied the potential to become too dangerous for civilians to handle.
Like this.
“In addition, each senior staff member in the Field Operations Team is assigned one Darkness under their charge.”
“…….”
That was right.
Independently of the team, I would now have one Ghost Story that I was directly responsible for managing!
“Even when an individual is in charge, the group usually manages it together, but the primary responsibility lies with the employee in question.”
Shifting responsibility onto field staff.
What a thoroughly corporate thing to do. I was getting a taste of familiar twenty-first-century working life here….
According to Group Leader Lee Jaheon, the more seniority and rank one accumulated, the more Darknesses one would be assigned, and the more dangerous they became.
Still, fortunately, I was a rookie.
“Kim Soleum has less than one year of service and is senior staff, so you will be assigned an F-grade.”
Phew.
“Manage it according to schedule and register any irregularities on the inspection checklist.”
“Yes.”
Anyway, when they tell you to do it, you do it. Rather than wasting stamina whining meaninglessly, I decided to direct that energy into meaningful prayer.
‘Please! Please! Let me get assigned an ordinary low-grade Darkness!’
If I end up with something like Tuesday Quiz Show, it’d be better to just quit and start preparing for the Disaster Management Agency exam instead!
But then I heard something astonishing.
“You’re saying I can choose?”
“Yes.”
Manager Lee Jaheon said he would show me several candidates and let me choose from among them!
“Is that the usual policy?”
“No.”
The lizard stared straight at me.
“It is my authority.”
…?!
So right now, he was using his authority to make an exception and create options for me…?
That lizard?
“Thank you very much for being considerate. But… may I ask why you’re doing this?”
“As a case.”
“Pardon?”
“As recompense for the act of finding the correct escape route in a B-grade Ghost Story and leading all of Group D back without injury.”
“…You also saved my life from the guide machine, Group Leader.”
“That is a matter of responsibility.”
The lizard said it flatly.
“A group leader has the duty to take responsibility for members within the limits of his own ability.”
“…….”
Hey, that really does make him a good boss.
‘For a second, I was almost moved.’
If I had truly been a fresh new office worker, I would have postponed my decision to quit by a full month.
Was this why Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Senior Staff Park Minseong always tried to take a favorable view of everything when it came to Group Leader matters, all smiles and good humor?
Even I felt like I ought to do better.
“…Still, thank you.”
“Yes.”
After bowing my head, I headed with the lizard toward the F-grade Darkness containment room.
This was unexpected, but an extremely good situation.
‘If I play this right, I might even profit from it.’
The Darkness Exploration Record was a wiki.
And what that meant was that, because many different creators had made things freely while only obeying the rules, their standards for each grade could differ a little.
‘In other words, even among F-grades, some can be incredibly useful.’
If you knew how to handle them properly, that was.
And through the Darkness Exploration Record, I already knew that method.
If it was a Darkness recorded there.
“These are the three F-grade Darknesses.”
I raised my head.
Three objects lay before my eyes….
A worn teddy bear.
Two black cards.
A model airplane.
“…!”
‘I know all three.’
It was a jackpot.
-Ah, what an old and ugly doll.
In the middle of that, Brown spoke in a somewhat displeased voice. Maybe, under the influence of being a Good Friend, he was feeling competitive toward another doll.
-At any rate, the time to choose has come, Mr. Roe Deer!
I thought it over.
Then I reached out my hand.
“I will take charge of this Darkness.”
