“Anyway, thank you for your help. I nearly had my identity exposed to the Research Team.”
“I see.”
“When we return to the room, please also make sure the children don’t get led away by researchers along the way.”
“Yes.”
The lizard’s lidless eyes stared into space for a moment, then returned to me.
…The children hadn’t come out of the bathroom yet, so we still had time for a short conversation.
I hesitated for a moment, then asked,
“Have you been doing well, Squad Leader? I wanted to ask if the new staff in the D-squad are doing alright, and if your explorations into the Darkness have gone well…”
“There are no new staff.”
“Currently, the D-squad is assigned to single-person entries into Darknesses, and there are no unusual incidents.”
“…I see.”
…So Lee Jaheon was working alone.
‘He’s been left in the lurch.’
Just when the squad had been promoted to an elite squad and was about to start trial operations, I, the person who’d been promoted and transferred, went missing and was declared dead.
In the end, the D-squad was left dangling like a kite with its string cut.
So even if the company had been dragging its feet for months, not knowing what to do with the squad, it wouldn’t be strange at all…
But because it was so realistic, my mouth felt even more bitter.
‘There must have been a lot of rumors.’
Even if Chief Lizard was the type who didn’t care about things like that at all.
……
“Um, Squad Leader.”
I opened my mouth before I knew it.
“If I make a purchase at the Space Mall, does that help you, Section Chief?”
“Purchases at the Space Mall are not directly related to Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s livelihood.”
However.
The corner of his mouth drew a slightly friendly curve.
“But it is helpful to us.”
It was an odd way of putting it.
‘…That reminds me of ‘We Can Help!’ somehow.’
At any rate, I understood that it provided indirect help.
If that’s the case…
“Do I have to use cash to shop there?”
“No.”
“…! Then is it possible to barter items?”
“No.”
Damn it.
“Then how do I use other payment methods?”
“Use the VIP card. The conversation will end here. Someone is approaching.”
I processed his sentences one by one.
Click!
The restroom’s frosted glass door slid open and someone entered with brisk steps, coming all the way to the sink.
“Oh~ What fun conversation are you having with the children?”
Kwak Jaekang.
“I showed them to the restroom.”
“Ah, bodily functions! Very important~ Especially for children.”
Kwak Jaekang, in a white lab coat, bent down to meet my eyes.
‘Damn it!’
Feigning fear, I quickly lowered my head and stepped back.
Kwak Jaekang’s voice dropped to a whisper, as if offering a secret favor.
“Want to come with me? We’ll have delicious snacks, play on the playground with your friends, and get a good rest~”
“……”
“Let’s just go with the friends who are here now. Not the others, just you, specially.”
“…I wanna see my mommy and daddy.”
“Of course! You’ll get to see them too.”
This bastard, seriously.
“Dun wanna. Ahjussi’s scary and ugly …”
“…!!”
Hearing the children coming out, I hid behind Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
“Scary!”
“What’s wrong? Why?”
“He’s scary!”
“I guess that Ahjussi’s scary…”
Children are quick and easy to influence. The mood shifted in an instant, and all of them hesitated, then rushed behind the kind Ahjussi to get away from the scary Ahjussi in the white coat.
“No, I might not look as good as Section Chief Lee, but still, I have my own… Ah, this is embarrassing.”
Seeing the lizard with all the children clinging to him, Kwak Jaekang scratched the back of his head.
There was a flash of regret and obsession in his eyes.
“Section Chief Lee, if you’re thinking of trying to lure the kids…”
“?”
“You should know your place. Haah.”
Clicking his tongue, Kwak Jaekang eventually turned around… and left the restroom.
Creak.
The moment the bathroom door closed, a few of the children let out involuntary sighs of relief.
…I had a thought.
Maybe the children weren’t just reacting to the mood, but instinctively sensing someone harmful…
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Section Chief Lee Jaheon once again became the pied lizard and led the children back to the lab.
The agents, who had been nervously watching the door, finally let out short sighs of relief, and the suffocating tension eased just a little.
‘…Thank you.’
I gave Section Chief Lee Jaheon a small, inconspicuous bow of gratitude, and he, still wearing that expressionless reptilian face, sat on the sofa and continued to stand guard…
And about an hour or two later—
“…Staff of the Disaster Management Bureau have arrived.”
The backup we’d been waiting for had come.
What happened afterward went more smoothly than expected.
As soon as Agent Choi’s urgent message was received, the Disaster Management Bureau dispatched rescue vehicles and came to Daydream Inc., and with everything ready to escalate, even the Research Team had no choice but to step back.
“We’ll just take a simple sample. That’s nothing harmful to anyone, so it should be fine, right?”
Agent Bronze was about to explode, but in the end, tissue samples from the ‘mer-children’ were indeed collected…
‘They’re just scraping some from the cut tail stumps.’
That much wouldn’t harm the children.
What concerned me a bit was that they also took some of my own flesh… I’ll have to contact Director Ho quickly to make sure it gets handled.
The important thing is—
“Wow!!”
We were finally free from the ghost story.
.
.
“Aigoo, the kids are all asleep.”
The children had all fallen asleep.
Loaded into the ambulances sent by the Disaster Management Bureau, the kids were quickly transported to headquarters.
There, they were cleaned up, treated by medical specialists, changed into clean clothes, and given a meal.
Only after that, maybe due to all the accumulated fatigue from their spectacular ordeal, did they finally fall sound asleep.
‘…Thank goodness.’
Of course, the agents were finally able to take a hot shower and get a meal, too.
“Grapes finally turned back into an adult, too.”
The same went for me.
Thanks to a quick recharge from the dokkaebi flame, my right arm was restored, and my whole body returned to its original adult male form. I sank into the sofa, feeling a rare sense of stability.
For some reason, the lounge of Black Tortoise Team 1 felt more comfortable than ever.
Then again, it always did feel like a cozy school club room, so maybe it was only natural…
“You never know what that company might try next.”
“I know.”
In my drowsy state, I caught bits of the agents’ conversation beside me.
Agent Bronze seemed suspicious that Daydream Inc. might try something else…
“We got a call from the analysis team, by the way… About the drugs the kids were given. Apparently, some bottles had a Daydream potion mixed in, the kind that makes you fall asleep and get transported ‘somewhere’ else.”
“…!”
My mind snapped awake.
“I did notice they were ‘selecting’ certain bottles for the more heavily mutated kids, so I was keeping an eye on it.”
“Have those all been removed now?”
“Of course!”
Phew.
Agent Choi patted me on the shoulder.
“Grapes, you really did well earlier. You even managed to make that not-yet-in-on-the-conspiracy staff member take you to the restroom for real!”
“……Yes.”
At that, Agent Bronze was trying desperately not to meet my or Agent Choi’s eyes, even by accident.
Thank you, Agent…
“So now… we should go get that fixed, right?”
Hm?
Agent Choi suddenly pointed at me. Or, more precisely… at the half of my face still bearing the traces of ulcers.
Right. Even after returning to my original appearance, the signs of infection hadn’t disappeared.
It seemed that the mental contamination from being merged with the ghost story had been cured by the conch shell, which was why I hadn’t been as conscious of it until now.
“So if we go to the infirmary…”
“No, there’s a faster way than that.”
Agent Choi stood up. Agent Bronze followed suit from the sofa without a word, and both turned to me with a smile.
“Let’s go meet the Elder.”
“……!”