On the day of assignment.
“Let’s all congratulate our Agent Grapes on his official appointment~!!”
“……”
“Wahahaha! How about a team dinner tonight? Our team’s overtime meal allowance for this month has stacked up quite a bit, right? How much do I have again? Anyway, it’s on me!”
Wow.
I received the team’s welcome in the waiting room of Black Tortoise Team 1, eyes already resigned to everything.
Honestly, calling it a ‘welcome’ didn’t feel quite right. I saw them just a few days ago.
It’s just that today, I’d been officially confirmed to be a member of Black Tortoise Team 1!
“…I look forward to working with you.”
Incidentally, the senior who said he’d do his best to voice his opinion so I could be assigned to a different team was here as well.
Agent Bronze, even while shaking my hand, avoided my gaze.
“……”
Yes, I know, Agent. I dug my own grave…
‘Destruction King… Let’s just work diligently and try to shake off that nickname.’
Though I wondered if this was really okay for a spy.
‘Ha ha…’
In the end, I gave a polite bow to Agent Choi as well.
We’ll be seeing each other often now, so there’s no point in whining again about not wanting to join Black Tortoise Team 1.
“…Thank you for the welcome.”
“No problem~”
Agent Choi grinned and patted me on the back.
At the very least, he has a decent personality…
“We’ll be working together for life now. Shouldn’t the welcome be even more extravagant? Haha!”
“……”
The sense of mission in these early agents is a little scary.
“Let’s work together for a long time, Grapes-ie…”
No, like really…
.
.
Anyway, Agent Choi’s dinner suggestion became reality that evening.
As soon as work ended, Black Tortoise Team 1 moved out to eat together.
“This is a place we come to often. The owner here is a retired agent. Ah, please bring a large portion of gopchang-jeongol! And two bottles of soju.”
And so, in the corner room of a popular, crowded restaurant, we started our meal and conversation with some light drinks.
It was during this time that I was finally, officially introduced to Black Tortoise Team 1.
“Team numbers don’t really mean much anymore, but when we first started, Team 1 did take on tougher missions. So it’s fine to feel a little pride in your team, thinking of your seniors!”
I already knew that.
But hearing it explained directly by the person involved felt different.
Same with hearing about the current situation like this.
“Black Tortoise Team 1 originally had a team leader and five regular agents… but two are on sick leave, and one is… um, on an extended hiatus.”
“……”
He didn’t mention it, but I’m sure there were many who died in the line of duty.
Thinking of the writing in all sorts of handwriting covering the whiteboard in the waiting room, I looked at the two remaining team members.
Agent Choi grinned.
“And now we’re finally back to three members. Isn’t that great? Hey, Jaegwan, don’t you agree?”
Maybe… this person was just happy to see a new face.
I suppressed a wry smile. Raising my glass, I gave a polite bow to the two of them.
“Um, thank you again… for welcoming me…”
“…!”
Even though they knew I’d stubbornly requested to go to another team, not once did they rebuke me for ending up here anyway, and I was grateful for that.
And I could tell they understood what I meant.
“No, we should be thanking you.”
Agent Choi waved her hand as if to brush it off.
“You didn’t want to come, right? Our team.”
“……”
I held back a sigh and downed a shot of soju.
“It’s not that I dislike Dispatch & Rescue. It’s just… I can’t really trust myself.”
“Soleum-ah.”
Agent Choi looked at me.
“It’s fine. No one actually does.”
“……”
“Who could ever be one hundred percent sure they’re doing the right thing in a supernatural disaster? If someone is, that’s the real supernatural phenomenon.”
At some point, this senior had started calling me by name and title, instead of ‘hoobae’.
He grinned as he ladled stew into my bowl.
“…But for us, we have advice from those who’ve gone before us, don’t we?”
“……”
“Believe in that.”
The exploration records.
“And as you go on… Sometimes, you’ll want to try something yourself, even just once. Then you’ll be the one giving advice to whoever comes after you.”
“……”
Agent Bronze’s gaze turned distant, but he didn’t argue.
It felt like the two had already fought and settled this issue long ago.
“But there’s no need to think that far ahead just yet!”
Agent Choi grinned and refilled my glass.
“Soleum, you’ve really had a rough time since coming here.”
I really couldn’t deny it.
“But honestly, things like that only happen maybe once every six months—or sometimes, not even once in several years if you’re lucky. Just because you joined our team doesn’t mean you’ll be dealing with that stuff all the time, so don’t worry.”
Agent Choi grinned and clinked his glass against mine, unilaterally.
Clink.
“You’ll do fine.”
“……”
“Got it?”
I nodded.
And, as if it was a lie, those words soon came true.
Three weeks since the official assignment to Black Tortoise Team 1—
“Grapes-ie, over there!”
I was handling rescue work in ghost stories much more smoothly than I’d expected.
“Catch that guy!”
“Yes!”
I grabbed the person requesting rescue, who was frantically trying to run past me, and shoved him into the washing machine.
“Ack!”
Sorry, but that’s the exit, so please bear with it for a moment!
“Hey, it’s over! Get out of here!”
Before the drying finished, I also dove into an empty washing machine, plunging into the swirling water…
“Phew!”
I managed to escape safely.
“Rescue of the requester and two others, safely completed at ‘Intersection Laundromat’.”
Today, I saved three civilians from a crazy laundromat that remodels your personality and reformats your body.
And the past three weeks were much the same.
‘About one dispatch every three days…’
Honestly, it’s scary and exhausting.
But…
“Is that kid the one? The Destruction King? Wow, he really gets things done, doesn’t he!”
“Wahaha! Right, Team Leader!”
“……”
Surprisingly, the ‘Destruction King Rookie’ image was working in my favor!
