The letter was calm and composed.
I am writing this to talk about the things I never had a chance to mention.
It felt like a note left behind by someone who was only going away for a while.
Kim Soleum talked about the spare glasses left on the sofa in Black-Tortoise Team 1’s lounge, the flat rear tire of a bicycle in front of HQ, and the printer ink that was still in delivery.
For a handover, these were small and fragmented details.
There was a lingering sense of regret that seemed about to surface, but then vanished in the next paragraph.
Yet the letter’s nonchalant tone maintained its course, and before you realized it, it would transition into meaningful advice, easy to overlook but significant nonetheless.
Things no new agent at the Disaster Management Bureau could possibly know.
…Advice about supernatural disasters.
It will no longer be safe to wear silk clothing in the pressing section of the coin laundry at the intersection, starting from after the rescue of the civilian in the blue dress. Please make sure that no agent goes in wearing it, just in case.
These were the ghost stories that Black-Tortoise Team 1 had faced.
It sounded as if he’d figured it out by deduction, but strangely, the words had the certainty of someone who had known all along.
But it was clear the advice was written out of concern and care.
With trembling eyes, they skimmed quickly over the contents.
And… I’m sorry again.
The letter turned more personal.
The events of the night the binding was cast were written in extremely circumspect terms, in a way only those directly involved could decipher.
As if taking care not to expose anyone who might still be under a binding.
Next came gratitude and apologies directed toward Agent Bronze, who had given him room to speak the unvarnished truth without pressing him.
And then…
I still want to go home.
As a farewell.
I can’t just give up without even trying to return.
But I feel heavy-hearted, because it seems like my feelings have only ended up wasting the time of the Disaster Management Bureau’s agents.
Once again, I’m sorry. For not living up to expectations, for not sincerely submitting to the disciplinary action, and for resigning as if running away.
“……”
I know it’s an inconvenience, but I’ve enclosed some items I found useful.
I hope they’ll be of use to Black-Tortoise Team 1.
A detailed description of the functions and effects of the items he left behind was included.
And lastly.
Just in case, I’ll mention it.
There’s nothing significant about what I wrote on the whiteboard in Black-Tortoise Team 1’s lounge.
I thought you might hesitate to erase it, wondering if it was a hint or a marker, so I wanted to let you know you can erase it without worry.
It was something I left on impulse. It doesn’t mean anything.
The letter ended.
The agent hastily flipped the pages front and back.
…And, on the last page, in small writing.
Thank you for everything.
I hope you stay healthy and happy.
“……”
The two people reading the letter dropped their gazes to the items scattered on the floor.
Then, one bent down and slowly picked up one of those seemingly trivial things.
It looked like cheap candy.
But it was an item that could turn back time briefly to the ‘good old days’ and restore one’s condition. It was a tool that would be invaluable to the Dispatch & Rescue Unit.
The little things glinted on the floor.
“……”
“……”
Agent Choi raised his head.
The subdued eyes of the two Black-Tortoise Team 1 agents met each other.
If he had just vanished, there was a good chance he hadn’t yet left this place.
“Wait— Agents…!”
They dashed out of the lounge with the flustered custodian in tow.
To search the crystal cave.
And…
“……”
Kim Soleum, who had been standing absolutely still in the corner of the room, quietly walked out behind them.
Holding nothing but a single sheet of paper.
Through the door the agents had opened to enter this room.
* * * – What an elegant and courteous exit. This method isn’t bad, either.
“……”
I quietly looked at the sunlight pouring down.
‘So I really made it out.’
I did my best to end things safely and smoothly… but honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t know how the Disaster Management Bureau will take it.
Or how Black-Tortoise Team 1 will feel.
Earlier, I deliberately walked faster so I wouldn’t be tempted to recall the faces of the agents I’d just passed by.
After exiting the crystal cave and walking to the bus stop, and all the way onto the high-speed train, I didn’t forget to thank the host for dimming the spotlight for me the entire time.
– Oh, think nothing of it!
Thanks to that, I was able to slip out as quietly as this.
If he hadn’t helped, I would’ve had to escape in a much more complicated and emotionally exhausting way…
“……”
[The train will be departing shortly…]
I tried not to think about it.
How thoroughly they might have searched the crystal cave after I escaped, how they would handle the items I left behind, how suspicious the Disaster Management Bureau would be of me, whether Black-Tortoise Team 1 would erase what I wrote on the lounge whiteboard…
Instead, I tried to sleep.
Fortunately, the high-speed train heading up to Seoul didn’t invoke the horrors of the Tamra line, and I managed to doze off for a while before waking up.
And, just in case I was being tracked, I paid in cash and checked into any random motel.
Thud.
It was only after I closed the door behind me that I was able to calm down and start taking stock of things.
That’s when a sense of reality finally returned.
‘……Did I really leave almost everything behind?’
I only have one or two consumable items left.
Especially the ones purchased from the Space Shopping Mall, which guaranteed safety. I left most of those behind.
…Probably because I won’t be needing them anymore.
‘It makes more sense for people who face more danger than I do to use them.’
All I have left are a few equipment items and my tattoos.
However…
Pop.
A small light popped out from inside my clothes.
The dokkaebi flame.
“Are you really going to keep following me like this?”
The flame bobs up and down vigorously, as if in agreement.
This little guy followed me all the way up to Seoul.
It even left behind the glass lantern it used to inhabit.
I’d worried about being tracked, so this was less troublesome in a way, but…
“Everyone must be worried. Aren’t you part of the bureau?”
The dokkaebi flame sparkled in defiance.
– …It says it’s all grown up now, so it’ll be fine. Heavens. What a stubborn and foolish creature this is. Huu!
According to Braun’s reluctant interpretation, it’s slow, but it can ‘recharge’ itself even when alone.
Apparently, it could recover faster if it absorbed the energy of a mystical lightning bolt, but… that might be hard to come by.
At any rate, the dokkaebi flame’s intentions seemed firm.
“…Then, I’ll be counting on you a little while longer.”
The flame happily flickered as it zipped around the motel room.
……To be honest, it wasn’t just troublesome.
‘At least I still have one thing left.’
A trace that I once belonged somewhere.
Proof of the days I spent with good people… that’s what it is.
‘…Let me hold onto it just a bit longer.’
It won’t last long anyway.
I patted the dokkaebi flame once, then let it settle into my right arm as it transformed.
– Now you’re free again, Mr. Roe Deer! You can go anywhere you want. So, where will you go?
Strictly speaking, isn’t it actually the opposite?
I’d consider myself lucky as long as the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau wasn’t hunting me down as a wanted man, Daydream Inc. had already listed me as dead for a long time now.
There were only a few places I could go or contact.
‘And Agent Choi even found out about the Cheerful Research Institute’s Dream Incubation Chamber.’
Even if the binding prevents me from telling the bureau about that chamber, he himself can always come looking for it. I’ll have to make preparations, but I need to be careful.
But it wasn’t as if I’d escaped without a plan.
‘I do have one.’
– Indeed!
…The problem is, it’s an extremely uncomfortable plan.
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