I swallowed hard and turned to the side.
The Wolf Leader was calmly watching the back of the old envelope in my hand — the scorched letters still faintly glowing.
And then he said,
“Agent.”
...He must have recognized my identity, revealed by the will-o’-the-wisp that had willingly offered a hidden message.
“How does something so illogical happen, I wonder — a government agent taking a job at a private company? A secret government agent, at that.”
“...I resigned.”
“Really?”
A chill ran down my spine.
Judging from experience, the reaction of a Baekilmong elite team leader realizing I was once with the Disaster Management Agency could have gone very badly.
I studied the eye holes of the wolf mask.
But instead of hostility or a piercing glare, his gaze looked... thoughtful.
And then—
“Seems like there’s quite a story behind that.”
“...!”
“That happens.”
The Wolf Leader chuckled softly and lowered his head.
In an instant, the tension eased.
“...Doesn’t that sound suspicious to you?”
“What? Ha ha ha...”
A quiet laugh came from behind the mask.
“It’s too suspicious — that’s what makes it fine. If this were some manipulative ghost story trying to lure me in, it wouldn’t bother fabricating such an implausible backstory.”
“...!”
“And the fact that the will-o’-the-wisp recognized you — that’s proof enough you really were an agent, isn’t it?”
I realized then — the subtle pressure hidden beneath his calm tone had faded a little.
“...You don’t have any resentment toward agents?”
“Resentment? Why would I? You’re people who serve the country. Good folks.”
“......”
“Well then, curious Agent Yong — stop worrying about my reaction. Let’s move. The environment’s changed; we should take another look around.”
“...Yes.”
Phew.
My nerves are shot, seriously.
I swallowed the urge to tell him that he was the unnatural one born of a ghost story and looked back down at the envelope.
The traces of the will-o’-the-wisp still lingered on the back — and the identity of this envelope had apparently been discovered decades ago.
“It’s one of those sleeves they used for book loan cards. Looks like someone reused it.”
Hmm.
Come to think of it, I’d seen something like that when I was little.
Those slips that recorded who borrowed which book — they used to be kept in envelopes like this.
But the loan slip wasn’t inside.
Only the burn marks from the will-o’-the-wisp remained on the surface.
“Was it really okay to damage a loan card like this?”
“...No.”
Of course not.
In any library, you’re not supposed to damage materials.
Especially here — where the “master of the library” was a being that required one to bow in worship. It had to be taboo.
If the agents knew that and did it anyway, then they must have either deceived the library’s master in a very complex way, or...
The burning itself was a trick by the goblin fire.
I rubbed my fingers lightly over the scorched mark.
At once, the faint burn flared back to life with a flicker of blue fire.
“...!”
Not a sentient will-o’-the-wisp — just the remnant trace of one.
It was left by an agent.
Goblin trickery.
A skill used by agents who possessed artifacts infused with goblin spirits — activated after surviving an ordeal.
As the flickering blue flame rose into the air, the burn mark vanished from the envelope as if erased. Then, the flame sank to the floor and revealed something new.
Another trace of the goblin fire.
Scattered across the floor like drops of blue phosphorescent paint, glowing faintly — like a trail of blood — leading the way forward.
Into the grounds of Segwang Industrial High School.
Into the school itself.
“......”
“A school, huh. Let’s go — slowly.”
We began walking into the premises of Segwang Industrial High School.
***
[Oh, so this is the very site of that Tomato Graduation fiasco that poor Brown couldn’t attend!]
I remembered.
The dream — being chased by students in uniforms through the halls of Segwang Industrial High.
When an explorer entered the ghost story In the Black Shadow, they’d awaken in a classroom, wearing their old school uniform, the bell ringing for class.
So now, seeing the school building from the outside felt... uncanny.
“......”
Dark.
Is this... outside the history of Se-gwang Special City itself?
Beyond the school grounds, everything was pitch black — as if there was no light source at all.
The only visible things were the yard within the walls and the school building itself.
Silently, we headed toward the main entrance of the school.
But the blue traces of the will-o’-the-wisp didn’t pass through the locked front doors.
Instead — a small side window.
And that window, marked by the faint traces, was surprisingly unlocked.
- We can enter through here. Let’s follow the Disaster Management Agency’s trail for now.
“......”
It was the first time.
The first time I’d entered the first floor.
During the In the Black Shadow ghost story, I’d never once come down here — the goal had been the fifth-floor auditorium where the graduation ceremony took place.
If this really was the same place, then this was my first time stepping onto the ground floor.
Phew.
I watched as the Wolf Leader silently opened the window and slipped inside with cautious precision.
He moved with terrifying economy — not a wasted motion. Then he looked down the corridor and gestured for me to follow.
He mouthed the words:
Don’t be startled.
I understood what he meant the moment I climbed through the window.
“...!!”
The school corridor floor—
was lined with human bodies.
Students from Segwang Industrial High lay in perfect rows, five by five, stretching endlessly down the hallway.
Motionless.
Like corpses after a mass disaster — too many to collect, left only to be counted.
But their eyes were open.
Each student, in skirt or pants uniform, was “arranged” neatly on the floor like a human display.
‘Ha.’
I barely swallowed a scream.
It felt like stepping into a sequence from a horror film — not the gory kind, but the one built from ghosts and suffocating dread.
But then—
[Oh, I see gaps, Mr. Roe Deer.]
...If you looked closely at the dark floor, there were empty patches — spots where no bodies lay.
As if those students had been removed.
“......”
Instead of fear, a grim heaviness settled over me, keeping my balance steady.
Still, the tension didn’t fade.
Phew.
I moved my foot forward, carefully following the faint trail of blue flame.
I threw myself toward the empty spaces on the floor, doing everything I could not to step on any of the students by accident.
Thanks to the dim blue glow radiating from the will-o’-the-wisp’s trail, I could at least make out the outlines.
Phew.
The traces continued, erratic — darting across walls and ceiling — then began to ascend.
Upward, to the third floor.
“......”
There too, students lay like corpses across the corridor floors — but there was one difference.
I could recognize some of their faces.
[Kim Sora]
A student who had died before.
I swallowed hard at the sight of her name tag — the same girl who had been killed by an Agency agent in the In the Black Shadow ghost story.
This confirmed it.
It was the same place.
Then when it’s not the new moon, this is what it looks like...
Why? Why had this school in Se-gwang Special City become like this?
What had happened here?
An unease beyond mere horror crept up my throat as I lifted my gaze.
The goblin fire’s trail led to a single place.
The end of the third-floor corridor.
[Infirmary]
......
I grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
And the scene I’d seen once before unfolded again.
Students injured during physical education must lie down and wait for the school nurse!
The same cheerful notice I’d written myself was still pinned to the wall.
Only now, all three beds were empty.
“......”
“Someone was lying here. Until recently, I’d say.”
The trail of the will-o’-the-wisp shimmered faintly beyond.
At the window.
Below it—
[Flowerbed]
...facing the rear garden of the school.
Through the glass I could see the dark outline of the azalea bushes — stripped bare, nothing but branches now — filling the backyard like a shadow-soaked thicket.
And then it struck me.
This is the only passage that leads to the rear garden.
If every door in the building was locked, there’d be no normal way to reach it. Completely sealed off.
The first and second floors both ended in blank walls, with no windows leading out back...
Strangely, only the infirmary window on the third floor opened toward the rear garden.
And if the will-o’-the-wisp’s trail ended here—
“......”
I quietly climbed through the window and dropped down into the darkness below.
“Agent Yong?”
Sliding down the wall to soften the noise and impact, I landed safely on the soil.
I reached toward one of the azalea stumps.
Beneath it, the mound of dirt looked oddly uneven — rougher than the rest.
I began digging.
[Oh.]
Thud.
Not long after, my fingers brushed something. Swallowing hard, I pulled it free from under the roots. The thing that caught the faint light was—
A shard of broken glass.
“...!!”
Fragments of shattered glasswork, crusted with soil, emerged one after another. And I knew exactly what it was.
A will-o’-the-wisp lantern.
“......”
“Belongs to the Disaster Management Agency.”
The Wolf Leader’s voice came softly from behind — he’d followed without a sound.
Indeed, it was one of their glass lanterns. Only this one was smashed beyond repair, its spirit-flame long gone.
Which meant—
“Hold on.”
“...!”
I instinctively pulled the broken lantern toward me.
The Wolf-masked man’s hand cut through empty air just an instant too late.
“......”
“......”
“Impulsive and uncooperative? Really?”
“I’m sorry.”
“If this is a place you recognize, then at least warn me before you move. That’s what comrades do. Understood?”
His tone held reproach, but more as guidance than accusation.
Phew.
Right. I knew he wasn’t really a man from the past but a construct born from a ghost story—but showing too much suspicion now would be stupid.
...And it felt wrong to antagonize him after we’d just started getting along.
“...Yes.”
“Good. Then let me try once.”
What?
Before I could react, the shattered lantern was already in his hand.
“...!”
“Lately people have started crafting strange tools from darkness. In your era it’s probably commonplace. Make sure you have something like this—it’s handy.”
Then, from his front pocket, he drew a pen.
“A device for shifting position.”
Click.
The pen’s pointer vanished.
Holding the ruined glass lamp, the Wolf Leader shook it gently, listening as if for a sound—
Tap.
He detached the base.
“Ah, so this was stuck underneath.”
He lifted out a worn scrap of paper—half-rotted, half-torn.
I recognized it immediately.
“A loan card.”
The missing content from the envelope earlier — the list of citizens who had borrowed books.
The front side was just that.
But when he flipped it over—
“...!”
Across the yellowed paper, rough red brushstrokes had been scrawled.
The shape was unmistakable.
“A talisman.”
“......”
“Look familiar? The style seems like what your Agency’s agents use...”
And yes — I had seen talismans like this before.
On the fifth floor of this school.
That floor, where the auditorium was—covered wall to wall in paper charms.
Sorry sorry I’m sorry I tore the talisman I dug up from the back garden of the school I was preparing for the graduation ceremon... no no! The graduation ceremony isn’t a ritual it’s not a sacrifice no no!! Please save me plea—
“......”
Wait.
Wait a damn second!
Those eerie whispers from the fifth floor — were these what I’d been hearing?
The Disaster Management Agency agents had buried talismans in the back garden of this school?
And when one was torn, the catastrophe began?
“......”
Questions whirled through my head — and then the answer fell into place.
If you’re reading this, it means the will-o’-the-wisp recognizes you as an agent, and that the rescue operation in Se-gwang Special City has resumed.
May at least the students be saved.
Don’t look for us.
We failed.
They’d set up a protective seal here...
A measure to let the students endure the “disaster” of Se-gwang Special City a little longer.
And when it was torn, everything unraveled.
Yeah. That made sense. But—
One problem.
Emergency Rescue Unit — Azure Dragon Team
Why Azure Dragon Team?
Why not Black Tortoise?
The Rescue Unit was the Black Tortoise Team.
That was my division.
Even the Darkness Exploration Records confirmed it. So why this unfamiliar name suddenly appearing here?
A special task force? For Se-gwang City alone?
And then, that composed voice spoke beside me.
“Right. Looks like the Rescue Unit got in trouble trying to protect the students from the darkness.”
“......”
Wait.
“You seem... familiar with the Rescue Unit?”
“Of course. We shared the same field now and then.”
In that moment, something clicked.
If this Wolf-masked man really was the Guard Captain — his past self—
Then he was from before the sealing of Se-gwang Special City.
Unaffected by cognitive erasure.
And yet he’d accepted the name “Azure Dragon Team” without a flicker of confusion...!
What the hell?
Stay calm.
I forced myself not to falter and spoke carefully.
“Have you ever met any of the other teams? I mean—aside from Azure Dragon?”
“Yes.”
He’d met the Azure Dragon Team?
But his words didn’t stop there.
“There was a bit of friction, of course. Between the teams that only deployed to eradicate darkness... and the ones that sealed it, or drove it outside altogether.”
“......”
“They didn’t like to compromise. And for a company that needed to collect raw material, government agents like that were... inconvenient, to say the least. Some of the researchers were in tears over it.”
But the Supernatural Disaster Management Agency...
There was no such thing as a team devoted solely to “eradicating” darkness.
No, that’s impossible.
The Agency’s mission itself was to end disasters. So why would it lack a team officially assigned to do exactly that?
Unless...
Unless—
“That team. Was it the Black Tortoise Team?”
“That’s right.”
“......”
“Were you one of them?”
***
Meanwhile
Supernatural Disaster Management Agency, Gangwon Branch
Sublevel 33 — Restricted Archives
“......”
Agent Choi’s pupils gleamed with blue light as he finished reading the document.
“Sir.”
Ryu Jaegwan urged him in a low voice.
Beside him, a massive will-o’-the-wisp pulsed, radiating gold and azure.
Hummm—
Agent Choi looked up sharply, then grinned and pressed a finger to his lips.
“Shh, keep my secret, goblin-sir. We shook on it — buckwheat jelly and pinky promise, remember?”
The will-o’-the-wisp twirled playfully in midair.
The goblin assigned to guard Sublevel 33 was normally a fearsome being, but once a year — the week before winter solstice — it slipped away to enjoy the street fair. A substitute took its place.
Choi had taken advantage of that, coaxing the friendlier replacement to grant him access.
To uncover the truth behind a catastrophe-class supernatural disaster.
To find the real records of Se-gwang Special City.
“We need to go. Now.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen enough.”
Thud.
He slid the last file back onto its shelf, sealed it with a simple binding spell, and the smile vanished from his face.
“Cheongdong.”
“......”
“I think we’ve forgotten something big.”