Author note: Updated
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First of all, I immediately came up with a fairly reasonable guess as to why Baek Saheon was in this strange rural village.
'…Baek Saheon was on the Tamra Express!'
That same high-speed train passed by Mokpo as well, and that's the one I had taken today. 'Was this his destination back then too?'
It seemed like he was heading to his family's home, so maybe this village… was Baek Saheon's hometown?
It was a peculiar feeling.
The scene of a modest, warm country festival just didn't fit Baek Saheon somehow. All the more so if this rural festival was actually a cultish ghost story about a bizarre, insular society.
"Hey, take that over there!"
"Ah, okay."
Even now, Baek Saheon, though wearing a sullen face, was obediently agreeing to the directions of other villagers, helping out by serving food and such.
But…
Observe the villagers carefully, and try asking to spend the night at the house of the least friendly-looking person you can find!
If I go by Agent Choi's tip, could that guy be one of the suitable candidates?
It was unsettling and strange, but up to that point I could follow the context. But then… Why is she here?
'…Assistant Manager Eun Haje.'
I quickly and naturally turned my head, making sure not to catch Agent Bronze's attention, and checked that silhouette again.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje was eating boiled pork with soju, having gotten an extra helping. Just as if she were in the office cafeteria.
"..."
Seeing that natural, nonchalant expression and movement gave me a strange feeling.
Almost unconsciously, I focused my gaze in that direction— Our eyes met.
'…!'
At that moment, Assistant Manager Eun Haje smoothly lifted her plate of suyuk[1] and bottle of soju… and started coming over here.
'...?!'
W-Why is she coming this way?
And then she plopped down right at our table and naturally started talking to Agent Bronze!
"There's quite a lot of suyuk here. Would you like some?"
"...Who are you?"
"I'm a reporter. I heard there was a village festival, so I came to see if there was anything newsworthy… Thought I'd do some interviews, get some impressions."
'A-Assistant Manager!'
Eun Haje acted like she didn't know me at all, chatting up Agent Bronze just like a work-weary reporter.
Agent Bronze's eyes went dull. He looked as if he'd gotten stuck with an annoying busybody. "I don't really have anything to say."
"Then just let me ramble a bit. From what I saw yesterday, the real lure of this festival for outsiders is…"
DENG DENG DENG DENG DENG!!
"…!!"
The noisy sound of a gong and drum being played together made me turn my head.
The music stopped, and through the people doing the traditional performance, a middle-aged man with a friendly face stepped up and grabbed a megaphone, shouting,
[Everyone! It's time for the raffle! May you all win prizes and receive the fortune of Jisan!]
"Yes, I think that's it. The holiday raffle drawing."
Apparently, they hold a raffle every day during the four-day festival.
Most of the prizes are agricultural products grown in the village, but sometimes there are handicrafts or jewelry as well.
In the case of jewelry, the branch suspects they might be belongings of missing persons.
Villagers spread out, carrying raffle boxes here and there. I heard people saying they won or didn't win. Someone who drew gold shouted in excitement and received a pair of gold earrings.
"Oh, that's nice. But those earrings look like secondhand goods to me."
"..."
"..."
"Well, I guess someone donated them for the festival."
None of us could answer.
And then, someone came toward us with a raffle box.
A sullen-looking person wearing a medical eyepatch.
'B-Baek Saheon.'
Was this some kind of Daydream Inc. employee reunion? Now we were about to have a three-way meeting out of nowhere.
But the bigger problem was this.
Agent Bronze recognized Baek Saheon's face.
"That…!"
The look on Agent Bronze's face turned cold as he recognized the face of my 'coworker' from the serial killer mountain lodge.
And as his gaze alternated between me and Baek Saheon, I shook my head.
"It's alright."
"…Yes."
Agent Bronze calmed down quickly as well.
Because he was sure my identity hadn't been exposed.
That's because…
He wouldn't be able to recognize us anyway.
During the festival, villagers can't recognize acquaintances who visit from outside.
They treat them purely as welcome guests for the duration of the festival, and there are a few testimonies from people who felt something was off and left, thus avoiding misfortune.
– I even interrogated them to see if they were just pretending, but they really didn't seem to know. It feels like there's some strange binding in effect. There's no info about it in the branch's records, so if I'm not around, just ignore.
Baek Saheon approached.
His face still didn't look happy, but even when our eyes met, there was no reaction at all.
He simply…
"Please pick one."
…held out the raffle box to our table.
"..."
"I heard the prizes are pretty good… Oh, thanks."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje reached out without hesitation and drew a stick from the box. At the end of the stick, it said 'Rice'.
"It's your turn."
I exchanged glances with Agent Bronze.
Do not refuse the raffle. If you refuse, no villager will let you stay over. If you don't want to end up hastily calling for backup because you failed the rescue, remember this!
Note/s:
[1] Suyuk – a traditional Korean dish made of boiled meat, with pork being the more popular variation. It's mainly eaten during ancestral rites, kimjang (kimchi-making season), weddings or funerals.
"Excuse me. Aren't you going to draw?"
"Ah. I'll do it."
I reached for the chicken-shaped wooden raffle box. The box felt strangely damp and humid.
What I drew was…
"A dud."
Huu.
Agent Bronze also carefully drew, and again got a stick that said 'Miss'.
"That's too bad. It would've been nice if you'd at least won something."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje pointed to the middle-aged man with the megaphone in the village square.
"Would be awesome to hit the jackpot." [If you win the special prize, treasure is coming your way!]
On the corner of the banner the man was pointing to, there was a very lifelike print of a gold rooster statue.
It wasn't possible to guess the actual size, but from the details, it looked fairly large.
"Wow."
"That looks like at least 100 don!" (Approx. 4kg)
"Has anyone ever actually won that thing?"
If you ask me…
But there are no eyewitness accounts of anyone winning the special prize yet.
That's right.
Considering that guests draw more than half the sticks, the odds really are strange.
I suspect it's a kind of selection ritual within this supernatural disaster.
(According to the branch's investigation, there's a folk tale that someone who won 52 years ago ended the village's drought and was enshrined as a deity at the village shrine, but its credibility hasn't been verified.)
And just as Agent Choi said, the special prize didn't come out this time either.
A look of deep disappointment crossed the face of the villager with the megaphone.
[Thank you again, everyone! May the fortune of Jisan be with you!]
And just like that, that day's festival came to a close.
"Aww."
"Isn't this a scam?"
"Hey, still, the booze and meat are free."
The outsiders started to get up, but because so many had drunk the free alcohol, a lot of their group couldn't drive home.
"Jeez, what a situation this is…"
"It's fine. This person said we can stay over!"
Quite a few outsiders ended up accepting the kindness of the friendly country folk and agreed to stay the night as if at a guesthouse.
It looked like a pretty warm scene.
But if you look closely, you can see that the villagers are quietly gathering here and there, collecting the leftover raffle boxes and muttering something among themselves.
They take turns drawing sticks from the leftover raffle boxes, too.
Once the raffle for outsiders ends, the villagers gather and draw the remaining sticks one by one.
Until they find the 'special prize' stick.
At this time, they recite a strange phrase.
"O Chosen One deliver unto us the blessing of Jisan of the countless peaks."
"O Chosen One deliver unto us the blessing of Jisan of the countless peaks."
– It's probably a spell or prayer of some sort… It's not exactly a proper shamanic phrase, but don't pay too much attention to it. Spells in supernatural phenomena almost never have positive effects.
And finally, someone finds it.
The stick with gold attached at the end.
"Ah…!"
Tears fall from the person who drew it.
People surround the winner, shouting as if in celebration.
"O Chosen One deliver unto us the blessing of Jisan of the countless peaks!"
"O Chosen One deliver unto us the blessing of Jisan of the countless peaks!"
At the branch, there are rumors that the villager who draws the special prize is given a special role at the next festival.
"..."
I turned my head.
Baek Saheon was watching all of this with calm eyes.
"Excuse me."
Baek Saheon only shifted his gaze.
I asked politely,
"Is there anywhere in this village where we could stay for the night?"
"...You're not saying you'll eat and sleep in someone else's house for free, are you?" he asked back.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje, carrying a sack of rice, suddenly interjected.
"I'll pay. It must be fate that we've met like this."
"Pardon?"
"Here. Will this be enough?"
Then, Assistant Manager Eun Haje handed over a fairly thick wad of cash to Baek Saheon.
Baek Saheon looked a bit startled, but soon his gaze settled and he snatched it up.
"…Follow me."
"Okay."
"Wait! You said you're a reporter? You should head back now. This is our—"
"Trying to kick out the person who paid? Capitalism might be dirty, but some things still need to be respected. Geez, what a stick-in-the-mud geezer."
"..."
I heard Agent Bronze quietly mutter, 'Geezer?' Good grief.
With a feeling like I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut, I started walking after Assistant Manager Eun Haje, who was following Baek Saheon as if nothing was wrong, and asked,
"…Should I carry the rice sack for you?"
"Oh, little brother, are you paying me back for the lodging? At least you're doing things right."
I took the sack of rice from Assistant Manager Eun Haje, who probably still had trouble with her hand. Agent Bronze, wearing a sour expression, helped as well.
"Too late, buddy."
"..."
Just as Agent Bronze was looking at Assistant Manager Eun Haje with an incredulous expression—
"Hey! Goddamn fucking country hicks! Cucumbers? Do you think I came all the way to this backwoods village for cucumbers?" Whack!
There was a loud voice and a crash nearby.
A box thrown to the ground burst open, cucumbers rolling through the dirt.
A drunken outsider was now rolling on the ground, making a scene. "Give me gold, gold!"
"Aigoo, dear guest."
"You still have two more chances left!"
The villagers, still smiling, coaxed and soothed him.
…It was hard to believe they'd just been cursed out, yet their kindness was unchanged.
Offering him dinner, suggesting he stay and try again tomorrow, telling him about the nice hot springs. Drawn in by these offers, the troublemaker disappeared with some of the friendly villagers into one of the houses.
It was one of the few tiled-roofed houses in the village.
The house in the center of the village looked unusually large.
"..."
I stiffly turned my gaze away.
The smiles faded from the faces of the villagers who remained. They silently gathered up the broken cucumbers and carefully cleaned up.
As they brushed the dirt off the cucumbers, they kept muttering something.
"O Chosen One deliver unto us the blessing of Jisan of the countless peaks…"
That same prayer-like phrase from before.
"..."
I managed to tear my gaze away and kept walking.
"…This way."
But do you know what the problem was?
Baek Saheon was also heading toward that very tiled-roof house.
'Wait a sec.'
No matter how I looked at it, was it really safe to go in there?
But since Agent Bronze was walking forward without hesitation, I didn't try to escape.
'…Agent Choi wouldn't have lied in the tips section, would he?'
We approached the tiled-roof house.
"…Come in."
The entrance was wide, and the wooden floor acting as a front hall was also broad.
But Baek Saheon, as if he disliked even stepping inside, carefully and quietly slipped off to the side and opened a side door.
But there was already someone standing there.
The middle-aged man with the megaphone from earlier.
"These guests will be staying here tonight."
"Ah, come in, come in. Haha! Saheon-ah, take good care of them. No funny business."
"..."
"May the fortune of Jisan be with you!"
Baek Saheon slowly nodded and led us inside.
The house was strangely large, with a repeating structure and paper sliding doors along the way…
A hallway lined with old wooden doors appeared.
Creak.
Baek Saheon opened one of them.
Inside was a small, lived-in single room.
There was one neatly folded bedding set and another set that looked hastily pulled out, covered in dust.
"Please sleep here."
"Isn't this your room? Where are you going to sleep?"
"..."
With an expression that said, 'What a useless question,' Baek Saheon turned sharply and opened another door for Assistant Manager Eun Haje. Then he disappeared down the hallway.
"He's not even giving us what we paid for, huh."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje shrugged and spoke to me in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well then, have a good night. Let's see each other tomorrow if we get the chance."
"…Yes. Thank you."
I watched Assistant Manager Eun Haje enter the next room.
...Without a doubt, she must have recognized Baek Saheon. But she didn't acknowledge him. She knew she wouldn't be recognized herself.
'She knows a lot about this ghost story.'
It meant she had come here with a clear purpose as well.
And Assistant Manager Eun Haje... is part of Director Ho's project team.
'…What exactly is happening here?'
Given what Director Ho was demanding, which was an annihilation-sanctioned supernatural disaster, I couldn't help but form a few guesses. No, if it were still from before, I certainly would have, but…
"..."
I'm tired.
Of everything.
I should just focus on the Wish Ticket…
"Agent Grapes."
"..."
"Do you remember what you have to do?"
"Yes."
This 'Jisan-so Offering Ritual.'
When a rescue request comes in, the branch uses the supernatural phenomenon auto-responder to give the rescuee a location and time to meet.
So, go to the place we were given by the branch first.
"This is it."
Agent Bronze showed me a note.
1AM
Village well
After midnight, the tile-roofed house fell completely silent.
Agent Bronze and I slipped quietly out of our rooms and walked softly.
– As long as you're not at the village guardian shrine after midnight, you're relatively safe to move around.
– Still, don't make loud noises on purpose!
"The well is to the east."
We crossed the dark rural village, where only a few streetlights glimmered here and there, until we reached a place that looked like abandoned houses, as if everyone had left.
In the center was the well.
There, standing in front of the stone-covered well as if keeping watch, was… Baek Saheon.
"…!!"
His single eye turned to us and he spoke quietly.
"Are you really agents?"
In the next instant.
Agent Bronze lunged and restrained Baek Saheon.
– If you get caught by a villager late at night, hide as quickly and quietly as possible.
If that's not possible, you ask?
Subdue them and hide them in an abandoned house!
And just as Agent Bronze was about to drag Baek Saheon roughly into an abandoned house—
"Hey! Isn't it wrong for government employees to treat an informant like this?!"
"...!"
Agent Bronze's arm paused.
"You're the informant?"
"Yes! I'm the one who reported this!"
As Baek Saheon tried and failed to shake off Agent Bronze's hold, he glanced at us and hurriedly lowered his voice.
"Please get me out of this village. …Tonight."
"This sounds like a trap."
Agent Bronze immediately said this to me in front of him.
"Villagers can leave at any time after the festival ends. There's no reason they'd need help—"
"I can't leave!"
Baek Saheon panted.
He searched our faces desperately, then swallowed hard and said,
"…Check my pocket."
"..."
I reached into Baek Saheon's pants pocket.
What I found inside was… A lottery stick, the tip gilded in gold.
The special prize.
"I-I drew it on the first day…"
– Unfortunately, there's never been a case where a villager was successfully rescued from the supernatural influence during the festival period.
If it were the rookie agent I'd picked for my team, he'd probably want to try rescuing that person at least once, so let me say this in advance.
– Hoobae-nim. Your sunbaes will be the ones to try that, so you don't do it. If an agent tries to leave Jisan Village with a villager during the festival period…
"Get me out of here, please!"
– The agent will disappear too.