Agent Choi, still holding the cleaver, sat down on the ground with a sigh.
“Is everyone alright?”
“Yes. They’re calming down.”
The outsiders and villagers who had experienced the shock were either collapsed and unconscious, staggering around aimlessly, or just standing still, staring blankly into space.
Perhaps, with the disappearance of the centipede that had once revealed to them the truth of violent madness, they had lost their reason to emptiness, at least for a while.
The festival musicians had disappeared, leaving only their instruments and clothes behind.
Occasionally, beneath the collapsed clothing, there were glimpses of bone and earth…
And after surveying all of this, my gaze turned back to Agent Choi’s back.
He was just sitting quietly.
Staring at the hollow left by the vanished shrine.
‘…What must he be thinking?’
A spy who will die in a month unless he leaks information from the Disaster Management Bureau.
He himself nearly died, caught up in all of this.
But after preparing everything in a single day and coming down to the countryside to save that spy, staking his life to fight the centipede… What must a man like that be thinking?
I didn’t want to know.
The thoughts that would come to mind after realizing it, the tasks I would have to face, felt too exhausting.
That’s how it had been.
But now, for a brief, flickering moment…
I kind of want to hear his answer.
“Want to come over here?”
With no thoughts at all, I walked toward him.
Agent Choi didn’t look back at me.
But as I drew closer, he reached a hand behind his back.
“Everything’s done. Let’s go back.”
Agent Choi pulled me up effortlessly as he stood.
There was the same smile on his face as before when he turned to look at me.
And then he started making a fuss.
“Ugh, my whole body aches. I take one day off, and our kid gets himself abducted. This is why I can’t ever rest.”
“It’s not your fault, is it, Grapes-ie? The caller was out of his mind. Unpredictable incidents happen.”
“But don’t do anything too reckless next time.”
As if, of course, there would be a next time.
It was strange, but for some reason, I felt a little better about the situation.
Even though nothing was really resolved or progressed.
My head felt a little clearer.
“Alright. That’s how Black-Tortoise Team 1 should be!”
Agent Choi patted me on the back and then headed over to see the orb Agent Bronze had secured.
I took a deep breath in and out.
For now, I survived today.
And having watched Disaster Management Bureau agents seal a bizarre entity through traditional exorcism… Maybe it’s not such a bad day after all.
‘Everyone survived, too.’
…My heart felt noticeably lighter.
The bright dokkaebi flame had disappeared, but the sun was shining in the sky.
Then, as I looked down, I saw the people who had carried my palanquin lying collapsed next to the now-empty shrine area.
But there were only three.
I turned my gaze to where the rescue caller had been standing.
Baek Saheon was one of the people carrying the palanquin, and he had originally stood to the left of the shrine…
He was gone before I knew it.
He must have run away the moment things started going awry.
‘Not that strange, really.’
No, in this case, that was actually the wisest choice.
Still, now that I was feeling a bit better, it did feel a little annoying.
‘A certain someone shoved me into the place where he was supposed to die and left me to suffer like a dog…’
Still, it was true that taking the risk of being caught and staying up all night to share what he knew about the village did help.
‘Now that guy probably doesn’t have to come back here, either.’
– No, I told you already. I have to come back every year. Even if I try to run away, I’ll just go mad and hang myself!
According to what Baek Saheon said at dawn, it seemed the villagers had to periodically visit Jisan Village to escape the madness of the ‘truth of the world’.
No matter how much they soaked the Centipede Sage in liquor and pressed it down with a stone and enshrined it in the shrine, they’d already had too much contact with it.
But now that the original source, the centipede, was gone, things would probably be better. At least, one could hope.
I was about to look away when I noticed something odd.
There was something left in the spot where Baek Saheon had been.
I shifted slightly and picked up the item.
A note… no, something like a small paper boat, folded out of paper.
Thinking I’d check it out later, I put it in my pocket.
And when I turned my head, I made eye contact with Agent Choi, who had been watching me.
Agent Choi turned his head away with a smile and said casually,
“Lucky I made it on time, right? I really rushed over as soon as I finished getting ready.”
“If you hadn’t been at Seoraksan, you could have come even sooner. Seriously, why’d you take your day off to go there?”
“Hahaha… To recuperate in a place with good air and clean water, I guess? Anyway, there he is! The real MVP who made sure we got to Grapes-ie in time.”
Agent Choi pointed somewhere.
And at the end of his finger… was Assistant Manager Eun Haje!
“Yes. She’s the one who told us the location of the shrine right away.”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje had been waiting at the village entrance and, as soon as she saw them, told them exactly where the shrine was.
Thanks to that, the agents were able to arrive before I could be enthralled by the Centipede Sage and become one of its arms…
‘…She must have been busy with her own work, too.’
I tried not to stare blankly.
“She recognized Bronze-ie right away. Oh, she’s waving goodbye.”
When she met our eyes, Assistant Manager Eun Haje nodded slightly, then melted into the crowd.
Or at least, that’s how she probably thought of it, and that’s how I took it, but someone with sharp eyes might not see it that way.
Because even among the dazed, hollow people, she moved with clear purpose.