Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 259.2

‘Fuck!’

Baek Saheon was swearing violently on the inside.

No, it’s that he could only swear on the inside.

Because he was gagged, covered with a cloth, and being transported somewhere!

– Supervisor Baek Saheon, Director Ho is requesting your presence.

He had gone up to the director’s office after that summons, and this insanity had happened.

‘…Am I actually fucking screwed?’

This was the intuition of someone who had worked at a deranged ghost story company was screaming.

With cold sweat running down his skin, he desperately waited for a chance to bolt in case he was dragged off to the Research Team, and only a few minutes had passed.

The movements stopped, and the cloth covering his head was removed.

“…!!”

And what he saw before him was…

‘W-What is this.’

The Fox Counseling Office.

More precisely, seated at the waiting room table of the Fox Counseling Office were people wearing masks.

Two of them he knew.

A lizard mask and a falcon mask.

‘W-Wait.’

One was someone who had gone missing and returned just yesterday, and the other was someone who had already quit long ago.

At that point, a thought flickered through Baek Saheon’s mind.

‘Director Ho’s project team?!’

It was the rumored existence of the ‘project’ known only to those in Director Ho’s circle. Even Baek Saheon, as a supervisor, had heard of it.

‘Are they trying to assign me to the project?’

But in the next moment.

Baek Saheon noticed how the two people sitting in the table’s shadows were dressed.

‘…Disaster Bureau!’

They were government agents. However…

The agents were wearing masks.

‘What the heck.’

– As agents, we cannot reveal our identities to a human who is dangerously untrustworthy.

– Then why don’t you wear masks as well?

– Oh.

And so they’d hurriedly procured them.

The two people wearing the nobleman and butcher Hahoe masks[1] looked extremely suspicious, yet in another sense they also gave off the impression of strong Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents.

In any case, the simple fact that Disaster Management Bureau agents were calmly sitting together with Daydream employees was shocking enough for Baek Saheon.

But then.

“Supervisor Goat.”

“……Yes.”

The person Baek Saheon was most conscious of at this table was Director Ho, seated there.

He sat smiling with the same ever-youthful face as always, but strangely, his eyes looked filled with exhilaration.

Baek Saheon recognized those eyes.

The eyes of a fanatic with his goal right in front of them.

“Today, we’ve gathered here to offer you a very good proposal, Supervisor.”

“…A proposal, sir?”

“I run a small project, and I’ve been selecting people to join me.”

As expected.

“Congratulations, Saheon-ssi. You’ll be working in the project team from now on.”

Suspicious.

‘Introducing me like this instead of issuing an official appointment?’

It felt cult-like in some way.

He grew even more wary, but first he desperately forced a smiling face.

Because he had to lie.

“Thank you for thinking well of me, Director!”

“No need for that. Then why don’t you say hello to your team members?”

Say hello my ass, you bastard.

Feeling both the urge to spit on that punchable face amidst fear at the same time, Baek Saheon turned to look at the others.

They were all masked anyway, but he looked at the two agents who weren’t among the familiar faces.

“……”

Then suddenly, he realized something.

Below the table, one of the masked agents clenched their fist upon seeing him.

As if he recognized him.

But that gesture felt less like something a bureau agent would do upon seeing a Daydream employee and more like the reaction of someone encountering an unexpected person…

……!

“You.”

Baek Saheon snapped his gaze toward that agent.

“You were the agent in Jisan Village, weren’t you??”

“……”

The one wearing the butcher mask looked at him.

He could sense displeasure radiating from their whole body, but that didn’t matter.

Baek Saheon, unable to stop himself, blurted out the question he’d been curious about.

“Where is the other agent who came with you back then?”

“……”

“The one who drew the golden stick.”

“There is no reason to speak of that to you.”

Son of a bitch.

Well, it figured. The agent had been trying to leave him behind in that village. Typical. Probably someone who only cared about their own work, who broke promises, changed their words, a complete bastard.

It was unbelievable that agents of the same bureau could be this vastly different.

That is, compared to that guy who communicated with him through the paper boat.

“……”

Someone like that agent would never be involved in something so suspicious.

‘So they’re cooperating with Director Ho.’

No matter how he looked at it, everything felt shady.

Thus, Baek Saheon roughly pieced the situation together. No, he only thought he had.

“Ah, the last member is arriving.”

Creeeak.

The counseling room door opened, and that appeared.

“……!!”

Black smoke, gas mask, countless sprawling horns, yellow gas-lantern lights. Black combat boots, full-body uniform.

A monster of the Security Team.

‘F, Fuck.’ 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Was this guy a surveillance measure to stop employees from escaping?

“Mr. Goat?”

“Y-Yes.”

Baek Saheon pretended to wipe sweat, lowered his head, and crooked his eye mask a bit. He was trying to gauge the danger level of the being before him…

……

It was Kim Soleum.

“…!!”

Right after the mermaid grave, again.

He once more encountered him in an incomprehensible, grotesque form.

Goosebumps erupted over his entire body.

‘He actually wasn’t human after all.’

Following the cat and the child form, now Kim Soleum appeared as the bizarre Security Team existence and approached the table.

Flinch.

Baek Saheon nearly leapt away from the table, but barely managed to stay composed, keeping his gaze fixed under the table instead of meeting Kim Soleum’s eyes.

‘You bastard.’

He was definitely doing this to keep him from revealing his identity again, to shut him up.…

“Ah, Mr. Goat, he’s someone familiar to you, isn’t he? He’s the employee you knew as Supervisor Roe Deer.”

“…?!”

“You’re of the same batch. Go ahead and chat.”

W-Wait.

“You two will be in the same team now and will be exploring the same Darkness together.”

Baek Saheon let out a silent scream.

“Well then, shall we begin the exploration?”

Second attempt to enter Sekwang Special Metropolitan City.

Thirty minutes before commencement.

Note/s:

[1] Hahoe masks – Traditional masks worn in special ritual theater plays dedicated to the gods, with 13 masks in the collection. Read more about it here and here. ↵

Salt Goblin

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