Chapter 52

Three minutes after getting caught up in a serial-killer ghost story and deposited outside a lodge in the woods, the secondhand-market buyer who had arrived after us got off the bicycle and approached the lodge door.

Then they paused at the sight of Baek Saheon and me already standing there.

'... Looks like they recognize me.'

As the seller from the secondhand market, that is.

But I kept my mouth shut, pretending I hadn't noticed who they were yet.

Baek Saheon promptly started chattering in an innocent voice.

“Excuse me, do you happen to own this place? Sorry, but I think we took the wrong bus. We aren't getting any reception, maybe because we're in the woods. We were hoping we could borrow a phone for one call...”

“I took a wrong turn myself. I've come to ask for help.”

“Oh... I see.”

Only then did I turn to the buyer and pretend to be surprised.

“...!”

Basically, I widened my eyes and gave a slight bow.

They returned a small nod of acknowledgment without much surprise, confirming that they had already recognized me.

Meanwhile, Baek Saheon was subtly fishing for personal details.

Probably trying to gauge whether this person was weaker than him.

“Are you out trekking for the weekend? This place seems pretty remote. You must live nearby.”

“... No. I don't know how I ended up all the way out here either. I definitely started out in Seoul.”

“Oh, really? So did we, but there's no reception here. Do you happen to know the way out, or where we are...?”

“... I'm not sure. Let's go inside and ask.”

“... Oh, okay.”

Baek Saheon seemed to smack his lips at how little the conversation had yielded, then glanced at the bicycle the buyer had ridden here.

And he finally seemed to notice it.

The marking printed on the handlebars.

[Seoul Metropolitan Government #2153]

It was clearly a government employee's work bike. Baek Saheon brightened at finding an opening to pry into the buyer's identity.

“Excuse me, are you by any—”

I nudged Baek Saheon in the ribs.

He stiffened, shut his mouth, and turned to me.

I slowly mouthed the words.

'Disaster Management Bureau.'

“...!”

'You must have heard at least once at work that the company and the Bureau hate each other's guts.'

If we got caught...

I made the barest suggestion of drawing a hand across my throat, and Baek Saheon's face changed color.

He never again went out of his way to engage the government employee in conversation. Hmm. Good attitude.

“I'll open the door.”

I nodded to the government employee, who had already taken hold of the handle, and they pulled the lodge's wooden door open with ease.

CREEEAK.

“Anyone home?”

Midday sunlight flooded the dim interior of the lodge.

And...

“Ohhh? Someone else is here!”

“Are you the owners??”

The people who had arrived before us came into view.

A man and woman who seemed to be married, three people in their twenties, and one middle-aged person.

Six people.

Including the three of us... nine.

'It's started.'

Fighting the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, I stepped into the lodge.

* * *

And everything unfolded exactly according to cliché...

The married couple said their GPS had malfunctioned and brought them here.

“First the GPS takes us somewhere weird, then the car breaks down, and our phones don't work... This is driving me crazy!”

“Oh, honey, this is why I told you! We should've gone to Sapporo instead of Sokcho!”

The three college students belonged to a hiking club and had gotten lost.

“We even left our car down at the bottom.”

“I know... Ugh, this is nuts.”

And the middle-aged man had been looking for the nearest bus stop to go home after finishing a designated-driver job.

“Whew, it's such a relief to find other people. If we wait here, surely the owner will turn up?”

“And once the lodge's owner arrives, does the bloodbath begin?”

More or less.

I surveyed the room with the glazed eyes of a dead fish, resigned to everything.

I hadn't even been able to bring a proper selection of items.

Staying alive was so hard...

'Just focus on me. Only me!'

The questions did eventually turn to us newcomers.

“What do you young fellows do?”

“Oh, we're just office workers. We were taking a bus to an off-site assignment, but I guess we got the route wrong. This is my supervisor, and I'm a regular employee.”

Look at this little shit Baek Saheon subtly dumping the responsibility on me.

I took out my notebook.

Since I was still in my going-out clothes, it was in my pocket. I'd be able to stay in character.

[Hello.]

“Huh? Why are you, um, writing...?”

[My throat's bothering me a little.]

“Oh.”

The three students turned away with expressions that said I was making a fuss over nothing. The couple glanced at me, then put a little more distance between us.

“Oh dear, I heard the colds going around are nasty these days. Must've caught one?”

“You should at least wear a mask. What if you pass it on to someone?”

[I'm sorry. I'll be careful and speak as little as possible.]

Baek Saheon looked at me as though he were seeing something disgusting. He'd been stealing all my reactions for a while now.

“Is that young fellow over there from the same company?”

“No, we met him outside the door... Um.”

The no-hassle Salmon Market buyer was a big man with sharp eyes that gave him a rather fierce appearance, but his reply was polite.

“I'm a government employee with Seoul City Hall.”

Oh. He was telling the truth about that?

He gave a brief explanation that he was a government employee and had gotten lost while riding his bike.

Of course, that was all.

He didn't breathe a word about being with the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, or about how they were all stuck in a ghost story and about to play Russian roulette over whether a serial killer would murder them.

Still, these people weren't idiots. They seemed to sense something was off.

“So all these people got lost in broad daylight and ended up at this vacation lodge out in the sticks?”

“It's like a ghost led us astray.”

“Hey! Honey, don't say things like that. You'll bring us bad luck.”

There was courage in numbers.

Even as they talked about ghosts, people were now glancing around as though sightseeing.

“Come to think of it, this place...”

“Looks pretty well-off, doesn't it? Huh? Like that one rich family's house every neighborhood had when we were kids.”

They were right.

Built in a style that had been popular several decades ago, the wooden lodge had a slightly dated but cozy air of wealth and luxury.

“Oh my, look over there. There's even a gold picture frame!”

A large frame hung on one side of the living room, and it did indeed look like solid gold.

But what caught my attention first wasn't the frame. It was what was inside.

A poem.

+++

Happy Mealtime

Roast the rabbit in the kitchen

Slaughter the deer in the backyard

Fatten the pigeon in the bedroom

Slice off a piece of sheep in the living room

The sound of laughing, hopping, skipping

The wooden floor goes thump beneath our feet

The table is laden

Humming fills the air

The whole family sits together

Bon Appetit

+++

“...”

Seriously.

'That's blatant foreshadowing.'

“Oho. Could it be a metaphor for the serial murders to come?”

It very much looked that way.

But apparently no one here was interested in horror or mysteries.

A few of the college students from the hiking club snickered among themselves, then even stole an ivory ornament from the table beside the sofa, slipping it into a pocket.

'Oh.'

I wouldn't be surprised if they were the first corpses I saw tomorrow.

The moment that thought crossed my mind—

CLUNK.

“...!!”

A sound came from behind the kitchen.

I could tell from the shadow that the back door had opened.

And that a figure was slowly walking through it.

Wearing an old hood, hunched over deeply with its face hidden, the figure...

“Good day, visitors to the lodge.”

“...?!”

“I am the keeper of this lodge, and I shall attend to you during your stay.”

His voice was deep.

Speaking in exceedingly polite, old-fashioned Seoul speech, he bowed to us.

“Oh, a suspicious member of staff!”

Yes. The character usually cast as the butler looking after the murder mansion.

Unlike me and my dead-fish eyes, the others were bewildered by both his words and the manner of speech that clashed with his shabby appearance.

“Um, e-excuse me. We're not guests. We got lost and came to borrow a phone...”

“Not at all. You have come to precisely the right place.”

“What?”

“Have you not come to exchange your cassette tapes?”

Everyone paused.

“The ones in your pockets at this very moment.”

“...!”

As though entranced, they each searched their pockets and pulled something out.

Old ivory-colored cassette tapes with obscured titles, similar to the one Baek Saheon had.

“... That!”

“How do you all have those...?”

“The master of this lodge was an exceedingly wealthy man. He told me that he distributed those cassette tapes in various places during his lifetime.”

People flinched.

“And with them, he made a promise.”

“W-what kind of promise?”

“‘Visit my lodge with that cassette tape, and I shall let you exchange it for anything I own.’ ... That was his promise.”

“...!”

“It remains valid even now, after his passing.”

“An inheritance! Excellent bait.”

Wasn't it obvious bait...?

'No, maybe it's obvious because it works so well.'

Money always had a magic of its own.

Even as they laughed in disbelief, their eyes reflexively turned to the assorted precious-metal objects and Goryeo celadon in the display cabinet.

The middle-aged man gave a hearty laugh and took hold of the solid-gold frame, making a genuine attempt under the guise of a joke.

“Hah, so I can just take this, then?”

The lodge keeper answered smoothly and courteously.

“Of course. However, you may only leave with it after three days.”

“What?”

Hmm. Just as expected.

* * *

Entrants are promised substantial financial compensation, provided that they remain within the disaster for a specified minimum period.

This period ranges from a maximum of one week to a minimum of twelve hours, and is set at a length the entrant would be willing to endure for financial compensation.

* * *

“We are providing three days for consideration, so that you do not waste your sole opportunity to make an exchange.”

“But I'm telling you, we don't need that!”

“Then you may leave now. Naturally, however, you will be unable to make an exchange.”

The couple clamped their mouths shut at the lodge keeper's words. Giving up free money must have felt like a waste.

One of the hiking club members raised a hand from the back.

“Excuse me. Then... can we ask for stuff like, ‘Give me the dead guy's entire estate’?”

“You may.”

“...!!”

Every trace of joking vanished from the student's tone.

“We can ask for this lodge?”

“Yes.”

“...”

The look in everyone's eyes changed.

'Now they want to believe.'

The unsettling chill disappeared without a trace, replaced by the feeling that the sort of financial windfall they'd only seen online had come their way.

Once they had checked the will and documents the keeper showed them, that feeling turned to certainty.

“I think this is real.”

“Holy shit...”

Even the couple who had been complaining changed their tune.

“Forget the weekend trip. Let's stick it out. If anything happens, huh? We can call the police.”

“Exactly. Goodness, did some powerful fortune teller put a talisman in these tapes or something? They've brought everyone together. How amazing. Just amazing.”

The lodge keeper even gave each of us time to make a phone call.

Once everyone had finished contacting people, the mood grew excited, as if this were some kind of special event.

The lodge keeper, who had been watching, bowed deeply.

“With so many visitors arriving at once, the order of exchange will be important.”

“Oh, that's true!”

“If the first person says, ‘Give me the whole estate,’ it's all over!”

“Therefore... those who possess the most cassette tapes shall be given priority in making an exchange.”

“...!”

Everyone immediately looked around at each other.

The three college students who had come together exchanged pointed looks in particular.

If they divided into groups, theirs had the most tapes.

“Wait, are you telling us to buy other people's cassette tapes?”

“I am merely explaining the procedure. That is by no means compulsory. It might be interesting for each of you to devise clever terms for your exchanges. The order will matter as well.”

“...”

A charged tension passed between them.

“Shall I prepare your rooms, then? There are suitable bedrooms on the second floor.”

“Oh, right.”

“Yes. Let's start with the bedrooms...”

“Just a moment. Excuse me.”

Baek Saheon's voice came from among the crowd.

“Something urgent has come up, so I might need to head back. Could you tell me the way out of here?”

“Of course.”

But that never happened.

A short while later.

* * *

Entrants invariably become isolated at the location for a variety of reasons.

The most common are extreme weather events such as typhoons, heavy snow, and landslides.

* * *

“It appears that torrential rain has caused a landslide, burying the area outside. Fortunately, the power is still on, so there should be no difficulties with your stay.”

“...”

Baek Saheon turned to me with a look that said, Aren't we fucked?

'Yep.'

I shrugged.

Now that things had reached this point, no one was leaving until everything that was supposed to happen had happened.

'Which is why I'm currently racking my brains for a way through this.'

Still, if there was one good thing, it was that at least there wouldn't be any ghosts...

'... There would be a killer, though.'

And wasn't it obvious?

It was a twist used all the time in films and novels, and ghost stories were no different.

The killer...

One entrant performs a special role. In narrative terms, this individual is the predator,

...was among us.

and is commonly referred to as the serial killer.

I had to identify which person here would turn into the killer and avoid them.

The individual comes to firmly believe that they have inherited the inspiration and legacy of a legendary killer originating from this location, and undergoes mental and physical alterations.

'Hmm.'

Or... I could try a slightly different approach.

As I rubbed my chin, I happened to see the government employee quietly slipping away.

“I'm going to check the weather outside for a moment.”

“Go ahead.”

I followed him out onto the veranda.

It had grown dark outside as fierce wind and rain began to lash the lodge, and the raindrops dampened my clothes a little.

The downpour would probably cover the sound of our conversation.

Taking care to keep my notebook dry, I held it up.

[Excuse me, you're the person who bought the cookies, right? Just making sure I'm not mistaken.]

Fortunately, the government employee didn't pretend otherwise.

“Yes. That's right.”

He did, however, look me up and down as if sizing me up.

Hmm.

I pretended to scan our surroundings, confirmed that no one was looking our way, then hastily scrawled small letters in my notebook with a nervous expression.

[Sorry, but is this... an unusual situation?]

“...”

[However I look at it, it's strange that only people with cassette tapes all got lost and ended up here]

[Is it... something like ghosts?]

He would already know I'd experienced supernatural incidents. I'd sold him food from ghost stories, after all.

He wouldn't find a question like this strange.

'The problem is whether he thinks I entered this place on purpose.'

I'd prefer to be treated as an innocent civilian, if possible.

I intended to decide my course of action based on how he responded.

'Honestly, he's most likely to play it safe and say he doesn't kno—'

“It is.”

...??

Just like that?

The government employee seemed somewhat conflicted, but he asked me a question.

“How did you obtain the cassette tape?”

[Actually, I don't have one myself... I saw one a colleague had]

[It looked ominous somehow, so I told him to throw it away while we boarded a bus, but it brought us here]

“...”

The government employee put a hand to his chin and fell silent for a moment.

“Do you often get caught up in things like this?”

I deliberately offered only an awkward smile.

[Sometimes?]

“I see.”

After some hesitation, he continued.

“I'm... well, something like a government agent.”

He was telling me this much?

[Really? Like a ghost-hunting 007?]

“Um... yes.”

[Wow!]

... Your face is making it painfully obvious that you want to say, “This isn't the time to be impressed.”

“In any case, we are indeed inside a supernatural phenomenon. Be careful. ... Stay with me whenever possible, and if you absolutely cannot, move in groups of at least three.”

Hold on.

'He's treating me as far more of an innocent civilian than I expected.'

I had no idea what was going on, but it was good news. I quickly replied.

[Thank you. But... what about the others?]

The government employee answered firmly.

“You don't need to concern yourself with them.”

Hmm.

[Would it be okay if I told my colleag—]

“No.”

Whoops.

The government employee glanced back toward the living room, then lowered his voice and spoke quietly.

As though confessing an enormous secret.

“The truth is...”

The truth?

“... There's a killer among us.”

Hmm.

Yes.

I know...

Of course, I couldn't let that show, so I feigned alarm and quickly scribbled the following in my notebook.

[A killer? How do you know that??]

“... This lodge is no ordinary place. It has never been disclosed to the press, but similar situations have repeated themselves here several times already, and visitors have been murdered by a killer.”

“Ah, the nightmare of that day reenacted at the historic site of legendary murders... Now that is fine taste.”

No, you damned Host.

“Don't trust anyone, no matter how close you are. If you're alone, it's best to stay in your room and never open the door for anyone.”

'Don't the people who desperately insist on staying in their rooms usually die first...?'

In any case, I seemed to have confirmed a few things about him through this exchange.

And about this ghost story, too.

[Thank you]

After thanking the government employee and wishing him good night, I left the veranda.

I was able to head to my assigned room feeling a little more at ease.

Because I'd decided what to do.

“Whew.”

I searched the room.