Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel (End Part 1) - Chapter 203 Home.
The destination.
The reason I wanted to win the wish-granting right.
It was my fervent desire to escape this world and return to where I originally lived, abbreviated as such.
‘I want to go home.’
…Only in my mind!
My deeply private circumstances, which I had never openly discussed, suddenly popped out during the interrogation.
‘Where is my home?’
I forcibly relaxed my grip, so as not to cling to the chair.
I shouldn’t lie.
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“…I heard that you consider home very important.”
From whom, exactly? No…
…
I remembered.
-What is the wish you want to achieve that way?
-To go home.
Agent Choi must have told him.
I recalled that hellish night when I encountered Director Ho in the taxi.
And the conversation I had with Agent Choi afterward.
“……”
Home.
Was that judged as a personal conversation unrelated to me being a spy?
‘Even so, why did he even try to bring it up?’
Isn’t it dangerous?
And it wouldn’t change anything for Agent Bronze to know that.
I changed the subject.
“Should I tell you where I commute from?”
“No. That’s not home, is it?”
…!
Agent Bronze looked at me silently.
“I know you’re staying at a motel.”
“……”
“We’ve also confirmed that there’s almost nothing in your room that you could call your own belongings, let alone personal furniture. …Just a few clothes.”
It felt as if something I had kept to myself was being exposed.
“You can’t call that home. No, you deliberately left the room in that state. You didn’t even apply for the agent dormitory provided by the Disaster Management Bureau. …Why is that?”
A question I couldn’t answer.
“Agent Grape.”
“……”
“You don’t have to answer the question I’m about to ask. But I hope you understand this.”
Agent Bronze spoke without hesitation from beyond the glass wall.
“This conversation is only between you and me.”
“……”
“There are no recordings or separate records. Only I will hear it.”
I lifted my head.
Agent Bronze, whose eyes met mine, nodded slightly and then, placing down the documents he was holding, began to speak…
“I was originally without a home.”
“……!”
“My parents divorced when I was young, and after my mother passed away, I grew up in an orphanage.”
Wait a minute.
“Even though I ate and slept there, I didn’t really think of it as home. Instead, when I thought of home, I recalled the villa where I lived with my mother. Even though I barely remember it, only the feeling remains.”
Personal history poured into my ears. The past of a person not recorded on a wiki.
No, not a person, but…
‘Agent Bronze.’
A story of someone I knew.
“Then, on my way to school, I got caught in a supernatural disaster and first encountered the Disaster Management Bureau. When I asked how I could work there, they laughed.”
And he said the Bureau, having heard his situation, introduced him to a safe job suitable for a student.
It was a strange bookstore used by the Bureau.
“I worked there while attending night university. And after completing my university course, I immediately took the exam… and passed.”
Agent Bronze looked at me.
“That’s how I am in this position now.”
“……”
“Now, when I hear the word ‘home,’ I think of the Hyunmu Team 1 waiting room. I also think of the Bureau’s dormitory room. And the faces of people come to mind.”
Ah.
“That’s why I want to ask you this question.”
Agent Bronze asked quietly.
“…Agent Grape. Is your home, currently, not in this world?”
“…!”
“Was it originally there, but you lost it?”
It felt like I could hear the unspoken words that followed.
‘Like me.’
“……”
I was not restrained like in the previous interrogation.
I could freely evade the question.
However…
“Yes.”
“……!”
“It doesn’t exist.”
A light shone in Agent Bronze’s eyes.
“Did you work at Baekilmong because you wanted to get that home back?”
“It’s a little different.”
I slowly formulated my words.
“Because I want to go home.”
“……”
Agent Bronze was silent for a moment, as if chewing on the meaning of those words.
But.
“Agent Grape.”
A resolute reply came back.
“You cannot go back to a place that no longer exists.”
“……”
“There are only those who will try to use you by alluring you into believing you can return. …Don’t let them exploit you like that. You are a stronger person than that.”
No.
I knew that wasn’t true.
The wish-granting right was real.
I know what you’re trying to say, but it doesn’t fit my situation…
“Can’t you make a new home?”
“……!”
“Just like I did.”
I looked at him with an expression as if I had been struck on the head.
“If you get out of here, meet good people, find a place you feel drawn to… and create a place where you can comfortably rest and sleep peacefully.”
Agent Bronze declared.
“That will become your home.”
Just like he considered the Disaster Management Bureau’s main building, that comfortable club-room-like waiting room, his home.
The advice from an experienced person came through with refreshing clarity.
So.
“I’m not asking Agent Grape to blindly believe that either. But… I hope you’ll think about it once.”
“……”
“Can you do that?”
I very slowly nodded my head.
And the glass wall reflected nothing.
Truth.
A slight smile of relief spread across Agent Bronze’s face.
“Good. Today’s interrogation ends here.”
“……”
“Today… I hope you get a good rest.”
I can’t believe myself either.
What did I just agree to consider?
But the atmosphere was surprisingly gentle, and my mind was more peaceful than I expected.
As if I hadn’t made a bad choice.
And Agent Bronze didn’t probe further into my situation.
“And I hope you take good care of your meals and sleep. I’ve been assigned as the interrogator for the next week, so there won’t be any aggressive interrogations. Please don’t worry and consider it a rest.”
Agent Bronze added that he would provide anything I needed. Of course, dangerous items that went against regulations wouldn’t be allowed.
There was no sign of falsehood in his words.
He didn’t seem likely to throw me into a nightmare labyrinth right now…
‘…Phew.’
The state of alertness I had desperately maintained to avoid interrogation traps, eating small amounts of only the safest food and trying not to sleep, almost broke in that moment.
Just as exhaustion threatened to overwhelm me like a wave.
“And this is… a personal question, but.”
A slightly hesitant voice was heard.
“Are you perhaps resenting Agent Choi?”
“……!!”
“I think you could be. He immediately transferred you to prison as soon as your inhibition was lifted, didn’t he? …Without consulting anyone.”
A hint of anger mixed in Agent Bronze’s voice, then disappeared as if suppressed.
‘It seems like they had a fight.’
But as if he didn’t want to show any sign of it, Agent Bronze changed the subject.
“However, Agent Choi did not deliberately abandon Agent Grape here for the past week after transferring you to prison.”
Instead, he explained that Agent Choi continuously applied for the interrogator role to speak with me.
But…
“He was the one who transferred you to prison, and on the first day of his interrogator application, he failed the objectivity assessment, so he was blocked.”
“……!”
“Fortunately, I passed, and today… I wondered what I should say.”
Agent Bronze slightly bowed his head.
“I feel a bit relieved to hear your answer.”
“……”
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Agent Bronze once again urged me to take care of my health and rest, then disappeared back into the mist beyond the glass wall.
I was once again left alone with the will-o’-the-wisp in the glass prison.
However, instead of the tension from an awakened mind’s vigilance, a dazed feeling, as if struck, enveloped my head.
And I ruminated.
On the conversation just now.
‘Live here?’
Give up on… going home?
It was a suggestion to build a new home here and settle down.
As an agent of the Disaster Management Bureau.
‘…Is it an interrogation bait?’
But considering Agent Bronze’s personality, it seemed unlikely he would cooperate with such a deceptive interrogation method.
Then it must be real.
And there were underlying conditions.
The Disaster Management Bureau had not judged me as evil.
And… they wanted me to continue working.
“……”
My goodness.
‘It seems… the situation is better than I thought.’
Since Agent Bronze was the interrogator, the spy confession might just conclude at an appropriate level. I might even be able to walk out of the glass prison while keeping all the impossible-to-tell secrets.
And, and…
I might even be able to just continue working here.
“……”
To continue living as an agent of the Disaster Management Bureau.
To work with Hyunmu Team 1 like now, doing good things with good people.
And if it gets too hard, if I tell them honestly that I’m scared, they might transfer me to another team.
That way, even in this ghost story world, I could live a relatively safe daily life with good people.
‘There’s… nothing bad about it, is there?’
No, it even feels okay.
Making a new home…
‘No.’
I slapped my thigh, making a sound.
I shouldn’t make the mistake of judging in my favor just because my body and mind are exhausted right now.
‘Agent Bronze is suggesting this assuming I lost my home in an accident or disaster.’
I shouldn’t misunderstand.
‘My home is perfectly fine.’
It’s just difficult to go back; I’m not clinging to something that defies reality or is impossible!
I can do it. I can do it…
…Besides.
I actually know.
That living completely in this world of <Darkness Exploration Log> is truly not a wise choice.
…Do you remember? The subtitle of that wiki.
Prophecy of Doom: Darkness Exploration Log
That’s right.
‘I shouldn’t stay long.’
Because this world, from the beginning…
-Oh dear.
A polite and cheerful male voice.
-It seems your head is complicated, friend.
“…!!”
I shot up.
‘Hallucination?’
-A hallucination? Is there such a clear hallucination? Oh, of course, I can fully understand if you mistakenly thought so because you missed Brown. Yes, indeed…
The smoothly flowing speech was too definite to be my imagination. I hastily put my hand in my pocket and pulled it out.
A small rabbit plush toy.
‘……’
An eerie sensation ran down my spine.
‘How is it talking?’
All abnormal supernatural phenomena within this glass prison are blocked…
Ah.
‘Supernatural beings… can exist, he said.’
Just like the will-o’-the-wisp clinging to the wall, trembling.
So… the ‘good friend,’ the being here through that medium, is not just a talking plush toy, but recognized as a sentient being, an existence?
-That’s right. We often conversed in your daily life, didn’t we? One cannot treat the intimate conversations between friends as mere tricks. Mr. Roe Deer, how could you be so disappointed!
The host, who had been speaking cheerfully, paused after adding the last interjection.
As if recognizing.
-Yes… I am disappointed.
…
-My friend doesn’t seem happy to see me. Even though it’s our first conversation in a week.
-I… thought my friend would be as delighted as when one eagerly awaits a program that only comes on the same day of the week and finally gets to watch it…
“……”
Then.
This plush toy had voluntarily remained silent for a week, as if it were a lie…
-You’re calling me that again. ‘Plush toy.’
Goosebumps appeared on the back of my neck.
-Hmm. It doesn’t matter, though. A great talk show host, a show entertainer, must willingly accept any nickname or derogatory term. If it is the choice of the public. And if it is the choice of my dear friend!
The host’s voice cheerfully vibrated the glass sphere.
Like the echo of a microphone, reverberations entered…
-Excellent. I must show my friend, who has endured a tiring and difficult few days, a magnificent show.
-Surprise! Look up, friend!
I stiffly moved my head.
From the glass wall in front of me, where Agent Bronze had stood…
-Now, introducing… ‘Glass Prison Escape Method’!
A video began to play.
Like an LCD screen.
“…!”
-Isn’t it more wonderful than the children’s cartoon we were supposed to watch together? Haha, oh dear! Friend, you’re flustered. It’s alright. Oh? What do you mean by supernatural phenomenon? Isn’t watching TV the most natural and everyday activity? Now then…
-Let’s watch.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
