Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 253.2
“——!!, !, ……”
The noise in the corridor faded.
To avoid accumulating demerits, Lee Jaheon walked quietly and silently back to his dormitory room.
And there, he saw it.
On the opposite bed lay a trainee dead, his entrails ruptured due to wrong ingredients used for dinner.
It seemed he had tried to extract the food directly from his own small intestine.
“……”
♩– ♫– ♩–
The tone of the bell changed.
It now marked the hour when movement was forbidden. To protect the bride’s privacy, the groom must rest inside his bedroom.
Lee Jaheon reached for his white formal uniform to change…
– Section Chief.
“……”
Lee Jaheon blinked.
A voice rang in his head.
It wasn’t ‘ours’.
It was someone else’s.
However…
It was a person’s individuality that he could recognize.
– Are you all right, sir?
“Yes.”
Kim Soleum.
After several months, the voice of the colleague who had once been his squadmate resounded in his mind.
But though it was perceived as a voice, it was not truly sound, Lee Jaheon knew that.
It was Kim Soleum’s mind.
Much like how we are connected to one another, Kim Soleum was now present inside Lee Jaheon’s mind.
How was that possible?
– Please listen carefully, Section Chief.
– I’m not a hallucination or a fake. I’m really inside your head.
In fact, he already knew that.
Because Lee Jaheon was part of ‘us’, he knew one of them had met Kim Soleum and spoken with him.
And in the same way, he knew the method Kim Soleum used to enter his mind and establish a mental link.
– I used the ‘We Can Help!’ button in reverse to enter your body, sir.
Indeed.
‘If the ghost story’s entrance is blocked, then use someone who’s already inside!’
…That was Kim Soleum’s idea. He’d gone to the alien reptiles at the Space Shopping Mall, proposed entering Lee Jaheon’s body himself while trapped inside the ghost story, and to do an escape attempt from within.
Reasoning that since there was an item like ‘We Can Help!’ the same mechanism could likely work in reverse.
And it really did.
– If you grant me control over your body, I’ll clear this darkness and get us out of here myself.
Lee Jaheon could feel the quiet pride radiating from inside his own mind. Kim Soleum’s pride.
A similar chemical reaction of emotion rose within himself as well.
Relief. Familiarity.
– Then… please hand over control.
However.
“No.”
– …?!
* * *
‘No but why!’
I felt like stifling a scream as I tore at the lizard’s head… no, saw through the lizard’s viewpoint.
After experiencing every detail of what had just happened from all angles as I entered his mind, I just wanted to get out of here already, no arguing, no waiting!
‘This is a full-blown, deranged gore-type horror story!’
A crazy boarding school ghost story.
…This Darkness where Section Chief Lee Jaheon was currently trapped, the one Baek Saheon called that insane boarding school horror, was a story I’d actually read about before on the wiki.
========================
Dark Exploration Records / Ghost Story
[Now, You May Kiss the Bride]
Dark Exploration Records>
: Daydream Inc. identification code – Qterw-C-5012.
It details the strange events occurring within an educational institution named St. Anticus Boarding School.
This institution, which presents itself as a ‘school for grooms preparing for marriage’, is always recruiting applicants for its lessons and runs a experiential training course.
Most of the exploration records are accounts of what participants experienced while completing this trial program.
The stories are always written in essay form, like autobiographical recollections.
They begin with lessons in etiquette and refinement seemingly suitable for an upper-class wedding, but the curriculum gradually grows ritualistic and bizarre. Its eerie charm lies in piecing together what the ‘wedding’ truly means.
The calm, essay-like tone describing the horrific ‘demerit accumulation’ experiences makes it a suffocating, grotesque horror story.
========================
Back then… it was fine when I had read it before.
Because it was just text on a screen.
‘But seeing it firsthand, this is just straight up nightmarish.’
Even through the dulled senses of body 130666, I found myself exhaling shakily at the horror of it.
Then again, since this body was asleep while only my consciousness connected into Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s body, maybe I was perceiving it even more vividly.
‘Anyway… after coming up with this method, I worked myself to death gathering intel…’
I had shaken down Kwak Jekang for every scrap of information, and even interviewed people on the list of those who’d escaped before using C-grade Dream Essence.
Namely, the security sergeant and Supervisor Park Minseong.
Apparently, back when they were both part of the Field Exploration Team, they’d been suitable subjects because they were unmarried men.
– You’re… asking me to tell you that……?
It was a bit embarrassing, really. It was something you shouldn’t just ask a teammate when you’ve vanished for ages and just reappeared before even having the time to properly catch up.
Of course, we did talk about a few things beforehand… and I’d even heard some news about Director Cheong from Kwak Jekang, but that could wait until later.
Right now, the urgent issue was this.
Lee Jaheon’s escape.
– Please trust me, Section Chief.
– If you’ll just hand over control, I can act quickly and make sure you complete the training successfully.
I’d analyzed <Dark Exploration Records>, cross-referenced interviews, and identified its rules, anomalies, and weak points.
I knew the passing criteria, and I’d even devised an unconventional way to ‘graduate’.
‘All he has to do is let me do it…!’
Even if Section Chief Lee Jaheon had failed the test and was trapped in an endless remedial loop, I could still pull him out!
Even if a new session hadn’t begun and he was stuck in some kind of repeat course, I’d found a way to break through.
– I’ll make sure you pass this test, sir.
“I see.”
Yes!
“But that won’t be necessary.”
……
– Sir?
“Yes.”
No, this reptilian alien wasn’t picking a fight on purpose.
He genuinely meant he didn’t need my help.
…Wait.
Then that means……
– Why… don’t you need it?
“Because I’ve already passed.”
……
“I was selected separately during the trial program. I’ve become an official student, one of the groom candidates chosen to wed the White Bride. The wedding is imminent.”
Hold on.
“To avoid it, I considered using a Sacred Fire bombardment, but we decided to postpone the operation due to the severe risk of civilian casualties.”
……
“Mr. Roe Deer?”
– So, you’re saying you’re actually getting married soon, sir?
“If things continue as they are, yes.”
Oh, I’m going crazy.
– …Any other unusual details?
“There are.”
– Please explain.
“Yes. To achieve an appearance befitting the ceremony, each groom candidate performs nightly bloodletting before bed to attain a complexion as pale as the bride’s gown.”
Then Section Chief Lee Jaheon reached into the drawer by his bed.
…He took out a modern-looking syringe device for drawing blood.
But the size of it…
Wait. That thing’s that big?
“If this continues for more than four days, Lee Jaheon will become a high-risk case for fatal anemia and complications.”
……
……Section Chief!!
Salt Goblin
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