The Branch Manager's Confession
Feeling a headache coming on, I desperately racked my brain.
The superior had asked an incomprehensible question during what was supposed to be a simple interview.
On top of that, the question could easily turn into something extremely dangerous.
The most difficult part was that this superior was a young girl, a child, and a man who liked children—perhaps even sexually. He was an incredibly dangerous human being.
I had no idea how to answer this dilemma.
Deny it?
Or affirm it?
Or say I didn't know?
Time passed while my thoughts grew tangled, and eventually I had to give an answer.
"If it doesn't harm others or cause problems, I suppose such a preference isn't so bad…"
I thought it was the best answer I could manage.
When I glanced at him, the Branch Manager was grinning.
"Kuk kuk, you've been thinking hard. I was hoping you'd just speak your mind… In truth, I already know your answer. You want to say that pedophiles are unacceptable both legally and morally, don't you? And that anyone with such inclinations must have a deeply flawed personality."
"Um…"
My silence became another answer.
"As you can see, I like children very much. Sexually, even. I could say that indulging in those cute, unopened buds and watching them with lustful eyes is the very reason I live. So, let me ask you one question."
The Branch Manager grabbed his own flat chest with one hand and smirked.
"Is there a problem with me touching this undeveloped body?"
"……??"
I didn't understand.
His tone and behavior belonged to a perverted middle-aged man, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with touching his own body.
"There shouldn't be, right? It's his own body."
"Exactly. Khahahat—!!"
The Branch Manager kicked his crossed legs in the air and laughed uproariously.
In the process, the childish panties hidden beneath the skirt were unintentionally revealed, but the vulgar behavior and speech coming from the beautiful girl's appearance were far more jarring.
After the laughter subsided, the Branch Manager spoke with a lingering smile on his lips.
"In truth, this body belongs to my daughter."
"…What?"
"My daughter, the one I raised. My own flesh and blood, made from my seed. Do you understand now?"
The Branch Manager leaned toward me and sneered.
"What do you mean… Ah."
I stared blankly for a moment, unable to grasp the meaning, until I remembered the colleague from the same department who had possessed and devoured someone else's body.
It was something that shouldn't exist by common sense, but after seeing what this company was like, such common sense had long since vanished.
"I devoured her. I stole my daughter's body. Though now it's my body, so calling it theft is a bit much. Kuk kuk…"
Watching the Branch Manager wave his hand dismissively and laugh as if it were all very amusing, I didn't know what reaction to show.
I didn't think his words were an impossible lie, nor did I think he was joking.
It was shocking, but perhaps I'd developed some immunity from all the previous shocks I'd experienced. I was able to collect myself mentally fairly quickly.
Should I ask why he did it?
Or condemn him?
Or should I ask about his true identity first?
Because of the rank difference in the company, I had to choose every question with extreme caution.
In the end, the only option I had was silence.
Paying no mind to my reaction, the Branch Manager gazed into the air, lost in reminiscence.
Drooling from the corner of his mouth, his expression as he sank into his own world was grotesquely twisted, defiling the pure, youthful face.
"Kuk kuk! I still can't forget that day… The terror and fear my daughter showed when I revealed my true form…! The moment she looked up at me, trembling and sobbing in horror…!! Unable to understand, not knowing what to do, not even realizing she'd been betrayed, the moment her most pure and clean body was taken by me…!!! Ah… Just remembering that unforgettable day makes my body tremble with excitement…! This young body, not yet ready to accept a man, feels wet down there. Khahahat!!"
Watching the Branch Manager with eyes wide enough to show mostly whites, bursting into mad laughter, my mind quickly cooled.
It wasn't because I particularly wanted to condemn or think badly of him.
Someone like me, who had ruined another person's life just to pay off debt, feeling disgusted by this would be no different from spitting in my own face.
But I couldn't sympathize either.
My own personality was breaking down too, but even that had its limits.
"Was the reason you raised your daughter so you could eventually devour her and make her body your own?"
"That's right. I cherished her dearly. If she so much as got a scratch, I would cause an uproar. That's why I was very careful when choosing a wife. I needed to give birth to the most beautiful child possible. Naturally, I searched for a woman with genes worthy of that. And as a result, wasn't this beautiful child born?"
The Branch Manager hugged his own body tightly and licked his lips with a thick tongue.
"What about your wife?"
There was no way she would have quietly watched her husband kill the daughter she gave birth to and steal her body.
"I killed her. She'd fulfilled her role as an incubator, so why wouldn't I? She was getting old, too. Once a woman passes her twenties, she's just an old hag. Worthless. Still, her looks were decent, so it was a bit of a shame to kill her, but since she gave birth to such a pure and beautiful child and died, she died having served her purpose as a woman, didn't she? I'm sure she lived a happy life. Keh keh!!"
Listening to the laughter ringing in my ears, I gave up thinking.
My throbbing head no longer even complained of a headache.
I just hoped this insane moment would pass quickly.
"Branch Manager, you're not human, are you?"
"Do you want to see my true form?"
The Branch Manager smirked and thrust his face toward me.
A monster wearing a girl's face.
I didn't know what his true form looked like, but I didn't particularly want to see it.
"I'm… fine."
When I managed to speak, the Branch Manager kept sneering before asking,
"I, a pedophile, stole my daughter's body and now possess it. Biologically and legally, it's undeniably my body. But the ego and memories in this head belong to a male lolicon. Now—let me ask again."
The Branch Manager once more grabbed his chest—his daughter's body—and asked,
"Is there a problem now?"
It was a maddeningly difficult question with many angles to consider, but I had no desire to solve it.
Therefore, my answer could only be clean and simple.
"I don't know."
"Kuk kuk, of course. It's a difficult question."
I sighed deeply inside.
I desperately wanted to go home and rest.
Seeing me sitting there with a drained expression, saying nothing, the Branch Manager laughed and spoke.
"Enough nonsense. Let's talk about the new employee, Yoon Seung-woo. Before you came, I looked through your records. Really—there wasn't much. Except for that incident in high school."
I flinched.
My body trembled at the mention of the high school incident, but fortunately the Branch Manager didn't notice.
"It says here you're working for the company to pay off a massive debt. In that case, it's an excellent choice. Because no company pays as much as ours. If you do your job well, you could become rich on earned income alone."
The Branch Manager flipped through the documents containing my personal information right in front of my eyes.
Watching those tiny hands fumble with the papers, I didn't know whether to laugh or not.
"Other than that… there's really nothing. Absolutely… nothing. And yet he's human… How interesting. On top of that, he joined the Brainwashing, Corrupting, Parasitic Department? Even I find that department hard to control. This is quite amusing."
The Branch Manager muttered with interest, then raised his eyes from the documents to look at me.
"How did you get into our company?"
"I just saw a job posting online…"
"A job posting?"
The Branch Manager's expression changed abruptly, as if something was wrong.
As if the frivolous atmosphere from earlier had been a lie, his gaze turned serious and cold as he stared at me.
That alien gaze sent a chill down my spine, reminding me that he was no ordinary being.
He was a monster that devoured humans.
He might be able to devour me right now.
Moreover, while this was an abnormal company, he was the head of this massive place where tens of thousands of employees came to work.
"I'll back you up, so speak honestly. That way it's easier for both of us, isn't it?"
"Yes?"
When the Branch Manager, who had been staring at me intently, suddenly changed to a friendly tone, I asked back without understanding.
"Who are you referring to?"
"What do you mean…"
"Playing dumb? Not only did an ordinary human like you get hired by our company, but you're becoming a regular employee before even finishing your three-month internship? Anyone can see that's not normal."
I had nothing to say.
I'd also thought it was a bit fast to become a regular employee before the internship period ended, but it wasn't me who decided that—it was the company.
I couldn't say anything about decisions the company had made.
"I know you completed your first assignment excellently. You wrapped it up before the internship even ended? You're certainly an outstanding talent. But even taking that into account—you stand out."
Even at the Branch Manager's meaningful words, I still couldn't open my mouth.
When I remained bewildered, unsure how to react, the Branch Manager narrowed his eyes and observed me more carefully.
Swallowing hard under that appraising gaze, I faced it head-on.
The Branch Manager, who had been tilting his head and leaning toward me, returned to his original position with a smile forming on his lips.
"Fine, fine… Let's leave it at that for now. If you change your mind, you can tell me anytime. Well, in any case, it's true that you performed excellently during your internship and the company evaluated you highly for it. So the company should give you a proper reward, shouldn't it? Check your phone."
Beep!
The moment the Branch Manager finished speaking, an alarm sounded from my phone.
When I turned it on, there was a notification from the banking app, and tapping it automatically opened the app.
[ Account Balance: 65,110,000 won ]
I doubted my eyes.
Because roughly sixty million won had been added to my account.
"The internship period is three months. You already received the first month in advance, so the remaining two months' ten million plus a fifty million performance bonus. That's why a total of sixty million was deposited."
"…Yes?"
"Don't like it?"
"No… I, it's good, but…"
It was good.
Of course it was good.
In less than two months, I'd received an annual salary equivalent to that of a high-income office worker.
There was no reason not to like it.
But good or not, it didn't feel real.
I was just a man in my early twenties with no social experience, no particular skills or specs.
No matter how much it was payment for company work, I couldn't tell if I deserved to receive this much money.
While I sat there dazed, the Branch Manager burst into loud laughter.
"Khahahat!! When an office worker gets paid by the company, that's a good thing. What else could it be? Money is the best reward a company can give its employees. It's the price for you obeying the company like a dog and watching my every word. That's capitalist society. The power of money. Understand?"
Looking again at the Branch Manager leaning back leisurely in his chair with a relaxed smile, he seemed different.
He was clearly a mad, irredeemable existence with a broken personality.
I could never like him, couldn't understand him, and didn't want to understand him.
But before all that, he was a distant senior who had worked at this company far longer than I had, a veteran with more experience as an office worker than me.
On top of that, he was the Branch Manager, someone in a position I might never reach even if I worked at this company for the rest of my life.
In that sense, at least when it came to viewing things as an office worker and thinking like one, he was more mature than I was.
"Since you've become a regular employee, you'll need to rewrite your contract. There aren't many major changes. Rather, there are more favorable terms for you. I'll send the contract as an electronic file later, so you can check it then. The thing you're most curious about is probably the changed salary, right?"
The Branch Manager held up one finger toward me.
When I blinked in confusion, he spoke quietly.
"Ten million."
"Yes?"
"After tax."
Understanding the meaning belatedly, my eyes widened.
"T-ten million a month!?"
My voice rose involuntarily.
The Branch Manager answered with a smile.
"…Hic."
I was so surprised my chest heaved.
I didn't know what to say about the salary that had nearly doubled.
In terms of annual salary, it was a hundred million.
'And that's after-tax…'
Even receiving that much, paying off two billion in debt still seemed impossibly far away, but I knew the amount I was receiving wasn't normal.
The Branch Manager watched me with amusement, then suddenly picked up the remote and turned on the TV.
Naturally, both our gazes turned to the screen, where a female idol was singing and dancing on stage, surrounded by an enormous crowd.
'Ah… That idol is incredibly famous.'
She was a female idol even I, whose mind had been consumed by paying off debt, knew about.
That was how much attention this woman was receiving in this country—perhaps even the world.
"Do you know that young woman?"
"Not well, but… I know she's a female idol who's been getting a lot of attention lately."
"That's your next task as a regular employee."
"Yes?"
"Corrupt that idol and brainwash her."
The Branch Manager turned his gaze back to me.
"Make that woman, the most watched in this country and the object of every man's desire, yours."
The Branch Manager, wearing the face of his former daughter, grinned at me.
Facing that gaze, I realized one thing.
Another reason I couldn't condemn the Branch Manager.
Our methods and ways of thinking were different, but we shared the same trait: we both felt excitement from destroying the existence we had chosen.
The me who understood and empathized with the thoughts behind that gaze was, just like him, already a thoroughly twisted existence.