Chapter 59
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Extra File. New Moon Witch
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When he was a child, he often played hide-and-seek after school. That day was no different.
It was a chilly autumn day with a biting wind. As always, his friends gathered around him. He was always at the center of everything, no matter where he was. Adults and kids alike adored him. He was still young, but he'd never failed to achieve anything he set his mind to.
That day was the same. Amid the crowd that had gathered, he spotted a kid he'd never seen before. A timid, awkward, grubby little thing. The boy usually had no friends and would trudge home alone after school, shoulders slumped. He always seemed desperate to join the other kids in play, but everyone knew it and ignored him anyway. This scruffy kid had mustered the courage to show up, hoping to play with the others. But that didn't magically give him any confidence. Even then, he kept glancing around nervously, as if he knew he didn't belong.
He felt the same way. He had no desire to be friends with such a worthless kid. He was about to yell at him and send him packing, but then he changed his mind. Something far more amusing had occurred to him.
He welcomed the kid with a smile. Kindly explained the rules of hide-and-seek, and the boy seemed to relax a little. Then he told the kid that since it was his first time, he could hide first. And on the sly, he whispered a hint about a "secret spot no one knows." The kid bolted off to the place he'd been told.
But no one went looking for him. Watching the boy dash away excitedly, the rest of the group just laughed and jeered. By nightfall, he'd realize he'd been tricked and go crying home. What an utter fool.
Having shaken off that annoying tagalong, the kids started their game without him. The seeker was chosen. He'd never been it before. He never would be. The children scattered to their hiding spots. He chose the storage closet on the second floor of the school, used for cleaning supplies.
How long had he been inside? It was when clouds obscured the sunset light filtering through the small window on the closet door. As the shadow fell across his face, something arrived.
"What a naughty boy you are."
It was a sinister man's voice, like the chill wind on a moonlit night.
He was too startled to even look around. Not that it would have mattered. He wouldn't have found the voice's owner anyway.
"Wh-who are you?"
"I am the shadow."
"A monster who devours bad villains like you."
He wasn't the type to scare easily, even as a kid. He didn't believe in ghost stories or monsters. Normally, he'd have laughed it off as a prank. But not that day. The voice whispering from the shadows was undeniably real, speaking the truth—though he couldn't explain how he knew.
"P-please spare me. I'm not a bad kid. I haven't done anything wrong."
"I see the path you'll tread in your own shadow."
"You'll harm others for your own gain."
"Building your life on the corpses of widows and orphans."
He watched the shadow on the floor writhe like it was alive. It crept toward him slowly, as if to strangle him. He burst into sobs, repeating the same plea.
"I haven't done anything yet. Nothing at all."
The encroaching shadow paused. Then it spoke again.
"'Yet' you haven't done anything?"
"Yes. I haven't done a thing. Nothing..."
Suddenly, the shadows that had seemed alive stilled, as if it had never happened. But the voice lingered.
"Then I'll give you one chance."
"Remember this well."
"The moment you forget this encounter with me."
"You will return to this spot again and again."
With those final words, the voice finally left him. He gasped for air like he was vomiting, weeping until his body felt shriveled and dry. That's when someone rattled the closet door violently, trying to open it. Terrified, he screamed hysterically.
The door swung open, revealing the seeker from hide-and-seek. At first, the kid grinned happily at finding him. But then he froze, seeing him nearly out of his mind.
A commotion ensued. But outwardly, he had no wounds or anything strange. He just wailed uncontrollably, repeating "shadow, shadow" over and over.
It took a long while for him to calm down. Since nothing else happened after, the incident ended there.
His life didn't change afterward. It was just one eerie day that passed. If anything, he even spread tales of the mysterious experience to draw more attention. Nothing changed. Even as he grew older. He excelled in studies, had tons of friends, and adults loved him. He still achieved everything he wanted.
Sometime later, he heard a story. About that worthless kid who'd hidden in the spot he'd whispered about on the day they met. The boy had followed his directions and hidden in a ditch at the edge of the neighborhood. No one came looking, so he'd dozed off in the dark. And drowned in the ditch.
His life didn't change after that either. In puberty, he took an interest in architecture. He studied diligently and saw honest results. It didn't take long to rise high at a young age. He built many structures. But the blueprints from his hand didn't match the actual buildings. He used cheap, low-quality materials instead of those listed on paper, cutting corners. The difference between budgeted and actual costs rolled straight into his pockets. His wealth grew steadily. A few accidents happened due to shoddy construction, but he always shifted blame with clever maneuvering. He lost only a bit of reputation, trivial enough to recover with time and talent.
A few buildings collapsed, but his life only towered higher. He married. Had children. People still flocked around him. His architectural style quietly drew in partners, letting him evade laws and oversight, growing bolder in his ventures.
Then one day, he visited a luxury boutique in a newly opened massive department store to buy an expensive gift for his mistress. As the clerk guided him and he picked up a glittering handbag to check out, the building shook violently. As an architecture expert, he knew instantly what was happening. Ironically, his "efficient" methods had spawned copycats in the industry without his knowledge.
He was crushed under the collapsing debris. No major injuries, but pinned under massive rubble, unable to move. He struggled helplessly, but no rescuers came.
How much time passed? Faint sunset light seeped through a gap. Shadows formed around him in the darkness. A chill ran through him. The shadows encircling him began to writhe like living things. The ominous voice he'd long forgotten—dismissed as a childhood dream—echoed across time once more.
"In the end, you've disappointed me."
It was the shadow's voice.
He hadn't noticed when it happened. He was back in his childhood, in that hide-and-seek closet, tears streaming down his face.
"I'm sorry!"
Trembling in terror, he cried out desperately.
"Give me one more chance! I'll truly repent! I swear I won't harm anyone again!"
"One more chance?"
"Don't you remember?"
"I've already given you countless chances."
"Yet you always return here."
"Your fate wasn't destined to make you a villain, so why do you cling so stubbornly to a life in darkness?"
The writhing shadow was far more vivid than his memory. Like twigs dancing in a bonfire, it lashed out with thousands of flickering tongues, tightening around him. It already covered his eyes and coiled around his throat. He could no longer struggle, engulfed by the shadow and lifted into the air.
That was the end. In an instant, he vanished. Only his shadow remained in the sunset light within the closet.
In the closet watching through the opened gap,
Beneath the lantern by your bedside,
In the treet shadows cast by the fragmented moonlight at dusk,
I lurk in every one of those shadows.
You shall not be alone, even in places without light.
The New Moon Witch is coming.
The New Moon Witch is coming.