Chapter 253
Chapter 253
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 253
Chapter Title: Even If You Fall into a Ghost Story, You Have to Go to Work
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Lee Jaheon opened his eyes.
A neat bedspread and an old-fashioned, pristine two-person dormitory bedroom with exposed gray brick walls came into view.
Outside the window, gray clouds hung dimly, maintaining a sunken density.
In the fifteen days he had awakened here, sunlight had never appeared even once.
It must be a characteristic of this place.
A low, resonant bell toll rang out. Lee Jaheon rose from the bed and changed clothes.
At St. Anticus Dormitory School, wearing the uniform was mandatory everywhere outside the bedroom, per school rules.
He neatly folded his pajamas on the bed.
All trainees received identical gray linen pajamas cut to standard specifications, divided into five sizes. Lee Jaheon had received the largest size and folded it perfectly.
And the pajamas that needed to be arranged weren't just his own.
Next to the trainee's pajamas, the white bride's attire had to be placed neatly side by side.
This was practice as a groom, part of the school's "curriculum for a successful wedding" education.
Lee Jaheon finished arranging everything in an instant and left the room at the designated time.
And then breakfast.
One must not be late for mealtime, eat with proper posture using utensils in the correct order.
The menu varied each day, but today it was almonds, grilled heart, and Cornelian cherry juice.
During the meal, trainees were taught to ensure the bride's glass never emptied.
The seat opposite the groom was empty, and the glass from the bride's full course would sometimes lose its beverage without reason.
A failure had occurred. Penalty points accumulated.
Morning hours were for learning the groom's refinement.
They studied poems and idioms related to weddings for recitation, learned to play string instruments the bride preferred, and etiquette for greeting guests.
Under our decision, Lee Jaheon completed everything without reproach.
A failure had occurred. Penalty points accumulated.
Lunch consisted of light sandwiches or finger foods, served alongside fingers to familiarize oneself with the bride's appearance.
For skillfully placing the ring during the wedding.
In the afternoon after finishing the meal, they went to the kitchen together to prepare the evening's course dishes.
Selecting fresh ingredients, cooking to the bride's taste...
"Guh, urk!"
"......"
"......"
"W-Wait, no, not...!!"
A failure had occurred. Penalty points accumulated.
The evening course meal proceeded long and elegantly, with groom trainees maintaining dignity and eating cleanly in silence.
Considering the bride's eating habits, they distinguished and left untouched the foods on their plates that she shouldn't eat.
Once all servings up to dessert were finished, they cleared the table, offered thanks to the education supervisor for the day's lessons, and could then rise from their seats.
That marked the start of a short break time.
Lee Jaheon walked the corridor at the prescribed pace.
This dormitory school recommended that trainees avoid stepping in unclean areas outside designated zones for purity's sake and suggested specific ways to rest.
Thus, the most recommended way to spend break time was fantasizing about "what vows to make at the wedding with the bride."
Sometimes they would be asked during the next morning's breakfast, so one had to prepare answers...
Someone grabbed his arm in the corridor.
"H-Hey...!"
Lee Jaheon stopped walking.
A desperate whisper followed.
"Y-You're human, right? You are...!"
"Yes."
A pale face, expression gripped by terror.
A civilian.
"What... what the hell is this place? What is it?!"
"A dormitory school conducting training under St. Anticus's judgment to become a good groom."
"So where the fuck is a place like that in 21st-century Korea?!"
Lee Jaheon answered.
"There is none."
"Wh-Wha?"
Lee Jaheon moved to walk...
"W-Wait! So... this isn't Korea? Some cult? Kidnapped? What the fuck, not some horror game... not a ghost story."
"Correct."
"......Huh?"
"You are currently trapped in a supernatural phenomenon that can be designated a ghost story."
Lee Jaheon finished responding.
And moved to resume his planned tasks...
"Hey."
......
"But why the fuck are you so calm? You know how to get out, that's why. Right?"
"No."
"Bullshit. Fuck."
The whispering voice carried a damp, lost rage, twisted with desperation and eyes rolled back.
If the listener had been anyone else, it would surely have sent chills down their spine.
Lee Jaheon didn't perceive that complex atmosphere but clearly understood the next words.
"We're dying anyway, wanna die together?"
"No..."
"Bullshit. If I fight you here, it's penalty points, fucker. Wanna both get points? Or share the way out?"
A threat.
He must have been aware of that rule.
No, that was precisely why he had survived until now...
The problem was his lack of observation, perhaps due to fear.
"Hey, answer..."
"Do not walk with heavy steps."
"...Huh?"
It was already too late.
A massive shadow loomed over the man who had grabbed Lee Jaheon from above.
The education supervisor.
"...W-Wait a moment. We're not fighting, just chatting during break time. Haha..."
The education supervisor affirmed.
But since the action contradicted the school's educational goals, penalty points would accumulate, it announced.
Of course, not expulsion, purely as encouragement and assistance.
"...Huh?"
Because he had stomped and walked noisily in the corridor.
How embarrassing for the groom to act so undignified at a wedding. Thus, it must be prevented now.
That was why he was receiving training at St. Anticus Dormitory School.
"Um, excuse me."
The man was seized.
"Guh!"
The education supervisor moved to assist the penalty recipient.
According to the penalty details.
"~!!!"
The surface of the man's soles was sliced open.
The education supervisor kindly placed soft rubber and modeling clay in his hands. Noise-dampening padding to shape to his feet.
He had to complete it himself and insert it into his soles to end the penalty.
A gag made of cotton and flesh was inserted into his throat to prevent screams.
Blood from his writhing in pain and terror stained the corridor.
That was another penalty item.
Additional measures were implemented amid the education supervisor's deliberations.
The trainee in question had to walk without making noise immediately after finishing the foot treatment.
Repeating until he could walk properly without any sound.
"...!!, !!!"
Before this entire scene, Lee Jaheon briefly contemplated by our standards.
Whether it was justified to help.
Whether help would be useful.
......
Conclusions reached respectively.
Ambiguous.
Negative.
Of the three trainees who had requested and received his help over the past fifteen days, two died instantly from accumulated penalties, and one perished from complications during training.
Compared to the two who had sobbed while self-inflicting penalties, this form of supervisor-assisted penalty might even be preferable in terms of mental anguish.
Better than the bizarre act of self-torture, desperately carried out in fear and resignation just to survive.
"~~!!, !, ......"
The corridor commotion died down.
To avoid accumulating penalty points under our judgment, Lee Jaheon silently walked the corridor back to his room without a sound.
And saw.
On the bed opposite lay a trainee who had died, intestines burst from mismatched dinner ingredients.
As if he had tried to remove food from his small intestine himself.
"......"
The bell tone changed.
Now it was time for movement restrictions; to respect the bride's privacy, grooms had to rest in their rooms.
Lee Jaheon reached for the white uniform to change...
"......"
Lee Jaheon blinked.
A voice echoed in his head.
Not 'ours.'
Another's.
Yet...
A familiar personality he could recognize.
"Yes."
Kim Sol-eum.
The voice of an acquaintance, once his squadmate, whom he hadn't heard from in months, resounded in his mind.
But recognizing it as a voice didn't mean it was actual sound. Lee Jaheon knew that.
This was Kim Sol-eum's mind.
In a manner similar to how we were connected, Kim Sol-eum existed within Lee Jaheon's mind.
How was that possible?
He knew that too.
As part of 'us,' Lee Jaheon knew what one of us had discussed with Kim Sol-eum upon meeting.
And even how Kim Sol-eum had entered his mind and established a mental connection.
Indeed.
'If the ghost story is blocked, just use someone already inside!'
...Kim Sol-eum had gone to the cosmic mall's alien reptile with that idea, conveying his intent to enter Lee Jaheon's body trapped in the ghost story and escape.
Reasoning that since items like 'Call for Help!' existed, a similar mechanism should work.
And it had worked.
Lee Jaheon felt Kim Sol-eum's pride within his mind.
A similar chemical reaction of emotion arose in him too.
Pleasure at reunion.
However.
"I refuse."
'No, why!'
I felt like screaming as I wanted to tear out the lizard's head... no, I looked through the lizard's vision.
Having experienced everything in surround sound right before entering this head, forget arguing, I just wanted to escape quickly!
'This is a total insane gore ghost story!'
An insane dormitory school ghost story.
...The darkness where Manager Lee Jaheon, called a lizard by Baek Saheon, was missing was a ghost story I had also encountered plenty on the wiki.
Back then... it was fine written as text.
'Seeing it firsthand is this terrifying.'
Even in 130666's body, numb to all stimuli and emotions, it drew a sigh at the horror.
Well, technically, that body was asleep with only my mind connected to Manager Lee Jaheon's body, so I might feel it more vividly.
'Anyway, after devising this method, I gathered info like crazy...'
I shook down Kwak Je-gang, even interviewed from his C-grade list of dream essence solution-filled escapees.
...Guard captain and Assistant Manager Park Minseong, that is.
Back in Field Exploration Team days, both unmarried men made suitable subjects.
...A suddenly resurfaced teammate blurting it out without properly catching up was pretty embarrassing.
Of course, we talked various things before... heard about Executive Director Cheong from Kwak Je-gang too, but sort that later.
For now, the urgent matter was this.
Lee Jaheon's escape.
Based on [Darkness Exploration Records] plus explorer interviews, I grasped baselines, variants, weaknesses.
Knew passing criteria, even devised slightly variant passing methods.
'Just do as I say...!'
Even if Manager Lee Jaheon was repeating experiential training due to failures, I could salvage it!
Even if no new period opened and he was in failure remedial classes, I found breakthrough ways.
"I see."
Yes!
"Not needed."
......
"Yes."
No, this alien reptile absolutely wasn't picking a fight on purpose.
He genuinely didn't need it.
...Wait.
That means...
"Because I passed."
......
"Selected separately during the experiential training period. Became an official trainee as one of the groom candidates to wed this place's white bride, ahead of the ceremony."
Wait.
"Considered ways to avoid like holy bombardment, but holding off due to extreme civilian casualties."
......
"Deer?"
"If it proceeds without changes, yes."
I'm going insane.
"Yes."
"Yes. Groom candidates undergo blood draws every night before bed to achieve an appearance fitting the wedding. A process to create a pale face similar to the bride's attire color."
And Manager Lee Jaheon took something from the bedside table.
...A modern blood-drawing syringe tool.
But the size...
Wait, that big?
"If this state persists over four days, Lee Jaheon will enter high-risk group for anemia and complications, leading to death."
......
......Manager!!