Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Hong Okrye sat on the warehouse floor, staring up at Lee Yuha. “Th-thanks for saving me.”
She had nearly fallen through the hole that had suddenly spun open in the wall beyond. Lee Yuha had caught her just in time.
“……”
But Lee Yuha said nothing. She simply stepped closer to the hole and peered down into the darkness. A spiral staircase made of stone wound downward into the gloom.
Lee Yuha turned back to Hong Okrye and asked, “Do you perchance know what this is?”
“Uh… I-I don’t know!” Hong Okrye shook her head vigorously.
It didn’t seem like she was lying, but Lee Yuha pressed her again. “Did you not come here before with Baek Chulyeon?”
“Th-there wasn’t anything like this last time!”
“Truly?”
“Truly!”
Even to Lee Yuha, it looked as though Hong Okrye was seeing it for the first time. Besides, if she had known about it, she wouldn’t have nearly fallen in herself. And in truth, this was the first Hong Okrye had ever heard of such a thing.
Lee Yuha thought to herself, Could it be… Baek Chulyeon?
Had he come down here with that girl from the Yang family? She didn’t know where the passage led, but a hidden place like this would be the perfect spot for a man and woman to meet in secret.
Just then, the warehouse door burst open.
『Where the hell is that Shirabayashi bastard?!』
A male student in a training uniform stormed in, shouting. It was clearly Murasaki, who should have already gone home. Right behind him, Song Byeong-o came rushing in as well.
Neither Lee Yuha nor Hong Okrye had any idea why Murasaki was suddenly looking for Baek Chulyeon, so they simply stayed quiet. Murasaki glared at Lee Yuha and shouted again.
『What?! …He’s not here? Where did you hide him, you expensive Joseon bastard!』
Lee Yuha had no answer for him.
“It seems there has been some misunderstanding. I, too, came here looking for him.”
“Don’t make me laugh!”
Murasaki stormed forward, breathing hard, and scanned the warehouse. His eyes landed on the underground passage revealed by the rotated wall.
『What the hell is that rat hole?!』
“We don’t really know either…” Lee Yuha trailed off.
Song Byeong-o, who had followed Murasaki in, approached the hole, examined it, and pushed up his glasses.
“Well… judging by the heat rising from it, I’d say there’s probably a boiler room or something similar down there.”
At those words, Murasaki shouted,
『That’s it! He must have run down there! The coward abandoned the girls and fled to hide by himself! You’re trapped like a rat in a bag now!』
He drew his sword and charged down the spiral staircase without hesitation. Song Byeong-o followed after him, calling out, “Hey, wait a moment!”
“……?”
Once again, only the two girls remained in the warehouse. Lee Yuha was momentarily bewildered by the sudden turn of events, but she quickly regained her composure and assessed the situation.
Whatever the reason, Murasaki was clearly furious with Baek Chulyeon. If Baek Chulyeon really was down there, a fight was inevitable. Of course, she found it hard to imagine Baek Chulyeon losing or getting hurt against Murasaki, but there was always the possibility of an “if.”
More importantly, such a clash could damage the “teamwork” and cooperation that Baek Chulyeon had repeatedly emphasized and that their squad had only just begun to build.
Lee Yuha was about to descend the spiral staircase when she glanced back. Her gaze fell on Hong Okrye, who was still sitting on the floor, rubbing her cold feet.
“Will you come with me?”
“Huh? Ah… I…”
“If you do not wish to, I will not force you. It is not certain that Baek Chulyeon is even down there…”
Lee Yuha felt it would be excessive to drag Hong Okrye into an unknown place below simply to confirm her suspicions about the girl’s relationship with Baek Chulyeon. So she left the choice to her.
For Hong Okrye, this was a chance to get away from Lee Yuha.
“S-sorry! I think I’ll head back now!”
“Very well. On the contrary, I must apologize for keeping you so late.”
After offering her apology, Lee Yuha followed Murasaki and Song Byeong-o down the underground spiral staircase.
Hong Okrye, who had been sitting, sprang to her feet. Perfect!
The train to Wonsan she had planned to catch that evening had already left, but she could just take the night train or the first one tomorrow morning. With that thought, she tried to leave the warehouse—only to hear male voices outside.
『What’s all that noise? Sounded like it came from around here.』
『Don’t tell me those kids we let in earlier are messing around with the girls who came in first?』
『Damn it, so they split up boys and girls on purpose from the start? Let’s catch them and drag them to the academy’s disciplinary officer.』
『Shouldn’t we hand them over to the police for subversive activities?』
They were the security guards.
Hong Okrye was shocked. Police? Did he just say police?
The guards’ voices grew closer until they finally flung the warehouse door open.
『What? They’re not here?』
『I definitely heard something coming from here…』
Hong Okrye had hurriedly slipped into the secret staircase and spun the rotating wall back into place. She held her breath, tense and hidden.
But then one of the guards flopped down and said,
『Well, since we’re already in here, why don’t we just kill some time? We can still see the shrine entrance if we leave the door open, right?』
『Sounds good.』
What? They’re staying here?
The guards showed no sign of leaving. Hong Okrye was losing her mind. It wasn’t just about escaping anymore—she had to warn the ones who had gone down first. If she stayed hidden and they came back up making noise without knowing what was happening, they would all get caught.
How did it come to this…
She had been planning to leave for Wonsan tonight. How had things turned out like this?
With no other choice, Hong Okrye followed the group that had gone ahead and descended the dark spiral staircase.
『Shirabayashi-san. It looks like we’ve arrived.』
The end of the underground secret passage was blocked by thick iron bars. Beyond them, it was too dark to see clearly, but this was probably the same trap where he and Renka had been trapped the day before yesterday.
I approached the iron bars and examined the presence I sensed on the other side. It wasn’t certain, but it seemed no one was there.
“Renka. The iron bars…” I stopped myself.
In front of the bars blocking the passage was a large pressure plate. It seemed that if a magic beast that had come down the passage from the magic beast stables stepped on it, the door would open automatically.
I pointed at the plate. “It looks like stepping on this opens it.”
“I see. Then shall I step on it?”
“Wait a moment.”
I rummaged through the inner pocket of my school uniform. There was no sign of anyone beyond the bars, but just in case, I wanted to put on Major Aoki’s glove… Huh?
The glove that should have been in my uniform pocket was gone.
Did I drop it somewhere?
I hadn’t needed to use the glove since I knocked out Hong Okrye last time, so I had forgotten about it. If I had dropped it after that… Well, unless my body had been flipped upside down so the jacket was inverted, there was no way it could have fallen out.
Ah. That must have been when.
It was probably the day before yesterday in the shrine warehouse. When I had reached out to save Renka as she was about to fall underground, my body had tilted downward and the glove must have slipped out somewhere below.
There was no other time it could have been lost.
I’ll have to look for it on the way out.
Having finished my thoughts, I told Renka, “Alright. Let’s step on the plate. Since it’s a switch that only activates for mid-to-high-grade magic beasts, we’ll both need to get on it at once.”
“Understood. One, two!”
On the count, we both stepped onto the pressure plate together. The iron bars began to rise.
Renka and I stepped off the plate and passed under the bars. A few steps later, we heard a heavy thud behind us as the bars lowered again. It seemed the mechanism automatically closed if the pressure plate wasn’t pressed.
It’ll be hard to get out this way.
Since they had gone to the trouble of making it a trap, it was probably designed to prevent escape.
I looked around. When entering a potentially hostile space, identifying an exit route was basic common sense.
The space beyond the bars was indeed the inner area of the trap where the magic beasts had burst out the other day. The beasts had been cleared away, but the firewall that had blocked our path was still in place.
However, the hole Renka had made before was nowhere to be seen. Had they welded it shut? No—it had been replaced with a much thicker firewall.
Hmm.
Was it even possible to complete such construction in a single night? Probably not. They must have had a first and second firewall separately.
Last time, the “Doctor” had already been inside, so the firewall had been raised. When we entered, they had hastily lowered only the first one. This time, they must have sealed it solidly with the second firewall.
Anyway, to examine the vacuum tube computer that was the purpose of our visit, we first had to break through that firewall.
“Renka. Can you pierce this wall?”
“Hmm…”
Renka tapped the firewall a couple of times, noticed it was thicker than before, and spoke.
“It may be difficult to make a large hole like last time. However… creating one just large enough for a person to pass through might be possible.”
Like any awakened person, Renka’s magic power had its limits. Last time the firewall had been a thin iron plate, so she had been able to carve a large circle as if drawing on a blackboard. This time the plate was much thicker, so it would naturally require twice the effort.
Still, as long as we could make a hole big enough for a person to squeeze through, it would be fine.
I nodded. “Alright. I’m counting on you.”
“Yes… Haaap!”
Renka thrust her sword, glowing red-hot, into the firewall.
The spiral stone staircase wound downward along the cylindrical inner wall.
As Lee Yuha descended the steps, she suddenly spotted something at her feet. When she picked it up, she saw it was a black leather glove—only for the right hand.
This is…!
Lee Yuha recognized it at once. It was the glove Baek Chulyeon often wore.
She picked up the leather glove and held it in both hands.
It was certain that Baek Chulyeon had come here. But for what purpose had he entered this suspicious underground place?
Perhaps I was making a ridiculous misunderstanding.
Baek Chulyeon had not come here for carnal reasons. Like the time with Choi Seonggil, perhaps he had come to fight something. In that case, this glove might be a kind of signal to let her know he was here—just like the shoe last time.
You truly…
Lee Yuha slipped the single right-hand leather glove onto her delicate, jade-like right hand.
But then, someone came hurrying down the stairs from above. When she turned, she saw it was Hong Okrye, who had said she was going back.
“Did you not say you were leaving?”
“Well…”
Hong Okrye had been about to explain that guards had come upstairs, but when she saw Lee Yuha, her heart sank again. The glove on Lee Yuha’s right hand was the very one Baek Chulyeon had used to knock her unconscious!
Noticing her reaction, Lee Yuha asked, “What is the matter?”
“N-nothing!”
“……? By the way, what happened?”
“Well…”
Hong Okrye calmed her pounding heart and explained. “The guards have settled down in the warehouse upstairs. They said if they catch us, they’ll report us to the disciplinary officer. If we go out now, we’ll be caught right away…”
“I see. So you came to warn us. Thank you.”
“Th-the boys should know too…”
“They went down before me, so they must be further below, no?”
“Y-yeah…!”
When they finally reached the very bottom, sure enough, Murasaki and Song Byeong-o were there. Murasaki was jumping around with his sword drawn, shouting.
『Damn it! That Shirabayashi bastard is definitely in here!』
But Lee Yuha could not see Baek Chulyeon anywhere. When she asked, Song Byeong-o answered.
“Well, there’s an iron door over there, isn’t there?”
“There is.”
“But as you can see, it’s locked without a key, so we can’t get in…”
“Hmm…”
Lee Yuha approached the iron door to examine the lock. The moment she drew near, the locking mechanism made a rattling, clicking sound.
“……?”
『Haa… haa… It is done, Shirabayashi-san.』
“Oh. Good work.”
I checked the hole Renka had made in the firewall. It was still too dark beyond to see clearly, but I could make out the flickering lights from the vacuum tube computer humming at a low pitch. There were still no signs of anyone.
Good.
But when I tried to stick my upper body through the hole Renka had made, it seemed it wouldn’t work.
“It’s a bit small,” I said.
“Pardon…?”
Renka was small and slender, so she might fit, but although my current body wasn’t particularly robust, I was still a man. Passing through such a narrow hole would be rather difficult.
“Hmm… It can’t be helped,” Renka said. “Still, I should be able to get through. I will go in first. If there is a ‘switch’ on the other side that can raise this wall, I will look for it.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Renka tossed her sword through the hole first, then bent at the waist and pushed her head into the opening she had made.
“Heave-ho… Ah.”
But as she tried to push her upper body through, she suddenly stopped. A flustered voice came from beyond the firewall where her upper half was.
“Sh-Shirabayashi-san?”
“What is it?”
“It won’t go in any further… Could you push from behind?”
As she had said, she had easily gotten up to her waist into the hole, but she could go no farther. Her pelvis was stuck.
…Oh dear.
It felt awkward to put my hands on a girl’s body, and it didn’t seem like pushing harder would help anyway, so I said, “Come back out for now. The hole is too small after all.”
“Understood.”
It looked like I would have to widen the hole again. That would mean Renka had to recover her depleted magic power, so it would take some time.
I turned my head and looked at the large iron door embedded in one wall. It was the iron door that had led here from the shrine warehouse—the same one we had used when Renka and I first came here.
I should open this door in advance.
Rattle… Click!
I turned the lock and left the door open. Good. We could exit through here later.
“…Ah?”
But as Renka tried to pull herself back out, she called to me again in panic.
“Sh-Shirabayashi-san? Are you still there?”
“What is it this time?”
“It seems my sword belt has gotten caught…”
The belt she wore at her waist to carry her sword had snagged on something inside.
“Can you undo it?”
“Just a moment…”
Even after saying that, she couldn’t get free easily. It was clearly difficult. The belt was tightly fastened with rings and knots, half of it was wedged in the narrow gap between her body and the hole, and trying to undo it while bent over in an uncomfortable position made it even harder.
Then—
Gu-gu-gung…
A heavy, metallic grinding sound rang out. It was the sound of the large iron door leading to the shrine warehouse opening behind us.
…Damn it!
Who was it? The “Doctor”? The security guards who had been watching the shrine? Or one of the professors who knew about this place?
Whoever it was, it would be bad if they discovered we were here. We needed to hide.
Fortunately it was dark, so if we hid in a corner away from the iron door, we might not be noticed. But there was a problem.
“Sh-Shirabayashi-san? What was that sound just now?”
Before I could hide myself, I first had to either pull Renka out of the wall or push her all the way inside.
“Damn it, excuse me! This is an emergency, so I have no choice!”
“Kyaa?!”
I grabbed Renka’s waist with both hands and began pulling with all my strength. But before I could free her—
『Shirabayashi, you bastard!』
A voice shouted from behind me.
“So this is where you were… Wh-what are you doing?!”
“B-Baek Chulyeon, is that you…?”
At the two familiar voices, I turned around. The two people who had entered through the gap in the open iron door and were now staring at me in shock were Murasaki and Song Byeong-o.
Why were they here?
That alone was shocking enough, but they weren’t the end of it.
“Baek Chulyeon…?”
“C-Comrade Baek…?”
Behind the two male students appeared a familiar silver-haired girl with a long daenggi braid and a red-brown ponytail—Lee Yuha and Hong Okrye.
Wait a second.
I had no idea how or why these people had followed one after another like a string of sausages, but from their perspective, the current scene between Renka and me must have looked extremely suspicious.
A man gripping a girl’s waist from behind while she was stuck in a wall.
In the frozen atmosphere, Lee Yuha spoke in an icy voice.
“You there.”