The Time of Confession

"Aren't things getting pretty serious right now?"

Having barely managed to sit Noah back down before he could climb into the glass bottle, I wiped the sweat beading on my forehead and asked.

There was no crevice left inside that bottle to escape through—and even now, candy syrup was slowly rising within it.

Moon Chaeyoung circled the bottle this way and that, as if gauging it, before finally offering a rather peculiar answer.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't?"

What kind of nonsense was that?

Was she saying it was dangerous once the syrup filled up, and not dangerous while it hadn't?

Even I, with a working pair of eyes, could tell that much!

Swallowing a sigh, I threw out the next question right on its heels.

This was something I'd held back on, thinking it might be rude—but with things this urgent...

"Team Leader Moon."

"Yes."

"Is there truly no way for you to get us out of this situation by your own strength?"

For all her appearance, Moon Chaeyoung belonged to the field team of the number-one hunter corporation in the country. Her position, no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠less, was team leader. After all, didn't people always say that anyone operating under the name of a Hunter could slice a slime monster in two bare-handed, at the very least?

"No, I can't."

But Moon Chaeyoung was adamant. Without a sliver of hesitation, she had completed a flawless act of self-assessment.

"Could you explain why?"

With a thoughtful hum—Hm—she began laying it out as though it were nothing worth fussing over.

"My awakening ability is illusion. The core of my kit is overlaying illusions onto a given space, a person, or a monster to throw them into disarray."

Mid-explanation, she traced a lazy circle in the air with her finger.

"But in this situation, laying an illusion over any of those wouldn't help us clear the dungeon."

The more evenly her explanation flowed, the tighter her brow creased. There wasn't a monster in sight just then, and papering illusions over the people to calm them might well drag the survival rate down instead—because in the end, they too would only walk out of this place by safely obeying whatever rules the dungeon demanded.

"In that case, better to face reality as it is, however frightening."

...Every point, one by one, was sound.

Naturally so. Under an illusion, reacting in real time to a shifting situation would be next to impossible.

I nodded along as if bewitched, and before I knew it, muttered aloud the thought I'd been turning over in my head.

"I always assumed the field team leaders of BOND were all built around combat-type abilities..."

The heavy hitters the world knew tended to be people equipped for raw power. So I'd blithely assumed that power translated directly into authority and salary...

"Ah, that was true enough before the Peace Era. But in times like these, the standards for handing someone a post like team leader are no different from any ordinary company's."

These days, apparently, what counted was career history, years served, judgment, leadership, and personality fit...

"I suppose it's because we don't just run dungeons anymore. We get handed every odd job under the sun..."

"I see."

"Yes. In my case, they gave me the team leader's seat based on my career and track record. There are a fair few other leaders like me—people whose abilities are a poor fit for dungeon exploration, but who were recognized as leadership material."

With that, she went on to note that BOND harbored a curious anomaly—executives with shorter careers than ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the people currently serving in its field teams—and then tacked on, "Honestly, every time I watch them throw their weight around from up top while knowing less than I do, some days I want to kill them."

There it was. Finally, an expression to match the situation.

Why did she look as though staring down the company was somehow worse than staring down an EX-rank dungeon?

In any case, I now had my definitive answer: Moon Chaeyoung alone could not lift us out of this.

Which left one question—what were we supposed to do now?

But before I could so much as half-shape an answer, the voice came again.

I whipped around and shouted.

"Sit down! If you don't want to end up in that glass bottle, pretend to pray!"

Plop, plop. Even the startled people who had leapt up and been about to dash for the glass bottle dropped swiftly back into their seats at my shout.

"What on earth is even happening!"

"Dad, what are you doing in there?"

"This is seriously driving me insane."

Beneath bowed heads, voices thick with confusion layered over one another.

...And only after we had repeated the whole routine three more times did we finally hear a voice markedly different from everything before it.

Gulp.

At the sudden shift, even the crowd's murmuring thinned out. Everyone held their breath, every nerve strung tight for whatever change was about to come.

With the sound of the lights cutting out, darkness draped itself over the space that had been blazing bright.

"......"

Dizziness and cold sweat made my head swim.

Maybe it would be different for people who'd been swept up by sheer accident, but so long as I knew full well that I'd been dragged into an EX-rank dungeon through Moon Chaeyoung...

There was no way not to imagine the worst.

Just as I was evening out my breathing to keep calm... the foot beside mine slid slowly closer, grazed the toe of my right shoe, and drew away.

Right... there was a person next to me.

So far, so good.

Registering that my heart had settled somewhat from moments ago, I slowly fixed my gaze straight ahead.

Pitch black.

But... there were places where it wasn't.

"Huh? Why is the light only over me?"

"...What is this?"

On the altar. And beneath it, in only two places.

Of all the people drowned in darkness, dazzling light poured down upon just two.

The star candies that had been drifting from the ceiling vanished without a trace, and in their place, glittering dust caught the pouring light and wrapped the two of them in its shimmer.

If you could forget the circumstances, it was a sight beautiful enough to steal your soul. As if... advertising that those two alone were the chosen ones.

But the faces of the people standing beneath that light were anything but glad.

"Huh? Huh? Why is my body moving on its own?"

"Excuse me! Somebody grab me, please! My body just won't listen to me!"

Like a pair of tug-of-war teams they strained against the invisible rope, but their strength gave out in the end, and they were hauled up onto the altar.

The two on the altar stared at each other, utterly bewildered.

Then it came.

At that, the gray-templed middle-aged man of the two began to speak, staring into empty air as if entranced.

"I started going to the gym recently, and it seems doable, so I haven't missed a single day.... No—wait, why am I even saying this?"

The moment the man's words ended...

the woman standing opposite fidgeted, eyes fixed on the man.

But the man's mouth clamped shut right after. Nothing visible was holding it—yet it felt as though someone were pressing it closed.

Finally, unable to withstand the pressing, the woman opened her mouth.

"...T-True?"

"Ah... I-I survived?"

"Pffft! What? That's it?"

The two of them were standing safe and sound on the altar.

"Hold on, if we just keep doing this—"

Beside me, Moon Chaeyoung seemed to be murmuring something at her watch, but...

the second confession began immediately after, and I never heard the rest.

The middle-aged man chosen as Believer. The young woman chosen as Priest. Both of them, faces a breath away from tears, looked back and forth between the altar and the glass bottle.

By now, the syrup swayed at about the knee height of an adult woman.

When a stretch of time had passed, the man once again began speaking to the empty air with entranced eyes.

"Actually, it's only been a week since I first went to the gym, so—"

"T-True! It's true!"

Arm shooting up, the woman answered far more quickly this time.

However.

"Oh no—it went and told on him..."

The light over the altar died.

And only much later, when it blazed back to life, could we see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what a failed confession bought you.

"Ugh, come on! It's cramped as a sardine can in here!"

"Eek! Is this stuff going to keep filling up?"

The two who had stood on the altar moments ago were now inside the glass bottle—squeezed in among the crowd, staring out with stricken faces.

"Aww~ so jealous! I wanted to go in too~"

I told him no. Kim Noah.

The more people packed into that bottle, the higher the syrup level would climb.

"Teacher."

Tap, tap. At the faint touch on my shoulder, I turned my head.

It was Moon Chaeyoung, who had kept quietly to my side the whole time.

"Yes."

And then, thrust abruptly before my eyes—the screen of the watch on Moon Chaeyoung's wrist.

"If we play this right, I believe we can all return home safe."

Welcome words, while they lasted...

But instead of the screen looming in front of me, I found myself studying Moon Chaeyoung.

Could a human being actually be that calm?

Not once, this entire time, had Moon Chaeyoung so much as wavered.

Aside from looking murderous whenever the company came up... her expression had barely changed at all.

Granted, her line of work meant she'd probably seen it all—but a major incident descending without warning on a holiday? Wouldn't anyone raise hell?

At the very least, it was strange enough—this utter, unshakable serenity—to set off every alarm I had.

And right then, on cue, a familiar sound rang at my ear.

"......"

So I could open it just by thinking about it now?

But I was in no state to pick the thing apart line by line.

Still... her head hurts, it said.

The status condition scrawled at the end of the window.

After seeing Kwon Haeseong's status window, I'd taken a clumsy stab at guessing what such a condition meant.

I'd assumed it was tied only to consciousness or psychological problems.

Moon Chaeyoung's entry changed my mind.

Looking at it now, it seemed to be meant exactly as written.

That the state is simply abnormal.

Granted, it could be temporary, or it could be constant...

But in a case like Moon Chaeyoung's, where a physical abnormality was bound up in it, the odds skewed heavily toward constant.

For all I knew, this woman... had genuinely injured her head somewhere along the way, leaving her emotional responses blunted.

"This watch has every function under the sun. And among them, there's one even the Product Development Team counts as their cleverest work."

Meanwhile, indifferent to my suspicions, Moon Chaeyoung was busily demonstrating what she meant.

Twirling the round bezel strapped over her tanned wrist, she adjusted the screen until, at last...

"......!"

An immensely hopeful phrase lit up the display.

Right. Escape first, everything else later.

And, well... it's entirely possible for a person to be missing a few emotions.

Blinded by the prospect of escape, I vaulted clean over several steps of reasoning.

"I honestly don't know what reasoning it uses to reach that judgment, so I can't explain it. But one thing is certain, Teacher..."

"Yes."

"If our luck holds, we may be able to leave this place without ever dropping into that syrup tank."

Gulp. Clear in progress, was it.

Sweeping back my sweat-soaked hair, I studied the screen carefully, working to parse what it was telling me.

On the round display, blue liquid was creeping upward bit by bit. Above it floated the words Clear in Progress.

No way. Did it mean that if the thing simply kept crawling along like this, it would finish on its own?

"You're saying all we have to do is hold out?"

"That's exactly it. If we're lucky—so long as we hold out without getting caught in that confession business or whatever it is—this dungeon will clear automatically. And then everyone here will get out safe and sound."

Of course, on the assumption that the people sealed in the glass bottle wouldn't be underwater in syrup by then.

"But there's no guarantee we'll be lucky."

Right. That was the problem.

Luck wasn't even a game of probability. It wasn't a territory we could reach in and steer...

"That's true. Still, it is good news, no? In the ordinary run of things, you'd be forced to pull off something absurd, or told to gamble on dying together. Compared to that, this dungeon is a golden child."

That was... also true, wasn't it.

I should be happy about this, right?

"At this point, the only explanation left is that heaven itself pitched in."

Ah. Yes.

The golden child of a dungeon.

This, in a place where we could very well sink into that sticky-sweet syrup and be taxidermied into candy.

Perhaps with someone running a few screws loose beside me, even the fear I had left had quietly packed its bags.

What a truly unforeseen silver lining.

Giving up on wringing anything further out of Moon Chaeyoung, I closed my hand around the doll dangling from my bag.

Hope just hurt now.

"Nabi."

"Nabi?"

"Ah, don't mind me. When I get tense, I have to grab whoever's around and vent a little before I feel like myself again."

"Aha, I understand. I understand completely~"

Understand what, exactly?

I'd improvised that excuse on the spot, but her reaction was so breezily accepting it nearly wrung a sigh out of me.

Then again, I had just now confirmed what a fool's errand it was to expect a normal response from that team leader.

"Nabi."

I called for Nabi again.

[ Yeah. ]

The answer came at once—prompt enough to make me wonder why it had kept so quiet until now.

"It's dark in here, isn't it?"

[ Right? It's way too dark! I can't even see my snacks. ]

"See? So listen. Once we're out of here, there's way more fun stuff and loads of snacks. We saw them on the way in, remember?"

[ Right, there were tons. ]

"That's right. The moment we're out, I'll buy you heaps of the snacks you love."

[ Really? For real? ]

"Of course. Really, for real. But... it doesn't look like I can leave this place right now. Do you happen to know how to get out, Nabi?"

Know. Please, please know.

Surely a monster would know a monster's world better than anyone...

[ I know. ]

"......!!"

Jackpot.

"...You know? Really?"

A windfall! There was no windfall like it.

Barely damming the tears that pricked at my eyes, I cradled the doll close in both hands.

"How do we get out?"

[ Just go out. ]

C-calm. Calm down. Keep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it together.

It stood to reason that this thing and I thought about the world differently.

"That's way too hard for me.... Can't you tell me just a little more detail?"

[ But you just go out? ]

"......"

[ Huh? Friend's a human, right? Hmm, then you can't go out right now! But you can go out. ]

...What on earth was that supposed to mean.

Swallowing the urge to interrogate it line by line, I asked again, desperate.

"So you're saying I can't leave right now, but either way, I can leave?"

Don't tell me it's just going to be hold out and wait, like Moon Chaeyoung said.

[ Yep. I put it in your bag. ]

The bag?

At the unexpected lead, I opened the bag on the spot and checked inside.

Wallet, a Neverland guidebook, a handkerchief... hold on. What's this?

The unfamiliar thing my fingers closed around made me switch on my phone to look at it.

"Why is this in here?"

[ I put it there! ]

Just as Nabi said, there really was something in the bag I hadn't packed.

A palm-sized, plastic MP3 player. The screen set into the center of its translucent green body blinked.

I spent a moment admiring the rippling sunset sea welling out of the display before I barely gathered my wits again.

This is—

One of the decommissioned prototypes that Manager Lee Wonwoo of the Product Development Team had handed out as gifts on the field trip.

It was one of them.