Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Protecting the Dust (4)
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Even after stuffing talismans into our ears to block them, the majestic choral voices relentlessly burrowed into our eardrums.
We opened the dining hall door first and stepped inside.
The dining hall was as spacious and large as the cathedral itself, and the moment we entered, a tantalizing aroma of food wafted through the air, stimulating our noses.
The smell of perfectly baked bread and warm soup.
But there was no way a chef existed in this empty dining hall.
The delicious food scent emanating from an unmanned dining hall only made us feel even more uneasy.
"The sound is getting louder. Let's hurry."
At Shun's words, we wasted no time and began quickly searching the interior of the dining hall.
Under the long row of tables, the ingredient storage in the corner of the kitchen, even inside the massive commercial refrigerator. But the suspect was nowhere to be found.
Just as we thought the dining hall was another dead end—
"Pfft...!"
Park Sunja, who had been searching the kitchen with me, suddenly burst into laughter.
She was usually calm and didn't show her emotions easily, so I asked why she was laughing.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Huh? Me?"
Park Sunja responded with a perfectly composed expression, as if I were the one saying something strange.
But right then, she burst into laughter again. "Pfft, hee hee..."
This time, her shoulders were shaking as she laughed.
"..."
I hardened my expression.
Even with the talisman blocking her ears, she had ultimately been affected by the singing.
She was laughing without realizing it and wasn't even aware that she was laughing.
"Go back."
I said in a low but firm voice.
"Huh? Minjun, what do you—"
"You're being affected by the song right now. We agreed on this. If anything seems off, even a little, we retreat immediately."
"But I'm really fine..."
Park Sunja looked unconvinced by my words.
She seemed to think she was perfectly normal.
But her pupils were faintly dilated, and the corners of her mouth were still slightly curved in a smile.
"No, you're not. I—pfft, I'm f—"
"This is an order as team leader. Go back to the entrance right now and wait with Hanbit. This decision is for all of us."
Finally, Bora stepped in, and she reluctantly nodded and headed outside.
With even Park Sunja retreating, now only Bora, Shun, and I remained in this eerie cathedral.
We headed to the last remaining place: the convent.
With a strange feeling of stepping into a forbidden zone for men, we opened the door and entered, and the choir voices tormenting us grew even louder and clearer.
"This has to be the last spot. Please be here..."
Bora muttered, and we hurriedly began searching every inch.
The convent interior was more ordinary than expected.
It consisted of a simple prayer space and small rooms where nuns might have lived. The modest room structures didn't seem to offer many hiding spots.
Bora frowned at the increasingly loud singing.
"The singing is getting worse. If the suspect is here, they'd definitely be showing strange reactions from the sound by now..."
I agreed with her.
Han Sora from the distant support team, Park Sunja who seemed mentally strong, and even Hanbit had been affected.
There was no way an ordinary criminal could withstand this singing.
That was when it happened.
Shun, who had been quietly scanning the surroundings behind us, suddenly walked wordlessly toward the convent entrance we had come through, closed the door, and locked it.
Not content with that, he crumpled the heavy iron door handle with his hand, bending it completely.
Now, there was no way to open the door from inside.
"...Shun?"
Shun stood blocking the door and turned to us, speaking in a low voice.
"Now... the criminal... and us... can't leave."
"Why did you lock us in?"
"...I don't... know."
His eyes had lost their usual sharpness and were hazily unfocused.
Bora spoke first, with a tone of disbelief and certainty.
"Looks like Shun got affected too."
"Yeah."
"There's no other explanation for him thinking that would keep us locked up."
Bora was right.
I could rip off that door handle—no, the entire door—yet he thought that would hold us.
His judgment had clearly been numbed by the singing.
There was no more time to waste.
Bora and I exchanged glances and charged at Shun simultaneously.
He tried to resist, but in his impaired mental state, he couldn't handle both of us at once.
"Suppression talisman!"
Even Bora's talisman, which Shun would normally guard against, hit him cleanly. He was subdued by it alone, without me needing to intervene.
Confirming that, I lightly tore the door off.
Crunch.
"Ugh... my body..."
We hoisted the talisman-subdued Shun over our shoulders and headed to the cathedral.
Now truly down to just Bora and me, we returned to the central hall of the cathedral with our last hope.
But what awaited us there were unfamiliar people.
"Over there..."
On the highest platform of the cathedral, a choir had appeared where none had been before.
And among the choir members were faces that were all too familiar.
Hanbit and Park Sunja, whom I had told to go back to the entrance, were there.
"Ugh!"
I released Shun, who writhed to escape my grip, and he collapsed to the floor once before slowly shuffling toward the platform with unsteady steps.
Even with the suppression talisman still attached, preventing him from walking properly, he didn't care.
The choir stood staring blankly into space with empty eyes.
And they began to sing.
"Ugh...!"
The sounds they made were no longer a choir.
Painful screams, incomprehensible wails, and rage-filled shouts.
All those horrific noises mixed together, directly assaulting our minds.
The eerie dissonance seeped through the gaps in our talisman-blocked ears, slowly gnawing at our sanity.
"...Over there...!"
Among the people standing in the choir, I spotted a man who, like Hanbit and Sunja, wasn't wearing the choir robes.
A man standing unsteadily, as if his legs had given out.
His eyes were bloodshot red, and a trickle of blood ran from his ear.
He was probably the suspect we were looking for.
"...Minjun, I'm sorry."
Then, Bora beside me turned to look at me.
Deep sadness and resignation filled her eyes.
And she too began to let out a sharp scream. "...Aaaah!"
As if responding to that horrific choir. Now, really, I was the only one left.
Was I also being affected by the choir?
Amid the fear of my comrades changing like that and the dark emotions from the screams all around, a strange feeling began to creep up.
'Shut up.''Annoying.' I was irritated by this monster phenomenon that had changed my comrades, and the noise grated on me. The fear gradually faded. What started as mild irritation swelled into uncontrollable rage. I slowly, very slowly, approached the platform where the choir stood. As I reached out to take my team members and the suspect, the choir members, who had been screaming with eyes closed, snapped their eyes open and glared at me.
As if cursing me, they screamed even louder at me with horrific voices.
In that moment, something inside me snapped.
Without hesitation, I slashed the blade of my hand toward the windpipe of the nearest choir member.
"Gurk!"
Instead of a scream, a short groan escaped as the choir member collapsed.
One, then another.
Every time I struck a throat, the maddening singing naturally—and very effectively—began to diminish.
Now, filling the cathedral were no longer their wails, but dull thuds and my ragged breathing.
"Haa... haa..."
How frantically had I been swinging my hand blade?
As I reached for the throat of one of the few remaining choir members, what appeared before my eyes was Hanbit's terrified face.
In that instant, the boiling rage subsided as if doused with cold water.
Only then did I come to my senses and realize what I had done.
"Kek..."
"Cough, cough..."
Looking around, the choir members who had been shrieking horrifically on the platform moments ago were all collapsed on the floor, clutching their throats.
Instead of the majestic singing, the cathedral was now filled only with painful dry coughs.
Our suspect was mixed in among them.
Fortunately—truly fortunately—I had snapped out of it just before touching Hanbit and Park Sunja.
They too seemed freed from the choir's mental attack. Hanbit met my eyes, sighed in relief while holding his throat, and said it was good he had come to his senses.
"...That was scary."
"You were smiling innocently when Minjun was striking throats..."
"If you'd been a little later, I would've..."
I cleared my throat awkwardly—"Ahem, ahem!"—and moved to smooth things over.
I roughly hauled the coughing suspect up from the floor and slung him over my shoulder.
"Alright, mission accomplished. Let's get out of here quick. Who knows what else might happen if we stay."
I spoke as casually as possible and quickly headed toward the alley entrance where we had first come in.
The team followed silently behind me. Their piercing gazes on my back stung, but pretending not to notice was the best course now.
Exiting through the alley, we were greeted by the familiar scenery of the real world.
Just in case, I glanced back, but the eerie cathedral and narrow alley that had imprisoned us moments ago had vanished without a trace.
Only the walls of ordinary villa buildings faced us.
"Maybe the choir monsters disappeared because they couldn't sing anymore?"
"..."
At Bora's words, I turned my gaze away.
Now, all that was left was to hurry home.