Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Bukhansan Great Forest Disaster
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I lay down on the bed.
Despite only organizing paperwork, it had been an strangely exhausting day.
"Is it because I've been too focused on the shop...?"
Thinking about it, that might be the case.
For the past seven years, I'd never once considered dealing with a tale, let alone this contradictory merchant attitude.
Was that guy friendly toward humans from the start, or...
"Tch..."
Suddenly, old memories resurfaced.
Six years ago—just after I'd shed my newbie status at the Tale Management Bureau.
"Argh!"
"Squad Leader!"
Screams echoed through the pitch-black mountains, where not even a sliver of moonlight could pierce.
"Squad Leader! What do we do?!"
"Damn it, gather up first! Retreat's impossible. The moment we run, those trees will come down to the village!"
Voices bounced back like echoes in response to someone's shout.
"Team Leader Kim Jun-seok!"
Right, back then, I wasn't the squad leader.
Kim Jun-seok, the team leader.
A man who always roamed around with his perpetually scruffy beard staining his jaw a deep purple, no matter how much people nagged him to shave.
"Our New Tale Investigation Squad stays until the end to protect the village!"
And he was needlessly righteous.
The type who valued civilians over his own team members' lives.
Even though protecting them wasn't our squad's role in the first place.
Or maybe it was the squad leader's obsession.
He seemed blindly devoted to that single goal of safeguarding civilians.
"Argh!"
Crunch—
"Yoon-ah!"
The woman, her lower body crushed and writhing on the ground, didn't last long.
Yoon-ah was my fellow rookie, I think.
Honestly, I don't even remember her face well.
It'd been too long, and I'd tried hard to forget.
Boom—splurt—
Tree roots erupted from the earth like fish leaping out of water.
The difference from actual fish? Those roots bisected people.
In the midst of the roots churning up the soil stood a woman, her face drained white with terror.
"No... no! Yoon-ah..."
That was me.
To my inexperienced self back then, a teammate's death hit harder than anything else.
"Just hold on a little... reinforcements will be here soon."
Even though she was clearly dead, her face looked as pristine as any living person's, so I deluded myself into thinking she was still alive.
I was in deep shock, incapable of sound judgment.
"Park Se-jin! What the hell are you doing? Get over here, now!"
That was Senior Lee Hyung-min.
No way I'd forget him, out of everyone.
He died right then and there.
"Gah—."
"Uwaaah! Senior!"
Rumble—
A massive tree came roaring toward me, bellowing savagely.
If I hadn't killed it right there, I'd have been buried in the ground alongside the senior and Yu-na in that instant.
So I charged straight at it.
One hand gripping Rose's Cutter Knife, the other clutching my lucky charm tight.
Screeech—
I succeeded in cleaving the tree in half.
The tree crashed limply into the dirt amid a deafening explosion, and in that moment, I had no choice but to abandon my comrades' bodies and flee.
Whoosh—bubble bubble
The white tissues inside the tree roiled and tangled together.
Couldn't kill it.
Through endless regeneration, it mocked our efforts and massacred everyone.
I kept running away.
If we'd all fled, those things would've stormed the village—but if only I escaped, the rest could hold them off.
Plus, I had no tools left anyway.
Rationalizing my actions like that, I made it down to the base of the mountain.
And when I looked back up from the foot, I saw one man being mercilessly trampled by dozens of trees.
That was the end of our foolish squad leader's blind devotion.
Afterward, we never found the squad leader's body.
Dust billowed so fiercely it was visible even from the base, so it must've been ground to powder.
I must've collapsed from exhaustion around then.
The only clear memory is the acrid chemical stench of cold asphalt, so maybe I'm misremembering.
Nothing after that.
I only heard about it later.
Word was, the response team arrived afterward.
They fought far better than us but still couldn't resolve it.
Then the research team showed up.
They rarely came to the field, but the crisis left them no choice.
Yoon Seo-yeon said that was the first time she laid eyes on me.
Covered head to toe in blood and dirt, slumped in the corner of a tent.
Back then, how did a rookie researcher—no brighter than any other—climb all the way to chief researcher?
That researcher, Yoon Seo-yeon, picked up a single wood chip and started analyzing it right there on the spot.
Mixing unknown chemicals, pouring them on, sometimes grafting stems together.
And Yoon Seo-yeon succeeded.
She created a substance that halted the trees' regeneration.
I think she said it involved blood and tears from civilian victims?
No clue how she came up with that.
Yoon Seo-yeon later reflected that it was pure luck.
Anyway, that nightmare finally ended.
After claiming the lives of my entire New Tale Investigation Squad—save for me—and dozens more besides.
Bukhansan Great Forest Disaster.
The deadliest incident among all tales over the past twenty years.
But kept from the public to avoid potential chaos.
How could I ever forget the record that greeted me first upon waking?
Tale Management Bureau casualties: 74 (New Tale Investigation Squad: 15, Response Team: 59) Civilian deaths: 3 (Carpenter living in nearby cabin and his family) I opened my eyes.
Bright light seeped through the gap in the curtains.
Felt like I'd had some unpleasant dream.
I reached for my phone and texted Kim Do-hyun.
📱 Text Message - You okay? (8:23 AM) - Yes, no abnormalities. (8:24 AM) ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Haha, a tale scared of surveillance cameras?
A passing cat would laugh.
"Had no choice."
Yeah, probably.
"Anyway, go return this book to the library for me."
It's due in a few days anyway, so might as well knock it out now.
Head into the library again and suffer without a clock?
"Uwaaah! Don't even mention it."
That's the kind of thing that'd make a passing cat crack up.
"And returns aren't only possible inside, you know?"
Most libraries have outdoor automated return boxes, and the National Central Library is no exception.
Not the standard method, but it works all the same.
So.
Handle it yourself.
With the shop's curt "Fine," I flung the door wide open, revealing the familiar library grounds.
Deep into the night with no one around, I headed straight for the automated return box without worry.
Your standard metal automated return box.
Knock knock.
That's right.
I was knocking on the damn automated return box.
If anyone had passed by, they'd have pegged me for a lunatic—but no one was around, and I'm no nutcase.
Since it wasn't a normal return, this was a required step; nothing weird about it.
After about five knocks, the box began to pulse.
Now it was ready to accept the return to the Label Library.
I slid Label Library (Pirated Edition) into the slot without letting my guard down.
It looked identical to the original on the outside, of course—but it lacked the ability to enter the library.
No way they'd notice, but better safe than sorry.
"Hmm?"
A shrill voice leaked from the automated return box.
In this world, objects piping up was par for the course, but voices from return boxes usually meant a problem with the book.
Did they catch me?
"This book's... somehow different..."
Please, no.
"Is there something wrong with it? I handled it as carefully as I could..."
"It's weird. Feels like a fundamentally different book. But the contents are identical?"
"Uh... maybe you miscounted?"
"Nah, doesn't feel like it."
What doesn't "feel" like it?
This box had annoyingly sharp instincts.
Time to play dumb and brazen it out.
"No way. It's the exact same book, same contents, no tears or damage—totally fine, right?"
"If it's fake, I'm in deep shit. The librarian will chew me out? Compress me?"
"It's real! No problem! I just wanna go home already?"
"...?"
"Ahem. Anyway, it's definitely the one I borrowed... please just believe me."
"Hmm. Fine, return accepted. But if there's an issue, the librarian will track you down—so you'd better hope not."
With that, the pulsing stopped.
Always some that sour the mood right at the end.
How nice it'd be if they just said "got it" and took it.
"Sigh."
Back to the shop.