Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: The Train's Origin
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Se-jin stepped out of the Tale Management Bureau.
The bustling city had long since vanished, and aside from the workers repairing buildings, no signs of life could be seen anywhere.
Most of the remaining residents had already relocated to other cities.
The upside to that was she didn't have to worry about prying eyes.
Se-jin clamped a cigarette between her lips—one she'd normally have saved for the smoking area—and sorted through her thoughts.
"Shin Jin-seong, huh."
The brief rest had mostly cleared her headache, but it hadn't erased her questions.
Se-jin didn't go around bragging about it, but she was pretty sharp.
Her promotion to squad leader hadn't just been about seniority, after all.
In other words, she rarely forgot anything.
"Something's off."
Thick cigarette smoke rose into the air.
Just like the smoke swirling erratically, her mind grew even more jumbled.
"I even tried using that blue tissue again just in case, but no effect whatsoever."
The Merchant definitely knew something.
"Every time I meet the Merchant to resolve one mystery, even more pop up."
Recalling their question-and-answer sessions, even to her own ears, the responses had seemed perfectly logical and reasonable.
That only made the doubts linger stronger.
The tale Merchant was a "tale" and a "merchant."
Yet it lacked the twisted horror expected of a tale, and beyond selling goods, it showed little else of a merchant's traits.
"Just what the hell is it?"
A twinge of regret crept in—maybe if Woo-seok, with his keen situational judgment, had come along, she could've pieced something together.
"I heard he went to the 11th floor with Do-hyun while I was asleep. Wonder if it's okay to use it just to track down the clock's owner."
Se-jin turned her attention back to the name Shin Jin-seong.
"Well, Do-hyun must've had his reasons for letting him use it."
Se-jin stubbed out her cigarette.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "What is this... impressive."
"Ahaha..."
Woo-seok felt awkward enough to lose his mind.
He hadn't known Tae-jun long, and they had even less reason to be chatting like this.
On top of that, something about Tae-jun rubbed Woo-seok the wrong way.
It felt like talking to a robot stripped of all emotion.
Do-hyun had his moments like that too, sure, but with Tae-jun it seemed artificially purged.
"Since you don't seem to know, let me explain."
"Yes, please do."
Tae-jun gazed at the massive steam engine.
It looked like a giant box plastered with pipes, so enormous it couldn't be taken in at a glance, with thick steam billowing from between the pipes.
"This is a tale called 'The Train's Origin.'"
The earlier awkwardness faded as Woo-seok launched into an explanation befitting his title as chief researcher.
"Back during the Industrial Revolution, a real train started swelling and distorting one day, eventually turning into this."
"And the people inside it?"
"Yeah, just as you're imagining."
"Ah..."
Woo-seok pressed on with the explanation to lighten the mood.
"Truly useful."
"The ability itself is, but the side effects are a bit much."
"Side effects?"
"It uses water, befitting a steam engine, and in overwhelming amounts. Use it too often, and Korea might as well turn into Africa."
Tae-jun's shocked reaction finally made Woo-seok feel like he was dealing with a real person, easing his mind a little.
"You really know your stuff about this tale."
"When I first joined the Bureau, I wanted to research it."
Woo-seok's face soured, his mood darkening.
"But it was already all snatched up."
His expression quickly smoothed over, though.
"Now, as chief researcher, I can do whatever I want with it."
Tae-jun vaguely sensed a spark of vengeance in Woo-seok's eyes.
"Ahem. Anyway, my position in this history lets me run it under the guise of research. Still, you need to get out as fast as possible."
"Yes, thank you so much."
"Oh, and I can't go in with you—you're on your own. But it's not dangerous, so no big deal."
Tae-jun bowed at a perfect ninety degrees and stepped into the interior of the Train's Origin.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Ugh..."
The first impression inside was "hot."
It was so dark he could barely see ahead, yet hot steam blasted from all sides.
As a relic of the past, it had an inhumane design with no proper air conditioning to speak of.
Its nature as a tale played a role too, but that hardly mattered.
Tae-jun pushed through the sweltering heat and pressed forward.
According to Woo-seok, light should start appearing soon.
"This thing's a real pain."
His irritation peaked to the point where he considered just ditching the watch in the heat—then a faint light caught his eye in the distance.
"Haha..."
Even though everyone knew this from Woo-seok's briefing, Tae-jun couldn't stop the hollow laugh.
He was sure he'd entered the tale's interior, yet what he saw was scenery whipping past outside the window.
Tae-jun was inside a moving train.
True to its Industrial Era origins, the interior differed sharply from modern trains.
Hard-looking seats lined up in rigid rows, and above them hung large bulbs in groups of four.
"At this point, I'd really mistake it for boarding an actual train."
Thinking about it, the Train's Origin was the largest-scale tale he'd encountered yet.
The tale shop was just a quirky store at most, and the department store trapped you inside—but this one warped space itself.
"Can't waste time. It's probably guzzling water like crazy right now."
Uncharacteristically pragmatic for a tale, but all the more real for it.
"Walk against the train's direction."
Tae-jun marked the first car he'd entered and slowly made his way upstream through the train cars.
"Every car I pass rewinds the time on one of my possessions by a month."
A simple rule, but with no clue when the watch had weathered, he needed to hurry.
"Maybe run a bit."
The train jolted along, making it far from ideal for running, but not impossible.
He felt no real change after passing the first car into the second, but as it repeated, his shoes stiffened like new, and his suit regained its initial awkward stiffness.
"So this is the feeling."
Finding the watch's owner no longer seemed far off.
"..."
But Tae-jun's hope didn't last long.
"Why hasn't the watch changed?"
By his calculations, at least three years had rewound.
"Sure, it's not in great shape, but no change at all over three years? That doesn't make sense."
It could be an extremely old watch, of course.
But even then, there should at least be differences in dust or grime buildup.
"Keep going? It's already been thirty minutes."
Tae-jun thought it over.
He hadn't enjoyed thinking much as a cop, nor now, but that didn't make him dumb.
His only lead was the angel's words, so he recalled their conversation.
After their first meeting and when Kyung-i revived, one word lodged in Tae-jun's mind.
"Future."
The angel's repeated mentions of "future" pierced his senses.
"No way..."
Tae-jun turned and bolted back the way he'd come.
He lost balance midway, even tripped once or twice, but his drive to prove his hunch overpowered it.
His once-new clothes reverted, and the train charged ahead.
Twenty minutes of mindless sprinting later.
"Back."
Tae-jun stared at the door opposite the one he'd entered through—the one ahead in the train's direction.
That door led to the future.
"Please."
Tae-jun swallowed dryly and gripped the handle.
One month into the future: the watch unchanged.
His clothes slightly worn, but nothing major.
"Was I wrong...? Come to think of it, since the angel gave it, maybe it's unbound by time concepts."
He could only sigh.
"No changes at all like this... Maybe one more car."
Clinging to a faint hope, Tae-jun advanced one more car.
"Ha..."
The watch returned to a clean state with just a touch of daily wear.
Tae-jun should've been glad his theory held, but the thought never crossed his mind.
An incomprehensible chill gripped his entire body.
Entranced, Tae-jun kept going.
Dust layered the exterior after one car; after another, it became the worn watch from the angel.
"..."
And after yet another car.
The watch was smeared with thick blood.