Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Temptation at Lust Station
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30.
“…….”
“…….”
“……Hey.”
“…….”
Hey.
I just wanted this guy to hurry up and finish his sob story so he’d disappear from in front of me...
Rumble.
With the Hell Bus engine roaring to life, the bus started moving again.
“…….”
“…….”
“Hey…….”
“I said no a million times already, you idiot!”
“…….”
...Crackle.
What the hell is with this woman!
Why isn’t she following the instructions on the exploration log!
She got on the bus herself begging someone to hear her out, and now she’s turning the tables.
“Hey, look here!”
“Ha! Seriously, I can’t stand clingy guys harassing women!”
“…….”
Crackle! Crackle!
The blonde ghost kept ranting without even looking me in the eye.
...Fine.
Do whatever you want.
I don’t want to force a conversation with someone who clearly doesn’t want to talk anyway.
I silently declared that I wouldn’t say another word to this blonde ghost.
“…….”
“…….”
Glance.
Now that I’d stopped trying to talk to her, I could feel her peeking over at me from her seat.
“.........”
Gllaaance.
What the hell does she want from me!
This blonde ghost is such an attention whore!
But no way in hell was I going to talk to her first.
“.........”
As her staring continued, an inexplicable impatience flickered in her eyes.
【The next stop is ‘Lust’.】
We’d arrived at the first destination.
It was exactly where Kim Ha-eun was supposed to get off.
...Should I wake her?
The thought just popped into my head.
If I considered the agency’s long-term future and my own prospects, maybe it’d be best to let this troublemaker off here peacefully.
That was just five seconds ago.
There was another way to escape this ghost story besides getting off at the stop listed on your death registry.
The second method wasn’t impossible for an employee with overwhelming physical prowess.
Obviously, I couldn’t do it.
But...
The yandere girl who’d cleared countless agency ghost stories with her overwhelming physical abilities.
If it was Kim Ha-eun...
Even if she couldn’t get off here, she could probably escape.
Slipping away nice and easy.
The image of Kim Ha-eun, abandoning me and running off from the Hell Bus ghost story with her vow to meet again someday, flashed clearly in my mind.
...I was already dreading the aftermath.
If she actually survived and came back. That yandere girl—no, Hell Girl—would drag me straight down to hell.
“...Ha-eun, Ha-eun, wake up. Ha-eun!”
I hurriedly grabbed the fainted Kim Ha-eun’s shoulders and shook her.
“...Uh, wha... Wh-where am I? M-more importantly... Who are you?”
“Ha-eun, you need to get off now.”
“Th-that voice? But why... is your face covered in black flames like...”
Covered in black flames?
Kim Ha-eun, still half-asleep, wasn’t thinking straight.
Screeech—
The bus came to a stop.
If this kept up, it was only a matter of time before the yandere girl upgraded to ‘Hell Girl’ status.
“Ha-eun, we don’t have much time. If you don’t go now, we’ll never see each other again!”
“Y-yes?! Th-that’s...”
Sniffle.
?
I’d just tossed out a line I thought might work on her, but upon hearing it, Kim Ha-eun let out a tear the size of her eyeball and started bawling pitifully.
“...N-no! I don’t want... to be apart... from you... I don’t, I don’t want to!”
...Was it really that sad?
As Kim Ha-eun and I watched the bus prepare to leave, the middle-aged man who’d boarded first scolded me.
“Young man! No matter what, you can’t make your girlfriend cry!”
Nod.
Nod.
Nod.
The three faceless ones seemed to nod in agreement as well.
【This stop is ‘Lust’.】
【Passengers getting off, please check your death registry and exit at the appropriate stop.】
The bus’s rear door opened.
No more time.
“Th-then how about this!”
“......Huh?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“If you get off here, I’ll grant one wish of yours next time!”
“.........”
“...H-Ha-eun?”
But Kim Ha-eun didn’t respond.
I opened my eyes and realized the girl who’d been sobbing her heart out right in front of me moments ago had vanished.
Where’d she go?
As I looked around blankly for Kim Ha-eun, the blonde ghost opened her mouth in exasperation.
“She already got off.”
“......What?”
“The second you said ‘wish,’ she bolted.”
“......”
My gaze turned to the view outside the bus’s rear door, per the blonde ghost’s words.
There stood Kim Ha-eun, who’d been bawling just now, waving at me with the brightest smile—like, was she always this cheerful?—practically beaming.
“You better keep that promise!”
“......”
Screeech.
The rear door closed, and I stared at it blankly.
I’d been played.
That woman definitely did it on purpose.
No way she could read the situation that fast otherwise.
From now on, except for visiting the Ghost Story Pawnshop, I swore I’d never—ever!—go anywhere near Seongsu Station.
As I sat there silently cursing Kim Ha-eun under my breath for a while, a shadow approached.
Squeeze.
A soft sensation wrapped around my forearm.
When I looked up.
There sat a woman so breathtakingly beautiful that my limited vocabulary couldn’t do her justice.
“Something bad happen?”
“......Yeah.”
Yeah, it did.
A bad connection I never wanted to deal with again.
Next time I visited the Ghost Story Pawnshop, I’d have to wrap myself up head to toe.
Rustle.
But then, a woman’s hand slyly slid between Park Yeon-jeong’s thighs amid his lingering anger, wrapping around it.
“If something upset you, I could help you feel better.”
“......”
“I’m not the smoothest, so it might get a little rough... You’ll forgive me, right?”
The woman led the conversation at a languid pace.
Slide.
She slowly tugged down her low-cut top with her fingers, exposing her cleavage.
It felt like something spectacular was about to happen right there in front of everyone.
“St-stop thaaat!!!”
But the one blushing furiously at their steamy display...
Was the blonde ghost sitting across from Park Yeon-jeong.
“Wh-what the hell are you two doing right now! Th-this is a public place!”
“......So what? In public or not, what I do with my man... is up to me, right?”
“My maaan?! What did you just call him!”
The blonde ghost’s face flushed red as she stormed over, grabbed the woman’s arm, and yanked her toward herself.
“Come here, you bitch!”
The blonde ghost pulled at the woman with all her might.
“Wh-what’s your problem from earlier! We’re supposed to be on the same side, remember?!”
She was right.
Strictly speaking, in this Hell Bus, the only ones who could be called human besides Park Yeon-jeong were none.
Their job was solely to keep people with the same death registry as Park Yeon-jeong from getting off the bus.
“We almost had him, and you’re ruining it!”
“......Hey! Don’t just sit there like an idiot—resist or something!”
“......”
But seeing Park Yeon-jeong show no reaction to her pleas.
The blonde ghost couldn’t hold back her frustration anymore.
“Hey! You virgin loser!!!”
“Sorry, but I’m not a virgin loser—it’s just that I’m single.”
“......What?”
“And that’s enough. We’re all adults here—what’s with calling her a bitch over a kid?”
Park Yeon-jeong pried the woman’s hand off the blonde ghost and turned his anger on her instead.
But he wasn’t the only one mad.
“......A kid? Are your eyes for decoration?!”
“Calling a kid a kid—what’s the problem?”
Realizing the man in front of her was totally bewitched by this woman, the blonde ghost clenched her fist hard.
“......I thought you were different.”
But the woman, seeing her chance with the man taking her side.
Slap!
She pressed her ample, man-slaying assets right up against him in a tight embrace.
“See, oppa’s on my side...”
“Oppa? I’m not your oppa, though?”
“.........Huh? Wh-why not, o-oppa?”
Park Yeon-jeong’s eyes turned icy in an instant as he raised one arm, pressing his thumb and middle finger together.
He flicked the forehead of the woman hugging him.
Flick!
“Ow! You psycho!”
“And no matter how much you change your appearance, it won’t work in front of me. Little missy.”
“...What? You can see my real form...?”
“Yeah.”
I could see it.
She probably looked like a stunning beauty to the blonde ghost.
But through the eyes of Park Yeon-jeong, wearing spirit damage immunity glasses.
At best, she looked like a fourth-grader playing house with me.
Obviously.
It was an adult-level play house with some seriously high heat for regular kids’ games.
But no matter how well she mimicked adult speech and behavior.
A kid was still a kid.
...Whoosh!
The little lady, who’d been so bold until moments ago, deflated the instant she realized I’d seen through her from the start.
...Pat... pat.
She trudged powerlessly to the seat behind me and plopped down.
I could almost hear her ridiculous whimper of ‘...Now I’ll never get married,’ but.
I ignored it.
With this, we’d safely passed the fourth stop.
Almost there.
Excluding the ‘Pride’ stop where I’d get off.
Just two more stops to endure, and I could leave here alive.
So Park Yeon-jeong immediately pulled out a revolver from inside his employee ID.
[Final Trigger]
Part of me wished the bus would skip the next ‘Gluttony Stop’ entirely.
But I didn’t get my hopes up.
It wouldn’t.
The passengers boarding at the next stop would force a fight no matter what.
To deal with them as best as possible.
I wished for the yellow bullet that had shown such high lethality against the Match Girl.
Slide.
Just as I raised the barrel to my head.
Thud.
......?
As I prepared to point the gun at my head and steel myself, a flash of golden hair caught my eye beside me.
“......”
“......Hey?”
“...Wh-what! It’s an empty seat anyway! Sitting here is my choice!”
“No, it’s not that... Your face is super red.”
“!!”
Her face flushed a deep crimson unlike before, and the blonde ghost.
“......D-die!!”
“......”
Cursed me to drop dead.