Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Last Candle
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Drag.
“…….”
Drrag drrrag……
My left leg felt unusually heavy.
It was as if it were being affected by gravity more than the rest of me.
My gaze turned toward the source of that weight.
Squelch!
Clinging to my left leg like a leech was a kid with bear doll ears sprouting from her head.
……No, a Ghost Story Kid.
『Don’t turn it off!』
『If you turn off the light, you’re a bad person!』
“…….”
I ignored her.
Even if my left leg felt a bit heavier……I ignored her.
If I just extinguished this final candle, I could escape this rundown mansion.
I ignored her with all my might.
Drrag drrrag……thud!
……?
For a split second, my left leg wouldn’t move.
I turned my gaze back to the culprit.
Squelch!
The Ghost Story Kid who had been hanging on my left leg was now gripping a mansion pillar with her opposite arm.
……She’s pretty strong.
『F-Fire……don’t……turn it off!』
“……You really do all sorts of things.”
She might have achieved her primal goal of blocking my steps just by grabbing the pillar.
But only for that one instant.
This kid was a ghost story, but her raw strength wasn’t much different from a human child’s.
For a simple example.
If I just put a little force into my left leg like this.
『Don’t turn off the f……ah!』
The hand that had been gripping the pillar was now flailing desperately in the air.
……Seriously.
What the hell was this kid?
She looked exactly like a normal child on the outside.
『No……no way……』
But every time the kid moved her mouth, my head throbbed.
She was definitely a ghost story.
A pure-blooded one at that.
On one hand, there was the possibility that this kid was the main body of the [I Hate the Dark!] ghost story.
『Stop him! Bad person! Stop him!!』
Pat pat pat pat!
As if responding to the Ghost Story Kid’s words, tiny friends came charging at me in droves.
‘…It kinda seems like she is.’
Step.
The bear dolls clinging desperately to my pant legs fell off so easily at the mere act of me stepping forward.
Plop plop.
『Ah!』
Seeing the bear dolls falling without fail, and the Ghost Story Kid swallowing tears at the sight.
It made me feel like……
『Bad person!』
I was the total villain.
‘…What’s with this guilt?’
Pushing aside the strange feeling, like accidentally making a relative’s kid cry while playing with them.
I kept pressing forward relentlessly.
Before I knew it, I had reached my final destination.
[2nd Floor Study Entrance.]
This was the location of the last candle.
I didn’t waste any more time and reached for the doorknob.
Click—
I grabbed the study door’s knob and pushed inward.
Creeeak—
The classic horror BGM.
The study’s interior was also perfectly fitted with the structure and design befitting a high-class mansion.
‘…Unlike that place. This one has a lot.’
Unlike the bookshelves I knew from a certain library.
The shelves here were packed full of books.
If I could, I’d want to take a moment to check out the books lining the shelves.
You might wonder why I was suddenly thinking that.
Because this wasn’t just anywhere. This was a space from the ghost story I’d been enjoying for so long.
……But.
That was just wishful thinking.
I wasn’t so dopamine-addled an attention whore that I’d trade my life for curiosity.
I was just a healthy guy in his twenties.
A job-seeking ‘H’ who liked cosmic horror and the like just a tiny……tinnny bit more than others!
……Swish.
……!!
For a moment, I snapped out of it to find myself reaching toward the bookshelf.
I hurriedly turned my steps toward the left window. Precisely on the windowsill corner sat a single candle with a flickering, soft flame.
……I’m alive.
That was my first emotion upon seeing the candle.
I never imagined I’d survive this ghost story.
No, honestly, it still didn’t feel real.
Of course, I knew that even extinguishing that candle right away wouldn’t end everything.
Even if I cleared this ghost story safely, surely another one awaited me.
But……for now.
Just……
Being able to stand here unscathed, with both feet firmly planted, was enough.
‘Wanting more would be greed.’
Even for sentimental bullshit, this was plenty.
“Time to go back……?”
Whoosh!
『No! Don’t turn off the light……no!』
The Ghost Story Kid who had been clinging to my leg was now standing before the final candle, arms spread wide, blocking my last path.
Pat pat pat!
And under her, a legion of countless bear dolls pitching in.
It was an unbearably cute sight.
But now it was truly time to end it.
“Sorry, but I don’t have the energy to play with you guys anymore.”
Actually, I wasn’t sorry at all.
Honestly, thousands of agency people must have died in this ghost story alone.
If the one standing here was an agency member instead of me.
Even if she looked like a kid, they’d try to kill her without mercy.
Naturally.
But I was scared, so pass.
“You’d be better off if I left, right?”
『No! Don’t turn off the light!』
“No. I’ll just put out that one candle and head back quietly, okay?”
『No! Bad person! Light-extinguishing people are bad!』
“…….”
She was impossible to reason with.
I hadn’t expected normal conversation with a ghost story from the start, but……
Now, the final resort.
Park Yeon-jeong VS Ghost Story (Kid).
Use of force.
“Put out the f……”
『No!』
“Light……”
『No!!』
“And I’ll just go back, you little brat!!”
But her blocking, throwing her whole body into stopping my every swing.
It was pro-level.
If she’d moved like this from the beginning, she could’ve stopped me ages ago.
……Crack!
Annoying!!
The moment I clenched my fist, deciding to teach this challenging kid the bitter taste of adulthood.
‘………But this kid.’
‘Wasn’t she supposed to be “Physical Suppression Impossible”?’
=======
/Ghost Story Log
[I Hate the Dark!]
:Identification Code Cd-A-11
.
.
.
Physical Suppression Impossible. (There’s a reason they tell you not to.)
=======
A red pill flashing through my mind.
‘……I’ll let it slide, just this once.’
But if physical suppression was impossible, I had to break through that pro-level blocking no matter what.
Just as I was growing exhausted from this utterly unforeseen variable.
【The child trembled.】
【Was it because the night was cold?】
……A whisper?
It wasn’t the voice of that Ghost Story Kid.
It was a fairly young male voice.
【But playing with fire is a serious crime. Good children should never imitate it. Love the darkness.】
A deep, resonant voice, like narration from a stage play.
My nerves focused on the deep voice.
But my gaze stayed locked on the Ghost Story Kid who’d been blocking me all this time.
『…….』
The Ghost Story Kid froze.
The kid, who had been blocking me so triumphantly until just now, went rigid in an instant.
She no longer tried to stop me.
Exactly……
Like she was terrified. Completely devoid of will.
A ghost story……scared.
And Park Yeon-jeong here didn’t need to ask anyone to know why.
=======
[Exploration Record 105]
Agency elite Kim Dong-won Employee succeeded in locating and extinguishing all candles marked in the manual created from seniors’ sacrifices? with his quick speed and judgment.
Once all candles were extinguished, he stated that a darkness enveloping the entire mansion swallowed him.
Afterward, through his sole permitted sense of hearing, a single deep male voice spoke as above.
【Now……it’s my turn?】
Ending with the faint sound of a child’s scream, Kim Dong-won Employee returned to the agency safely.
=======
Later observations of the [I Hate the Dark!] ghost story revealed the identity of another ghost story belatedly.
=======
/Ghost Story Log
[Shadow Man]
:Identification Code Cd-A-12
Rank A.
Observed simultaneously with Identification Code ‘Cd-A-11’.
Physical Suppression Impossible.
Extremely hates bright light.
Uses stage play observer-perspective dialogue style.
Strong obsession with children.
Appears the moment all of Cd-A-11’s candles are extinguished. Drags Cd-A-11 into the darkness and vanishes together. (Testimonies report multiple child-like screams at the disappearance site.)
+Additional testimony of Cd-A-12 sightings in other ghost stories. (Verifying truth.)
=======
[Shadow Man.]
By rights, the other A-rank ghost story ‘Shadow Man’ that only appears once all mansion candles are extinguished.
Now I could roughly guess why child screams kept appearing in exploration records.
【Yes. A naughty child who played with fire needs stern discipline.】
【So good children can have a fine example.】
…….
A resolute voice, like he was close friends with that announcement broadcast guy from a certain library.
But.
One difference from that announcement broadcast guy.
This one was an A-rank ghost story. The conditional type that reveals its true nature when all lights go out.
……Ugh.
Somehow, it felt like he was stuck right behind me even now.
……Chills.
Time to really end this.
‘This Ghost Story Kid seems to have lost her will too.’
If I was going to extinguish the candle, now was the chance.
Step.
Considering how much I struggled with this kid over this short distance of just three steps.
Maybe I should hit the gym after getting back?
I seriously considered it.
But my conclusion after that deliberation.
………Nah.
This Ghost Story Kid was just unusually weak.
Trying to overpower a ghost story with brute force from the start was something only madmen would do.
You’d need at least agency Section Chief level to trade punches with ghost stories.
Which I didn’t have.
I could think about it after clearing this ghost story.
Step.
Now just one step away.
……Squelch.
The sensation of my pants being grabbed again.
But now, even if she interfered, I was close enough to reach the candle……?
Hop.
?!?!
“Wait, you…….”
Crying?
A child was grabbing my pants and crying.
No no no.
Correction.
A ghost story was grabbing my pants and crying.
『No……don’t. The f-fire……』
With a face straight out of a tragic heroine’s tearful scene, no less.
“…….”
At my hesitation, ‘Shadow Man’ whispered again.
【An example is needed!】
【An example is needed!】
【An example is needed!】
Yes yes! An example is needed!
A ghost story that’s killed tons of people. Of course it needs an example.
Squelch.
The grip on my pant leg dug into my skin.
“……Haa.”
This is driving me crazy.
I wondered if maybe this Ghost Story Kid was mentally damaging me somehow.
Splat!
But seeing the little bear dolls tripping and grabbing my pant legs just like her, I doubted it.
This pity kicking in.
At the weirdest timing.
For the weirdest guy.
If this kept up.
‘I’ll end up stuck here forever…….’
……Huh?
Wait.
For some reason, Park Yeon-jeong’s brain suddenly started spinning fast.
And.
The thought it arrived at was this.
What if. I just didn’t extinguish this candle here.
-Wouldn’t this place be safer?