Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Confession
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In the heavy atmosphere, people were slowly rolling their eyes around.
Seeing that, I smiled.
If there had been an innocent person here, they would have looked puzzled or utterly baffled.
But there was no such person.
Everyone was either startled as if burned by fire or had their faces stiffen rigidly.
"……."
The man who had been talking to me nonstop was no different.
He looked around with a pale face, then flinched upon seeing me smiling.
In response, I gave him an even deeper smile.
"What... what is this……."
At that moment, someone spoke up.
It was the burly, bearded man who had come on a deep-sea fishing boat.
"Who the hell sent this garbage? This isn't a joke!"
His face was flushed red at a glance.
"R-right? What the hell does 'sin' even mean……!"
Then the young influencer woman picked up on his words.
Did she not realize that such a reaction only made her look more suspicious?
In that situation, a calm voice spoke up for the first time.
"Who sent this, I wonder?"
It was the middle-aged woman's voice.
She had gone pale upon reading the letter's contents like the others, but she seemed to have composed herself in the meantime.
"There's a blizzard raging outside right now. This wasn't here before, right?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it definitely wasn't there when I last checked."
"I didn't see it either."
Right now, snow was falling like mad outside, and there wasn't a single building around.
The last person to arrive had gotten here barely two hours ago.
Snow had already been falling pretty heavily by then.
Which meant someone had braved the blizzard to come and leave the letter.
The fisherman man said with an even harder expression than before.
"……For a prank, this seems awfully elaborate."
"No, but what does all this 'committed a sin' nonsense even mean……."
"Do we really have to believe some letter from who-knows-where?"
It wasn't wrong.
Who would just obediently confess their sins because some unknown person sent a letter demanding it?
But they still had a nagging issue lingering.
"Look here. There's an order listed."
It was at the bottom of the letter.
The names of the people, listed in sequence.
Baek Joonho. Yoo Seoyoon.
Kim Jungsook. Choi Woojin.
Park Jeongil. Dawn.
"Umm."
Baek Joonho. The fisherman man.
Yoo Seoyoon. The influencer.
The two named first furrowed their brows.
They thought the letter's contents were ridiculous, but having their names on the very first line still felt off.
"This is really pissing me off……. This isn't some hidden camera prank, is it?"
The influencer muttered as she irritably swept her hair back.
But her voice was trembling ever so slightly.
"Umm, well. No CCTV or anything like that in sight……."
The fisherman scratched his head.
In that situation, Jeongil spoke up again.
"I'll go check outside for a bit."
"Outside?"
"Yeah. I came here to take photos anyway……. If it looks bad, it might be best to just head down."
Meaning he'd check if they could go down.
Of course, that wasn't the whole reason.
He was inwardly suspicious of the letter too.
This lodge was pretty picky about its guests, after all.
"Then I'll head to my room and rest."
"Me too."
As Jeongil stood, the others began rising one by one.
"Let's check it out together."
The fisherman stepped forward to go outside with Jeongil.
I quietly watched them, then gave a small nod to the man sitting silently beside me.
He immediately spoke up.
"Then I'll go rest too. My niece is tired."
With that, I returned to the room with the man.
The moment we got back, I sat on the edge of the bed and asked him.
"Do you remember how you got here?"
"……I think I drove up to the middle of the mountain. Then walked the rest of the way."
The man said it with a completely unquestioning expression.
I asked again.
"Right after getting the invitation?"
"Yes……. Didn't you tell me to go right away?"
"Hmm."
It seemed the process of getting here had been filled in naturally.
As expected, but we hadn't actually driven here.
Right after infusing power into the invitation, the surroundings warped, and suddenly we were standing in front of the lodge.
"The others probably think the same."
Whether they thought they'd driven or taken public transport.
They were surely convinced they'd walked here on their own two feet.
"Do you remember who I am?"
"Yes. The great one."
I had wondered if he'd perceive me as his niece per the setup, but apparently not.
I kicked my feet idly as I thought.
"This is fun."
It wasn't some spectacular event like the previous place, but the atmosphere itself was amusing.
Everyone watching each other, fidgeting nervously.
And I was curious what kind of 'punishment' they'd get.
"Guess I'll look forward to tonight."
How would the first ones on the list react, I wondered?
With a smile, I lay back on the bed.
"Looks like we're stuck here."
"Yeah."
Early evening.
People were gathering in the living room one by one, chatting.
The reason they gathered so early was simple.
"Man, suddenly the phones aren't working……."
"They were fine when we first got here, though."
The phones had no signal at all.
They'd first realized it shortly after dispersing earlier.
Someone had tried to make a call outside, but it was completely dead.
No internet, no calls, no texts.
So one by one they came back to the living room, and before they knew it, everyone was gathered again.
"Whew."
Jeongil, who had gone outside with the fisherman earlier that day, let out a sigh and spoke.
"When I went out earlier, the snow was already piled up so high I couldn't see the path or anything."
"Yeah. And it's still coming down, so tomorrow's probably gonna be tough too."
At those words, the others' faces darkened even more.
Ever since seeing that letter during the day, staying here had felt unsettling.
In the now-heavy atmosphere again, the fisherman tried to speak brightly.
"Let's think positive. Positive. That letter was probably just a prank, right?"
"Y-yeah."
The influencer nodded.
"Talk of 'sins' and 'punishments' doesn't even make sense from the start, anyway."
"Exactly."
They exchanged awkward smiles.
But there was an inescapable shadow on their faces.
And Jeongil thought the man himself was no different.
The moment he saw the letter.
Something had reflexively come to mind.
He had committed a sin.
Jeongil bit his lip lightly.
'But…….'
Only he knew about committing that sin.
There were no witnesses. Or at least, that's what he'd thought until now.
But what if someone knew?
'……Nah.'
No way.
No one could know. It had only been the two of them there.
"Jeongil-ssi?"
"Yes?"
Jeongil, lost in thought for a moment, startled at the voice calling him and looked up.
"We're gonna prepare some food for now. You'll eat, right?"
"Ah……. Yeah. But is there food?"
He'd brought some snacks like chocolate bars just in case, but no proper meal prep.
He'd planned to stay just one day and leave.
"Checked the fridge and pantry inside—there's some stuff. Given the situation, better to eat now and settle up later."
"Aah, yeah. Got it."
It seemed they'd already talked it over with the others.
As Jeongil nodded, the one who'd spoken looked around at everyone.
"Seven people. If we ration it, should last a week easy."
"We can get back within that, right?"
"Should be."
"Then let's whip up something simple."
"I'll help."
"Ah, me too……."
They all pitched in to cook.
And gathered at the table to eat.
In the meantime, Dawn was eating cake—probably something she'd brought, so no one paid it any mind.
The mood wasn't exactly cheerful given the circumstances, but after the meal, everyone's expressions had loosened up a bit.
But when they cleared the dishes and gathered back in the living room.
Flick-.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
"Wh-what is it?"
"Power outage?"
"Where is everyone?"
With seven people together, it turned chaotic in an instant.
But the confusion didn't last long. The lights came back on right away.
"Ah. It's on again."
"Good……. Huh?"
The influencer, who had been looking relieved, spotted something and trembled in shock.
"What's wrong?"
"Th-that……."
The influencer pointed at the table.
"What……. Ah."
There was a letter.
Exactly the same shape and material as the one they'd seen during the day.
"It wasn't there before……."
The table had been cleaned spotless originally.
In other words, the letter had appeared during that brief moment the lights were off and on.
Everyone stared at the letter like it was some cursed object.
No one seemed inclined to check its contents.
And Jeongil was the same.
How the hell had it suddenly appeared there?
But at that moment.
Someone spoke in a strangely cheerful voice that didn't fit the situation.
"I'll check it!"
It was the girl named Dawn.
Dawn picked up the letter without hesitation, checked its contents, and read it aloud.
"The time to confess your sins has come. Before today ends, you must confess your sins and atone."
The girl was as bright and innocent as if this were some fun game.
But the contents were anything but.
"First up: Baek Joonho and Yoo Seoyoon. Please stand and confess your sins in order."
Everyone fell silent for a long moment before the fisherman man, Baek Joonho, finally spoke.
"Wh-who's pranking us? Logically, letters don't just appear out of thin air, right?"
"Yeah! Isn't one of us messing around?"
Tremors laced their voices strongly.
As the others started to say more.
The girl spoke again, as if the conversation wasn't over.
"For smooth proceedings, here's a hint."
A hint?
As everyone looked at the girl again in bewilderment.
The girl looked at Baek Joonho and said.
"Baek Joonho. Lust."
At those words, Baek Joonho's face went as white as if he'd seen a ghost.
Next, the girl looked at the influencer, Yoo Seoyoon.
"Yoo Seoyoon. Jealousy."
Yoo Seoyoon's reaction was the same.
Her body went rigid, stiff as a board, after her earlier high-pitched shouting.
The girl smiled at the two of them and said.
"Who wants to start?"