บท 113: Chapter 113: The Witch’s Hut Part 3
The next morning.
-Ding ding~ ting~ diri ding ding~!
How delightful this bleak modern morning was, without even the sound of birds! I fumbled around beside me and turned off the phone alarm. The warm sunlight woke me up naturally.
"Yaaawn…"
I yawned lazily and got out of bed. I could hear Mom preparing breakfast outside the door. Despite her complaints about how inconvenient it was for me to stay another night and her nagging about how I should get married soon, she seemed secretly pleased that I had stayed.
"Good morning."
I scratched my belly and came out to the living room. From the news channel dad had turned on, I could hear the leisurely reports about the weather and road conditions. When I glanced at the news, dad casually remarked,
"There's traffic."
"It's okay; I can take it easy."
Yaaawn, I yawned again and went into the bathroom. When I brushed my teeth with a plastic toothbrush, I couldn't help but marvel at modern civilization. In the pseudo-medieval land, I had to make my toothbrush out of bamboo and toothpaste from salt... No matter how much I brushed, it felt incredibly unclean, and the mercenaries hated it, thinking it was too fussy. Of course, none of the mercenaries had proper teeth. It was very good if they even rinsed their mouths!
I took out some cold barley tea from the fridge and drank it down in gulps before sitting at the dining table. Breakfast was seaweed soup. The warm seaweed soup boiled with beef had an oily and savory smell. As I neatly placed utensils for myself, mom, and dad, my mouth watered. Wow, there was grilled mackerel too! The smell was amazing.
"Mother, today's breakfast is really fantastic. Awesome!"
"Oh my, why have you been acting like this since yesterday?"
Why hadn't I realized before how happy and precious these everyday family meals were?
…I need to be more grateful and filial from now on.
I calmed my emotional heart and picked up my spoon. The seaweed soup I hadn't tasted in a long time was so warm and so delicious.
"Good morning!"
When I brightly greeted everyone upon opening the office door, they all looked puzzled. Well, I couldn't blame my team for their reaction. I had never greeted them like this in the morning before.
But I've changed now!
Reflecting on my experiences in the pseudo-medieval land full of unreasonable people, I felt moved and grateful that my colleagues were sensible people. After all, my coworkers were unlikely to kill anyone, unlike the place filled with potential murderers. I looked around at my colleagues' faces with a smile. Ah, look at those kind faces!
"…Manager, you know it's Monday today, right?"
"I do."
"But you seem to be in a very good mood?!"
"There is a reason for that."
"Ah, could it be…"
"Could it be what?"
"Did you get a girlfriend? You know, the one you were introduced to two weeks ago?"
"It's not that. I told you I'm not interested. I'm too busy with work as it is."
"Oh, I just asked because you seem so happy!"
Well, wouldn't you be happy too if you escaped from a hellish pseudo-medieval land and returned to modern civilization? I swallowed my words. No matter how much I work at a game company, saying something like that out loud would make people think I'm crazy or delusional.
"Let's just work. Work."
I sat down and turned on my computer. Ah, I never thought I'd be so happy to see my desk. Hello, desk. Hello, monitor. Hello, keyboard. Hello, mouse!
I dove into my work with unprecedented focus. Even when invited for coffee, I declined and concentrated on drafting the plan, which made my junior shake his head in disbelief.
Everything is going so well?
Was it because the experience in the game was so vivid? When I used my experiences to fuel my thoughts, tasks I hadn't even wanted to look at before started to unfold smoothly. Here, I needed to emphasize this element, and there, I needed to highlight that element. These points would surely attract people's attention, and then…
"Whew…"
How much time had passed like that?
"Oh, it's already way past work time."
I stretched and looked around. It was already pitch dark outside. The office was empty, with only me remaining. Come to think of it, I remembered my junior grimacing at how intense I was working before scurrying off to leave.
"Work is going so well, I can't stop."
If it continued like this, getting a promotion would be a piece of cake. I chuckled to myself as I tidied up my desk and packed my bag. Just then, a piece of paper fell from the files. Instead of letters, it had a drawing of a crow.
"This is…"
A crow.
Come to think of it, did I have any materials on crows?
"…Even though it was all a dream, it still bothers me."
Feeling uneasy, I stared at the crow on the paper for a long time before putting my bag down again. I turned the computer back on.
"Let's just check and go; just check…"
I meticulously went through everything I had, from the documents I possessed to the ones I had been given access to. Crow, crow, crow, crow…
Crow.
"…"
Surprisingly, there was no information about crows anywhere.
No, saying there was none anywhere was incorrect.
The information about crows was in a place I couldn't access.
I glared at the one locked file that wouldn't open.
[Cㄱ0ㅜ]
What a strange file name.
At another time, I might have thought "Isn't it just an error?" and moved on.
But now…
Let's leave [C] as it is.
[C___]
If you change the keyboard setting for [ㄱ], it becomes [R].
[CR__]
The number [0] is the same as the letter [O].
[CRO_]
And [ㅜ] spells just like… [W], right?
[CROW]
"Crow…"
I felt a chilling gaze on my back. With that eerie feeling, I looked around as if I were the main character in a horror game. As if a ghost, zombie, or goblin would suddenly appear out of nowhere.
"…"
However, nothing happened.
Was it because this place was "reality"?
Or maybe…
I tried to open the locked file again, but I couldn't. I decided to do what I could for now and transferred the locked file to a USB.
[70%…]
[80%…]
[90%…]
[95%…]
[99%…]
Just as the file transfer was about to complete, I heard a loud bang as the door opened. I was startled and looked at the door. In the dark hallway, I saw a security guard holding a flashlight.
"What are you doing here at this hour?"
"I… I was working. I'm just finishing up now."
[100%]
[Transfer complete]
I quickly pulled out the USB and put it in my pocket. The security guard stared at me before nodding his head with a somewhat displeased expression on his face.
"Be careful on your way home."
"Yes, thank you. Have a good night."
I hastily gathered my things and left. My heart was pounding wildly.
…But, did we always have a security guard like that in our company?
I tried to recall, but for some reason, I couldn't remember the guard's face at all. All I could remember was a blurry impression, like a doughy mass.
How strange…
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
I hurried home. For some reason, the convenience store I frequented which never closed for a single day was shut, and all the streetlights were off. Wow, shouldn't I report this to the district office? How can this be…
The moon wasn't up, so everything was pitch dark. There wasn't a single person in sight, so the atmosphere was somewhat eerie. I walked quickly, faster and faster, as an inexplicable fear started creeping from my ankles up through my entire body.
I really hate this feeling…
Once I turned this corner, my house would be in sight. I would be safe once I got inside. With that thought in mind, even though no one was chasing me, I started running. When I turned the corner,
"…Hooo!"
I stopped and took a deep breath. In the middle of the pitch-dark street, a child was standing. They had long wavy silver hair cascading down.
It felt like I had seen this child somewhere before.
I strangely felt a sense of relief and took a step, then another, towards the child. The child had their eyes closed and they were humming a tune that sounded like a sad melody.
"Hey…"
I was about to speak to the child when
-Snap!
-Whoosh!
-Whaaaaaaa!
The darkness lurking around pounced on the child from all directions, as if it had been waiting. A terrible-looking mass of darkness that looked like a snake or tentacles swallowed the child at high speed. I couldn't even scream and just watched the scene unfold.
Humans are fragile beings. When faced with an incredibly terrifying scene, the whole body freezes, and you can't do anything. That was exactly my situation. I wanted to run to save the child, but my legs wouldn't move, and I wanted to scream for help, but my mouth wouldn't open.
"....!"
All I could do was tremble.
If I had magic, if I had skills, if Ayla, El, and Lloyd were with me.
I was absurdly thinking such things even though I was happy to have returned to "reality".
I have to do something, anything…
Move. Move. Even if I'm not a druid, even without magic, even if I can't use skills, I must save that child. Despite the pressure that made me feel like I might faint at any moment, I desperately repeated to myself. Move now! Save that child!
Kang Tae-oh!
Theodore!
-Pyooooo…
At that moment, I heard a familiar cry, and a small light began to seep through the gaps in the dark tentacles that had swallowed the child. One, two, three, four, the number of lights steadily increased. And then…
-Boom!!!
-Fwoosh!!!
The light transformed into a huge five-colored flame. The five-colored flame then took the shape of a beautiful phoenix and it started flapping its wings powerfully. Those wings burned away the darkness and drove it back. I watched the scene in a daze.
"Thank, good…"
Thank goodness.
I couldn't finish my sentence and lost consciousness right there.
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