Chapter 63
In the end, nothing happened.
The vampire angel did not disappear, and word came that things inside had only gotten even worse.
"Why...?"
Mr. Spangdal muttered in disbelief.
"It's a demon that erases things. I offered a sacrifice, so this shouldn't..."
Hearing that, guilt and a sense of sin stabbed at my chest. It was too hard to look at Mr. Spangdal's face right now.
But this is the only way for now.
In the end, I'll regress and resolve this. Then the Bureau agents won't have to die. Jinseop will be able to live too.
I'm doing it only for that... I didn't do anything strange. This is betrayal? Betrayal is having the power to regress and still letting Jamtree and Curas die!
It hurts now, but it would be far more horrifying if everyone died.
This is just a choice to make the situation better...
"Maybe that religious aberration is stronger than the demon? Or maybe it had the advantage in that matchup and won."
"How could this happen... According to the Bureau records, including this time, we've used a demon exactly three times."
Three times?
"What happened the previous two times?"
"I don't know. I heard it was before I became an agent. But they said they erased two religious aberrations back then too. I never thought it would fail this time..."
Mr. Spangdal looked as if he had taken a tremendous shock.
In a situation like this, should I hug him... or would that be too much, considering I'm the one who caused this mess?
Torn by conflict, I couldn't do anything.
"Anyway, Senior Spangdal. Things have gotten as bad as they can. Doesn't the Bureau have any other way?"
"Let's go back to the Bureau first. We need to find another way."
"Yes."
The Bureau was still intact.
That meant there might still be another solution. Terrible as it was, this still couldn't be resolved like this. It would just pile the worst on top of the worst.
Maybe it was fortunate that I was inside the Bureau right now. It meant I was in a position to keep this from being resolved.
"..."
I moved with Mr. Spangdal.
With every step, it felt like I was sinking into a swamp.
* * *
The Bureau building had disappeared.
It had disappeared both physically and in another sense.
As if it had never been there in the first place.
"What is this...?"
The shocked Mr. Spangdal staggered.
"Senior Spangdal!"
I immediately wrapped my arm around his waist to keep him from falling.
"This is... impossible. What on earth happened? How could the Bureau... the containment facilities? What happened to all of them?"
If the Bureau had disappeared, what had happened to all the aberrations locked in the containment facilities? Had they disappeared too? Or had they all escaped?
I couldn't tell.
Why had the Bureau disappeared?
Did the vampire angel attack?
No, that couldn't be it. The thing is still there.
Then why?
All I did this time was summon a demon, offer a sacrifice, and not make a wish.
It had been the obvious judgment not to make a wish at the time.
If I wished for the angel to be erased, the regression point would clearly lock in right there; and if I wished for something else, there was no way to know what variables would result.
Above all, I wasn't even sure the demon's wish would function properly.
According to Mr. Spangdal, it was a demon that erased things, and he'd never used it for anything else. He said using it for other purposes was strictly forbidden. It wasn't a demon that granted wishes.
...Wait.
Don't tell me that's it?
Did the demon, strengthened by the sacrifice because I hadn't made a wish, erase the Bureau that had imprisoned it?
It was supposed to spend its power by erasing the angel, but since it couldn't spend that power, it erased the Bureau that had confined it...?
Chills ran over my entire body.
Surely the regression point hadn't been fixed here, had it?
ㅡThump-thump.
My heart was pounding as if it might burst. The fear that my mistake might have caused a catastrophe even worse than the worst wrapped around my whole body.
No.
I can't think about that right now.
"Haa. At this rate, I can't even worry about it. What a troublesome junior. Thanks to you, I've calmed down."
"Huh?"
"Grong. Pull yourself together. Don't be shaken."
Mr. Spangdal, who had seemed deeply shocked just moments ago, instead encouraged me when he saw how anxious I was.
"I don't know what happened, but if you're an agent, you have to find a way. If you don't, you'll just die. Not just us—more people will die too."
"Y-yes... that's right."
"An emergency beyond imagination has occurred. Now that the Bureau is gone... we can't stop the rampage of the aberrations. Still, we're agents. Do you understand what that means?"
I knew.
"Not giving up. Finding a solution somehow."
"Exactly. Grong, you're still a newbie, but... that doesn't matter anymore. Let's do whatever we can, the two of us."
Mr. Spangdal held out his hand.
"Yes."
I took that hand.
The warmth I felt in his hand was unmistakable.
The Bureau was suspicious, and Mr. Spangdal was suspicious too.
But I had seen all of Mr. Spangdal's sides: his weak side, his strong side, and even the side where he was flustered.
There was no way this Mr. Spangdal was fake.
Just as I heard a moment ago... I'll definitely solve this. I don't want to see Mr. Spangdal looking weak.
* * *
The sky was red.
I idly looked up at the sky while fiddling with Mr. Spangdal's long hair.
The vampire angel had turned countless people into ghouls and become something like a sun. This red sky was the result of its power.
That power was probably reaching the entire world.
How many survivors were left?
I still didn't know whether that thing was even the same kind of being as me. There was no way to analyze it, and besides, only Mr. Spangdal and I were left in the Bureau.
Today too, I had to survive with Mr. Spangdal while avoiding the immortal ghouls.
"Stop playing with my hair..."
"I'm going to keep touching it. What can you do if I keep touching it, Senior Spangdal?"
"Hmm, nothing at all."
"So stay still."
"Okay."
We didn't have much time to rest either.
So when we rested, we had to rest properly.
"I always think this, but Senior Spangdal, you look pretty with short hair too, but long hair looks even prettier."
"Should I cut my hair..."
"If you do, I'll jump up and scream."
"Ah, I won't cut it, so don't suddenly get up! Can't you lie back down next to me right now!"
"Yes."
"You were growing it out nicely in the first place..."
Like this, during rest time, it was better to just lie down and rest than get up and do something.
"..."
I didn't know if I'd still be alive tomorrow.
I survived up to today, but I hadn't obtained any useful clues for a solution. A single life was worth 2,000 points, so I had planned to find as many clues as I could.
Still, I had managed to learn a bit about the vampires and those ghoul bastards. And about the vampire angel too. It wasn't all that useful, though.
If that vampire angel's power grew even stronger.
It seemed obvious that something even more horrifying would happen.
And I could feel that day was not far off.
Because the world was growing redder by the day.
I wasn't sure, but... it felt like the end of this life was approaching.
"A vibration, huh. Let's move soon."
"Got it."
I stood up with Mr. Spangdal. Then we prepared to move and set off at once.
"Ghouls ahead. It's a little awkward to go around them, so let's deal with them quietly."
"Got it. I'll take care of them."
Mr. Spangdal moved into a shaded area. He blended into the shadows and then emerged from the shadow behind the ghouls.
ㅡSshk!
Black spikes shot up from Mr. Spangdal's arms. The ghouls hit by them had their brains pierced. In other words, they were subdued with only the bare minimum of damage to their heads. At that rate, the ghouls wouldn't even realize they were dead.
They were immortal anyway, so they'd soon revive and regenerate. All we had to do was sneak away quietly in the meantime. That way we wouldn't even be noticed, which was perfect.
"No matter when I see it, it's an amazing superpower."
"Heh heh, this is your senior's superior power."
An extremely smug smile.
"It is indeed superior. To be able to create spikes and protrusions anywhere on your body. That's really amazing."
"S-Stop it! Seriously!"
"Eep!"
Mr. Spangdal, face flushed red, conjured a whirling spike at his fingertips and jabbed me in the side. Still smiling, he moved again to a place that looked free of ghouls.
This should be enough.
"Haa. I'm tired. Massage my shoulders."
"Okay."
I grabbed the shoulders of Mr. Spangdal, who was sitting in front of me, and massaged them.
And naturally, I touched his ears too.
"Feels nice..."
I just kept quietly kneading his shoulders and ears like that.
Was it because I felt the end of the world was imminent?
I brought up a question I'd kept buried for a long time.
"By the way... Senior Spangdal."
"Hmm?"
"This is a bit late to ask, but when did you become an agent, Senior Spangdal? And what made you decide to become one?"
"..."
A brief silence.
"Well, you see."
"Yes."
"I don't remember anymore."
"Huh?"
He didn't remember?
"I don't know. I've lived as an agent ever since I was given the codename Spangdal. Maybe because of that, the past feels far too hazy."
"What do you mean...?"
"I remember experiencing some aberration or strange phenomenon and deciding to become an agent. But beyond that, not really..."
"Did you get your memory erased or something?"
"It probably isn't complete erasure. It must be a Bureau measure that blurs the memories of the past. Maybe it's some sort of defense mechanism against aberrations that try to uncover an agent's past. I only realized it now myself."
I see.
So if you live as an agent long enough, memories of the past grow hazy. I felt like I'd gained one useful piece of information.
"But... I can't see any other aberrations now. So that's a little disappointing. If I remembered, I would have told you, Grong."
"Khaah! Senior Spangdal!"
At those sweet, cloying words, I couldn't help but hug Mr. Spangdal tightly.
"Stop hugging me already..."
Though he said that, he lifted his hand and placed it on my head. It was impossible to imagine that this was the same person who had acted so frighteningly when we first met.
So I asked him.
"Then, Senior Spangdal. Do you happen to know what a reality re-recognition device is?"
"Huh? Reality, what? Do you mean some kind of cognitive interference?"
From that natural reaction, I realized it.
Mr. Spangdal didn't know about the reality re-recognition device.
ㅡSsshh.
In an instant, I felt my senses sharpen.
Something was coming.
"Something's coming."
"I feel it too."
Mr. Spangdal rose to his feet and drew out long black spikes from his fingertips. Ten spikes looked truly threatening. But the aura I felt was just as powerful.
And then.
ㅡFwoosh.
Something fell from the red sky.
A woman I could never forget.
"A vampire...!"
It's that vampire bitch!
How long had it been since I'd last seen this bitch? The moment I saw the vampire, intense murderous intent surged up inside me. Then as now, I hated vampires. I wanted to kill this monster right now.
"Grong. Get behind me. That's the vampire that hurt you, right?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll make it go through the same pain Grong did..."
His low voice was terrifying.
The vampire slowly approached.
"...I didn't come to fight."
"What?"
"Help me."
You want me to help you?