Chapter 25

Chapter 25. ♥→♡

Clatter, rattle…….

“Jiho, I’m sorry to wake you, but we have to go to those two.”

I carried the child on my back as they were and made them bury their face against my shoulder.

No matter how urgent it was, I could not let them see something they must not see.

“Ha, hoo…….”

Trying to run while carrying a child who seemed to weigh about twenty kilograms naturally left me short of breath.

But I did not stop and kept running. I had to.

“Haa……. Ms. Hwang Juyeon? Director Yoo Hyunjae?”

By the time I arrived, the false Buddha had already vanished into the darkness.

I gently pressed the child down so they would not raise their head and slowly approached.

My already pounding heart felt as if it would burst from anxiety.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan……?”

A figure that had seemed to be crouched slowly rose.

It was Yoo Hyunjae.

“Um, where is Ms. Hwang Juyeon…….”

Director Yoo Hyunjae shook his head with an exhausted face.

When I shone the light behind him, I saw Hwang Juyeon lying on a red-flowing carpet, covered by a blotched suit jacket like a blanket.

Hwang Juyeon was sleeping a sleep from which she would not wake.

“I, the clue, I think the cross was wrong…….”

The words would not come out properly.

My breathing grew ragged.

“Yes……. It seems that was the case…….”

It was because of me. It was my fault. It was because of me again. Again, I. Because I was stupid. Because I did not realize it faster. I should have noticed earlier that it was a trap. If I had opened it sooner. If I had distracted Choi Jaeha that way. Maybe he would not have died. Choi Jaeha, Hwang Juyeon, anyone.

“But the strange thing is, Ms. Hwang Juyeon held back her scream, and yet that false Buddha still came……. Mr. Seon Yuhan?”

Yes, if only I had not been there.

No one would have died.

Clatter…….

At that moment.

The voice that had been endlessly leaking inside my head disappeared.

An eerie silence.

And then the sharp sound of footsteps.

Squish, clatter…….

She had not screamed.

Clank, whirr…….

I had held back so hard.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan……!”

“What makes you thirst so? Have you forgotten the eighty-four thousand Dharma gates? Are you still bound by the one hundred and eight karmic knots?”

Why?

Why?

“This world is illusion, sensation is karma, and memory is suffering.”

The World-Honored One approached. Toward me.

Why? What had it heard? What had called the World-Honored One here?

Thump, thump…….

As I thought of the mercy that would soon arrive and placed a hand over my chest, I felt the lump of blood beating violently before the truth beyond the skin that had been rummaged through over and over.

Clatter, splash.

In time with the footsteps.

Thump, thump…….

“The seat of the Tathagata is neither upon a rotten pedestal nor beneath a burned sala tree.”

Ah.

“Ha, I wondered if that was it.”

This heart-eating false Buddha did not come after hearing screams.

“It was not the sound of screams…….”

“But where the blood of those blinded by craving and attachment boils like hungry ghosts.”

Hearts.

“It waited there.”

It came after hearing heartbeats.

“So it was hearing heartbeats.”

“At last, I have heard you.”

The moment my realization and the two voices became one.

The whole world was dyed black.

***

“If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Mr. Seon Yuhan?”

“Do I…… have to stop my heart?”

“Pardon? Stop what? Ah, are you feeling unwell? Shall we end the interview here for now?”

“……Yes. We have to do that for now. Excuse me.”

I shook off the pain that had vanished like an illusion, raised the interviewer, and came out into the hallway.

As I separated and organized the emotions and information in my head, I gave the interviewer the precautions.

“And in Basement 5, there is a monster pretending to be some kind of Buddha, and it seems to come when heartbeats grow loud, though I do not know the exact standard…….”

“Mm, in other words, that monster checks people’s heart rates, correct?”

“Yes, I suppose so……?”

“Then a watch……, ah. Mr. Seon Yuhan, you are not wearing a watch.”

The interviewer showed me the smartwatch on their wrist and narrowed their brows.

“If you check your own heart rate with this and control your mind as much as possible, I think it could help…….”

“Ah.”

So that was all I had to do.

Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon probably used smartwatches, so the two of them would be all right.

I was not sure about Yoo Hyunjae, but recalling what I had seen so far, he did not seem like the sort of person who would thoughtlessly lose his composure and panic.

The problem was Jeong Jiho.

But since I died before that child, perhaps it was not something I should worry about.

“In any case, thanks to you, that helped. Please go down first, Mr. Interviewer. Be careful.”

“Please be careful too, Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

The interviewer looked at me with a slightly worried face, then headed toward the emergency exit.

3:32 p.m.

Press.

RIIIIIIIIING—!

I sounded the fire alarm at the razor-thin timing before the blackout.

It was time to meet the accountant, the mage, and the child.

---

“Kgh, urk…….”

In the library, I dared to kill the filthy thing wearing human skin.

“……The child remained alone…….”

In the daycare center, I put the toys to sleep with indoor activities that combined action songs and ball games.

“Ugh, urk…….”

And in Basement 5, I encountered the Yuwi Guild director vomiting up his insides again.

“Huh? Are you not Director Yoo Hyunjae? Are you all right…….”

While I felt faint pity for Yoo Hyunjae’s esophagus, which was experiencing reflux whenever we met him.

Choi Jaeha was the first to greet him.

“Mm, I am fine.”

Director Yoo Hyunjae once again pretended nothing had happened and began exchanging introductions with a clean face.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Hwang Juyeon. You too, Jiho. And as for you, sir…….”

“Ah, hello. My name is Seon Yuhan.”

“Aha……. Mr. Seon Yuhan. I see.”

Yoo Hyunjae gave a picture-perfect smile.

“Nice to meet you.”

This time, he did not bring up anything about me looking familiar.

Last time, I had greeted him briskly by calling him Director first, so he had probably made the first move because he thought I was an employee of his company.

If I had truly been a Yuwi Guild employee, the moment the director acted even a little familiar, I would have given my department and name on my own.

“You are not affiliated with our company, are you?”

“No, I am not.”

I gave up on unnecessary comments about having interviewed for Yuwi Guild’s Agent Team or anything like that.

Yoo Hyunjae did not ask anything further either and simply nodded.

“Mm, then shall we form a simple formation now? We have all learned one another’s faces and finished introductions, so let us lower the lights too.”

“Um, should the light not be too bright? Why?”

At Hwang Juyeon’s question, Yoo Hyunjae paused for a very brief moment, then explained the circumstances of his personal driver’s death.

He did not know the reason, but the man had suddenly screamed and rambled incoherently, and not long afterward, some Buddha-statue monster had appeared and taken his heart.

He said it seemed that a phenomenon occurred to startle people.

“So I thought perhaps it came after hearing sounds like screams.”

“Ahh.”

“Gasp, then a conversation like this…….”

“No, it seems it cannot hear voices at this level.”

“Excuse me.”

When I, who had been silent for a long while, carefully began speaking, everyone’s eyes gathered on me.

“Could it perhaps be listening to heartbeats?”

At that, Yoo Hyunjae raised his eyebrows slightly, without showing any displeasure, as if telling me to continue.

“Um, since that monster takes hearts. I thought that seemed a little more plausible.”

I deliberately made it sound as if it was purely a guess.

I did not want to confidently spout off a mad story about having gone back in time or died and come back, then ask them to believe me based on that.

In any case, what I knew as a regressor was only that a monster crudely imitating a Buddha came after hearing heartbeats above a certain level. I knew nothing beyond that.

Besides…….

I knew how deeply people could sympathize with another person’s pain, but I also knew how insensitive they could become.

In that sense, I did not trust these people at all.

Of course, I did not think they were people with bad characters.

Only, what revealed itself in a disaster like this was not nature, but instinct.

Even the gentlest person wanted to live, and could become ruthless in order to live.

And that was not a matter of good or evil.

I, rather, I…….

I had wanted them to live more than something like me.

“Ah, now that I hear it, that makes sense. Screaming is ultimately something one does in a situation shocking enough to make the heart pound.”

“Yes. Of course, it is only my thought. There is no need to take risks by deliberately screaming or anything like that. In the sense that we must not be startled, it is consistent.”

Either way, I wanted to block the possibility that I would be made to play the role of a meat shield simply because I would come back to life anyway.

I did not want to die. Not in the slightest.

So I would not speak about regression or loops. Unless it became unavoidable.

“So those of you with smartwatches should check your heart rates while moving.”

Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon began operating their watches.

The Yuwi Guild director, who wore an analog watch several dozen times more expensive than a smartwatch, stroked Jeong Jiho’s head with that hand.

“Children tend to have higher heart rates than adults.”

At that worried murmur, Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon flinched.

They held up their wrists and awkwardly watched the situation.

When the two of them stood uncertainly and tried to take off their watches, Yoo Hyunjae gently stopped them.

“No. The two of you should keep wearing them. Even Ms. Hwang Juyeon’s would be too big for Jiho. The accuracy would be poor anyway.”

As in the previous round, we checked the strange skid mark and decided to search for matching tires according to my suggestion.

“How about we split into two groups like this for now?”

Yoo Hyunjae gestured lightly as if dividing the group.

However, the direction was slightly different from last time.

This time, Choi Jaeha and Yoo Hyunjae.

And me, Jeong Jiho, and Hwang Juyeon.

We began searching in two teams that way, and I found the parcel box faster than last time.

The sedan with the number Go1020 was in the same section as last time.

“Ah. You found something.”

“Yes. The moment I confirmed that it had the same tires as the skid mark, this box appeared on the hood.”

“What box? What is inside?”

I safely rejoined the other two without losing Jeong Jiho and Hwang Juyeon.

“I think what matters is not the contents, but the parcel box itself.”

“Mm? So you are saying we should not open it?”

“If the contents were the clue, it would have been enough to simply leave only that there. There would have been no need to dress it up like a parcel box.”

When I held it out so the waybill sticker was visible, Yoo Hyunjae and Choi Jaeha carefully read it.

“Sammae Delivery?”

Choi Jaeha tilted his head and said one thing.

“I saw that delivery truck earlier.”