Thump. Thump.
The sound of my heartbeat pounded violently in my head.
I placed a hand over the tattoo on my heart.
The Contaminations I had shoved in there and organized.
The products of the ghost stories, separated from me.
'What do you mean Roe Deer is an empty shell? The real thing is inside? Could you possibly mean the Contaminations…?'
Voices that sounded like protests rose from the Juror Seats. And soon, the lights in several Juror Seats went out.
If you continue to cause a disturbance, you will be removed from the courtroom.
"..."
For a moment, I thought I heard the brief sound of teeth-grinding.
Then the Juror Seats fell silent.
But Juror No. 1 was still looking at me.
The agent whose face was not visible.
Candidate No. 370614 of 202■ Management.
Kim Soleum.
I took a sharp breath and lifted my head.
At the request of Juror 1, we will proceed with additional questioning.
Come forward and answer.
Come forward?
"Ugh."
Something seemed to tear its way out from my chest, and the sensation of my features being crushed was vividly painful.
I staggered, trying to step back, but soon...
"Did you call for me, sir?"
[This way.]
I h a v e t o a n s w e r?
-What is going on here? Goodness, could you call the cameras first? Being questioned is definitely stimulating, so I'm sure the viewers will love it!
[This is not a school, but I see some familiar-looking clothes...]
Hahahahahahahaha.
The Contaminations.
My Contaminations burst out and began to answer. I can't block them. What was pulled from the tattoo covers my stomach like vomit and flows back up. It covers me uncontrollably. At will…!
'Get back in!'
I tried to shove them back into the tattoo, but the revealed truth cannot be hidden before the court. No…!
I will question you based on the 'Unmotivated Murder' weight on the scales.
Has the Selection Candidate ever taken the life of an innocent third party of his own volition?
[This way]
-Absolutely not! Though I have had the honor of participating in the production of a talk show that makes the hearts of innocent viewers flutter!
Welcome to Lookie Mart! Can I help you check out?
N o.
"That difficult vocabulary is hard for the children to understand! Use this sentence: 'Have you ever killed someone for no reason?'"
Answers devoid of reason or emotion, inhuman responses, and obsessive, nonsensical monologues pour out. Those aren’t me, but even among them, there was no answer saying that I had harmed anyone. That's a relief. Rather than relief, I felt like I was going to throw up.
The Juror Seats were quiet. Only the sound of the Contaminations chattering away on the platform, out of order and at their own whim, echoed through the vast space…
Testimony received.
It's done.
It's done, it's over now!
Continuing the questioning.
Shut up!
It's…
Can the Selection Candidate swear that he will not harm an innocent third party for his own benefit?
Of course!
Of course I swear...
[That is impossible.]
My heart seemed to drop.
[Games, by nature, begin with harming someone for one's own benefit. At school, we sometimes survive by inducing the sacrifice of other students.]
That's—
-Audience… no, members of the jury, what do you really think of the phrase 'innocent third party'? Of course, it's a phrase that might appear in some criminal law textbook.
-But what about in reality?
Shut up.
-An action I take today to survive might unexpectedly endanger someone else's life!
-But isn't that simply life?
No!
I've never thought that. It's a distorted thought originating from the Contamination—from the ghost story.
-Even if you feel sorry for another person's suffering, you don't need to take responsibility for it! It's only natural that no one can predict all the consequences of their actions. Just because something bad happens doesn't necessarily mean it's that person's fault.
-So, "I swear that I will not harm an innocent third party for my own benefit"? Who could possibly make such a broad and meaningless oath?
That's, that's…
Y o u m i g h t b e a f r a i d
Y o u m i g h t n o t
"..."
B e a b l e t o
p r o m i s e
The voice echoes, sounding dejected.
The comfortable emotional expression of an amusement park mascot for children.
A sound of uncertainty, a tone of resignation, a frank expression…
An emotion that feels somehow familiar.
-In extreme situations, life is a tightrope walk. It's a repetition of breathing a sigh of relief each time you safely pull off a performance. It's hard to look too far ahead or take on too much responsibility.
-For the program to survive, it has to be more thrilling, more fun, more stimulating.
To survive...
-Can't we be a little selfish? To make an appealing show, sometimes you need to be self-centered.
"..."
I listened to the voices of the Contaminations speaking through my mouth.
No.
The voices coming from within me.
Since when?
I had stopped expressing the irritation or anger that used to boil up when I saw someone in a ghost story who was no longer useful.
My self-centered judgments, like letting people who were trolling die because I had to survive, while saving only those I could, had also become rare.
Even when I met people who were easy to incite or exploit, I no longer cheered, repeating my thanks while feeling a slight sense of guilt.
I also stopped deceiving or frightening others to control the atmosphere in a ghost story, unless I was certain they were villains.
All the things I used to do while screaming internally, just asking for a little cooperation since we were all trying to survive together.
They were gone.
"..."
I looked down at my hands.
They were human hands.
This was my original form, the one I had so desperately wanted when I was 130666, a pulpy mass.
But am I really the Kim Soleum from before?
I tried to live like a person.
I tried to make only the smoothest, most human-like decisions.
But is that really me?
From the Juror Seats, Assistant Manager Eun Haje and Agent Bronze were each making completely different arguments.
Judgments based on personal experience, personal selfishness, personal excesses.
I definitely had those too.
But at some point, they disappeared.
And now I know why.
'…I thought it was contamination.'
I had dismissed all my peculiar traits that overlapped with the ghost stories as contamination.
Because I was scared.
Because if it was the influence of contamination, I felt like I would return to that state where not only my body, which had collapsed into something no longer human, but also my mind had collapsed as well.
So I had included them in the contamination I shoved into the tattoo and sealed them away.
Because I was afraid.
...
I remember the conversation I had with Braun on the first day I received treatment at the Fox Counseling Room.
-I'm more comfortable and happier with who I am now.
-And I don't like it when my standards of judgment suddenly flip like a sheet of paper.
I was afraid that contamination meant losing myself.
So I was desperate to cut off the contamination itself, but if that, in turn, meant cutting myself off…
"..."
I raised my hand.
"...I would like to address Juror No. 1."
Permission granted.
I lifted my head and looked at the agent whose face was not visible.
"The juror is right."
-He has passed his own twisted desires, twisted thoughts, extreme emotions, and all abnormal judgments onto other personalities that he separated and isolated within himself.
"The desires, thoughts, extreme emotions, and abnormal judgments inside me that are not pleasant to look at..."
I said,
"They are all mine."
The Contaminations remained exactly as they had burst forth.
"Some of the things I said just now may have been impulsive and inappropriate..."
I took a deep breath.
"…But they are also things I have thought at least once."
I remembered what happened at Hanbit Library.
That every page that makes up the book is myself.
I remembered the advice I heard at the Cosmic Shopping Mall.
The warning not to destroy the contamination within me.
'That's why I chose the tattoo.'
I placed a hand over the pattern on my chest and recalled the description of this Moonlight Tattoo...
To govern oneself!
It is the most fundamental and important task. But when the mind contains countless identities and afflictions, it becomes difficult to gather them together and govern them as one.
Let us attach an index tab to each of them and give them points of connection.
So that they can be organized and rearranged whenever desired.
Points of connection.
Organizing and rearranging.
Not shoving them inside and locking them away, but labeling and organizing them.
"..."
I placed my hand on the tattoo.
And I realized that the tattoo, made up of circular bands, could rotate and move along its central axis...
'Ah.'
...Now I understood why they had discouraged a cover-up tattoo at the Moonlight Tattoo Shop.
I had not been properly 'enjoying' the function of this tattoo.
"I acknowledge it."
The organized Contaminations rotate.
The engraved phrases and the Contaminations I had stuffed inside are reorganized.
The strange identities that truly are not mine, the ones that exist at the level of contamination, move toward the outer edges, while the rest draw closer to my heart.
The emotions and judgments that originally belonged to me, along with the changes that manifested differently when they encountered the Contaminations, move closer to the center.
Uncomfortable sensations collide within me. Anxiety, selfishness, impulsiveness, aggression, destructive urges, deceit, acting, superiority, cowardice, curiosity, excitement…
Extreme and jagged emotions clash within me and vividly flow back into my body.
But they soon become familiar.
They have to. They were mine to begin with.
"..."
I removed my hand.
The impulsiveness, weakness, and unusual traits of the Contaminations that had burst forth still remained in my mind.
But it was okay.
Because they had been there from the beginning.
"All of that is me."
...
Juror No. 1, you may speak.
Juror No. 1 had raised his hand again and was looking at me.
"The validity of the Selection Candidate's testimony has been confirmed."
"I recognize the candidate as a complete and unified individual who may be weighed upon the Scales of Evil."
He smiled.
Now I could recognize him.
I saw the outline of the juror's face revealed by the light. It was...
"I recommend extracting his heart once more and placing it on the scales."
It was my own face.
Agent Grapes, wearing glasses.
Selection Candidate No. 370614, Management 202■.
Place your heart upon the Scales of Evil once more.
"..."
Selection Candidate Kim Soleum.
"Yes."
I took a breath.
Then, after barely managing to tear my eyes away from Juror No. 1, I quickly retrieved my silver heart from the scales.
I returned it to my chest, and then...
I made another incision, split it open, and took it out.
Over the tattoo.
"..."
The heart that emerged this time was not as light as before.
It was still silver, but it seemed to possess a certain heaviness.
'It looks heavier than before.'
But I placed it on the scales.
The opposite side, bearing the weight of Unmotivated Murder, swayed under the added weight.
'!'
I barely managed to stop myself from screaming.
The enormous gray balance scale rocked back and forth, swaying from side to side, and then...
Soon, it tilted to one side.
"..."
The weight of sin sank heavily downward.
Pass.
My heart, placed on the scale, floated steadily in the air.
Lower than before, but still clear and unmistakeable.
Selection Candidate No. 370614, Management 202■, has been determined to be a citizen not subject to conscription under the regulations of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
The gazes looking down at me from the Juror Seats grew faint.
Furthermore, acknowledging the validity of the candidate's testimony that the Sekwang Metropolitan City branch does not officially exist at present, we declare the official suspension of rescue and selection duties.
Bang. Bang.
I heard the sound of a gavel, and all the pin spotlights in the courtroom disappeared.
And the Darkness throughout the space vanished as well.
A white, empty space.
"Agent Grapes!"
I saw my companions jumping down from the Juror Seats.
[Oh, it seems the show in this courtroom is over as well. Everyone is leaving their assigned seats.]
Right.
I looked at the gradually fading courtroom.
The agents in the Juror Seats were disappearing one by one.
…They might be the lingering wills of dead agents, or something merely mimicking them, but I hope they can escape this ghost story and find peace.
'If possible, I should check again...'
"Grapes-ie, retrieve it!"
Ah.
I took my heart from the scales and pushed it back into my chest. And at that moment, I saw a small movement beneath the Scales of Evil.
"...?"
A thread dyed in the five cardinal colors.
It slithered back, coiling around the arm of Agent Choi, who had descended from the end of the Juror Seats.
Wait a minute.
'Was that man trying to rig the scale's reading if things went south?'
What on earth was he doing, like some unscrupulous fishmonger cheating a customer buying sashimi.
I was dumbfounded, but at the same time, I let out a small laugh.
…I was grateful.
But at the same time, I noticed that Agent Choi, like me, had been looking at Juror No. 1.
"Agent Choi."
I approached him and whispered softly.
"Were you looking over there because you figured out Juror No. 1's identity?"
"...Identity?"
"…Agent Grapes, I mean."
I had assumed that my agent persona had also been recognized as a juror and seated there.
Questioning oneself is a bit of a cliché in this kind of ghost story, after all.
But Agent Choi's face hardened when he heard my words.
"Agent Choi?"
"…To you, Grapes, did he look like Grapes?"
And he smiled, his face covered in a cold sweat.
"Because to me, he looked like me."
"...!"
I immediately turned my head.
Juror Seat 1.
The one sitting there was watching me from up close.
With the face of Agent Grapes.
"…Who are you?"
A mouth opened.
"I am a projection left in this place."
The next moment.
The courtroom completely vanished.
As my consciousness burned away into white, I saw the face and clothes of Agent Grapes, who had been sitting in Juror Seat 1, suddenly change into something else...
As if something in disguise had revealed its true form after being discovered.
…In Juror Seat 1,
Ho Yuwon's face was smiling.
* * *
I opened my eyes.
The cozy scenery of the Fox Counseling Room came into view.
"…!!"
'I'm out?'
It was the first time I had left Sekwang Metropolitan City without dying.
I sat up in bed.
Countless questions floated through my mind, and the person connected to the biggest one was right in front of me.
"Roe Deer-nim?"
"Ho Yuwon."
I immediately got out of bed.
"What I just saw at Morning Station in the Special City was..."
...
Wait a minute.
'Huh?'
I raised a hand to my neck.
The feel of leather, the feel of a zipper.
130666's security suit.
But...
"Ah."
…I can speak.
"...!!"
I hurriedly looked down at my hands.
The leather-gloved hands of 130666.
I raised my other hand and, trembling, pulled down the zipper and removed the black glove...
A human hand.
"..."
I grabbed my head and pulled off the gas mask.
Then I turned my gaze.
In the mirror, I saw Kim Soleum.
TL Notes: -
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