Chapter 25: ♥→♡

Clank, clank…….

“Jiho, sorry for waking you, but I have to go check on those two people.”

I carried the child on my back and made him hide his face against my shoulder.

No matter how urgent it was, I could not allow him to see something he never should.

“Haa, huu…….”

Running while carrying a child who must have weighed around 20 kg left me breathless automatically.

But I did not stop.

I had to keep running.

“Haa…… Hwang Juyeon-ssi? Director Yoo Hyunjae?”

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

While gently pressing down on the child’s head so he would not look up, I moved forward slowly.

My heart was already pounding violently, but the anxiety made it feel as though it would explode.

“Seon Yuhan-ssi……?”

The figure that seemed to have shrunk in on itself slowly stood up.

It was Yoo Hyunjae.

“T-that…… Hwang Juyeon-ssi…….”

Director Yoo Hyunjae shook his head with an exhausted face.

When I shined the flashlight farther ahead, I could see Hwang Juyeon lying on a carpet soaked in red, covered with a stained suit jacket as though it were a blanket.

Hwang Juyeon was sleeping a sleep from which she would never awaken.

“I…… thought that clue…… the cross…… was wrong…….”

The words would not come out properly.

I could not breathe.

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

It’s my fault.

It’s my fault.

Again, it’s because of me.

Again, it was me.

Because I’m an idiot.

Because I didn’t realize it sooner.

I should have noticed faster that it was a trap.

If I had opened it earlier.

If I had distracted Choi Jaeha like that.

Maybe they would not have died.

Neither Choi Jaeha.

Nor Hwang Juyeon.

No one.

“But something is strange. Even though Hwang Juyeon-ssi held back her scream, that false Buddha still came…… Seon Yuhan-ssi?”

Yes.

If it were not for me.

No one would have died.

Clank…….

At that moment.

The voices that kept leaking into my head disappeared.

An eerie silence.

And then.

The sharp sound of footsteps.

Splash, clank…….

No one screamed.

Clank, kreeeak…….

I endured all of this as best I could.

“Seon Yuhan-ssi……!”

“What is it that causes your thirst? Have you forgotten the eighty-four thousand dharmas? Are you still bound by the one hundred and eight karmas?”

Why?

Why?

“This world is an illusion. The senses are karma. Memories are pain.”

The World-Honored One approaches.

Toward me.

Why?

What was it that he heard?

What called the World-Honored One here?

Thump, thump…….

When I brought my hand to my chest, thinking of the approaching mercy, I could feel beneath the torn flesh a mass of blood pounding violently before the truth.

Clank, splash.

In rhythm with the footsteps.

Thump, thump…….

“The place of the Tathagata is not upon a rotten throne nor beneath a sala tree consumed by flames.”

Ah.

“Hah…… I should have guessed.”

That false Buddha that devours hearts does not come because of screams.

“It was not the sound of screams…….”

“But the place where the blood of those blinded by attachment and desire boils like hungry demons.”

The heart.

“For I have waited there.”

It is drawn by the sound of the heart.

“So it was listening to the beating of hearts.”

“At last, I have heard you.”

At the instant when my revelation and those two voices became one.

The entire world was dyed in darkness.

***

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

“Sh-should I…… stop my heart?”

“Huh? Stop what? Ah, are you feeling sick? Should we end the interview here for now?”

“……Yes. We should stop for now. I’m sorry.”

I pushed aside the pain that vanished like an illusion and helped the interviewer stand before stepping out into the hallway.

While separating emotions and information inside my head and organizing them, I explained the precautions to the interviewer.

“And in Basement 5 there’s a monster that imitates a Buddha. It seems to come when it hears strong heartbeats, though I don’t know the exact criteria…….”

“Mm, then, in other words, that monster checks people’s heart rates.”

“Yes…… I suppose.”

“Then the smartwatch…… ah. Mr. Seon Yuhan doesn’t wear one.”

The interviewer showed the smartwatch on his wrist while frowning.

“I think it would help to control your mind while constantly checking your heart rate with this…….”

“Ah.”

So that was it.

Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon probably wore smartwatches, so they should be fine.

I’m not sure about Yoo Hyunjae, but considering how he has acted so far, he does not seem like someone who irrationally loses his composure.

The problem is Jung Jiho.

Though perhaps it is not something I should worry about, considering I died before that child did.

“In any case, thank you. You helped me a lot. Mr. Interviewer, please go down first. Be careful.”

“You too…… be careful, Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

The interviewer looked at me with a worried expression before heading toward the emergency exit.

3:32 p. m.

Click.

Riiiiiiiiing―!

I activated the fire alarm just before the blackout.

It was time to find the accountant, the magician, and the child.

***

“Khk, blegh…….”

After killing that filthy thing that dared to cover itself in human skin inside the library.

“……the child stays alone…….”

After putting the toys to sleep in the daycare with ball games and choreographed dances.

“Ugh, ugh…….”

We met once again with the director of Yuwi Guild, who was still vomiting in Basement 5.

“Huh? Isn’t that Director Yoo Hyunjae? Are you alright……?”

While feeling slight pity for Director Yoo Hyunjae’s esophagus, which seemed to suffer from reflux every time we met him.

Choi Jaeha stepped forward first to greet him.

“Mm, I’m fine.”

Director Yoo Hyunjae once again pretended that nothing had happened and began introducing himself flawlessly.

“A pleasure to meet you, Hwang Juyeon. Jiho as well. And you are…….”

“Ah, nice to meet you. I’m Seon Yuhan.”

“Ahh……. Seon Yuhan. I see.”

Yoo Hyunjae smiled as though painted.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

This time he did not say anything about my face seeming familiar.

Last time he probably thought I was an employee of his company because I was the first to quickly greet him by calling him “director.”

If I had really been an employee of Yuwi Guild, the moment the director pretended to recognize me, I myself would have immediately stated my affiliation and name.

“You do not belong to our company, correct?”

“No, I do not.”

I decided to omit all that about having gone to the interview for Yuwi Guild’s agent team.

Yoo Hyunjae did not ask further and simply nodded.

“Good, let’s organize a simple formation. We already know each other’s faces and have finished introductions, so let’s reduce the light as well.”

“Uh…… is it bad if the light is too bright? Why?”

At Hwang Juyeon’s question, Yoo Hyunjae fell silent for a moment before explaining how his personal driver died.

He said that, for some reason, the man suddenly began screaming and babbling incoherently, and shortly afterward a monster resembling a Buddhist statue ripped out his heart.

It seems some phenomenon occurs that startles people.

“That’s why I thought perhaps it is attracted to sounds like screams.”

“Ahh.”

“Th-then, does talking like this also……?”

“No. It does not seem capable of hearing normal conversation at this level.”

“Excuse me.”

I, who had remained silent all this time, spoke cautiously and everyone’s gaze turned toward me.

“What if it actually hears heartbeats?”

Yoo Hyunjae then slightly raised an eyebrow, as though inviting me to continue, without showing any displeasure.

“I mean…… that monster steals hearts. So I thought it would make more sense.”

I deliberately spoke as though it were merely a hypothesis.

I did not want to sound certain based on absurd stories about turning back time or dying and coming back to life.

After all, the only information I know as a regressor is that the monster clumsily imitating a Buddha appears when it hears strong heartbeats.

I know nothing beyond that.

Besides…….

I know exactly how far people can empathize with someone else’s suffering.

But I also know how far they can become indifferent.

In that sense.

I do not trust these people at all.

Of course, I do not think they are bad people.

It’s just that in a disaster like this, what comes to light is not personality.

It is instinct.

Even the kindest person wants to survive.

And in order to survive, they can become cruel.

And that has nothing to do with good or evil.

I…… I rather…….

Wanted them to survive more than someone like me.

“Ah, now that you mention it, that makes sense. After all, screaming is also a reaction caused because the heart starts beating violently from fear.”