Chapter 13: An Exciting Tea Time with Manager Batori (1)

The break room was strangely quiet.

The sound of chains that could be heard in the hallway outside, the mechanical noises, and even the tiny vibrations of the air purifier were all blocked by the walls.

The chair I was sitting in was so soft and cushioned that it felt capable of swallowing my entire body, but my back was as stiff as if I were sitting on a thorn bush.

Manager Batori, seated across from me, watched me in silence.

For the moment, the thermal tumbler rested on the desk, and her delicate white fingers were elegantly intertwined.

The way she tilted her head made her look like a kind counselor prepared to sincerely listen to the other person.

But I knew.

That appearance was, from beginning to end, the calmness of a predator.

— Are you afraid? That’s alright. That fear is completely justified. That feeling you experience while standing before me is precisely the proof that you are human.

Quite a long time passed before I could respond to those words.

My throat was dry, and my mouth felt completely parched.

She smiled.

A chill as cold as ice slid down my dry throat.

A wild beast smiling with the composure of one who had decided not to tear apart and devour its prey just yet.

That was Manager Batori at that moment.

‘…She’s still smiling.’

For now, she still did not have the expression of someone intending to kill me.

I calmed my trembling heart and raised my head with the most composed expression I could fake.

“…What do you mean by that, Manager?”

“Fufu.”

Her breath, mixed with the scent of blood and dust, flowed softly as the corners of her lips rose.

That smile was thin and cold, like an antique crystal goblet.

Only one of her eyes and one corner of her lips were smiling, but beneath the back of her neck, tiny eyeballs blinked one after another.

Some of them writhed as if trying to tear through the skin and emerge outside.

“Did you truly intend to mock this body?”

Her voice was clear.

But at the same time, unbelievably low.

A whisper that felt like an auditory hallucination, a chilling warning that made the floor vibrate slightly.

I felt my back freeze.

The tips of my fingers twitched slightly, and my knees trembled beneath the chair.

‘She found out.’

No.

To begin with, I had never been able to hide it.

Those terrifying red eyes said only one thing.

She had known from the very beginning.

Everything I had done until now had merely served to entertain her.

I suppressed the urge to run away.

Manager Batori saw me as a toy that produced interesting reactions.

The more terrified I became and the more I resisted, the sooner her sadistic curiosity would be satisfied.

‘Why… didn’t she say anything until now?’

I didn’t know.

The only thing I knew for certain was that lies were useless in this place.

I carefully lowered my gaze.

If I kept lying here, the next thing that might end up inside that thermal tumbler could be the liquid flowing through my veins.

I took a trembling breath, transforming my growing fear into respect and reverence.

I bit my lips.

The tip of my tongue brushed across the roof of my mouth several times.

At last, I managed to form a sentence in a low voice.

“…Do you…?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you… intend to kill me?”

The instant those words left my lips.

Manager Batori’s eyes wavered ever so slightly.

Only for an instant.

She slowly tilted her head.

She picked up the thermal tumbler again and slightly raised the corners of her lips.

“That will depend on your answer. Speak. It is the only path you have to avoid breaking.”

Inside the thermal tumbler came the soft clinking sound of ice striking blood.

I took a breath.

Manager Batori continued watching me in silence.

Her red eyes.

Her excessively refined posture.

And the scent of blood that still lingered on her fingers.

No matter what I said.

No matter what expression I showed.

She already knew.

That had become completely clear.

‘…’

I took a deep breath.

My Adam’s apple moved with a dry swallow.

Trying to sort through my emotions, I began speaking one word at a time.

“The truth is…”

Manager Batori’s pupils contracted just slightly.

She rested her chin on one hand.

The smile visible between her long white fingers remained gentle, but now I fully understood its meaning.

“I’m afraid. Because I’m human.”

“Fufu, that’s only natural.”

Manager Batori let out a soft laugh.

I continued speaking, pursued by that smile.

“To be honest… everything was too strange. I couldn’t remember anything, there were no instructions, the lights suddenly went out…”

“And then?”

“And then Manager Myeon appeared. Those… seven faces…”

Without realizing it, I clenched my fists.

It felt as though the smell of that day still clung to my palms.

Mold.

Dust.

Iron.

And that damp, eerie air.

“When I saw those faces… strangely… I felt afraid… but when I stood before them… I signed. I just signed the contract.”

Manager Batori’s red eyes narrowed halfway.

She seemed to be reflecting on something.

I cleared my throat and continued speaking.

If I stayed silent for even a moment, I felt as though I would immediately be devoured by that stillness.

“After that… you know what happened. The door disappeared, my home became connected to the company… and the work was grotesque.”

Manager Batori nodded very slowly.

Like a fascinated reader rereading a book from the beginning because she wanted to discover what happened on the next page.

“And then… I joined Extraction Team 1. Manager Myeon, Assistant Manager Son, Manager Batori, Supervisor Shik, Director Mok…”

“Fu fu, I still remember perfectly the expression you made when you saw me for the first time.”

“I was afraid. Really. Terribly afraid…”

While feeling humiliation and terror, I revealed the truth to Manager Batori.

I bit my lips hard.

Blood emerged.

Perhaps this was also a form of begging, like prey.

“I simply… talked and smiled in order to survive.”

Good morning, Supervisor Shik.

Yes, Assistant Manager Son. Thank you for the coffee.

Manager Myeon, thank you for your hard work today.

“Everything I’ve said and everything I’ve done until now has been to survive. The truth is, I keep wondering why…”

I lowered my head.

I could no longer keep looking her in the face.

“If I end up getting used to this company… I don’t even know what will come after that. I don’t understand why I’m here or why they let me live.”

When I finished asking that final question, the sound of liquid striking the inside of the thermal tumbler could be heard.

Ice and blood.

Or something that resembled them.

Manager Batori slowly lifted it and let out a small sigh.

“Your story is truly delicious.”

Her red eyes gleamed.

That gaze pierced my instincts more deeply than all the words she had spoken so far.

“A mass of resigned flesh like this is a far more exquisite delicacy than flesh mixed with hypocrisy. However—”

She set the thermal tumbler down on the table.

The sound of stainless steel touching the surface pierced my ears like a nail being hammered in.

“Mr. Jeong Haeil, you still haven’t answered my question.”

Manager Batori leaned her upper body slightly forward.

That movement resembled the brief instant when a beast catches its breath before biting into its prey’s neck.

A red vein that I did not know the origin of slowly slid beneath the table.

Twisting like a living blood vessel, it began creeping stickily across the floor.

“Let me ask you something.”

Manager Batori slowly tilted her head back.

Her silver hair slid softly along the back of the chair.

“How much do you know about this company? And before that, how much do you know about yourself?”

The question was simple.

But the answer was far too difficult.

‘About this company?’

I repeated it to myself.

And began squeezing my mind.

What could I say?

How far could I go?

What could I mention without making another mistake?

“Well…”

My lips began to dry out.

I opened my mouth with the utmost care.

“The annual salary is 68 million won… When I joined… I mean… they also give a signing bonus of around three million won.”

One of Manager Batori’s eyebrows rose just slightly.

Her reaction did not seem negative, so I gathered a little more courage.

“Besides that, uh… meal subsidies, welfare points, more paid leave than required by law, psychological clinic services, and…”

As I spoke, my voice grew smaller and smaller.

“I thought the benefits… were too good for a normal small or medium-sized company… to the point of being hard to believe. It’s a good company.”

Silence.

For an instant, the break room became completely still.

“Kyahahaha!”

Manager Batori burst out laughing.

That laughter was sharp and beautiful.

And at the same time, grotesque.

Like a pearl embedded in blood-soaked velvet, strangely clear and brilliant.

“A signing bonus? Salary? Benefits? Ahahahaha!”

Unable to contain her laughter, she lightly slapped her knee with one hand.

“Ha, hahaha… calm down, calm down. It has been a very long time since this body laughed like this.”

She wiped the corner of her lips with the back of her hand and looked at me again.

“Mr. Jeong Haeil.”

Her eyes once again filled with a blood-red glow.

The corners of her lips remained torn, motionless upon her face.

But the laughter still echoed somewhere much deeper.

“You know far too little. Both about yourself and about this company.”

When her laughter ceased, my heart began pounding violently.

It felt as though she was about to say something terrible.

“What exactly… do you mean?”

I asked cautiously.

Manager Batori slowly shook her head before replying firmly.

“Not knowing something is not a sin. But—”

Her red eyes pierced through my body.

“No one who has set foot in this company has ever been allowed to survive while remaining ignorant. If you are human, you must strive tirelessly to understand. Only then can you preserve that insignificant fly-like life of yours.”

I swallowed.

The weight of those words fell upon my chest much harder than I had expected.

“Don’t be so nervous. Nothing changes the fact that this is a good place for you and that no one here intends to take possession of you.”

Manager Batori slowly relaxed the corners of her lips.

A beautiful and lethal smile.

Upon her ivory skin, free from a single drop of blood, the reddish curve of her lips stretched like aged wine.

“Besides, how could this body devour someone from its own bloodline?”

She rested her cheek against the back of one hand and spoke in a whisper.

“Your surprised expression was rather adorable, so I simply decided to have a little fun.”

“Thank you… Manager.”

I lowered my head while forcing a smile.

But inside, it was a different story.

What did all of that mean?

That this was a good place for me?

That she did not intend to kill me simply because we belonged to the same team?

‘Was she really just playing with me?’

Part of me wanted to believe that everything had been a macabre joke.

The other part was trying to determine how much of what she had said was actually sincere.

Even while thanking her, I could not look directly into her eyes.

The smile I showed was forced.

The muscles in my face were stiff.

That was when—

“Even so, innocence alone is not enough to let this pass.”

Manager Batori continued speaking with that elegant smile.

Craaack.

With a horrifying sound, her abdomen split open.

More precisely, the white skin covering her shirt and stomach parted into a crack.

Within that opening, reddish membranes and muscles writhed.

And from there, dozens of flesh tentacles emerged.

Horribly refined.

Unnaturally slender.

Twisted and viscous.

They stretched toward me.

Tap.

“Kh…!”

Before I could even scream.

One of the tentacles wrapped itself around my neck.

Then another.

And another.

Those masses of flesh detected the beating of my heart and began tightening around me slowly but inexorably.

“Do not say that you do not desire this place. Because that simply cannot be.”

I tried to raise a hand.

But resisting was useless.

The tentacles were as soft as silk.

And at the same time, as hard as steel.

Manager Batori continued smiling.

With the most beautiful and terrifying face I had ever seen on her.

Even though blood and tentacles were pouring from that grotesquely opened abdomen.

Her eyes did not waver for even an instant.

“Don’t worry. You will not die.”

Her voice remained calm and elegant.

Like the refined projection of an opera singer resonating from the highest box in a theater.

However, what she said next was not nearly as pleasant.

“But a cheeky child who has fallen into impure suspicions and forgetfulness deserves a little punishment, don’t you think?”

Her red eyes sank into an even deeper darkness.

“Blood flows upon the foundations of trust.”

And then.

A thin tentacle penetrated directly into my ear.

My breathing stopped.

A slimy, hot, damp sensation began stirring my head from the inside.