Chapter 15: An Exciting Tea Time with Manager Batori (3)

So.

If there really had been a human employee who managed to survive.

If that was true.

‘Couldn’t I do it too?’

That thought began to sprout within me.

Cautiously and quietly, yet with overwhelming clarity.

As I imagined that possibility, a faint smile appeared on my lips before I realized it.

Even though this place resembled a slaughterhouse more than a break room, for a moment I was able to smile.

‘…Ah.’

But then.

I finally became aware of the existence sitting in front of me.

Manager Batori.

The creature that had penetrated my ear, bitten off one of my memories, and declared it “delicious.”

And who, at the same time, spoke to me about strange things and encouraged me not to become discouraged and to adapt to the company for reasons I could not understand.

I hurriedly erased the smile from my face.

I composed my expression and straightened my shoulders.

Manager Batori did not seem to care in the slightest.

She continued humming while swirling her tumbler.

She appeared to be in an exceptionally good mood.

Gathering my courage, I decided to carefully ask that unknown existence something else.

“Manager Batori.”

Her humming paused slightly.

Between her silver hair, red eyes turned toward me.

“Hmm?”

“May I ask why I’m in Extraction Team 1… and not in the Emotions Department?”

Silence.

At that moment, the corners of her lips slowly began to rise.

Like an old melody emerging from an antique music box.

Gentle, yet tracing a strange and chilling curve.

“So… you’ve finally asked that question.”

Manager Batori smiled with a peculiar expression.

The corners of her lips were quietly curved upward, and a faint reddish liquid slid between them.

She narrowed her eyes as if that were perfectly natural and looked at me.

And then…

“I don’t know.”

“…What?”

“Fufufu.”

Manager Batori let out a soft laugh.

Her answer left me so bewildered that, at the same time, I felt a strange sense of relief.

My posture relaxed slightly.

My back slumped a little, and the air escaped my lungs.

“Don’t be so surprised, Mr. Jeong Haeil. I am not the team leader.”

“Yes, I suppose… you’re right.”

“Hiring for Extraction Team 1 is always left entirely to the team leader’s discretion. It is a decision made directly by Manager Myeon. I neither intervene nor involve myself in it.”

I nodded with a discouraged expression.

Yes, it made sense.

After all, Manager Myeon was the one who interviewed me.

Or, to be precise, he hired me without any documents or selection process whatsoever.

Manager Batori lightly tapped the tumbler with her fingers again as she continued speaking.

There was still a strange excitement at her fingertips.

“However, if you ask for my opinion…”

She paused for a moment.

She gently licked the tip of one finger before setting the tumbler on the table.

The same ecstasy she had shown when she inserted that tentacle into my head appeared once more in her eyes.

“It probably has something to do with… those memories of yours.”

“Those memories? I don’t remember them very well.”

“Fufu. It doesn’t matter even if you’ve truly forgotten them. After all, I already tasted a little… just a little… of their flavor.”

A strange smile spread across her lips, as though she were savoring those memories once again.

I watched her silently.

I knew which memories she was referring to.

Memories of misfortunes that had struck me unexpectedly.

I knew they were painful memories, but unless someone stirred through my mind, those emotions did not surface with such intensity.

Perhaps because I now had hope of surviving, what had happened a moment ago already felt like a distant dream.

‘And how does Manager Myeon know?’

One thought led to another.

And once my curiosity opened up, it seemed endless.

“I see you’re full of thoughts again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter. Humans are creatures that live by asking questions. That is also why they are more delicious.”

She let out a soft laugh.

Each of those notes seemed to brush against the wound that still lingered behind my ear.

I asked myself a question.

Was I really hired because of my past?

What connection could that possibly have with the work I did here?

Manager Batori’s humming stopped for a moment.

Meanwhile, I thought about Manager Myeon.

He was always quiet.

Always kind.

He spoke little, remained calm, and was polite.

He always greeted me courteously and always used exactly the same tone.

“Employee Jeong. You’ve worked hard today as well.”

But suddenly, I thought of something.

‘That person—no, that existence…’

What exactly had he shown?

Assistant Manager Son had crushed a person’s head with his own head.

Supervisor Shik had torn dimensional entities apart with his enormous forelimbs, claws, and fangs.

Deputy Director Mok had crushed dimensional entities by controlling gigantic roots.

And Manager Batori had just devoured a portion of my memories.

But what about Manager Myeon?

I tried to remember what he had shown.

But I couldn’t remember anything.

Nothing at all, other than the fact that he had many faces.

‘But he’s the general manager.’

The leader of Extraction Team 1.

The person with the highest rank even among all those monsters.

Was it simply because he had been there longer?

‘Not because he’s shown something…’

Perhaps he was more terrifying precisely because he had shown nothing.

Like a sword that had not yet been drawn.

Something impossible to predict and not to be touched.

The fact that I didn’t even know which of those faces was the real one silently weighed on me.

The humming began again.

Only then did I breathe once more.

As though I had momentarily managed to step out from beneath someone’s gaze.

Even so, I still felt something brushing the back of my neck.

I looked at Manager Batori.

She was calmly drinking from her tumbler, as though nothing had happened.

I decided to ask one final question.

Hoping that at least that much was a privilege reserved for a rookie employee who was still alive.

I was human, but I did not belong to the Emotions Department.

And if they had wanted to kill me, they would have done so long ago.

The words that had been circling in my mouth finally reached the tip of my tongue.

I felt that if I obtained an answer to this as well, I might regain my motivation just as she had said.

“Manager Batori.”

“Hmm?”

“Assistant Manager Son and the other team members as well…”

I carefully chose my words.

Halfway through the sentence, my voice cracked slightly.

“Do they know I’m human?”

The question was asked cautiously, yet it made the air in the break room vibrate strangely, like a stone thrown into still water.

Manager Batori very slowly released the straw she had been holding between her lips and lowered her gaze slightly.

Her red eyes slowly moved toward me.

At that moment, a phantom sensation tickled inside my ear again, and a cold sweat ran down my back.

The smile remained on her lips.

But that smile was thin and dangerous, like a black blade.

She tilted her head slightly and remained silent.

The atmosphere sank.

A stillness similar to an antique clock stopping filled the room.

Without realizing it, the muscles in my face tensed and my shoulders stiffened.

A moment of silence.

Finally, her lips parted.

“Mr. Jeong Haeil.”

Her voice was as soft and elegant as ever.

But the emotion it contained was clearly different.

As though she had spoken forbidden words.

She slowly set the tumbler down on the table.

“You are truly brave.”

It sounded like a compliment.

But it wasn’t one at all.

I remained silent.

The question I had let slip seemed to be crawling back up my throat as if it wanted to return to my stomach.

And then she smiled in an unsettling manner.

“Whether Assistant Manager Son and the other members of our lineage know?”

“……”

“Fufu. Although I told you that hiding everything is not always the best option, I didn’t expect you to show your curiosity so quickly. You learn fast.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

A silence like the calm before a storm filled the room.

And it was Manager Batori who broke it with a sudden chuckle.

She folded both hands neatly on the table and regained a calm smile.

“It was a joke. Your expression was far too serious. Your judgment is correct. You may show me your true thoughts. After all, you are a valuable member of our lineage. At the very least, I can answer something like that.”

“……”

There was nothing I could do except endure it.

It was not a good idea to harbor negative thoughts toward a superior capable of seeing and devouring memories.

I sighed in relief, though I kept my expression as neutral as possible.

Inside, it felt as though even my organs were being crushed.

Manager Batori spun the straw between her fingers as she continued.

“Whether they know? Of course. Among members of the same lineage, how could there be anything we wouldn’t know?”

She said it simply.

But the meaning hidden behind those words was far from light.

The same lineage.

The same Extraction Team 1.

The strangest, most dangerous, and most peculiar division in the entire company.

‘That means Assistant Manager Son too…’

I closed my eyes for a moment.

I remembered when he offered me coffee.

The times he greeted me with a smile.

And then.

That casual expression as he smiled in front of the remains of a man whose head had exploded.

Had he known I was human all along?

Manager Batori continued speaking calmly while tilting her tumbler.

“Assistant Manager Son is, so to speak, one of the most sensitive among us. So something as simple as your human scent. He most likely became accustomed to it long ago.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled.

“But don’t worry. Among those who are firmly bound by blood, something as insignificant as that scent would never be a problem.”

I nodded ever so slightly.

I added nothing more.

But one phrase kept repeating in my mind.

‘He got used to it long ago.’

Then why had everyone been kind to me?

Simply because we belonged to the same lineage, the same team, just as Manager Batori said?

The moment that thought began to expand, cold sweat once again formed at my fingertips.

“Well, I think it’s time for us to get up.”

Manager Batori spoke softly, as though a long tea time had come to an end.

She was still seated, yet with a single sentence she managed to change the atmosphere of the room.

She slowly rose to her feet.

The sound of the chair scraping against the floor echoed with strange clarity.

“We can’t keep leaving all the work to the other members of our lineage for too long. Everyone is waiting for us. Or rather, they’re waiting for you.”

Her silver hair fell over her shoulders.

She picked up the tumbler again and began walking as naturally as if nothing had happened.

I watched her silently before standing up myself.

At that moment, my legs gave way and I nearly fell.

I steadied myself against the chair to regain my balance.

My body was trembling.

My ear was still numb.

And the sensation of a thick liquid moving around inside my head still hadn’t disappeared.

I took a deep breath.

I had to return to the office.

As though nothing had happened.

Manager Batori was already standing by the break room door.

One hand on the doorknob, she opened the door halfway and slightly turned her head toward me.

“Hurry up and follow me.”

Her tone was soft, low, and strange.

As though she were drawing me in with her gaze, I nodded.

“Yes.”

As I walked forward, the air of the break room was left behind.

The liquid I had spilled still remained on the floor.

Blood.

Or something like it.

The door opened completely.

And the silent fluorescent lights of the office hallway appeared before us.

I followed Manager Batori.

Her footsteps were light.

As always, calm and elegant.

But inside me, something was still stirring.

‘Assistant Manager Son knew too.’

My mind was in chaos.

Those memories.

Manager Myeon.

The Emotions Department.

Humans.

The lineage.

Extraction Team 1.

Everything mixed together, joined, and separated.

And at the center of it all, a single question still remained.

‘Why am I here?’

At the end of the hallway, beneath the dim fluorescent light, Manager Batori turned slightly and smiled.

Her smile was beautiful.

And precisely because of that, it seemed so distant.

I continued walking in silence.

The echo of my shoes rang throughout the corridor.