So it was natural, if natural, that the people here panicked at the news that Goeidam had occurred and cried out to be let out of here.
“No.”
“Because of regulations? Look at people and apply your regulations!”
Yet when the Detective’s attitude showed no change, the hot-tempered person outright started getting angry.
“What do you think we are? Why do you think we came here, and who do you think invited us?”
If the other party had been someone other than the Detective, it would have been more than enough attitude to slap them across the face long ago.
“Go ask the Godfather right now, whether he would allow us—not just anyone, but us—to be trapped here! Ha! This is absurd. Just because everyone holds them up, they think they’re actually noble or something. In the end, they’re nothing but lowly servants doing the cleaning work others hate……!”
“Teacher, Teacher-nim!”
“Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Why are you stopping me?”
“Captain So! It’s Captain So! The Godfather’s closest confidant, Captain So! Why needlessly provoke such a person? Please speak more politely.”
“Provoke? Director, you’re the one who should choose your words! What is my relationship with the Godfather that I should even mind the mood of that adult’s dog?”
“D-dog, you say!”
“Did I say anything wrong! Look at the situation! That bastard who can’t even recognize who’s in front of him has driven us all into this dangerous place and won’t even let us leave—should I not get angry?”
“Please, Teacher-nim!”
The person who had thrown away even their usual shallow pretense in terror, and others who were minding the ‘Goyo’ Captain’s mood. Though the distinguished guests divided into two groups were making a fuss, the Detective remained calm.
Then suddenly, taking advantage of a very brief moment when people quieted down, he spoke.
“The request is denied. There is no need to inform others about this matter.”
His tone was flat. Even though he’d been called a dog mistaking the master’s authority for his own right to his face, he seemed not to care at all.
Bang!
The Teacher who had been angrily raging like crazy from the start slammed the game table.
“How dare you, knowing what kind of people we are!”
“I have full authority. Other people’s opinions are not needed right now.”
“Didn’t I tell you! To your master……!”
The Teacher flinched. It was because he made eye contact with the Detective.
“This……”
The Teacher himself seemed ashamed of it as he gritted his teeth and trembled, but no one could mock him. Most people in the hall had unconsciously averted their gaze as soon as they made eye contact with him. The Detective’s eyes, which he always kept downcast as if tired, when seen head-on were a brown with a strong reddish tint like well-brewed black tea, and whether because of that color or because the focus was blurred, he felt like something ‘other’ than human……
“From now on, please refrain from personal remarks. My explanation is delayed… it will only add to everyone’s fatigue.”
The Detective took another long sigh—the kind that made you suspect it followed eight or nine times out of ten—and then.
“The reason you cannot leave Manghyang is… simple. You are not civilians who need to be protected in the ‘Soyo region’ where Goeidam occurred, but suspects.”
He dropped a bomb.
“I have determined that among you is a culprit who deliberately corrupted godam into Goeidam.”
“What……!”
“So restrain yourselves until the investigation is complete. Move freely within Manghyang, but stay in one space with other people—as many as possible.”
The Detective, taller by a head than most adult men, looked down at people with his nose and jerked his chin.
“……That is all.”
This was what had happened just a little while ago.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Thanks to that, the reception room on the hotel’s top floor where all the distinguished guests had gathered was still sunken in heavy and uncomfortable silence.
“A-anyway, since Goeidam occurred, it’s dangerous. From now on, we should move together as much as possible.”
After the Detective casually threw two major bombs at people and then left saying he was tired, the Director expressed his opinion.
“When there’s a culprit among us, what can we trust?”
“Because there’s a culprit, we need to move together even more. That way the culprit can’t move rashly, right? In other words, if we’re together, that itself can simultaneously accomplish two things—protecting each other and monitoring the culprit.”
Naturally there were objections, but the Director settled the situation with his next words.
That was why all the distinguished guests were currently gathered here.
“Ahem.”
Perhaps frustrated that people were only glancing at each other with anxious eyes despite gathering, the Director stepped forward again this time.
“Come, come, everyone have a drink.”
The transparent liquid half-filled in the glasses sloshed.
“How do I know what you put in this?”
“Yes, yes. Then I’ll exchange mine with yours, Teacher-nim.”
Only after settling the situation like that did the Director sit down in front of people.
“Well, being watched like that makes me nervous. Then, though it’s belated, shall we organize the situation? Well, first, Goeidam occurred in this area, and already there’s been a first victim. We all confirmed the victim together.”
The Director drew a cross with his plump fingers.
“May the victim rest in peace. ……Anyway, as you all saw, judging from the victim’s skin condition and clothing, he seemed like a young man. Assuming a young adult male, height about average for someone in their 20s-30s, white skin, hair cut short like a conscript. And lastly, presumed to be an employee of Manghyang.”
The reason it was ‘presumed’ was simple. He had no face. And that was also the reason for being certain that the corpse of someone who couldn’t even be identified was a victim of Goeidam.
“Hopefully the first victim will be the last. For that, thorough preparation is necessary.”
The Director deliberately paused and looked around once before bringing up his next words. Everyone seemed to understand the story hidden in that brief silence. It meant that someone currently managing the closed Manghyang couldn’t be trusted.
“In that sense, now… shall we have an introduction time?”
“Really belated. Shouldn’t that have been done on the first day we entered Manghyang?”
So someone responded as if they’d been waiting to the continued words, which also meant everyone agreed with the Director’s ‘story hidden in the silence.’
“Haha. That’s true, but it’s also true that we were all so busy enjoying our own time that we didn’t ask or answer about each other, isn’t it?”
“That’s obvious. We came here to rest, not to do tiring social activities.”
“That’s right. Before.”
The Teacher who had been exchanging questions and answers with the Director paused and frowned. It was because he realized that ‘before’ it was that way, but ‘now’ it wasn’t.
An elderly lady raised her hand and asked.
“Don’t we already know about each other even without this procedure? There are a few young ones whose faces I’m seeing for the first time, but we all know at least whose children they are.”
“That’s correct.”
“But doing this troublesome thing means you’re suspecting this. That someone may have gotten among us.”
“Correct. In technical terms, hmm. Shall we say ‘possessed by a ghost’?”
“Come to think of it, in that famous Goeidam ‘The Most Affectionate Older Sister,’ the older sister who corrupted the godam was a case of being possessed by something.”
The elderly lady stroked the rim of her glass a few times with her finger, then nodded.
“Let’s do it.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency.”
“No thanks. Although I didn’t interact with them, I don’t want to believe that you all, who in a sense are more closely tied than family, would scheme something at this point.”
There were a total of eight people gathered here. When the elderly lady, the eldest, agreed with the Director’s opinion, one by one they raised their hands and revealed themselves.
“I am the ‘General.’ Some people call me Captain, but since it would be confused with Captain So outside, you can call me General.”
The first person to speak was the elderly lady with white frost settled on her head.
“I am the ‘Teacher.'”
The elderly gentleman sitting across from the elderly lady followed next. Though his expression couldn’t hide his irritation, he had nothing much to say this time for some reason.
“I am the ‘Director.’ Somehow it overlapped with my work outside, haha.”
Next was the Director.
“I am the ‘Actor’……”
After the young man who had been silent the whole time, minding the elders, raised his hand halfway and introduced himself, a young woman who seemed similar in age to the young man opened her mouth.
“I’m the ‘Magician,’ but I came in place of my deceased grandmother. I heard my grandfather also knew the Godfather from long ago.”
The middle-aged lady sitting almost lying down next to the young woman groaned and just wiggled her fingers.
“I’m the ‘Assistant.’ The magician’s assistant, that means. Ah, but really. What on earth is all this.”
The young woman made an excuse.
“My youngest grandmother hasn’t gotten over the shock yet.”
That middle-aged lady was the very person who had come running saying she’d seen a corpse.
