CHAPTER 303: ROOM 204, MISSION ROOM - 'HOTEL CINEMA' (25)

0% – Park Saerom

– Ding dong dang dong!

“Saerom, where did Yuri go?”

“...I wonder.”

“Didn’t she go out with you earlier?”

Stop asking. I don’t know where Unni went either.

“...”

7th period had already ended. Now that the school’s regular class time was over, it was self-study time.

Yuri-unni, who suddenly went to the playground during lunch saying there was a problem with the secret technique, hadn’t come back even after a long time.

Of course, neither I nor Unni were human, so I didn’t intend to make an issue of not diligently attending school. But the human-made school had a more thorough system than one might think!

If a student arbitrarily left early or was absent without permission, there was a high chance that school teachers would examine related documents like Unni’s school records for various reasons. If this process was repeated, the probability of our disguised identities being discovered through various means increased.

So gumihos had to live even more flawlessly than humans. So that those around us didn’t suspect us. Wasn’t it Yuri-unni who told me all this until it was hammered into my ears?

Why on earth is Unni suddenly acting like this?

First, let me go and make up an excuse.

“You say Yuri said she had a headache?”

“Yes. Earlier she said her head hurt terribly, and then she staggered out of the school.”

“Hmm... The teacher didn’t hear anything about it.”

“Maybe Yuri-unni was in too much pain to have time to see the teacher?”

“That might be the case. Saerom, thank you for letting me know.”

I told the teacher appropriately.

As expected, Unni would be in big trouble without me!

***– Ding dong dang dong!

The bell signaling the start of dinner time rang.

Whether she completely went home or not, Yuri-unni hadn’t returned to school by this time. Thanks to that, I had to deal with a very annoying matter.

“S-Saerom! Y, Y, Y-Yu.”

“Yuri. Han Yuri. At least say the name properly.”

“Yuri said to c-come to the r-rooftop at 8 PM... W-where is Yuri?”

I don’t know either, you idiots! Unni, why did you say to meet at 8 if you were going home? These stupid kids keep asking where Yuri is every break time!

“...”

It was strange though.

It seemed Yuri-unni told quite a few boys to meet at school at 8 PM before she disappeared. As that rumor spread, quite a lot of kids stayed at school until this hour, giggling. Already, some kids were speculating that Yuri might be gathering the boys to reject them all at once.

Originally, this high school didn’t force night self-study, so at this late hour, there weren’t many students left and most teachers had gone home. But thanks to the “big event” Yuri-unni created, about three times more students than usual stayed at school until this hour to watch.

What on earth is she thinking?

Could she be planning to return to school in the evening? Why? Really to gather the boys and reject them all at once? What’s the point of doing such a noisy thing?

The more human livers we ate, the closer we became mentally to humans. After eating hundreds of people over a long time to gather nine tails, and even after becoming a gumiho, Yuri-unni, who had eaten 72 people, was just one step away from being human.

Is that why she’s different from usual?

“Kyaaah!”

Hearing screams from below, students who were dozing off in the classroom got up in surprise.

“What? What’s that sound—“

“Fire!!!”

Something, something is happening!

***The moment I frantically opened the door and went out of the classroom, I was so surprised that my mouth fell open. Fires were already burning here and there in the school, and the flames were getting fiercer.

I grabbed a crazy bastard who was pouring oil from a container and setting fires right in front of my eyes.

“You! What on earth—“

“Fire. Fire. Fire. Must... set fire.”

I could tell just by looking at his eyes.

This human is not in his right mind.

He was just setting fires like a puppet, having lost his reason after being swept up in a powerful charm.

As I ran frantically through the corridor, the situation was literally no joke. Several adult men from who knows where were setting fire to the school with dazed expressions. Some students and teachers tried to stop them, but flames had already risen everywhere, so it was too late, far too late.

“Uwaaah!”

“Fire!!”

“R-eun to the main gate!”

“W-who on earth did this!?”

...Actually, I think I know who.

The person who spread the rumor about rejecting all the boys at once in the evening.

The person who made the school crowded with students until this hour.

The person who charmed multiple people to set fire to the school.

I knew the being capable of all this. I just couldn’t understand “why” she did this crazy thing!

“...Unni.”

My one and only family, the great gumiho who was just one step away from becoming human. Han Yuri appeared with the flames.

Her hands and mouth were already stained with blood, and behind her, several withered corpses were burning on the floor. She had already eaten several people.

Yuri-unni had a strange swirl around her face to prevent others from seeing her, but I wasn’t someone who couldn’t see through just that much.

“What... What...”

As I was at a loss for words in confusion, Yuri-unni smiled slightly.

“Saerom, what are you doing?”

“T-that’s what I should—“

“You eat too.”

“What? Are you crazy? If we eat school students, public attention—“

“You’re worried about that at a time like this?”

...That’s true.

At this point where Yuri-unni had already burned down the school and eaten several people, the timing to worry about being discovered or not had long passed. Perhaps because I looked half-convinced, Yuri-unni handed me a piece of flesh nonchalantly.

“Eat one. This one’s a bit tough.”

“You say it’s tough but tell me to eat it? What a good Unni you are~.”

The heart with bone fragments attached was quite tough, but it had its own taste. The fragrant blood scent that leaked out with a pop every time I chewed was certainly attractive.

The fire-cooked meat we often ate while mixing in human society was delicious too, but fresh human meat like this had its own taste.

It’s a pity there’s no one to share these impressions with. But at least Unni is here—

“No! This isn’t the time for this!”

“What’s not the time?”

Yuri-unni was eating the soft liver with a frown even while saying that. Unusually it felt like she was forcing herself to swallow rather than eating delicious food.

As expected, is Unni getting closer and closer to being human?

“Unni! You’re openly burning down the school and eating people? Do you think we didn’t do this because we couldn’t? Don’t you know if we cause such a ruckus, it’ll be plastered all over Korean news? The Vatican will definitely send an exorcism squad!”

“Can’t you see my face isn’t visible?”

I sighed seeing Yuri-unni with her face covered in dark blue energy.

“That only works on ordinary people! Do you think it’ll work on the Vatican? It doesn’t even work on me?”

“Well, I’ve done various other works besides this. So the time until the exorcism squad arrives is longer than you think. By then, I’ll be human.”

“Do you think it ends when you become human? With so many people dead, there’s no culprit? Even the Vatican can’t just cover this up and move on!”

“If the culprit isn’t caught, that would be the case. They’d try to find out by any means necessary, gritting their teeth.”

“What?”

“What was the original plan? You were planning to slowly kill people over several months—no, years to fill the number, right? At most one person a week, usually even slower than that, killing slowly.”

Of course. In a country with good public safety, how could one suddenly kill several people and not get caught? If possible, we would have killed people that no one would care about after they went missing, at a rate of one every two to three months.

“At that rate, how long would it take to fill all 28?”

“U-Unni... Why are you suddenly like this? It would have ended in just 3-4 years at most! Is that so long—“

“It’s long. It’s too long for me now. Saerom, I’ve already started this. Decide. Either help me finish quickly and run away together, or run away alone.”

I felt my breath being held.

Yuri-unni’s ominously shining eyes seemed crazier than ever before.

Is she tired? After enduring for hundreds of years, did she suddenly go crazy when she was just one step away from becoming human?

I don’t know. I don’t know why Unni is suddenly acting like this.

But at least one thing is certain. Unni—no, Yuri, is my only family in the whole world.

We’ve been through thousands of nights and days together. Unni, who realized the way of demons much earlier than me, protected me countless times when I was much weaker than now. So there’s no way I can run away alone.

“Run away alone? Don’t say such foolish things and let’s just finish this quickly!”

***When two gumihos joined forces, things started to end in less than 20 minutes. Of course, I was still a seven-tailed fox, but I’d become a gumiho someday!

Judging by the number of corpses around, I thought I’d become an eight-tailed fox today. This only meant something if we could survive after doing this, though.

We killed over 20 students, people who came from outside, and even a few teachers, and gathered lots of livers. Usually, we would cherish every bit of human meat, but today there was so much that we left most to burn in the fire except for the livers necessary to raise our rank.

And... The last liver was in Yuri-unni’s hand.

“...So this is the last one. If I eat this, will I become human?”

At that moment, a nine-tailed demon fox, who had eaten 900 humans and gained 9 tails before eating another 99 people, was just one liver away from achieving its purpose of existence—complete humanization.

Tears began to flow endlessly from my eyes.

At this moment, I didn’t even feel the danger of the Vatican’s exorcism squad that must be rushing here from outside. I only felt the emotion of my family, my unni, my only love, who had suffered through countless nights and days...

Finally arriving at the completion of a great karma.

“Unni... Congratulations.”

“...”

“Really... Such a moment really does come. Really...”

“...”

“But eat it quickly. I think the exorcism squad will burst in soon. Or do you want to eat the last liver later? I heard that when you become human, you lose most of your power. Wouldn’t it be better to maintain gumiho power while escaping and then eat the last liver—“

“Saerom.”

“Unni?”

“You are my escape plan.”

The moment the hand of the world’s strongest gumiho danced in the air, pitch-black chains extending from Yuri-unni’s body bound mine.

“For me, take on my sins and die.”

I felt an incomprehensible magical power from Yuri. An absolute power that a weak demon fox with only seven tails can neither understand nor resist twisted and distorted my body and mind.

I, until the very last moment, didn’t understand what on earth had happened.

... Maybe I didn’t want to understand.

***– Han Yuri(?)

Suddenly, I came to my senses.

It felt like there was a lot of information in my head... But before I could recall what it was, I forgot it at an incredible speed. As if an eraser in my head had erased everything.

“Kyaaah!”

When I suddenly came to my senses and looked straight ahead, it was no time to be lost in thought. There was a huge monster I had never seen before right in front of me!

“Eek! W-what on earth is this!?”

A dog? No, a wolf? A very big fox? It has so many tails? Seven? Bound in chains?

As the monster roared and twisted its whole body, the black iron chains began to fall off. Seeing that sight, I started running like crazy to survive!

Uwah! What on earth is going on? What happened to the school!

Can I escape? From such an impossible monster? It’s obviously much bigger than me!

“‘Unnoticeable Girl’ activate!”

What? Did some strange words just come out of my mouth? Am I imagining things?

There was no time to ponder and measure. I ran frantically, again and again. I ran and ran through spaces filled with acrid smoke.

I tripped several times over the corpses scattered everywhere, and my body was soaked in blood. The scorching heat burned my hair and uniform here and there, and I was completely focused on rolling around in a beggar-like state!

“Kyaaah!”

Maybe because I ran with all my might even in this situation? While the roaring and rampaging monster was devastating the building, strangely, it couldn’t find me.

Just as I was about to collapse from exhaustion, people in black clothes burst in as the school’s outer wall exploded. The moment I saw them, I lost consciousness as the tension drained away, thinking I was saved now.

“...”

“We’ve rescued a survivor! The survivor is... human, human!”