Lee Jaheon opened his eyes.
A neat bedspread, a two-person dormitory bedroom with an antique and pristine atmosphere, revealing gray bricks, came into view.
Outside the window, gray clouds hung dimly, maintaining a hazy and subdued tone.
Not once had sunlight been seen during the fifteen days he had woken up here.
This must be the characteristic of this place.
♩- ♩-
A low, resonant bell chimed. Lee Jaheon got out of bed and changed his clothes.
At St. Anticus Boarding School, it's was the rule that students always wear the uniform outside of the bedroom.
He tidied the pajamas on the bed.
All trainees are given pajamas tailored from gray linen fabric of the same standard, with sizes divided into five categories. Lee Jaheon completely folded the largest size pajamas he received.
And the pajamas that needed tidying were not just those.
Next to the trainee's pajamas, the Bride's white dress must always be neatly arranged.
This is practice as a Groom, a type of curriculum taught at this school called 'Grooming for a Successful Wedding'.
Lee Jaheon finished tidying everything in an instant and left the bedroom at the appointed time.
♩- ♩-
And then comes breakfast.
One must not be late for meals and must eat with correct posture, holding cutlery according to the prescribed order.
The menu varies each time, but today it is almonds, roasted heart, and cornus juice.
During meals, trainees are instructed to always keep the Bride's glass filled.
The seat opposite the Groom is empty, yet the goblet set for the bride would occasionally have it's contents vanish for no reason.
A failure occurred. Penalty Points are accumulated.
♩- ♩-
Mornings are spent learning Groom's Etiquette.
Trainees learn and recite poems and idioms related to weddings, learn to play string instruments preferred by the Bride, and practice the etiquette of welcoming guests.
Lee Jaheon, by 'our' decision, completed everything without being reprimanded.
A failure occurred. Penalty Points are accumulated.
♩- ♩-
Lunch consists of light sandwiches or finger foods, and through the served fingers, one becomes accustomed to the Bride's appearance.[1]
This is to ensure they could skillfully slip on the ring during the ceremony.
After finishing lunch, trainees go to the kitchen together to prepare the evening's course meal.
Selecting fresh ingredients, learning how to cook them according to the Bride's tastes...
"Hic, Ugh!"
"..."
"..."
"Wait, no, I...!!"
A failure occurred. Penalty Points are accumulated.
♩- ♩-
The evening course meal was long and elegantly, with Groom Candidates maintaining their dignity and eating cleanly in silence.
Considering the Bride's eating habits, trainees distinguish and leave behind food on their plates that should not be eaten.
After all courses, including dessert, are served, trainees tidy their places, offer thanks to the head instructor for the day's instruction, and may then rise from their seats.
♩- ♩-
Then begins the short break time.
Lee Jaheon walked down the corridor at the prescribed pace.
At this boarding school, for the sake of purity, trainees are advised not to step into unclean areas not designated for them, and methods of rest are also suggested.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to spend the break time contemplating 'What Vows to Make at the Wedding with the Bride'.
Sometimes, trainees are asked about it during breakfast the next morning, so answers should be prepared...
Someone grabbed his arm in the corridor.
"Hey, hey...!"
Lee Jaheon stopped walking.
A desperate whisper followed.
"Are, are you human? You are, aren't you...!"
"Yes."
A pale face, a terrified expression.
A civilian.
"What... what is this place? What is it!"
"This is a boarding school where we conduct training to become good Grooms, as judged by St. Anticus."
"Then, damn it, where the hell is that in 21st-century Korea!"
Lee Jaheon replied.
"It doesn't exist."
"Wh, what?"
Lee Jaheon took a step...
"Wait, hold on! So... this isn't Korea? Is it some cult? Was I kidnapped? What the hell, it's not like a horror game... or a ghost story."
"That is correct."
"...Huh?"
"You are currently trapped within what can be called a ghost story, a Supernatural Phenomenon."
Lee Jaheon finished his response.
And he took another step to carry out his planned task...
"Hey."
....
"But why the hell are you so calm? You know how to get out, that's why you're calm,right? That's it, isn't it?"
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'. Damn it."
The whisper, lost and desperate, tangled with a feverish rage, his eyes rolling back.
Anyone else listening would surely feel a chill.
Lee Jaheon did not perceive the complex and subtle atmosphere, but he clearly understood the next words.
"Since we're going to die anyway, do you want to die together?"
"N–"
"The hell you wouldn't. If I fight you here, we both get Penalty Points, you son of a bitch. Do you want both of us to get Penalty Points, or do you want to share the way out?"
It was a threat.
–Do not make loud noises during break time.
He must have been aware of that rule.
No, that's why he had survived until now...
The only problem was that fear had dulled his observation.
"Hey, answer–"
"Do not walk by putting force into your feet."
"...Huh?"
It was already too late.
A huge shadow fell over the man who had grabbed Lee Jaheon.
The disciplinary supervisor.
"...W-wait a minute. We weren't fighting, really. We were just having a chat. It's break time, you know?Haha, ha..."
The supervisor nodded.
However, he notified them that Penalty Points would be accumulated for acting against the school's educational objectives.
Of course,this was not expulsion, merely an act of encouragement and assistance.
"...Please?"
Because he had stomped his feet and walked noisily in the corridor.
How embarrassing it would be for a Groom to behave so ungracefully at a wedding. Therefore, it must be prevented now.
That is why you are receiving training at St. Anticus Boarding School.
"Uh, excuse me."
The man was caught.
"Hic!"
The education housemaster moved to assist the one incurring Penalty Points.
According to the Penalty Point offense.
"~!!!"
The surface of the man's sole was cut open.
The housemaster kindly placed soft rubber and clay into his hands. It was sound-dampening material to be molded to the shape of the foot and inserted.
The Penalty would only end once it was completed and inserted into the sole of the foot.
A gag made of cotton and flesh was inserted into his mouth to prevent him from screaming.
The blood of the writhing man in pain and terror stained the corridor.
This too was a Penalty Point offense.
–Do not cause a disturbance during training.
Amidst the Prefect's contemplation, additional measures were implemented.
The trainee in question must walk without making noise once the foot procedure is completed.
Repeatedly, until he can walk properly without any noise.
"...!!, !!!"
In front of all this, Lee Jaheon momentarily tried to judge by 'our' standards.
The justification for helping.
The practiality of helping.
....
Conclusions were reached for each.
Ambiguous.
Negative.
Of the three trainees who had requested his help and whom he had assisted over the past fifteen days, two died from accumulated Penalty Points, and one died from complications during training.
Compared to the two who had to inflict Penalty Points on themselves while crying, the housemaster's form of assistance might be considered more favorable in terms of psychological suffering.
Rather than struggling in fear and resignation to somehow carry out an act that was no different from self-torture.
"~~!!, !, ..."
The commotion in the corridor subsided.
To avoid accumulating Penalty Points, Lee Jaheon walked silently down the corridor and returned to his bedroom.
And there, he saw it.
On the opposite bed lay a deceased trainee whose intestines had burst because the evening ingredients did not suit him.
It seemed he had tried to extract the food from his small intestine himself.
"..."
♩- ♫- ♩-
The bell sound changed.
This was now a time when movement was prohibited, and for the sake of the Bride's privacy, Grooms must rest in their bedrooms.
Lee Jaheon reached for his white uniform to change...
-Section Chief.
"..."
Lee Jaheon blinked.
A voice echoed in his head.
Not 'ours'.
Someone else's.
But...
Recognizable, someone he knew.
-Are you alright?
"Yes."
Kim Soleum.
The voice of an acquaintance, who was once his teammate, whom he hadn't seen in months, was resonating in his head.
However, just because it is perceived as a voice does not mean it is truly sound. Lee Jaheon knew this.
This was Kim Soleum's consciousness.
Similar to how we are connected, Kim Soleum existed within Lee Jaheon's individual mind.
How was that possible?
-Manager, please listen carefully.
-I am not a hallucination or a fake; I have truly entered your mind.
He knew that too.
Because Lee Jaheon is part of 'us', he knew what conversation one of us had with Kim Soleum.
And he also knew how Kim Soleum had now entered Lee Jaheon's mind and was mentally connected.
-I am currently... using the 'We Help!' button in reverse to enter your body.
That's right.
'If the ghost story is blocked, use the person who is already inside!'
...With that idea, Kim Soleum had sought out the alien reptile from the Cosmic shopping mall and conveyed his intention to enter Lee Jaheon's body, who was trapped in the ghost story, and escape.
Through the reasoning that if there are items like 'We Help!', a similar mechanism should work.
And it truly worked.
-If you give me control of your body, I will clear that Darkness and escape on my own.
Lee Jaheon felt Kim Soleum's quiet pride within his own mind.
A similar chemical reaction of emotion occurred within him.
Relief. Familiarity.
-Then... please hand over control.
However.
"I refuse."
-...!
***
'No but why!'
I felt like I wanted to scream but had to hold it in, as I was tearing at the Lizard's head... no, I was seeing through the Lizard's eyes.
Because I had experienced everything that happened just before entering this mind, I wanted to escape quickly, regardless of any argument!
'This is a completely insane gore-type ghost story!'
A crazy boarding school ghost story.
...This Darkness, which Section Chief Lee Jaheon is currently trapped in, and which Baek Saheon calls 'an insane boarding school horror' , was a ghost story I had encountered on Wiki.
---------------------=
Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[Now kiss the Bride]: The ghost story appearing in
A description of the strange events occurring at an educational institution named St. Anticus Boarding School.
This educational institution, which has the identity of 'a school for Grooms preparing for a wedding', is always recruiting training applicants and operates a Trial Training Period for this purpose.
Most of the Exploration Records are about experiences during this Trial Training Period.
Experiences here must be written in essay form and read like a kind of autobiographical review.
The training begins with various etiquettes that might be necessary for a high-society wedding, gradually becoming more specific with ritualistic and bizarre details. The thrill of guessing the true nature of the wedding during this process is its charm.
It is a gruesome ghost story that suffocates the reader with the horrific details of accumulated Penalty Points written in a calm essay style.
---------------------=
Back then…it was fine because it was written down.
It was just text on a screen.
'But seeing it firsthand, this is just straight up nightmarish.'
Even with the body of 130666, which is dull to all stimuli and emotions, a shaky breath escaped at the horror of it.
No, to be precise, that body is in a dormant state, with only the consciousness connected to Section Chief Lee Jaheon's body, so I might be feeling it even more vividly.
'Anyway, after devising this method, I desperately gathered information...'
I had thoroughly interrogated Kwak Jegang, and even interviewed people from the list of those who had escaped using C-grade Dream Essence.
Namely, the security chief and supervisor Park Minseong.
Apparently back when both of them were part of the Field Exploration Team, they'd been suitable candidates because they were unmarried men.
–You want me to tell you... that...?[2]
...It was quite embarrassing for the words to come out like that, without even properly catching up after a team member who had gone missing suddenly reappeared.
Of course, we had talked about various things before... and I had also heard news related to Director Cheong from Kwak Jegang, but I'll sort that out later.
For now, what's urgent is this.
Lee Jaheon's escape.
-Please trust me, Section Chief.
-Just hand over control, and I will quickly take measures to ensure you successfully complete the training.
Based on
I know the passing criteria, and I have also devised a way to pass slightly anomalously.
'All you have to do is follow it...!'
Even if Manager Lee Jaheon fails the trial training and is repeating the lessons, he can be saved!
This means I have found a way to break through, even if a new training period is not opened and Manager Lee Jaheon is undergoing a kind of failing lesson.
-I will ensure that you pass, Manager.
"I see."
Yes!
"It's not necessary."
....
-Excuse me?
"Yes."
No, this alien reptile is absolutely not trying to pick a fight on purpose .
It is genuinely meant he didn't need my help.
...Wait.
Does that mean...
-Why... is it not necessary?
"Because I have passed."
....
"I was selected separately during the Trial Training Period. I have become a formal trainee as one of the Groom Candidates to marry the White Bride here. The wedding is imminent."
Hold on.
"I considered methods like Holy Fire Barrage to avoid this, but I have postponed it due to the consideration of extreme civilian casualties."
....
"Mr. Roe Deer?"
-So, you're saying you're actually getting married soon, sir?
"If things continue as they are, yes."
Oh, I'm going crazy.
-...Are there any other, unusual circumstances?
"There are."
-Please explain.
"Yes. Groom Candidates undergo blood collection every night before sleeping to acquire an appearance suitable for the wedding. It is a process to create a pale complexion similar to the Bride's attire."
And Section Chief Lee Jaheon took something out from the bedside table.
...A modern-looking blood-drawing instrument.
But the size...
Wait, it's that big?
"If this condition persists for more than four days, Lee Jaheon will be at high risk of death due to anemia and complications."
....
...Section Chief!!
[1] I have no idea what this is supposed to be. I guess There are floating hands??? I really don’t know…
[2] past speech. wanted to clarify since Soleum is also using ‘-‘