#2 The Sector of ‘Sin’

I don’t know who named them, but each sector in this city of fog is named after one of the ‘Seven Seals’.

Blood, Karma, Desire, Shadow, Sin, Ruin, Wheel.

It might be somewhat unfamiliar to ordinary people, but it’s a basic concept that exorcists must know.

Additionally, the sector on the ridge where the mansion was located corresponds to ‘Karma’, and the place we’re going now is said to be the ‘Sin’ sector among the Seven Seals.

“…….”

“My Yul-ryeong, what’s wrong? Is there something you’re curious about?”

“…No… more than that, why are you calling me that?”

“But Yul-ryeong is hard to say. This way is much more friendly.”

I wanted to say there was no need to add ‘my’, but I decided to give up, thinking it was fine.

Perhaps it’s natural for women to be like this.

The one who accompanied me to the ‘Sin’ sector was Daom-ssi, the maid.

After washing together and bonding, Daom-ssi and I agreed to speak informally to each other. Though, it was more like I was unilaterally pushed into it than an agreement.

However, it’s uncomfortable to speak formally to someone who seems to be around the same age, and it’s also much more convenient to appear as friends for the undercover investigation.

And above all, for some reason, speaking formally to Daom-ssi felt awkward. Should I call it a strange sense of defiance? I’m not sure.

‘When I look at Daom-ssi, I get a strange feeling. She seems like such a cheerful and innocent person, yet….’

Something, like she shouldn’t be trusted.

Like she absolutely must be guarded against.

I didn’t know the reason or cause, but I didn’t want to ignore that baseless intuition. After all, for an exorcist, intuition and gut feelings can sometimes be important.

“But… the people here, they got lost and came in from the outside, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Even so, aren’t they all living too casually?”

After descending a bit from the ridge and stepping into the ‘Sin’ sector, I immediately saw residential areas where people lived and a seemingly ordinary village.

It seemed the place I first arrived at when I came to this city in the fog was a boundary-like location between the ‘Sin’ and ‘Karma’ sectors.

As I re-examined the neat village I had seen back then, I voiced the question I had felt at the time.

“There are various circumstances regarding that~.”

“What are they?”

“Actually, I don’t know.”

“…?”

What kind of bullshit is that?

Was she joking? But why was I so annoyed? As I glared with such feelings, Daom-ssi vigorously waved her hand as if to say that wasn’t it.

“It means I don’t know all the exact circumstances. Of course, I tried hard to find out, you know? Information about each sector is like a lifeline to the demons that rule that area, so it’s not easy to find out. There were also often cases where someone sent for investigation would lose contact and not return.”

That’s why it seems they hardly obtained any useful information.

However, Daom-ssi continued.

“I do have a few guesses. I think they’re reasonably well-founded guesses.”

Listening to Daom-ssi’s confident explanation, I surveyed my surroundings as we walked down the street.

After passing through a place that looked like nothing but an ordinary residential area, we went a little further and arrived at what appeared to be a downtown area.

Tall buildings stood, cars and buses drove on paved roads, and people rode bicycles.

However, the atmosphere was, how should I put it….

‘Outdated.’

I don’t particularly care about trends, but at least to my eyes, both the appearance of the streets and the people walking around seemed old and outdated.

It was the kind of scenery one might find in a rural town that I had visited a few times for exorcism requests.

And that thought turned into conviction when I saw the cell phone in the hand of a passerby.

It was a young-looking person. But instead of a smartphone from a major brand, they were holding a clunky flip phone that opened and closed.

As someone born in the 2000s, it was something I’d only seen in faint childhood memories or in retro-themed dramas.

At the very least, it wasn’t something commonly used in modern times.

If it were just one person, I would have thought they were eccentric, but when two or three people in a row were holding the same thing, my thoughts changed.

“What is that…?”

“Huh? Is this Yul-ryeong’s first time seeing an MP3 player? …Perhaps you’ve never seen one since you’re from the smartphone generation. Time is cruel… it used to be a fond memory.”

Perhaps Daom-ssi was older than I thought. Seeing her gaze so wistfully at that recorder-like object with earphones connected.

During the first day’s investigation, I only observed from a distance and conducted searches in a spiritual direction, so these were things I hadn’t known. However, if I had paid a little more attention back then, I could have easily figured it out.

“This fog didn’t appear at a single point in time. It repeatedly appears and disappears in various places and at various times.”

This city, and the fog surrounding it, are independent of the concept of time.

That’s why it’s impossible to know what time period the residents seen here came from. They were all summoned from different time periods and gathered in one place.

Furthermore, the concept of time is very faint even within this fog. There seems to be a concept of day and night, but it’s impossible to know if that much time has actually passed outside.

Perhaps a day here could be a year outside, or vice versa.

And most importantly, there is no concept of lifespan.

Here, no one dies, no one ages further, and no one grows old or develops.

“You said the missing persons you know of are dozens of young women, right? …But the number of people inside here won’t be just that many. Plus, there’s no law saying all residents are human… Well, there’s no choice but to find out those things by experiencing them directly.”

Daom-ssi’s explanation ended there.

It seemed there was still more to explain, but before she could finish, we had arrived at our intended base.

* * *

“This is…?”

The place we arrived at after walking for a long time from the mansion was an old villa located very close to the wall of fog surrounding the city.

It was a considerably dilapidated building, to the point where one couldn’t even tell if anyone lived inside. If I had seen it from the outside, I would have thought it was scheduled for demolition.

“Don’t worry too much and come in. Everything you need is already set up inside.”

Daom-ssi went in first. From the looks of it, the building didn’t even have a security door at the entrance to block outsiders. If this place was truly from the era I imagined, such things might not have been common.

Well, I had no intention of living lavishly. There were times I had to stay in a shack to exorcise demons. If I could avoid the morning dew, I should be grateful for just that.

“……?”

Suddenly feeling a gaze, I turned around.

On the road a little distance away, an old man with a hunched back and wrinkles was looking this way.

His expressionless gaze felt unsettling somehow.

But the old man quickly averted his gaze and continued on his way.

It didn’t seem like a big problem, so I didn’t pay it any mind and followed Daom-ssi into the villa.

The interior of the villa was cleaner than I expected.

The first floor was almost neglected, covered in dust, but the third-floor hallway, which I followed Daom-ssi up to, was clean, with no fragments or fallen leaves visible anywhere.

Passing through the third-floor hallway, she inserted a key into the door at the very end. This key was something Daom-ssi had arbitrarily taken from the empty guardroom on the first floor.

I thought she had just picked it randomly, but it seemed not, as she entered with a very familiar demeanor.

“This is a house I usually use as a base.”

“Usually, Daom-ssi?”

“Well, what do you think?”

Daom-ssi giggled and equivocated.

Beyond the door, a clear sense of lived-in comfort could be felt.

Should I call it the warmth of someone living there, or their scent? Traces remained that someone had been staying there until recently.

Daom-ssi put down the luggage she had brought, looked around the house, and then suggested,

“Shall we eat first then? You must be tired from walking such a long way, right?”

As if in response, my stomach rumbled at that very moment.

* * *

After finishing the meal and cleaning up, I felt somewhat at ease.

We had departed from the mansion around lunchtime. And by the time we arrived at the villa and finished eating, the sun had already completely set.

It had taken quite some time because we had walked the entire way without any other means of transportation.

‘…Should I start exploring right away, or….’

I sat on the living room sofa and glanced at Daom-ssi, who was still busily moving around even after we finished eating.

Just a moment ago, she had been busy cleaning up the somewhat messy house and tidying things up to make it comfortable for us to stay.

I could go out alone, leaving Daom-ssi behind, but in a situation where I didn’t know the surrounding terrain or atmosphere, it was uncertain how much progress I could really make by going out alone.

Moving aimlessly doesn’t necessarily advance the situation. I might end up wasting time unnecessarily, and in the worst case, thoughtless actions could worsen the situation.

It would be more efficient to first gather even a small amount of information, make a plan, and decide on a route.

‘Then I should probably wait for Daom-ssi to be free.’

Although I had heard some things on the way here, I would be able to hear more thoroughly here.

For that reason, I stood up from my seat to help Daom-ssi finish her work quickly.

It was at that very moment that the doorbell rang inside the room.

『──♪』

-Hmm~? A guest~? Or maybe the landlord is back~?

Daom-ssi, who was cleaning the bathroom, mumbled that.

If it’s the landlord, is it the original resident of this house? Or perhaps someone who had infiltrated here first under the Chairman’s orders.

“I’ll go check.”

-Thanks~ I’ll be out soon too~.

And so, I headed to the entrance. I could still hear the doorbell and the knocking sound.

Come to think of it, if it were the original owner of this house, there would be no need to ring the doorbell. They would have a key.

I realized that fact only after I had already unlocked the front door.

Almost simultaneously with me unlocking it, the door opened from the outside. And the figures of people standing in front of the door became visible.

There were about five people, a mix of men and women. Three men, two women. And all five were wearing something like pure white robes.

Their attire was one thing, but the heavy-looking decorative necklaces they each wore around their necks were striking.

“Excuse me. Could we talk for a moment?”

“……No, I’m not interested.”

“Oh, don’t be like that, just a moment. It’ll only take a very short time. We’re not suspicious people, you see! We heard new residents had arrived, so we came to welcome you….”

Among the five men and women, the man standing at the very front asserted with an enthusiastic voice.

I tried to close the door, but I couldn’t because the man almost pushed his way in, practically forcing his body through.

I’m not unfamiliar with door-to-door religious solicitations, but this was going too far. My brows naturally furrowed at their rudeness.

“Who’s there~? Yul-ryeong, what’s wrong? Who came?”

“You didn’t have to come….”

Daom-ssi, who had been cleaning the bathroom, also came out to the entrance, taking off her rubber gloves.

Even after seeing the uninvited guests for the first time, she didn’t show any particular expression of displeasure. At her attitude, these men and women, who seemed to be cult members, became even more emboldened.

“Please let us in for just a moment! It’ll only take a minute!”

“Yes, since you’ve come all this way to this sector, let’s talk a bit!”

“It’s okay! You’ll be happy!”

“Because we’re here to tell you good things!”

Now, they were no longer hiding their intent and seemed ready to push their way in by force.

And I, too, prepared a few spells to drive them away. If they continued to ignore my warnings, I had no intention of just standing by.

“That’s enough─”

“Don’t be like that, could you just look at this for a moment?”

The enthusiastic man who had stepped forward suddenly raised the necklace he was wearing around his neck to my eye level and Daom-ssi’s.

It looked like a purple gem. It was bumpy, and inside, a mysterious light seemed to shimmer.

Why on earth would he tell us to look at something like this? Was it some incredibly expensive gem? Was he going to say that if we listened, he might even give it to us?

…….

…But… what is it….

Looking at this, something… feels floaty… and my mind goes blank… something… a familiar feeling of….