Holding my breath, I looked into my senior's eyes inside the tent.
My senior's eyes did not tremble; in contrast, mine were shaking like mad.
"Shh."
As I nodded frantically, my senior clamped a hand over my mouth and shook their head hard, telling me not to.
Tears streaming down my face, I answered that I understood.
"...It's still one o'clock."
"......."
"...Look at the eyes outside. You see they haven't moved yet, right?"
Come to think of it, the gazes watching us from beyond the tent hadn't stirred in the slightest.
Just as I was staring at those things, unable to sense even the slightest movement—
—the walkie-talkie in my hand crackled, connecting to somewhere.
[A... Aah... Can... you... hear?]
A voice twisted somewhere.
It wasn't that the walkie-talkie had gone dead; it wasn't even emitting static.
And above all, it wasn't a voice I knew.
Wondering if someone had accessed Team 1's channel, I looked at my senior, who wore an expression that said something had gone terribly wrong.
"...Huh? How'd they do that?"
"Senior...?"
"Looks like an entity tapped into the signal. Did someone lose their radio?"
My senior said it didn't seem like Team 3 had left theirs behind and looked at my hand.
Naturally, I was holding a walkie-talkie.
And we trembled at the chilling sound flowing from the two radios.
[Wha...t are... you... do...ing? Wha...t do... you... kno...w?]
A grinding sound of bones crunching could be heard.
And upon hearing that, my senior hastily raised a dagger and brought the sword's hilt down hard on the walkie-talkie.
—*Crack!!!!*
Displaying monstrous strength, the walkie-talkie shattered in one blow.
My senior, eyes now terrifying, reached toward me.
"Hand it over. Don't speak."
"......."
I nodded and held out the walkie-talkie with trembling hands; without hesitation, my senior smashed that one to pieces too.
"......."
"We're breaking out."
"H-here?"
"I don't know if the owls will move or not. We have to run first."
The owls appeared and moved at two.
If Team 3 had simply failed to see the owls that appeared at one and stayed in one place—
that was a perfectly understandable misunderstanding.
Having said that, my senior picked up the suit jacket and shook it out a few times.
"So, now is the perfect time."
"...R-r-run?"
"Then what would you suggest we do?"
My senior asked, eyes gleaming blue.
I shook my head, and my senior put on the jacket, rising from the spot.
I too stood up, following my senior.
"Stick close."
"If...! If they move?"
"......."
My senior said nothing.
I knew full well that it meant we would die.
But.
'Even if we stay here, we'll die soon.......'
If we stayed put, we would die before long.
Owls poised to burst out at any moment.
Because those things were watching us.
"We die if we stay here too."
"...Yes."
Hearing my senior's words, I carefully stepped in front of them.
If I were to die the moment we rushed outside, at least saving my senior was the right call.
"You don't have to."
My senior said that and tried to go first.
Honestly, I wanted to let them, but I forced myself to block their path.
"...I'll...! Go first."
"......."
They looked at me as if bewildered.
I looked straight back at my senior with a nervous expression.
My senior let out a sigh and nodded.
"...We burned five minutes."
"S-sorry."
"We need to get as far from here as possible, fast. We don't have radios, so don't fall behind. Don't do anything that'll let them track us."
"Yes......."
I quickly turned around, answering the nagging coming from behind one piece at a time, and swiftly opened the tent flap.
Whether by design or not, not a single entity was stationed near the entrance.
Feeling puzzled, yet—
"Run."
At my senior's single word, I moved my feet like mad into the pitch-black darkness.
* * *
Team 1's office.
There, Section Chief Sohun, still unable to sleep, sat reviewing documents, while the Observer slumped lazily nearby.
"Observer."
"Why dost thou......"
"If you're tired, go inside and sleep."
"...Is that not unnecessary?"
"It wasn't your mission in the first place."
"...Art thou the entity, not I?"
The Observer looked at Sohun with an expression of disbelief.
Unbothered, Sohun organized documents with sunglasses perched on his forehead.
Then, a radio transmission came in.
[Chief, all clear.]
"...?"
"...What?"
In that moment, Sohun and the Observer looked at the walkie-talkie simultaneously, sensing something ominous.
The mountain Yeonwoo and Sion had headed to was a mountain that headquarters had confirmed harbored an entity.
Because it was a type that imitated humans, the connection to headquarters had been severed to prevent confusion there.
Reports should only be possible via the messenger terminal inside the Administration, and only in video form.
'Why a radio transmission...?'
Realizing something had gone wrong, Sohun hurriedly looked at the Observer.
At that, the Observer tilted his head and tried to answer the transmission.
"Just now... what was tha—"
"...!!"
Acting on instinct, Sohun leaped forward, clamped a hand over the Observer's mouth, and gripped the Observer's right wrist—which held the walkie-talkie—tightly.
"Mmngh...!! Mmgh...!!"
"......."
Whether in agony or not, the Observer dropped the walkie-talkie to the ground, tears streaming from the eyeball on his right palm, its pupil trembling.
Sohun approached the Observer and whispered.
"...Shut up and smash the walkie-talkie."
"...?"
The Observer's eyes shook, as if unable to comprehend what was happening.
Sohun looked at the Observer and gestured with his chin toward the walkie-talkie.
At that, the Observer spewed black smoke, grabbed the walkie-talkie tightly with it, and smashed it.
"Kuhk...!! Kuh-heok...!!"
"...Were they attacked? Yeonwoo?"
"Was I not startled!! Thou fool!"
Ignoring the irritated Observer, Sohun picked up a piece of the broken walkie-talkie.
Undoubtedly, Sion and Yeonwoo had fallen into a very dangerous situation.
And then.
A report came in.
[Current time: 1:35 AM... For some reason, owls suddenly appearing]
[S-Senior... l-let's rest a bit... haa.......]
[Being pursued, taking a break in a small cave, confirmed they don't only move at 2; hand that over.]
[Eh...? Ah.......]
[Grotesquely twisted white entity, this is the Owl, Chief.]
As she said that, the entity on the screen kept crying out, Mom... Mom...
"...Does it have parents?"
"Where would an entity have parents?"
The Observer watching from the side sighed at Sohun's nonsense and said he would go himself.
A space where communications failed due to the entity's barrier.
In such places, the Observer's anomalous ability remained effective, making it a good means of communication, but—
"...To use a pet entity's power, headquarters' authorization is required."
"......."
"Stay put, Observer. You'll get culled."
"...How is it that they are all nothing but narrow-minded fools? Is human life not the priority?"
"Bitter as it is, we don't know what irregularity might occur, so stay put."
To use a pet entity's power, headquarters' authorization was required.
He would file the request, but if caught, it couldn't be undone.
Therefore, Sohun started a recording, refused the request, then ended the recording.
"Observer."
He called to the Observer, who was flipping through Yeonwoo's report with a sulky expression.
Seeing the Observer not respond, Sohun gave an order.
"Do it."
"...?"
"Even if the Administration doesn't put human lives first, I put my subordinates' lives first."
Saying that, Sohun lowered his sunglasses.
At that, the Observer smiled with a giggle and tossed out a remark.
"Thou art truly to my liking."
"......."
"Shall we not mate?"
"Shut up."
Sohun coldly rejected the Observer.
Chuckling as if even that were enjoyable, the Observer used his ability.
* * *
"...!!"
The white woman sitting on a blood-soaked rock opened her closed eyes and looked around.
"...Wha...t?"
She felt an unknown presence enter her territory.
Had someone entered the mountain cabin midway up the mountain?
Or had some traveler gotten lost due to the tricks she had laid during the day?
"......."
The woman pondered briefly, then smiled sweetly and let out a series of giggles.
"Wha...t, it's... f...ine... I... win."
It didn't matter, for she would be the victor.
Muttering so, the woman stuffed the owl corpses around her into her belly.
Then she opened her belly again and poured out white owls in droves.
"Go... and... find... them. Guests."
She had to find the honored guests who had told her so much.
The impudent honored guests who had fled, calling the hospitality unpleasant while her children were unable to move.
"Wit...hout... e...ven... an... in...vi...ta...tion... if... thou... hast... come... thou... must... re...ceive... hospi...tal...i...ty."
The woman muttered so with a strained expression, then raised her head to look at the sky.
Moonlight brightly illuminated her.
* * *
"Hic...!"
"Stop crying. They'll hear us."
My senior said that, telling me to stop crying.
But I was terrified.
I was already on the verge of an accident in my skirt.
My legs were numb and refused to straighten.
"B-but... my legs won't move."
"Chop your head off and they'd probably move just fine."
"Hieeeek!?"
"It's not like you'll actually die. I don't get another chance, so please shut up."
Saying that, my senior tapped my head a couple of times.
Just when I thought they weren't being as forceful as before—
"...!?"
"What? The owls?"
Something had appeared behind my senior.
The silhouette of a woman in black.
I tensed up, wondering if it was the woman from the radio earlier.
[Trembling all over like a little rabbit.]
Black smoke coalesced into form, and the Observer's voice rang out.