Dispatches from the Graduate School of Ghost Stories - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Urban Legend Phenomena and Graduate School (13)
Principal’s Address
1. If you succeed in entering the Principal’s Office, the first thing you must do is close all the curtains on the windows.
Before entering Yeongrok Elementary School, the seniors had written down a few simple rules on notepaper for Yu Jong-hwa.
If asked whether he could remember all of it, he would have to admit he couldn’t.
“Welcome. I heard you’re an alumnus of our school.”
“Thank you for having us!”
The teacher who had guided them bowed quietly and left the room.
The principal who greeted the fake graduates was an elderly man with a white film over his eyes.
So Hwi-yeong, who had greeted the old man in an energetic tone, raised his hand to block the light. Squinting hard, he spoke in an exaggerated voice.
“The sunlight is rather strong today, isn’t it?”
“Would it be all right if I closed the curtains?”
Lee Ju-ho rose immediately at his words. The principal simply watched, making no move to stop her.
As Ju-ho approached the window, she noticed small handprints pressed against the glass outside.
Thump, thump, thump.
Black-haired heads appeared and disappeared at the window with the sound of light hopping.
They were all children.
When their eyes met the “visitors,” the children’s dark eyes narrowed into slits as they smiled.
The Explorers turned their heads away, feigning composure as if they had seen nothing.
Ju-ho gently reached out and drew the worn green curtain closed.
The mischievous laughter of the children outside cut off abruptly.
Yu Jong-hwa felt the uneasy feeling that had been nagging at him ease somewhat.
Only then did he gradually realize something was wrong with the children’s faces he’d glimpsed outside the window.
Unusually pale, something reddish about them, one side twisted as if deformed……
People who survive Urban Legend Phenomena are not careful people. They are people who don’t think too deeply.
Because the human brain instinctively blocks out dangerous information, we need to surrender entirely to that instinct.
Yu Jong-hwa stopped trying to recall the detailed image and blinked.
The three graduate students sat side by side on an old brown leather sofa, facing the old man.
“Would you care for a cup of coffee?”
2. You must drink whatever beverage the principal offers. The types are as follows.
—Green Tea: Tastes terrible. Memory loss, temporary decline in mental faculties. Mild food poisoning.
—Black Tea: Tastes extremely terrible. Severe headaches and nausea will occur. Salt must be added. If salt is not added, in addition to the basic side effects, four randomly selected illnesses from all possible illnesses that year will manifest.
—Coffee: Tastes awful. No special side effects.
—Tomato Juice of unknown composition: Provided in a bottle; do not drink it, but take it with you when you leave.
If the principal recommends you drink it immediately where you sit, pray for your luck.
*If the principal is in a good mood, you may decline once or twice.
The material to be obtained at Yeongrok Elementary School is a food product.
The variety of food found there is diverse, but all contain special compounds that are processed into highly popular products during exam season.
“A magical nutritional supplement that improves children’s concentration without side effects! Available at pharmacies!”
Yu Jong-hwa had seen the product the seniors mentioned many times in advertisements.
He just hadn’t known its source was an Urban Legend Phenomena.
However, not all food here has special properties. Most of it is simply spoiled food waste that is far too old.
After countless explorations by researchers, company dispatched workers, and freelance Explorers, the foods with viable compounds were filtered out.
Tomato Juice was the fastest “valuable” material to obtain in this place.
Yu Jong-hwa watched the Principal, hoping his luck would hold out.
“Coffee, please? Thank you very much.”
As long as his body remained intact, taste didn’t matter. Coffee was an excellent option.
The Principal poured water into an old electric kettle and switched it on. He prepared three cups and measured out coffee grounds with a spoon, but filled only one cup completely before frowning.
“Oh dear, I’ll need to buy more. Would the rest of you be all right with something else?”
“No, thank you for the offer! I’m fine without!”
Yu Jong-hwa quickly declined the favor. He had no desire to drink whatever odd beverage this strange old man might produce.
If he’s run out of grounds, he shouldn’t have to offer anything else.
The Principal’s clouded eyes rolled slowly toward Yu Jong-hwa.
“You’ve come such a long way. You should at least have something to wet your whistle.”
“Y-yes, well… Thank you, I’ll accept.”
Feeling the seniors’ glance on him, Yu Jong-hwa quickly agreed with the old man.
The seniors had said they could cover for him as long as nothing too serious went wrong, but there was no way of knowing what “too serious” actually meant.
Fortunately, the Principal didn’t get angry and offered them beverages.
Black Tea sat before Hwi-yeong, Coffee before Ju-ho. And for Yu Jong-hwa, a bottle of Tomato Juice fresh from the refrigerator was placed down alongside a kind smile.
It should surely be tremendous luck, yet an ominous feeling crept closer.
He was about to slip the bottle into his pocket when the old man’s grip seized his wrist.
The weathered hand held him fast with surprising strength.
“The heat will spoil it. Drink it now.”
Condensation beaded on the bottle’s cool surface, and cold sweat began to form on Yu Jong-hwa’s brow.
While he wrestled over the Tomato Juice with the old man, Lee Ju-ho quietly swapped her Black Tea for the cup that had been meant for So Hwi-yeong.
Hwi-yeong produced a small Salt shaker from his bag and passed it to her.
She grimaced slightly, then downed the salted Black Tea in one gulp.
“My apologies, Principal. That friend there has a tomato allergy. It’s not that he’ll die from it—he just vomits everywhere and makes a mess. I’d imagine it would be quite difficult to clean up.”
“Oh dear, that won’t do.”
So Hwi-yeong sipped his Coffee with shameless composure, gesturing toward Jong-hwa. The old man promptly cleared away the juice and handed him the Coffee instead.
Hadn’t he just said the Coffee was all gone?
Yu Jong-hwa nodded gratefully to Hwi-yeong, then took a cautious sip of the dark liquid.
He barely managed to keep it down.
The shocking taste left him dazed, his face contorting involuntarily.
Glancing sideways, he saw that Lee Ju-ho’s expression wasn’t much better. She stood hunched over, pressing a hand to her temples as though her head were throbbing.
Hwi-yeong, meanwhile, continued conversing with the Principal as though nothing were amiss.
“So you’re planning to give a guest lecture to the children about career paths? What line of work are you in currently?”
“Well, we’re doing research at the Graduate School, actually. Though calling a graduate student a ‘profession’ feels a bit odd. Haha.”
“I suppose that’s fair. Heh.”
“We were hoping to have a look at the classrooms we attended as children. Would it be possible to take a brief tour after class ends?”
“Hmm… I can’t have outsiders wandering about after hours. It’s a safety concern, you understand? But you’re welcome to participate in the sixth-grade class session instead.”
“Really? Thank you so much!”
“There are three of you, so you can split up. Each of you should go to the classroom where you have an assigned seat.”
The plan had shifted, but the outcome was favorable.
Their goal was to secure legitimate authorization to be present in the school, by whatever means necessary.
The Principal fished through a drawer with his wrinkled hands and produced several yellowed, lanyard-style Name Tags.
The old paper was stained with strange marks in places, and the old man slowly began writing their names in red marker.
He never asked for their names.
3. If the Name Tag bears an incorrect name, politely request a correction.
*Caution! Do not speak aloud any name other than your own.
Yu Jong-hwa accepted the Name Tag handed to him and hung it around his neck.
[Special Class Assistant]
<Kim Jong-sik>
“Thank you….”
He didn’t bother asking how the Principal knew an alias he’d never mentioned.
So Hwi-yeong received his Name Tag without incident and quickly hung it around his neck. But something had gone wrong with Lee Ju-ho’s.
She stood frozen, holding a Name Tag on which something had been written so thickly that red ink had smudged across it.
[Special Class Assistant]
<■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■>
The scrawled characters looked at once like some arcane ideograph and like mere doodles.
When Yu Jong-hwa noticed that several of the strokes resembled Chinese characters, he furrowed his brow and leaned closer to the Name Tag to examine it more carefully.
Lee Ju-ho, her expression stoic, blocked his view by placing her hand over the front of the paper.
It suddenly occurred to him that there was absolutely no reason for him to decipher it.
“Ah.”
“Principal, the name on this Name Tag is incorrect. My name is Kim Jong-ho.”
“Is that so? I’ll write you a new one.”
An ordinary answer came in reply.
And a new paper with an ordinary alias was handed to Lee Ju-ho.
“Do you have connections with old things?”
Before they could leave, the Principal asked her in an unhurried tone. Yet the displeasure beneath his words was unmistakable.
“No…. I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
Without another word, the Principal closed the door.
Hwi-yeong asked Ju-ho in a slightly tense voice what he’d meant, but she only answered that she didn’t know either. She herself looked troubled and uncertain.
“Shall we head to the classrooms now?”
“Yes. Let’s meet in the hallway after class ends.”
“Do you remember which class you were in during sixth grade?”
The “assigned seat” the Principal mentioned apparently referred to the classroom where one’s graduation records were kept.
Though he hadn’t graduated from Yeongrok Elementary School, if he found the sixth-grade classroom he’d actually attended, there would be a desk there for him.
At Hwi-yeong’s words, Yu Jong-hwa opened his phone’s note app to check the elementary school records he’d prepared beforehand. He’d been in class 4 in fourth grade, class 2 in fifth grade. Sixth grade? Class 3.
He knocked on the door of the sixth-grade class 3 classroom.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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