Dispatches from the Graduate School of Ghost Stories - Chapter 21

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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 Legends and Graduate School (21)
What Was Lost in the Pond
Doesn’t it seem like accidents are bound to happen wherever there’s a pond at an elementary school?
Why on earth would someone construct such a difficult-to-maintain feature right at the school’s entrance? The architect who designed Yeongrok Elementary School owed himself some serious reflection.
Thud.
Lee Ju-ho landed gracefully on the muddy ground by the pond’s edge, and the force of it sent splatters of mud directly into Yu Jong-hwa’s mouth. But his first instinct was to worry about her condition, and he quickly wriggled free from her grip.
“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
They’d jumped carrying two people—they were lucky if it was only broken legs.
Yu Jong-hwa was grilling Lee Ju-ho with urgent questions, already positioning himself to dash toward the nearest hospital, when So Hwi-yeong landed a solid blow to his back.
“Worry about yourself. How’s the mud taste?”
“Ptooey—ugh.”
Only after hearing the scolding did the foul taste of mud register on his tongue.
Yu Jong-hwa spat out the dirt, while Lee Ju-ho extracted her mud-caked feet and grimaced at her now-soggy shoes.
So Hwi-yeong, the only one still relatively clean, fished supplies from his backpack with efficient haste and distributed them among them.
“So the pond is one of the Seven Mysteries, right? It shouldn’t be able to come down here?”
“I don’t know anymore. Nobody seems to have experienced the Principal actually teaching a class. But it doesn’t look like it’s even trying to come down here, does it?”
So Hwi-yeong pointed upward toward the classroom they’d fallen from.
The sound of desks overturning, something shattering, shrieks that might have been from an old man—the classroom was in chaos.
While Yu Jong-hwa couldn’t tear his eyes from the broken window, So Hwi-yeong had already drawn a circle of salt around them.
“Didn’t it say the pond doesn’t want anyone coming near?”
No one answered Jong-hwa’s question.
The pond was large enough to be considered genuine landscape design, complete with a small cloud bridge arching over the water.
The weeds around the unmaintained pond’s edge had grown so thick they scraped against their calves. Large, grimy boulders formed odd shapes, and dried grass rustled desolately in the breeze.
Ju-ho took the axe from So Hwi-yeong and trimmed back some of the undergrowth, then promptly handed it to Jong-hwa.
“Is it all right for me to take it?”
“It’ll just get in the way. It’s not strong enough.”
Whether she meant the axe itself was weak or simply that it would hinder her movements remained unclear. Yu Jong-hwa wanted to ask for clarification, but he caught himself and held his tongue.
Lee Ju-ho was squinting sharply, studying the pond.
The pond seemed devoid of even frogs—there was none of the usual splashing and croaking sounds one would expect near water. For stagnant water like this, there should at least be insects, yet there was nothing. It was unnatural.
“There’s barely any mention of the pond in the reports.”
“There’s nothing to gain from this place either. No point in deliberately hunting down creatures that just want to be left alone. They won’t emerge unless you get close to the pond.”
So Hwi-yeong withdrew a thick sheaf of printed reports from his backpack, and Yu Jong-hwa took half to review with him. Aside from unhelpful baseline guidelines, there were only five entries about the pond in over a hundred pages of documentation. And all of them were old—dating back to when Urban Legend research had first begun. Nothing recent.
Lee Ju-ho watched the quiet pond for a moment, then made a suggestion.
“It seems calm today. Should we look elsewhere?”
“I’m torn. Those things seem like they’ll follow us if we stay inside the school. The statue’s done for, and… I guess that leaves the gymnasium.”
“What appears in the gymnasium?”
“The thing that plays basketball with its head instead of the ball.”
“What is wrong with this school?!”
If this many ghosts had manifested at a single elementary school, something had to be deeply wrong. It suggested an extraordinary number of fatal accidents.
So Hwi-yeong nodded in agreement at Yu Jong-hwa’s bewilderment.
“That’s apparently still under investigation. Yeongrok Elementary School has no recorded death incidents.”
Based on what Sa Hye had said, it seemed the student in the library really did die here. Perhaps the records were simply lost to time. Yu Jong-hwa harbored some lingering doubts, but since they were already inside an Urban Legend Phenomenon, he decided not to dwell on it.
“Land with bad feng shui sometimes transforms like this.”
“Could it have been built on a place with tons of graves?”
Yu Jong-hwa instinctively thought of burial grounds as examples of cursed, ill-fortuned land, but his seniors shook their heads with subtle expressions.
“Land where people have died isn’t usually as dangerous as you’d think. Humans generally have a clear target for their grudge. But anything that isn’t human? That’s far more terrifying.”
Lee Ju-ho spoke her conviction with genuine gravity. It was the kind of belief only someone with a body that transcended human parameters could hold.
“Isn’t it usually the opposite?”
“Humans have limits, and their actions are broadly predictable. But this is an Urban Legend. When something that isn’t human comes at you, how can you predict what it’ll do?”
Yu Jong-hwa found So Hwi-yeong’s logic somewhat persuasive, and he settled onto an oddly shaped rock to gaze out at the pond’s blackened waters.
“The reports say snakes come out here. You’re saying snakes are more frightening than ghosts?”
“That’s exactly it.”
The researchers who’d visited Yeongrok Elementary School before them had left behind records of interviews with alumni. If the rumors held any truth, the pond’s secret was remarkably dramatic.
When Yeongrok Elementary School was originally constructed, the available land was insufficient, so a large lake had to be filled in. This pond was created by leaving behind part of that lake.
Because snakes and insects naturally inhabit marshy ground, the school had suffered numerous snake-bite incidents when it first opened. Worse still, the area had become unnaturally infested with venomous snakes, and some said it was the vengeful retaliation of an Imoogi that had lived in the lake.
That vengeance, the story goes, ended only when the school groundskeeper—acting at the teachers’ request—fought and defeated a thousand-year-old Gurelngyi.
In an urban legend, what exactly does a groundskeeper even do?
“Let’s fight it. We’ve come this far, so we’re already marked by the snake. There are records of it pursuing people even after they left the pond.”
So Hwi-yeong’s proposal earned Lee Ju-ho’s agreement, and she moved to convince Jong-hwa as well.
“The origin of the legend points to the groundskeeper, so this Gurelngyi harbors a grudge against him. That means it can be fought physically. Let’s try.”
It was another scene of Physical Exorcism.
Yu Jong-hwa was beginning to grasp how his seniors had survived the Urban Legend Phenomena.
Lee Ju-ho, the Physical Exorcism specialist, wrapped a bandage soaked in salt water around her shoes. With salt scattered generously over her half-gloves, she was carefully testing each step on the Cloud Bridge above the Pond, checking whether it was sturdy enough to bear her weight.
Of course, no one knew whether salt would actually be effective against a serpent.
“If an Ancient Serpent has eaten for a thousand years, doesn’t that make it an Imoogi?”
“That’s one way to look at it. Perhaps that’s why Yeongrok Elementary School has ended up like this. No one’s investigated closely enough to uncover the truth.”
The civil servants who had first written the guidelines suspected that the serpent in this Pond harbored an enormous accumulation of resentment. It had been on the verge of becoming a true dragon when the Lake disappeared, and according to legend, its head was severed by humans and buried in the earth.
“It’s coming!”
The dark water of the Pond churned and rippled.
Though it should have been shallow, Yu Jong-hwa attributed the darkness to nothing more than the faint moonlight.
Yet this Pond was apparently far deeper than ordinary.
Yu Jong-hwa had to tilt his head back sharply to get a proper look at the thing that emerged from the water.
The massive serpent, large enough to touch the school’s Rooftop, had no head.
“Should we even call that a snake…?”
The reptile, covered in black scales, possessed a body that was grotesquely thick and long.
Where a head might have been, the stump writhed toward them, exposing a severed cross-section.
Through the muscle tissue crusted with dried mud, white vertebrae gleamed.
“Get out of the way.”
Lee Ju-ho barked the order at So Hwi-yeong, then kicked the serpent’s body with all her strength.
Thud!
A vicious impact echoed out, but the serpent showed no sign of pain. The axe Yu Jong-hwa had swung in panic bounced off the hard scales without cutting in, rebounding uselessly.
He stared at the dented blade, then rolled his eyes toward Ju-ho. She shook her head at So Hwi-yeong, silently asking if they should retreat.
“This… doesn’t look good.”
“Hwi-yeong, what happened to the people who explored this Pond before?”
“Some went deeper into the school and survived, others reached the statue. But the researchers who actually encountered the serpent suffered major accidents after their investigations. Several of them died.”
“A curse? We’re done for… should’ve run before coming in.”
“Stop hesitating. It’s been watching us since we fell into the Pond.”
If an accident happened now, graduation would be at risk. Yu Jong-hwa trembled with anxiety, but So Hwi-yeong’s face remained utterly calm.
He perched cross-legged on a rock and began pulling out various items from his Backpack. Then he grabbed the Flamethrower and shouted to Lee Ju-ho.
“What if we burn its neck completely off?”
“The snake’s too fast!”
Lee Ju-ho answered from the far side of the Pond, where she’d been running to keep the creature’s attention away from the others. The sparse pine trees around the Pond’s edge were being torn to shreds by its tail.
The serpent’s purpose seemed not to guard the Pond, but simply to destroy any human it encountered.
“Ju-ho! Just hold on until the sun comes up! We took out insurance. Getting cursed is hardly the end of the world!”
“What if we get hit by a car or something? I should’ve checked the policy…”
“If you were going to do this sort of thing, you should’ve checked that long ago. There are even special riders for Urban Legend Phenomena now.”
Yu Jong-hwa let that impromptu insurance seminar go in one ear and out the other. The moment So Hwi-yeong told her to hold on, Lee Ju-ho began punching the serpent. True to her role as the party’s sole damage dealer, she fought with the selfless determination of a warrior.
Lee Ju-ho drove her heels down onto the serpent’s tail, then twisted her body backward hard to dodge as the creature tried to crush her with its belly. A direct kick to the severed upper portion struck true.
Lee Ju-ho landed on the Cloud Bridge, though several planks had already snapped. The wooden structure swayed violently before its rope bindings tore, and the serpent thrashed about, lashing its tail wildly in all directions.
The broken bridge came whipping through the air, coiled by the serpent’s tail, and Yu Jong-hwa and So Hwi-yeong quickly dove flat to the ground.
Wood chips and dust hung so thickly in the midnight air that visibility was poor. Yu Jong-hwa coughed, then lifted his head. In the landscape of utter devastation, only one peculiarly elongated rock maintained its form.
“It’s not touching that stone…”
Whether Lee Ju-ho noticed what he did, she was now standing atop that elongated rock, evading the serpent’s strikes.
The serpent raised its tail to the air, whipping it sideways to strike her down. Unlike before, it made no downward striking motion, making it clear the creature was reluctant to touch the rock.
“Are there eggs underneath?”
Indeed, a mother protecting her young—a common enough trope.
Hearing So Hwi-yeong’s words, Yu Jong-hwa shouted across the Pond.
“Ju-ho! I’ll draw its attention—check under that rock!”
Before Lee Ju-ho could respond, Yu Jong-hwa hurled the axe at the serpent with every ounce of his strength.
Clang!
A clean, metallic ring shattered through the dark schoolyard.
In the next instant, a black mass shot toward him like an arrow!
The scale-covered tail whipping past his crown was lethal. Yu Jong-hwa had no desire to have a highway carved through his skull, so he dropped his head in panic.
“There’s nothing under it!”
“Help me!”
Hearing his cry, So Hwi-yeong rushed to the rock and began digging beneath it with a shovel. Lee Ju-ho followed suit, excavating like a living earthmover.
“Let me dig deeper—hold on!”
“Aaagh…!”
Yu Jong-hwa was the type of man who obeyed orders first and questioned them later. He rolled his body left and right with all his effort, engaging in some intense midnight gymnastics.
“Nothing’s down there. Maybe the stone itself is the problem?”
Lee Ju-ho hefted the stone and sprang to her feet.
The serpent, rigid and erect, immediately twisted its body toward her and bowed its severed neck low.
The Gurelngyi, which had stilled for only a moment, suddenly blazed with feral light and lunged at her.

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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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