Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 43

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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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On the first weekend at Goldilocks, a middle-aged man who looked every bit a Drifter fresh off the streets appeared inside the shop.
Though his appearance suggested he’d suffered some kind of accident—clothes torn, face streaked with grime—I’d thought him lucky enough that Goldilocks happened to be his landing place.
The moment he came to his senses, however, he began shrieking and causing a scene.
“W-where the hell am I?! Who are all you people?!”
To ordinary people, the Fortress was little more than rumor, so the reaction made sense.
The problem was that the Fortress didn’t much care about understanding such circumstances.
“P-please, don’t joke around—let me out! Let me out of here!”
Upon spotting the impassive twins in the stroller, he threw himself at the glass door, hammering it desperately to escape.
Naturally, every customer’s attention snapped toward him, which only heightened his panic.
Still, I had work to do, so I approached and asked him a question.
Something along the lines of: “Hello, may I help you place an order?”
His answer, predictably, was: “What kind of nonsense is this?!”
Once you entered Goldilocks, you couldn’t leave without ordering.
And if you caused a commotion on the floor and drew the attention of other customers, you would be “restrained” by the “staff.”
That wasn’t information I could provide as an employee. As a fellow Drifter, there was nothing I could do to help.
Not long after, the man “froze.” His eyes went blank, staring into empty space, then his body pivoted and he walked toward the Arcade as if on autopilot.
In the dim neon glow of the Arcade, I caught sight of a large, dark, hirsute form standing motionless.
“Amelie, time for your shift change.”
I looked up to find Goldilocks standing there with that familiar, easy smile.
“Ah, yes. Thank you for your hard work.”
Work does something for you—makes the hours pass, clears the clutter from your mind.
I removed my apron and left the floor.
Beyond the counter and down the staff corridor beside the kitchen lay a small locker room at the end of the hall.
I knocked twice without waiting for an answer and pushed the door open.
“Thank you for your work!”
There’s no response, but the locker room has never once been empty.
I opened my cabinet without looking at the “coworkers” writhing in the corner near the tiled wall.
What I’d learned during my time at Goldilocks was that a creature’s imitation of humanity doesn’t perfect itself overnight.
As Maro had said back at the cinema, these creatures seemed to refine their mimicry gradually through observation and exposure to humans.
Since Goldilocks wasn’t a place humans frequented often, the other staff members usually moved unnaturally and clumsily.
They’d shuffle along, bump into things, drop objects, and occasionally cluster together making unintelligible sounds.
I sometimes wondered if it was their own crude attempt at practicing speech.
They wouldn’t harm me, being coworkers of sorts, but I avoided contact with them as much as possible. I had no intention of providing creatures with any kind of data about myself.
Though truthfully, the visceral revulsion was the real reason.
I was reaching for my clothes on the hanger when something caught my eye.
A bundle of papers tumbled to my feet with a soft rustle.
“…?”
I gathered the scattered sheets. They were flyers—the cheap ones we distributed from the Arcade to customers.
Looking deeper into the cabinet, toward the ceiling where sight didn’t reach easily, I spotted a black piece of cardboard barely held up by packing tape.
‘Did it fall from there…?’
After checking my surroundings, I peeled the cardboard away. Something had been hidden underneath.
‘…A Talisman?’
Unmistakably. It was the same object I’d found in that hand bag at the Central Library during my first week here.
‘Come to think of it, this cabinet….’
According to the regulations, the lockers in the staff room were always numbered to match the number of employees.
Which meant, logically speaking, the person who’d used this cabinet before me was the last one to “quit.”
‘It must be that Gomtal.’
The day I’d first visited Goldilocks as a customer, I’d nearly fallen victim to a crude deception and been trapped in the Arcade.
Gomtal, the staff member at the time, had been caught scheming and replaced, and a new Gomtal had started working after I began.
Since then, I’d deliberately avoided going toward the Arcade, but questions lingered.
Generally, when someone is assigned a role in the Fortress, they either try to perform it faithfully or fail in the attempt.
But Gomtal was different.
“M-my heart grew impatient and I resorted to shortcuts. P-please, just this once, show mercy……”
Why would he do such a thing?
Go so far as to fabricate counterfeit flyers?
And what was his connection to that external operative I’d encountered at the Central Library?
‘Something feels off about all this….’
Even so, there was nothing I could learn right now. Gomtal, that operative—neither of them was among the living anymore.
I finished dressing in a hollow mood and was closing the cabinet door when it opened with a click, and Goldilocks poked her head in.
“Oh, boss.”
Goldilocks smiled when she spotted me.
“Still here? Once you’re changed, hurry on out. Someone’s waiting for you up front.”
‘Who could it be? Maro?’
But when I opened the door, the person waiting for me was unexpected.
“Bibi?”
“That’s a disappointed look.”
It really wasn’t.
“Just surprised, that’s all. What’s wrong? Nothing’s broken, right?”
Bibi shook his head silently.
“Let’s talk while we walk.”
Beyond the staff exit and across the parking lot lay a path to the Riverbank—one of the few safe zones in the area, despite the perpetual gloom overhead.
‘What does he want to talk about?’
Bibi walked ahead for some time without speaking.
Today he’d tied his work shirt around his waist, and the black t-shirt beneath revealed well-defined back muscles.
‘He’s got such a different presence from Gwon Taehyun, and they’re both operatives.’
But watching Bibi’s back now made me realize just how massive Maro really was.
Maro wasn’t just large in build—everything about him seemed somehow beyond the normal range of human reality.
Had I encountered him in the real world, I might’ve known at a glance he wasn’t human. Perhaps I would’ve called him a god, as Momo had suggested.
Yet there was no sense of wrongness when I was around him.
Not that I wasn’t tense—but it was a different kind of tension.
Maybe his unnecessary kindness made me forget my own position too easily.
‘What if I get paid back all at once for my presumption? That’ll be the end of acting cocky. I’ll get my just deserts, will I….’
“Amelie.”
Bibi had stopped beneath a weeping willow, waiting for me.
“Sorry for dragging you out so far. I needed to check if anyone was tailing you.”
“What? Why are you scaring me like that? What’s this about…?”
I asked lightly, but Bibi’s expression remained grave.
“I’ve lost contact with Gwon Taehyun.”
“…The team leader?”
Gwon Taehyun had left the Fortress for his regular Mental Evaluation.
I’d heard the recent Rescue Team dispatch ran into complications and would take time, but losing contact entirely?
Bibi let out a long breath.
“As you know, Gwon Taehyun and I do completely different work. I’m on long-term station here, so I rarely go in and out. But if the Administrative Office is vacant, it becomes difficult to maintain contact with Headquarters.”
I could guess where this was heading.
That Administrative Privilege Gwon Taehyun always spoke of—it was probably this. Even a psychopath like K apparently never breached the Administrative Office.
No matter how long you’re stationed in the Fortress, you always need at least one line to the outside.
“But why are you telling me this? Isn’t it classified?”

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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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