*****

*****

Chapter 156: Rules for Night Shift Workers’ Safety (2)  

[Inner Door]

In order to ensure the safety of night shift employees, the orphanage provides the following rules.

※The contents below must not be leaked to the outside, and the orphanage will not provide any compensation for accidents resulting from violating these rules.

This notice was definitely not there during the daytime.

“…for the safety of night shift employees.”

Vikir muttered quietly.

Below the sign, various precautions were written.

(1) If you find a child alone in the hallway during your night patrol, ignore them and return the way you came. If the child approaches you or tries to hand you something, immediately leave the area at the highest possible speed.

The orphanage strictly prohibits the passage of children in the hallways at night, and under no circumstances are children left alone without any guardians.

(2) If a group of children, regardless of gender, approaches you and says that there is a problem with the water pipes in room 66 on the 6th floor of the main building, answer, “I understand,” and lock the door to the guard’s office. After that, hum your favorite song. ‘They’ dislike singing.

For your information, there are a total of 65 rooms on the 6th floor of the main building, and there is no room 66 in the building.

(3) Self Pleasure is strictly prohibited within the orphanage, regardless of gender, under any circumstances, in any way.

(4) If, while patrolling the halls, you find that no matter how far you walk, you never seem to get to your destination, and you keep seeing the same scenery over and over again, you should immediately exit by the fire escape stairs, crouch down with your forehead against the wall in the corner, close your eyes, and cover your ears.

Daytime security personnel will check the emergency exit stairs first when they come to work. Maintain this state until you hear the sound of a rooster crowing in the morning.

* If there is anything else on the list below that negates item #4, you should never pay attention to it.

(5) Sometimes, there are cases of finding a suicide victim. This is a common incident that other orphanages also experience, so follow the usual procedure. However, if you find the body of a young child hanging from an ordinary place, carefully check if there is something under their feet.

If there is nothing, and you wonder how the child could have climbed up there and hung themselves, leave the area immediately and go to the guard’s office, turn off the lights, and lock the door.

Pay special attention to the order: turn off the lights and lock the door, not the other way around. In this case, do not sing or make any noise at all.

‘They’ have sensitive hearing.

(6) If you are patrolling the hallway and hear strange sounds in your ears, even when there is nothing around, immediately crouch down, lie flat on the ground, keep your body low, and do not make any sound. When the sound stops, call another staff member to find and erase the stain on the ceiling.

**********

(7) There should always be two nighttime patrollers. Without exception, no exceptions.

(8) If someone is wandering in the center of the lake above the orphanage, never approach them and lock all the doors to the rooms in the hallway. Lock all the windows on the ceiling and attic on the top floor as well.

For your information, the depth of the lake is 35 meters.

(9) Never knock on a door in an empty room, and do not pull the door latch more than three times. Also, under no circumstances should you put your ear to the door and eavesdrop.

(10) If a child you’ve never seen before comes and asks for the name or address of a nighttime patroller, never answer. If you are wearing a name tag, there is no reason for them to ask for your name, and asking for an address is a violation of personal information, so it is not allowed according to the orphanage’s rules.

As stated in number (1), the orphanage does not allow children to be left alone without a guardian.

(11) If some children, half of their upper bodies sticking out of the railing, ask for help outside the central part of the 6th floor of the main building, never take a step closer. Do not look back and leave the area as quickly as possible.

Also, try to shout loudly or sing a song.

The location is just an ordinary wall in terms of the building’s structure, and there is no 7th floor in the main building.

(12) If you need to go to the bathroom during your night shift, be sure to take a companion with you.

No matter how often or inconvenient it is, always make sure two or more people enter the restroom.

But the best way is not to go to the restroom at night.

(13). If you hear whimpering from inside a wall while walking down the hallway, immediately burst into laughter loudly until the moaning turns into crying. Once the crying stops, quickly leave the area and lock the door to the guard post. The next morning, do not check the attendance of the daycare center children for three days.

(14). Number 4 does not exist in this handbook; all orphanages would leave that ominous number blank.

IF you see something written in the number 4, always do the opposite.

Number 4 should never be followed.

*If you see anything else in the list above that contradicts #14, disregard it.

Vikir felt a sinister presence in the guide, and he nodded his head. “A shallow trick,” he thought. It’s a typical method of demons that stimulates human fear and turns it into nourishment. Even if the night guard really saw something, they would probably dismiss it as a simple problem caused by violating discipline.

Vikir ignored the guide and groped his way into the darkness of the hallway. The security room in the central lobby of the corridor was closed with the lights off, and there was no sound coming from inside.

‘The night guards must have seen something and ran away.’

It made his job easier.

Vikir quietly passed in front of the security room and headed inside the building where the 3rd section was.

Right then.“…!”

Vikir stopped in his tracks. At the end of the long corridor, something was standing there. A girl wearing white pajamas, standing still and gazing in this direction. It was Nymhet.

“…”

Nymphet looked at Vikir with an expression that somehow felt strange, then disappeared to the other side of the corridor. Vikir hurriedly moved toward the spot where Nymphet had been. But when he turned the corner, Nymphet was already gone, and in its place, only a torn curtain scrap lay on the floor.

“What’s this? Did I see something useless?”

Frowning, Vikir bent down and picked up the curtain scrap that had fallen on the floor. Then, the writing on the curtain scrap deeply engraved itself in Vikir’s retina.

“Please save me.”

Vikir’s mind flashed back to the number 1 he saw in the guide he read earlier.

“This place feels really unpleasant.”

Vikir immediately began to chase Nymphet. He had the building’s layout in his mind and focused on tracking spaces where Nymphet could disappear in the blink of an eye.

However, something is strange.

“Is this…?”

From the moment Vikir saw Nymphet, he realized that the same scenery repeated every time he turned a corner in the corridor. The same wall, the same ceiling, the same floor, the same window, and even the same view outside the window.

Vikir furrowed his brow lightly.

‘Is this an illusion? Have I fallen into a trap?’

Naturally, the guide he had read earlier came to mind. The 4th and 14th items were precisely about this.

‘Did it say something about going to the emergency exit stairs, crouching in a corner, closing your eyes, and waiting until dawn?’

But the last 14th item vehemently negated that. Which option should Vikir follow, the 4th or the 14th?

In the direction Vikir turned his head, he could see the emergency exit stairs illuminated by the green mana lamp. Being trapped in this ongoing maze of corridors, it seemed like he should at least exit through the emergency stairs.

Creak…

Vikir twisted the rusty doorknob on the outer edge of the corridor and opened it.

The emergency exit stairs were dimly lit in green and the eerie shadows that cast them. However, when he opened the door, an unexpected sight met Vikir’s eyes.

There was someone who had arrived at the emergency exit stairs before Vikir. A girl, with her eyes tightly closed and trembling, reciting a prayer while pressing her forehead against the wall. It was clearly ‘Dolores,’ the student council president, the saintess of Quovadis.

She was reciting a prayer on the wall of this emergency exit, seemingly out of nowhere.

Vikir could only let out a light sigh under his mask.

“…What on earth is she doing here?”

*****

*****