Chapter 10

Chapter 10. Library Murder Case

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

What is this?

Where is it coming from?

A strange voice that seemed to be coming from one specific point and yet also seemed to seep out from the entire space.

It was like an oracle or a divine revelation.

Not something carried through air as a medium, but something stabbing into every single cell.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

I looked down at the woman before me, or the corpse that had once been a woman.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

Persistent.

Was it planning to keep repeating itself until I obeyed?

Would it kill me if I didn’t?

In the end, I slowly bent my knees to look at the woman more closely.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

First, the area around her neck was covered in blood, and bloodstains remained on the floor too.

Had she died from being stabbed in the neck?

I could not be certain, because her long hair, half-tied with a claw clip, was messily scattered and covered the side of her face and her neck.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

The woman wore a gray knit top stained with dark red blotches, jeans, and neat sneakers.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

Is that still not enough?

Do I have to properly check her face too?

I carefully turned the corpse over.

Fortunately, it did not turn out that the woman was actually a Labyrinth monster that suddenly woke up and ate me.

I checked the employee ID hanging around her neck first.

The woman’s name was Kim Gilyoung.

It seemed she had been a librarian at Book Bang Ollae.

Since she had an employee ID, she was definitely an employee.

Maybe if I had this person with me, I could enter the daycare center without being treated as an outsider.

“Seon Yuhan examines the corpse of a woman lying face-down on the floor.”

I continued examining Kim Gilyoung’s corpse.

Her neck was drenched in blood.

After I moved aside the hair stuck to it and wiped away some of the blood, I could see the wound.

“Judging from the shape of the wound, Seon Yuhan determined that the tool used in the crime was not a knife.”

At last, the line changed.

Is it reading my thoughts?

This feels unpleasant.

“Seon Yuhan examines the librarian’s corpse in greater detail.”

Annoying.

“Seon Yuhan examines the librarian’s corpse in greater detail.”

I shook my head and examined Kim Gilyoung again.

There were one or two wounds on her chest similar to the one on her neck, and there were scratches and puncture wounds on her hands and face.

Her knit cardigan was stretched out terribly in various places.

“Seon Yuhan determined that there had been a struggle between Kim Gilyoung and the culprit, and guessed that the culprit was a human being who had killed a person for the first time.”

A very impulsive murder, committed without certainty even on the culprit’s part.

And one committed by a human.

Because the Labyrinth’s Hostile Entities did not kill people in such a ‘human’ way.

“Seon Yuhan reconstructed the incident in his head. For some reason, the culprit concluded that Kim Gilyoung had to die and stabbed near the victim’s heart.”

But what the culprit held was probably not a blade made to cut or slice something effectively.

Considering the shape of this wound, and the surrounding environment where there was nothing else that could serve as a weapon, it was probably…….

“The pen is mightier than the sword. However, the tip of the culprit’s pen was too weak to reach Kim Gilyoung’s heart. Naturally, Kim Gilyoung resisted.”

After the fight that followed, the woman must have died when her neck was stabbed several times.

“Who, then, was the culprit?”

It was hard to guess even their sex, let alone their build.

In this sort of situation, those were not terribly important factors.

Of course, that did not mean physical strength was completely unimportant, but…….

In the moment when life and death fiercely competed, quite a few factors besides strength acted as variables.

No matter how large or strong someone was, if they hesitated, let their guard down, panicked too much, or became overly excited, they could be beaten in return by someone less than half their size.

Moreover, unless someone had been professionally trained, how would they know how to kill a person well? And even if they knew, how would they properly apply it in an actual situation?

Besides, this place was a Labyrinth.

A place where anything could happen, and where being surprised by anything that did happen was meaningless.

Guessing who the culprit was would be pointless right now.

“Then where is the culprit?”

For an instant, a chill ran through my chest.

“And what about the murder weapon? Where is the pen that stabbed Kim Gilyoung?”

I hurriedly looked around.

I sensed no presence. Not since I first came in.

“Did the culprit run away?”

But when it said a line like that, I could not help feeling anxious.

I checked whether the door had perhaps locked, but that was not the case either.

Even now, the door opened perfectly well. I could leave and come back in.

I did not know what it was, but it seemed the event that had occurred in the library was over.

“Seon Yuhan knew that he was too late.”

Well, I had been slow in the interview room.

Looking at the time now, about thirty minutes had passed since Labyrinthization began, so if something was going to happen here, it would have already happened long ago.

“Perhaps if Seon Yuhan had come just a little earlier, Kim Gilyoung might have survived. Like Choi Jaeha.”

Maybe so.

There was nothing new about that.

“Yes. That is the kind of human Seon Yuhan is. A human who stitches his broken shell together with pieces of others, cooks rice with others’ breath, and lives each day through others’ deaths.”

I passed the area near the entrance where the librarian had fallen and went a little farther inside.

There was a bookshelf area decorated only with stylishly designed shelves, and a reading area where sofas and desks had been harmoniously arranged with bookshelves of various shapes.

“Is he not truly a monster of the Labyrinth?”

My gaze fixed on one book in the reading area.

It was a space where beanbags that looked soft and one- or two-person sofas were gathered in a circle, and a single book had fallen in the middle of it.

“Seon Yuhan realizes that he does not deserve to read this book.”

What is this? Am I not supposed to read it?

The moment I approached, the book snapped shut.

So I quietly lowered the hand I had reached toward the book.

At times like this, I should not touch things carelessly.

“As expected, the regret that he might have saved them if only he had come a little earlier remained unpleasantly in Seon Yuhan’s heart.”

Yes, if that had happened, then maybe I might have had a chance to open that book. Maybe the librarian would not have died. Maybe Choi Jaeha would not have died. And maybe I—

“Seon Yuhan silently began doing what he had to do. Something no sane human could do.”

Even after I left the library, I ignored the voice that came like an auditory hallucination.

I have to live. Even if I die. I have to get out alive.

That is my rule.

“Must rules be obeyed? Like a Labyrinth?”

I focused only on the sound of clothing dragging across the corridor floor. Slide, slide.

“Oh my!”

When I opened the door to Uri Saenal Daycare Center, the familiar stuffed goose came waddling out.

“Who could this insane person be, storming into a daycare center while dragging a filthy, ugly doll that no one would take even if it were given to them for free?”

Calling a human being a doll.

When it was a doll itself.

“Ah……. But she’s still an employee. Can’t you make it work somehow?”

“Do you think it can? Especially with this defective product?”

It almost seemed as if the stuffed animal, which could not possibly have an expression, was showing one.

“Uri Saenal Daycare Center prohibits entry by outsiders.”

……As expected, next time, I should try bringing her alive.

5-1. An Employee’s Corpse Does Not Help You Enter the Daycare Center.

“If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Mr. Seon Yuhan?”

“I need to go to the library…….”

“The library. Have you thought specifically about what book you will read there? Of course, books are good to read at any time, but there are also some books that can only be read at that exact moment. In the end, one’s impression of a book can change depending on what mood the reader is in at that time, and what experiences they have had.”

I did not particularly want to interrupt the interviewer, so I waited until they finished before opening my mouth.

“Mr. Interviewer, this building has become a Labyrinth.”

After that, I conveyed the precautions and warnings about the Labyrinth that I had learned with my whole body so far.

“Ah, and if you think you need to grab something from the goods store, you must pay in full before leaving……. No, just do not go in there at all.”

“Uh, understood…….”

The interviewer was bewildered, but still checked on me, asking if I was all right.

“Yes, I am all right.”

Both of us knew that was a lie.

“Then later…… let us meet again. Safely, outside.”

“Yes, let us meet again.”

I hoped that, at least, would not become a lie.

***

BOOM!

RUMBLE, CRAAASH, BANG!

CRASH, THUD!

I safely picked up Accountant Choi Jaeha from the elevator and showed him the wonder of the Labyrinth, where we came out on the second floor no matter how far we went down the stairs.

THUNK, BANG!

“Ughhh! It won’t break! Agh!”

For a while, Choi Jaeha clutched his head, gritted his teeth, foamed at the mouth, and caused a commotion about breaking a window and escaping, but somehow, he recovered.

“So what are we doing now?”

Choi Jaeha asked after he stopped huffing.

“I plan to go to the library first.”

“Why? Don’t we have to stop by everything? What about the daycare center and Tarae? Aren’t we going to the main auditorium?”

“I feel like it. Ah, if you want to go there first, it would also be fine for us to split up and check separately.”

“Nooo, I was just purely curious about the reason. Like, why the library first?”

The accountant, whose size was proportional to his fear, walked down the corridor while sticking close behind me.

“By the way, Mr. Choi Jaeha, have you ever been to the library?”

“No?”

“Uh……. Was it a place only Yuwi Guild employees could enter?”

There had not been any particular problem when I entered last time.

“That is not it. People from our company borrow books there too. Ah, I should read some books too. I never have time.”

Usually, people who read books…… read even if they had to make time they did not have.

Honestly, this man.

“Mr. Choi Jaeha.”

I stopped briefly in front of Book Bang Ollae and turned back to the accountant.

“I am telling you once more before we enter, but it will be dangerous inside. Even if everything looks fine and safe, you might die if you make one wrong move. That said, I cannot guarantee that staying outside will definitely be safe either…….”

“Yes, yes, I get it, Mom.”

Choi Jaeha frowned slightly, then softened his expression and clicked his tongue.

“I know that when you get trapped in an Invasive-type, most of the time, it ends with everyone dying. I’m not a child.”

He seemed like a child.

“But you know that, and you’re still trying to find some way out, aren’t you? So I just think following you is better than sitting still, trembling, and dying.”

Is he an adult?

“Well, if things go badly, I can’t promise I won’t blame you.”

A child or an adult?

I could not understand him at all.

“Yes, well. Blame me if you need to.”

“Oh, come on. What is that supposed to mean?”

Choi Jaeha let out a hollow laugh and opened the door to Book Bang Ollae.

“Huh?”

The moment I heard that ominous exclamation, I braced myself for the death that would come.

“…….”

Even though we had violated the rule banning “huh?” nothing happened.

I naturally opened my eyes as if nothing had happened.

Two women were standing awkwardly, looking at the two of us.

A woman in a black three-piece suit with her hair tied in a ponytail, and a woman wearing a gray knit cardigan.

“H-How did you get in?”

“Mm? We opened the door.”

“I mean, how did you open the door?”

“Uh…… by grabbing the handle like this……?”

“And the door opened?”

“Yes……. It opens, doesn’t it?”

“It did not open for us.”

“It opened fine for us.”

CLUNK.

“Mm? No, it does not. It will not open. Mr. Seon Yuhan, what is wrong with this?”

What is this conversation that makes me feel stupid just listening to it?

“Ha……. Why do you think? This place is a Labyrinth.”

In other words, we were trapped in the library.

“What? A Labyrinth? Surely you are joking.”

The woman in the three-piece suit looked at me as if she found it absurd, but when I showed no particular reaction, her expression gradually hardened.

“Really…… you are saying this is truly a Labyrinth? This place? An Invasive-type?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“This friend is right.”

Choi Jaeha backed me up.

“You heard that sound earlier, like the building was collapsing, right? That was the sound of the elevators falling. You know elevators do not usually fall just because there is a blackout, right? And we came from the third floor, but no matter how far we went down the stairs, we ended up on the second floor. There is no explanation except a Labyrinth.”

Was he helping, or showing off?

“Th-Then perhaps the fact that we are trapped here too…….”

The woman with half-tied hair and an employee ID around her neck trailed off, then sank to the floor.

Kim Gilyoung.

The librarian of Book Bang Ollae.

“Then I, I am going to…… die here?”

This was the person who had been dead last time. Right here.

More accurately, murdered.

“Please do not say such unlucky things. Who says you are going to die? Honestly, you have been too extreme since earlier.”

The woman beside her scolded her in a voice that was not simply sharp as she helped Kim Gilyoung up.

She was a woman with narrow eyes, dressed in a three-piece suit, her long hair tied tightly into one tail.

“Ha……. Anyway, I understand now, since you say it is a Labyrinth. So that must be why the internet is not working and the power is out, right? And why the door will absolutely not open from the inside.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

Is it this person?

Did this person kill the librarian?

If so.

We were now trapped in a locked room with someone who might commit murder.