Chapter 11

Chapter 11. The Culprit Is in This Reading Club

“Hmm…….”

The suspect in the librarian murder case wore a serious expression.

“Then how about trying to leave the moment someone else opens the door and comes in?”

“That will not work.”

A Labyrinth’s rules were absolute.

Such tricks did not work.

Unless there was a separate rule that only looked like a trick.

“Still, couldn’t we try it?”

“We will end up coming back anyway. Actually, even that is an optimistic guess. The body part sticking out beyond the door might disappear.”

The woman in the three-piece suit widened her eyes.

“Seriously?”

“I am saying it could happen. In a Labyrinth, you always have to assume the worst.”

The woman’s foxlike eyes narrowed.

“Are you perhaps a Raider?”

“No, I am just a job seeker who came to Yuwi for an interview today. My name is Seon Yuhan.”

The woman briefly showed a response that seemed to say she felt sorry for me.

“My name is Hwang Juyeon, and, um……. I sometimes go around doing magic performances. My main job is teaching piano at an academy. Today, I had a magic performance here at the daycare center.”

The daycare center?

Then did that mean this person named Hwang Juyeon could enter Uri Saenal Daycare Center too?

Even if she was not an employee like the librarian, she was not a complete outsider like me.

The fact that she was a suspect in the librarian murder case bothered me, though.

I quietly turned my gaze toward Kim Gilyoung.

“Ah, I, I’m Kim Gilyoung. I’m the librarian here.”

The librarian held out her unstained employee ID.

“Yes, hello. I am…….”

Certified Public Accountant Choi Jaeha, who worked at Howol Accounting Firm on the sixteenth floor of Jaerae Building, took out his business card again and finished introducing himself.

Meanwhile, I thought about the murder case that had not happened.

“Were there originally only the two of you here? I mean, before this place became a Labyrinth.”

“Pardon? Yes…….”

Kim Gilyoung nodded.

“There are almost no users around this time. Everyone at the company is working then. But then the power suddenly went out…… and there were these collapsing sounds from outside, so……. I tried to leave, but the door was locked and wouldn’t open. I also tried calling the management office, but the phone was dead…….”

The latter part was not especially important.

So if no one else entered this library, then the person who killed Kim Gilyoung last time was that piano instructor and freelance mage, Hwang Juyeon.

“It is time for the reading club.”

“What, who is that?”

No, it was certain.

“No additional participants will be accepted until the reading club ends.”

“What is this? Where is that coming from?”

“I’m not the only one hearing this, right?”

“What the hell is it?!”

“It seems the Labyrinth is trying to start something. For now, please remain calm.”

3:50 p.m.

Under the supreme rules of the Labyrinth, Book Bang Ollae became a perfect locked room where no one could enter or leave.

The person who killed Kim Gilyoung was Hwang Juyeon.

“The reading club participants sit comfortably together in the reading area.”

That present-tense sentence was an imperative disguised as a declarative statement.

“I think we need to do as it says.”

“What if we die because we do?”

Hwang Juyeon narrowed her eyes and asked.

“We might die because we do not. And it would be fortunate if you died alone. If I were certain that would happen, I would not stop you either.”

“Oh my, that is so scary I can hardly say a word.”

The freelance mage raised an eyebrow and made a gesture of backing down.

“I’m sorry for picking a fight first. I guess I became sensitive without realizing it.”

“No. I understand.”

Truly, this much was a mature reaction.

Even in ordinary times, it was difficult to honestly acknowledge one’s condition and apologize.

How did someone like this end up killing Kim Gilyoung?

“Given the situation, it makes sense. I am sorry for snapping back too harshly too.”

“The reading club participants sit comfortably together in the reading area.”

“Yeees. I’ll sit. Let’s sit for now, everyone. I don’t know what it’s going to make us do, but at least we probably won’t die while doing what it says.”

Each of us chose a sofa and sat awkwardly in a circle.

It was the same circular space where a book had fallen last time.

Kim Gilyoung and Choi Jaeha sat on either side of me.

I tried not to look too much at the piano instructor sitting across from me.

I did not know Hwang Juyeon’s motive for murder.

Considering the special nature of a place called a Labyrinth, maybe her mental state had simply deteriorated rapidly.

A Labyrinth was a place that made people irrational.

I just hoped it was not because she thought she could get out of the Labyrinth if she killed everyone.

That was something one could not do unless one was truly insane.

Of course, it was not an entirely wrong idea, but since the Labyrinth would only be resolved if everyone inside died, she would ultimately have to die too.

And in the first place, it would not be easy to kill everyone here.

But leaving the motive aside.

There was one thing that worried me.

Time.

Last time, after I spaced out in the interview room for a while and came to this library, it had been around four o’clock.

Right now, about ten minutes before that, the relationship between Hwang Juyeon and Kim Gilyoung did not look at all like a murder case was about to happen.

“The reading club has begun.”

Maybe this reading club was…….

A dangerous event that could make someone kill another person in ten minutes.

***

“One life is one story. This is the theme of this reading club.”

Along with the voice stabbing into my head, a book dropped into each reading club participant’s hands.

I examined the pure white hardcover in my hands from several angles.

It was thicker than one joint of a finger and thinner than two joints, the thickness of a typical single-volume novel.

Nothing was written on the cover. Not the title, the author, or the publisher.

“The reading club participants read their respective books.”

A Labyrinth was something where you had to obey when told to obey.

I quietly opened the book.

[Choi Jaeha was born as the youngest of three siblings.]

What is this?

[His eldest brother, who was much older than him, was like an indifferent father, perhaps because of their subtle distance and awkwardness. Even when Choi Jaeha caused trouble, he would only say, “He’s at that age. Don’t scold him too much. He probably won’t do it next time.”]

What did I just read?

I doubted my eyes for a moment and raised my head.

Choi Jaeha was looking at Hwang Juyeon with the exact same expression as me.

Hwang Juyeon was looking at Kim Gilyoung with the same expression.

And Kim Gilyoung, likewise wearing the same expression, was looking at me.

“Perhaps…….”

“You too?”

“You as well?”

“One life is one story. This is the theme of this reading club.”

We had ended up reading one another’s lives.

“But…….”

I started to say something, then leaned toward Kim Gilyoung.

“Are there any rules in this library against talking?”

The others had already spoken without anything happening, but just in case, I lowered my voice and asked cautiously.

The librarian shook her head.

“No, not really……. A library is a place for reading books, not a place for silent meditation. Even here, the employees often hold reading clubs and such.”

Kim Gilyoung spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too quiet.

“It is fine as long as people are not too noisy……. But that is the same even outside a library.”

“That is true. Then, Ms. Kim Gilyoung, are you perhaps reading my story? I received a book where Mr. Choi Jaeha is the protagonist.”

“What, really?”

Choi Jaeha grimaced with a groan.

“I have Hwang Juyeon’s.”

“Mm, mine is Ms. Kim Gilyoung’s.”

“It seems everyone received the book of the person to their left.”

I had to read Choi Jaeha’s story. Choi Jaeha had to read Hwang Juyeon’s story. Hwang Juyeon had to read Kim Gilyoung’s story. Kim Gilyoung had to read my story.

“What are we supposed to do after reading them…….”

“The reading club participants read their respective books.”

“Uh, let us read for now? It is giving us pressure again because we are not reading.”

At Hwang Juyeon’s words, I turned my eyes back to the book.

[His sister, who was five years older than him, was unlike the eldest brother who was like an indifferent father. She was like a strict mother. When Choi Jaeha caused trouble, she scolded him sharply so he would not pick up bad habits. Whenever she had the chance, Choi Jaeha’s sister followed her younger brother around and nagged at him, saying he must not do this at times like this, and must not do that at times like that.]

I did not particularly want to read something like Choi Jaeha’s biography.

But in the end, was a reading club not an activity where one read a book and shared one’s impressions of it?

Then I had to read. Even if I did not want to.

If that was the rule.

[Choi Jaeha cried a lot because of his sister, and for a long time, he hated her. But that was precisely what family was. If not his sister, who on earth would make Choi Jaeha into a person? His parents, who had already grown detached and exhausted from raising two siblings? His eldest brother, who had no great affection for a youngest brother young enough to be his nephew, and instead let him get away with everything?]

The book described Choi Jaeha’s life in fairly petty detail.

Memories of sitting with relatives his own age at his grandfather’s funeral and eating ice cream.

How he had received awards in math contests throughout all six years of elementary school.

How he entered middle school and began swearing habitually, only to get chewed out by his sister and fix it.

It was literally a book containing Choi Jaeha’s life, and most of it was ordinary stories that did not seem important at all.

Life was originally something interesting and important only to oneself. To others, it was nothing more than a boring and useless “story.”

[Choi Jaeha, who had been buried in his blanket and sobbing, suddenly got up and began writing a letter in crooked handwriting no one else could read.]

Why do I need to know about the love story of a middle school boy that was heartbreaking only to Choi Jaeha and merely pathetic to me?

Still, since it did not go beyond pathetic and reach the realm of ugly, it seemed that sister of his had indeed taught Choi Jaeha well.

[“Hey. Where are you going at this hour?”

Even the letter where he had pressed down every bit of his heart into words had failed, so just as Choi Jaeha had dressed and come out to visit her house, a cold voice stabbed into his back. It was his sister.

Choi Jaeha flinched and stammered out an explanation in a voice swollen with sorrow. He could not lie in front of his sister.

After hearing the whole story, his sister did not raise her voice at Choi Jaeha. Instead, she let out a deep sigh.

“Hey, that is how it is with friends and lovers. If only one side is holding on, the one holding on hurts their hand from holding so tight, and the one being held has the part being held go numb.”

As she said that, his sister pinched and pulled hard on the cheeks of her youngest brother, who was five years younger than her.

“Ah, aaah! It huuurts!”

“Does it hurt? It hurts me too, you brat.”

“Ah, what do you mean, it hurts! I hurt more, okay? Let go already!”

His sister neatly let go of his plump cheeks.

“Right? The one being held hurts more, right? So if you cannot accept that you were dumped here and go pathetically looking for her? Then you become the one hurting her now. Is that how I taught you?”]

The childish side and honest personality visible in Choi Jaeha were also proof that he had grown up in a fairly good environment.

More precisely, in an environment where there were people who loved him.

[With his sister’s lesson and one whole chicken for comfort, Choi Jaeha finally accepted his heartbreak. Of course, even afterward, for several days, he played breakup songs alone in his room and cried, only to be smacked on the back by his sister.

And not long afterward, he found a new love.]

I leaned back against the backrest for a moment and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

There was a serious oversupply of private life no one had asked for.

It was hard to believe I had not even read half of it yet.

My light eyeballs naturally rolled toward the librarian sitting on my right.

The librarian had her face buried in her book, as if she did not feel my gaze.

Watching her, I thought about the reason the librarian had to die.

Could the reason Hwang Juyeon killed Kim Gilyoung be because her life had been exposed in detail in the form of text?

I glanced at the accountant, who was reading the life story of the piano instructor and freelance mage.

If Hwang Juyeon killed people because they had half-forcibly peeked into her private life, then this time it would be Choi Jaeha.

So even while I continued reading the book about Choi Jaeha, I stayed on guard so I could pull Choi Jaeha back at any moment.

“辰粲竇?뀞Ⅵ텄嶪fv넆╋팻念!”

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

Hwang Juyeon stabbed Kim Gilyoung.