Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Magic to Enter the Daycare Center

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

“I will tell you just once what I plan to do. Please remember it well.”

The interviewer nodded along with my solemn voice.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth again.

“I won’t run hastily on the stairs or stand still there for too long, I won’t take the elevator, I won’t stay in the interview room past four o’clock, if someone asks me for the time I’ll answer honestly, I’ll follow the theater instructions thoroughly, I won’t recklessly enter the company daycare center as an outsider, at the goods store I’ll pay in full, and when reading a book in the library, I will absolutely not do anything like skip through the middle.”

“Uh. Ah……, I see. Having many detailed plans is a good thing.”

“Yes, Mr. Interviewer. This place has become a Labyrinth. And I’m going to follow that plan.”

“Pardon?”

“Please ask the Raiders you are in charge of to spread the news on social media that Jaerae Building has undergone Labyrinthization. So that no one enters this place even by mistake. Please get up.”

“Uh, yes……? Mr. Seon Yuhan, wait……, you are serious.”

“Yes.”

As I brought the interviewer out, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Come to think of it, if the news spread through social media like this, maybe the fire brigade would not enter even if I activated the fire hose cabinet’s manual alarm button.

If we were lucky, maybe at least the people on the first floor could get out.

Of course, even if they were in the first-floor lobby, I did not know whether they could escape immediately, and that was nothing more than my hope, but…….

Ah. I really do not know.

What if the loud alarm drew the unnecessary attention of some Hostile Entity and ended up getting people killed instead?

I was already struggling to handle my own life.

I did not have the capacity to weigh the lives and deaths of this many people.

It was a little different from a dilemma where I abandoned one or two people for my own sake.

If I did nothing, nothing would change, and those who would live would live while those who would die would die.

But if I pressed the button here.

Someone who would have died might live, but someone who would have lived might die.

Good intentions did not necessarily bring good results. Especially not in a Labyrinth.

Of course, malice almost certainly brought bad results, so choosing goodwill was the wiser option, but…….

“Mr. Seon Yuhan, are you all right? You suddenly look very unwell. Please tell me if you need anything.”

“I…….”

The interviewer’s eyes held sincere concern.

They were eyes that somehow gave one something to rely on.

That was probably exactly the kind of ability a Raider agent needed.

So, without realizing it, I spilled out my dilemma.

If I pressed the button on this fire hose cabinet, the alarm might save someone, but it might also kill someone instead.

“What on earth should I do at a time like th—”

—Press.

RIIIIIIIIING!

“Huh?”

“What do you mean, what should you do? If it goes wrong, blame me. Of course, if it goes well, then naturally, it is thanks to me.”

I could feel the interviewer speaking in a deliberately relaxed tone.

But it did not feel entirely artificial either.

RIIIIING—! RIIIIIIIIING!

Amid the sharp metallic alarm loud enough to make my ears ring, I stared blankly at the interviewer.

“What did you just…….”

“I simply did what I had to do. The burden looked heavy, so I lightened it a little for you.”

I could not hear the voice clearly.

But why was it?

That voice felt as though it was cutting straight down the middle of my chest along an incision that had vanished without a trace. Like the tip of some scale’s blade.

“A Labyrinth is originally a place made for wandering. No matter which path you choose, it is only natural not to know what lies even an inch ahead. But in the end, you cannot know unless you go there. What waits at the end.”

The Raider agent naturally lowered the hand that had pressed the button.

I pretended not to see the trembling at those fingertips and silently stared at the interviewer.

It was the face of someone who was afraid, yet clearly knew what they had to do.

The face I hated most.

“I am planning to stop by the daycare center on the second floor first. Do you intend to come with me?”

“Ah……. The power will go out soon and the elevator will stop, so I am going to get the person inside out. Please go ahead first, Mr. Interviewer. Do not wait for me. You remember what I told you, correct?”

“Yes, I remember. Then I will see you later, Mr. Seon Yuhan. Please be careful.”

RIIIIIIIIING—!

After parting from the interviewer, I pressed the elevator button and anxiously looked up at the elevator panel.

Even though I knew all the circumstances before and after the alarm had begun ringing, the sound of the alarm itself had the power to make a person’s heart shrivel.

8… 7… 6… 5… 4…

The elevator seemed to be coming down slightly more slowly than usual.

No way.

3… DING!

「The doors are opening.」

Choi Jaeha was not there.

It seemed that man had gotten off on his own even without me telling him to. After hearing the fire alarm.

It felt extremely strange.

Should I call him praiseworthy, or should I call it absurd?

But what would that man do by himself?

I had no idea what might happen on another floor.

A man like him seemed like he would die quickly.

That did not mean I wanted to go upstairs looking for Choi Jaeha to help him.

I could not become that good of a person.

Whether that man was someone’s beloved youngest child born late or whatever else, he was not more precious than my own life.

RIIIIIIIIING—!

Mm. I did not know if Choi Jaeha really was the youngest child born late.

But judging from how he acted, it somehow seemed likely.

CRASH, RUMBLE, CRAAASH!

BANG!

CRAAASH, THUD!

Around the time I went down the stairs, the six-elevator falling event happened in sequence.

Cut.

The fire alarm that had been ringing as if stabbing my ears with an awl stopped.

Strange.

The fire alarm should operate regardless of the building’s blackout.

Thinking that, I shook my head.

By that logic, the elevators should not fall either.

This place was a Labyrinth.

A place where one could not know what would happen, and where one had to accept whatever happened.

CLUNK.

When I opened the second-floor emergency exit and stepped out, I saw the scenery that had now become boringly familiar.

This time too, I started toward the corridor on Uri Saenal Daycare Center’s side to go to Book Bang Ollae, then paused.

The thought that it might be nice to buy only an emergency kit and a tumbler from the goods store Tarae flashed through my mind.

But my feet would not move easily.

My legs felt heavy.

No, if they did not move well, did that mean they were light?

How did I do it again? My legs? When I walked?

1.03. Would it show up if I searched it online? Huh. Why is the internet not working? Then what am I supposed to do? 3.42. Since when did I have legs? I definitely paid, didn’t I? No. I did not steal. 7.56. I gave my feet too. I gave my calves too. I gave my thighs too. 12.01 kilograms!

Why are they still here?

What if it comes back to take them again?

Why do I have so many fingers?

What if it thinks I stole them?

Ah!

If I get rid of them again, will it believe me?

“Ha, it is the second floor again…….”

CLUNK.

An unfamiliar voice struck my dazed ears.

I turned my head toward where the sound had come from.

A person was standing in front of another emergency exit, not the one I had come out of.

A woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, wearing a three-piece suit, with her long hair tied back into one long tail.

Perhaps she was a little hot, because her face was flushed and sweat had gathered on her forehead.

“Huh?”

The woman who discovered me let out that ominous sound.

This time, I did not close my eyes.

“Uh, are you also?”

“Pardon? Am I what……?”

“No matter how far you go down, it is the second floor, right?!”

“Ah.”

For a moment, I blankly moved only my eyes, then blinked several times.

For some reason, my eyes felt dry.

“Yes, that is correct. I tried going down to the basement first floor, but I still came out on the second floor.”

“Right?! This place is too strange. No matter how I look at it…….”

The woman with narrow, foxlike eyes bit her lip.

I knew what this person wanted to say. No, what she did not want to say.

“Yes. It seems to have become a Labyrinth. An Invasive-type.”

“Ha, seriously, I knew it, ha……. What do I do, really…….”

The woman crouched down as if collapsing and poured out a dense, compressed lament for about thirty seconds before springing to her feet.

“I…… have no intention of dying here. You should not be spacing out already either. You were not preparing to write a will on your phone or something, were you?”

“Ah, no, I was not. I have no intention of dying either.”

If I died here.

If I ended up dying in this Labyrinth.

How meaningless would those deaths become?

At that moment, the tangled mess inside my head cleared neatly.

My goal was not to solve a locked-room murder case.

It was to survive and escape the Labyrinth.

That alone was my goal.

“My name is Hwang Juyeon. Sometimes I do magic performances as a freelancer. I came here because there was an event at the daycare center, and now this happened.”

The daycare center!

I made an effort to control my expression.

“My name is Seon Yuhan. I came here for an interview at Yuwi Guild.”

With this person, I might be able to enter the daycare center.

I looked back on the route I had traveled so far.

In the first place, I had been trying to search every location once in order to find a clue that might let me leave the second floor.

First was the main auditorium.

There, I watched what was either a documentary about the Seonghwa High Labyrinth or a snuff film.

Next was the daycare center.

There, I got entrance-cut because I was an outsider.

Next was the goods store.

I went to Tarae partly to find an employee who could enter the daycare center with me and partly to buy the Jaerae Diary I had seen in the advertisement, and then one two three four five yes fingers are originally five, right? Including both hands? Legs are originally things that gradually get lighter.

Next was the library.

The first time, I found the dead librarian and took her to the daycare center, and the stuffed goose drove me out, saying I had brought some ugly doll, as if the pot were not calling the kettle black.

In the next loop, when I went back to the library, the librarian had once again been attacked by someone.

And back here again, now.

After going around and around, I had finally found a living human being who might be able to enter Uri Saenal Daycare Center with me.

Only now, after going through all of that!

“I was thinking of stopping by the daycare center first. There might be a clue that lets us go down. Would you like to come with me, Ms. Hwang Juyeon?”

Hwang Juyeon.

If it was this person.

If she was the freelance mage invited to Uri Saenal Daycare Center, then she was not a complete ‘outsider.’

In other words, she might be able to get in without being entrance-cut, and break through that cute doll security.

Of course, I was not sure whether I could also enter with her, and since there was a possibility she was the culprit who had harmed the librarian, I had to stay wary.

“Mm, should we? I do not have any special plan anyway. Two should be better than one. We can also check whether there are any children left while we are there. The quiet makes me uneasy.”

When I had stopped by the daycare center last time, judging from the shoe rack, it seemed there was one teacher and one child there.

Perhaps the other children had suddenly disappeared somewhere, like the interviewer.

“But would breaking the window and going down not work?”

Hwang Juyeon pointed to the corridor’s full-length window, through which the maze garden in Jaerae Building’s courtyard could be seen.

I had not tried it because I knew such a shallow move would not work, but Accountant Choi Jaeha had.

“I tried it, but it did not work.”

“Right? As expected…….”

Hwang Juyeon accepted it easily.

Unless one did not know this was a Labyrinth, this was probably the usual response.

If a space allowed escape in that kind of way, the danger level of Invasive Labyrinths would have dropped dramatically.

Just as patterns had gradually been identified and Raiders became more active, making Contact-type Labyrinths receive treatment similar to traffic accidents.

Wait.

Had Choi Jaeha really done that?

I did not remember it.

Why did it feel as if Choi Jaeha had thrown a fire extinguisher at the window? While foaming at the mouth.

Well, in any case, something that did not work did not work.

“Let us go in for now.”

Hwang Juyeon nodded.

I carefully opened the door to Uri Saenal Daycare Center.

Hoping it would not become the “Then why did you come? Die!” development again.

“Oh my!”

“Ah, that scared me……! What is this?”

The toys were drawn up in battle formation with the stuffed goose at their head.

Hwang Juyeon stepped backward, but the door was locked.

“Are you not Mage Hwang Juyeon?”

“Do not panic too much. Just answer honestly.”

I quickly whispered to the flustered Hwang Juyeon.

“Uh, yes. That is right…….”

Hwang Juyeon looked down at the stuffed goose with a bewildered expression and answered.

“We enjoyed your performance so much earlier! The children loved it very, very much!”

The toys, which had been expressionless like the inanimate objects they were, somehow seemed to twitch in good spirits.

“But…….”

The lively stuffed goose’s voice settled softly, as if changing from a major key to a minor key.

“Who might this person here be?”

Two black, barren periods rested on me.