Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Empty-Handed You Come, Empty-Handed You Go

“It seems this floor is, ugh!”

I flashed the light into Yoo Hyunjae’s eyes and threw my fist with all my strength.

“Mr. Seon…… Yuhan? Why…….”

I ran as if my life depended on it.

Toward the place where Yoo Hyunjae had first been.

“No way. Ah, no. You must not…….”

What section was it again?

C07? G01?

“It is a misunderstanding. Stop.”

Ah. Seeing that this whole line was Area C, it seemed C07 was right.

“Do not go, Mr. Seon Yuhan. Stop. Stop running. You must not see…….”

Yoo Hyunjae seemed to belatedly raise himself and chase after me.

Perhaps he had twisted his ankle when he fell earlier, because he did not seem to be running.

“Ah.”

This was it.

In Area C07, a midsize sedan and an SUV were parked.

Behind the sedan, gastric fluid that Yoo Hyunjae seemed to have vomited was splattered across the car stopper and wall.

And behind the SUV, across the car stopper and wall.

“Ah, ah…….”

Red blood that had not even fully clotted yet was splattered.

Ah. No. No way. That cannot be.

Barely holding on to the car body, I staggered toward the driver’s side of the SUV hidden behind the pillar.

Thud.

And at the sight before my eyes, I dropped my phone.

“J-Jiho……?”

No. This is not right. This is unfair.

“Ms. Hwang Juyeon……?”

It looked exactly like a play.

White light softly shining toward the ceiling.

An innocent child and an innocent woman collapsed while holding each other’s hands.

Bodies drenched in dark red blood as if they had been washed clean of sin, and faces pale enough to seem transparent.

White fragments of exposed ribs, crushed red flesh spilling down, and the empty space between them.

The missing hearts.

A tragedy where only the most flawless met an eternal death for no reason, while only the filthiest stubbornly survived and suffered.

“H-How……. Why, like this…….”

“Mr. Seon Yuhan…….”

“You, Yoo Hyunjae, you…… what did you do?”

Grab!

My body lunged forward instinctively.

“Ugh…….”

“What happened here?!”

“Calm down. I did not do this, ugh. It was not me.”

Yoo Hyunjae raised both hands as if proving his innocence.

They were dirty with something like dust, but there were no bloodstains.

“Do not play word games. I do not think you tore people apart like this with your own hands either.”

More and more strength went into the elbow pressing down on Yoo Hyunjae’s neck.

“I think you offered them to a monster as bait.”

“I did not. I only…….”

Yoo Hyunjae, coughing after being slammed against the wall, lowered his head as if ashamed without even resisting.

The corners of his shadowed eyes were red.

I could not understand.

How those two had died like this in such a short time, or Yoo Hyunjae, who had hidden that fact and now made such a hateful expression.

“I am sorry I lied earlier. I thought, Mr. Seon Yuhan, that you were someone trying to harm those two…….”

“……What?”

“If things went wrong, I was planning to attack you and run away…….”

“What, what did you just say……?”

My chest suddenly tightened as if squeezed.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan, please……. Calm down and listen to me.”

Yoo Hyunjae’s hands covered my forearm pressing on his neck and my clenched fist.

As calm warmth traveled over the back of my hand, my strength slowly loosened.

“When you first asked me about those two people, you sounded exactly like a hunter who had lost his prey……. I misunderstood.”

In the middle of my dizzy mind, I barely replayed the conversation from earlier.

‘Did you perhaps see anyone else here?’

‘Someone else?’

‘Yes. A child and a woman. Two people. They should have come down here.’

‘Are they your family?’

‘No, that is not it. I met them upstairs, but, mm. I lost them.’

‘Do you need to catch them?’

Ha.

When I had been wary of Yoo Hyunjae, Yoo Hyunjae had been wary of me in exactly the same way.

And from Yoo Hyunjae’s point of view, there had even been enough circumstantial evidence to see me as a dangerous person.

“And although it was only for a brief moment, when I encountered those two people, they truly looked as if they were being chased.”

My breathing grew ragged.

His voice scattered into mumbling, as if I were hearing something I should not hear.

“The woman screamed in fear before she could even properly see my face. Then, not long after, they ended up like that……. Ah, Mr. Seon Yuhan, no. You must not. Take a deep breath.”

So because of me.

All of it, because of me.

Because of me.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan, breathe slowly.”

Someone grabbed my wrist.

Someone seemed to be speaking. I could not hear well.

Thump, thump. My heart seemed to be beside my ear. Thump, thump. A heart. Hearts. Even the shares of the dead. Thump, thump. They seemed to be beating inside me. Thump, thump. They are mine. The ones I stole. Thump, thump. They are mine. The ones stolen from me. Thump, thump.

“Look here and calm dow—”

—Clatter.

“Ah, so it heard after all. About two minutes, then…….”

Clank. Splash.

Something approached from the darkness where the faint flashlight could not reach.

Clang, clack, clatter, a metallic sound colliding in a steady rhythm.

Whir, click, whirr, the faint sound of gears interlocking.

Squish, splatter, the sound of something like flesh being crushed underfoot.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

A monster.

“Stop thinking about the dead and calm down first.”

A monster that ate people.

“Take a deep breath. That is how you live.”

Even after swallowing that much, it was still not enough. In the end.

“By my guess, that false Buddha is after hearts—”

“—One who has not escaped craving does not know that ‘I’ is empty, ‘you’ are empty, and ‘we’ are empty.”

Crunch.

‘Is it not truly a monster of the Labyrinth?’

The moment that dry voice repeated in my ears.

“The Tathagata is one who comes in accordance with suchness, one who goes in accordance with reality, and one who correctly awakens to nirvana.”

Grind.

“Gladly listening to the thoughts of sentient beings who cannot sever the 108 afflictions.”

The compassionate Buddha statue’s fingers tore through my chest like paper, crushed my ribs, and invaded.

“It shall personally guide pitiful sentient beings into the world of true suchness.”

Cold mercy pierced my whole body like truth.

“However, rebirth in the Pure Land is not a necessary and sufficient condition for liberation.”

Even in that moment, Yoo Hyunjae was still gripping my wrist.

Until I left the Saha world.

……You should have just run away. You crazy bastard.

***

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

“Fu.”

A terrible agony shimmered over my chest like a mirage.

It was an illusion.

“My heart. The hearts.”

“Pardon? Mr. Seon Yuhan, are you feeling unwell?”

When I clutched my chest and muttered, the interviewer looked at me worriedly.

“No. They are well.”

“Ah, mm? I see.”

I approached the interviewer, who answered awkwardly.

“Please get up. This building has become a Labyrinth.”

“Pardon?”

The interviewer, dragged out into the hallway, first looked at me as if wondering whether I really was sick, but when they saw me reciting the Labyrinth precautions like a Buddhist chant, they nodded seriously.

“Ah, and the librarian. The librarian must be killed…….”

The moment I thought of that disgusting existence.

My words began spilling out of my mouth incoherently.

“To go down from the second floor, but the floors are mixed, so after that is Basement 5, anyway, in the library, the librarian must be killed. It will be hard, but she must be killed. That damned……! That. That is not human.”

“Wait. Just a moment, Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

The moment I felt strength gripping both my arms, my wavering vision fixed on one place.

There was no monster there wearing human skin, and no human bleeding to death because of it.

Only the interviewer, looking straight at me.

“Look at me.”

“Yes. I am looking.”

“Well done.”

Only after I calmed down did the interviewer smile.

No, was it the other way around?

I probably could not become a Raider agent as good as this.

“But by library, you mean Book Bang Ollae, correct? That place originally uses a self-checkout lending system, so there is no librarian…….”

“Ah, fu.”

This time, it was truly hard to hold back my curse.

“Not easy…….”

“Pardon?”

“It is not easy. A Labyrinth truly is…….”

Heat rose from my lower abdomen.

Of all things, I had gone through that mess several times because only people who had never been to Book Bang Ollae had gathered.

“Then let us meet again later, Mr. Seon Yuhan. Be careful.”

“Yes. Please do not wait for me. I hope you stay safe.”

After finishing the remaining explanation, I quickly parted from the interviewer.

3:31…… 3:32.

Press.

RIIIIIIIIING—!

I pressed the fire alarm and ran down the corridor at full speed, then pressed the elevator button.

4… 3… DING!

That was close.

Because I had fallen into panic and lost time, I had almost missed the timing.

「The doors are opening.」

The elevator doors split to either side like an incised chest.

I saw the sullen face of the neatly dressed brown-haired accountant.

“Surely you are not getting in? I was already about to get off because of the alarm.”

“……It has been a while, Mr. Choi Jaeha.”

Truly.

***

“I am telling you it will not work anyway…….”

“No, how do you know without even trying—”

“—Uh, over there……?”

As we were bickering on the second floor over whether to break a window with a fire extinguisher or not, we ran into Hwang Juyeon, who had escaped the infinite staircase.

If I sounded the fire alarm just before the blackout at 3:33, I could make Choi Jaeha get off on the third floor and meet Hwang Juyeon in the hallway too.

Although it was somewhat accidental, I had found a way to meet Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon outside Book Bang Ollae.

The three of us briefly shared our situations and introduced ourselves.

“I was here to do a magic performance at the daycare center here. After it ended, I meant to rest my eyes in the library for a bit, but, ha, seriously.”

I should not have done that. Her voice was bitter as she added that.

“Ah, right! The librarian!”

Hwang Juyeon suddenly shouted as if screaming.

“Where is that person that we did not run into her? Is she still in the library……? Ah, no, I woke up because of the alarm and went toward the entrance, and the librarian was there. I did not see her when I first went in because she was not at her seat…….”

The freelance mage, who had been muttering to herself, explained awkwardly.

“Anyway, so I asked her what this was, whether it was a real alarm. Then she told me to leave first. She said she would check with the management office and come out right away. But now that I think about it, if she came out too, she should be on the second floor somewhere, right? Since we cannot go down no matter how much we descend.”

“Ah, wait a moment. Ms. Hwang Juyeon.”

I stopped Hwang Juyeon as she turned toward the library.

“I will go check the library, so how about you and Mr. Choi Jaeha go to the daycare center first?”

I could not let them into the library.

Not Hwang Juyeon, not Choi Jaeha. No one but me.

I could not make the same mistake.

“Ms. Hwang Juyeon is at least somewhat familiar to them, so the children will probably feel a little more comfortable accepting her. I will bring only the librarian and go straight to the daycare center.”

“What, you are not going to abandon us and run off somewhere alone, are you?”

Choi Jaeha glared at me.

It seemed half like a joke, so I weakly shook my head too.

“I wish there were somewhere I could run to, even by doing that.”

Mm.

It must not have been very funny. I had been joking too.

“In any case, if there is no particular problem in the library…….”

3:41.

I checked the time and continued.

“No matter how late I am, I will go to the daycare center within ten minutes.”

“Fine. Hurry up, bring only the librarian, and come straight back. Do not do anything strange.”

Leaving behind the accountant, whose trust in me converged on zero, and the freelance mage, who was looking at me worriedly, I headed for Book Bang Ollae.

If my guess was correct, the reading club checked the number of people in ten-minute intervals and began if there was even one human besides the librarian.

In other words, I had nine minutes until it was 3:50.

“Uh, uhh……? The door, how did you open the door? The door was locked, sob, so I could not leave…….”

Nine minutes was enough.

“Um, excuse me……? Why are you looking at me like…….”

To kill a monster.

8. Kill the Librarian. There Is No Librarian Here, and It Is Not Human.