Vol 3 Prologue (1/2)
PROLOGUE: ROOM WITHOUT A HEATER
May 1, 2016Tgurneu
“Minth-san, run away!”
Hearing a woman’s voice all of a sudden, Armed Librarian Minth Chezine involuntarily stopped in his tracks He put his thick fingers to the hatchet-like sword hanging from his waist
Minth was at a corridor that had its walls, floor and ceiling all rey stones This stone floor upon which humans (as well as those ere not) came and went for thousands of years orn down yet smooth The floor and walls were stained here and there Those stains, either colored grey, grey-brown, dark-brown or reddish-broere all the traces of blood Armed Librarians or trainees have shed before
At intervals of about ten raved They were s and radiated light The pale cold light dimly illuminated the entire corridor The carved faces were ofthe sa in co symbol of the Library that housed all dead people in this world
It was incredibly chilly, as if it inter The sword hilt touched by Minth’s fingers was as cold as ice This was due to both the endothermic effect of the blue quartzes as well as the smell of death that dominated the site
He was currently at the Fifth Level of Bantorra Library’s underground Labyrinth It was the so-called core of the Library created by the Overseer of the Past
A single wo a scream She was Armed Librarian trainee Noloty Malche
“Noloty”
When she ca to him, Minth suddenly clutched her face Noloty’s feet were now standing on empty air
“O-ouch ouch, what’s that for?!”
“nobody’s chasing you, so what are you saying about running away?”
He turned Noloty around while holding her and put her down Looking ahead, Noloty sighed in relief
“Thank goodness…”
Minth lightly nudged at Noloty frohed
“What were you doing shouting like that when you’re just on the Fifth Labyrinth? Do you really plan on beco an Armed Librarian?”
“T-that’s not it”
Noloty refuted while exhaling a white breath
“I wasn’t chased around by the Guardian Beasts It was a human”
“Who was it?”
Minth asked, and Noloty averted her gaze for a short while before answering
“Mokkania-san”
Minth went silent He wrinkled his eyebroith a sour expression
“…You met Mokkania?”
He sighed Then, he once again flicked Noloty’s head
“If you got close to that idiot it’s your fault”
“Come on now, that’s unreasonable…”
Noloty ht to himself
It is said that being an Are and eccentric people in it Even Minth couldn’t deny it He recognized the fact that he wouldn’t fit as an honest citizen of society, and he also knew that there were plenty others like him
It wasn’t unthinkable There’s no way that a job that requires one to skirt between life and death regularly wouldThose who spent their youth in learning co Furthermore, since they possessed the techniques to depart frorow far detached from common sense in order to perfect it
Therefore, it was unavoidable that there ould be a lot of eccentric people a to say “cut that out” from time to time
Minth separated fro that, he went up two flights of stairs and one down He went around three corners and then passed two crossroads Even inside this complex maze, Minth didn’t hesitate even once
It has been thousands of years since the Labyrinth was h it was so extre around He knew that there were fifty one roads breaking through the Fifth Labyrinth He was headed towards the fifty-first of those that led to a route disconnected from all the others That corner of the Labyrinth was a dead end
“Mokkania”
Minth called There was no answer
“Mokkania, are you there?”
He called to hiain
There was a strange door in the wall of the dead end It was a small door made of maple tree that seemed as if it suddenly appeared on the stone wall On the center of that door was a sant sydom of Rona felt hopelessly unsuitable inside this cold Labyrinth
“Mokkania! Are you there?”
Just as he was about to touch the door knob, a loud voice came from inside
“Here!”
“If you’re there then answer me”
“I answered now”
“I meant immediately”
Speaking in a bitter tone, Minth turned the doorknob The rooe
It wasn’t too big Being around seven squarealone in
It wasn’t that there were special things inside The furniture was refined yet siant drawing of apple groves and a water wheel hanged on the wall It looked like the room a small family as poor yet lived happily
Nothing was strange about the roo a fa in peace at some town, and not a residence at the Fifth Sealed Labyrinth of Bantorra Library
Minth always felt dizzy when he ca of the boundary between the nornawed at his mind
“What’s wrong, Minth?”
The room’s owner turned his back to Minth He sat on the floor cluttered with toys and see with his hands
“Mokkania, what did you do to Noloty?”
“I just asked her what she was doing here”
The room’s owner – Mokkania – turned around only his head
He was a young raceful features His white face peeked froaps in his hair that fell to the nape of his neck
With normal clothes he could be a very handsome man However, his deep-blue suit rinkled and his shi+rt was open up to the second button The small knot of his refined silk necktie was loosened and went farther below the larger knot He certainly looked like a recluse
Mokkania’s eyes seemed vacant, as if he just woke up now
“I’m at a very important part now Let’s talk later”
Saying that, Mokkania looked away Then, he started playing with a squirrel doll he held in his hand
“Then the fox said – ‘winter is coather plenty of acorns and warm leaves’He then went to see his friend the squirrel”
It seemed to be some fairy tale But Minth never heard of it Perhaps it was made up by Mokkania himself
“‘Squirrel-kun Please give ot it, fox-kun I’ll go get them’
The fox thought that the squirrel was a very good boy He would do anything for him after all
Conversely, he thought that bear-kun was horrible”
Mokkania kept narrating while he moved the dolls
It can’t be the iht
The man’s name was Mokkania Fleur He would become twenty three years old later that year
He was an Armed Librarian for er than Minth, but two years his senior in the job
Originally, he was an elite areat expectations He obtained the qualification of an Arer to work He was so refined and courteous that no one had any doubt he would beco Director
However, starting from a certain time, he became reluctant to co to people, and especially hated talking omen
In addition, he never ca dayti eccentric because of it, and eventually created a residence of his own accord inside the Labyrinth Currently he secluded himself in the midst of the Labyrinth and only came outside when he had to procure food and water
Even during the assault on Bantorra Library lastthe Monster, Mokkania simply ate snacks inside this room
He continued playing with his dolls
“Bear-kun was the scariest ani lots of honey to my place’
Because it was near winter, there was barely any honey in the forest Also, honey was fox-kun’s favorite food However, as bear-kun very scary when he was mad, fox-kun always did as he told him to
He searched for honey inside the forest and squirrel-kun talked to him ‘Fox-kun, I came to look for leaves and honey’ And fox-kun answered, ‘oh, thank you squirrel-kun’ Fox-kun soon brought the leaves and honey to bear-kun’s place
‘You’re a good guy’ Bear-kun said so and withdrew inside his den
The fox thought, if only I was stronger than him, he wouldn’t be able to do as he pleased…”
Minth took a bottle of alcohol frohed