Free Web NovelI kept worrying.
What would happen if the two of them recognized each other.
“.......”
Especially the moment the Wolf Leader faced his own future — what would he do.
“......So that’s why.”
Eyes turning to look at me.
“‘The future of Baekilmong,’ you phrased it around, asked if I was curious about my future.”
“......!”
“It didn’t feel like the whispering of a ghost story. As expected, a remarkably impressive product of the future has appeared.”
“.......”
“My future, huh.”
But there was no despair in those eyes.
Instead, a dim gaze — as if calculating something deeply — brushed past the Guard Captain and me.
Then he opened his mouth toward me in a gentle tone.
“Then....”
A gigantic black forepaw descended.
“...!”
Before the Wolf Leader could finish speaking, a sudden crush of beastly claws slammed down above his head. A sticky, black, tar-like substance coated the surface.
The Wolf Leader reacted instantly to the unannounced calamity and tried to slide away across the floor, but as if that too had been predicted, another hand twisted around and gripped him tightly.
Two contaminated hands.
They seized the Wolf Leader.
“.......”
It had happened in an instant without warning.
Because the sudden movement bore no rule or omen, no one could react.
Why....
“Why are you doing this?”
“Um... I thought you might try something...?”
“...!”
“Yes. At this point... no footsteps... no commotion... so it’s fine....”
The figure melted and the overwhelming, bizarre contamination revealed itself, yet still clutching his past tightly, the Guard Captain looked at me.
“Hey, quickly—shut his... mouth... you know... that thing... the badger... restraint device....”
“.......”
“He’d try something else....”
I—
I took out the restraint that had been the homeroom teacher’s gag moments earlier and began to bind the Wolf Leader.
Cold eyes met me beneath the wolf mask.
“...!”
I lowered my gaze.
Sweat beaded on my palms.
Is this really right? Doubts and confusion filled my head, but a stronger premonition came over me.
If I didn’t bind him here, the Guard Captain would use a harsher measure.
‘He might sever limbs.’
He would make such a merciless choice to his own past as if it were nothing....
“.......”
The Guard Captain watched with his jaundiced pupils as I finished muffling the Wolf Leader’s mouth.
“He keeps... trying to extract information... being a nuisance....”
In the brief interval left with only the two of us, he must have treated the Golden Mascot the same way.
His eyes made clear the certainty that he had been the same toward me while the Wolf Leader accompanied us.
“Maybe... we should just kill him....”
“Please wait a moment.”
No!
“This person is Mr. J’s past. If you eliminate him carelessly, who knows what will happen. It’s too dangerous.”
“Hmm....”
I frantically drew out reasons to persuade him.
“You just compared our state to a book and its pages. If you suddenly tear pages out, you end up damaging the book. Ourselves.”
The Guard Captain, about to pull his cap down, froze and stared at me as he realized both his hands were clutching the past.
“Besides... I barely remember anything anyway....”
“Still.”
“.......”
“You remember what you told me, right? You said we should check what kind of food he liked.”
The Guard Captain tilted his head slightly.
“Save extreme choices that erase possibilities for last. And....”
I spoke as calmly as I could.
“And if they brought forth our past selves truly to use them as the Librarian, who knows how the library would retaliate if we killed him.”
“......hm.”
A look.
A look....
“Alright then....”
The clawed black hands that had held the Wolf Leader vanished.
The Guard Captain’s arms resumed a human form and, gaunt as ever, went limp at his sides.
‘Phew.’
Cold sweat ran down my jaw.
Sorry
my bad
“No.”
The Wolf Leader’s truth-detection had been nearly superhuman. The costume of a theme-park mascot, limited to exaggerated emotional cues and blunt words, would have been insufficient.
If the resort wasn’t a resort and if the mascot had truly intended sincere communication, even more so.
Still, perhaps out of continued concern, the Golden Mascot finally tried to lift the Wolf Leader.
I’ll
take him with me
“No... keep him....”
We
will carry him down
And the Golden Mascot pointed the round, paw-like hand of its cat costume toward the passage.
The place the Guard Captain and I had just escaped from.
A dark, red-streaked backway through the stacks.
“...You’re going that way?”
He nodded.
We will
file it
That way
so you can
leave
“.......”
A strange guilt rose up, and with it a reluctance to affirm this choice.
‘...If this mascot becomes Hanbit Library’s Librarian—’
Would my contamination disappear?
Would the resort be subsumed by the library?
‘...I don’t know.’
Still—would that actually be okay?
Even if this being was a personification of my tainted part of the library.
Is it acceptable to leave it behind?
“.......”
Think.
Not from an emotional place, but what action is most justifiable now.
“How about we all go together?”
“All... of us....”
“Yes. Since a button was found there, the others are probably below as well.”
Because the sudden event of past and future J3 recognizing each other made it easy to be mistaken, but information and the environment hadn’t actually changed.
Our objective remained the same.
— Check on the others’ condition, and get ourselves out safely.
That.
“Deputy Sparrowhawk’s recording cut off unnaturally — it looks like something happened.”
And the escape method hadn’t changed.
“If needed we can take the drug, but until then we should search for signs of the others and their welfare, and see if there are other options.”
“.......” freёwebnoѵel.com
“.......”
“All right....”
Phew.
Thus it was decided again.
We would all go down that strange path together, at least until another route opened.
“.......”
The Guard Captain took responsibility for the bound Wolf Leader.
With no hesitation, the Guard Captain, who had seized an adult male from an elite team, stepped forward.
So we once more, as if caught in repeating fate, set foot into the passage.
Well, I was the only one treading it for the third time.
‘Ha.’
...Good that I had said my farewells to Lee Gyeol.
‘Let’s not use only written messages.’
Just be careful with the writing. Yes... I had already scouted, so it was a viable choice.
‘Phew.’
I moved forward.
Inside.
“.......”
“.......”
...There was almost no sound of footsteps.
The hidden stacks’ path grew oddly steep, quiet and pitch-dark. Red lights sporadically illuminated shelves and books....
I realized.
The material of the shelves lining the passage had changed without me noticing.
‘...Bone? Clay?’
What was certain was that it wasn’t modern material.
Very old shelving, a sallow brown, gray, black — whether leather, rotted earth, or fossilized bone was impossible to tell....
Yet the books slotted within them were strangely vivid and crammed tight.
“.......”
“.......”
A wiki update.
Curiosity that does not fill the chest may enter deeper. The place that wishes to be opened passes, the shining place calls, the mirror that reflects truth — meet the owner of Hanbit Library
Prostrate
prostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrateprostrate
I closed my smartphone.
Cold sweat soaked my neck.
“.......”
Then I looked up.
After walking perhaps a hundred meters or so... the downward, dark path ended.
The passage’s terminus.
The dead end was surrounded on five faces — front, right, left, above, below — all completely blocked by bookshelves.
And there was a sign attached....
· ■rea■Reference Room
→■Reference■Archive
←■■■■rea
↑■Reference Room■
A jumble.
Whether from the darkness, wear, or some other factor, the letters were hard to read.
But I could make out one word.
‘Reference room’ — the way larger libraries divide materials into themed areas.
That structure had finally shown itself here, in a mess.
“.......”
Only one thing, though.
↓ Place of Worship
Those characters read all too clearly, right there....
A path leading downward.
“.......”
“This... looks like it opens....”
Thunk.
With the Guard Captain’s foot movement a shelf in the floor trembled.
Like a cellar or an attic door. The shelf clearly functioned as a door that opened up and down.
I knew it by instinct.
‘It’s down here.’
The place that called for a Librarian.
“.......”
The Guard Captain set the Wolf Leader down on the floor.
“I’ll open it... and put him in....”
“Enough.”
...!
“Tongues and teeth are a bit difficult.”
I turned my head and saw the Wolf Leader’s mouth stained with blood.
The gag at his mouth was loosened somewhat and his speech came out slurred.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘They even captured the contaminated Park Minseong.’
How on earth? He must have used some method — no way he cut his own tongue... damn!
“Calm down. If it were me, I wouldn’t intend to make a fuss here.”
“.......”
The Guard Captain slowly withdrew the arm that had been pressing the Wolf Leader down.
...Through the black silhouettes, the wolf mask regarded us.
“I’m not trying to fight. Nor am I trying to run.”
A relaxed, composed voice.
“Considering the passage length and the limit on making footsteps, he’ll be caught again before that.”
“.......”
“Just something I realized that I wanted to say. The Hanbit Library Usage Rules.”
“What is that?”
His gaze fixed on me.
“Kim Soleum. You remember this rule, right?”
Leave once you’ve gained one thing.
“It’s the only conditional rule. What do you think it means?”
So—when you gain knowledge....
“You must have thought it meant that once you’ve gained some information from the library, you should leave without hesitation. Isn’t that right?”
“...!”
“Well done. A reasonable deduction. But now that I’ve seen this place for myself, it feels as though the library moves according to the will of something with a very definite sense of self.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“In that single conditional clause—maybe there’s another subject we’ve been missing.”
A faint, blood-tinged smile spread beneath the wolf mask.
“The library’s own self-awareness. Suppose we fill in the missing subject like this: ...‘I.’”
...!
If I gain one thing, leave.
From the library’s point of view, the phrase becomes a megalomaniacal declaration.
And there was one strong piece of evidence to support that reading—
Its demand for a Librarian.
“It means, when the library obtains a Librarian, the others may leave as users.”
“.......”
“And since it doesn’t specify who—then it doesn’t matter which side it is, does it?”
“So, Captain—”
I swallowed hard.
“You’re saying you want to be the one who leaves this place instead of Mr. J?”
“No.”
A clear voice spoke from beneath the wolf mask.
“I mean it’s more advantageous for both our past and future selves if I am the one to leave this library.”
“...!”
“Smart, Agent Yong. Let me go.”
Through the mask, lucid, deep eyes met mine.
“Now that I know the future, I can prepare for it.”
What—?
“But you said yourself, the fixed future can’t be changed—”
“Yes. That was me.”
The figure declared it plainly.
Then his gaze swept over the Guard Captain—
The contamination, the spent remnants of his once-brilliant faculties.
His own decayed future.
“I’ve seen what I become decades from now, and maybe that can’t be changed. ...But listen. There are still secrets about my future that even you don’t know—and those I can start creating right now.”
“......!”
“It’s troublesome and complicated, sure. But now that I know, I can choose another way. For example...”
His eyes turned toward the Guard Captain.
“I can start preparing right now the methods and tools I’ll need to recover when I end up like this.”
“...!”
“Or I could feign contamination from the start, or look into the darkness for a way to awaken from it decades later.... There are plenty of ways.”
“.......”
“For the sake of the future me—the one who’ll become the Librarian in this library’s darkness—I can even prepare an escape.”
So that’s what he meant.
That the current Guard Captain might already, unknowingly, have hidden ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) every preparation for recovery from this wolf-borne contamination somewhere long ago.
That he could still be healed.
“So, for a better future—for another possibility—can you let me go?”
The Wolf Leader gazed quietly at me.
I froze.
This commander of the past Elite Team was saying he would set up in advance every uncertain factor of his future—
and make them the best ones.
“I can do that,” he said with conviction.
The voice of someone who knows precisely what power he holds.
...Then—
Would that also be good for Mr. J now?
They were, after all, the same person.
Instinctively I looked to the Guard Captain. I couldn’t help it.
“.......”
He stood perfectly still.
In the dim red corridor, upon the warped, monstrous shelves—gaunt, frail, unkempt, neglected.
So contaminated he couldn’t even endure the moment when dosed with Nostalgia Candy.
The Wolf Leader’s future lifted his head.
And, looking at his past, said—
“No.”
“I can’t let that happen....”
The Wolf Leader’s mask disappeared into the Guard Captain’s long shadow.
“You’ve already become me. You’re not a possibility.”
.......
“I’m the one who looked through the library’s window... You’re my past. I’m not your prediction of the future....”
Ah.
“And what’s already happened can’t be changed....”
The Guard Captain looked at himself.
At the past already traversed.
The personality, form, and memories that had once been his.
“You were... arrogant.”
“.......”
“And that, too... is something I can’t change....”
Quietly, the Guard Captain pressed down the brim of his cap and stepped back.
Beneath the shadow cast over him, the expression under the wolf mask was unreadable.
“Either way... you can’t leave.... Because you’re already... me....”
“.......”
After a long silence—
The Wolf Leader’s voice came again.
“Could you give my regards to the team? No, never mind—you can’t.”
My breath caught.
The Guard Captain turned toward me.
“Let’s... lower him down....”
“.......”
But something flashed through my mind.
You are... me.
And if it truly didn’t matter which of them it was—
‘.......’
Wait.
“Please, wait....”
I turned to the Golden Mascot.
Why?
I’d been thinking about it the wrong way.
This mascot could be a scene from my past. But more precisely—
it’s also one of my forms.
Right.
And that phrase written on the wiki I’d slammed shut in shock...
Come to the shining door, the mirror that reflects truth,
and meet the master of Hanbit Library
That phrase—
A mirror that reflects truth.
‘.......’
Ah.
“Mr. J.”
“What...?”
“We might have been mistaken.”
It was the Wolf Leader who’d first compared us to a book and its pages.
That was his theory.
But he was such an extraordinary person that we’d been unconsciously treating that metaphor as fact.
All of us. Yet— freewebnovёl.ƈom
“What we saw in the library’s window wasn’t a past scene of ourselves—it was ourselves, as we are.”
“......Ah.”
So, if we put it in library terms—
“We’re all the same single book.”
I pointed toward the Golden Mascot.
Or rather, alternately between myself and it.
“Just different pages that happened to be open at once.”
“.......”
“......”
“...Then,”
the Guard Captain murmured,
“we were one from the start.”
The next moment—
Between the shelves of Hanbit Library, only the Guard Captain and I remained.
“.......”
The dark red, twisted corridor was gone.
We stood within the maze of shelves, before the thread of yarn.
‘Ah.’
And I realized.
I was the Golden Mascot.
It surfaced in my mind—searching Hanbit Library with the Guard Captain, tracing the yarn and the vanished companions in confusion.
Then reaching the conclusion that I was fake, suppressing the terror of existence, and declaring I’d become the Librarian.
All those moments were me.
And then—
“Roe Deer...?”
“Deputy.”
Around the corner appeared the previous Team D members.
The memory linked seamlessly with the sight of them.
I was Podo.
Back then, an awkward rookie working at the Agency, wandering with those earlier Team D members who’d encountered their own past doubles, anxiously searching for the Guard Captain’s whereabouts.
And in that strange passage, leaving a button behind, seriously debating what to do next....
Then, in the blink of an eye, the Guard Captain appeared before us.
That, too, had been me.
“You’re back. Oh—and Captain’s here too!”
“.......”
And the most shocking part—
“Oh, my friend, that’s how you looked when you managed that humble little resort.”
“My word, friend—you’ve lost an arm!”
Brown was accompanying all three of us.
‘Ha....’
That damn thing.
‘So we really did solve it and return to normal?’
The Librarian? Or wait—hold on.
‘...Then, does the Guard Captain still have the memories of being the Wolf Leader...?’
.......
I turned to look at the Guard Captain.
