Free Web NovelThe footsteps toward the library were quick, frequent, and small.
Our group—two wearing Segwang Industrial High School uniforms and four wearing various other high school uniforms—moved with held breath.
With an expression no student should have—desperate, hollow, and deeply strained.
We moved while avoiding the twisting limbs and faint breaths of the victims attached to the walls and the floor.
Then—
“Floor.”
At Agent Cheongdong’s words, everyone’s gaze shifted.
“Look at the floor.”
“...!”
The flesh began to writhe again.
Our footsteps quickened further.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that we didn’t have to go upward.
“Here!”
The very end of the first floor.
We stopped before a lone sliding wooden door. Following my lead, we opened it.
The place I once visited with Lee Gyeol when we returned from Hanbit Library.
[Library]
Creak.
With a short sound, the interior revealed itself.
A room filled with bookshelves, similar to Hanbit Library—but structured like a school library, with that grounding sense of reality.
And—
“This bookshelf.”
I immediately located it.
The single bookshelf beside the window—when a hidden book is discovered, it slides back, revealing a passage to another section of Hanbit Library....
“...A passage leading into a supernatural phenomenon containing a powerful presence.”
But—
“Wait—this... doesn’t open on the new moon.”
“.......”
“Transfer student, the necessary book isn’t there.”
We could not open the passage.
On the day when In the Black Shadow is active, the book that would allow entry into Hanbit Library simply is not on the shelf.
A chill ran over my heart—but I forced myself to think clearly.
Even so, the school being inside Hanbit Library hasn’t changed.
And the fact that a passage existed behind this bookshelf hasn’t changed either.
“It’s fine.”
I answered while pulling urgent reasoning together in my head.
“If the passage does not appear right now... then what about this? We hide the talisman in the place where the passage is supposed to appear.”
“...! Hide it so it overlaps with the passage space? Behind the bookshelf.”
“Yes.”
“That works. Podo really does think fast. Then, agents, let’s—”
“Section Chief, please move the bookshelf aside.”
“Yes.”
And Section Chief Lee Jahaeon lifted the bookshelf immediately—without even preparing his stance—and set it aside.
“...Sir Lizard, you still sure you don’t want to transfer divisions?”
“Yes.”
“Shame.”
Though spoken like a joke, the agents’ faces were grave.
Agent Cheongdong quickly examined the wall revealed where the bookshelf had been. I saw it too. A rectangular recess with a metallic sheen—the same type of compartment Ko Yeongeun once hid me inside at the subway station...
That one!
“We can place it in the fire hose cabinet!”
“The fire hose cabinet...?”
“Yes. It fits per—”
But when I saw the agents’ expressions, I shut my mouth.
No way.
“To me, it just looks like plain white wallpaper.”
“.......”
“The fire hose cabinet is invisible.”
Damn it.
Just like the Rear Garden—this too was unrendered in In the Black Shadow, and thus invisible to those who entered as intruders.
“It’s fine. The one who can see it should handle the placement, like before.”
I reached out immediately.
“Give it to me. I’ll—”
Where are you?
“.......”
Kids... where are you?
I’ve come back.
The game is over—why aren’t you showing yourselves?
We moved without breathing.
The Will-o’-the-wisp Lantern was passed into my hands. I clutched it tight, opened the fire hose cabinet, and made space inside.
“If there’s soot or dust, clean it out.”
My hand scraped along the inside, gathering dust.
Behind me, I heard the agents moving—probably forming a defensive perimeter—but I couldn’t look back.
foundyou toolate
Hurry. Hurry.
“Use the cleanest part of your sleeve and wipe the surface. Quickly. Thoroughly.”
The whisper was almost too quiet to hear.
Holding my breath, I brushed the dust from my hands—...
Here you were??
No paraphrasing. No smoothing. No additions.
A twisted, ominous sound.
It begins to rule the school once again.
Too late.
Agent Cheongdong pressed his wounded hands to the Will-o’-the-wisp lantern, finishing the consecration. And he fully passed it to me—
founditfounditfounditfounditfounditcannotbesnuckagainalreadyinsidealreadythedooropenedIfoundyou
.......
here
you are
I turned.
Outside the library doorway—
.......
There was nothing.
“.......”
“.......”
The dread remained. The pulsing school-wide flesh and the moans stayed the same.
Yet strangely, there was no monster there.
...Huh?
At that moment—
tricked
not here
‘...!’
trickedtrickedtricked
it was releasedbutboundagaincheatingnoanewrulepushingmeoutletthetchgoletgoofthedoorLETGO
The voice tore itself apart.
The school shook.
A tremor sounded from above.
Flash.
A faint blue glow leaked from outside the windows.
Only a scattered trace of brightness drifted down from above—but /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ I recognized it.
The torn talisman.
The glow once released by the 護 (Assist/Protect) sigil on the back of the library checkout slip—where we reunited the missing half.
let go
let
go
letting gothe doorwon’t matterI’m already inalreadyhereIamyouIam—
Who is Park Hongrim?
“Podo.”
“.......”
“Team Leader Hong is holding it.”
A hot hand gripped my shoulder.
“Go. Calmly. Quickly.”
I nodded.
I wiped the soot on my sleeve, forced my breath still, and placed the now-consecrated lantern into the open fire hose cabinet.
I can do this.
“Hold the talisman and wait. Until it reacts.”
I gripped it, suppressing the anxiety. Now—
[Ah, we’ve reached the climax, my friend.]
.......
Brown?
[Once the final step is complete, this high school will be hidden once again inside the library—preserved as a sort of private corner!]
The familiar announcer-like tone rose cheerfully. But—
Brown shouldn’t be able to follow here.
He hadn’t said a single word this whole time.
And suddenly—
[Mr. Roe— oh, Mr. Roe... You embarrass me. Were we not companions once? when you relied on my cotton-stuffed body for your adventures! Much has changed since then, of course.]
[And in such a tense episode as this, silence can also be a necessary narrative choice! Hah! You need not compliment the host’s seasoned performance just now. Now then—]
[More importantly, friend.]
A kind voice.
[Did you forget something?] freewēbnoveℓ.com
.......
Forgot... something.
A chill knifed my spine.
I checked the talisman first.
Intact.
Then what? What did I forget?
[Hint! Very well. Hint time. Let us recall my words—]
—Once the final step is complete, this high school will be hidden inside the library, preserved as a private corner.
“.......”
I looked down at my clothes.
Segwang Industrial High School student uniform.
A contamination status that would not lift.
Wait.
If the ritual completes like this—
I will also be hidden inside Hanbit Library.
As a student of this school.
......!!
“I—”
But I stopped.
So what? If the contamination can’t be undone, then this is how it must be.
I won’t die.
I can wait for rescue...
No. Even aside from that—we can figure out another way after this is over.
I can do this.
It will be fine. It will be fine...
And then—
“The light is coming on.”
Inside the fire hose cabinet, the talisman’s strokes began to glow.
Blue light spread outward from the center.
My breathing steadied.
Good.
If there is no immediate alternative, then silence is better.
Instead, I spoke to my classmate.
“This will keep the students safe. Don’t worry.”
Lee Gyeol looked at me.
“And you count as one of those students?”
“...Right.”
He looked between me and the talisman.
He shook his head.
“No, you don’t.”
“...!”
“You’re not actually a transfer student, Kim Sol-eum.”
He reached into the fire hose cabinet and took the lantern. And—
Whip.
He pushed me back from the cabinet.
The lantern did not break—its light ran true down the consecrated strokes.
“Podo!”
“Wait—”
I grabbed the others and looked back at him.
My classmate spoke casually.
“I’ll just count this as getting my uniform back. It was a lie to begin with.”
“...!”
He declared it:
“You are not a student of this school.”
.......
I lowered my head.
The Segwang Industrial uniform was gone.
In its place—my old school uniform.
Ah.
I jerked my head back up—
The fire hose cabinet on the wall was gone.
Since I was no longer a student of this school, I could not see it.
And—
“Thanks for bringing me to the nurse’s office.”
With one hand inside the invisible cabinet, wearing his own uniform now, Lee Gyeol smiled at me.
“...See you again.”
Like a will-o’-the-wisp, the flame bloomed.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—
Blue fire swept over everything.
The warped horror beat distorted and dissolved.
The flesh-coated corridors vanished.
The entire school was wrapped and drawn into the shadow of the flame. fгeewebnovёl.com
The world went white.
I opened my eyes.
Light tickled my vision, and the campus at midday spread before me.
And there was music.
A piano.
Chopin’s nocturne.
Soft and slow, that sweet piano guided my gaze through the first-floor hallway.
Students lay on the floor.
Just like the school on non-new-moon days, when accessed through Hanbit Library.
But this time—one crucial difference.
They were peacefully asleep.
Daytime.
Early May. Warm sunlight spilled in, green leaves swaying outside the windows.
Comfortable resting places were arranged.
Gym mats, blankets, gym uniforms, plush keychains, slippers—soft things set neatly for every student.
I saw friends holding hands. Some slept with earphones in. Everyone relaxed.
A shared afternoon nap.
.......
Empty spaces between them were filled, now.
Students from other schools lay there as well.
Those who had been consumed by the flesh—absorbed into the school—were now gently accepted into the sleeping student body.
Ah.
My vision rose—as if someone were showing me.
Up the stairs, passing peaceful sleepers, all the way to the top floor—
5th floor.
Even the hallway before the auditorium—where teachers and body parts had lain—is filled with sleeping figures.
But I recognized some of them.
Steel badges.
Agents.
I saw Agent Gomyeong asleep in the sunlight near the auditorium doors.
My vision rose higher—
The auditorium doors were shut. Whole. Unbroken.
No one inside.
Only a shattered lantern and a talisman torn in the center hung from the door handle, glimmering softly in sunlight.
As if the task entrusted to it were complete.
Happy Ending 01
: The School Asleep in the Library
Score Evaluation: (—)
Credits roll.
