novelraw Chapter 24 : Chapter 24
Chapter 24 : Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Mystery Hall
“Seol Hayun.”
As I called Seol Hayun’s name, the surroundings began to stir.
“Hmm? Seol Hayun?”
“Where? Seol Hayun is here? Where?”
A quiet section of the exhibition hall.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere quickly changed at the mention of a famous name.
Seol Hayun flinched as she surveyed the surroundings, which had instantly become lively.
She then lifted her head slightly, pulled her hat down deep, and quietly began to walk.
While giving me a slight nod.
There were no words, but the meaning was clear.
‘Follow me.’
Come to think of it, Seol Hayun wasn't someone you could just casually call out to.
After all, she was Ju Yeonhwa's successor.
She was already a famous name.
I cleared my throat and, when the surroundings had quieted down, I quietly followed her.
As we reached the exit outside the Mystery Hall, Seol Hayun, who was walking ahead, stopped.
She turned around, slightly lifted her mask, and opened her mouth.
“I didn't expect to see you here.”
“Me neither. I was surprised to see someone who looked like you.”
Of course, I was lying.
I knew she would be here, and in fact, I had come here to meet Seol Hayun.
“I was surprised too. I didn't think anyone would recognize me. I thought I had hidden myself well-.”
Seol Hayun, who was speaking nonchalantly, stopped.
“I feel like I've seen that person somewhere.”
“Uh- is he a famous person?”
Because we could hear someone whispering.
“……”
Tug-
Seol Hayun grabbed my sleeve and started walking.
With her mask back on.
Her scowling eyes, as if she had gotten into something troublesome, were impressive.
Only when we reached a quiet bench in the plaza outside the expo grounds did she let go of my sleeve.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
Seol Hayun apologized, bowing her head slightly.
She was certainly being troublesome.
Although she had her own reasons.
“You’re really concerned about people recognizing you. Is there a reason?”
I asked suggestively.
“……”
After a moment of silence, Seol Hayun approached a nearby vending machine.
She took out a bill instead of a card, put it into the vending machine, and said to me.
“Pick what you want to drink.”
“Uh- an ion drink?”
Clunk-!
The drink bottle came out with a cheerful sound.
The vending machine wasn't much different from the world I used to live in.
Except that the ion drink was called ‘Max Ade’ and you actually started to feel energized as soon as you drank it.
I took the drink Seol Hayun handed me, and we sat on the bench.
Only the sound of us gulping down our drinks echoed in the silence.
“I came out without my grandmother knowing. It would be troublesome if people recognized me.”
Seol Hayun spoke first.
A confession that she came out without her grandmother knowing.
Seol Hayun's ‘grandmother’ was the famous Ju Yeonhwa.
A legendary hero and the master of a large guild, and.
‘I saw her during the entrance exam too…….’
She had even come to see me in person.
She had mistaken me for Baekseok's disciple and came to give me a warning. She was a scary person.
I think she was even the helicopter parent type.
She was dangerous in many ways.
“Without your grandmother knowing?”
“Yeah, I usually go to cram school on the weekends.”
“Ah, you skipped? But won't she know you didn't go to cram school anyway?”
“I already talked to the cram school. We agreed to keep it a secret from my grandmother.”
In other words, from Seol Hayun's perspective, she was caught by me while trying to play hooky legally.
“Aha, so this drink is a bribe?”
“I don't like the expression. But I can't deny it.”
Seol Hayun said with a shrug of her shoulders.
“There was an exhibition I really wanted to see today.”
“The Mystery Hall? I saw you writing something diligently.”
“……That's right. It's like a hobby.”
Seol Hayun took a sip of her drink and continued.
“There’s a lot of information you can see on the internet, but it’s better to see taxidermies and real materials in person.”
“That's true. It's more fun to see it in person.”
As I said that, I glanced at the notebook on her lap.
A dragon's anatomy chart.
The directionality of the flow of magic power.
Even sketches of ancient creatures' skeletons drawn from different angles.
It wasn't a roughly drawn doodle.
A trace of obsessive digging on every page.
It was almost at the level of a thesis.
“You’re a total expert.”
I couldn't help but be impressed after seeing the notebook.
At my words, Seol Hayun scratched her cheek.
A strange expression hung on her lips.
She seemed indifferent, but I could see a hint of excitement.
“It's not really something to be praised for.”
“It seems incredibly detailed and professional, though. I'm interested too, but I don't know that much.”
Seol Hayun lowered her gaze slightly, then looked back at me.
“If you’re interested. Do you want to look around the exhibition together?”
She asked quietly.
“On the condition that you're careful not to let anyone know I’m here.”
An unexpected offer to accompany her.
My answer was already decided.
In any case, I needed to be near Seol Hayun to intervene in this incident.
I was already looking for a chance to accompany her.
In a situation like that, she asks me to go with her?
“Sounds good.”
I couldn't miss the opportunity.
***
“Hyeon-a! You can’t get too close!”
“Why isn't the dinosaur moving?”
“This is called taxidermy. It’s made so it can't move. Because it would be scary if the dinosaur went ‘Roar!’”
“Then what if it moves?”
“Then daddy will protect you! He’s a hero!”
The child giggled, and the father smiled as he lifted the child up with one arm.
A picturesque scene.
And it was also a scene that summarized the entire atmosphere of this expo hall.
People were thoroughly enjoying themselves even in front of the skeletons of menacing demonic beasts.
Because everything was safe within the framework of an exhibition.
The Mystery Hall certainly had a lot to see.
There were various exhibitions on different topics, such as mysterious creatures, demonic beasts, and incidents.
After wandering around restlessly, we stopped in front of an exhibit titled [Mimic Model (Standard Type)].
Inside the case, a half-open wooden box was placed.
Sharp teeth and a red piece of flesh that looked like a tongue were revealed through the gap in the lid.
It was a realistic and, for me, a very familiar sight.
“A Mimic. A Mimic is certainly a mysterious being.”
Seol Hayun, who had stopped in front of it, spoke familiarly.
“It seems well-known, but it's never been properly studied. Apparently, when they’re captured for research, they disappear at some point. Like when they brought a box-shaped Mimic to the lab, it turned into a real box.”
In the Mystery Hall, Seol Hayun's words had increased dramatically.
Was she always this talkative? To the point of making me wonder.
“That’s why the ‘soul theory’ is gaining ground regarding Mimics. That the Mimic isn’t the substance of an object, but a spiritual entity, and that it possesses various objects. It’s similar to what is commonly called a soul……”
Seol Hayun, who had been pouring out words for a long time, suddenly flinched.
She had made eye contact with me.
I must have been looking at her with a strange look on my face without realizing it.
“Sorry. I got too excited. I talked too much.”
“No, it’s fine if you talk a lot. Everyone gets excited about their interests.”
At my answer, Seol Hayun shrugged her shoulders as if embarrassed and carefully stroked the surface of the glass case containing the Mimic exhibit.
“I like things that arouse curiosity. The more unknown, the better.”
Seol Hayun's eyes turned to me.
It felt particularly intense for some reason.
And at that moment.
“Mommy~ where did daddy go?”
The voice of a little girl was heard from a short distance away.
“Hmm? That’s strange. Maybe he went to the restroom for a moment?”
A woman who appeared to be the mother was next to the child.
A situation where the father had briefly stepped away.
Normally, it would be no big deal.
But the problem was that this place wasn't ‘normal’ right now.
‘……Is it about to start?’
In a little while, this place would shed its shell of daily life and turn into a crime scene.
How many minutes had passed like that?
Seol Hayun, who had been talking about various things while looking at the exhibition, stopped talking.
From some point, her eyes, as she looked around, had become sharp.
“Something’s strange.”
“What is?”
“They were definitely here when I first came, but now they’re gone.”
Seol Hayun said lowly, looking around.
“The guards, I mean. There should have been at least two assigned to this section.”
She was right.
The security guards, who had been visible in every section until a while ago, had disappeared at some point.
A creeping sense of unease.
“We should check it out.”
Seol Hayun moved first, and I followed her and started to walk around the Mystery Hall.
There were no guards.
There were visitors, but no one to protect the citizens.
And the voices coming from here and there.
“Big sister! Where did mom go?”
“When is dad coming?”
“We were just together a moment ago……”
Someone had disappeared and hadn't come back.
As we were coming down from the second-floor hallway to the first-floor stairs, a faint cry was heard.
As we rounded the landing, a child was crouching in a corner of an exhibition hall.
In front of him was a fallen adult.
We immediately ran over to them.
He was breathing. He had a pulse.
But he was unconscious.
“Daddy…… daddy suddenly collapsed……”
The child said, sobbing.
I thought the two of them looked familiar, and it turned out to be that father and son from earlier.
The family that was laughing in front of the dinosaur taxidermy, with the father saying, “Daddy will protect you.”
“This person is a hero.”
Seol Hayun said.
Although he was in plain clothes, a hero license was revealed inside his necklace.
A C-class hero. In a normal situation, he wasn't someone who would be easily defeated.
“This is definitely strange. The guards being gone too. Did they target people who could fight?”
At the question Seol Hayun posed, I nodded and pointed to the man's side.
“Look here.”
A faint black mark spread under his clothes.
A wound that looked like it had been scorched by magic power.
“This person was attacked.”
“So he was targeted because he’s a hero.”
Seol Hayun, who had quickly administered first aid, took out her smartphone.
“First, I need to report this……”
At that moment, Seol Hayun's finger stopped.
“……It’s not working.”
“What?”
“There's no signal.”
Seol Hayun checked the device several more times, but the only thing that appeared on the screen was a [No Signal] message.
We looked up and surveyed our surroundings.
A sense of unease began to well up.
We immediately ran straight to the Mystery Hall exit.
And what greeted us was an unexpected sight.
The outer wall of the building was covered with a translucent membrane.
It was a barrier. A barrier that was draped like a black film, completely blocking off the inside and outside.
“We’re trapped.”
Seol Hayun said lowly.
And as soon as she finished speaking.
Bang-!
A loud noise from somewhere, followed by screams.
I turned my head.
One of the exhibits in the Mystery Hall.
The corpse of a demonic beast that had been completely taxidermied was slowly lifting its head.
It was an impossible situation.
A being that had been dead had begun to move.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The display cases of the giant taxidermies that decorated the main hall shattered and collapsed.
Dding-!
[The incident has begun.]
[Begin your coverage. And survive.]
The terror had begun in earnest.
In a situation like that, I did what I had to do.
Click-!
I have to do what I have to do.
The scene of the giant taxidermies moving was vividly captured on camera.
***
Static-
-Three heroes in the ecology hall. Two A-class and one B-class. The guards are also on high alert.
The staticky radio sound cut through the quiet space.
-The security is the tightest. It seems the holy relic is over here. Is there anyone who can come for support?
A moment of silence passed, and then another voice responded on the radio.
-Hey, Balzac. How’s the Mystery Hall?
Chik—
The man who reacted to the radio's words leisurely pressed the corner of his mouth.
Dressed in a black cloak, he looked down at the main hall from the railing of the third-floor hallway of the Mystery Hall and said.
“Everything’s fine over here. I’ve already filtered out all the troublesome things like heroes.”
His tone was relaxed, and his expression was tinged with boredom.
“There was no holy relic. But I did manage to get a few useful items.”
He glanced at the boxes next to him and turned his attention back to the radio.
-Then tidy up over there and come over here.
“You guys take care of the troublesome stuff. I have more important things to do, like fresh corpses.”
-Balzac, there’s no time for games.
An annoyed voice came from over the radio, but he didn't answer.
At that moment, magic power erupted from below, and he felt a wave of heat.
Balzac turned his head and looked down.
“Oho……”
Two figures confronting the taxidermied demonic beasts in the center of the exhibition hall came into his view.
One of them was a familiar sight to him.
‘Seol Hayun?’
He narrowed his eyes and turned on the radio again.
“Hey. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, Seol Hayun is here. She’s defenseless.”
A moment of silence.
And then a short response.
Static—
-If you’re sure, secure her. She’s a top-class hostage. She'll be useful when we get out.
“Does that mean I can kill the rest?”
-Do whatever you want, Balzac. But only after securing Seol Hayun.
Balzac let out a small laugh.
He licked his lips with the tip of his tongue and didn't take his greedy gaze off of what was below.
“As you wish.”
He immediately shifted his gaze.
Next to Seol Hayun, a person standing with her, confronting the taxidermies.
A boy with a sword at his waist.
A thin build, no distinct magic power reaction.
The strange thing was, he was holding a camera in his hand while facing the taxidermies.
After watching with interest for a moment, Balzac soon lost interest.
“He doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about.”
A smile that revealed black teeth.
“Then this should be a simple matter.”
He lifted his fingertips and drew a line in the air.
Slowly, quietly. And surely.
A black energy rose from the floor.
At the same time.
Wooooo-
The taxidermies all began to cry out.
A strange resonance echoed emptily.