Chapter 46

The second floor.

By now, Go Youngeun was quite used to questioning the attendant machines.

“Did the guests going home after finishing their visit go downstairs from this second floor above ground?”

It nodded.

“...!”

That was it.

We had effectively arrived at the answer.

‘If the exit is above ground, and below the second floor...’

Then only the first floor remained.

“Then all we have to do is go to the first floor and ask where the entrance is...!”

“Let’s hurry!”

“Yes!”

For the first time, Baek Saheon and Go Youngeun agreed.

‘So the entrance really was on the first floor, just like any modern person would expect. What a coincidence that it worked out that way.’

I felt slightly deflated, as though we had taken a very long way around, but my anticipation outweighed that feeling, and I quickened my steps too.

Now we only had to locate the entrance and tell our superiors waiting on the terrace. Then everything would be ready.

“Oh dear, are we done viewing the exhibition? What a shame. I don’t believe we’ve properly explored even five halls yet...”

Ha ha. Keep looking around, and your friend might lose his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Or pass out before that!

‘I’m only holding up even now because the three of us are sticking together with a light.’

I gave the pocket holding Braun a few reassuring pats, then walked on.

Go Youngeun’s steps grew brisker as she carried the candle.

Her newfound vigor did not falter even when we encountered an attendant machine on the first floor. Her desire to get out quickly seemed to have overwhelmed all her fears.

“Hello!”

Once again, the machine responded courteously under the candle’s influence. Go Youngeun took a deep breath and made her request with gusto.

“Please show us to the entrance!”

But...

...

Silence.

The machine stood utterly motionless.

“...?”

There was no response.

“D-don’t tell me...”

Go Youngeun peered at the candle flame, her face deathly pale. She seemed worried that its effect had stopped working.

The candle was shining perfectly well.

After glancing down to check it several more times, she spoke again in a trembling voice.

“Please... show us to the entrance.”

Silence again.

“...”

“...”

The atmosphere turned icy.

‘Damn it.’

I spoke up.

“... Ms. Mountain Goat.”

“Y-yes...”

“Ask it this.”

I recited the familiar question. As Go Youngeun repeated it after me, the light died in her eyes.

“Did the guests going home after finishing their visit go... downstairs from this first floor above ground? ... If so, please nod.”

It nodded.

“...!!”

The attendant machines’ accounts contradicted each other.

“Why...?”

Go Youngeun swallowed.

“The machine on basement level one definitely said the people leaving went upstairs...!”

“That’s right.”

A chill ran down my spine.

‘What on earth is going on?’

It didn’t add up.

In the basement, they told us to go up. Above ground, they told us to go down.

Even if there were two or more entrances nearby, this made no sense. The directions were outright contradictory.

‘No wonder there were so few survivors in <Records of Dark Exploration> for a place with its entrance sitting right there on the first floor.’

“Instead of wasting time repeating yourselves, why don’t we go down and ask directly? We’ve still got some candle left. Let’s not waste it.”

“... Oh.”

At Baek Saheon’s urging, we found the stairs to the basement and headed down.

Somehow, the descent felt long and heavy...

And the result was...

A nod.

“Go upstairs? Ha...”

We got exactly the same answer I had received before.

According to the attendant machine, the visitors who had finished viewing the exhibition on basement level one had definitely gone upstairs.

“...”

“...”

Now even Baek Saheon fell silent.

Everyone’s thoughts were getting tangled.

“Um.”

Go Youngeun hung her head.

“What if... there isn’t actually an entrance or an exit?”

“...!”

“What if this place just tricks and torments people, giving them false hope to make them suffer even more...? There are plenty of ghost stories like that.”

True.

But not this time.

“There is definitely an exit.”

I wasn’t saying that because I had read <Records of Dark Exploration>.

“Do you remember? You were given an abridged manual before entering this place, weren’t you?”

Even if information contamination had turned it into an exhibition invitation.

“Someone escaped through the exit. That’s how there came to be a record of a survivor’s return, and how this place was registered as a Darkness with Daydream Inc.”

“Oh...!”

Go Youngeun raised her head.

“You’re right. That’s true.”

Then she took a deep breath and continued in a much clearer voice.

“Whew! I’m sorry. Times like this are exactly when I shouldn’t let my emotions swallow me up. There must be a right answer.”

“Yes.”

It looked like a contradiction, but there had to be something we hadn’t thought of...

As I pondered that, Baek Saheon spoke.

“Hey.”

He looked at me with an odd expression.

“Your doll.”

“Braun?”

“Yeah. What does... Braun have to say?”

“I’m waiting for my friend’s brilliant answer!”

Of course, he wasn’t asking because he thought Braun actually talked. He was asking because he thought I was a lunatic who talked to a doll...

‘I get that you want a fresh idea.’

I deliberately stared at Baek Saheon before replying.

“How would a doll talk?”

“...”

“Think before you speak.”

Baek Saheon clenched his fists!

“But throwing ideas around is a good idea in itself.”

“...!”

“Ms. Mountain Goat, does anything come to mind?”

“Oh, um...”

“Think as positively as possible. Assume there is definitely an exit nearby.”

“Then... a secret space.”

Go Youngeun narrowed her eyes.

“Like an attic above the top floor, maybe there’s another space somewhere between the basement and the floors above ground? Something like a parking garage...”

I had never seen any record of that sort of secret space in this exhibition hall.

Of course, it was possible. There was a definite difference between experiencing something firsthand and reading a description of it in print.

Sometimes you could know something and still fail to connect it to what you saw.

‘I didn’t realize the window was actually a door to the terrace, either.’

But... I felt the entrance would be somewhere more obvious.

‘Conceptually speaking, it would be strange for the official entrance to be in a secret space.’

In other words, the entrance was right where it should be. We simply weren’t noticing it.

Preconceptions, ways of thinking, cultural factors...

“...!”

Wait.

“M-Mr. Roe Deer?”

I sprang to my feet.

I looked down at Baek Saheon, who was staring up at me in surprise, and Go Youngeun, who couldn’t risk turning around because of the candle’s effect.

“Do you have enough stamina left to go up and down the stairs a few more times?”

“What?”

“I-I do, but...”

“Then let’s move.”

“Huh?”

I rose from my spot.

“We need to go all the way to the top floor.”

“...??”

Back at the stairs.

“... We just go up, right?”

“Yes.”

I started walking.

But instead of climbing mindlessly until the next floor appeared, I counted.

One floor.

Two floors.

Three floors...

Until there were no more stairs.

“Hah...”

“Huff.”

I raised my head.

“This... is the end.”

We had reached the very top of this enormous mansion.

We had encountered attendant machines about three times on the way up. Each time, my fellow recruits had questioned them, but the result was always the same.

They were probably thinking:

‘They keep telling us to go down, so why did we come up?’

The answer to that question lay in this top floor itself.

“Ms. Mountain Goat. What floor do you think we’ve climbed to?”

“Huh? Let’s see... Wait.”

“...”

“Hold on. Unless I counted wrong...”

“Sixth floor,” Baek Saheon said.

“This is the sixth floor, not the seventh!”

Exactly.

“You said this mansion went up to the seventh floor!”

“Furthermore, this historic mansion consists of seven stories above ground and 7,221 basement levels.”

This time, it contradicted Braun’s explanation.

But Braun was a “Good Friend,” so he did not lie.

Which meant... if all of it was true...

“...”

Just as I thought.

“You deliberately lied about there being a seventh—”

“Ms. Mountain Goat, did you know?”

“Hey!”

There were plenty of ghost stories like this, too.

Situations where one person could arrive at the correct answer through sound reasoning, while another could find no answer, however unfair that seemed.

All because of cultural and environmental differences.

Ghost stories that reveled in the chills those differences produced.

It wasn’t quite the same, but it reminded me of that earlier Darkness where I had found the Pierrot portrait because I knew the difference between a Pierrot and a Clown.

Knowledge shaped by your environment.

“The way we number a building’s floors differs by culture.”

“... Huh?”

“In the United States and East Asian countries, including Korea, where we live, floor numbers start at one.”

But...

“Other cultures use a slightly different system.”

That was why the stairs from the first floor above ground to basement level one had felt particularly long.

It hadn’t just been my imagination.

“They start at zero.”

“...!”

The level also called the ground floor.

“It’s probably true that this mansion has seven stories above ground. ... From floor zero to floor six.”

I looked down the stairs.

“Now all we have to do is go to the first floor and ask them to show us the way to floor zero.”

And that was what we did.

* * *

“Please show us the way to floor zero.”

Following the first-floor attendant machine as it kindly led the way brought us, astonishingly, to a different kind of staircase on the opposite side of the first floor’s main exhibition hall.

An enormous double spiral staircase.

If you followed either spiral downward... you could, of course, reach the exhibition hall on basement level one, where the brass tones gave way to bronze, just as they had on our previous descent.

But you could also choose to stop midway and open an enormous door.

And I opened that door and stepped through.

CREAK.

A grand, elegant space filled with silver unfolded before us.

It was not an exhibition hall.

It was... a lobby.

“...!!”

Floor zero served as a lobby, with no exhibits, so no one had bothered to connect it to the ordinary stairs between exhibition halls.

At last, we had entered it by the most conventional route.

And the stained-glass doors directly before our eyes were...

“... The front entrance.”

Light streamed through them so brightly that we couldn’t see outside, but there was no doubt.

We had finally found the exit.

“We’re saved!!”

“Haaa...”

A shout and a sigh of relief echoed through the lobby.

And then a joyous cheer.

“Mr. Roe Deer! Your deduction was right! You got it right again! Aaaaah!! Let’s get out of here right now!”

Seriously. I wanted nothing more than to cheer and scream and run straight outside, but...

“I need to find my superiors and leave with them.”

“Oh, oh!! Then... you’ll need the candle.”

Go Youngeun looked at what little remained of the candle, as though gauging it, then declared stoutly:

“... Let’s hurry and go get them together!”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Really, truly, thank you...

I had already exhausted my capacity for roaming this place alone just finding my fellow recruits...

And so Go Youngeun made a choice that reflected her character.

Of course, so did Baek Saheon.

By which I mean he headed straight for the door without a moment’s hesitation.

“Do what you want. I’m leaving!”

Suit yourself.

I watched Baek Saheon intently.

‘I should check what effect the door produces when someone leaves, and what happens in response.’

But Baek Saheon hesitated.

“...”

“...”

Then he quietly backed away from the entrance.

‘...?’

Why?

“I thought you were leaving?”

“... After I see someone else leave.”

Oh dear.

‘It would be easier in so many ways if you just left.’

Slightly disappointed, I gave Baek Saheon a glance, then looked away.

“Ha ha ha... What an amusing situation, Mr. Roe Deer!”

I wasn’t particularly amused, but it was a comfort to know someone was enjoying himself...

“Now, must we go inform your unremarkable superiors of the entrance’s location?”

Yes.

‘Not that they’re particularly unremarkable...’

I had lost track of how many times I had crisscrossed this mansion... My legs felt ready to fall off, but we had better hurry.

“One moment. Do your legs hurt, my friend?”

“Oh, then I believe the time has come to introduce my new ability.”

... Huh?

‘New ability?’

“Indeed! Allow me to demonstrate my rejuvenated powers, thanks to the splendid bathtub and bath my dear friend gifted me...”

“Now, take me out of your pocket.”

His tone was a little pompous and boastful, yet, strangely enough, there was a hint of gratitude in it too.

In any case, I did as he asked and took the stuffed doll from my pocket.

“Mr. Roe Deer?”

“Please wait a moment.”

“Exactly. You won’t have to wait long! A true host is always prepared... Like so!”

SNAP!

A dull finger-snapping sound came from the doll’s fingerless hand.

And I...

Somehow, I felt as though something had “opened up” in my chest and mouth.

Resonance.

A strange sensation, as though an enormous space had formed...

[“Ah.”]

“...!!”

“Y-your voice...”

I closed my mouth.

The vibrations from my vocal cords had reverberated throughout the entire lobby.

“Not bad at all.”

“On my show, every guest can convey their words to the audience and viewers comfortably and clearly, without ever raising their voice.”

That was...

‘A microphone?’

“Ah, what an accessible term!”

“Mr. Roe Deer, my dear friend’s words will reach everyone clearly... provided they are in the same studio.”

“In terms of this space, let’s see. Provided they are on the ‘same floor’!”

My goodness.

He really had become more capable.

“You flatter me.”

I was impressed.

‘Unfortunately, though, I don’t think this ability suits our current situation.’

“Pardon?”

I only wanted to call my superiors in the terrace room. If everyone on that floor heard me...

“...”

“My friend?”

Wait.

Would there be any harm in that?