Chapter 229

The first thing to reach them was a sound.

'The laughter of small children.'

It seemed far off and yet it was distinct. Thinking about it now, that was a strange thing.

The Fox Den being a Labyrinth, every sound heard inside it was staged. Which was why it was often quiet, with no birdsong, no insects, no wind or rustle of leaves.

And yet that one sound came.

'As though it meant to be heard.'

The senior investigator, in his third year, presently stopped walking. He came to stand between the two who were already staring blankly.

"……."

What came into his field of vision was a peaceful village.

***

The one who broke the silence was the Pathfinder.

"The color's strange."

And yet his face showed no certainty that 'strange' was the word he was allowed to use. Gazing at the village from which children's laughter came now and then, the Pathfinder went on as quietly as he could.

"The tones are pale overall, aren't they. A coat of apricot on the roofs, that stone wall white as sunlight, the earth an idealized yellowish. That isn't the Fox Den's soil."

Even the shadows looked nothing but faint.

"That's probably smoke from cooking rice…."

"Even that isn't an ordinary color."

Coming to himself, the senior investigator added,

"The colors are bright overall and low in saturation, but—"

"Do you mean pastel tones?"

"Yes. Now be quiet."

"Sorry."

"There seems to be a five-colored sheen to it."

Precisely so.

"A dim feeling, as if a little water had been mixed into each of them…."

Rarely for him, he let the end of the sentence trail.

"……."

"……."

The Pathfinder wiped his eyes once with the back of his hand without a word, but look again as he might, the shape of the village in the distance did not change. It was only bright and soft.

Hesitating, the new investigator spoke.

"Um, Pathfinder."

"Go ahead."

"Is this place… normally like this?"

"Hardly."

Fresh wildflowers bloomed at the foot of the wall. In the stream that crossed the village a couple of children had their hands in the water, and children sitting on a clean wooden floor swung their feet.

Beneath laundry swaying gently on the breeze, several small white birds were perched.

"…! That, could it be."

"It is."

When the senior investigator stiffened, the Pathfinder nodded.

"They look to be the same kind as the white birds we saw on the way here. Albinism, they call it. Those aren't birds that naturally take that color."

"Is there no chance they're simply native birds here?"

"They're far smaller and rounder than the bastards we've been seeing, so you may well be confused, but no. Birds like that never lived in the Fox Den."

While the two of them talked, the new investigator, who had been gazing blankly at the village, said,

"But it's exactly… like a page torn out of a picture book and spread open here."

At that the senior investigator raked his hair.

"If someone released it onto the mountain directly, it'd be hard to call it a picture book."

"Still less when this is a Labyrinth, and the Fox Den is a bastard strong and cunning enough to farm several villages."

The Pathfinder went on.

"So let's withdraw as we are."

"What? But there are children living there…."

"It doesn't look urgent enough that you Sensitivity Bureau gentlemen need to rescue anyone, at least."

"That's true, but we've come all this way. Shouldn't we investigate?"

"Children laughing like that on this mountain—"

He added it as though letting out a breath.

"I haven't seen it in thirty years."

"……."

"The quiet is strange, and the prettiness is strange."

The Pathfinder took a step back and said,

"Of course there are Labyrinths that carry the condition 'kind to children.' But even those hide an intent endlessly to be feared by people, and the 'Fox Den' was never that kind of Labyrinth to begin with."

The senior investigator looked down at the village for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

"Does it look like bait to you?"

"By common sense, I'd say that's right."

"When what you see is too good, it usually is. Correct."

He too took a step back and said,

"We're withdrawing. This much investigation is enough."

And so the two of them turned.

"……."

But the new investigator could not.

"…? Hey."

"Y-yes."

"What are you doing. Bewitched?"

"Ah, no?"

"If you haven't been Offered, then move, quickly."

"Understood."

Having answered so, the new investigator turned once more toward the village. There were several reasons why, but the largest was that it was a sight from which it was hard to take one's eyes.

And it was then.

'…? Wait, there's something over….'

Something black was standing there.

"……."

It was a village of pale colors throughout.

The roofs, the walls, even the earth underfoot. It was a village as though a piece of heaven, or of the Peach Blossom Spring, had been broken off, dissolved in water, and softly let soak in.

And yet right now, only the middle of that yard had lost its color.

'Dressed in black….'

A young man.

'Who is that?'

The distance was too great to see the face well, but perhaps because it was a dark color among pale ones, the shape alone was unusually distinct. Everything around it was dim as though watered down, and that one thing alone was as sharp as if cut out of another world and pasted on.

Presently the newcomer's gaze reached its feet.

"……."

He looked at the sky, and the sun was at its highest.

'And yet the shadow at its feet is long, in one direction.'

And that direction was this way.

Only the shadow was looking this way.

***

[Coco confirms.]

[Outsider.]

Dear me.

[Guest?]

'No.'

[Guest! Nightmare! Resource!]

'You may not.'

[Coco requests persuasion.]

'An admirable sentence, but to my eye that is Sensitivity Bureau dress.'

Lee Yeon-woo did not bother to look where Coco was looking.

'If one of those people does not go back, ten will come. If the ten cannot go back, a hundred will. That is the greatest reason humans form groups.'

[Coco confirms.]

'And I happen to respect civil servants.'

He curved his eyes into a smile for the children greeting him and continued his answer.

'Let us send them off as gently as we can.'

[Iiing.]

***

The pitch-black thing went about the village. It examined the meeting hall roof once, felt the thatch with its fingertips, and then went to the well and ran a hand over the cover laid across it.

'Ah.'

That cover and the young man were the same color.

A child came pattering up to the young man, stood before him and laughed, making gestures as though saying something. At that, the pitch-black thing tilted its head and lowered itself toward the child.

"……."

No sound came at all.

'…He isn't opening his mouth, true, but it's as though the sound is being unusually swallowed….'

Even at this distance the children's laughter had come through that clearly. So had the splash of water on the stream's surface, and the sound of the line pulling taut as the laundry fluttered in the wind.

It was possible because the new investigator was a Detection System. But.

"……."

From the place where the young man stood, no sound came at all.

The child was still gesturing and saying something, but it did not answer even once. Having confirmed that much, the new investigator could be certain.

'That is not a person.'

Not a human, and still less a Mage.

***

[Outsider confirmed.]

'Coco?'

[Rude guest.]

'What has gotten into the child.'

Lee Yeon-woo, who had been checking the children's health, blinked. Coco fundamentally held no philosophy that valued life, but it cherished him and so tended to compromise easily.

'As long as it does me no harm.'

Lee Yeon-woo raised his head.

***

The pitch-black thing raised its head.

"……."

Whether it was looking exactly this way, he could not tell. He tried not to know. Without meaning to, the new investigator crouched and hid himself behind a rock.

Only then did he realize what he had been doing.

'Was I, seen?'

He eased his head out from behind the rock and looked toward the village again.

"……."

"……."

It was still in the same place.

Still smiling, and still making no sound at all.

"―What are you doing here."

A jolt.

His breath stopped as something caught the nape of his neck.

"I told you to follow right behind me."

"S-sorry, I'm sorry."

Turning, he found the senior investigator gripping him with a face both angry and alarmed. Quite apart from the glare, the man's breath, come up to his chin, made it clear he had been searching for him a long while.

Thinking that, the new investigator promptly went stiff.

'No, wait a moment.'

Searching for him?

"Where were you."

"S-sorry?"

"I said where have you been until now!"

The senior investigator pressed him.

"Anything will do, say anything — something you've never once said here! Something you'd never say! Right now!"

"Uh…."

He had an axe in his hand, and only then, grasping the situation, the new investigator said,

"H-honey?"

"……."

"……"

Regaining his composure, the senior investigator nodded.

"Not Offered, then."

"I feel as though I've lost something important of mine."

"Then answer me now. Where have you been all this time."

"Ah, um, I'm sorry. I was looking at the village and…."

"What?"

The senior investigator creased his brow.

"Where is there a village here."

"Sorry?"

"Do you remember the location? The features. The coordinates."

"No, um."

In that instant.

He realized that white birds with their necks bent at grotesque angles were all staring at him in the same posture. As the new investigator slowly turned his eyes to the side….

"……."

Directly above the investigator, he could see a pure-white woman hanging upside down from a tree trunk.

She was smiling.

"……."

"Your answer."

"…I saw it wrong."

"After speaking with that much conviction?"

"I thought I heard the sound of a village, but thinking about it now, it must have been one of the Fox Den's traps. I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"How many times did I say not to wander off the path… no. Let's talk while we move."

"Yes."

About then the Pathfinder, having surveyed the way out, came over to the two of them.

"Let's be going. The timing is good. There's a path where the Fox Den's mystery has thinned, so we should move along it. Miss this window and there's no knowing when another will come."

"Thank you for checking."

It seemed the white birds were visible to the new investigator's eyes alone.

***

A small white bird fluttered down onto the back of Lee Yeon-woo's hand.

"……."

"Trill."

'Well done.'

It was still the village, so he could not open his mouth, but Lee Yeon-woo kissed the forehead of the 'Lover of Dawn' on the back of his hand. The small bird gave a few more clear trilly cries and flew off somewhere again.

As he watched it quietly, the young Chief came up and asked,

"I felt the mystery being disturbed. Was there, by any chance, an outsider…."

"……."

Lee Yeon-woo stroked her head gently.

"…Thank you."

Flushing as though embarrassed, the child went back to the other children at a slightly quick pace, as if fleeing. Lee Yeon-woo watched the children quietly.

[Repulsion complete.]

'It is unsettling that the memory of the one who stayed behind alone was not the one erased.'

[Defense. Defense. Defense.]

'I had not known he was a person with resistance to Black Magic.'

It was a thing one might not know.

'But it was I who acted without knowing.'

Lee Yeon-woo was a person thoroughly wary of control over others.

So he did not like laying hands on memory, but among bastards saying 'shall we kill him?' 'shall I kill him?' 'let's kill him,' there was no help for it. It was also the lesser evil that did the other party the least harm.

'It is also why I asked the staff to guard the area around the village.'

So he would like to think it was the best he could do. But.

"……."

Lee Yeon-woo was, by nature, a person who could not do that.

'For the time being I shall increase the village guard, and stop by once more besides the noon round.'

[Yes.]

'And I had better find out where that person just now returns to.'

To have come to considering stalking, of all things. He wondered just how far into the mire his once spotless career would fall. But if it could be stopped before anyone was badly hurt, then stopping it by whatever means was better.

Whichever side would have been hurt.

'Because I cannot call down blood merely to keep my own innocence intact.'

Since he could not remove the danger, replacing it with surveillance was the price to be paid by one who had chosen to let a man live. In this world as Lee Yeon-woo had learned it, at least.

Eyes blinked inside the shadow.

[Coco help?]

'You are to stay with me.'

[Hehe.]

'You are already doing well.'

The well cover alone was enough.

***

They came down from the 'Fox Den' safely. Strange sounds and shifting terrain occurred often enough, but the Pathfinder said it had been a considerably smooth trip.

The new investigator gazed quietly at the empty space left by the Pathfinder, who had finished his duty and gone.

"……."

"So what was it."

"…Sorry?"

"I asked what you saw."

The senior investigator rolled his eyes over to stare at his junior.

"If a Detection System's face goes that white, you weren't simply taken in by a Labyrinth's tricks. Your eyes went up for a moment. What was above my head?"

Blank-faced, the new investigator spoke.

"A white, a pure-white woman. Looking about grown…."

"White hair, red eyes?"

"Th-that's right."

"The 'White Crow,' then."

Letting out a weary sigh, the senior investigator went on.

"Anything else."

"The village — I really did see it. It was a place where only children live."

"All right. That's enough for now. There's no need to have this conversation near the 'Fox Den.'"

Trudging down the steep road, he added,

"I've called a car down below, so let's return to the Bureau."

"Is it all right… to leave like this?"

"The detailed interview can be conducted once we're at the Bureau. That's far safer from the Dokkaebi as well, and it'll be a good deal easier for the civil officers to draw up the report."

"Ah, right. That's right."

"The 'White Crow' uses albino birds as its hands and feet. They're highly mobile Familiars, so if you've been marked by that one, getting inside a safe zone comes first."

"That does seem right."

Even as he followed the senior investigator down, his hands shook.

"……."

"Study up a bit more next time."

"…Yes. Thank you."

However hard he balled them, the trembling showed no intention of stopping. The new investigator looked down at his shaking hands a moment, then faced forward again and counted numbers inwardly.

One.

Two.

Three.

"……."

Only after counting for a good while did the trembling in his hands stop.

'…My heart is still pounding, though….'

That was not from fear alone.

That such a thing actually existed — he found it unbearably welcome.