Chapter 101 - You Die (4)

"Damn it! Snow or no snow!"

Kim Dok-seo dashed toward the lodge door.

"It's better to sit in the car with the heater on than stay in this dangerous lodge!"

Rattle- rattle rattle-.

But the door wouldn't open, as if blocked by some enormous force.

"Huh? The door won't open!"

Kim Yong spoke cautiously.

"Did you maybe forget to undo the lock? Or maybe it's a push door and you pulled it?"

"Do you think I'm an idiot! I checked the lock! I pushed and pulled, I tried everything!"

At Kim Dok-seo's words, Kim Yong checked the windows just in case.

But the windows wouldn't open either.

"Th-the windows won't open either!?"

It was, quite literally, an impossible situation. A tense atmosphere settled over everyone.

[...A sudden death and an isolated mountain lodge. What came to the people's minds then was the existence of the serial killer they had dismissed as merely a character in the mystery game scenario. People began to panic and suspect one another....]

I spoke in a calm voice.

"Let's all settle down first."

Cha Do-won, who had been part of Do-yun's group, raised his voice.

"This isn't the time to settle down! Someone just died!"

"It's unfortunate, yes, but this situation is clearly abnormal. We can't let ourselves get swept up in the mood."

"Who do you think you-!?"

There it was! The classic 'who do you think you are!'

I never understood why, whenever someone steps up and takes charge in a crisis, that line always comes out.

Then again, I'd feel a little let down if it didn't.

After all, it makes it easy to grab everyone's attention in one go.

Naturally, all eyes turned to me.

Time to do 'that thing' again, after a long while.

"My name is Kim Yo-han."

Without avoiding their gazes, I stepped forward and put on the voice of a composed expert.

"I'm a Ghostbuster."

"...!?"

Bewilderment filled everyone's eyes at the unexpected introduction, and only Ellie's pretty blue eyes sparkled.

"It's true! He's an incredible person!"

".........."

Well, I appreciated her being that enthusiastic about it.

In any case, it didn't matter whether the others believed it or not.

Either way, it was effective enough for a tense atmosphere like this.

Cha Do-won shut his mouth, apparently too dumbfounded to respond, and Kim Dok-seo spoke in an incredulous voice.

"A Ghostbuster... like a shaman? An exorcist or something?"

"Something like that. I mainly deal with eliminating Anomalies and resolving Anomalous Phenomena."

Now that I had their attention, I needed to seize the momentum and keep driving the conversation forward.

I had to make them understand, quickly and simply.

That they had been caught up in an Anomalous Phenomenon.

I picked up a nearby wooden chair and swung it at one of the lodge's glass windows.

CRASH- CRACK!

With a loud noise, one of the wooden chair's legs snapped off.

".........."

But the glass window was perfectly intact.

Everyone stared at the window with wide eyes.

"What in the..."

"As you can see, we're not trapped in an ordinary lodge."

I tossed the broken chair roughly onto the floor, turned around, and addressed everyone.

"We're trapped inside an Anomalous Phenomenon set against the backdrop of a murder case in a mountain lodge."

Perhaps because they had seen with their own eyes that the glass wouldn't break.

Cha Do-won's voice trembled.

"...Th-then what are we supposed to do?"

"I'm thinking of a way right now. If you're skeptical, you don't have to follow my lead, but for the time being, please listen to what I say."

".........."

Cha Do-won wore a complicated expression, but he hung his head and sank into the sofa.

I glanced down at my coat.

Personally, I regretted not having a gun in the inner pocket of my coat.

If I'd had a pistol, I wouldn't have needed this long persuasion act. I could've just shown them the gun and said...

'Quiet down, shut up, sit.'

...and that alone would've been enough to calm them right down.

Well, no point wishing for something I didn't have.

Everyone except Ellie and Soo-ah exchanged wary glances and settled into their own spots around the living room.

[...Oh, I see. A composed detective appears and takes control of the situation. Wait, an exorcist? Don't you think that's a few too many character traits? And isn't it a bit hasty to conclude this is a supernatural Anomalous Phenomenon rather than something human? What if the killer staged it to look like a ghost story or a curse to hide their tricks and identity?]

[...And so the situation calmed for a time. But the survivors quietly began to watch for a possible real killer among them. They had to find the culprit before they themselves were murdered. Or, as the suspicious Ghostbuster claimed, they had to survive this Anomalous Phenomenon.]

For now, I covered Kwon Do-yun's body with a tablecloth, together with Ellie.

Then I leaned against a window for a moment, lost in thought.

Soo-ah quietly sidled up next to me and spoke.

"A murder case at a mountain lodge... It kinda reminds me of that episode from Detective Kindaichi, the one with the gallery meetup murder case." [TL: A joke referencing a community known for compulsive lying, similar to calling it a "pathological liars' meetup murder case."]

Ah, I was pretty sure I knew which episode she meant.

"Well, murder cases in isolated lodges are a common trope in detective stories."

"So, Mister, are you going to do the thing from the mystery game and try to find the killer? I've played Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, at least."

"...That's on hold for now. And finding the killer might not even be the way out."

Since it was a mystery game, finding the killer might let us escape, but... given that this was an Anomalous Phenomenon, there were several things that bothered me.

Soo-ah nodded in understanding.

"Hmm~ got it. If you say so, Mister, then that's how it is."

Just then, Ellie came over.

"Y-Yo-han-ssi, I think you need to come!"

Right after Ellie finished speaking.

Kim Dok-seo shot up from her seat and grabbed Kim Yong by the collar, shaking him.

"You bastard! You post a delay notice saying 'Sorry!' and then come vacation at a mountain lodge!?"

"Ugh... S-sorry."

More than a fight, it was a scene of Kim Dok-seo unilaterally scolding Kim Yong.

The gist of the situation was roughly this.

Kim Yong had suggested that since they didn't know much about each other, the lack of information might breed more suspicion. So they might as well pass the time by talking about themselves.

Kim Yong's profession was web novel author, and Kim Dok-seo, whose hobby was reading web novels, had asked what the title of his novel was.

'You probably wouldn't know it even if I told you. It's not that popular.'

'Oh, come on~ tell me anyway. If I don't know it, I'll check it out later.'

'Haha... well, in that case....'

And as it turned out, Kim Dok-seo was a reader of the very novel Kim Yong was writing, and she had apparently discovered that he'd posted a delay notice saying 'Sorry!' and then come to the lodge.

Kim Dok-seo released Kim Yong's collar.

Kim Yong slumped into his seat and hung his head as he spoke.

"The thing is, I haven't been feeling great lately, and I thought if I breathed some fresh air and rested, maybe I'd feel better and the writing would come faster...."

Kim Dok-seo squeezed her eyes shut and exclaimed.

"Stop trying to manufacture inspiration! Just park yourself in a chair! And write consistently!"

She had a point.

"Uuu... I'm sorry."

"Enough with the sorry! I'm sick of hearing it!"

"But if I'm sorry and I don't say sorry, that doesn't feel right either...."

Kim Yong raised his head slightly and said,

"And if I don't post a sorry notice, people go, 'Look at this guy! Posting late! And not even putting up a notice!'"

Kim Yong clutched his head with both hands.

"Even the latest chapter's comments are flooded with delay-related complaints... I'm scared to even write notices now!"

Kim Yong shook his head back and forth wildly.

Setting aside the stress he was feeling, a grown man throwing a tantrum was not a good look.

And watching that spectacle, Kim Dok-seo clenched both fists and shouted.

"Then just don't be late in the first place!"

She was absolutely right.

Just don't be late from the start.

I saw no need to intervene and looked away from the two of them.

Kim Dok-seo was only that angry because she liked the novel Kim Yong wrote.

If Kim Dok-seo wanted to read the next chapter, she wouldn't kill Kim Yong.

And Kim Yong needed readers to make a living as an author, so he wouldn't kill Kim Dok-seo either.

At the very least, a murder between those two seemed unlikely.

I turned around and moved to a secluded window in a far corner.

It was to explore possible escape methods on my own.

Cha Do-won, Kim Dok-seo, Kim Yong, Kim Cha-ryeo.

Honestly, I didn't think any of them had killed Kwon Do-yun.

Besides, I had a feeling this was all something the Anomaly had set up, and I didn't want to play into its hands.

I tried summoning the Gnomes, but they couldn't be summoned inside the lodge.

As a test, I tried summoning Grizzly too.

"Gyaa~?"

Grizzly was summoned without any issue, same as always.

I gave it a quick pat on the head, out of the others' sight, then put it back inside the Grimoire to conserve energy.

Unlike Grizzly, who was inside <De Vermis Mysteriis>, the Grimoire I had personally brought in with me, the Gnomes had apparently not been summoned in, and so they were being treated as outsiders.

Or it could be that since they were earth Elementals whose summoning medium was the ground itself, the Barrier cast over the lodge was blocking them from rising up.

...In that case, I would try summoning them outside the lodge.

The Gnomes were summoned onto the snowfield and looked up at me standing by the window.

"What happened, Gnome, Master?"

"Gnomes, I'm trapped. Check if the lodge door can be opened from outside."

"Whaaaat!"

The Gnomes looked startled, then raised their arms and said,

"Leave it to us, Gnome!"

"We save Master, Gnome!"

The Gnomes swarmed together and charged toward the lodge door.

"Opening the door, Gnome!"

THUD- THUD- THUD-!

The Gnomes rushed the lodge door, jumped to grab the handle, and pounded on the door, but perhaps because of the lodge's Barrier, it didn't budge an inch.

Before long, the Barrier rippled outward from the door, and the Gnomes were sent tumbling across the snowfield in a heap.

"WAAAAAAH!"

".........."

At that pitiful sight, I buried my face in my palm.

It seemed like escape would just have to come down to defeating the Anomaly after all.