Chapter 12. Mystery Mart (4)
I stood there, fiddling with the piece of paper as I tried pronouncing the words on it.
Tag Medieval. Sharp Medieval.
I had no idea which one was correct.
There was only one thing I knew for certain.
This was a Mystery.
Unlike the other items here, this was a complete and genuine Mystery.
From the moment I recognized this piece of paper, its information should have been added to the book.
I grabbed the book beside me and opened it.
Sure enough, there was a new entry where the question marks had disappeared.
[14. Scq091 - #Medieval]
[Activates when torn and can only be used once.
Upon use, the Medieval tag will be added to your story.
*This tag exists in multiple locations.]
“……What is this?”
For a moment, I couldn’t understand what it meant.
Adding a tag to my story?
It was phrased as though I were some kind of novel or webtoon, which made it difficult to understand.
I felt like I might figure it out if I tried using it once, but the description clearly said it was a one-time-use item.
It would be a waste to test it here.
I slipped the paper with the Medieval tag into my pocket and looked around once more.
Nothing else seemed particularly useful.
Apparently, the Medieval tag was the only Mystery on this floor.
Then why was Lee Yeonhee so terrified?
Feeling uneasy, I took Lee Yeonhee, who was still trembling, into the elevator.
I pressed the button for the third floor.
The doors quietly closed.
Only Lee Yeonhee and I were inside.
“Lee Yeonhee-ssi.”
I called out to her.
“……Yes?”
“Why were you trembling so badly earlier? There didn’t seem to be anything special on the fourth floor.”
Lee Yeonhee shook her head.
Then, in a trembling voice, she said,
“The last time we came up to the fourth floor…… there were four of us.”
“Four?”
“Yes. There were four of us, but we lost two people on the fourth floor. An unnie I was close to…… and her boyfriend.”
“That’s unfortunate. How did you lose them?”
“Unnie’s boyfriend saw something he liked on one of the shelves and picked it up.”
He picked up an item.
One of the store rules said not to touch any product with a blue price tag.
Aside from the tag I had found, every item on the fourth floor had a blue tag.
In other words, we weren’t supposed to touch anything there.
When I pointed this out, she nodded.
“That’s right. He remembered the rule too late, so according to the instructions, he apologized loudly……”
“Which broke the silence of the mart. Two rules conflicting with each other…… Was that rule also written by one of the customers?”
“I think so…… Because the moment he apologized there, that man died.”
Perhaps remembering how horrifying it had been, she trembled as she finished speaking.
“Unnie died there too……”
I waited for her to continue.
But she didn’t.
She merely stared at me as if she had already said everything there was to say.
“That’s it?”
“What?”
“This might be a sensitive question, but how exactly did that unnie die? She didn’t break any rules, did she?”
She stared blankly into empty space.
Then a startled sound escaped her lips.
“Uh…… Huh? Uh……”
“You don’t remember?”
“No…… It’s just—”
“……”
Then she muttered,
“How…… did Unnie die again……?”
When I first encountered her group, there had been three people.
Two men and Lee Yeonhee.
But according to what she had just told me, the group had originally consisted of two men and three women.
The women were Lee Yeonhee, the unnie she had mentioned, and someone named Yujin.
The men were that unnie’s boyfriend and the man I had knocked unconscious with the curtain.
If the boyfriend died, that should have left three women and one man.
And excluding Yujin, who was currently missing, there should have been two women and one man.
However, when I first met Lee Yeonhee’s group, there had been one woman and two men.
Of course, it was possible that the unnie had died and another man had joined their group afterward.
But something about that explanation felt wrong.
It was only a gut feeling, yet the sense of incongruity refused to disappear.
Lee Yeonhee couldn’t remember how that woman had died.
And an unknown man had somehow taken the place that woman should have occupied in their group.
Thinking back on it now, that man hadn’t spoken even once.
Not a single word.
That was clearly strange.
And yet, until this very moment, I had never once thought it was strange.
I asked,
“How did you meet that man?”
“……Who are you talking about?”
“The other man who was traveling with you. Not the one who’s unconscious right now. The other one.”
“……Huh?”
Silence filled the elevator.
Her eyes widened like full moons in confusion.
Instead of waiting for her answer, I opened the book and began checking the Mysteries inside.
Not the Mysteries that had been added after entering the mart.
The ones that had been added before that.
Only then did a certain number catch my eye.
It was positioned between Mystery No. 8, the Mirror, and Mystery No. 10, Divine Power.
A name that my eyes had unconsciously skipped over without reading.
A name my subconscious had apparently refused to acknowledge until I properly understood the existence behind it.
[9. Scq370 - That Man]
There had been a Mystery mixed among the group that entered the mart with me.
Maybe I’ve already fallen into a trap.
Thinking that, I wet my lips.
Then, belatedly, I noticed something else that felt wrong.
Why hasn’t the elevator stopped yet?
Without moving my head, I shifted my eyes toward the floor indicator.
