Tosho Meikyuu:Volume1 Chapter1

Library Labyrinth

You're running.

“Haa…! Haaa…!”

You're running away.

You're in the hexagonal reading room, surrounded by bookshelves on three sides. It's a labyrinth of unlimited archives, like a beehive. With much desperation, you continue to run within the depths of the historical library called the ‘Library Labyrinth’.

“Haa, haa…ugh, ha, haa!”

To simply summarize, your life is in danger.

From the darkness of the labyrinth, a stone spear suddenly shoots out, opening a massive vent in the flank.

You can feel the blood oozing out from the wound, soaking her coat and undergarments. The long silver hair was dyed with reddish black spots, and a slight quivering breathing rang at your ear.

“Haa, I have to run away, run away…!!”

Carrying the dying girl on your back, you continue to run aimlessly in the depths of the library labyrinth, dozens of meters beneath the ‘Library Capital Alexandria’. With the lives of the girl and yours at stake, it is literally a game of tag.

“—Ugh, kahh!”

The blood dripping from the tips of the hair cause the soles of your boots to slide. slipped. You exert your right foot to regain footing, and give a blood curdling scream due to the excessive lactic acid formed.

You are at your limits. You are already gasping for breath, your brain completely devoid of oxygen. Your heart is beating to the point of ripping apart. Despite so, you have to run. If you don't, you will be slaughtered.

By the terrifying demon, the murderer of the Library Labyrinth.

“Are…you? Are you, still there…?”

Perhaps realizing that you’re nearing your physical limit, the girl calls you over your shoulder. The voice is scratchy and feeble, and you can certainly hear the terrifying of death.

“L-leave me be. Here. You can just go, alone…ack, ack!!"

The girl says in a timeworn tone, “Let me be killed.” She wants to use her own life as bait and let you escape alone.

…If you abandon her, you may be able to shake off the killer's pursuit.

"Quiet, haa! Don't talk. You'll open, a wound…!"

But your conviction doesn’t allow you to survive at the expense of others. Even if your life ends, you can never let someone else die for the sake of surviving.

Because five years ago, you lost your beloved parents in this Library Labyrinth.

“Enough, just seeing you, just knowing that you remember me, I shall be content. I-if this continues, you too shall will be killed…ack, ack!!”

The girl is gasping for breath while worrying about your safety. For this reason, you can’t abandon the kind-hearted girl.

“Yo-you? I can't see well anymore…”

“Just be quiet and grab onto me! I’ll get you to the ‘Apothecary's Deep Magic Treatment Room! You’ll be saved there!”

You encourage the girl…but in fact, you don’t know the way back to the surface, let alone the ‘Apothecary’. You lost your direction while being pursued by the murderer.

As the name implies, the structure of the Library Labyrinth is intricate, and it’s not easy to escape once you get lost. If you don't find the elevator that leads to the ground…

You two will die.

"Damn…itttttt!"

You even have the urge to put your trust in God. The girl's life is in peril. At this rate, you’ll be witnessing another death.

Someone is hurt and dying, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

You can only watch helplessly watching from the sidelines as they die, their lives wilting to an end.

Just as you saw you father die.

" …,No…!"

Absolutely not, you think.

You don’t want to experience such loss, such helplessness, such despair again.

“I'll never give up…! I won’t let you kill me! I don't want a repeat of what happened five years ago!”

Yes, that's why you're here.

To obtain the power to transcend the past, you decided to study abroad in the ‘Apothecary’, visited the Library City, and ventured into the Library Labyrinth, the archives where all kinds of books are said to lie.

You wish to transcend your abominable memories and become someone who can save others—the ‘Doctor Magna’.

“This time, this time, I'll save you! I swore that!”

Your thoughts are,

“A cold stone bite shall pierce the entrails.”

Unfortunately, ended simply.

“Execute, stone serpent fang.”

A high-pitched chanting echoes, whoosh! And the sound of the wind follows.

From the faint darkness of the Library Labyrinth, a rock spear flies in rapidly,

And strikes you directly in the leg.

“G—gyyaaaaaaaaaa!!!?”

A sharp hexagonal stone pillar pierces the center of your calf.

The granite spear, as thick as your arm, gouges deep into your bones and muscles, destroying your leg.

Your body loses support, and you fall down with the same momentum you are running with. Your vision spins, and the strong centrifugal force separates you from the girl. You try to hug the body that is moving away from you, thud! and your back slams into the floorboard, breaking your ribs. Despite that, you can’t slow down completely, so you crash hard into the bookshelf.

“Gabbu!? Haaaa…!!?”