Dantalian no Shoka:Volume1 Chapter5

The awful silence was broken by someone asking "Where am I?"

A maze was unfolding before his eyes.

This maze was made up of countless bookshelves, crammed full of books.

Endlessly overlapping hexagonal corridors with no end were going through it.

In place of walls, one could see nothing but thousands upon thousands of backs of books.

There were no windows or doors in this maze.

Even when leaning one's body over edge of the stone spiral staircase, one could merely see endless corridors of bookshelves.

The corridors were drawing a light spiral and overlapped each other in several layers from the bottom to the top, holding a giant amount of books. It seemed almost like the Tower of Babel that had been lost during the age of the Bible.

This was the tomb of dark and bizarre knowledge.

And it epitomised the universe itself.

"---There's no name to this library. No one would call the world by a name after all, right?"

At last, another voice replied. It was the voice of a girl who sounded still young.

"Is... that so?" the owner of the first voice said. It was a boy who seemed bewildered. He asked back, "Isn't that unpractical at times?"

The girl turned around upon his call. Surrounded by countless piles of books, she had been reading a book laid open in her lap. Her pure white dress that consisted of silk and numerous laces waved like a petal dancing in the wind. She let out a long breath that sounded like a stifled laugh.

"Just call it as you want at such times!"

"For example...?"

"The first person that ever lost his way here called this world 'Labyrinth Library'."

"I see."

The boy nodded. Indeed, this place was like a labyrinth and at the same time like a library.

But he was convinced there had to be a more appropriate name. Therefore, he asked again.

"What else?"

The girl erased her smile and told him silently,

"Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian"

"...Dantalian?"

"It's the name of the owner of this library," she said and turned her eyes to the ground. Terrible loneliness was painted on her face.

Sitting in the depths of the maze of bookshelves, she returned her gaze to the book in her lap.

"'Dantalian' --- Is this your true name?" the boy asked with his glance turned to her.

The girl didn't answer his question. One could only hear the sound of paper. The frail sound of turning pages.

Chapter 4 - The Pop-up Book
Episode 00: The Harlequinade

1

This stone-built residence was half a day away from the capital, going by car and train.

However, the aristocratic owner of this cottage was just a come-down regional lord. So it wasn't all that palatial. It was just a very old building really.

One could see the courtyard behind the thrown-open gate.

A wide range of flowers were blooming in a all kinds of colours, and the morning fog had wet the grass that was thickly growing there.

The yard was probably not cared for in years. It looked much more like a wilderness than a garden.

It was quite hard to believe that this place was occupied until just half a month ago, looking at this pitiful scenery.

A man was walking on the stone pavement of this garden.

A man was walking on the stone pavement of this garden.

It was a young man wearing a frock coat. In his left hand, he held a small travelling bag.

The face under his hat looked still young; he was probably about 18 or 19 years old.

His walk gave off the impression of a trained soldier, yet one could not sense any rudeness in the atmosphere enveloping him. His mien resembled the one of an earnest boy.

The young man arrived at the door at the end of the stone paving and stopped.

After gazing at the dilapidated mansion for a while, he laughed wryly at last.

"Did I inherit something troublesome there, I wonder...? Jeez, grandfather..."

He searched his pockets and took out an old key.

The key was golden with a rather strong tinge of red. A red jewel was worked into its shaft and the key was connected to a thin chain.

"I had always thought that he didn't care about others, but I didn't expect him to live at such a place," he murmured, mixed with a wry smile, and approached the golden key towards the lock of the entrance.

However, he instantly gave up on that and lowered his arm.

The key did obviously not match the shape of the keyhole.

"It's neither the key to this door, huh... well, no big surprise I guess," he sighed lightly and hung the golden key around his neck like a pendant.

Then he searched again his pocket and took out an old bunch of keys.

They looked ordinary and weren't decorated in particular.

After trying out several of those keys, the door finally opened.

He slowly pushed the oak door open and entered the mansion.

After looking around in the dark with narrowed eyes, disappointment flashed on his face.

There was nothing inside.

The minimum things needed for living like a leather sofa or a dining table were there, but other than that there was nothing.

The book shelves were especially strange.

They were embedded in the walls of this mansion.

But not a single book was stored in them.

The young man touched the board of a shelf and stained his finger with the thick dust that had accumulated on there.

This was proof that this shelf had not been used in years.

"What does that mean...?" he frowned suspiciously and proceeded further to the inside.

The weak light shining in from the windows illuminated the dancing dust white. It looked almost like a deserted building.

The walls of each and every room next to the corridor were covered by giant book shelves.

But all of them were empty, without exception.

Not one book had remained in this mansion.

Although there were no traces of them being carried out, they all had disappeared mysteriously.

While being confused by this fact, the young man finally arrived at the last room.

The room was inside a tower on the courtyard side.

It was small inside like in a storeroom. The cold stone walls weren't coated with anything and an empty bookshelf was put at the corner of the room.

The young man briefly looked around in the room. He was about to return to the corridor when he suddenly noticed something.

Below the thin cotton dust on the carpet, one could see something that looked like a rail.

"...I see."

A wry smile flashed on his face, upon which he lightly pushed the book shelf next to the wall.

The deep sound of gears resounded and the big book shelf slowly turned around.

A cavity appeared behind. It was a narrow staircase leading deep into the ground of the mansion.