Ch.32Shall We Run Down the Hallway? (2)

Are you tired?

Even though it didn’t feel like we’d walked around much, by the time lunch approached, my body felt so languid that I couldn’t help but yawn.

“Yaaawn…”

“Janghun, are you sleepy?”

“I certainly… can’t deny that museums are somewhat boring places, Gosawa.”

“R-really? I put a lot of thought into choosing this field trip location…”

Three people were following closely behind me.

Miss Hoshino, Carmilla, and now Yoon Ha-eun as well.

I think these girls sticking so closely to my sides and back are probably the main cause of the fatigue I’m feeling right now.

“By the way, it’s almost lunchtime. Shouldn’t we head up to the top floor now?”

“Yeah. Time-wise, we probably should.”

“Let’s take the elevator on the way!”

“I agree, Gosawa.”

Well, kids usually perk right up after eating when they’re tired.

Convinced this would be the case, I entered the restaurant located on the top floor of the Hero Museum as planned to have lunch.

But it seems the three people around me were physical monsters.

Drowsy…

“Huh? Why are you all leaning on the desks and sleeping?”

“We’re too tired…”

“No matter how much we walk, it feels like we’re going in circles…”

“Running around so much made us exhausted…”

The other students who had arrived at the top floor before us were in a half-asleep state.

Well, it would be difficult even for children to explore all 30 floors of the museum.

Seeing the kids more exhausted than expected, Yoon Ha-eun let out a groan…

“Oh my. If I had known this would happen, I should have guided you from start to finish.”

Even for an S-class hero, it seems being a teacher was new to her.

She appeared to have made a minor mistake.

Well, getting tired from exploring was part of the charm of field trips anyway.

“Teacher, when are we going to eat?”

“Huh? Well… we were supposed to eat in about 30 minutes, but should I ask them to prepare the food now?”

“””Yes!!”””

Wow, that startled me.

The kids really were hungry.

As Yoon Ha-eun checked her watch, the children who had been dozing suddenly perked up, insisting we eat now.

Startled by this, Yoon Ha-eun seemed to have no choice but to go alone into the restaurant kitchen, saying she would bring the food right away.

“Alright. I’ll talk to the chefs and be right back. Everyone wait here, okay?”

“Janghun, let’s sit down too.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Just so you know, the seat next to Janghun is mine.”

“There’s no way that’s possible when three of us are sitting together, Gosawa!”

It was an elegant restaurant with round tables covered in tablecloths arranged near the windows.

While waiting for our food, the three of us naturally decided to sit at one of the remaining tables.

“I wonder if they’ll serve steak since it’s a restaurant?”

“Of course! When you think of restaurants, it’s got to be meat, right?”

“I’d like some pasta or pizza too, Gosawa.”

Being on the 31st floor, it really is quite high.

Since we were seated by the window, I carefully looked outside and it seemed at least twice as high as the 50-meter wall I had jumped before.

Having a meal at a restaurant in such a location…

This really is a diamond-spoon school after all… I was thinking when—

“Ugh… bathroom.”

I saw one of the children who had been sitting at the table get up and head out looking for the bathroom.

‘Yoon Ha-eun told us to stay put…’

I was briefly concerned, but this was a massive museum where only Hero Association personnel were allowed.

Apart from being too spacious, there wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, and it was just a quick bathroom trip, so there seemed no need to worry.

Creak.

Clunk.

“…?”

Creak.

Clunk.

“Huh?”

Until I saw the child who had opened the restaurant door to go outside immediately return.

‘What’s going on? …Are they playing around?’

They definitely said they needed the bathroom urgently.

The child was repeatedly going in and out of the exit door in the distance.

As I watched closely, I noticed their expression was filled with fear—too much for it to be a prank.

I stood up abruptly!

“Huh?”

“Janghun?”

“Something’s wrong…”

I had an ominous feeling.

At the same time, very faintly, a foul smell passed by my nose.

This smell was unmistakably the “stench of a monster.”

“Miss Hoshino and Carmilla, I think there’s a monster here.”

“W-what?! A m-monster?”

“Suddenly talking about monsters? This is a building managed by the Hero Association, Janghun.”

“I know. But look over there. Doesn’t that scene look strange to you?”

I could sense it because I’m a monster too.

The two of them hadn’t realized a monster had appeared until they saw it directly.

I pointed to our classmate who was still going back and forth through the doorway and explained to Miss Hoshino and Carmilla.

“That kid said they were going to the bathroom, but they’ve been moving like that for several minutes now.”

“So… just from seeing that, you think a monster has appeared?”

“Yes. Don’t you think it’s an unnatural sight, Miss?”

“Sigh. Janghun, you must not know much about monsters, but if a monster had really appeared, it wouldn’t be this quiet.”

“For once, I have to agree with Hoshino-san, Gosawa. That just looks like kids playing around.”

Miss Hoshino merely shrugged at my warning.

Thud, thud.

“Hey, why do you keep holding onto the door like that?”

“Huh?! H-Hoshino-nim…”

“Move aside. I’ll open it for you.”

Acting like it was no big deal, she approached and opened the door wide so the child could go to the bathroom.

“…Huh?”

At that moment, Yoon Ha-eun rushed out from the restaurant kitchen.

“Children, everyone get up! Something’s wrong! No matter how much I searched inside, there isn’t a single chef anywhere!”

At her words, fear gradually spread across the faces of the children waiting for lunch.

Meanwhile.

“What is this…”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Hoshino…!”

“Teacher Yoon Ha-eun…”

Yoon Ha-eun, who had followed us to the wide-open restaurant door, was stunned by the sight beyond the entrance.

Like a mirror, there was another restaurant outside the restaurant, showing ourselves—her expression became completely bewildered.

“What… is this?”

***

“It seems we’re isolated.”

“””…!”””

How much time had passed since then?

The restaurant had transformed into an illogical structure where entering it would bring you right back to where you started.

So, to find another escape route, Yoon Ha-eun, along with Miss Hoshino and Carmilla, thoroughly searched the inside of the restaurant.

But they found absolutely nothing.

“First of all, the window area has somehow become obscured by ‘white fog’.”

“It seems like the entire top floor of the museum has been separated into a different dimension by some ‘monster’s’ power.”

“I tried breaking through the floor and ceiling, but we still end up back here!”

Up, down, left, right.

Literally every direction was blocked.

Or rather than blocked, perhaps “returning” would be more accurate?

Anyway, in the blink of an eye, we had become completely trapped inside this restaurant.

“T-teacher… what do we do now?”

“Are we going to die?”

“Waaah! I want my mommy…!”

“I’m scared, teacher!”

“Whoa, whoa, everyone calm down. With an S-class hero right here, nothing like that is going to happen!”

That’s a lie.

Yoon Ha-eun was forcing a smile to calm the students, but if you looked closely, sweat was beading on the back of her neck.

‘Even after 10 years, she still gets sweaty at the nape when she’s nervous…’

It was one of her habits from the original work.

“By the way, I wonder what alias the monster that trapped us has?”

“A…lias?”

“You mean the enemy’s identity, Janghun?”

“Yeah. In monster subjugation, the most important thing is to first identify what kind of monster you’re dealing with.”

Trapping multiple humans in a single space.

I had encountered monsters with this ability several times in the original work.

It was such a unique ability that I still clearly remember some of them.

‘Prison? Repetition? Or Eternity? Since it’s completely trapped us in this space, in the worst case, it could be “Dominion”…’

Based on the current situation alone, there were too many monsters that could be suspects.

Moreover, I was concerned about the white fog beyond the window that had turned pale.

‘A faint monster stench is coming from over there.’

So, following the official strategy from the “Monster Front Gallery” that I frequently used in the past, I started searching the restaurant separately to identify the monster that had trapped us here.

Meanwhile.

‘Janghun is…’

‘Isn’t he too calm for someone facing a monster, Gosawa?’

He’s not from a hero family or a hero himself, and he’s just a child who’s barely started elementary school.

Yet instead of bursting into tears after being trapped in a space separated by a monster, he was surveying his surroundings more calmly than most professional heroes.

While puzzled by his abnormally composed situation assessment, they wondered why only Kang Janghun was so calm.

The two who had been following him with suspicious eyes as he moved around the restaurant eventually realized.

“”C-could it be?!””

The reason Kang Janghun knew so much about monsters.

It was because of them!

He must have been studying hard to help with hero work that only women could do!

Hehehehe…

‘Janghun…!’

‘Janghun!!’

I’ll definitely make you my sidekick later and put you in a good position.