[https://i.imgur.com/PDTlMwG.png]

After delivering the tools to the [Horse] and the [Ox], we enter the library. Books are filed neatly in cases rising all the way to the ceiling; step-ladders provide a way to reach the highest rows. Wide, tall windows are covered in metal sheets, and while the library is cozy it’s still large enough to get lost within its shelves.

Encyclopedias and medical references are scattered on study tables. The [Rabbit] uses a big tome and a coat-bundled atop it as a pillow, snoozing. The [Dragon] has his nose buried in another title.

[https://i.imgur.com/yoh1jej.png]

[Dragon]: The intriguing thing about this library is that all the books are about two or three years old. Nothing's recent.

[Dragon]: Makes me think that the hotel was been abandoned around that time, or fitted for whatever you call this.

He gestures abstractly.

[Yuri]: Death Mafia. I call it Death Mafia.

He twitches and frowns. I thought that sounded cool!

[Dragon]: I would prefer if you could both be quiet. The [Rabbit]’s getting some rest; she had some trouble sleeping last night.

[Dragon]: And the [Pig] over there was just yelled at by the [Tiger]. So she needs some space to relax.

Curled in the fantasy section is a quiet girl focused on a leatherbound book.

[https://i.imgur.com/ijtS5x8.png]

We go to a table at the corner of the room. While this room’s organized, it’s dusty, and I have to stifle a cough.

[Dragon]: So how can I help you ?

[Lily]: I wanted to ask about the last thing you remember before you passed out.

[Dragon]: Before I passed out…? I was walking home from school down Maple Street. It’s a road with many restaurants and streetcarts.

[Dragon]: It smelled strongly like dumplings. I don’t recall anything else.

[Lily]: A busy street? Dumplings…? Interesting.

[Yuri]: You’re lying. The customers and the shop-owners would’ve seen you being kidnapped; they can’t possibly all be complicit. And I doubt this organization would be so silly to leave that many witnesses.

He nods his head, calmly. There’s a rustling; someone reading must have turned the page of a book. The [Dragon] himself, however, is completely unreadable.

[Dragon]: How much do you two know about the mind?

[Lily]: My father studies medicine so I have some background. But I’ve focused much more on schoolwork.

The [Dragon] picks up a book that had been left on the floor and reshelves it into a gap where it must have once been.

[Dragon]: When it comes to memory, the human brain is fragile.

[Dragon]: Even though we think we may have passed out at one time, we may have really passed out later and have failed to recollect the memories in between.

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[Dragon]: With a concussion for example, people rarely remember the moment of impact. They lose seconds, minutes, or even the days before the blow and their consciousness just jumps to when they wake.

The [Rabbit] stirs, opening half-lidded eyes.

[Rabbit]: Are we all concussed…? That might be why… everyone’s so strange…

[Dragon]: I think we’d know if that was the case. I’m just saying that we can’t trust that we were kidnapped at the moment our memories ended.

I look over Lily’s shoulder at her notepad. Each conversation is handwritten carefully, except the hurried shorthand for the [Tiger]'s yarn.

[Yuri]: So all these notes are useless. We don’t really know when everyone was taken, no matter what they said.

[Dragon]: Let me look at that.

The [Dragon] studies Lily’s papers.

[Yuri]: At least we know we’re all around the same age and from the city. But I don’t see how that’s helpful.

[Dragon]: Hmm. We’re not just from the same city… we’re from the same special district.

[Yuri]: Special district?

[Dragon]: Every city or town can have multiple fire stations, police stations, schools, or hospitals. Their placement is very important.

[Dragon]: We like to think that if a city has two hospitals, for example, then everyone has double the healthcare. But when you dial 911, if you’re close to a hospital the ambulance will arrive quickly, and if you’re far away it might arrive too late. What matters as much as the quantity is your distance to the closest building.

[Dragon]: So a well-run city divides itself and gives each special district its own services. Other cities might not formalize it into a system like ours, but they've put an equal effort into distribution. And based on where we all live we're not just in the same city, we all fall within the same cluster within it.

[Yuri]: I see. So if I didn’t go to private school, then maybe we’d be classmates because we’re in the same district.

[Dragon]: That's correct correct. Although there are lotteries people enter to attend any school across our city.

Lily's lips part and she stands as if she's about to shout, but she glances at the [Pig] - who is still reading her book - and the [Rabbit], who still drowses, and drops her voice to a whisper.

[Lily]: We've made a big deduction. We all use the same hospital, prison, police, mailroom and fire station.

[Yuri]: Why are you saying that like it’s some grand epiphany?

This was an utter waste of time. We should have thought of an escape plan from the start, rather than walk around asking everyone for their biography. Police station, hospital, prison, mailroom, fire station, or some other service, was it even possible for someone to guess which one linked us together? Maybe if I remembered every detail of every story, it'd be easy to find the answer among them, but even I knew which one it was then I doubt it'd help us leave this place.

Without the urgency of weaponry or a solve for the mystery behind the game, my adrenaline leaves me, and my thoughts become dark and dull once more.

This environment magnifies the bleakness that I’m feeling. There’s no natural light in the building, since the windows are always sealed. The dimness depresses me more than the Death Game itself; the Trial Chamber’s oddly comforting compared to all the other rooms. Even in this "cozy" library I hardly feel at home.

Maybe it’s because when I was in my dorm playing mafia, it was the one talent that I had, the one place where I ‘belonged’ even if that talent was completely useless. A top-ten percent academic has the world open to them; a top-ten percent person at a glorified text based game has no life.

But it’s more than that. It’s something about that Trial Room itself…

I think back to when I first asked Lily to meet after the vote today.

How I could see, just slightly, her silhouette in that sealed pitch black room.

[https://i.imgur.com/7f0AeQP.png]

My heart beats faster.

[Yuri]: I’ve thought of something.

[Dragon]: Oh? Do you know why we’ve all been brought to play the game?

[Yuri]: No, it’s not that.

[Lily]: Y-Yuri? What are you doing? This is a library!

The [Pig] starts as I heft the stool next to the one where she was sitting.

[Yuri]: I’m taking one of these stepladders. Lily, take the duct tape that’s on the table.

She's confused, but still happily follows my commands.

[Lily]: Okay! What next?

[Yuri]: We’re going back to the Trial Chamber.