Extra To Protagonist-Chapter 82: Investigation

The training hall was mostly empty now.

Only the distant clack of practice blades echoed faintly from a chamber down the hall, first years most likely, or overachievers without much else to do.

Merlin stayed where he was, seated on the edge of the bench. His posture hadn't moved in minutes. Just his fingers, curled loosely around the rim of the blunted longsword he'd chosen earlier. Still felt wrong. Still felt heavy in all the wrong places.

He glanced at it again, expression unreadable.

'Keryx was made to feel like an extension. This…'

He shifted the blade a little on his thigh. Even after an hour of drills, he couldn't decide if he hated it or not.

'No. I don't hate it. I just… don't know it. Not yet.'

A beat passed. His gaze slid to the scuffed stone floor.

'Reinhardt didn't comment much. He saw, of course. But he didn't say much.'

That silence had been the loudest part of the day.

A few more seconds passed before footsteps reached him from the rear doors. Not rushed. Not cautious. Just steady, confident, familiar.

Nathan was the first to appear. Shirt slung over one shoulder, towel around his neck. Hair still damp from washing off the sweat.

"You always sit here alone after class?"

Merlin didn't answer right away. He looked up, caught Nathan's raised brow, and offered something halfway to a shrug.

Adrian came in next, followed by Liliana. Elara was with them too this time, a half-empty water flask in hand. She didn't speak, just leaned against one of the old columns near the edge.

Seraphina, noticeably, wasn't with them.

Adrian plopped down beside Merlin without hesitation, his usual grin somewhat subdued.

"I saw you use a longsword today," he said. "Didn't know you could."

Merlin said nothing. He simply placed the longsword back onto the rack and exhaled.

Nathan smirked. "Was good form. Not as flashy as you usually are with your sword, but solid."

Liliana tilted her head. "So… what brought that on?"

He glanced at her. There was no accusation in her voice. Just curiosity.

'Because I don't know if I'll ever move the same way again.'

"Trying something different," he said. "Nothing more."

That was enough for most of them.

Elara's eyes lingered longer than the rest.

Adrian stretched his arms behind his back. "Reinhardt looked like he approved, by the way. Didn't say anything, but I swear he nodded at one point."

Liliana chuckled. "You sure he wasn't just adjusting his collar?"

"No, no, it was a full nod. The ancient sign of professorly respect."

Merlin let them talk.

It was easier like this. Letting them fill the silence. Letting their voices cover the small, unspoken shift that had settled in since he picked up that sword.

Nathan took a sip from his flask, then frowned slightly. "Anyone else notice the lights flickering in the hall near the lower dorm stairs?"

Liliana made a face. "Again?"

"They keep saying it's a wiring thing," Adrian said. "But we use glyph conduction. There's no wires to mess up."

"Could be a mana well fluctuation," Elara murmured.

Nathan looked at her. "That normal?"

She shook her head. "Not this often."

Merlin didn't say anything. He was still watching the sword rack.

Adrian added, "It's probably nothing. But… yeah. Weird vibes lately. Like something's just off. Not dangerous. Just… off."

'The air's been heavier. Not always. Just in moments. Like walking through a room that someone left in a hurry.'

He pushed the thought away and stood.

The others followed suit.

As they made their way out of the training hall, Merlin let his pace lag just slightly behind the others. Their conversation shifted to dinner plans, rumors about the next mock duel evaluations, the usual things.

But his eyes drifted up.

There, near the arch of the western archway, a patch of old stone seemed darker than usual. Barely noticeable. A faint stain along the upper corner, shaped almost like branching veins.

He stopped walking.

Elara turned when she noticed he wasn't beside them.

"You coming?"

He looked at her. Then back at the mark.

It was gone now.

Maybe it had never been there.

Merlin's eyes narrowed just slightly.

"…Yeah," he said, and followed.

—

He waited until they drifted off. One by one. Nathan had something to deliver. Elara was pulled aside by one of the seniors. Liliana left without a word, her usual exit. Adrian was the last to stand, offering Merlin a nod.

"Don't sit too long. The stone eats warmth faster than a grave."

Merlin gave a faint smirk. Just enough. Not too much.

He stayed until the sky turned from deep blue to a muted iron, the kind of grey that swallowed sound. Then he stood and turned toward the east wing. Not the dorms.

He moved slow. Intentional. Letting the steps take shape on their own.

'I need to see it.'

The corridors of the eastern halls were quieter after dinner. Most of the student body didn't bother venturing out this far unless they had to.

The administration wing connected here. Archive storage. Some of the older practice chambers that hadn't been used in months. Or years.

Merlin moved past them all.

His hands were in his coat pockets. His back was straight.

He turned down a hall that should've dead-ended at the records office. But it didn't. Not now.

His feet came to a stop.

The corridor ahead extended farther than it should've. The light sconces here hadn't been lit. It stretched past the point of what could be called architecture. Seamless walls. No doors. Only stone and silence.

'There it is.'

He didn't walk forward.

Not yet.

He stared at it, quiet.

'It begins when people stop noticing. When something stretches a little longer than it used to. When a door that should lead to a classroom opens into stairs. When a hallway forgets where it ends.'

This wasn't a gate. This wasn't a dungeon. It wasn't even alive in the way mana-afflicted places sometimes were.

It was The Hollow Labyrinth. A wrong thing. A bad thing to be more precise.

That was its only constant.

Wrongness that didn't scream. It seeped.

'How early is it. This shouldn't be here yet. Unless… the timeline's shifting faster than I thought.'

He leaned slightly closer, but didn't cross the invisible line yet.

He watched.

There was no breeze. No sound. No distortion. But even still, the hairs on his arms lifted.

'The others wouldn't understand. Not yet. They'd treat it like a curiosity. Like another training ground. They haven't read what happens to the people who go in before it's fully formed. The walls move. And when they come back, they don't.'

A flicker.

Not in the hall.

In his head.

A memory of lines from the novel.

A side character lost for four chapters. Returned with new eyes. Except they weren't new.

They were someone else's.

Merlin took a breath.

Backed away.

Three steps.

Then turned.

He didn't look again.

His footsteps didn't rush. That would draw attention.

But his pulse quickened.

'Tomorrow. I'll check for more. If the layout's begun to bend, I'll need to start mapping it now. Before it grows.'

He exited through the side door, stepped into the night air.

Cool. Thin. Nothing in the wind.

He didn't speak to anyone on the walk back to the dorms. No thoughts wasted on small talk or food or lecture prep. Only the corridor.

And the story he'd already read.

Because this time, he wasn't watching from the outside.

This time, he was inside it.

—

The next day he left before first bell.

No breakfast. No chatter. Not even a glance back at the dorm. Just a stolen piece of chalk.

The door shutting behind him, soft and certain.

The stone corridors of the eastern annex were silent again. Most students hadn't even stirred from their rooms. Too early for lectures. Too late to be a morning run.

Perfect.

Merlin's boots moved light over the floor. Not careful. Just practiced.

He'd memorized the route last night, every turn and shadow, every alcove and hollow pillar. The sort of thing normal students wouldn't even see, let alone remember.

But he wasn't a normal student.

He turned down the final passage and it was still there.

That impossible stretch of hallway, too long, too smooth. No seams in the walls. No scuff marks on the floor. It hadn't collapsed back into the mundane like most unstable distortions did.

It had grown.

Only slightly. A meter, maybe less. But he could feel it.

Something deeper.

Something turning.

'It's stabilizing.'

He stepped forward.

This time, the air changed.

Not cold. Not warm. Just off.

Like a space missing something fundamental.

Merlin crouched. Ran two fingers along the floor, pressing near the edge of where the normal corridor ended and the labyrinth began.

Stone. But not the same stone.

Too fine.

No mortar between the bricks. No variation in color.

Just that smooth, pale material that never reflected light the right way.

'This isn't stone. Well not really. It just looks like it.'

He stood again and reached into his coat.

Taking out the piece of chalk.

He marked the left wall. A single dot at chest height.

Then he moved forward.

Five paces in.

Silence. Stillness. The corridor behind him didn't shift. Not yet.

He marked the wall again. This time on the right.

Another five paces.

Mark.

He did it again.

And again.

Eight marks in, he turned.

Looked back.

The first one was gone.

He walked back.

Carefully. Steps exact.

But it was gone.

Erased. Or never there.

He touched the wall where it should've been. Nothing. Just cool smoothness.

'It's begun. Phase two. It's spatial manipulation.'

He stepped back. Didn't go further.

Not yet.

This was just recon.

Just confirmation.

The Hollow Labyrinth had arrived early.

And it had teeth.

'Still no door. Still no sounds. It's not hunting yet. But it will. And when it does, it won't stop.'

He exhaled once through his nose and turned on his heel.

Back down the corridor.

When he emerged into the eastern wing proper, the first class bell rang in the distance.

Students would be up. Moving. Laughing.

As if the school weren't about to become a maze that ate people whole.

'Should I tell them?'

His pace didn't change.

'No. Not yet. Not until I have something solid. They'd ask questions. Too many. And I can't afford questions. Not when I'm the only one who knows how this ends.'

He reached the stairs, took them two at a time.

No one saw him.

Just the way he needed it.

By the time he stepped into the courtyard, the sun had fully cleared the towers.

His friends were waiting.

But his eyes flicked once toward the eastern wing before he crossed over.

Just once.

Enough.