The Breath of Judgment
"Now then, two courses of action lie open to thee. The one is Accept. The other, Verify."
If the testimony was true, Accept. If false, Verify.
"Make thy choice."
The die's top face currently showed 6, and Do-ssi had testified about this incident that it was "the very first of the perfect numbers" — in other words, the smallest perfect number.
Therefore, the testimony was true.
"Accept."
Bang!
[Testimony x: "Kyaaaaagh! What I saw was the very first of the perfect numbers!"]
"Mark this well: upon Acceptance, the truth or falsehood of the testimony shall not be disclosed. Even shouldst thou deem a false testimony true, the Breath shall not judge thee for it."
In other words, if I judged a testimony to be true and accepted it, I would never learn whether I'd been right or wrong.
Not that there was a penalty even for being wrong.
"This time, perform a Verification."
Another statement sheet, identical to the last, sprang into being.
"Verify."
Bang!
[Testimony x: "Kyaaaaagh! What I saw was the very first of the perfect numbers!"]
"Doubt not."
The solemn decree hammered down, and from inside the gas mask came a hiss, like air escaping through a crack.
"Ugh...!"
Panicking, I held my breath and instinctively grabbed for the mask.
Naturally, it was useless.
The mask would not come off my face. It clung like skin.
"This is but a demonstration. Nothing that would harm thee shall occur."
"Ha... Please, just tell me that kind of thing in advance."
Oblivious, Do-ssi carried on with the explanation.
"Conversely, upon Verification, the truth or falsehood of the testimony is revealed at once. Verify a false testimony, and naught shall come of it. But judge a true testimony false and verify it so, and the Breath shall judge thee."
"If I breathe it, do I die instantly?"
"The Breath of Judgment is but a single sip at a time. That one sip alone, and blood shall flow from thine eyes, thy nose, thy mouth. And with every sip thou breathest, the bleeding quickens, and the volume grows."
So it was probably some kind of gas with a hemorrhagic toxin.
Holding my breath wouldn't help.
The mask wouldn't come off anyway, so all holding my breath would buy me was death in about a minute.
"Ah."
Which meant I could afford to take it twice.
Three times, if I was lucky.
"Thou shalt make a fine gambler yet."
All twenty-one of its eye-corners crinkled — the itch crawling deep inside my own eyeballs — as if it had read my mind.
"A total of six incidents shall arise. Shouldst thou bring all six to a close and yet remain alive beyond 6 minutes, the victory is thine."
"I don't need to judge true and false correctly?"
All I had to do was survive?
Whether I'd properly accepted a truth or properly verified a falsehood — that didn't matter at all?
"Is that what matters? What to believe, and what not to believe — that, and that alone, is what shall truly matter."
Something was wrong here.
Suppose I accepted some testimony.
Regardless of whether that testimony was true or false, I took no penalty whatsoever, and the incident was closed.
Now suppose I verified some testimony.
If it was false, fine — but if it was true, I would be breathing poison gas.
So wasn't just always accepting a guaranteed win?
I shot a suspicious look at the gambling-addicted die.
There was no way that thing didn't know that.
'A gamble without deception does not exist.'
Winning wouldn't be easy.
I had no idea exactly what trick it intended to pull, but...
Somehow or other, it would interfere — keep me from ever accepting a testimony.
And yet I didn't believe my chances of winning were zero. Not even by a single grain.
Because every problem in a labyrinth is, in theory, always guaranteed to be solvable.
Assuming you don't die in the middle of solving it.
"Then, the Breath of Judgment shall begin."
Which meant if I played well, I could win.
If I won, I could get Jeong Jiho out of the labyrinth, right away.
...I could send someone out of the labyrinth alive. With my own hands.
"Right. Begin."
Clack — the die rolled and stopped.
Top face: 1.
"An incident has occurred. The testimony shall now commence."
[Testimony a: ]
"I saw it with my own two eyes!"
The testimony continued in the voice of some young man.
"This die's number is the same as the floor where this labyrinth's exit lies!"
"You little con-artist bastard."
I realized that I couldn't win.
[Testimony a: "I saw it with my own two eyes! This die's number is the same as the floor where this labyrinth's exit lies!"]
Given the labyrinth's nature of honoring 'Doors', I'd guessed the exit was on the 1st floor — but I'd gladly trade a guess for certainty any day.
The labyrinth itself had guaranteed it, so there could be no better evidence than this.
"This is..."
If I wanted to know the truth, Verify was the only option.
Accept, and I'd never know. Only Verify would tell me.
And if I Verified, and it turned out the exit wasn't on the 1st floor at all — fine, verification successful, all well and good.
But if not, I would be breathing poison gas.
Ha.
Blocking my Acceptance in this way.
"That's insane. This is, too much..."
Unfair.
The word climbed all the way up my throat.
The die's voice settled coldly over my head.
The huge pupils embedded in its six faces crinkled with that itch — that itch deep inside my own eyeballs, the kind that made you want to claw them out — and it smiled at me.
"It is precisely because it makes no sense that the gamble holds."
A senseless phenomenon, indeed — but yes, that was a gamble.
"Asymmetry. Irregularity. Irrationality. Therein lies the essence of gambling. What makes sense is mere trade, nothing more."
I'd known that when I sat down.
And yet...
"Decide. And do not imagine that the time granted thee is infinite."
My teeth ground together.
"...Verify."
Bang!
[Testimony a: "I saw it with my own two eyes! This die's number is the same as the floor where this labyrinth's exit lies!"]
However strongly I suspected the exit was on the 1st floor, in the end it was only ever a suspicion.
If by some chance it wasn't on the 1st floor.
If I passed right by an exit waiting on some other floor.
I might never get out. Not ever.
I didn't want that.
Anything but that.
I have to get out. I have to...
"Doubt not."
Hissss—
"You, you son of a... Kghk!"
At last, a briny liquid surged up from somewhere deep below and burst out of me.
Before the blood trickling from my nose even reached my lips, my mouth was coughing up blood, and the blood I spat struck the mask, ran down its curve, and pooled inside.
"Kck, ugh..."
My vision blurred.
Blood mixed with tears dripped down onto my pants.
My whole body shook.
Pain like someone raking my guts out with a hook.
I couldn't breathe.
A salty, briny taste lingered on the tip of my tongue.
"The incident has been concluded."
Sararak.
The statement sheet flipped over onto its side.
"Ugh..."
One sip of the Breath of Judgment, and I was already like this.
Three sips and it wouldn't be a matter of dying — I'd probably just drop dead on the spot.
Had I done something pointless after all?
Maybe I should have just believed the exit was on the 1st floor and left it at that...
No. No, I wasn't wrong.
In a labyrinth where nothing can be certain until you've walked there yourself — if a guess could be turned into certainty.
If that could be bought for nothing more than a cup or two of my blood.
Wasn't that a bargain?
"So the very first incident proves too great a strain? At this rate, I wonder whether the remaining five shall ever be concluded."
"Shut, your mouth..."
"Regrettably, I possess no mouth with which to shut. It would be inconvenient indeed were thou to lose thy sight so soon."
"You damn— one, word... I, lost..."
"I do not care for losing."
Tap. Scrape.
The die with its red eyes rolled across the table and stopped.
Top face: 6.
"An incident has occurred. The testimony shall now commence."
[Testimony b: ]
After checking the new statement sheet laid out before me, I waited, trembling, for the rest.
This time, the voice of a woman in her seventies.
"The number of bodies you pulled out of Dalumul — it was exactly that many, wasn't it."
My clenched fist shuddered.
Ah.
Ahh.
I swear it — no six-sided die could ever hope to count that number.
"Verify."
Bang!
"A false testimony lies before thine eyes."
A voice as heavy as a death sentence.
"The incident has been concluded."
Sararak — the statement sheet flipped over again.
Tap! Dararak...
The pale, sallow die, tumbling through empty air, spun in place and came to a halt.
Top face: 4.
"An incident has occurred. The testimony shall now commence."
[Testimony c: ]
"Hey, you know I really thought of you like my own little brother, right?"
"Ah."
A voice. Young, and younger still. The same age as the me of right now.
"Mom and Dad said it too. Like they'd gained another son, and it made them feel safe."
"Ah..."
I couldn't breathe.
Grab, scratch—
The mask.
The mask won't come off.
"So before that happened to me, if anyone had asked how many people were in our family, I'd have answered — exactly this many."
Why.
Does it still hurt this much?
Why.
Do I still miss it this much?
I'd scooped it all out, scooped and scooped and scooped it out without end. I'd been so sure it had all run dry.
"Ugh, uh..."
Staring at the four wavering red pips, I clawed my way through the dizziness in my head.
This was incident 3, which meant three incidents remained.
I had already taken one sip of the Breath of Judgment.
Two more, and I would die.
...Which meant.
I could afford one more sip of that Breath.
So — just once.
Please. Just this once.
"Verify."