Chapter 16: Librarian Of The Library (1)
It was Saturday on the weekend.
But here I was, in the seldom-visited second basement of the library, sitting at my desk and reading a book.
[It’s the weekend, go out and have fun!]
Such pleas fell on deaf ears, as librarians worked on weekends too.
The library took a day off during the week, and my days off were on Monday and Sunday, the closing days.
In other words, for others, Friday was the last day of work, but for me, it was Saturday.
I would have complained about this wretched work schedule in the past, but now I rather like it.
You would think more people would come because it’s the weekend, but once you were here, hardly anyone showed up!
‘Basement level two is the best.’
I was like an unwanted guest who wasn’t invited for meals and was ostracized. And the best part was that I was told to just sit at my desk in the basement of the library. It was fantastic.
It probably started with the library director telling everyone not to give me too much work, but I was not the type to get stressed out about such things.
There was no reason to be stressed.
I had ten volumes of literature I borrowed from the second floor during lunchtime stacked in front of me.
‘This is heaven.’
Living as a librarian, reading books in a world where serialized works were completed or still ongoing.
I may not be able to stay in this job for the rest of my life, but if I kept working in this library like this, at least I wouldn’t be bored.
What?
When would I attract the heroines by working in the library?
That’s something that could be accomplished over three years, with build-up, once the protagonist was eliminated.
‘This year’s goal is to kill the protagonist.’
I just had to think about what came next after killing the protagonist.
Even if he had powerful abilities, the guy who fell from grace and brought down a meteorite to destroy Earth deserved to die.
Wasn’t that a problem for the future?
So you’re saying that it could change because it was not a predetermined fate?
What did that matter to me?.
Survival was important.
And if possible, it was also important to return to my original world, Earth.
Therefore, I needed to gather information about the protagonist, and this position of librarian in the library was surprisingly convenient for gathering information.
Because with the system called ‘Library Card,’ I could access a variety of student data.
As the library borrowing information was linked to the Taeguk Watch, anyone could access basic information through the database.
Even if someone was the head of the academy, they could check basic things like names, borrowed books, and library borrowing histories.
‘The problem is that the protagonist’s information will not be registered in the database until next week.’
Just like the man named Do Jih-wan, the chief officer, who received the Taeguk Watch and was registered in the database after a week of starting work, it would take time for the protagonist, who would enter as a freshman at the academy, to be registered.
In that case.
‘It means I can enjoy reading books until then.’
Whether the entrance ceremony was the day after tomorrow, Monday or not, today I was going to read the book as a reader…
“I want to borrow something.”
“…Hmm?”
A woman with a slightly familiar face appeared in front of me.
Unlike other ordinary people, her hair color was a striking pink that loudly proclaimed, ‘I am an ability user.’
“Student council president?”
“Yes. I am Yoon Iseon, the student council president.”
Student council president Yoon Iseon.
She was considerably short at 150cm, but her power was quite strong, making her a literal embodiment of the phrase ‘the small pepper is spicy.’
The position of student council president always had a certain role in academy-themed stories, but this woman was also one of the ‘heroines.’
The ominous little pinkhead.
That was the public perception of her, but in reality, she was highly competent both in terms of her powers and politically.
She had been running the student council from the high school department to the college department, so she was, so to speak, a ‘lifelong student council president.’
Yoon Iseon was the first to create a student council, and she organized the student council by advocating for its necessity.
Even though the student council could be seen as an ‘ability user organization’ to the public, she organized it and created numerous events for students on the grounds that ability users should also enjoy their youth.
And naturally, those projects became events in harem light novels where the protagonist and the heroines flirted and built relationships. Yoon Iseon herself also fell into the hands of the protagonist.
I didn’t expect to meet her like this here.
Persuading Yoon Iseon would probably please the leader too, but unfortunately, I was not the Goblin, now, just a librarian named Do Ji-hwan.
“Could you place the book you want to borrow here?”
Yoon Iseon pointed to the four books placed on the borrowing machine.
I calmly and professionally proceeded with the book lending, but I kept feeling Yoon Iseon’s gaze.
What was going on? Why was she continuously looking at me?
Surely, she was not infected with Baek Seol-hee’s disease, was she?
“Ah, yes. Could you place your Taeguk Watch on the sensor?”
“Yes.”
Yoon Iseon placed her wrist on the Taeguk Watch sensor, something that was similar to a fingerprint sensor that was placed in front of the desk.
Beep-beep.
Soon, her biometric information appeared on the monitor screen, and the titles of the books she wanted to borrow were listed.
-Mana Theory [Revised and Expanded Edition]
-How Does Humanity Awaken Mana?
…
They all looked boring at first glance.
‘In a world where imagination becomes power, such books are purely academic.’
Whether it was natural science or technological science, they stimulated human imagination, but at the same time, an element existed that limited it.
[Dinosaurs Can’t Fly in Space!]
[How unromantic.]
Most people visited the Humanities corner to enhance their abilities, but there were also those who came here for metaphysical inquiries about Mana itself.
Those who aimed to walk the path of a graduate student.
A lot of such individuals tended to visit here.
Yoon Iseon was almost one of them.
But then.
“…Huh?”
There appeared to be four books on the surface, but five were being recorded.
I moved to check because something felt off…
“You seem new. What happened to the person who used to work here?”
“Ah. They resigned. They quit on their own.”
“I see….”
She seemed to be trying to change the subject?
As I skimmed the book with my eyes, Yoon Iseon, seemingly uneasy, averted her gaze while moving her pinkish eyes.
“Is the borrowing process completed?”
“…Yes. You can borrow for 14 days, and if you want to extend the due date, please apply for an extension with your Taeguk Watch a day before the due date.”
After responding per the manual, I noticed one title from the books she borrowed that caught my attention.
-How to Live Without Stress
…
It seemed like the student council president had a tough time too.
I wondered if reading such a book wasn’t stressful, but probably the stress from the student council was worse than the book.
‘She must have a lot to handle.’
Just dealing with student council work would be tough, and thinking about incoming students wouldn’t be an ordinary struggle.
Regrettably, I couldn’t help.
All I could do was tell her to do her best.
“Excuse me, librarian.”
“Yes?”
“Um, I’m preparing for a thesis, so I was wondering if I could conduct an interview?”
“An interview?”
“Yes. I wanted to know what you think about Mana.”
“I’m just a layperson, though….”
“That’s fine.”
Yoon Iseon seemed quite desperate.
“You only have to answer a few questions. If it makes you uncomfortable…”
“No, it’s okay. There was nobody here, and I was feeling bored. Can you wait a moment?”
I made a simple cup of coffee using the supplies I had behind me.
It was instant coffee, but surprisingly, she liked this type of coffee.
“Oh, I apologize. I made coffee without asking you. Should I change it to green tea?”
“No, I like instant coffee. Now, for the first question.”
Yoon Iseon began to interview me as she casually sipped on her coffee.
“Mana started to spread in this world from the moment a meteor fell from outer space. Then, could there be another planet where Mana has fully spread?”
“Yes.”
An affirmative answer.
“This is a story of my ‘imagination.’ It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but would you like to hear it?”
This was a spoiler from the original work.
“What if the meteor that fell to the earth was not from our galaxy? What if this asteroid-like thing, assumed to have flown from beyond Pluto, had actually come from another galaxy, another world?”
“From a place like Andromeda?”
“Similar, yes.”
The meteor flew here in 1999.
No one knew whether it passed by Pluto or started from Pluto, as the first observation of the meteor was at Pluto’s location.
But I knew.
That the ‘otherworldly’ meteor, the 9th Circle Archmage’s Meteor Rain, came to this world’s galaxy through teleportation.
“I am one of those who believe in the ‘Otherworld Theory’.”
“…There exists another world?”
“Yes. A chunk of Mana from another world where Mana exists came over and spread in this world, and children born after the year 2000 have been sensitive to Mana since they were in the womb. The concept of extraterrestriality that people think of is not beyond the galaxy, but a completely different dimensional world.”
“…That sounds like a fantasy.”
“I think superpowers are sufficiently fantasy too.”
“…….”
As expected.
Despite spoiling the original world setting, looking at the reaction from a smart character like Yoon Iseon, it seems there wasn’t much resonance.
“Think about it this way. What if the ‘power of the devil’ that many people talked about in the Middle Ages was actually about Mana?”
“……Huh. So, by making a contract with the devil, one can enhance their superpowers?”
“Yes. That’s what I think.”
“Huh. So, do I have to make a contract with devils like Satan, Lucifer, or Belphegor?”
“No, why would you make a contract with them? We’re in Korea.”
This novel.
This world.
“You should make a contract with Gumiho or Hwanung.”
Once again, let me say that this was a Korean web novel.
And…
This woman was a Gumiho.
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