She looked like an utterly ordinary girl.
Black bobbed hair and a beige cardigan.
She was the very image of the sort of literary girl one might see in a novel or a comic.
And because of that, she gave off an even stranger atmosphere.
‘...To think she looks this ordinary.’
The section chief swallowed without realizing it.
This was a first.
Anomalous entities often had appearances befitting the name.
The rusty robot that had damaged his team members’ eardrums just moments ago was one such example.
Anomaly Name: Rusty Robot.
With a danger grade of only [Caution], it took the form of a toy robot rusted all over, just as its name suggested.
And yet, unlike its toy-like exterior, it stood over two meters tall, and the inside of its metal body was packed full of some unfamiliar living substance of unknown identity.
In other words, it was a rusty robot with living, moving organs inside.
Most anomalous entities followed that pattern.
And anomalous entities bound to anomalous spaces were no exception.
In the Anomalous Hospital, the nurses’ mouths were split wide open; in the Anomalous Baseball Stadium, it was common for the fans and baseball players to be fused with baseball equipment.
Cases where they looked like... ordinary humans were almost nonexistent.
Of course, that did not mean there were none at all.
With the Anomaly Management Bureau overseeing tens of thousands of entities, there was no way such cases did not exist.
But cases that imitated humans this well... were, with high probability, high-risk-grade entities.
Just like the “Gumiho” or the “Angel.”
“Chief, sir...”
And Seo Yuna and Lee Gyeongseong seemed to have noticed that as well, their bodies tense with nerves.
In a situation like this, if even he, the one with the highest authority to make decisions, became frightened, this team had no future except death.
So the section chief did his best to recall the rules he had read just moments ago.
‘Obey the librarian absolutely. And irrational interactions are prohibited.’
There were two rules directly connected to the entity known as the librarian.
Their scope was extremely broad, but for now, they had to follow these rules.
What exactly did absolute obedience and irrational interaction mean?
After a brief moment of thought, the section chief closed his mouth and bowed his head to the librarian.
As though greeting the librarian teacher upon entering a library.
Seo Yuna and Lee Gyeongseong, seeing the section chief’s action, quickly bowed their heads as well.
Then, the librarian reacted.
She smiled gently, her eyes curving into crescents.
“Hello, kind patrons.”
And... even her tone of address had softened.
She had even added the word kind.
It was a good start.
And soon, the librarian asked another question.
“May I ask what brings you to the library today?”
Irrational interaction.
Keeping that phrase in mind, the section chief quickly searched for an answer.
The answer was not especially difficult.
Considering the librarian’s behavior and the space itself... it seemed they only had to act as they would in an ordinary library.
And in truth, the “rules” themselves were also extremely ordinary in form.
What they had to be wary of was the librarian’s immense authority and its range... but since there were no strange signs yet, they had to comply as much as possible.
“I’d like to bor...”
The moment he was about to say, I’d like to borrow a book, Seo Yuna quickly signaled him.
‘Books cannot be borrowed.’
-8. Removing books from the library is prohibited.
The section chief forced his tongue, which was about to trip over itself, to loosen and changed his words.
“I came because I wanted to read a book.”
“I see. May I ask what kind of book you would like to read?”
The girl librarian tilted her head and asked.
The gesture, made while holding an old tome, was unbearably cute, but the three of them could not react in any way.
If they reacted or made a sound for no reason, they might exceed the bounds permitted by the rules.
“...I would like to read a cookbook. I promised to cook for my wife, you see.”
“My, what a good husband you are. And what about you two?”
“I, I’d like...! A book on h-how to do makeup...!”
“A book on makeup. Of course we have one. Then, what about the last gentleman?”
“...I’d like to read a book about stars.”
“Stars... Would that be astrology, or astronomy? There are quite a lot of categories, after all.”
The black-haired girl tapped her chin with her index finger and began leafing through the old tome.
Then she waved her small hand at the three of them, beckoning them to follow her into the stacks.
The three members of the Bureau followed the girl librarian inside, taking care with the sound of their footsteps.
The interior, too, contained an enormous space.
A vast space that could never have fit inside the bookshop they had seen from outside.
And... countless books were lined endlessly upon enormous bookshelves.
‘The scale is... beyond imagination.’
How should he put it?
First, the height did not feel all that immense. If he had to be precise, it was about the height of a two- or three-story building.
And from the entrance of the stacks to the desk on the opposite side was not incredibly wide, either.
Roughly thirty meters or so.
But the space to the right, where the stacks were arranged... had no visible end.
The left was the same.
It felt like a small subway station existing between subway tracks of infinite length.
The librarian pattered over to the desk and immediately began writing something.
Then she handed each of the three a Post-it note with a cute mascot drawn on it.
The section chief examined the contents of the Post-it with a hazy gaze.
[196656 Ways to Make Warm Home Cooking for Your Wife.]
Classification No.: 391.21 -̮̘͍͔͕̥͈̙̭̅̿̈́͑-̱̮̝̯̠̫͓̝͑̃̌̓̈͌̐̅21m v.1
The number was grotesquely large, but it was the cookbook he had wanted.
It was the same for Lee Gyeongseong and Seo Yuna on either side of him.
[A Guide to Makeup Techniques Capable of Captivating the Men of All Species (Solar System Limited!)]
Classification No.: 2771.91 -̦̪͈̳̖̭̟͚̈́͗̔͆̈̆̔̾-͈̙͉̭̞͊̒̾̊̑̓̔̌̿̒͋ͅ134a p.2
A title that sounded as though it intended to turn an ordinary Bureau employee into a succubus.
And finally, Lee Gyeongseong’s book was...
“I thought about it for a bit, and this one should be the easiest to read.”
[.͉͕̲̜̖̦͎̾̉̔͋̎̔͛̏̓́̚.̞̙̱̥͎̖̈́͑͂̐̿̈́-̙͇̗͔͚̘̲̐͂̄͗.̱͔̥̬͎̲̳̮̩͍̣̾̊͑̈́̽ͅ .̱̱̮̰͖͉͍̥̭̣̎̔̓̆-͖̬͖̩̠͔̱͉̯̑͛͆̂͐̉̊ͅ .̯͕̩̣̳̱̩̫̯́͗̑̉ͅ-̥̩͙̙̞͚͕͕̠̈̒̀̾̈̑̽̚̚.̯̳̯̪̲̯̗͈͎̳͊͐́̓͐͂̀̾̓̈̇.͕̤͔̤͋̎̇̎́́̎̈ .̬̠̖͖̋̉̌̋̒̓̅̃̿̆̑̀-̜̰̖̰̞̮̜̬̪͒̔͋͋́̾̓̂̿̚.̖͎͙̠̾̑̿́.̩̪̱̦̞̘̄͗̾̓̓̓́ .̘̘̜̟͉̫̪̤̬̂͑́̀̑ -͔̤̠̰̘̝͙̗̮̐͑͗́͊̈̎̿̓̚ͅ.̳̰̭̞̠͎̍̄̏̎͆̐̍̒̆̃̽ .̝͔̬͖͉̦̲̠͕̩́̂̈́̔̑ͅ.̯̩̟̱͈͍̫͎͔̮͒̓̌͑ͅ.͉͍̖͙̮̭̥̘̓̇̀̌ -̪͚̯͚̙̤͇̗̥͑̒̇̽ .͔̪̟̞͙̣̫͔̃̅̾͛͋̂̚ͅ-̦̤̭͛̏́̈̄͐́̚ͅ .̲̲̟̭́̂̓̐̋̂̑-͉̪̘̗̝̪̞̯͍̥͗̑̐̒.̤̰̖͎̥̣̪̮͍͎̰̝̔̾̇̉̉͗̒̆̇]
Classification No.: 666.18 ru72t v.1
It had a title like that, utterly impossible to understand.
“Mm, the cookbook is on the right, and you’ll be able to find the books on makeup and stars by checking the shelves on the left.”
After kindly telling the three of them even the locations of their books, the girl sat down at the solid-wood desk.
As though her own work was finished.
At that, the three of them, who had been standing there awkwardly, nodded to one another and slowly began moving to look for their books.
The section chief was soon able to find his book.
Because on a bookshelf where books of all kinds were mixed together, it caught his eye as though it were shining.
‘Is this also part of the anomalous phenomenon?’
There was a high probability that it was.
It was likely a phenomenon applied when the librarian told them about the books.
And the moment the section chief tried to pull out the book, he felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
“......?!”
He turned around, but all that was there were countless books stored in a dry, lifeless manner.
He turned his head back again to examine the book... but this time, an inexplicable impulse was pulling at him.
‘Rather than the cookbook... I’m more curious about those books beside it.’
A book with an extremely ornate pattern began to catch his eye.
Then, as though his gaze had been glued to it, he could no longer take his eyes off that book.
He somehow managed to pick up the cookbook, but he yearned for that book so badly that he could not even bring himself to open the one in his hands.
“I want... to read this book...”
Tap!
“I knew this would happen.”
At that moment, someone caught his wrist with a sharp tap.
Then the section chief came back to his senses as though a wave were receding.
“Hah. Hah.”
In that brief moment, cold sweat had broken out all over his body.
The one holding his hand was none other than the girl librarian. She was glaring sharply at the book he had been entranced by.
“Patron.”
“Yes? Yes, yes...”
“I stopped you this time, but... there will be no next time. If it is not a book I recommended to you, you must never even think of reading it.”
-6. Only books recommended by the librarian may be read. We are not responsible for any mental damage caused by reading other unauthorized books.
Only then was the section chief able to recall the rule.
After the girl left, the section chief began reading the cookbook with difficulty and thought.
‘Just now, what on earth was that...?’
In truth, there were many reasons he had been able to become a section chief, but in particular, it was due to his mental abilities, which surpassed those of others.
That was because he had shown exceptional adaptability compared to others against anomalous entities that inflicted mental damage.
And yet... just now, he had fallen into temptation before he even had time to sense anything was wrong.
For the first time, the section chief felt fear. But fear was an emotion that offered no clear help in survival.
So he steadied his breathing as much as possible and drew his gaze toward the center of the page, making sure that even by mistake, his eyes would not wander outside the book.
He had no choice.
Because for some time now, an inexplicable sense of déjà vu had been crawling all over his body, along with the feeling of something tapping, tap, tapping against him.
The section chief began to worry about his other two team members.