There was training every employee of the Anomaly Management Bureau was required to undergo.
It was to seek survival through rational thought as quickly as possible when any situation suddenly occurred.
Most anomalies could drastically alter both themselves and everything around them.
That was where the training had originated.
And after it was actually applied in training, the raw survival rate of field personnel and employees in emergency situations rose by 5%.
Of course, that survival rate did include near-fatal severe injuries and the like, but considering the Bureau’s medical benefits, that hardly mattered.
And Lee Gyeongseong, Section Chief Lee, and Seo Yuna, who had been staying in the library, had naturally completed that training as well.
Beyond simply completing it, since they were often dispatched to the field, they had even received additional training using mental-type anomalous entities.
That was why, even with the unscheduled appearance of the White Mother and the emergence of the Mystic Library, they had been able to make a quick judgment.
But in a way, that only applied when danger “arrived.”
One could say they had not been trained for the moment danger “vanished.”
Was that why?
The three of them could not react to the White Mother’s sudden disappearance.
‘What the…’
Section Chief Lee stared blankly at the spot where the White Mother had vanished cleanly, without a trace, as if she had never been beside him to begin with.
Even until the mysterious librarian girl returned to her seat and began handling the book.
‘The White Mother… disappeared? Just like that?’
The only time the section chief managed to move his eyes was when the librarian drew a line through the White Mother’s name.
And then the White Mother disappeared.
Judging from the circumstances before and after…
It was only right to assume that the librarian girl had erased the White Mother’s existence from this place.
With merely a single line, a stroke of the pen.
And the reason she, who had admitted the White Mother without the slightest concern, had taken such an action was… because she had violated the rules of the library.
-3. Damaging or soiling books is prohibited.
A simple rule one might find in an ordinary library.
The White Mother had been toying with Section Chief Lee using her long tongue, then disappeared after splattering saliva onto a book.
To make a high-risk anomalous entity vanish through such a simple act.
Of course, as an entity bound to an anomalous space, it was only natural that she would possess immense power within her own space.
But… there were not many cases where the gap was this great.
‘Mental-type? Transportation-type? Fuck…’
Section Chief Lee tried to make his mind work quickly.
But for that… he had already lost far too much blood.
Thud.
“……!!”
“……!!”
Lee Gyeongseong and Seo Yuna heard Section Chief Lee collapse and immediately tried to rush over, but before they could, their eyes met with someone.
The librarian girl.
She was staring at the two of them expressionlessly.
Even the act of wiping the book had stopped, and she watched them impassively with deep navy eyes that seemed to hold starlight.
That gaze froze the two of them in place.
And then both of them recalled the library’s rules.
They despaired.
-1. Please remain quiet in the library.
When Section Chief Lee collapsed, he had made a loud thud.
-3. Damaging or soiling books is prohibited.
When Section Chief Lee collapsed, blood from him splattered onto the book in his hand.
-4. Within the library, you must absolutely obey the librarian’s words.
If the librarian demanded that they stop or read a book here, and they did not comply, the remaining two would die as well.
Three rules, terribly ordinary yet containing a distant, unfathomable power, tightened around the two of them like shackles.
They could not save Section Chief Lee.
And then.
Ssk.
The librarian girl slowly rose from her seat.
With her expression erased, her back turned to the two of them, she slowly walked toward the fallen Section Chief Lee.
It was like watching the footsteps of a grim reaper.
Though she had a frail body, was a young girl, and moved with slow steps, the two adult men and women could not stop her.
“I believe it was written that one must remain quiet in the library, and that soiling books is prohibited.”
After reaching Section Chief Lee, the girl recited the library’s rules as though listing the crimes of a condemned prisoner.
Then, within the ancient book she was holding, she drew a line with her quill through the name written as “Lee Cheolwon.”
Ssk.
“……”
Section Chief Lee’s body was erased from the library.
Along with the bloodstains he had left, his footprints, and everything else.
The girl, having erased another existence, picked up the blood-soaked book and returned to her seat.
Then, before beginning the work of wiping away the blood, she looked at the two of them again.
“You two patrons. Today’s library hours have ended.”
And then she ordered the two of them to leave.
The next moment, the two of them were standing in front of the entrance marked [Goru Bookstore].
A few minutes later, several sets of footsteps could be heard from the floor below.
Every one of them was the heavy sound of military boots.
“Field Response Division Team 3 has been found. Survivors, two. Staff Member Seo Yuna and Assistant Manager Lee Gyeongseong.”
“Section Chief Lee Cheolwon and four deceased confirmed. Three bodies have been secured, but Section Chief Lee Cheolwon’s body could not be secured, and…”
And the entrance of [Goru Bookstore] never connected to the Mystic Library again.
* * *
Seo Yuna and Lee Gyeongseong, rescued through the emergency support team, returned straight to Bureau headquarters.
With a nauseating sensation, a massive building appeared before their eyes.
Within an unknown space where the surroundings had sunk into pitch-black darkness, a building of enormous scale, stretching up, down, left, and right, welcomed them.
“We’ve reviewed the report. You were attacked by the White Mother, I hear.”
The two were soon handed over to medical staff, received appropriate treatment, and were discharged thirty minutes later.
Then, without leave or an early dismissal, they went straight to the office space bearing the sign [Field Response Division Team 3] to write their reports and sat down in front of their computers.
Drrrrrk. Clunk.
As the computer turned on with an old mechanical whir, Seo Yuna stared blankly at the screen.
Lee Gyeongseong was relatively composed, but he was no different.
After all, Section Chief Lee had been the spiritual pillar who led Team 3 in particular.
Tap-tap. Tak. Tak.
Seo Yuna and Lee Gyeongseong began writing their reports amid the sound of keyboards.
About the series of events involving the “White Mother,” and about the newly discovered “Mystic Library.”
Of course, they could not omit the deaths of Section Chief Lee and the White Mother either.
Reports had to be written as dryly as possible, with emotion stripped away.
Only then could they provide more efficient information to those who would encounter the corresponding anomaly next.
So Seo Yuna had to write, in as much detail as possible, the condition of Section Chief Lee as she had seen and heard it.
[Confirmed fracture of the left foot and contusions across the entire upper body, and at the end, due to shock caused by excessive blood loss, he struck his head first against the wooden floor…]
“Hngh… sob… sob…”
But though Seo Yuna could strip the emotion from her hands, she could not erase it from her eyes.
Lee Gyeongseong knew that, and so he could not stop Seo Yuna from crying.
At last, the two of them completed their reports and uploaded them to the headquarters server.
Now the research team, which identified anomalous phenomena and laws, would conduct cross-verification, strip away objective facts, and extract higher-quality information.
The two of them were finished with their duties.
And now, before the next day came, the Bureau’s internal AI would judge and transfer each of them to the team into which they could most perfectly blend.
Within the Anomaly Management Bureau, where countless teams existed, the chances that two people who were nothing more than a staff member and an assistant manager would meet again were not particularly high.
In other words, today could be the last meeting between Seo Yuna and Lee Gyeongseong.
Before they met again, one of them—or both—might die.
“…You worked hard, Staff Member Seo Yuna. Pull yourself together as quickly as you can.”
Clinging to sticky emotions for a long time would not help her.
But since this team had been Seo Yuna’s first team after joining the company, it might take her a long time to shake it off.
…Even so, this was the only advice Lee Gyeongseong could give.
If he tried to comfort a team member he would soon part with, it would only increase unnecessary emotions afterward.
“You worked… hic. Hard too. Assistant Manager.”
“……Right.”
After the two left, employees from the Internal Management Team came and began clearing out the seats of Field Response Division Team 3.
Seo Yuna’s and Lee Gyeongseong’s belongings would be delivered to the teams they were transferred to tomorrow, and the belongings of the four deceased would be delivered to their bereaved families through appropriate procedures.
The Bureau headquarters, after the two had left, was still noisy, bright, and busy.
.
.
.
He saw the universe.
“……Hah!”
Section Chief Lee saw the universe.
He could tell without even bothering to turn his gaze.
Because the universe was in every direction.
He was now in the middle of space.
A universe far beyond the solar system, hundreds of billions of years away.
It was a vast universe where enormous nebulae lay everywhere and countless black holes vied with one another to devour stars and matter.
In the midst of it all, the feeble human Section Chief Lee was floating alone.
“Ugh. Ngh.”
And the universe was not a human-friendly space where a person could breathe.
Soon, Section Chief Lee felt his skin freezing cold and his breath choking off.
Was this death?
Just as he was about to close his eyes, he saw something approaching from far beyond at a ferocious speed.
It was a building.
Its exterior looked as if it were a library.
And a moment later, that building was approaching Section Chief Lee while maintaining its speed.
He thought it might smash straight into him and shatter to pieces, but then a door opened, and Section Chief Lee’s body was sucked inside the building.
Crash, tumble!
And Section Chief Lee, who had come rolling in across the floor, only managed to stop after colliding with a piece of hard furniture.
“Haa… haa… Where is…”
“……”
“……Hah.”
And soon, Section Chief Lee felt someone’s gaze on him.
When he turned his eyes, he recalled the final memory he had forgotten until just a moment ago.
“H-how…”
“Hmph.”
Before him, the expressionless librarian girl was crouching down, poking Section Chief Lee with the end of her quill.