There Won't Be a Next Time
She looked like the most ordinary girl imaginable. Black bob haircut, beige cardigan—what a perfect picture of the bookish girl straight out of a novel or manga. And that made the atmosphere around her all the more eerie.
...To think she's so utterly normal.
Lee Cheol-won unconsciously swallowed hard. This was a first for him. Anomalies usually lived up to their name in appearance. Take the rusty robot from just moments ago that had ruptured his team's eardrums, for instance.
Anomaly Name: Rusty Robot.
A C-rank threat, it resembled a toy robot completely rusted over—as its name suggested. But it stood over two meters tall, and its metal body was packed full of unidentified alien organs. In other words, a rusty robot crawling with living guts.
Most anomalies followed that pattern. Even those tied to anomalous spaces were no exception. In the anomalous hospital, nurses had mouths torn from ear to ear; in the anomalous baseball stadium, fans and players alike were fused with baseball gear. Cases like this—perfectly mimicking a normal human—were exceedingly rare.
Of course, they weren't entirely unheard of. With tens of thousands of anomalies managed by the Anomaly Management Bureau, a few had to slip through. But ones that mimicked humans this convincingly... were almost always high-risk entities.
Like the "Gumiho" or the "Angel."
"Team Leader, sir..."
Seo Yun-ah and Lee Kyung-seong seemed to have picked up on it too, their faces tense with apprehension. If even he, the one with final say, lost his nerve in a situation like this, the team was as good as dead.
So Lee Cheol-won racked his brain, recalling the rules he'd read just before.
'Obey the librarian without question. Refrain from irrational interactions.'
Two rules directly involving the entity called the Librarian. They were broad in scope, but for now, he had to stick to them. What counted as absolute obedience? Irrational interaction?
After a brief internal debate, he clamped his mouth shut and bowed his head to the librarian—like greeting the school librarian upon entering.
Seo Yun-ah and Lee Kyung-seong quickly followed suit, mirroring his action.
The librarian responded. A soft smile curved her lips, her eyes crinkling warmly.
"Hello, dear patrons."
Her tone had softened too. She even added "dear." A promising start.
She continued without pause. "May I ask what brings you to the library today?"
Irrational interaction. Lee Cheol-won eyed the phrase warily as he pieced together an answer. It didn't take long. Given her demeanor and the space itself... he just needed to act like he would in any normal library. The rules themselves were ordinary enough, after all. The real danger lay in the librarian's sweeping authority—but with no red flags yet, compliance was key.
"To bor—"
He started to say "borrow a book," but Seo Yun-ah shot him a frantic signal.
-8. Taking books outside the library is prohibited.
Lee Cheol-won wrestled his tongue straight and rephrased. "We came to read some books."
"I see. Any particular titles you're after?"
The girl librarian tilted her head cutely, ancient tome in hand. Adorable as it was, the three couldn't react. Any sound or gesture might breach the rules' tolerances.
"...I'd like a cookbook. Promised my wife I'd cook for her."
"Oh my, what a wonderful husband. And you two?"
"I-I... want something on m-makeup...!"
"A book on makeup. Of course we have those. And the last gentleman?"
"......A b-book on stars."
"Stars... Astrology, perhaps? Or astronomy? Such a broad topic."
The black-haired girl tapped her chin with her index finger, then began rifling through her tome. She beckoned the trio with a small wave toward the stacks.
The bureau agents followed, footsteps muffled, into the interior—a vast space far too immense for the modest bookstore outside. Endless shelves groaned under countless books.
The scale... it's beyond imagining.
The height wasn't extreme—two or three stories at most. The path from entrance to the far desk spanned maybe thirty meters. But the stacks to the right and left stretched into infinity, like a tiny subway station wedged between endless tracks.
The librarian pattered to the desk and jotted something down. She handed each a post-it note adorned with a cute mascot drawing.
Lee Cheol-won peered blearily at his.
The numbers were absurdly high, but it was the cookbook he'd asked for. Lee Kyung-seong and Seo Yun-ah's were similar.
A title that seemed designed to turn a bureau drone into a succubus.
And Lee Kyung-seong's...
A title utterly incomprehensible.
"Hmm, cookbooks are to the right. Makeup and stars to the left. You should find them there."
With directions kindly provided, the girl settled at the wooden desk, as if her work was done.
The three exchanged awkward nods and shuffled off to hunt their books.
Lee Cheol-won spotted his quickly. Amid the eclectic shelves, it practically glowed, drawing his gaze.
Part of the anomaly too, no doubt.
Likely triggered when the librarian assigned it. As he reached for it, a chill spiderwebbed down his spine.
"......?!"
He whipped around—nothing but row upon row of blankly shelved books.
Turning back, an inexplicable urge tugged at him.
The cookbook... but those books next to it are even more intriguing.
A volume with garish patterns caught his eye, then held it fast, glued like with industrial adhesive. He managed to grab the cookbook, but lacked the will to open it—his entire being yearned for that one.
"I want to... read this book..."
Snap!
"Knew it."
Someone seized his wrist. Like a receding wave, clarity crashed back.
"Hah! Hah!"
Cold sweat drenched him in that fleeting moment. It was the librarian girl, glaring daggers at the tempting tome.
"Patron."
"Y-yes? Yes..."
"I stopped you this time... but there won't be a next time. Never read anything I haven't recommended."
-6. Only books recommended by the librarian may be perused. The library assumes no responsibility for mental damage from unauthorized reading.
Only then did Lee Cheol-won recall the rule.
As the girl departed, he forced himself into the cookbook, mind racing.
What the hell was that just now...?
His promotion to team leader stemmed from many factors, but chiefly his superior mental resilience against anomalies that preyed on the psyche. He'd adapted where others faltered.
Yet he'd tumbled into temptation without a whisper of warning.
For the first time, true fear gripped him. But fear didn't aid survival. He steadied his breath, fixing his gaze dead-center on the page to avoid straying—even by accident.
He had no choice.
An uncanny prickling had shrouded his body since moments ago, like faint taps—tap, tap—from something unseen. And now, he grew worried for his two teammates.