Chapter 28: Idrin, the Genius Eccentric
“Imperial Librarian Idrin Meia.”
“Yes.”
Idrin loved the library.
She enjoyed simply sitting there, letting time pass, and discovering new books that piqued her interest. Even the diverse research tomes from scholars' painstaking deliberations would eventually arrive, providing her with a week's worth of entertainment.
Being an eccentric, she had become a librarian at a young age. Being a genius, she had risen to the position of head librarian.
However.
If there was one problem, it was probably the forbidden books stored in the underground vault of the Imperial Library.
The issue was that she had learned about gray there.
Gray.
It was an inexhaustible spring.
It was a deep valley without end.
Perhaps it was the one thing that could finally alleviate the boredom of someone like her, who had long awaited something to break the monotony.
So she researched it.
Gray.
Even knowing that dealing with it was a crime, her eyes gleamed.
As mentioned, she was a genius—and just as much an eccentric.
“We strip you of the surname Meia and order you to transfer to the temple library to repent for your sins.”
“I shall obey.”
A genius's curiosity sprouts naturally, and an eccentric's madness reveals itself just as inevitably.
The researcher, who had chased her interests relentlessly until she craved gray, was thus ousted from her position and demoted to a lower post.
And any ordinary person would have despaired in that moment, shedding tears of defeat.
But for her—who even as she was demoted, her eyes sparkled with anticipation—no one should have expected anything ordinary.
What materials might remain in the temple?
“Librarian Idrin.”
“Yes.”
So even at the temple library, she rifled through forbidden books and continued her research.
“You have sinned once more. The gods may forgive you, but the laws of the Empire demand your punishment.”
“I accept it gladly.”
She thought she had hidden it well enough, but her tail wasn't long enough to evade capture.
“Haa... If only you'd held back a little, Idrin.”
“...”
“His Majesty the Emperor orders your transfer from the temple to the citizen's library.”
“Yes.”
And so she was demoted once again.
A mundane library lacking the specialized materials of the Imperial or temple collections.
There probably wasn't a single document on gray there—a final gesture of mercy from her superiors, urging her to find interest in something else.
But she thought differently.
All the materials from the Imperial Library and temple were already etched in her mind.
Which means no one's watching. Perfect for research.
As long as she wrote her research journal mixing Elvish and Dwarvish, no ordinary person could decipher it anyway.
So she resolved to continue her work at the citizen's library.
And.
Back to the present.
Idrin gazed at the handsome black-haired boy.
“It's here.”
No.
“It shouldn't be.”
“I have it.”
“You just said it was a forbidden book.”
“I'm the librarian.”
Did His Majesty decree that librarians get a pass for breaking the law or something? I stared at her in disbelief, and she calmly tapped the papers she'd been scribbling on to neaten them before handing them over.
“This is...”
“A research compilation on gray. It's a bit messy since I'm still writing it.”
And not some existing tome, but her own ongoing gray research manuscript, no less.
Harboring faint suspicions, I tossed out another question.
“Doesn't writing a new one still violate the law?”
“Of course it does. The minimum penalty is forced labor. Even His Majesty would be displeased at someone creating forbidden books outright.”
She looked at me like my question was absurd, her gaze pitying—as if it were someone else's problem.
“Then why are you...”
“That's why I'm working here as punishment, isn't it? Escaping execution is all thanks to His Majesty's mercy.”
“...”
So being the citizen's library curator was her penance? And yet here she was, committing another crime right in the middle of it.
As I pondered that, she continued indifferently.
“If you need the gray research, feel free to read it. It's a summary drawn from the forbidden books in the Imperial and temple libraries.”
However.
“Thanks, but this isn't in Empire tongue.”
“I mixed Elvish and Dwarvish. Precautions, in case it's discovered.”
At least, it wasn't anything I could read.
“...”
“If you need an Empire-language translation, I can make one. It'll take some time, though.”
“You just said it's for in-case-of-discovery...”
“Accomplices are welcome.”
Another lunatic here too.
This world was infested with crazies everywhere.
Lost in that thought, I just stared at her hollow face for a while.
After my gray-outing.
“Ain, don't you find it ridiculous? It's just research, but the state steps in to block even that. Utterly absurd.”
“...”
She chattered away eagerly whenever we were alone in the library, thrilled to have found a kindred spirit.
“Studying gray doesn't turn you gray. Approaching it doesn't dye you gray. Research is just research. Of course, they're dangerous beings—that much is true.”
“Uh, that...”
“Besides, gray is history. The continent's vast history. No matter how they struggle to hide it, someone will surely unearth that history one day.”
“Um...”
They say a runaway colt can't be reined in properly.
Just like that, Idrin was a deranged, unbridled filly.
“No historian touches gray. Only a few wandering scholars like me show interest—and even most of them are negative about it.”
“Librarian...”
“Why do you think that is? Can you understand why they're so hostile, why the state suppresses it?”
“Please stop...”
“So when I was at the Imperial Library...”
Shut up, fuck.
This isn't some isekai black-haired foreigner survival saga.
Anyway.
After days of enduring her torment, I finally got the translated gray research from her.
The manuscript she'd written herself was a whopping 20cm thick—I wondered if I'd ever finish it.
And as she handed over the hefty tome, she said to me,
“Ain, if you encounter any gray on your travels, please introduce them to me.”
“...I can't bring them if I don't know what you'd do to them.”
From what I'd seen over the past month, she'd probably slice open a belly on the spot to peek at gray entrails out of curiosity.
But she tilted her head as if I were the weird one.
“Treat gray carelessly, and a whole city might vanish. I just want to ask some normal questions.”
“...What kind of questions?”
And her answer:
“Their life stories.”
“Pardon...?”
“I'm curious about the lives they led in secret, right up until their tragic ends—stories no one knows.”
Uncharacteristically ordinary.
“Must it always end in witch hunts? Can they never have a happy conclusion?”
Uncharacteristically human.
“From ancient times, has even one gray truly failed to control their emotions and turned villainous? Surely some lived kindly, ordinarily?”
The fundamental doubt I'd always harbored, voiced by another.
“That's the question I always carry. It grows stronger the deeper I delve into gray.”
Perhaps I heard the slim possibility I'd hoped for, through another's voice.
“I believe that secret lies within their life stories. That's the final piece I seek.”
Clearly an odd person.
Yet as she spoke, her eyes—clear and piercing—gazed at me.
So I replied,
“Well... if the chance comes, I'll bring one.”
“Yes, please do.”
With that, the library fell silent once more.
And.
She returned to her hollow self, scribbling away at her research as the citizen's librarian.