Chapter 1
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We sincerely welcome you to Belliard Library.
This library changes its librarian once a week.
This is a guide for anyone who has become the librarian of Belliard Library.
Please read it carefully, and be sure to follow the rules below.
Belliard Library accepts no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of violating these rules.
1 ) Before starting your shift, be sure to put on the librarian's uniform we have provided. Our library accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any conflicts with patrons that arise from not wearing it.
2 ) Please return all returned books to their proper places before the day is over. The back of each book indicates which numbered shelf it belongs on.
3 ) If you find a book with a damaged cover, you do not need to put it away separately. Our library does not put covers on its books.
4 ) If you find Shelf 52, do not approach it. Remember that this library has shelves numbered only up to 51.
5 ) Silence must always be maintained in the library. If someone is talking loudly, stop them. However, if what you hear is screaming, you may ignore it.
6 ) This library provides a break from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day. Do not work during your break under any circumstances.
7 ) If a little child wearing a red ribbon asks you to take down a book from Shelf 52 because they cannot reach it, ignore them. Once again, this library has only 51 shelves.
8 ) This library has no book titled ‘The Lost Children.’ If someone asks for that book, hand them a book with a torn cover.
If there is no book with a torn cover, recommend that they visit Shelf 52.
9 ) If you find a woman crying with her head on a desk, approach her and comfort her. She has merely lost a book she cherished and is waiting for someone to console her.
10 ) Rule 9 is blank. Even if anything is written under Rule 9, pay it no attention whatsoever.
11 ) You may go to the restroom from time to time during your shift. That said, do not leave your post for more than five minutes.
12 ) Working hours are 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. When your shift ends, you may rest comfortably in the lodging we provide.
13 ) When you quit your job at the library, leave this guide exactly as it is on the librarian's desk.
Once again, we sincerely welcome you as the librarian of Belliard Library.
Finally, remember that this library accepts no responsibility for any consequences resulting from violating the rules above.
--
“...”
Goosebumps ran all over my body.
Waking up in some unknown place was creepy enough.
But do you know how much creepier it was to read the paper laid out on the desk in front of me?
‘My phone... My phone...’
So I immediately shoved a hand into my pocket to look for my phone, but...
What kind of person puts their phone in their pocket when they go to sleep and makes themselves uncomfortable?
‘...’
I'd woken up in some unknown place, and there wasn't even any way to contact the outside world?
With the simplest way to call for help, such as the police, gone, my head went completely blank.
‘There aren't even any windows here. What the...’
There wasn't even a single window in the room I was in through which I could see outside.
To ask for help, I would have to open that door and go outside...
‘Right, the reason my kidnapper didn't tie me up... was probably because I was free to move around, right...?’
I didn't know why my kidnapper hadn't tied me up, but the fact that all four of my limbs were free...
Couldn't that also be interpreted as meaning I was free to move around here as I pleased?
So, when I cautiously opened the tightly shut door to call for help...
Creeeak...
“...What is this?”
An unbelievable sight unfolded before my eyes.
‘...A library?’
Countless books were shelved in countless bookcases.
I had expected to find a living room, so I was taken aback when a library suddenly appeared before me, but only briefly.
‘Come to think of it, earlier...’
The rule sheet I'd seen the moment I opened my eyes came back to me.
I immediately went back into the room and began reading the rules again...
Only after reading through the rules once more...
was I able to begin to understand—or almost understand—the situation I was in.
‘So right now I'm... ...in a place straight out of one of those Napolitan horror stories... Did I get kidnapped or something...?’
I'd been kidnapped into one of those Napolitan horror stories I sometimes saw on the Internet.
Huh...
‘Is this a dream...? Am I dreaming...?’
It was an absurd situation, so I immediately pinched my cheek hard, but...
It hurt, but I didn't wake up from a dream or anything.
‘Would pinching myself even wake me up from a dream in the first place?’
I did wonder whether something as simple as pulling my cheek could wake me up.
But the vividness of what I was feeling right now... proved that this place was definitely not a dream...
‘For now... ...Should I just do as I'm told...?’
To survive.
Or to get out of here.
I decided to follow the rules left behind by whatever—or whoever—it was.
Ticktock, ticktock...
I raised my head and looked up at the clock ticking away.
The clock there showed that it was currently 9:52,
and I remembered that the view outside, which I'd checked after opening the door a little while ago, had shown that the sun was up.
‘My shift starts in eight minutes.’
Realizing that my shift would begin in about ten minutes, I hurriedly changed into the clothes hanging in the room as if I was supposed to wear them.
‘Three minutes left... Phew... I can do this. I can do this... Let's try... Phew...’
By the time I had changed, there were only about three minutes left until my shift began.
I carefully opened the door and stepped outside once more.
The library's eerie silence greeted me.
‘The library... is supposed to be kept quiet. Phew... I should stay quiet for now.’
The rules had clearly said that the library changed its librarian once a week.
If that was really true, it meant I only had to last a week here.
I resolved not to break the rules, no matter what, and waited for ten o'clock that morning to arrive.
‘...It's quiet.’
Should I call this fortunate...?
Fortunately, the unidentified patrons did not come swarming in the moment the library opened.
In an atmosphere quiet enough to raise goosebumps, I began my first-ever shift as a librarian.
…
Ding~ Ding~ Ding~
“..!!”
My shoulders hunched for a moment at the sudden blare of a huge alarm, but...
Once I realized it was the alarm clock mounted on the librarian's desk, I immediately checked the time.
‘It's already one.’
The clock told me it was one o'clock, so I immediately returned to the room where the bed had been.
“Hwaaah... Fortunately, nothing much happened...”
Thank goodness.
Really, thank goodness.
If there had been a lot of monstrous patrons in this unknown place, every moment would have been agony, but...
Fortunately, there were no patrons coming to return books.
No patrons coming to read.
Not a single patron coming to borrow a book.
During my first shift as a librarian, not a single problem had occurred.
“...I'm hungry.”
Now that the tension had eased, I felt a little hungry, so I looked around.
I found a lunchbox sitting on the desk where the rule sheet had been placed.
“...This was left for me to eat, right? I can eat this, can't I?”
As though asking anyone listening to tell me the answer...
After that question that wasn't quite a question, I cautiously sat at the desk and peeled the plastic wrap off the lunchbox.
‘The smell... it doesn't seem inedible, but, hmm...’
It would be a lie to say I had no hesitation.
But then I remembered that the rules didn't say anything like, ‘Do not eat the lunchbox,’
and cautiously put a piece of the unidentified meat into my mouth...
‘This tastes fucking awful...’
I immediately realized that this meat... was very different from the meat I knew.
Bleegh... Ptooey...
With no choice but to spit the meat in my mouth onto the lunchbox lid,
I cautiously picked up and ate some pure white rice.
Fortunately, this Napolitan horror story hadn't done anything strange to the rice, so I could at least eat that.
‘Right... ...They say Koreans run on rice, so at least I can eat this...’