In an enclosed room filled with the smell of oak wood and ink, two people are having a conversation.
“So he's still missing?”
A man in his late twenties, surrounded by scrolls, questioned the person entering his work office. The man is Chief Adalbert, usually called Adal by those close to him.
“Yes. So please take his place in the event.”
Aite inattentively gazed at the man, Chief Adalbert is the current most idle Chief in this place.
"Did you forget why I took the position of Chief Internal Security Officer?"
He always uses this excuse to avoid going outside.
“No, I don’t. You hate interacting with people who don’t appreciate books, more so those who are illiterate.”
It’s a massive lie.
She knows for a fact that Chief Adalbert is actually shy when interacting with strangers. He is exploiting our faction's stereotype to avoid meeting people.
If not for his natural aptitude, he wouldn’t get the Chief position with his social awkwardness.
“Correct. So lea-”
“Except for him and older sister Yuri, Chief Adalbert is the only available Chief who can replace him for the event.”
“Then go call that rogue Yuri! What is she doing? Why me??”
So they are still fighting? Why can’t they separate their private lives from their work.
“Older sister Yuri and her team are currently busy chasing a high-risk Irregular type-M that has a diet of books.”
“What?! And you just tell me that now?”
As a Chief, you have access to her whereabouts and doings at all times. As a Librarian in the Security division, you should also have access to a new Irregular that’s threatening to us.
“…”
That’s it. Stick and carrot time.
“Both of you are Chief Security Officers… I will report you both to department head Wyldan for the poor coordination and communication between you two.”
“Wait! I will go. Just don’t report me to HR.”
Afraid now, huh?
“That’s not how it works. Rule is rule. How about I pin most of the blame on Older sister Yuri?”
Take the carrot.
“That’s good, alright… However, she should take responsibility for the situation from the beginning! She should be the one informing me, not me. Why did I get involved?!”
Aite is feeling happy about herself for forcing Chief Adalbert, who consistently causes problems for her supervisor, into a difficult situation. She ignored his rambling and gave him the invitation letter from the Industry.
“Here is the invitation. The dress code is white with a touch of red, the same theme as the new Pocket Dimension they now own."
Chief Adalbert read the letter and threw it on his table, which was filled with scrolls.
“We invite the Library personnel who have helped us to our celebration banquet for winning the Myriad of Liquids, the name we give to our new Pocket Dimension…”
“They don’t say you can’t come, why no-”
“We both know they only want the three of you.”
Aite watched as Chief Adalbert slumped to his chair, Chief Adalbert then asked.
“Is there anything else? If not, please leave.”
“Yes, thank you for replacing Supervisor Rivan at the event. I will go now.”
Aite leaves the office room. Outside, there are hallways filled with bookshelves and working librarians. She went to the office of the department head, Wyldan. She had, after all, promised to report them.
On the way, she opened her tablet and called someone. It took a while, but the person she called finally answered.
Loud music started blaring from the tablet.
She quickly tried to reduce the volume so as not to disturb the librarians around her.
“Who is it?”
The loud music almost drowns out the languid, mature voice of a woman. From the screen, she can see an enchanting and voluptuous woman leaning back and drinking wine.
The woman immediately stopped drinking when she saw who had called her. The woman stood up from leaning against the barstand and went somewhere, probably outside of the club she was currently in.
“Little Aite! I didn’t expect you to call me. How’s Rivan? Is he back yet?”
Aite replied in a very cold tone.
“I thought you were hunting an Irregular with your team, Chief Yuri.”
When older sister Yuri finally made it outside the club, the music from the tablet had stopped blaring. Aite quietly brought the volume back up.
“Why are you calling me so formally~? Aren’t we close enough to be sisters?”
She would play along if that’s the usual mood.
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“Don’t change the topic.”
“Hehe~ I have a good reason. Hear me out! We are patiently waiting for the repulsive worm to fall into our trap, but I'm getting a little bored. Fortunately, there's a club nearby. They have such a good taste in music that I can only resist for a few hours.”
“…”
Can’t she go a day without drinking and playing around? By now, older sister Yuri and her team have been in the area for three days, so she must have been in the club for two days straight.
If only the Irregular type-M wasn’t so cautious to not take the bait until now... Older sister Yuri would be able to attend the banquet instead of asking Chief Adalbert to replace Supervisor Rivan.
“Rivan hasn’t been back yet. In fact, he went missing. He is in an unknown and weird Pocket Dimension, if what the department head Astra said is true.”
Astra is the department head of the Information department, the most important department in the Library. His source is from the deepest depths of the Library itself, so they are quite trustworthy.
“… Should I say Rivan is lucky or unlucky for finding another new Pocket Dimension? How are you feeling, Aite?”
How did she feel? It's hard to describe. However, it's possible to confirm one emotion with certainty. She feels a bit left out.
Wait, older sister Yuri is trying to change the topic again.
“The reason I call you is that since Supervisor Rivan can’t come to the banquet, I had Chief Adalbert replace your job.”
Older sister Yuri is the one who should have gone to the banquet in the first place. She is, after all, the Chief External Security Officer.
Due to an emergency with the vicious Irregular, she passed the job to Rivan.
“He didn’t know it was originally my job, right? I don’t want to owe any favour to that loner.”
“He doesn’t realized it, Supervisor Rivan now owes him a favour like you owe Supervisor Rivan one. Although I hear a strange report from Chief Adalbert. You didn’t tell him your whereabouts.”
How can a simple request become this complicated. These two are really making Rivan's life hard.
“I did try to, I called him personally multiple times!”
"You know he's bad at calling." He even asked us to send him an email if something urgent came up. Older sister Yuri, there is also a database to tell him your whereabouts. You did neither of them, intentionally.”
“Hehehe~”
Let’s see if you can still laugh after this.
“I am going to report both of you to department head Wyldan, right now.”
“Wait, Little Aite. Please do-”
Aite turned off the tablet in satisfaction. Since discovering that the two Chiefs harbor a deep fear of HR, specifically their department head Wyldan, Aite has consistently utilized him to 'punish' the Chiefs whenever they engage in shenanigans.
“Aite, how did it go?”
Looking sideways, a late-middle-aged man is walking closer to Aite. He is the most senior librarian on the Rivan team.
“It’s done. Uncle Yettel, how’s your READ?”
“They recovered nicely, I can go for another round of beating. The others are waiting in the helicopter.”
“After I visit department head Wyldan, let’s go back. "By now, the Safe Company dogs should have severely injured Mathieu and the others."
They had split the team into two, one to rest their READ usage while the other held the position where Rivan went missing.
The two of them headed out for a walk together. Yettel is a chatterbox and a straightforward person, so he immediately says something that’s on Aite's mind.
“Are you sure Astra said Rivan is currently in an unknown Pocket Dimension? Why did he go to such a place?"
“Yes, and don’t ask me about that. I don't know.”
“I can’t believe the kid's recklessness is increasing this much. It’s like he wanted to die.”
“…”
People who have long known Rivan have always said he originally wasn’t a reckless person. When she hears this, Aite can't help but feel jealous.
She also wanted to know the past version of Rivan, before he formally joined the Library. Regrettably, they met shortly after Rivan's behavior had changed following 'that' incident.
“I hope Rivan won’t die, watching him gro-”
“He won’t die.”
Although Aite might never going to know Rivan of the past, she is extremely familiar with the current Rivan.
His favourite foods, genres of books, friends, families, his desires, and recently beloved hair colour.
She even knows...
“Some beings won’t let him die, even if he truly desires it.”
Including herself.
Even the dense Yettel noticed the heavy atmosphere, so he tried to change the topic.
“Why did you dye your hair silver?
~~~~~
Adal is choosing his clothes in preparation for the upcoming banquet when a message comes from his computer.
He went to check it, vaguely knowing who the sender was.
Crazy Witch This is why you must answer my phone call. Stone-face Wyldan will force us to explore the Library depth again soon because of you. You I told you to send me a message. I will refuse to be on call, even if the world has fallen into chaos. The Division leader is understanding enough to never call me, yet you don’t? You Cut the chase, what do you want? Crazy Witch Rivan is in trouble, and it seems you didn’t help him at all? Are you that much of a virgin that the sight of Safe Company dogs scared you sh*tless? Crazy Witch How many teams do you have available? Sent them to help Rivan team hold the last position he was known for. Now You I already prepared to send my personal team, the rest of the Internal Security teams are busy with a recent Cult of Chaos raid in our Republic of Ion branch. I wonder which vixen has the responsibility to protect us against External threat? Crazy Witch I would gladly take the job if someone didn’t reject my proposal to increase the number of supervisors and teams under me. All of my teams are currently busy Crazy Witch You are going to the banquet, right? Be sure to borrow the Missing Person, Irregular I-455 from the Government representatives who should be attending the banquet too. Don’t let your social awkwardness fuck it up again. You No need to tell me to, I intended to request it already. Crazy Witch Aite opinion on me has fallen further, and I don’t want it to fall even more. Crazy Witch I am going on combat soon. Adal, be sure to do your job properly. No need to be anxious in opening up with new people.
Reading the last message from Yuri, Adal ruminates for a few seconds and writes a reply back. His finger stopped a few centimeters before the sent button, and he proceeded to delete all the messages and close the messaging software.
~~~~~
Yuri watched as the [Absolute Loner] profile name went offline.
“He hasn’t moved on, huh? I should tease him more fufu~”
A distant roar then interrupted her self-talk.
*Roaaarrr*
She turned off her top-end phone and looked towards the dark tunnel. Yuri had decided to enter the Irregular lair and abandon the trap plan.
Her personal team is responsible for guarding the entrance while she alone goes to face the Irregular.
It’s risky, but it's doable. Its not her first time dealing with Irregular that is a bad matchup for the Librarian READ.
“Another Irregular to be made into READ~”
~~~~~
Somewhere, a being is muttering to itself.
“No, the Kingdom of Heart event is crumbling too!”
“Why is the Hero still on the ship searching for the missing Saintess? Although it's a problem if she actually dies on the sea… But she isn’t the type to die just because she is stranded on the sea! Where even is she?!”
The being uses its unique fountain pen to write something. The pen resisted the hand, but it miserably failed.
“I should power up the Demon again.”
“Aha! I can bring the Demon from the Empire with this excuse. Now the Hero will also receive a hint that the Saintess has landed on the Kingdom of Heart island, I will force her to be on the island too with the excuse.”
“With this, the event should proceed as I want.”
While completing the event fix, the being began to experience hunger.
It stood up from its chair and went outside for dinner. On the way, it mumbled.
“I will find the bug that is wrecking my story and squash it… Just watch.”