Chapter 56 - Bibliomania (1)

Silence settled over the Great Library.

The hunters with weak stomachs retched. Those with stronger stomachs stared at the quest floating before them, deep in careful thought.

Only one constellation spoke.

“Ah.”

The Librarian alone opened their mouth, their five-meter sleeves fluttering.

“Do clean up your own vomit. Is that not basic etiquette? Only through the diligent efforts of every patron can a library remain clean.”

CLAP!

The Librarian lightly clapped their hands. Unidentifiable things approached from the shadowy corners behind the shelves. With their arms and legs, they might have looked human at first glance, but...

The Witch furrowed her brow.

“... Bookmarks?”

The mysterious things had bookmarks for torsos.

There were even strange pictures drawn in the middle of the bookmarks. Servants’ uniforms? Maid outfits? Whatever they were, the illustrations depicted clothing that old-fashioned serving women might have worn.

“Oh, precisely! They are bookmark maids!”

The Librarian cleared their throat importantly and placed their hands on their hips.

“They will attend to you until you clear the thirtieth floor.”

The bookmarks illustrated with maids bowed.

“If you wish to eat or use the restroom, speak to the bookmark maids. Despite their appearance, they are quite capable.”

“They’re... monsters, right? Basically?”

“Heh.”

The Librarian covered their mouth with a sleeve. The constellation’s eyes crinkled in a grin.

“You may think of them that way.”

The Librarian’s eyes smiled, but their voice did not. The hunters flinched. For the first time, the constellation’s consistently cheerful voice had turned cold.

“There are a few things you must take care to observe during your stay,” the Librarian said.

“First. Never touch a book without my permission. Do not so much as lay a hand on it. These are all volumes I painstakingly collected through blood, sweat, and tears. Each apocalypse is the only copy in this universe. Any scoundrel who handles my books without first asking their owner...”

“Fuck.”

Just then, a hunter spat out a curse.

“What a fucking joke. You’re just the boss monster!”

“... Hmm.”

“Hey! The rest of you, grab your weapons! Fuck the quest. Kill that bastard and we’ve cleared all the way to the thirtieth floor. Who the hell do you think you are, talking so high and mighty? Three hundred of us attack at once, and we can kick your ass!”

A stir ran through the crowd.

The Librarian made no particular effort to stop the agitator. They merely watched quietly, smiling with their eyes. The constellation’s silence emboldened the hunter further.

“We can beat a little brat like that! I hear even that green rookie, Death King or whatever, cleared the twentieth floor alone.”

“...”

He was dragging me into this?

“Why couldn’t we do it too? Huh?”

When the agitator singled me out, several people turned my way. They were of different races, with eyes of every color. But the emotions coloring their gazes were all the same.

Envy. Jealousy. Greed.

Every one of them was all too familiar.

“You stay out of this! No, all the Five Great Guilds can stand back!”

The hunter shouted not only at me, but at the Witch and the Sword Star. He even shouted at the major guild leaders, including the Inquisitor and the Count.

“I never liked how you monopolized the raids from the eleventh floor onward. Huh? Acting like you’re the only ones who represent the Tower. You drag some rookie out of nowhere and manufacture a new hero or whatever. Think we don’t know what you’re up to?”

The Witch bristled.

“Who do you think you’re talking to—!”

I firmly gripped her wrist.

“Hold back.”

“No, Death King. If you leave people like that alone...”

“Please, hold back for now.”

I whispered into her ear.

“All of this is being ‘broadcast live’ right now.”

The Witch blinked.

“Broadcast live? What do you mean?”

“It’s being projected as a hologram in Babylon’s square.”

“...!”

In my previous life, I had never earned an epithet, so I couldn’t even set foot on the twenty-first floor. Nevertheless, I knew in detail how this stage worked and what its quests were.

“It’s like a television program. The people gathered in the square can see everything we do. In real time.”

“Why would they do that...?”

“You heard what that constellation said. We’re essentially [characters].”

I spoke quietly.

“Naturally, there must be [readers] watching those characters too.”

That was right.

My past self had watched from the square too. I had been a viewer. Though I couldn’t join the raids... I had watched the entire process as the hunters with epithets cleared floors twenty-one through thirty.

‘There must be a hologram floating over the square right now too.’

Every move made by the people gathered here was being broadcast live.

Every line we spoke, every action we took.

Hundreds of thousands of readers watched it all unfold.

In the truest sense of the word, we were on a stage.

“Don’t let your guard down just because you think no one’s watching, Black Dragon leader.”

“...”

“If you say something strange or show yourself in a bad light here, people will remember it for the rest of their lives.”

The guild leader before me immediately understood just how frightening that was.

“... I see. Clearing this stage or failing isn’t what matters.”

I nodded.

“Yes. What matters most is ‘how’ we clear it.”

We had to avoid doing anything that could be held against us later. To make the people—no, the readers—feel that we truly were heroes out of a book.

We had to play our roles and make them our own.

“We’re already inside a work called [the Great Library].”

It happened then.

The notification that should have followed the quest finally sounded.

Not in the Witch’s voice or the Librarian’s, but in the voice of the Tower.

[Welcome, Death King.]

I smiled inwardly.

[Your reward for clearing the twentieth floor will now be granted!]

The reward for protecting the Aegim Empire and its continent yesterday.

The time had come to receive it.

The Tower was harsh on latecomers.

But it rewarded the frontrunners just as generously.

[Normal Stage Reward.]

[The blessing, Protection of the God of Beauty, is bestowed upon you!]

[You may observe characters’ affinity from the twenty-first through the thirtieth floor.]

The rewards did not end there.

The reward for completing the hidden quest still remained.

[Hidden Stage Reward.]

[The blessing, Protection of the Serpent God, is bestowed upon you!]

[You may observe characters’ mental states from the twenty-first through the thirtieth floor.]

‘Yes!’

I couldn’t have asked for better perks.

The key to this quest was which role you played and how well you played it.

‘These are exactly the perks I need right now!’

Playing a role wasn’t simply a matter of doing well on your own. You also had to understand the minds of the other people—the other characters.

Acting was never solo play. It was always a team effort.

‘Status window.’

Before getting down to work on the quest, I checked my status.

Name: Death King

Rank: D

Skills (5/6)

1. I Want to Be Like You (S+)

2. Regressor's Clockwork Watch (EX)

3. Sword Constellation (A+)

4. Goblin High Society (F)

5. Rebirth of a Hundred Ghosts (SSS)

6. None.

※Protection of the God of Beauty is active.

※Protection of the Serpent God is active.

‘Okay.’

I glanced at the Witch. Only then did I realize I was still holding her wrist. Releasing it as naturally as possible, I mentally tried a command that sounded plausible enough.

‘Character window.’

A hologram smoothly materialized before my eyes.

And I found myself looking at a status window unlike any I had ever seen.

Name: Black Witch

Affinity: 82

Preferred Genre: [Romance]

Disliked Genre: [History]

Preferred Characters: [Prince Charming], [Younger Men], [Wolfish Men], [Clueless Men]

Disliked Characters: [Psychopaths], [Soldiers], [Politicians], [Incompetent Heroines]

Preferred Plots: [Repayment], [Sacrificing the Few for the Many]

Disliked Plots: [Forgetting], [Betrayal], [The Heroine’s Misunderstanding]

Mental State: ‘If we really are being broadcast in Babylon... I have to play a noble figure, if only for our future. Clearing the stage is secondary. Yes. I must act on strictly political calculations. In that case, the wisest tactic would be...’

“...”

Uh.

When bewilderment left me speechless, the Witch’s expression stiffened. Apparently, she was worried that something had happened to me.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Uh. No, it’s nothing.”

“... Then that’s a relief. But if there’s any more information I need to know, tell me right away. I’m still working out a plan in my head.”

“Yes. Y-yes.”

The Witch turned away and sank back into thought, her gaze intensely serious.

Watching her profile, I was plagued by a certain feeling.

‘What is this?’

What was this inexplicable guilt?

‘This feels just like... secretly reading someone else’s diary...’

“Pwahahahaha!”

The attendant spirit who shared my consciousness was already doubled over, kicking the air as he roared with laughter.

“P-Prince Charming! Prince Charming...! Hah! She’s old as old can be and only keeps looking young thanks to elixirs, and at her age she still wants Prince Charming! Z-Zombie! Go find yourself a handsome horse and ride it! Aren’t you supposed to be a Hero? Put a crown on a Hero and he’s a prince, right? Wow, a match made in heaven!”

“...”

I stared at the attendant spirit.

“Huh? What’s with those eyes? Looks like you’re glaring at me.”

I murmured quietly in my mind.

‘... Character window.’

“Huh? Wh-what? Hey, Kim Zombie! What are you trying to do!? You little—! Hey!”

The attendant spirit waved his hands in panic.

But waving his hands couldn’t stop the command.

His character window appeared before my eyes, exposing everything.

Name: Sword Emperor

Affinity: 59

Preferred Genre: [Martial Arts Fiction]

Disliked Genre: [Everything Except Martial Arts Fiction]

Preferred Characters: [Macho Men], [Rivals], [Mothers]

Disliked Characters: [Weaklings], [Suckers]

Preferred Plots: [Victory], [Cathartic Payback]

Disliked Plots: [Defeat], [Frustrating Developments]

Mental State: ‘Fuck! Surely that thing doesn’t work on me too?’

‘Pfffft!’

I burst out laughing inwardly.

I nearly lost my expressionless face.

‘M-Mothers? Mr. Sword Emperor, I never thought you were the type. Are you a mama’s boy...?’

“I’ll kill you!”

The attendant spirit glared. No, he did more than glare—he went berserk. He threw a fit, flailing his arms and legs.

“I’ll fucking kill you! Fuck! Turn it off right now! Forget it! Erase it from your brain, asshole! If you don’t erase it this instant, I’ll blow your fucking head off! I’ll really kill you! I’ll stop being your friend, you hear me?”

I had known the attendant spirit for quite a while, but I had never seen him this flustered. The more disadvantaged someone was, the louder they got. Unlike him, I was perfectly relaxed.

‘Until the thirtieth floor, keep your mouth shut and bow down to me. Otherwise, I’ll pull up your mental state window whenever I get the chance.’

“Grr...!”

The attendant spirit huffed and puffed, snorting mightily. But what good did all that snorting do? He couldn’t hit me, nor could he stop my ability.

“Just you wait! One day you’ll get what’s coming to you!”

‘Ho ho ho.’

The man telling me to wait didn’t frighten me in the slightest.

While I tested my new perks, the hunters increasingly split into two camps.

One was the aggressive faction, following the agitator’s call to gang up on the [boss monster]. The other was the cautious faction, including the Witch and me, who wanted to wait and see how things developed.

There were about a hundred in the aggressive faction.

The cautious faction numbered around two hundred.

“Foolish.”

The Sword Star, who had remained silent throughout, spoke at last.

The elderly swordsman regarded the aggressive faction with disdain.

“Have you already forgotten the dying worlds that constellation just showed us? If they wished, they could throw us into one of those worlds and stroll out at their leisure. And you still want to pick a fight? You must be mad.”

“...”

“If you’re planning a group suicide, I won’t stop you.”

At the Sword Star’s words, half the aggressive faction deserted.

That left approximately fifty hunters.

“Hey! Don’t chicken out!”

The man who had first stirred up the hunters shouted.

“Death King cleared the tenth floor alone! The twentieth floor was solo play too! All boss monsters are like that. The big guilds are only acting this way to monopolize the profits. If you want to spend your whole life wagging your tail for the Five Great Guilds, get lost!”

The agitator seemed to be a fairly high-ranking hunter himself.

After all, fifty people were still taken in by his words.

‘Maybe he leads a fairly solid small or medium-sized guild, even if it isn’t one of the major ones.’

But crucially, I remembered neither his face nor his epithet. Me, who had remembered and followed every top-ranking hunter as a fan—the Flame Emperor, the Alchemy Ministry Head, the Witch, the Sword Star, and so on.

If even I couldn’t remember him...

“Hmm...”

There was a reason for it.

“Have you finished sorting yourselves out?”

The Librarian looked down at the fifty aggressive hunters.

Hundreds of books orbited the Librarian like planets revolving around the sun.

“Yeah! You fucking boss monster! Fifty is plenty to beat down a brat like you—!”

“My apologies. I am not particularly fond of clichés.”

TAP.

The Librarian caught a book.

Its cover bore the title [Epic of the Sealed World].

“I shall simply make this quick.”

The book opened, releasing a brilliant burst of white light. This time, however, it did more than flash. Dark, grimy arms—countless tentacles—poured out and descended on the aggressive hunters.

The hunters screamed.

“Wh-what is this?”

“In this apocalypse, humanity perished, leaving only one mage alive.”

One. Two. Three.

The aggressive hunters were caught in the monster’s tentacles and dragged into the air.

“Well, after enduring various hardships, the mage became closer to a tentacled monster than a human. But they are a protagonist I am quite fond of. Number nine among my favorite characters, I would say.”

“Aaaaaagh!”

The hunters dragged into the air were promptly swallowed into the book.

“S-save me!”

The hunters lucky enough to evade the tentacles started running, but it was useless. Ten times as many tentacles as before shot out of the book, swishing through the air. One hunter was caught by the wrist, another by the waist, another by the ankle.

“This mage—my favorite character, that is—specializes in sealing magic. You might call our relationship that of a customer and a proprietor. In exchange for the [materials] I occasionally provide, the mage gladly fulfills my requests.”

In an instant, the book devoured all fifty hunters.

The Librarian smiled.

“As you have just seen.”

THUD.

THUD. THUD. PATTER. THUD, THUD.

The book that had swallowed the hunters began vomiting something out.

Gluttony and vomiting.

We held our breath as we watched the scene unfold. Though we couldn’t see them from here... the hundreds of thousands gathered in Babylon’s square were probably holding their breath just like us.

“Oh, yes.”

What the book vomited out were enormous bookmarks.

As tall as people.

Bookmarks with arms and legs.

“The mage’s hobby is dressing their creations in maid outfits.”

A maid’s uniform was drawn in the center of each bookmark.

“They are something of a pervert.”

“...”

“But what can one do? Every other human has perished. It would be stranger if they had remained sane.”

The hunters looked around, their faces stricken with terror.

Fifty bookmark maids stood in silence.

Looking farther across the library, there were not fifty but hundreds—thousands—of bookmarks working with mops, tableware, and other items in hand.