Before B could even flip to the next page of her manga, a massive, thick hand reached down from above.
Grab.
With effortless ease, Reed pinched the fabric of B's white dress right at the back of her neck, lifting her straight off the two wooden chairs like a naughty kitten being picked up by its mother.
"Whoa-!" B let out a small, flat gasp, her boots dangling inches above the floor while her floor-length white hair spilled down like a heavy curtain.
Reed, who was built like a solid brick wall under his brown sweater vest, gave her a small, firm shake in mid-air to emphasize his point. He set her back down into a single wooden chair, standing over her with his arms crossed over his massive chest.
"I don't care how lazy your back feels," Reed said, his voice firm and completely uncompromising.
As an undercover Aegis agent, Reed was trained to follow strict protocols to the letter. Whether he was dealing with a low-tier phantom, an elite Vanguard officer, or a mysterious white-haired girl who lived in a dangerous Calamity zone, rules were rules.
"This is a public library," Reed stated, tapping his finger against the wooden table. "We have strict ethics here. No laying across multiple chairs, no feet on the furniture, and no slouching like a sack of potatoes. If you break library ethics again, I will be forced to ban you from the building. And if you are banned, you will not be allowed to borrow any books."
B's pitch-black pupils widened slightly.
No borrowing books? That meant no reading on her cozy couch, no free entertainment, and complete boredom at the cabin!
B looked up at the broad-shouldered librarian. His arms were thicker than her thighs, his chest looked like solid stone, and his sharp eyes glared at her through his nerdy glasses. He looked like he could snap her slender fifteen-year-old body in two using just his thumb and index finger.
"Understood..." B mumbled reluctantly, slumping her shoulders in defeat. "I'll sit in one chair."
"Good," Reed said with a crisp nod.
He turned around and began walking back toward his reception desk.
However, before he made it five steps, Reed paused and glanced back over his shoulder.
B was indeed sitting in a single wooden chair, but her posture was atrocious. She had curled her short legs up into the seat, bending her back into a harsh, severe curve like a cooked shrimp, resting her chin almost directly on top of the manga pages.
POP.
A thick, violent vein popped right on Reed's forehead.
He let out a sharp, frustrated breath, turned right around, and marched over to a small storage shelf near the corner. He grabbed a thick, firm reading pillow, walked straight back to B's table, and reached down again.
Grab.
Without saying a single word, Reed picked B up by the nape of her collar like a kitten a second time. Holding her mid-air with one hand, he used his other hand to place the firm pillow firmly against the back of her wooden chair.
Then, he set B back down, pressing her back firmly against the pillow so her spine was forced into a perfectly straight, healthy sitting posture.
Reed stepped back, inspecting her position like a drill instructor checking a fresh recruit.
Satisfied that her posture was now straight, neat, and proper, Reed raised two fingers to his face, nudged his nerdy glasses back up the bridge of his nose with a quiet click, and turned on his heel.
"Keep it like that," Reed commanded before walking back to his reception counter and sitting down to review a stack of returned book cards.
B sat stiffly against the firm pillow, her small hands holding her manga. Her pale face formed a deep, heavy pout, her lips sticking out as she grumbled softly under her breath.
'So strict...' B complained in her mind, glaring at the back of the librarian's head. 'He's worse than my old department manager. He acts like a library military sergeant.'
Still, as much as she wanted to slump back into a cozy blob, she didn't dare cross him. The man was built like an iron tank. If she made him angry, she had no doubt he would ban her on the spot, and her dream of reading books on her cabin couch would vanish forever.
Resigning herself to her fate, B returned to reading her shounen manga in complete silence.
The story was actually quite good. It followed a young sword master fighting his way through a giant tower filled with monsters. B flipped through the pages, her large black eyes following the bright, action-packed drawings.
A few minutes later, she reached a hilarious page where the main character accidentally tripped over his own giant sword and fell face-first into a mud puddle right in front of his rival.
Forgetful of her surroundings, a sharp, childish laugh burst out of B's mouth.
"Pfft-! AHAHAHA!"
COUGH-COUGH.
A sudden, loud, and incredibly heavy signaling cough echoed from the reception desk across the room.
B froze instantly, her laugh cutting off mid-sound.
She peeked over the top of her manga pages.
Sitting behind the high wooden counter, Reed was staring directly at her. The bright sunlight reflecting off his black-rimmed glasses made his lenses glow with a terrifying, blinding white light. To B's panicked imagination, those glowing lenses seemed to spell out the word 'BAN' in bright, bold red letters.
B quickly clamped both of her pale hands over her mouth, bowing her head down low toward her manga.
'Quiet! Stay quiet!' B screamed internally, her pitch-black pupils trembling slightly. 'Do not get banned! Preserve the books!'
Reed held his sharp gaze on her for three long seconds before letting out a quiet sigh and returning his eyes to his paperwork.
For the next hour, the library remained in absolute, unbroken silence. B didn't make a single peep. She didn't laugh, she didn't shift in her chair, and she barely even made a sound when she turned the paper pages of her manga.
By the time she finally flipped to the last page of the manga volume, her back felt slightly stiff from sitting so straight.
She let out a soft, tiny breath of relief, closing the comic book. She glanced up at the large, old wooden clock hanging on the library wall. The two long black hands pointed directly at the number two.
It was 2:00 PM in the afternoon.
"I've been here a long time..." B murmured softly.
Her stomach gave a tiny, quiet gurgle, reminding her that it was time to head back to her quiet cabin.
B gathered her selected reading pile from the table. She stacked her four novels and the single non-fiction geology book neatly in her arms, leaving the finished manga volume sitting alone in the middle of the wooden table.
She shuffled over to the front reception desk, her long white hair dragging behind her boots, and set the five books down onto the wooden counter.
"I want to borrow these, please," B said politely in her soft voice.
Reed looked up from his desk, taking the five books into his large hands. He opened each cover, stamping the checkout card inside with his wooden library stamp.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
"Five books," Reed said, his voice calm and professional. "Return deadline is three days from today, before 5:00 PM."
"Understood," B nodded.
Reed gathered the five stamped books into a neat stack and pushed them across the counter toward her.
However, as B reached out her small hands to take her books, Reed didn't let go immediately. He lowered his head, his sharp eyes peering over the rim of his glasses toward the corner reading table.
There, sitting all by itself in the middle of the empty wooden table, was the single manga volume B had just finished reading.
Reed looked back at B. His chiseled, square chin shone with a quiet, profound sense of silent disappointment, his eyebrows pulling together in an expression of deep, disapproval.
"Little miss," Reed said, his voice dropping an octave into a low rumble. "When you are finished reading a book inside the library, you are expected to return it back to the exact shelf where you found it."
B blinked her large, void-black eyes, looking back at the distant table, then up at the giant librarian.
Returning a single book to a shelf twenty feet away sounded like an agonizing amount of extra walking for her exhausted body.
Seeing the absolute, unyielding sloth written across the girl's small pale face, Reed let out a long, heavy sigh. He rubbed his forehead with two fingers, realizing that arguing ethics with this unbelievably lazy child was going to give him gray hair before he turned thirty.
He let go of the five borrowed books, sliding them completely into B's embrace.
"Just... take your books," Reed grumbled, waving his hand dismissively. "And be careful on your way home."
B's face softened into a small look of relief. She hugged the five heavy books tightly against her chest, holding her long white hair under her arm.
She gave the broad-shouldered librarian a small, polite bow of her head.
"Thank you very much, mister," B said in her clear, childish voice. "I will bring them back in three days."
Without waiting for another lecture on library rules, B turned around and shuffled quickly out the double glass doors, the small brass bell chiming pleasantly above her head as she stepped out into the bright afternoon sunlight.
Ring-ring!
Standing behind his reception desk, Reed watched through the front window as the tiny white-haired girl walked down the stone street, carrying a stack of heavy books that looked almost too big for her small arms.
Reed folded his arms across his chest, his nerdy glasses catching the afternoon light.
'She's going straight back to Blackwood Cemetery with those books,' Reed thought, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. 'I better call Martha and let her know the target is heading back to Site-07.'
Author's Note
EliteToeCollector
Thanks for reading!