2
Looking over the library, buried deep in shelves of books, Subaru sat on the floor and asked a question.
“Y’know, Beako, don’t you get unhealthy, holing yourself up in here all the time?”
The spacious room was shrouded in an ancient, solemn aura. There were no windows, and the only light came from a few magic lanterns set here and there. The white ironstones in glass vessels glimmered with light, fulfilling the task of illumination.
But the light had a narrow range and hardly lit everything in the shelf-lined room.
“Reading in dim light makes your eyes go bad, and since there are no windows, this room has poor ventilation, too. It’s bad for your lungs, sitting in a room without fresh air.”
“Why won’t you shut up, I wonder? What I do and where I do it is my own business… Besides, the air in the Archive of Forbidden Books is self-cleansing—it’s the epitome of pure.”
“For real? Mana rocks. So that’s why this room feels so cozy—I was confused about that. I thought a room filled with Beako’s CO2 would surely be a relaxing place.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, but it’s something very unsettling, I suppose!”
Unable to stand the idle chitchat any longer, Beatrice raised her voice from her stepladder. With a red face, she thrust a pointer finger at the boy sitting brazenly in the middle of the room and said, “Why do you come here day in and day out to bother me?! This isn’t a place for you to kill time. It is the sacred, inviolable Archive of Forbidden Books.”
“You say it’s ‘forbidden,’ but that’s not very convincing when it’s so easy to get into.”
“I don’t want you to come in. You just come barging in all the same!”
Beatrice always erupted at Subaru when he unceremoniously entered her library—and today was no exception. She jumped off her stepladder, marched up to Subaru, and stared menacingly down at him as he sat cross-legged on the floor. Her elaborate curls springing at the sides of her face hypnotized Subaru.
“No matter how much I use my Passage, you always find me like it’s nothing… Never before has anybody defiled my Archive like you.”
“Boinnng, boinnnng.”
“What about my face is so amusing, I wonder?! Listen to me!”
“Whoa there!”
Subaru quickly caught the unfinished book Beatrice hurled at him in an uncontrolled rage. Her face was still red, and Beatrice turned her giant eyes on Subaru in a menacing glare. She bore such an uncanny resemblance to an angry, yipping chihuahua that Subaru let a chuckle escape him.
“What’s so funny… Could you possibly turn my stomach anymore, I wonder.”
“Sorry, my bad. But y’know, you really shouldn’t throw books on the ground when you finish them. Put them back on the shelf. If you pass on tidying up now, the floor’ll be buried in books before you know it.”
“You dare lecture Betty, this Archive’s librarian, on the proper handling of books? Try again, child.”
“But I just saw the aforementioned librarian throwing a book on the ground…”
For someone who took so much pride in being a librarian, she wasn’t especially careful with her books. Taking the book from Subaru’s extended hand, Beatrice shoved it onto the shelf beside her. The titles of the books on the shelf were all mismatched—she was totally winging it.
“Hey, where’s your librarian’s pride now? If you just shove the books anywhere, you’ll regret it later when you want to binge-read the series. One of my two-volume series became a standalone book once because of that.”
“That was an oddly personalized warning, but I don’t need your help. The Archive of Forbidden Books is a revolutionary place far beyond your understanding.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you put a book on a shelf, it’s automatically returned to where it belongs, I suppose.”
“The Archive is awesome! Scratch that, it’s creepy!”
He felt bad about knocking Beatrice off her cloud, but Subaru genuinely felt more disgusted than in awe. He looked at the shelf Beatrice returned the book to and said, “Whoa, for real? Do the books really go back on their own? That’s hella convenient, but it’d be terrifying to see it actually happen—wait a minute, why do we even need a librarian? Why are you even here?”
“You can’t seem to hold a conversation without belittling me, I suppose…”
Even though Subaru had asked the question in earnest for once, Beatrice still took it as one of his usual quips. She slipped past him and pulled a book from a nearby shelf. The Archive of Forbidden Books contained many thick tomes, so the sight of the small child carrying it evoked a sense of danger.
That being said, he still reached out to help and—
“I don’t need your help,” she snapped sourly.
With a smirk on his face, Subaru said, “Well then…I guess I’ll be on my way.”
Sitting atop the stepladder, Beatrice opened the book in her lap and fell into reading mode. Once in this state, Beatrice’s tolerance for conversation got noticeably worse. And Subaru had good enough manners to know not to bother someone when they were reading. This gave him the perfect opportunity to retreat.
As Subaru headed for the exit of the Archive, Beatrice said nothing. But before he left the girl who was anything but kind to him, Subaru suddenly remembered something. He turned around and said, “By the way, have you heard the news, Beako? For two days starting tomorrow, Roswaal and Ram will be away.”
“Yes, I heard…but it doesn’t concern me, I suppose.”
Even his attempt at gossip got a surly response from Beatrice. This didn’t sit right with Subaru. Tilting his head, he said, “But it does concern you. The master of the house and his—well, I can’t exactly find the right word to express their relationship—but why don’t you see them off? Rozchi might jump for joy.”
“I can’t even imagine Roswaal jumping for joy. And for the last time, it doesn’t concern me. Say good-bye at the door? That’s so—” Beatrice cut off there, her eyes on her book.
A sudden silence fell on the Archive, robbing Subaru of the right moment to escape. The sound of her turning pages also stopped, filling the room with an unsettling eeriness.
Subaru retraced his steps, wondering what could have possibly set her off. He wasn’t thinking that hard when he said what he did. But he was aware that he had said something intrusive about Beatrice’s and Roswaal’s relationship. Even so—
“Good-bye, Subaru.”
The sudden voice in the back of his memory grabbed Subaru’s heart. The voice he had tried so hard not to think about…not to remember…was ringing in his brain.
The gentle voice was calling out to him from behind, bidding him what he didn’t realize at the time was a final farewell. Subaru couldn’t remember how he had answered the all-too-familiar voice that day.
“No—you really should make an appearance tomorrow to say good-bye.”
When Subaru’s murmured voice broke the silence, Beatrice sighed into her book. Without lifting her face, her eyes glared up at Subaru.
“For the third time. It doesn’t concern me.”
“C’mon, you’ve got nothing to lose. It’s not like you’ve got anything better to do—you’ll just be holed up in here anyway. So why not at least make an appearance—”
“Enough already,” Beatrice snapped, stopping Subaru in his tracks. “Haven’t you considered there’s a reason I’m in here? There is no ‘anyway’ about it. If you insist I go, you’ll just have to drag me, I suppose.”
Subaru stayed silent.
“Though when we’re in this room, there is no way you could possibly gain the upper hand.”
In Beatrice’s voice, there was a quiet yet firm stubbornness. It was a rage sleeping deep within her that didn’t usually come out during her little daily spats with Subaru. If that rage awoke, he would burn in a sea of fire. Realizing this, Subaru raised the white flag.
“Understood… Sorry, I rambled. Good night.”
When he obediently backed off, the pressure emitting from Beatrice disappeared. And as he walked out of the room, she said nothing else.
“Ugh, that pigheaded bookworm.”
The moment he closed the door, he could tell somehow that the planes had shifted. He opened the door just to be sure and found that the door that once connected to the Archive now led to an empty guest room.
Beatrice’s Passage was a dimensional magic that connected the Archive of Forbidden Books to any door in the mansion that suited her. And since door-selection rights belonged only to Beatrice, getting in touch with her was quite difficult. However, with his lucky guesswork, Subaru was immune to her special ability for some reason.
“Still, why was Beako acting like that…?”
“Oh—Subaru? What are you doing out here?”
As Subaru frowned and pondered over the strangeness he felt at the end of his conversation with Beatrice, someone called out to him. He turned just in time to see Emilia descending the stairs, her silver hair tied back.
She approached Subaru in the hallway, smiled faintly, and gave him a curious look. “You’re headed to my room, you know. But you already wished me a good night.”
“Uhh—just passing by. Fresh from the bath, Emilia-tan? Looking cute.”
“Sure, sure.” Emilia waved Subaru’s incoherent praise aside (she was used to it by then).
But there was a distinct red flush on Emilia’s cheeks and neck as she smiled sheepishly and a dewy lustrousness in her long silvery hair. Sharing the same roof with the girl of one’s dreams was a special blessing for boys like Subaru.
“Subaru, why are you smirking? Do I look strange?”
“No, if anybody’s strange, it’s me. Your beauty throws me off my game… Oops, there I go again. No, wait a minute, this is actually great timing.”
Setting aside his quips and flirtations, Subaru got closer to the perplexed Emilia. She smelled wonderful—but that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about.
“As appealing as standing in the hallway talking to you is, I’ve got a little favor to ask. I know it’s late, but can I borrow Puck?”
“You want to borrow Puck?” A finger to her cheek and her eyes round from the sudden question, Emilia said, “He’s already asleep, but he ought to come right out if I call him. What do you need Puck for—oh, I think I know. You’re lonely and don’t want to sleep alone.”
“If that’s where your mind went, doesn’t that make me the biggest loser in the universe? No, no, actually, I wanted to talk to him about Beako. It would be a big help if I could talk to you, too.”
“About Beatrice?”
Emilia’s eyes grew even rounder. Subaru shot her a teasing smile. It was the smile of a little brat planning a special prank.
“I wanna teach that little shut-in a lesson.”
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