Chương 30: The Library.

I could get in. The inside of the library is... as sad as the outside. It's a mess, at least there isn't much dust around, but it's still a mess. The wood under my feet cracks, well, cracks, groan would be a better word for this. It groans. At every single one of my step, I can see the way the wood bend under me, the planks, groan under my baby weight. Baby weight isn't a lot. How is this library even standing?

The answer to my question is around me, the walls, even if rotten, seems to have been made from a good type of wood. Probably before this whole stuff started, when they still wanted to show off the importance of knowledge to everyone around. Before this whole building got abandoned. Well, abandoned isn't the right word. I look behind me. At the double doors, where a woman stands. She has a plank of wood in her hand, on it, it's probably written library. It's the same plank that fell down.

And the girl, who clearly wasn't a random girl in the street. After all, I looked around more than once, and I saw no one. So... yeah, this girl is clearly the... library boss, or whatever. She's the current authority in the library at least. And apparently, it's her responsibility to put the plank with the name back above the door. She's.... struggling. Her umbrella is already inside the library, she put it against a wall just beside the open door.

No rain is falling on her, apart from on her limbs, even if she's outside. Which is great for her, since she reacts like a fucking cat whenever a drop of rain falls on her. The reason for the dryness is a small roof, nothing much. But the roof extends to cover anyone on the doorstep of the library. Giving them a little roof. A little roof she's abusing right now while trying to put the name back.... damn... she's really trying her best but... That's... kind of a sad sight to be honest.

"Do you need help?" She stops trying for a second, both arms above her head while she tries to figure out a way to put it back.

"You're leg sized" Holy shit. That gave me emotional damage. After destroying the self esteem of a two years old, she finally manages to do something, she pulls a rope that was already attached to the wall above the door. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. And with some loops on a hole that was in the sign. Everything's good as new. You know, I'm starting to understand why this sign fell down to begin with.

I look down at the ground, which is still groaning whenever I take a step. And then look back at the woman when she comes in too, the ground more or less screaming and praying to the gods for help at each of her steps. Damn. Looking around again, I try to get accustomed to the library a bit more. The library, apart from the dying ground, and the rotting wall. Is still a pretty vast space, way bigger than my house at least. It's like, three houses of mine slammed together, so, pretty big. Well.

Smaller than my house in my last life. But for this village standards, it's pretty big. Most of the space is taken by shelves, some of them are dirty with dirt and cobwebs, and some are almost empty. But there's still a lot of books, enough books to satisfy me for a lifetime. My smile climbs up and I almost want to laugh again, but something stops me.

"Oh please don't laugh again" I blink. What happened? What did she just say? I turn my head around to see another part of the room I didn't really put attention on. When you enter the library, if you look directly on the right. There's a long counter, and behind this counter, sitting on a chair now. There's this weird tired girl. How the fuck do I answer to that?

"I won't." She looks at me, all while yawning into her fist "I was joking, laugh if you want" What the fuck is this girl problem?

"That... wasn't funny?" She waves me off "Adult humor" It's my turn for my eye to twitch, okay, whatever, focus on your goal nebe, the books. Looking at them again, the evil smile that was stopped by her intervention a second ago appears again, and then it's stopped. Again.

"Do you have money?" I stop. Again. The only sounds in the library being the slow tapping of water falling from my coat on the ground, and the annoying sound of her moving chair shifting around. I give her a look. While she sits, behind the counter. Now she's almost sleeping on the counter, one hand up and holding her face up, she's blinking more than necessary. I'm pretty sure everytime she blinks she sleeps for a second or two.

"Yes" She raises both eyebrows at that, as if she wasn't expecting me to have money. Then she frowns and look me up and down, focusing on my cloak. My shiny new fucking cloak, rolls her eyes, and mumble something under her breath. After that she asks me something again.

"Do you know how to read?" I look at the books in the shelves "I can figure it out?" And then she stops moving in her chair for a half second before continuing, tapping her finger on the counter "Wait, you can't read?"

"I'm two, why did you even asked if you thought I could?" She points at me, waving at my general form "It's because of the whole speaking &#&#" She didn't answered my question but I let that go.

"Okay...." The silence gets pretty awkward again. I decide to break it.

"How much is a book?" She smiles wide and lean forward, okay where did the whole tiredness go?

"That's a greeeeeat question you got here #&#&, the real question is how much you have on you." she ends her sentence with a pointed finger at my cloak. Damn she looks straight up hungry for money, is it so hard to get money around here nowadays? She doesn't let me answer and start counting with her fingers "Because of the &#&, our prices have gone up, that's unfortunate, but, for a cute kid like you?

I can make the price go as low as twenty thousands ryo, sooo-" She slides back with her chair, both hands gripping the counter "-how much do you have?"

"I have twenty ryos" Silence. Again.

"&##& again?"

"I don't know that word" A tsk.

"Say again?"

"I have twenty ryos" She blinks, then she looks at my coat again "It's your birthday right? Your parents only gave you twenty ryos?" I nod at her. And I can see her confusion, I can see the monkey jumping in her brain, the brain matter shifting around trying to figure out what did I just said while her eyes stay on my cloak. That sounds like the perfect moment to finish her.

"The cloak was given to me by Mr Hatomo, he's a leatherworker and doesn't like my parents much, but he likes me, and he didn't like me walking around in the rain and looking like-" I quote with my fingers "-'an abandoned dog' everyday, so he made me this cloak for my birthday" For a while, she calculates what I just said. Her brain moving as if she was trying to figure out which reality is true, and which one is false. After this. She just... kind of say this?

"So, you're poor?" Fatality