Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“You look like you’re hurting.”
At Bibi’s abrupt remark, I turned my gaze toward him. Hurting? Surely he meant my knee?
“Did I really hurt you?”
“You could say that.”
If I hadn’t crossed paths with this man, I would have made it safely back to the Female Student Dormitory, and I wouldn’t have stumbled while being chased by undergraduates.
“…I’m sorry.”
At the man’s sudden apology, I raised my eyebrows.
He let out a sigh.
“But if you’d gone to the Female Student Dormitory, you would’ve had a much worse time. Even our operatives avoid that place unless they live there.”
‘Ah, of course.’
This man doesn’t know I’m a resident there. The fact that he’d forced me outside when I tried to return to the dorm earlier must have been because he thought I was just a clueless civilian.
Perhaps Bibi wasn’t such a bad person after all. If that was true, then there was no harm in asking him something, was there?
“In other words, the Hotline isn’t somewhere people can just walk into easily, right?”
“It can’t be, and it shouldn’t be. Half the people in that place are at minimum ex-convicts or psychopathic bastards, aren’t they?”
Bibi spoke as if he’d grown tired of the subject.
They’d all seemed friendly enough. That guy called 48 seemed a bit unhinged, though.
Now that I thought about it, would it be safe to reveal to this man that I’m really Amelie?
I wasn’t sure how close Bibi and 48 were, but if I made the wrong impression…
“Sorry, one more time.”
Bibi, cutting through my thoughts, held out black Box Tape. With a sharp tear, he pulled the tape taut and said,
“I’m going to seal your mouth.”
Is this guy actually insane?
Reading my shocked expression, Bibi quickly offered an explanation.
“I know how this looks. But it’s better for you this way. We’re going into the Reading Room from here on.”
He gestured with his chin toward a sign on the wall.
Silence
Being told to keep silent in a library seemed like common sense, but there was something about that ordinary sign that felt like a warning.
If something in this Fortress could warn you so openly, you might as well count yourself lucky.
But that didn’t mean he could tape my mouth shut.
“I can just stay quiet! You don’t have some other agenda here, right?”
“I’m not forcing you. But by now you should understand—there are things in this place that won’t work by your will alone.”
I hesitated. I’d always had decent nerves and a strong constitution, but on my first day, in that fallen corridor, I’d barely managed to stifle a scream.
In the end, I took the tape. I bit off a strip about a span wide and carefully pressed it across my lips.
‘This feels… strange.’
When I handed the tape back, Bibi wound it around his work belt and reached to open the Reading Room door.
‘…?’
I quickly peeled the tape off my lips.
“Why aren’t you taping yours?”
“What?”
“Why aren’t you sealing your mouth?”
When I pointed at his mouth with my hand and glared at him, Bibi let out a deflated laugh and answered casually.
“Paid Option.”
What kind of library has paid options? You can talk if you pay?
Well, I suppose there’s nothing money can’t do in this world. I didn’t ask further and pressed the tape back onto my lips.
Click.
The moment we stepped into the Reading Room, I swallowed quietly. “Vast” didn’t begin to describe it. It was colossal.
A ceiling that vanished into distance, long corridors, and countless shelves stretching endlessly. Sunlight streaming through high windows hung like curtains against the sky.
We passed between the shelves and made our way deeper into the Reading Room. I kept my pace steady while glancing at the book racks.
The shelves were crammed with thick, ancient-looking books, but not a single one bore a title.
When we finally reached the innermost shelves, Bibi gestured for me. We knelt together in front of the lowest shelf.
Thud, thud—Bibi pulled books out without hesitation. I noticed that the spines and title pages of the books stacked on the floor were all completely blank.
‘Surely this isn’t…’
I looked up at the books crammed all the way to the top. Were all these fake books? Every single volume in this Reading Room?
Then what was this place for?
But that question was answered soon enough.
Creak.
When Bibi removed the wooden panel behind the shelves, a hidden door came into view.
A brass-colored arched door carved with intricate patterns—the kind you’d see in an old temple or ancient ruin.
Yet it stood barely thirty centimeters tall. Like… yes, exactly like a dog door from a foreign film.
Knock, knock—before I could even react, Bibi rapped on the door. With a metallic jingle, something turned, and the handle rotated.
The door opened, and beyond a thin curtain, a small altar came into view. And on that altar, draped in a shimmering silver veil, sat a small figure.
‘A statue…?’
If so, it was a remarkably lifelike one. The robes draped softly over it were translucent, and the exposed shoulders and arms were milk-white.
Both eyes were gently closed, and a faint smile lingered at the corners of its mouth. Without the prominent Adam’s apple, it would have been difficult to guess its gender.
Click—Bibi opened a drawer beneath the altar. Inside lay small Metal Tweezers, delicate but solid-looking.
What was he about to do? I could only watch in silence.
Bibi glanced at me, then said,
“Don’t scream.”
And with that, he gripped his left index fingernail with the tweezers and, with a crack, tore it clean off.
Gasp.
I clamped my mouth shut over the tape. I barely noticed the blood dripping from his hand.
Jingle.
At the strange sound, I turned my head. The statue’s head had tilted slightly to one side. The ornate Golden Earrings hanging from its ears were jingling.
And was it just my imagination? The statue’s chest seemed to heave just then…
“…I have heard thy devotion…”
The statue’s eyes opened. A pair of gleaming eyes fixed on Bibi.
“Another Seeker comes seeking an audience. Speak—tell me, what do you seek this day…”
The statue stopped mid-sentence. Then it slowly turned its head toward me, frozen in place.
“You are…”
‘Can’t it see?’
Its eyes, clouded as if by mist, drifted through empty air. When it frowned slightly, Bibi hastily reached out and pulled me behind him. He clearly hadn’t anticipated this turn of events.
“Aha… ahaha…”
But contrary to our nervous expectations, the statue burst into remarkably cheerful laughter.
“Well, well! We have an honored guest. Come now, sit close—don’t be shy.”
I looked at Bibi. But his eyes were just as wide.
As I stood frozen, the statue laughed again, low and gently.
“Though my eyes may be blind, my nose is quite sound. And if you’re troubled by the warning outside the library door, fear not. My Subordinates have already been fed.”
“…Does that mean we may speak freely, sir?”
That was Bibi’s question.
“Indeed. The Exalted One sent an emissary to me in person—how could I stand on ceremony?”
‘An emissary?’
I had no idea what it was talking about. What was a Seeker? What did it mean by Subordinates?
If I made a sound carelessly here, everything would fall apart, right? But why had the statue been staring only at me this whole time?
‘Right. Play it cool for now.’
After some thought, I peeled the Box Tape off my lips.
“Well, um…”
Bibi flinched, but fortunately nothing bad happened. I continued, studying the statue’s expression.
“The truth is, I just… followed this man here.”
Hmm? When the statue tilted its head, the earrings chimed softly again.
“You did not come at someone’s command? And yet you bear such a distinctive scent…”
Scent again? More talk of smell? And who is this “Exalted One” anyway? But I wasn’t foolish enough to ask such things here.
It seemed the statue had already assumed that someone important had sent me here.
A being important enough to require fingernail offerings was treating me this kindly? There was no reason to refuse.
Besides, before we came in, Bibi had promised to teach me how to make money.
I had no idea how a talking statue in a library bookshelf could help with that, but either way, there was nothing to lose by making a good impression.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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