PAF 04

Chapter 4

The Dimensional Library was a massive archive where books recording human destinies were gathered. It wasn’t an ordinary library, but an ethereal structure suspended within a dimensional rift.

The librarians who managed the Dimensional Library held a sacred duty: to preserve the books of fate and ensure their narratives were never corrupted.

The method for carrying out their duties was simple yet dangerous: possessing a character within a book where an error had occurred, then locating and extracting that error. In return, they would receive unimaginable rewards from the Head Librarian, the ultimate administrator of reality.

However, as incredible as the rewards were, the risks were equally terrifying. A single misstep could leave a librarian trapped inside the story, unable to escape. When that happened, the book would slowly digest the intruder, assimilating them into its ink and paper.

My current situation was a textbook example. I had lost all my abilities as a librarian and was actively being consumed by this world, losing my original identity and memories along the way.

And the ones who pushed me into this pathetic state were, absurdly enough, the very companions who had entered this book with me.

Which brought me to my current predicament.

I was no longer a grand archmage, but a starving beggar, trapped in a absurd conversation with the Crown Prince of the Empire—my absolute worst enemy from my previous run.

“The companions who betrayed you… are you talking about those four?”

“That’s right.”

There were four of them. This mission had been so brutally complex that a large squad of us had possessed characters within the novel.

The Crown Prince knew everything perfectly. I had tested him multiple times, and there was zero doubt he possessed full memories of the past timeline.

“Yes. The ones who entered this book with me were my fellow librarians. They were blinded by the final reward and abandoned me to rot.”

As I ground my back teeth together, desperately suppressing the black hatred boiling in my throat, the Crown Prince dropped casually onto the plush mattress beside me.

When on earth did he get so close?! He was sitting near enough for his sleeve to brush mine.

“…Then, don’t you want revenge?”

I snapped my head up, glaring at him with pure venom.

‘You think I haven’t spent every waking second dreaming of tearing them apart?!‘

“I told you,” I spat, my voice laced with bitter exhaustion. “I’m trapped here and can’t leave on my own. My powers are completely gone. I’m powerless.”

“If one person can’t pull it off…” The Crown Prince leaned in slightly, his golden eyes burning with an unreadable light. “…what about two?”

Failing to grasp his meaning for a second, I stared at him blankly. Noticing my utter confusion, he offered a swift, smooth explanation.

“I’m asking what you think of taking me as your partner.”

“You…?” I balked, recoiling. “Are you completely out of your mind?!”

The Crown Prince didn’t answer, but my explosive reaction seemed to spark a strange, excited glint in his eyes.

For some absurd reason, his wild proposal made me actually consider it. Looking purely at raw capability, the Crown Prince was easily the most overpowered ally anyone could ask for.

After all, he had been the grand antagonist who nearly crushed the protagonist’s entire rebellion.

Back when I was playing the hero, his influence was terrifyingly absolute. It reached into every dark corner of the Empire—the holy temple, the elite royal academy, the conquered territories, and the heart of the Imperial Capital. He was the primary reason my original mission had been a agonizing nightmare.

The Crown Prince smiled, his eyes crinkling into beautiful half-moons. It looked like a pure, guileless smile, but to someone who knew his bloodstained lore, it felt totally artificial.

“I could become one of those… librarians, couldn’t I?”

“What could the literal heir to an Empire possibly lack to make him want to be a librarian?” I huffed, crossing my arms. “Besides, it doesn’t work that way. You’re just a character written in a book.”

And not just any character, but the ruthless villain. To think that now that my mission was dead, I was sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on a bed with my sworn enemy, having a casual heart-to-heart. Life was truly full of sick jokes.

Honestly, at this point, I didn’t hold much hostility toward him anymore. Perhaps it was because the traitorous librarians—whose real identities I couldn’t even recall—felt like the true monsters. If anything, I had developed a bizarre, twisted fondness for him. A sense of shared trauma, maybe. The fact that we were the only two beings carrying the weight of the previous timeline put my frayed mind at ease.

“You can just stay here and enjoy your life,” I said softly, leaning back against the wooden headboard. “You’re absurdly handsome, you have the highest background in the land, and now your biggest threat is out of the picture. Once my soul completely fades, you’ll be set for life.”

Whether the Empire fell or not, whether corrupt nobles exploited the weak or not—none of it was my problem anymore. This wasn’t my home.

I was just a broken librarian, utterly detached from this world. A victim who just wanted to claim a paycheck and go home…

As if my words held actual weight, the Crown Prince went quiet, mulling over my statements with a dark, contemplative gaze.

I pushed myself up off the silk sheets.

“Well, I suppose that satisfies whatever curiosity you had. I’ll be taking my leave now. This is a perfect, peaceful world for you now without any archmage around to blow up your castles. Live a good life, Your Highness.”

“Wait!”

The moment I turned to step off the bed, the Crown Prince shot his arm out and snagged my wrist. A fierce, crushing grip clamped down on my bones, forcing a sharp groan past my teeth. Before I could pull away, he yanked hard, dragging me backward toward his chest.

“Hey! What the hell are you—”

“Th-Then… I’m not a native character either!” he blurted out, his posture stiffening. “I possessed this body! Just like you!”

“…What?”

“So make me a librarian, or use your dimensional tricks—just get me out of this book!”

The Crown Prince shifted from holding my wrist to wrapping his broad arms around me, attempting to trap me in a tight, suffocating embrace. I squirmed violently, shoving my hands against his firm chest to push him off.

“Hey! Your story doesn’t even make sense! Just a second ago you were acting like the ruthless Crown Prince, and now you’re pulling this crap?!”

“And is it any more logical for the Empire’s worst enemy to suddenly drop from the sky and claim she’s not a mage, but some interdimensional librarian?!” he countered, his grip refusing to loosen.

“I was acting for my job!”

Despite my furious shout, the Crown Prince stubbornly held his ground, his eyes flashing with desperate persistence.

“I-It was the exact same for me! I was suddenly thrown into this body and had to pretend to be the cold Crown Prince just so I wouldn’t get executed for acting out of character!”

“Wow. Unbelievable.” I let out a harsh laugh, glaring at him. “You didn’t believe a single word I said, did you? You’re just mocking me!”

“No, I do believe you!” he insisted, his breath warm against my cheek. “We’re in the exact same boat! Why can’t you just believe what I’m saying?!”

I had genuinely thought we were making progress, but seeing his absurd act proved he hadn’t bought a word of my story. He was just humoring me because he still believed I was the dangerous Azure Flame Mage hiding her power!

“Fine. I’ll prove it to you.”

I flicked my wrist, opening the librarian’s work-book I had summoned earlier and thrusting it directly into his face. Etched across the glowing cover was its true designation:

[ Archive ] (The Book of Archives)

This was one of the few functional librarian tools left in my soul. True to its name, the Archive possessed a passive, unalterable property: it recorded every truth, action, and entity within a world without bias.

I couldn’t show off high-tier magic anymore, but this administrative item was absolute.

“Archive,” I commanded.

At my voice, the thick pages began to flip rapidly with a crisp, rustling sound, automatically locking onto a specific administrative section.

“Here. Read it with your own eyes.”

[ View Information → User Profile ]

Identity: Librarian

Status: Administrator of the Dimensional Library.

Details: Failed the designated retrieval mission within the Heroic Chronicle . As a direct repercussion, user is trapped inside the text and undergoing force-assimilation.

The Crown Prince read the glowing script, then let out a sharp scoff.

“You probably just wrote that text yourself using magic.”

“It’s an automated system record, you idiot!” I snapped. “Fine, if you don’t believe my profile, we can just scan your profile and see how the system categorizes you. Though… there’s a specific requirement to trigger an external scan.”

“What requirement?”

Without warning, I slammed the heavy, leather-bound Archive directly into the Crown Prince’s shoulder.

Thud!

“Ow—!”

While the Crown Prince winced, clutching his struck shoulder in shock, the Archive’s pages spun wildly, processing the physical contact before displaying a new string of system text.

[ View Information → Target Entity Profile ]

Across the glowing parchment, a single, horrifying term manifested in bold red ink.

[ Entity Classification: Possessor ]

“Huh…? What in the world…?” My breath caught in my throat.

I had expected his target profile to display ‘Native Character (Villain)’, but a completely unimaginable system classification had appeared instead.

Possessor (Bookworm)

An anomaly where an unauthorized entity possesses a narrative vessel.

While Librarians are certified professionals granted clearance to edit text and retrieve errors, unauthorized entities occasionally get swept into open dimensions. Librarians officially designate these invasive entities as ‘Bookworms’.

While a standard ‘Poem’ error can distort specific plot points with a few sentences, a ‘Bookworm’ is an anomaly capable of rewriting an entire world’s structural reality.

“…Are you kidding me?!” I gasped, my jaw dropping.

Seeing the official system text floating in midair, the Crown Prince’s tense expression melted into a radiant, triumphant smile.

“See? I told you I was telling the truth!” He smirked, his arms tightening around my waist. “I finally understand what happened to me, where I fell from, and who I am! Now you have to take me out of this world with you. Please?”

“…Wait. If this is real…”

My heart pounded frantically against my ribs.

An unauthorized possessor. A entity completely separate from a librarian.

Setting aside the sheer horror of a Bookworm invading a world, my eyes locked onto the final line of the system description.

A librarian’s sole duty was to locate ‘errors’ that corrupted the fate of a novel. Standard errors were classified as ‘Poems’.

Then what about a Bookworm?

If I had uncovered an anomaly infinitely more dangerous than a Poem, then even though I had failed my original hero quest… I had technically fulfilled my ultimate administrative duty as a librarian!

‘Isn’t this… an insanely higher achievement than the original quest?!‘

The very second that realization crossed my mind, the space within the bedroom vibrated.

Ding!

A crystal-clear, bell-like chime echoed directly inside my head. A translucent, golden parchment projection burst out from the Archive, hovering between us.

Glowing, divine script began to write itself across the air:

[ MISSION COMPLETE! ]

Librarian Task:

Original Objective: Retrieve the localized error in and restore fate.

Status: OVERRIDDEN.

Extracted Anomaly: Possessor (Bookworm)

Anomaly Grade: Beyond Classification (S-Rank Threat)

Calculated Reward: Unmeasurable.

“WOAH! YES!”

The instant I read the system prompt, I completely forgot who I was hugging, leaped up, and threw my arms tightly around the Crown Prince’s neck.

Suddenly finding himself on the receiving end of a wild, suffocating hug, the Crown Prince froze, thoroughly bewildered by my sudden outburst.

“W-What’s happening?! What is that glowing light?!”

“What does it look like?!” I cheered, squeezing him tighter. “It’s my ticket home! I’m saved!”

The Archive flared with a blinding, iridescent light as a final system prompt materialized over his shoulder:

[ SYSTEM PROMPT ]

Report anomaly to the Head Librarian and return to Headquarters immediately?

[ YES ] / [ NO ]

“YES! Absolutely YES! Get me out of this hellhole right now!”

I frantically slammed my finger onto the glowing ‘YES’ icon floating in the air.