"Huff… huff…"
Letting out a few rough breaths, Shade looked at the time on his phone.
[3:52 p.m.]
I made it…
He reached the library but only 8 minutes were left for the time limit to end. And yet he didn't know what he was so desperately searching for.
A hint, a book, something…
He looked around the library for a bit. The seats were mostly empty and the atmosphere was more peaceful than the library closest to his home.
With an exhausted body, he continued his search, racing around through different sections of the library. It was an unknown place to him but he didn't have the luxury of time to act civilly.
3— 4— 5— 6— 7—
[3:58 p.m.]
As the time continued to flow, mere 2 minutes were left from the scheduled time to end—
"Found you!"
And his eye caught a clue while turning his head.
The library itself was quite empty. Nearly 4 in the afternoon was perhaps not a time when most regular readers were active in this library.
The answer to Chandler's puzzle was the only person sitting in the area.
Sitting near the biography section, was the girl with silver hair who looked around the age of Shade. She was busy making some notes while being surrounded by mountains of books placed in front of her forming a makeshift wall.
Hastening his steps, Shade took a seat beside her and looked at her, his eyes shining in anticipation.
As he sat beside her, she slowly raised her gaze from the printed words of the book she was reading to the glistening eyes of Shade—
"?!"
Her scarlet eyes glared at the odd stranger looking at her for a response.
Struck with the sudden moment of awkwardness, Shade quickly lowered his head looking down at the table.
Sitting right beside her when the whole library is dead empty may not have been the best idea for now!
He cursed at his actions in his mind while trying not to make it obvious.
Ignoring Shade's reaction, the girl simply shrugs and continues focusing on her book as if nothing ever happened.
Scary and beautiful. Seeing her for the first time, he could only describe her as such.
Like a bright red rose with a dozen intimidating thorns attached to protect her.
Experiencing her gaze firsthand, Shade felt like being pricked by one of such thorns, when her sharp eyes glared at him.
*Beep* *Beep*
*Beep* *Beep*
Breaking the tension, the sound of an alarm starts ringing on the girl's phone.
[4:00 p.m.]
It was now officially the end of time Chandler wrote.
Taking a deep breath, Shade spoke.
"Chandler… sent me here."
She looked at him briefly and then continued to wrap up her work.
"Why— why did Chandler die?"
He spoke again, this time his voice filled with more emotions but no immediate reply came again.
After arranging the books, she finally looked back at him.
"So what's your role?"
"Role?"
"Chandler didn't say anything about your role?"
Furrowing his brows, he pretended to think over her words while he celebrated inside.
If she said something like "Who is Chandler?" or "What do you mean, you creep?!" I would have just ran back home crying out of embarrassment.
But he kept a hard expression on the outside.
"I'm... not sure."
"…"
"He asked me to come to the biography section of this library before 4 today."
"And that's it?"
"Yes, I want to know why the accident happened to him and did he really knew about it beforehand."
After pausing for a second he added.
"And also about who you are."
"Hmm… who do you think I am?" She replied back with a question.
Holding back his dissatisfied expression, he thought clearly.
Was she the person who is responsible for his death?
No, there are many contradictions.
Then a person who was mixed with Chandler in whatever conspiracy they were involved in?
Probably not, she wouldn't have asked my role in that case.
His thoughts were all jumbled up but the longer he thought, the more obvious it became, he already knew who she was before even meeting her.
Looking at her with a somewhat smug face, Shade opened his mouth.
"You asked me my role, you don't know what you're doing here either."
She is another participant.
Letting out a "Hmph" sound, she picks up a pile of books that she had arranged and hands it to Shade.
"Follow me."
"Eh?"
The books are heavy?
Shade was in awe with how easily she lifted and handed the books over but he didn't voice out anything.
Without putting on any resistance, Shade obediently followed behind her while she put the books back at their places.
After that was complete, she then started talking with someone she knew at the library and then finally headed towards the exit of the library.
During the entire time of following behind her, his ears were up, patiently catching the sound of each tick made by the clock.
And finally—
"I'm Irina Lister, please call me Irina."
Switching her tone to something more polite, she gave a formal introduction.
"…I'm Shade."
"Then Shade, can we talk at your house?"
"My— my house??"
"If it's not a problem. We have to discuss a lot of things."
"Okay…"
Coming to the library, helping her, waiting for her conversation with her friend to end…
He made mental notes in his mind.
Regardless of his choice, he wanted to at least respect Chandler's last wish by figuring out about his death so he agreed pretty quickly.
"First of all let me confirm this, Chandler is really dead?"
"Yes, the news came from his own sister so it's likely not false."
"Do you know about the thing he carried and called a 'Relic'?"
"No."
"I see."
Throughout the way, Irina continued to ask a few more questions out of the blue.
To some questions, Shade thought out his answers and to some he replied back in a word or two.
After a 20 minutes walk back, Shade still walked nervously beside her.
"That's my home." He points at the house ahead.
"Then the last question for now, did you receive the dice?"
"The weird one?"
"A black coloured dice with a weird symbol etched on it."
"I did, it's with me."
"I see…"
The more awkward their conversations became, the more he contemplated his judgement.
Is it really okay, bringing her to my home?
Fortunately for Irina, her sinister smile that had formed unknowingly on her face was missed by his observations.