BINGED: Reincarnated as an OP-Chapter 28: Finding the Forbidden Book

Dusk competed with Ren but he was fast enough to meet up before it showed up in the horizon.

The campus was quieter than usual. Most students had either returned to their dormitories or gathered in the courtyard cafés. The courtyard cafés were the best life in the evenings , the entire place was filled laughter and music spilled into the evening air. Students had a code name for it—Sea, they called it—and it was the best way to drift away from the reality they faced. The best place to make and break friendships, a place to try out new things, even the most embarrassing things and a place to be weird as much as you wanted to.

It was bustling even more that evening because it was the freshman year.

Ren ignored all of it. His mind was fixed on one thing.

The Great Chronicles of the Terimen.

If Susan wanted it badly enough to send him after it, then it had to be important. And the last thing he wanted to do was to let her down.

Ren adjusted his collar and headed straight toward the university library that was two blocks behind the café block.

The building stood like a silent monument at the far edge of campus. It was six floors of glass and marble that reflected the fading sunlight.

Students streamed out of its wide entrance. It was far too late to walk in, except a few whom the rest would consider the weird students.

Inside, the library smelled of old paper and polished wood. Rows upon rows of bookshelves stretched endlessly under warm amber ceiling lights. Ren was shocked to see a few students in the hall.

Ren walked toward the front desk, while gawking at the ceiling and the grandness of the library.

’Who knew libraries could be this big? The ones at the temples were never like this.’

A girl sat behind the front desk, flipping casually through a voluminous book with a flashy scarlet cover that had the title "Love in Ash" inscribed with fancy serif. She looked about his age. Dark hair tied in a loose braid, glasses slipping slightly down her nose.

She looked up when she noticed him approaching. Her eyes lingered on the bruises across his face.

"Long day?" she asked casually.

Ren blinked. He hadn’t expected conversation.

"Uh... Yes."

She studied him for another moment.

"What are you looking for?"

Ren hesitated. He looked around again and focused on her.

Susan had said the book wasn’t on the public shelves. There was no way he’d find it on the shelves around him. And that meant the librarian might refuse him access to wherever this book was.

But he had no other lead.

"A book."

The girl sighed.

"Congratulations. You’re in a library," she said, gesturing at the shelves around them almost unimpressed.

Ren scratched his head.

"Right... fair."

He leaned slightly closer.

"The Great Chronicles of the Terimen. That’s the book I’m looking for."

The girl dropped her book immediately. For a moment, she didn’t say anything. She slowly reached for the large registry beside her. Her expression changed, and it wasn’t the positive looking kind. It was the kind that made Ren actually understand that there was really something about the book.

"That book isn’t available to students."

Ren expected that answer.

"I figured..."

"So why are you asking for it?"

Ren shrugged. "Out of curiosity."

She studied him carefully now.

"How did you know about the book? Who told you about it?"

Ren crossed his arms.

"Is that a required question?"

"No," she adjusted her glasses, "but your answer decides whether I should be concerned enough to call the authorities."

Ren sighed. Susan really had sent him into trouble.

"I just heard about it... People were whispering about it."

The girl stared at him for a long moment, and then she leaned back in her chair, grinning.

"I know students say loads of nonsense as part of the freshman ritual. Sometimes they get you into trouble as a sort of welcome."

She smiled, "It’s cute until they get you into real, big trouble."

Her smile faded into a serious look, "You should forget about that book."

"Why?"

Her eyes hardened slightly. "Because it is bad luck. I don’t know why people go looking for things that are even forbidden and long gone."

Ren frowned.

"Look," he said, lowering his voice.

"I don’t want to cause trouble. I just need to see the book."

"You can’t."

"Again, I ask, why?"

She leaned forward, closing the distance between them. "Because it’s forbidden", her eyes seemed to say, but the word never left her mouth.

Instead she said something else.

"There are things in this world that should remain buried."

Ren chuckled softly.

"Books usually stay buried on shelves though."

The girl didn’t laugh. Her expression remained serious.

"You should leave now," she said with a straight face.

Ren sighed again. This was going nowhere. He turned and walked away from the desk.

He looked back at the girl again, she still had her eyes on him. Something about the girl’s reaction bothered him. That was more than normal library policy.

A few more steps and he glanced back.

The girl was still watching him, like a hawk watching its prey. He knew she wanted him to leave, and he decided he was going to satisfy her wish.

Ren turned the corner between two shelves and disappeared from her sight. He stopped walking.

"Forbidden book, huh..."

’If the book wasn’t in the public shelves... then it had to be somewhere else.’

Libraries always had restricted archives, even the ones at the temples. It was always restricted and very accessible to the high clergy and priests. And if he knew anything about forbidden knowledge, it was that people hid it poorly. The restricted section at the temples were always hidden behind a white curtain.

Ren quietly moved deeper into the rows of bookshelves. He had a feeling this night was about to get interesting.

He leaned behind a shelf and peeped at the front desk. Her eyes focused on the door, with expectations of seeing Ren step out. She slowly stood and strained as if she couldn’t see the door clearly when she sat.

She gave up when she couldn’t find him. She walked toward a small door behind the desk and locked it. Immediately she locked the room, Ren slid out from his hiding spot and wandered around the hall. It wasn’t an aimless walk-around, he simply made it look that way to keep the attention of the few focused readers off him.

In the darkness of the tight room, the lady pulled a tablet from her pocket. Her fingers hesitated over the glowing screen.

Finally, she tapped a number. She waited for a faint ring and a beep before she spoke.

"Dad, he’s here."

"What?" a manly voice replied almost immediately.

"The young man you said was a murderer."

"Where is he?"

"Here in the library. I was just talking to him."

"Don’t lose sight of him."

The girl reached for the door knob. Pulling the door open, she glanced toward the maze of bookshelves where Ren had disappeared behind. Her eyes scattered to every corner of the hall and to the door. No sign of Ren.

Her expression grew uneasy.

"Well, unfortunately I left to call you and I can’t find him now."

"But... he doesn’t look dangerous..." she muttered.

"That’s not new. Criminals do not always look like the crimes they commit, Ash," her father replied, and there was a short pause.

"You have to be careful from hereon out."

"I hear you. I don’t just feel comfortable about this either."

"You’re doing great, Ash. Oh, and not a word about this to your mother."

Ash was silent.

"Ash? You there?"

Ash froze at the spot. Her eyes stared into the space in front of her, focusing on nothing in particular.

"Terimen..." Ash whispered absently.

"What?"

"What do you know about the Terimen?"

"Uh, I’ll call about that later. Stay safe... And remember, your mother should never know about this."

"Wait—"

The tablet beeped twice. She slowly lowered the tablet, bit her lower lip and exhaled, releasing her lip.

Ren came to a halt at a door after casually strolling through the aisles for what stretched like half a day. His eyes weren’t scanning through the volumes of books to find that perfect one to read like most normal people who visited the library did. His eyes went from the right to the left, searching for any place that felt "forbidden".

Nothing felt off. Every door seemed like they were where they are supposed to be.

’Weird.’

Ren sighed.

He clenched his fists and turned to leave. His eyes caught a detail he hadn’t seen before. He swerved back immediately, focusing on the door at the end of the aisle he was on. It looked normal.

’What was that?’

He tilted his head and he caught the faint detail again. A faint dark line carved in the middle of the brown door.

’That door looks different.’

He stepped out of the aisle, and glanced at another door at a corner far off to his left. He tilted his side to side, and even bent a bit. Nothing changed. No dark line appeared in the middle of the door.

He walked back into the aisle, towards the odd door. He smiled when he was about a feet closer to the door. He could see it clearer now.

’A patterned door,’ he smiled as he examined the door from top to bottom.

The door wasn’t made of plain wood like the rest. It was made by small, interlocking hexagonal wooden tiles. The center tile was pressed in than the rest.

’That’s why the light was able to outline it,’ he said in his mind as he felt around the tile.

"Now, how do I get in?" he whispered, his eyes running around all the tiles.

He felt over each tile, looking for one that was out of place. Only the center tile met that condition. He pressed his fingers on each tile, yet nothing happened.

"Argh," he groaned, frustration evident in his voice.

He looked around. No one seemed to mind him. He couldn’t spot the front desk, which was a good thing. He went back to figuring the door puzzle, rest assured no one cared much about the door or him standing by it.

Behind Ren, an old woman stood by one of the shelves just opposite the aisle. In her hands was an open book, but her eyes weren’t pierced into it. She was watching Ren. Her silver grey hair covered half of her face.

It was unclear how long she had been standing there, but she was patient enough to flip the pages casually while she kept eyes on the oblivious Ren.

The smile on her face made it seem like she was amused by Ren’s mission to figure out the door.