Roland and Ayou arrived, each carrying two large stacks of books.
"Miss Hod, we've arrived."
"There are quite a lot of books this time, so I came to help out as well."
Hod stepped forward and took some of the books.
"Thank you, thank you both."
Nearly a quarter of an hour later.
"Phew, finally finished."
Roland wiped away non-existent sweat and said,
"Maybe next time we should call the others out too, and get it done in one go."
Ayou was still tidying up on the side.
"Too many people might actually be counterproductive. Helping is good, but in moderation."
"Thank you both for your help."
"Don't be so polite with me. Also, you don't need to add 'Mr.' when you speak in the future; just call me Roland."
Ayou said, "Same here."
"Is that alright? Roland? And A?"
As she spoke, Hod's hair drooped a little.
"Ah, that feels much better."
"Calling me 'A' always gives me a sense of familiarity, but I can't quite put my finger on it."
"Speaking like this, I do feel a bit embarrassed."
"You'll get used to it slowly. By the way, is the classification work going smoothly? I can't imagine there would be any decent literature in The City?"
"I believe everyone's life is a literary work; people are like books, continuing to write their own lives."
Tragedy and comedy are intertwined. There is neither pure evil nor pure good.
"Everyone has their own circumstances, I suppose."
"That's why I'm troubled. I don't understand whether it's right or wrong to be malicious toward others for no reason."
"The Fixers of the Streetlight Office got along very well, just like family. In order to obtain their books, we had to kill them with our own hands. I understand that coming here was their own choice. We have goals that must be realized, but that sounds like I'm just making excuses for myself."
Ayou stood up, thought for a moment, and said,
"We are just doing our part; perhaps this is the trajectory of fate. Besides, they are now just living together in a different way, so don't carry too much of a burden. It's not your fault."
"It sounds like you're genuinely comforting me, Ayou. Thank you."
Roland began his communication work again.
"Hod, focusing on so many people will only give you a headache, which is why you keep coming up with these baffling questions. No matter what happens, as soon as it involves moral standards or root causes, things immediately become muddled."
"All this time, the emotional baggage you've been carrying has been too heavy. Free your heart, and in time, you will naturally understand that there are some things you neither need nor have any reason to delve deeply into. Only then can you live a little lighter."
"Is this advice given from your perspective as a Fixer, Roland?"
"Of course. There's a saying I particularly like: 'One thing at a time.' The world we live in cannot perfectly accommodate everyone."
"That sounds like giving up on struggling."
In Ayou's mind, he heard a different version: "One thing at a time, f*** it."
"Exactly. I gave up a long time ago. Going with the flow, letting things take their natural course—living with that mindset is really quite relaxing."
"Thank you for your advice. I will think it over carefully, but..."
"What's wrong?"
" 'One thing at a time' might comfort me temporarily, but it can never become a maxim for saving one's life."
"Uh, well, after all, the same saying is interpreted differently by different people."
And fools see foolishness. (A:?)
"Yeah, everyone's perspective is different."
Looking at the books placed on the shelf, Roland spoke again.
"I mean, I've been working so hard, and that great Librarian doesn't even know how to praise me a little."
"Are you getting along well with Angela?"
"So-so. Sometimes she's quite scary, but if I endure it, it passes."
"In my opinion, Angela only seems most at ease when she is speaking with you."
"Is that so? I actually think brother A gets along better with Angela."
"But to be honest, the 4 Librarians I've met so far don't seem to like Angela very much."
"We were talking about 'one thing at a time' earlier, right? I thought about it for a long time, and in the end, I really couldn't agree with it. I can't bring myself to completely loathe Angela; I can't accept that kind of groundless hatred."
"Why is this getting more and more complicated? Maybe Angela has her own hidden difficulties too."
Ayou recalled Angela's reaction at the time.
"Roland, do you remember what you said when we received Finn?"
"I remember. Angela's reaction was quite strong back then."
"Yeah, everyone has their own story, even if that person did something bad at the time. I don't want to judge others based on a one-sided view, so I want to understand them more deeply, to comprehend them."
"You really are a little angel. If Yesod and Netzach were half as gentle as you, that would be wonderful."
Ayou thought about the two of them.
"I think they're alright."
"That's how they are with you. With me, it's like..."
Roland's face was now as dark as...
"In your opinion, am I a good person?"
"That's hard to say. After all, a gentle person and a good person are two different things."
"Is that so? Actually, I'm not a good person."
"Oh, are you talking about your previous two lives?"
Marcus told me about these.
Ayou was reminiscing, but realized he hadn't seemed to listen.
"Oh no, I don't know. Roland, when you have time, tell me about it."
"Is that what Marcus said? That's right, my first life was a tragedy."
"People here seem quite tragic. And there's an amnesiac pendant here too."
Ayou: Damn it.
"I heard you were doing research on curing humanity back then."
"I caused the deaths of many people."
"Wow, although you are super capable as a Librarian, you don't have the aura of a serial killer."
"Is that so? But I still feel like I killed them with my own hands."
"I was an informant. I reported the experiments we were conducting and all the crimes we had committed to The Head. Consequently, The Head sent an Arbiter to the research institute, who brutally murdered many colleagues. Hearing of this massacre, I could no longer stand it. In the end, I made an extreme choice."
"What exactly happened over there?"
"I witnessed the tragic deaths of Marcus, Yesod, and Netzach with my own eyes. And the things that happened to that little boy. Not only that, we injected drugs into living people to record the mutations and side effects that occurred in them."
"Doing this in The City?"
"No, to avoid The Head and their eyes, we moved the research institute to the Outskirts. So I'm really not a good person, completely different from what Mr. Roland imagined, right?"
"No, I'm frowning because there's one thing I really can't understand. The Head went to such great lengths to send an Arbiter, just to wipe out a research project that had killed people—especially since this didn't happen inside The City, but in the Outskirts. It's too unreasonable. Are you really sure that was an Arbiter?"
"That's what the news I heard said, and my second life in Lobotomy Corporation confirmed this. Hmm, I don't understand. Roland's focus is really strange; I thought you would denounce me for betraying everyone."
"After all, betrayal was something of a daily occurrence for the past me. In my view, your actions were far less cruel than a true betrayal."
Listening to such a heavy topic so suddenly, Ayou felt a bit uncomfortable.