“I forgot I couldn’t hit a ghost!”

As Na Rin trembled for a moment, she noticed a long shadow cast on the red-lit floor of the library by the lantern.

“Huh?”

Strange.

Do ghosts even have shadows?

“Thie-! Umph!”

“Shh. Don’t make a fuss.”

Startled by the presence of a hand covering her mouth from behind, Na Rin swiftly thrust her elbow back.

“Ack!”

“Thieeeef!”

“Cough! No… it’s not. Thief!”

Na Rin, who had shouted for the thief to go away, finally realized who she had hit with her elbow.

A small figure crouched, clutching their solar plexus.

No, they weren’t exactly small.

“Are you a child?”

Come to think of it, it had to be.

For Na Rin’s elbow to hit their solar plexus, the other person had to be as small as Na Rin.

“My goodness, are grave robbers using children to dig these days? How deplorable!”

The boy with long bangs covering half his face answered curtly.

“I said I’m not a thief!”

“That’s ridiculous. Not just anyone can come in here.”

“I can come in.”

“Who are you then?”

“That’s…”

The boy shut his mouth tightly.

See, see. Definitely a thief.

Na Rin shook her head. He had the misfortune of running into Na Rin this time, but there was no telling how many thefts he had committed until now.

“It may not be your fault that you’ve gone down the wrong path at your age, but I can’t just stand by and watch. Come with me.”

“Where are you going?”

“Where else, to the dungeons! If you go there, you’ll spill everything about the mastermind who made you do this. Then we can wipe out the whole gang!”

At the mention of the dungeons, the boy’s face turned pale.

“Wait, hold on!”

“You have something to say?”

The boy hesitated for a moment, then gulped.

“I’m not a thief. Really. Believe me.”

“…”

Na Rin stared straight at the boy with a doubtful expression.

Now that she looked, his long jade-colored robe and hair tied like a horse’s tail didn’t seem at all suitable for thievery.

“Okay.”

“You believe me?”

“Half of it. You have to convince me of the other half. If you’re not a thief, then what?”

“That’s…”

Realizing he couldn’t avoid Na Rin’s interrogation, the boy showed a troubled expression, but Na Rin wasn’t about to let him off.

In the end, the boy had no choice but to speak.

“I’m the fairy of the library.”

“…”

Na Rin grabbed the boy’s waistband and started dragging him away.

“Ahh! What are you doing!”

“Let’s go. To the dungeons.”

“It’s true, I’m telling the truth!”

Oh my. She was treating him like a sack.

“Treating me like a sack, that’s what you were just thinking!”

The boy being dragged shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What?”

“That’s what you were thinking just now!”

Na Rin’s steps stopped.

The boy desperately grasped his waistband to keep it from falling and continued.

“I’m a fairy so I can read people’s minds. I can freely enter any library in the world. That’s proof that I’m the fairy of the library!”

Na Rin’s hand that had been grabbing the waistband dropped.

The moment the boy retied his waistband in relief, Na Rin approached and said,

“You know you’ll get hit if you’re lying.”

“Get hit?”

“There’s no guarantee you’ll survive long enough to get hit twice.”

A cold sweat ran down the boy’s back.

No matter how he looked at it, the words coming from this girl who seemed no older than four or five were so vicious.

Na Rin shut her mouth tightly, closed her eyes, and thought of the most complex sentences she knew. Then she opened her eyes again.

“Try guessing exactly what I just thought.”

“Exactly?”

“Of course!”

The boy spoke readily, as if he didn’t understand why but it wasn’t very difficult.

“1st stance of the 24 Sword Techniques of the Plum Blossom, Plum by the Road. The plum blossom is by the road. 2nd stance, Plum Blossom Butterfly Dance. The plum blossom dances like a butterfly. 3rd stance, Plum Blossom Spits Charm. The plum blossom spits out charm…”

“Huh-what!”

Na Rin’s eyes and mouth gaped open.

How could he say it exactly as she thought without a single difference? This couldn’t be explained without extraordinary powers.

“Lord Fairy!”

“Huh?”

Na Rin plopped down on her knees.

“Please forgive my rudeness! Lord Fairy of the Library!”

“D-do you really believe me?”

“Of course!”

The one who was flustered by her readily believing his absurd excuse was the boy.

No matter how pure and naive a young child, could they really believe such nonsense without a shred of doubt?

‘It’s not right to peek without permission though.’

The boy cautiously peered into Na Rin’s mind.

「Wow, amazing. To meet the fairy of the library. Is this what they call destiny?」

‘She really believes it!’

The boy’s mouth fell open. Crazy childlike innocence.

But from Na Rin’s perspective, not believing would be even stranger in this situation.

First of all, the Heavenly Horse Secret Archives was a single-person space. There was no way an ordinary child could exist in a place where even Dokgo Cheon couldn’t enter together.

Secondly, the boy recited all the verses of the Plum Blossom Sword Art that Na Rin had thought of. Without Na Rin even telling him she was a Plum Blossom Swordswoman!

This alone was enough to believe in the existence of fairies, but there was one last reason.

Na Rin had just encountered a “major branching point.”

‘Meeting him must have been that wheel of fate or whatever.’

In other words, this boy belonged to the main characters in the novel Na Rin had transmigrated into!

“Let’s be friends! Lord Fairy!”

Na Rin’s eyes sparkled ominously.

A little while later.

Na Rin was sitting against the bookshelf next to the boy, chatting.

“Wow! So Lord Fairy can enter any library in the world?”

“Mm-hmm. I haven’t been to all of them though.”

“But you could if you wanted to!”

Na Rin smiled brightly at the boy, no, the fairy of the library, who was scratching the back of his head with a modest face.

‘Come to think of it, there’s no way there aren’t extraordinary powers in this world. When I exist.’

Wasn’t being able to return to the age of three and live again when you die, and being able to see status windows, the epitome of extraordinary powers?

“Is this your first time at the Heavenly Horse Secret Archives?”

“No, actually it’s my third time today.”

The boy lowered his head shyly and continued.

“I didn’t think anyone would come…”

Na Rin glanced over and saw that the boy was covering the books he had been taking out to read. He seemed embarrassed that he hadn’t put the books back properly after taking them out.

“That can happen when you get engrossed in reading. I do that too.”

“You like books too?”

“Only storybooks.”

The boy repeated ‘storybooks, storybooks’ and asked Na Rin.

“Unfortunately, there are no storybooks in the Heavenly Horse Secret Archives.”

“How do you know that?”

“I saw it in the “Heavenly Horse Secret Archives Catalog.” Whenever I go to any library, I always read the catalog book first. To see if there are any books I’m interested in.”

‘He memorized it all after reading it once?’

Na Rin was startled, but soon realized it was no big deal. The other person wasn’t human, but the fairy of the library. Remembering a book after reading it once wasn’t anything surprising.

“Were there any books you were interested in?”

“Actually, there was!”

The boy suddenly spoke with excitement.

“I had a hunch when I heard rumors that the archives of the Heavenly Horse Secret Archives were called the Hall of Reminders. That the “Classic of Music” might be here!”

“The Classic of Music?”

“It’s one of the Six Classics of Confucianism that was lost during the Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars.”

The Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars was the incident where Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned all the books in the world to suppress philosophers.

There are books that old?

The boy clenched his fists and spoke in a powerful voice.

“During Emperor Wu of Han’s reign, the other Five Classics were restored, but for some reason, only the Classic of Music wasn’t. I think it’s because the contents dealing with human pleasure and nature caused outrage among the scholars of the time, so they deliberately didn’t restore it. I had given up after not being able to find it anywhere, but to think it was preserved in the Heavenly Horse Secret Archives!”

“Wow… that’s great.”

Was he always this talkative?

As Na Rin awkwardly responded to the boy who suddenly got excited and chattered on by himself, the boy realized his mistake and quickly apologized.

“Sorry. I lose my reason as soon as the topic of books comes up.”

“It’s okay. You are the fairy of the library after all.”

“…Right. I am.”

Suddenly, silence.

After a brief silence, the boy glanced at Na Rin and spoke again.

“My name is Dan Ja Ha.”

“Huh?”

The name sounded familiar.

As Na Rin tried to search her memory, Ja Ha added,

“Call me Brother Ha instead of Lord Fairy.”

“Brother Ha?”

Na Rin’s face flushed.

The word “gaga (哥哥)” meant older brother and was an affectionate term for an older male with an age difference.

But calling an unrelated man “gaga” had a completely different meaning. Meaning… that meaning!

Na Rin jumped up from her spot and exclaimed,

“T-that’s too sudden!”

“Huh?”

“We just met today!”

Ja Ha, who had been blankly staring at Na Rin, read Na Rin’s mind and was startled, his face also turning red.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that!”

“I know!”

“You don’t know! If I read your thoughts now…”

“Don’t read them! Dummy!”

Na Rin pushed Ja Ha hard to stop him from reading(?) her thoughts.

How could he withstand being pushed by a martial artist with the internal energy of the 4th dan? Ja Ha let out a yelp as he flew and crashed into the opposite wall.

“Lord Fairy!”

Na Rin dug through the rubble to pull Ja Ha out.

“Lord Fairy, are you alright?”

“You hurt me… then you heal me…”

“Should I give you medicine?”

Na Rin gathered internal energy on her fingertips and poked the center of Ja Ha’s back. To perform acupressure.

“Urk?!”

“Don’t worry and leave it to me. I’m good at this.”

Poke!

With the sensation of Na Rin’s finger jabbing his acupoint, Ja Ha lost consciousness. This was rather fortunate.

Anyone who had experienced Na Rin’s acupressure even once could never forget that terrible memory for the rest of their lives.

A few hours later.

“Mmm…”

“Lord Fairy, are you awake?”

Regaining consciousness, Ja Ha instinctively startled at the sight of Na Rin’s face but patted his heart and nodded.

“Y-yeah… I’m awake.”

“You seem to be in good condition. If you’re going to circulate your energy, I’ll guide your breathing.”

Despite Na Rin’s well-meaning words, Ja Ha shook his head.

“It’s okay. I don’t do things like energy circulation…”

“Because you’re a fairy and don’t need to?”

Ja Ha, who was about to say “I don’t know how to do things like energy circulation,” smiled awkwardly. It seemed Na Rin still firmly believed he was a fairy.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I forgot that the term “gaga” has that meaning too.”

“No, it’s okay. I overreacted.”

Na Rin bit her lower lip, feeling embarrassed.

It was definitely an overreaction.

‘I’ve lived ten lives and I’m still embarrassed by this.’

But it couldn’t be helped. In all ten lives Na Rin had lived, she had never once used the affectionate term “gaga” for anyone.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to call someone that at least once, but…

‘No matter what, for my first “gaga,” I want it to be a handsome man.’

Suddenly that thought occurred to her.

He may be young, but since he’s a fairy, wouldn’t he be more handsome than ordinary people?

Na Rin stealthily stole a glance at Ja Ha’s side profile.

His bangs covering half his face made it hard to see clearly, but his nose and mouth seemed quite good-looking.

“Um, Lord Fairy.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I take a look at your face just once?”