Librarian of the Void

Leo was trying very hard not to fall asleep while standing.

It was not easy.

The Grand Hall of St. Orison Academy had been designed for important ceremonies, which apparently meant the floor was polished enough to blind people and the ceiling was so high that every cough became a public announcement. Hundreds of students stood in rows beneath floating lamps. Teachers sat on a raised platform. Cameras hovered near the walls, broadcasting the awakening ceremony to half the city.

Leo stared at the nearest camera and wondered if it could detect boredom.

If it could, he was probably already trending.

"Stand straight," whispered Claire from two places behind him.

Leo moved his shoulders a little. "I am standing straight. My soul is the one bending."

"Your soul has been bending for twenty minutes."

"It has a weak back."

Claire sighed. She had been his classmate for almost a year, which meant she had already heard most of his excuses and still had not blocked him in real life. That was either friendship or poor judgement. Leo had not decided which one.

At the front of the hall, Professor Ruth stepped toward the awakening platform. She was the head librarian and one of the few adults in the academy who could make a room full of teenagers go quiet without raising her voice.

"Ten years have passed since the first Integration update," she said. "The System is now part of our lives. Your class will influence your training, your opportunities, and the dangers you are prepared to face. Remember that a class is not a verdict. It is a beginning."

Leo glanced toward the giant crystal behind her.

The crystal was called an Awakening Core. It had been pulled from a dungeon during the first year of the Integration, though nobody knew what kind of dungeon had produced it. It looked like a glass tree with blue light flowing through its branches.

One student at a time stepped forward.

The first was Hannah, a broad-shouldered girl with short brown hair and the expression of someone who had personally declared war on sleep. She placed her palm against the Core.

Blue light burst through the hall.

[Awakening detected.]

[Class assigned: Iron Vanguard.]

[Class Rank: A]

The students applauded. Hannah stared at the window floating in front of her, then made a small fist.

Leo clapped because everybody else was clapping.

The next student received Rune Caster. Then Beast Hunter. Then Flame Spear. A boy named Owen received Tactical Analyst, and the teachers reacted with more interest than they had shown for most of the combat classes.

Leo noticed that Owen did not smile. He only glanced at the teachers, as if checking whether they had reacted correctly.

That was a little creepy.

"Leo," called Professor Ruth.

His stomach dropped.

He walked toward the platform while the hall watched. The polished floor reflected his shoes, which were not polished. He had planned to clean them that morning, but his alarm had made a strong argument against responsibility.

When he reached the Core, the light inside it dimmed.

That felt bad.

Leo placed his hand on the crystal.

For one second, nothing happened.

Then a thin grey light spread from his palm. It was not bright like Hannah’s blue energy or warm like the flame class from earlier. It looked more like moonlight trapped under dirty water.

A System window appeared.

[Librarian of the Void]

[Class Rank: Unclassified]

[Primary Function: Record, preserve, and restore lost knowledge.]

[Combat Function: None detected.]

[Unique Function: Locked.]

[Additional Functions: Locked.]

The hall became kind of silent where Leo could hear somebody’s sleeve rub against their uniform three rows away.

Then a student near the back whispered, "Librarian?"

Another voice answered, "That is a class?"

A few people laughed.

Leo kept his hand on the Core because moving it felt like admitting that the ceremony had gone wrong.

Professor Ruth’s eyes narrowed at the System window. She did not laugh, which was probably the nicest thing anybody had done for him in the last thirty seconds.

"The awakening is complete," she said.

Leo pulled his hand away.

The grey light vanished.

He walked down from the platform while the next student was called forward. Nobody stopped him. That was almost worse than being mocked. He had spent years imagining his awakening. Maybe not in an enthusiastic way, but still. A class meant something. People with classes received training invitations, sponsorship offers, and at least one relative who suddenly became proud of them.

He had received a job description for a dusty room.

Claire caught up with him when the rows began moving toward the exit.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Absolutely. I have always dreamed of becoming a professional shelf organiser."

"That was not a normal class window."

"Neither am I. I once ate cereal with a fork because all the spoons were in the sink."

"That explains a lot."

The ceremony continued behind them. More lights flashed. More students shouted when they received high-ranked classes. Leo tried not to look back.

Outside the hall, the afternoon air felt cooler. Students gathered in clusters, comparing screens and taking pictures of their status windows. The academy plaza had already become a marketplace of bragging.

Leo checked his own window again.

[Librarian of the Void]

[Level: 1]

[Strength: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Vitality: 5]

[Intelligence: 7]

[Luck: 6]

[Skills: None]

At least Intelligence was seven.

That was something.

It was not enough to stop a goblin from hitting him with a stick, but it was something.

"You could appeal the class," Claire said. "The academy has a review process."

"And tell them the crystal made a mistake?"

"If it made a mistake, then yes."

Leo closed the window. "Maybe it looked at me and decided I should spend more time indoors."

Claire did not laugh this time.

A loud group passed them, talking about dungeon teams and class combinations. Leo caught words like elite, inheritance, and sponsorship. None of them had anything to do with shelves.

He told himself he did not care.

That was a lie, but a convenient one.

By evening, his shift at the library was supposed to begin. He almost went home instead. Then he remembered that the library paid him, and money had always been an extremely effective argument.

The academy library occupied three connected buildings. The public wing had modern shelves, charging stations, and enchanted scanners. The older wing contained history records, dungeon maps, and books nobody touched unless a professor assigned them.

Leo worked in the older wing.

Professor Ruth sat behind the front desk when he entered. She looked at his face, then at the time.

"You are four minutes late."

"The awakening ceremony emotionally delayed me."

"Shelve the returned books."

"That is not emotional support."

Leo grabbed the cart.

For the next hour, he sorted books about monster anatomy, mana barrier maintenance, and early Integration disasters. He placed each one exactly where it belonged because being lazy did not mean being bad at the only job paying him.

Near the end of the shift, he checked the central catalogue to log the last return.

The screen flickered.

A new entry appeared beneath the academy’s oldest collection.

It had no title, no author, and no shelf number.

Only one line was visible.

Reserved for Leo.

Leo stared at it.

Then the library lights blinked once.

The entry disappeared.

He leaned closer to the screen.

For some reason, a cold draft moved between the shelves behind him.

Leo slowly turned around.

There was nobody there.

But on the catalogue screen, beneath the ordinary list of books, a grey line appeared again.

Reserved for Leo.