Clatter!
The chair scraped back with such force that it drew a chorus of reproving glares from the surrounding patrons. Sū ěr could only offer a sheepish, apologetic smile before gingerly easing himself back into his seat.
"You're finally back. I was starting to fear you'd met with some kind of 'irresistible accident' and was debating whether to ask a kind soul to go in and check on you," Tsubasa Hanekawa remarked, looking up from her book and adjusting her glasses.
Even though Sū ěr had moved at high speed, his absence had been far too long for a standard bathroom break.
"...I had toilet paper with me, but thank you for the concern," Sū ěr replied after a brief hesitation. He had just remembered the excuse he'd used before impulsively bolting toward outer space—all because he couldn't stomach the encyclopedia's description of the Earth and Moon.
On the bright side, at least Hanekawa assumed he'd just run out of paper rather than being trapped by a bout of constipation.
"Actually... what I meant was a sudden medical emergency," Hanekawa tilted her head slightly, a look of genuine worry crossing her face. "You know, coronary heart disease, acute gastroenteritis, anemic syncope, that sort of thing..."
Her voice trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid.
Sū ěr: "..."
"I am not the type to faint on a toilet seat," Sū ěr promised expressionlessly, pulling back the massive encyclopedia he had previously set aside. "By the way, you don't need to use formal honorifics like 'nin' [您 - a polite form of 'you']. Just call me by my name. I'm not Japanese, as you know, so there's no need to get hung up on surface-level etiquette."
"Understood, Sū ěr," Hanekawa replied, nodding graciously as if she hadn't noticed his slight embarrassment. She tapped her index finger lightly against her own shoulder with a small smile before lowering her head back to her book.
"?"
What was that supposed to mean?
Why does this girl act so much like a certain green-clad fellow from Gotham?
[Look down... Ah, I see it.]
Think voice echoed in his mind. As Sū ěr looked down at himself, he immediately understood what this human female was hinting at.
[Your shoulder.]
There was a dark smudge on Sū ěr shoulder—undoubtedly fresh mud, and still damp at that.
In the city's largest library, there was naturally no reason for fresh mud to exist.
[Ho ho~ She's quite observant, isn't she?]
Think giggled playfully, entirely unfazed by Sū ěr slip-up.
'An assassin? A secret agent? What do you think she's imagining me as?' Sū ěr asked internally, finding the situation strangely amusing.
[Probably a foreign weirdo who intentionally brings mud into a bathroom to smear on his clothes, pretending he has dark secrets just to attract the hearts of innocent local girls~]
Think heartbreaking guess made Sū ěr decide to ignore her for the rest of the day... or at least for the next sixty seconds.
As Sū ěr mentally traded barbs with Think, his pace of flipping through the books remained unchanged. To an ordinary observer, it looked like a total sham—a performance often dubbed "Quantum Speed Reading." To him, however, it was effortless.
He was truly absorbing every word.
[From what we've seen so far, it seems this world—at least on the surface—lacks any races or supernatural powers beyond humanity. Do you think those monsters and gods live in a separate realm?]
'You mean a Dongtian Fudi [洞天福地 - "Grotto-heavens and blissful lands," divine realms in Chinese mythology]?' Sū ěr recalled the myths of his homeland.
[It's not impossible, right?]
'If that's the case, finding them will be a hassle. We can't just shake the Earth's crust like a bedsheet to see what falls out; we'll have to search inch by inch. As you've seen, this planet is astronomically larger than Ashihara no Nakatsukuni [苇原中国 - The "Central Land of Reed Plains" in Japanese myth].'
[In any case, my suggestion is to start by investigating those shrines and temples one by one. There must be a reason they've survived from ancient times to the modern era.]
'True.'
Sū ěr fell into contemplation, pushing a finished book aside. He stretched with a weary yawn, and as he blinked back the post-yawn haze, he saw the braided girl watching him.
While Sū ěr had been scouring his pile of data, Hanekawa had apparently finished her own book. The way she was looking at him felt familiar; she had shown that same intensity while reading—absorbing knowledge and processing it for her own use.
To be honest, it was a bit unnerving. A brilliant "riddler" is a headache in any context.
"What are you thinking about?" Sū ěr asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Mm... I was just wondering what line of work you're in," Hanekawa replied candidly after a moment's thought.
"What kind of reason would bring a foreign tourist to an obscure library to spend an entire afternoon reading everything from encyclopedias to sociology, cutting-edge technology, fictional myths, and ghost stories? The range is a bit too wide. It's almost as if..."
It's almost as if an entity lacking any basic understanding of human society is desperately soaking up information to grasp the fundamentals of this era. Like a sponge in the ocean.
That was the part Hanekawa left unsaid.
However, the fact that he was reading fairy tales and monster stories undermined that theory, making it seem more like he was simply driven by curiosity and a search for amusement.
"Actually, I'm an assassin. 'Tourist' is just my cover, so it doesn't really matter what I read. How's that for a reason?" Sū ěr said with a straight face. Hanekawa burst into a light laugh.
"Pfft, not bad. I like that reason," the braided girl chuckled, tracing a finger over her right eye. "At the very least, that scar is very convincing. It looks cool."
"I think so too," Sū ěr nodded with exaggerated solemnity. "By the way, I really owe you for your help today. Could I ask one last favor?"
"No need for such politeness. Please, just say it," Hanekawa said, adjusting her glasses.
"Is there any local food nearby? You know, the kind of small shop only locals know about? Could you take me there?" Sū ěr pointed toward the window, where the sun had turned a vibrant burnt orange. "I also have a few more questions I'd like to ask... Miss Literary Girl Who Memorized the Entire Library?"
In truth, it was his way of thanking her with a meal, though he did genuinely have more questions.
"Of course," Hanekawa agreed, mentally checking her schedule. "In that case, I should mention—you finally look a bit like a tourist."
"Thanks. And also, just 'you' is fine."