Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

“What book did you come to find?”

His voice was quite friendly despite being busy. Habin asked, looking at the badge on his school uniform jacket.

“Library committee?”

Due to the grand atmosphere, she had naturally assumed there would be library staff, but here the desk was managed by students.

“Our school library is under the jurisdiction of the library committee.”

The committee member nodded with a smile. He handed Seoyun a club recruitment poster.

“We’re recruiting new club members next week. If you’re interested, please join. Our department is really great.”

The committee member rattled off the advantages of the library committee like a fish in water. A systematic and prepared persuasion followed, as if he were selling insurance or planning assets.

“Our department has parties once a month, we can borrow new books before anyone else, and we get to check out more books…”

“You can borrow more books?”

Seoyun looked intrigued. Seeing her expression, the committee member grinned. He added with an excited face.

“Above all, the best part is… we get a whopping 60 hours of volunteer work certification!”

“Wow.”

Seoyun’s eyes widened.

“That’s a lot!”

She looked somewhat tempted. It seemed she was about to ask for membership counseling. Habin, standing nearby, shook her head.

“Oh no, don’t. It’s very dangerous to be tempted by volunteer hours alone!”

“Wouldn’t it help with college admissions?”

“No. Seoyun, didn’t you say you’re going for the Hunter school admission? Then volunteering at the library won’t give you anything to write in your personal statement. Unless you’re going for a Library and Information Science major.”

“Th-that’s true.”

Habin looked around the library with sharp eyes for once.

Bookshelves packed to the fourth floor, an environment frequently visited by nearby universities, lounges, multimedia rooms, self-study rooms, and group study rooms.

‘It looks huge with a lot to manage, and they’re entrusting this to students?’

Habin’s hassle radar was screaming desperately.

The library committee is surely a hellish department plagued by excessive work!

Habin decided to meddle just this once for the sake of her roommate.

“Hmm, think about it again. I guarantee you’ll be staring at book classification numbers all day processing returns. You’ll have to find lost books, stamp and barcode new books…”

“…!”

Seoyun looked surprised, as if she hadn’t considered this. She shook her head with an awkward expression.

“I-I’ll think about it again!”

Just as Seoyun was about to decline joining the library committee, it happened.

“…Tch, and here I thought I’d finally found a good book classification slave.”

“…!”

The committee member’s face suddenly changed. Muttering with a fierce expression, he asked Habin sarcastically.

“Not bad, freshman. How did you see through it at once? Do you have library committee experience?”

Habin answered indifferently.

“Yeah. In middle school.”

“Ugh, this is why I hate sharp-eyed freshmen…!”

Shaking his head, the committee member disappeared, dragging his cart away.

“W-what just happened…?”

Yeo Seoyun stood frozen in shock.

Habin patted her shoulder reassuringly.

“There you have it. That’s what the library committee is like! You’d probably improve your quality of life more by joining a normal movie appreciation club. Or following the academy story cliché and starting a do-nothing club.”

A do-nothing club.

“It sounds great just from the name! Is there a club like that somewhere?”

At those words, Seoyun spoke as if she’d remembered something.

“Ah, right. I heard our school has a free club that just does self-study. You can go to the library or dormitory during club hours and study however you want.”

There were students at Hunter High preparing for college entrance exams. The school operated a “Self-Study Department” for them, allowing them to study freely or return to the dormitory during club hours. Hearing this information, Habin looked pleased.

“That’s the perfect club for me! If they tell me to join a club, I’ll just put my name down there and come back to the dorm to watch Netplix!”

Habin shrugged.

“But then who’s going to lend us our books now?”

We originally came to borrow textbooks. The library committee member had suddenly deserted.

“…Ahem, ahem.”

At that moment, another new voice chimed in. It was a student who had been next to the desk where the committee member just disappeared. He spoke cautiously.

“Um… You must have been quite surprised just now? Please understand. That senior has been very enthusiastic about recruiting members lately due to staff shortages…”

This student’s school uniform jacket also had a library committee badge.

“I’ll help you with book lending.”

Habin nodded with a sympathetic expression.

“Right. It’s not the library committee members’ fault. This is all because of the school forcing passion pay on students.”

“Thank you for understanding…”

The committee member also nodded with a sympathetic expression. Habin continued.

“This is why it’s dangerous to entrust students with all the cleaning or book organizing. Especially for such a large library that’s become a local landmark. How can they leave this to students?”

“You understand our plight!”

The committee member’s eyes sparkled. It seemed he had really been through a lot. He asked with an enthusiastic voice.

“Well then, you’ve been waiting for a while. What book would you like to borrow?”

The committee member’s question, finally returning to his duty. The answer came from an unexpected source.

[Me! I’m curious about that number one book on the popularity list! I want to read it!]

‘Ah, I forgot about the web novel expert Jaljal.’

Fortunately, no one else could hear him. He seemed to have been unable to join the club discussion earlier because he didn’t understand what they were talking about, and was now finally letting out what he had been holding back.

[Borrow it, borrow it!]

Ahezar throwing a tantrum after a long time.

‘Shh, stop it, Jaljal. Can’t you just read it with cash? Most web novels are on KakaoPage anyway!’

[But borrowing it doesn’t cost money!]

‘Huh? As expected, Jaljal only becomes frugal when calculating KakaoPage cash?’

Habin shook her head.

‘But that won’t work. It’s ranked first in popularity, so it must have a long waiting list. I know from experience reserving books that popular ones take over three months!’

[I-is that so?]

‘Jaljal, you still don’t know the ways of the world!’

She should set an example this time. Habin pointed at the book ranked first on the list.

“How many days do I have to wait to borrow this?”

“Well, this one is very popular…”

The committee member typed something into the search terminal with a troubled expression. After a moment, he spoke again.

“The reservation list is full right now, so even if you reserve it now, it’ll take 3 months. You might end up borrowing it during the vacation.”

‘See!’

[Ugh…]

‘Give up, Jaljal. I’ll borrow you a few unpopular ones that are available right away next time.’

[Borrow something popular, no matter what!]

Habin shrugged. With such a large library, there must be many interesting books, right? She should drop by the library occasionally when skipping class and borrow a few when bored.

[Borrow various kinds! Hunter stories are good, academy stories are good, revenge stories are good, and these days slice-of-life stories are good too!]

When Habin remained silent for a while, Seoyun asked her, seemingly worried.

“Unni, are you very disappointed that you can’t borrow that? Should I reserve it with you?”

“No, there’s no need for that.”

“Do you like fantasy novels too? What genre do you like best?”

What genre do I like?

Habin hesitated at the sudden question. Ahezar interjected.

[Hunter stories? Academy? Romance fantasy? Revenge? Child-rearing? Will you choose a work overflowing with grand battle scenes?]

“No. Not fantasy.”

[Not fantasy? Ah, do you perhaps dislike web novels?]

“Then SF? Mystery? Romance?”

“Foreign books? Non-fiction?”

Seoyun and the committee member each added a suggestion. Habin slowly opened her mouth as if she had no choice.

“I used to read a lot of fantasy… but not these days.”

“Not these days?”

“Yeah.”

Habin recalled the peaceful past when she used to share fantasy novels with the classmate behind her during breaks.

Back then, fantasy novels were fun.

She thought she liked those times so much because she enjoyed fantasy.

But now, if she had to choose…

“…Slice-of-life.”

[Slice-of-life?]

“Slice-of-life where no one dies. Without monsters or gates, without sad things or targets for revenge. Just works about spending ordinary, peaceful days with precious people around you.”

The committee member scratched his head after hearing Habin’s words.

“Well, unfortunately, I don’t think there are any books like that among the ones I know. After all, it’s not interesting without incidents.”

“I guess so.”

“Right?”

Habin nodded as if she had expected this. Ahezar cut in, sounding perplexed.

[Hm? Haven’t you been getting recommendations for interesting dramas and novels all this time? You only watch dramas that are said to be interesting!]

‘What’s interesting and what’s good are different issues.’

[Is that so…? I don’t quite understand what you mean.]

“……”

Feeling the atmosphere become awkward, Seoyun spoke up.

“Um, could you search for the ‘Basics of Spirit Magic’ book this time? It should be in a separate textbook lending section.”

“Ah, I’ll look for it.”

Tap tap tap. The committee member began searching.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I’m glad we borrowed it in time!”

Seoyun handed Habin the “Basics of Spirit Magic” she had borrowed. Seoyun herself used the book she already had.

“We could share my book, but since it’s a class with a lot of practical work, it might be more convenient to have individual books. There are pictures and detailed explanations of the spirits discovered so far in there!”

Habin opened the book. Each page showed photos of spirits taken in dungeons and pictures of spirits with famous spirit mages.

“Wow…”

[Ooooh…!]

Habin and Ahezar marveled at the spectacular visuals of the spirits. As they were flipping through the pages, Ahezar spoke in a delighted voice.

[This class is very promising! Now I truly feel like we’ve come to a magic school. I’ve been so disappointed not being able to attend magic classes despite going to such a school all this time!]

Following Habin around, Ahezar had ended up only attending drama and webtoon appreciation classes.

‘What? You enjoyed the web novel and webtoon classes the most, Jaljal.’

[Ahem… Of course, they were enjoyable, but I mean there are times when academic progress is necessary! I was curious about the unique characteristics of a magic school!]

The unique characteristics of a magic school.

‘Hmm. I wonder what kind of person the spirit magic teacher is?’

She had occasionally seen them walking around with wind spirits in the hallway.

Slide-

At that moment, the front door of the classroom opened, and the teacher in charge of the spirit magic subject entered with imposing steps.

[Oh! Is the class finally starting?]

Ahezar whispered in an expectant voice. Habin also looked at the teacher’s podium.

Finally, after surveying the students, the spirit magic teacher opened their mouth in a loud voice.

“Are you all children of darkness? Turn on some lights! Why is the classroom so dark?”

“……”

[……]