Huffing to himself, he resisted the urge the meditate on the dao or formations or whatever— it’d be a waste of time, constrained so— instead inspecting the area around him now Janus had taken his leave. Truly inspecting it— letting his spiritual sense spool out from himself like the lightest touch of a leviathan, brushing across- grains of wood, precisely hewn, carpentry crafted, carpet curling with hundreds, thousands of threads, metal— frames reaching up to high above his head and laden with book upon book. Characters. So many, reminiscent in many ways of the higher realms’ script, but different. Very, very, delightfully different in a way that he found almost endlessly fascinating.

  He ran a hand along the books for a long moment until he felt the aura of one, so strongly he could have mistaken it for a despair cultivator’s natural treasure. A little curious, he pulled it off the shelf, glancing at its title. Advanced Mathematics, Seventh Edition, by Professor Yurian Jade. He chuckled a bit as he quickly flipped through what the mortals had stressed over enough to live a qi imprint of— easy math. The sort of thing any formations specialist would need to know just to start doing anything of note in the art.

  He glanced through it for a little while longer, before just shrugging and setting it back on the shelf. At least he knew he’d be able to help the kids with math if they needed it? Not like he ever even thought he wouldn’t have been able to…

  Like that, so quickly, almost an hour passed— and the library opened.

  It was a slow thing. He didn’t even notice at first, lost wandering through the stacks of books, but slowly, people began to trickle into the library. Most paid him no particular attention, just navigating through the tight stacks to look for whatever they were looking for, or to just peruse the selection, occasionally stopping to pick something off the shelf. A few waved at him, or struck up a little bit of polite conversation, but… for the most part, he was left alone, to observe. And like any good mortal-watcher, he observed.

  They were so… carefree, in a way. Wandering, here and there, flitting from moment to moment, laughing and talking and occasionally shushing each other if they thought they were being too loud. Some of them spoke of the weather. Others, of the political situation in the city, of which he wasn’t even able to adumbrate with the limited information he was able to glean. Even more talked about their lives, about whatever little thing was going in right then, that moment— or soon. Plenty of them talked about the upcoming graduation— a few students, but far more from the adults. Parents, he guessed. There was an air of excitement…

  If not that, then something else. A planned event, or something in anticipation… days, or weeks, or even months in advance. Once or twice some hopes for the coming years— talk of a famous university in the city, about who would get the chance to be selected by the local sect.

  Nobody talked about anything more than a decade beyond them. Nobody talked about the coming centuries— an odd thing compared to even the most casual conversations in the Celestial Realm, which spoke in terms of centuries and eons.

  He smiled, softly. It promised something new.

  Exciting.

  Then Janus tracked him down and shoved a cart full of book at him and told him to get to work, and he didn’t quite have the time to ponder that deeply anymore. It didn’t take him long at all to see why Lexi had been so willing to hire him— if this was half Janus’s typical workload, then he wouldn’t like to imagine what the whole thing was like. Most of it was fiction, but that almost made it worse, because some of them looked interesting. A book written by some sort of bloodline creature, about the adventures of a cat? Fascinating. A fantasy novel that spoke of a formations specialist who figured out how turn back time? Obviously impossible, but the ideas were at least interesting. But, alas, bound to mortality as he was, he didn’t have the time to sit there and read each book that caught his eye. He’d think about checking a few out— but, later. After the day was finished.

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  Around lunchtime, after he’d finished putting the first cart of books away, a gaggle of children spilled into the building from the rear entrance, splitting up and descending on the bookshelves like a plague of locusts. In a moment, the back reading room transformed from a place of tranquility to packed to the brim, kids excitedly chattering with no sense of volume control.

  Janus expertly moved amongst them, keeping an eye on them— tamping down arguments before they could start, directing kids away from problematic behaviors, confiscating snacks… it was showed a striking depth of observation, for a mortal— “are you just going to watch?”

  “You seem to have it handled.”

  “Bastard—” he paused, realizing all the kids sitting and reading around him, and sighed. “I’d appreciate the help?”

  “Of course.” When was the last time someone had called him a bastard? He could scarcely remember. Amused, he slipped in beside Janus, making… judicious, and maybe only a little excessive use of his spiritual sense to help his co-librarian separate the kids who actually wanted to study and the ones who’d just come to the library to goof around and play on their odd hand-devices. It was a thankless task— as easy as building a sandcastle, effort made only to get swept away come the next moment of inattentiveness.

  Finally, as the lunch hours drew to a close, most of the kids trickled out, leaving only the most studious— of which, even those left after a while. Then it was back to the parents and occasional passerby… at least until the academy let out, upon which they were once more drowned in hooligans.

  It was… an experience, that was for sure.

  Finally, hours after the sun had set, Janus— and Lexi, descended down from whatever she’d been doing in her office— ushered out the last few students still struggling vainly at whatever study they were pursuing. “Well.” She sighed, grabbing a chair and slumping down into it— the look of exhaustion on her face only multiplied from earlier that morning. “I have good news and bad news.”

  Like clockwork, almost ritualistically, Janus immediately pulled out a coin from his pocket, flipping it into the air. “And… good news first.”

  Lexi just rolled her eyes. “Well, you two did an excellent job. Better than I expected, all things considered— from what I hear, you were an invaluable help with the children.”

  Janus nodded emphatically. “I swear you have some sort of second sense or something.” Noooo, totally not… “wrangling the kids has never been this easy. Maybe it’s just the magic of having another pair of hands around?” Yeah, that, definitely that, and not anything else. Definitely. “I even got enough time to take a lunch break! That’s practically a magic in and of itself.”

  “Lucky you. I still haven’t eaten.” Lexi snorted. “Anyways. Bad news time. I submitted the paperwork for an extra hiring and I’m eighty percent sure we’re not going to get any extra funding. Worse I just confirmed East Saffron University is updating their curricula, and we need the next book of textbooks, which is where I took funding from to pay Mingtian in the first place. I’ll make it work, I swear, but things are going to be tight for the next year or two. Sorry if you were expecting a raise.”

  “That’s fine.” He waved a hand, dismissing the thought— he honestly hadn’t even considered it. “My current salary is enough. I don’t mind.”

  Lexi grimaced. “You’d have made it a whole lot easier if you were a jerk, but no, you’re helpful. So now I feel like the jerk here…” she sighed. “Maybe I can beg funding off the academy again. We’re basically their library anyways, I’d have to draft…” she trailed off, mumbling to herself for a moment before just shaking her head. “At the least, it won’t be until after graduation anyways. Just…” she sighed again. “Go home. Have a good night you two.” Janus gave her a commiserating nod before walking out, and— before he overstayed his welcome, Mingtian took a cue from him and followed.

  Into the darkness— lit only by the refulgent light of street lamps electric aglow, asphalt and metal so sharply contrasting against a vast universe above. An unfamiliar sky. For a long moment, as one by one the lights in the building flicked off, he stared at the firmament above him, and pondered what it meant.

  To be mortal.

  Then, before anyone could notice him standing there, he twisted into a ray of moonlight and—

  Vanished.

  Mingtian being Very Good at mortal business may or may not be a recurring theme...

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