Ascendance of a Bookworm

Chapter 140: Maine Decimal Classification (119.1)

“Fran, go to the workshop and bring the three gray-robed priests and the attendants other than Wilma.”

“What are you going to do, Master Maine?”

“I will stay in the library and read the catalog that the Head Priest lent me, and then think about how to sort the files.”

Entering the library, Fran first picked up the files at the door and cleared the way for me. He put down the catalogue and hurried out of the library after I had sat down.

After seeing Fran go, I looked at the catalogue of the Head Priest. It was filled with tiny words, scrawled in such a way as to say to the others, “as long as the Head Priest himself can understand it.”

“What books did the Head Priest bring into the temple… wow, so many?!”

The number of books brought into the temple by the Head Priest was considerable, so to speak, the personal belongings of him occupied more than one bookshelf in the library.

… Head Priest, who were you?!

The only certainty was that he was unbelievably rich. I had heard him say that he entered the temple for some reason, but it seemed that he came from a wealthy upper-class family. How else could he bring into the temple five books that were very valuable?

Usually, books with leather covers and gold and precious stones were not personal but were considered heirlooms. However, the fact that the Head Priest brought five books into the temple for all to read increased my opinion of him.

“It’s really nice to bring so many books in for everyone to read…”

After I roughly assigned the classification code according to the catalog, I began to think about which bookshelf should correspond to which classification code, but then I suddenly encountered a problem.

“Which category should files about magic fall into?”

This was nerve-racking because there was no magic in the Nippon Decimal Classification. But I didn’t know if it’s because it was an area that only the aristocrats could explore, or an area that needed to be studied, but in the personal files of the Head Priest, magic was the most relevant.

I wrote down the Japanese classification system on the board.

0 Collection (Library, encyclopedias, general papers, journals, groups, news, series)

1 Philosophy (Philosophy, psychology, ethics, religion)

2 History (History, biography, geography)

3 Social Sciences (Politics, law, economy, statistics, society, education, customs, national defense)

4 Natural Sciences (Mathematics, science, medicine)

5 Technology (Engineering, industry, home economics)

6 Industries (Agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, commerce, transportation, communications)

7 Arts (Art, music, drama, sport, entertainment)

8 Languages

9 Literature

Considering the making of magic tools, could I see it as a technique? Or was the magic here closer to mathematics and science? Although I wanted to use the Nippon Decimal Classification, it was difficult because of the differences in common sense.

“Anyway, I’ll read the files first. They should be here…”

I looked at the scattered things on the floor, the corners of my mouth turned up.

It was magic! I was about to see real magic for the first time! Just by imagining it, my heart was pounding.

In addition to the magic-related files, everything else should be classified in the usual way, so when the attendants and the gray-robed priests arrive, I would let them move the files to the table to clear the space for walking. Then, I would mark the classification code of the first-level category on the shelves, and then ask the attendants to put the files I had passed into the corresponding shelf. I hoped that at least this stage could be completed today, and later I would slowly work out a catalog and subdivide the files. At present, it seemed that I could not directly follow the second-level classification method of the Nippon Decimal Classification, and it must be greatly adjusted.

“My god! What happened?!”

Hearing the familiar yell, I looked at the door and saw Delia’s face bristling with anger. Her job was to keep my room tidy, so she got angry whenever it got messy. Surely the misery of the library was too much for her. Behind Delia, there were other attendants and three gray-robed priests, all of whom were silent at the sight of the library.

“Wow, that’s too bad. I don’t know who did it, but it was Master Maine he offended. It seems that man really didn’t care for his life.”

Gil knew very well how much I valued books, and when I heard him say this, I saw Fran was rubbing his stomach.

“Fran, what’s the matter? Do you have a stomachache?”

“I just thought about what the culprit is going to face…”

I couldn’t believe Fran was so worried about the fate of the culprit that his stomach ached. I put my hand to my cheek, cocked my head, and said:

“That’s a bother. If Fran is so worried about him, wouldn’t it be better to stop the Blood Sacrifice? I thought it would be a good chance to give the enemies a warning, boost our morale and show my majesty as the master.”

“Wait, Master Maine! You won’t boost our morale this way! We’ll be too scared to move!”

When I had finished speaking, not only the attendants, but also the gray-robed priests, drew back stiffly in unison, and only Fran came up to me, knelt down, took my hands, and begged very earnestly:

“Master Maine, please do stop. You look very majestic to me.”

“Really? Then I’ll stop the Blood Sacrifice. Let’s tidy up here today.”

I decided to forget about the Blood Sacrifice because of the earnestness in Fran’s pleading eyes. Rather than holding a Blood Sacrifice, it is more enjoyable to tidy up the library.

“First of all, please be careful not to step on the files. You can stack them on this table separately by parchment and board. Besides, please clear a way for us to walk to the bookshelves.”

“Yes,” they all answered. With a slight nod, I continued to explain the work ahead.

“After all the files are picked up, Fran and I will classify and number them, so please put them on the corresponding bookshelf later. The top shelf of the left bookshelf is 0 and the middle one is 1. Please leave the bottom one empty. The top two shelves of the right bookshelf are 2, and the bottom one is 3. The other files will be sorted out last. When placing the files on the bookshelves, please do not care about the order, just be careful not to put them in the wrong shelf.”

Everyone began to gather up the scattered files. Only Fran sat down beside me. He blinked in confusion at being assigned a different job than the others.

“What do you mean by classification, Master Maine?”

“That’s what it means! This is the Maine Decimal Classification Table. Please refer to this table to decide which shelf the files should be placed in. If you are not sure, you can ask me and I will tell you.”

I handed the writing board to Fran to show him how to sort the files. Meanwhile, the parchment and boards piled on the table grew taller and taller. Fran and I quickly looked at the files at hand and classified them by code.

“Rosina, if there’s a way to the bookshelf, please put these in shelf one.”

“Yes, Master Maine.”

Because these were files that were in the temple, there’s a lot of philosophical stuff. There were also a lot of files in history and social science. What impressed me most was the recording of the statistics on the amount of harvest and supply in each village. But they were all old, not recent. I hadn’t seen any language or literature files.

“Delia, you’ve got parchment in your scroll! Be careful.”

“What a nuisance! Don’t come running in while I’m rolling the scrolls!”

Perhaps embarrassed by what I said, Delia roared while rolling the scrolls. Rosina giggled and picked up the parchment scattered around her. The scrolls had a fixed placement area, so I didn’t sort them. When the scrolls were put away, the floor of the library was finally exposed.

“Gil, give these to the priest next to shelf two.”

The files scattered on the floor were not in the form of books, so they vary in size. Seeing the gray-robed priests struggling with the ever-falling parchment, I suddenly wanted as many boxes and folders as possible to organize them. This world didn’t even have a bookend.

“Why don’t I ask John?”

“Master Maine?”

“No, nothing. Rosina, take this board to that priest. Tell him he can hold the parchment with it.”

Although the library was in a mess, the cabinet containing valuable books, which needed the keys of the Temple Chief and the Head Priest, remained intact, and chained books showed no signs of being treated rudely. It seemed that the culprit really messed up the files just to get me into trouble.

The stuff on both shelves was scattered all over the place, so it seemed like there were a lot of files, but when sorted, there were surprisingly few, and there wasn’t much parchment and boards for me and Fran to sort.

“And that’s it?”

It wasn’t long before the parchment and boards were back on the shelves, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes, it was quicker than I thought. It’s a nice system to help with quick sorting.”

“Today, I just made a general classification according to the first-level category. In the future, I plan to make further subdivision for the convenience of finding files. Since the classification code must be coded according to the actual content of the file, it may take some effort, but it will be very satisfying.”

Fran smiled reassuringly. I got up and looked around the library, glad to see that the scattered files had really been put back on the bookshelves. But the shelf where I expected to put the files of the Head Priest was empty. All the files had been sorted, but there were no magic-related files in the catalogue of the Head Priest.

“What’s the matter, Master Maine?”

The call of Fran brought me back to my senses, and I found that the attendants and the gray-robed priests were standing in a row, waiting for my instructions. I had to tell them the work was done and dismiss them.

“Thanks to your help for finishing this quickly. Thank you.”

Fran was returning the key to the library to the Head Priest, so I decided to go with him. For magic-related files, I had some questions to ask the Head Priest.

“I want to report the results and return the catalogue to the Head Priest, and I have something to ask him.”

“What do you want to ask?”

“It’s just that I didn’t see these files in the catalog at all. If they were kept somewhere else, that would be fine, but if they were lost, wouldn’t it be serious?”

Fran turned pale. If someone had taken all the magic-related files, then I, who was responsible for tiding up the library, would be the prime suspect. But after all, the cabinet with the valuable books and the chained books were spared, so I didn’t think the culprit was so malicious, but I would confirm it for insurance.

“I hate to see you so many times a day…”

As soon as I entered the Head Priest’s Office, the Head Priest gave me a dirty look. “I don’t come here to see you either, okay?” I retorted in my heart, but thanked him with a smile on my face.

“Head Priest, thank you very much for the catalogue you lent me.”

“You’re done already? Faster than I thought.”

The Head Priest muttered. Of course! Such valuable files could not be left unattended.