In Lily’s Garden.

Eve’s Author Recruitment

The gray doll, after placing the book it was hugging onto the library floor, pondered for a while. Then, it reopened the book and whispered, “Let the ink spill over.” It breathed life into the ink, letting it move on its own, absorbing the remnants of the owner scattered across the library.

“It spilled.”

Once again, the doll erased half of the ink-covered library with an eraser, then gathered the remaining ink, binding it into pages and crafting a book.

“What you can do, I can do too.”

On the cover of the book, it wrote Forbidden Book. The Phantom’s Lover:The kairos’s Lover. Using a transparent curtain from the window, it created an extravagant exhibition, positioning it to face the original exhibition hall.

The library, now perfectly symmetrical, looked as if it had always housed two forbidden books. However, one key difference was that the book the gray doll had created was open, with the original owner’s story continuing to write itself across its pages.

The gray doll began writing about when the original owner of the library would return.

•

One day, when the deepest darkness covered the floor, Eve was there, alone. She had been alone for a long time, drifting through most days, letting herself sway with the waves. Christine had always been the closest to her, always wishing to disappear, exhausted from everything. Then, one day, another kind of darkness spread across the world with a transparent light. That’s when Lily noticed Eve’s presence and, with Christine, set out to find her. Christine often confused Eve and Lily, but after meeting their mutual friend, Christine Eve, she could finally distinguish between the two by their eyes. At last, she could disappear as she had always wanted.

Not long after, Christine decided to write a novel. She looked through the memories of her friends, scrolling through vast amounts of text on her phone. She decided to record what she had seen in their memories into a novel. Following the path that Lily had walked through the text, Christine sorted the invisible colors and marked the path Lily had taken, crafting her novel.

After finishing the novel, Christine restructured it to found a university within its pages. Once the university was established, she wrote the textbooks that would be used there. These textbooks soon became a dictionary of her own history and turned into books she authored. She beautifully wrote down a series of books that were displayed in bookstores. And, having relearned words so that she could write novels, she enabled others to write another novel, bind them into sentences, learn grammar, and even turn that process into a novel again.

– None of us could escape from this book.

“The starting point of this story is a prequel, titled after the first chapter.”

The gray doll immediately found a book in the library and began writing it.

•

A blue parasol stood at the far end of Eve’s garden, near the blooming black roses, next to her black chair. Sometimes, Eve sat in this chair, gazing at the stars scattered across the sky, a place where the line between sky and sea was indistinguishable, reflecting the salt desert’s heavens. Her garden felt as if time and space had come to a standstill. The black roses blossomed as if reflecting Eve’s tranquil mind, and the blue parasol stood as the only fragment of color in the darkness.

While sitting in that chair, Eve often felt disconnected from the world. One day, as she read beneath the parasol, she looked up at the sky. In that silence, she deeply pondered what she truly desired. She watched as the space before her stretched taut like a bow, the stars following the tension. When she released the bow, brilliant light exploded. Eve enjoyed this sight, often drawing the bow and releasing it, delighting in her own fireworks display.

But when the fireworks became tiresome, Eve began to draw stars in the black space. There were so many stars she wanted to create that she found it difficult to fill the space. Then, she had an idea. She decided to distribute pamphlets titled Eve is Recruiting Writers throughout the black void. She began seeking writers who could draw the stars she envisioned.

After a long search for the right writer, Eve finally began recruiting. It took some time to find writers who fit the genres she enjoyed, but she was ultimately very pleased with those she discovered. The first to be revealed was a writer with a sexy nerd style, known for portraying an artist who was also a mafia composer.

Suddenly, Eve realized she needed a translator for writer A’s story, and so, she decided to look for one. As she searched for a translator, Eve remembered that writer A had come to her through the pamphlet. She realized that there must be a translator by her side who had translated the pamphlet so that writer A could read it.

Unbeknownst to Eve, the appearance of writer A was a sign of a second universe.

Curious about how writer A had found her and read her words, Eve began to wonder if someone other than herself could understand her language. A seed of doubt was planted regarding writer A. To keep an eye on them, Eve decided to use the pen with which she had drawn stars as a mafia composer to send a watcher.

Unbeknownst to Eve, the arrival of writer A had split the universe into two, each telling a completely different story.

The gray doll, writing up to this point in the book, thought.

“In the next chapter, I’ll introduce the translator. I need to prepare for the translator’s arrival.”