Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 24

After the little ‘talk’ with my parents, I was free for rest of the day.

Free but disturbed.

This ‘talk’, literally slapped the reality of this world on my face.

But the thing that made this even more unbearable was one fact,

‘I was the one who wrote this reality.’

And I was the one, to blamed for this twisted world.

I just told myself, that I will not forget those I killed.

But what about others?

What about those who were killed, abused or were experiencing hell, just because I wrote it that way?

What can I do for them?

Can I make an oath to not forget them too?

Hah, that would be funny, after all, how would I forget them if I don’t even know them?

-Huuuuuuu

Only one thing came in my mind.

There was only one thing I could do.

For the people who were killed, and the people who will be killed, there was only one thing I could do.

And that was to fuck my own plot.

I had to become strong enough, to put an end to this.

To prevent any more tragedies from happening.

Just like I did yesterday.

[The Great Disaster of Ellesmere] a tragedy that killed millions, I prevented that from happening.

I saved millions of people.

Of course, the whole thing went fluently because I had an Archmage on my side, but even then, didn’t I do great?

It’s just my fifth day here, and I already saved millions of people, isn’t that good at least?

Well, if it isn’t, then I just have to keep doing this, keep preventing tragedies, keep saving people.

Isn’t that the best thing I could do?

Of course, I won’t always have Amy by my side, things won’t always go as well as they did yesterday, there can be situations where even an Archmage can’t help me.

But I will find someone who could.

I will find her, the person one I know that definitely could.

And it wasn’t like I planned to stay as a weakling.

After all, I still had a clock ticking on my head.

I planned to get stronger, and I planned to do that starting tomorrow.

Funnily enough, everything I think ends up with the same conclusion.

‘I had to get stronger.’

I almost feel like a shonen protagonist.

I thought till that, as the unbearable feeling welling up in me, reduced by more than a few notches.

That said, the ‘talk’ also helped me set my next destination.

The Library.

***

There is no author that doesn’t have reading as hobby, I can guarantee that.

And, I was no exception.

So here I am, in front of another luxurious building.

[The Ellsworth’s Library]

Yes, the library had a separate building of itself, the reason being the large number of books.

The Earl didn’t want space related technology in the house, apparently it makes the building easier to infiltrate, so keeping a library this big, was a no go.

The doors of library were open as I expected, so I just walked in.

And surprisingly, the library was mostly empty.

I wondered why, as I approached the counter.

An old man with long white hair and beard, was sipping coffee while he reading a book, was sitting behind it.

As soon as I saw him, the word ‘Gandalf’ started ringing in my head.

I mean, he looked just the same!

Long hair parted from the middle, long beard and same white clothes, just the guy wasn’t a magic user failing in the most important being a wizard category.

He noticed my arrival before I reached the counter, and quickly closed the book before standing up.

“Good Morning!, Young Master Rayne, it is rare to see you in here. Please tell me, how can I be of service?”

“Umu, I want to read about the world’s history and I also want all the magical books I have read till now, is that possible?”

“Of course, it’s possible! If Young Master says so everything possible!”

Okay, I take back my opinion, his flattering character is not like Gandalf at all.

“Sorry to say this, but it will take some time Young Master, I will have to check records of past 13 years…”

“How about I guide Young Master to the world history section first?”

“I will collect all Magical books while Young Master enjoys himself at the history section, is that agreeable?”

“Okay, do that.”

“Then, let me guide you.”

The librarian said, as he left the counter and led me inside the humungous library.

For a moment, I wanted to ask if it was okay to just leave the counter, but I refrained and just followed him, it was his job to care about this not mine, not like this library had many visitors in the first place.

So, we just walked, with him in front while I followed him, passing by shelves after shelves after shelves, all filled with books.

Books of different sizes and thickness, some new, some old, some even looked ancient.

And between each section of these shelves were a couple of tables, mostly empty tables, sometimes occupied by a lone reader or two.

Give the quiet atmosphere, I expected this to be the usual scene.

But Reality Vs Expectations, reality will always give you a surprise.

A pleasant surprise this time.

We passed through different section of library, and another one, but instead of being empty, this section had quite a number of people.

But rather than a simple reading crowd, it was a classroom, a busy classroom with a class being held there.

The students were all women, most of them sitting on chairs in casual medieval clothing, while some of them were dressed in a uniform, a maid uniform.

As for the teacher, how could I forget her serious expression and that small smile she gave me that did a lot of metal damage, who else would that be other than Mora.

With a whiteboard and marker like device in her hand, the maid taught her students with the same serious expression.

I couldn’t hear her though, some kind of noise restriction function?

Curious, I asked my guide about the situation.

“Oh that, as you can see that was a class for maids that want to learn how to read and write, organized by senior maids.

On their days off, these senior maids decide a time, and the maids who are free or similarly have a day off attend the class.”

I see…

They teach the maids who don’t know how to read and write…

Damn, I almost forgot!

This world is still in mediaeval era, it’s normal that most people are illiterate.

And here I was thinking why the library was empty.

Thankfully, I had Rayne’s memories and knew how to read and write, otherwise I would have to attend that class.

That would have been embarrassing!

Since, I couldn’t imagine Mora being happy if I interrupt her without a reason, I left quietly.

She was the same hard on the inside and soft on the inside, and I didn’t want to experience either one.

Still, I think it would be a waste to not help them, so…

“Inform Mora that I will help her, if they ever run into a problem.”

“Oh! Of course, of course, I would do so, in fact I too will help them as much as I can.”

“I know you will, they wouldn’t be having a class here in the first place, if you didn’t allow them to, right?”

“Haha, how could I refuse those young women when they are directly profiting me?”

“Profiting?”

I asked curiously.

“Well, won’t those maids come to read books here after they learn how read?”

“So?” I asked still not getting the point.

“So, won’t the Earl increase my pay if he finds that library has more people reading in it, hahaha.”

The librarian laughed heartily, as if he cracked the joke of the century.

Yeah, nice joke, I thought.

Even my thoughts were laced with sarcasm, at this point.

But I knew he was supporting the senior maids and the class.

That’s good, that’s enough, I thought, as I maintained my silence.

Anyways, shortly after he cracked the joke we reached the World History section.

As I expected, it was empty, without a single soul or entity in vicinity.

It had nine big shelves placed around an arrangement of four big tables.

All of them had a premium brown color, the tables had the same color while being surrounded by comfortable looking padded chairs.

“This the world history section, Young Master. The ones on the left are ancient history books, the ones straight ahead are medieval history books, and on right are recent history books.

Do you have any specific book in your mind, Young Master?

I can help you find it quickly.”

The librarian offered.

“No need, you can go.”

“As you wish.”

A bow of courtesy, a turn, and then the sound of steady steps.

Just like that he left, all this while his hand never stopped stroking his beard.

Weird guy, I thought as turned to the books, trying to take in their peculiar smell.

-heeehaa (A/N: Yes, that is a deep inhale.)

Maybe it was because of the enchanted bookshelves, but the smell of books was quite faint.

Faint, but still recognizable for my superhuman body.

Actually, I had no idea where to start or what to read, rather I came here cause I just had the urge to read.

So, following that urge I turned to the left, towards the ancient history side, and walked along it’s bookshelves, my eyes looking for any interesting looking title, and before I knew it, I found it.

But, I didn’t just find one instead I found many.

So, with more than twenty or so books floating around me, I sat on the table.

Picking the most peculiar title of them all.

[The Lore of Creation]

‘Let’s start with this.’

I told myself as I started reading, and soon…

…I lost myself in it.

…

..

.

At some point, the librarian came and placed the magical books on the table, when I didn’t notice as I continued reading.

I closed the book, I finished reading.

This was my fourth, no, my fifth book magical book.

And that was enough for me to get a general idea of magic.

Of course, only the most general idea.

The magic I used till now, or the magic I can cast, was and is more like muscle memory.

I knew how to do that, but I didn’t know the theory behind it.

It was more like I knew how to breathe, but I didn’t knew what I actually did.

But now, I got a general gist of how the whole thing worked.

I lifted my right hand, and created a magic circle.

A fire magic circle.

Instantly a multidimensional, three-layered structure, consisting of lines, arcs, loops, circles, and polygons connecting all sorts of runes was created above my hand.

And with a – whoosh – a fire was lit.

Honestly, for a normal fire magic circle it was quite complex.

And that’s because, it wasn’t a normal fire magic circle.

Rather than normal fire magic circle, it was a magic circle that generated fire.

The difference being simple, while a normal magic circle used the user’s affinity to convert normal mana into fire attributed mana, and then using it to create fire, while this magic circle right here, followed the chemical process I knew, to generate fire artificially or should I say scientifically?

As for how does it compare to a normal magic circle?

I was curious too.

I lifted my left hand and created normal fire magic circle.

It was far less complex, a single layered magic circle with just two layering of runes connected with simple arcs, and with another – whoosh – another fire lit up.

On surface, there was no difference between the flames but that was only on surface.

The temperature on my right couldn’t be controlled easily, while the flames on my left were like part of my own body, with my Mental Power, I could control them as I pleased, and just by adding a bit more of my Mana, I could even strengthen them.

The flames on my right could hurt me, but the flames on my left couldn’t as the flames contained my own Mana, while the flames on my right were more like after effect of my spell.

And finally, the consumption of resources, if you think about it, you must feel that mana consumption of the normal circle would be more than the magic circle on my right, and that was correct, but not by much.

A five to ten percent difference in Mana consumption, but the difference in Mental Power consumption?

It was three times the normal, and for any magic user, Mental Power was much more precious than Mana.

After all, while you can recover Mana with a simple Mana potion, the potions for Mental Power recovery were rare, very rare.

So, all in all, the normal magic circle beats the artificially one that I created, in all ways.

There is a reason why people with strong affinity are hailed as geniuses, after all.

And a reason why these normal magic circles are the norm.

With that thought, I dispelled both magic circles, after all, using fire in a library might not be the best idea.

-Huuuuu

Thank God, no, not God, uhh, Kasivier gave this line a bad taste.

Anyways, it was good that I knew a place where I can gain a certain thing, a certain thing that would work like, no, work even better than an affinity.

And with this experiment, I increased its priority marking that as my first task on my journey.

Well, Enchanter was not that bad of an affinity in itself, just an underwhelmed, an unexposed one.

I will have to experiment with it a lot to find it’s uses.

My first experience with it was quite an interesting one though, 400 meters in an instant, yep, that gave me a lot of motivation to experiment with it.

And I will start that tomorrow, it’s my last day of probation after all.

I thought, as I left the library after placing back all the books I read in their place, and storing the ones I have yet to read in my bracelet, I didn’t have to go through the hassle of issuing books with my status…

Man, this Young Master lifestyle is truly spoiling me….