The day after I left the orphanage, I wandered aimlessly for a while, eventually, I ended up in front of the library.

There have been many times I wanted to come here, but I didn't have any money... However, I saw that they were looking for a librarian, so I decided to apply for the job.

The minimum age was 13, but my height let me pass as an older girl. The bigger problem was the fact that I couldn't explain where I came from, but after they saw me organize some bookshelves, I got hired immediately.

So here I am now, 4 years later. I live in the library and almost never go outside, I'm scared to be seen by someone who knows me.

And that's why is unfortunate that my boss keeps having me be the one who loans all the books. Apparently, I have some 'natural talent' to make everyone return the books on time, I wonder what that's about. But at any rate, nobody from the orphanage has the money to borrow books nor the interest to come to this library, so I should be fine.

Today there are three customers left, the first is a man borrowing the 'Encyclopedia of alcoholic stews'. He leaves in a hurry and by the time he's gone, I notice that he left volume 27 behind. Should I go and see if I can catch up to him?

<Why would I go outside for someone I don't know?>

That's right, that was his mistake, it's not my problem.

Next, there's a woman with a copy of 'the asparagus knight'. I noticed that her left leg is not working properly, I think that I might be able to fix it...

<I would get in trouble if I use flesh-shaping again>

And I already saw how dangerous my magic is. I should stop thinking that I can use it to help people.

Finally, there's a girl that looks around my age, and by that I mean she looks younger. Her clothes are all white and she's wearing a hat that blocks my view of her face when she stands close to me.

"Uh, do you want to borrow a book?"

"No."

She doesn't? Then why is she here?

She stares at me while holding a strange stone in her hand. She seems to be shocked by something and then runs away.

What was that about?! I'm used to people getting scared but that was a bit too much.

Since I'm done working for today, I'll go back to my room.

I'm allowed to live here in the library, in a previously empty room. Unfortunately, I don't often feel motivated to clean, so my room is full of perfectly symmetrical piles of trash.

When I first came here, I was not sure if I would continue to study magic after that accident. But then I got access to this library, including many rare books about advanced magic, and I simply had to take advantage of it.

Here I've been able to improve my magic far beyond what I once thought would be my limit, including more research on forbidden magic. I hope that nobody will come to investigate this room or I might need to flee the city or even the kingdom...

After a few hours, I decide to go to sleep for today. For some reason, I have a strong feeling of being watched... Looking around the room I don't find anything unusual other than a few spiders scurrying away, I might be getting a bit paranoid.

A few days later, I was having trouble getting dressed, my clothes are getting too tight... Not only do I keep getting taller and bigger in general, my chest in particular is becoming rather pronounced. And as has happened many times before, I ended up tearing my dress when trying to fit my body in it.

Uh... Each time it gets more difficult to find clothes of my size, and I get the feeling that this problem is only going to continue to get worse. I'm wasting so much money on tailors...

Uh, I guess it can't be helped, I'll have to go outside and get a new dress.

I cannot help getting paranoid as I walk on the street, my eyes constantly looking in all directions to make sure that I'm not seen by anyone who knows me. Eventually, I find my usual tailor shop, but the entrance is covered in a spider web.

"What is this?"

Before I can check the web, I see a sign being held by two spiders in front of the door.

'This shop is temporarily unavailable.'

Oh, if the spiders say that I guess there's nothing that can be done. I'll have to look for another tailor.

I keep running into spiders that tell me that one street or another has been closed, I didn't know that this city employed spiders for this. In the end, I find myself in front of a shop I've never seen before.

'Arana's spinnery.'

It looks like I can get clothes here. I walk inside and see a young girl with a white hat... Wait, I think I've seen her before.

"Hello, is the owner here?"

"I'm the owner of this shop, my name is Arana."

"Ah, I'm Luna. You look young for owning a shop."

"I get that a lot. How could I help you?"

"I need a new dress, do you have anything that can fit me?"

"What kind of dress are you looking for?"

"A casual one."

"Anything more specific?"

"Not really, anything will do."

"What? Now that I look at you, that dress you are wearing does not suit you at all. Are you one of those people who don't care about what they wear?"

"W-well, I've never cared much about fashion."

"Then leave it all to me! Come over to the other room so that I can take your measurements."

"Uh, how expensive is this going to be?"

"Don't worry, I'll give you a discount. I'm the one who makes the clothes all by myself after a- AGH!"

A pink spider wearing a hat similar to hers just jumped up from her shirt and slapped her face with 4 of its legs.

"Well, Longleg also helps a litt- AGH!" She got slapped again. "We do half of the work each, he might do a bit more!"

This girl is weird, I should probably get away from her and not let her get too close to me.

I don't really know what happened, but she somehow managed to get me to bring her to my room.

"What is with this place? How can you live in these conditions? Don't you ever clean?"

"I do take out the trash sometimes when it gets difficult to open the door."

"And what are all of these used freezing magic circuits? Have you been eating only frozen meals?"

"Of course not! I always heat them up before eating!"

"Mmm, this room clearly needs a woman's touch."

"I'm a woman you know."

"To begin with, let's get rid of all of this garbage."

Ugh, she actually made me clean my room. I thought that only Miss Liliam could be capable of this.

"Woah, I didn't know that my room was so big!"

"Yes, and I see that you are interested in magic."

"Eh? Wait! Don't touch that!"

She's found my research! This is bad!

"Let's see, you have written a lot about flesh-shaping. Isn't that magic banned?"

"Please, stop looking at it! And don't tell anyone!"

Arana's expression suddenly gets serious.

"What are you playing at? With your power, it should have been easy for you to stop me."

"Power? What power?"

"You are only 13 years old right now, correct? Going past level 300 at such a young age is unheard of."

"I guess so, I have not heard of it either."

"You... I promised myself that I would never trust anyone again. So why is it that I cannot catch even a hint of deception from you?"

"Why would I be deceiving you?"

"I'm very good at judging people. When I first saw you, my instincts told me that you were dangerous."

"That's just what everyone feels when they first see me..."

Hearing me say that, a more genuine smile than the ones she's had before appears on her face.

"Hahaha. I already learned the hard way that someone who looks nice could in reality be a horrible person. I guess the opposite might also be true. So tell me Luna, why do you live here all alone? Why do you almost never go outside?"

"How do you know that? Have you been watching me?"

Uh, I'm not sure about this. Should I open myself to this weird girl I've only just met?

<Can't you see that she's trying to manipulate you? She wants to get close to you so that she can take advantage of you. This girl is hiding her evil inten- >

That pink spider from before makes a crazy jump and lands on the white rose. In a few seconds, he tears it to shreds...

"..."

"..."

"Your spider seems a bit violent. Is he ok?"

"Uh, sorry about that. I shouldn't have let him drink coffee this morning."

I ended up getting carried away and I told Arana about my life in the orphanage and about what happened the day I left. Talking to someone else about this stuff was surprisingly liberating. I feel as if a weight got taken off my chest, but that might just be because this bra she gave me has some very good breast support.

She said that she would have a new dress for me in five days. She told me to go to an address different from her shop's, I don't know why, but today is the day, so here I am.

"Luna, sorry for making you come all the way here. Let me help you put this dress on."

"Is this something I need help to put on? I thought I told you that I wanted something to wear every day."

This black dress I'm now wearing looks too fancy! There are many frills and decorations of stars, and there are openings on the back, leg, and cleavage! This does not look like something I would call 'casual'.

"Don't worry, this is just an extra thing I made so that you could look good at the festival."

She says as she takes me to the back door.

"Festival? What festival?"

I hear music and hundreds of voices and I suddenly feel myself in a large plaza filled with people. Many of them are staring at me.

"You told me how you kept yourself indoors all the time and I couldn't accept it. A beauty like yours needs to be shown to the world!"

More and more people turn to look at me, they all are staring with what seems like a mixture of fear and fascination. I have quickly become the center of attention.

For someone like me who just spent so many years in solitude, this situation is overwhelming, to say the least. I'm just as paralyzed as they are.

And at this moment, I realize that the rose was wrong. Arana is not secretly evil.

...

.....

........

"SHE'S OPENLY EVIIIIL!!!"

forli

Every time I complain about my troubles people tell me to not force myself to write if I don't want to, and that's what I do. After thinking about it, I believe that what I should do is the exact opposite.

Thinking about writing but not actually doing it makes me think of the novels I hate instead, and what I enjoy is actually writing and reading the comments after uploading a chapter. So I've decided that I should force myself to write more even if I don't feel like doing it, from now on I'll release at least one chapter each week no matter what.

Also, I've deleted the chapters I had that were not chapters. I didn't want to lose the comments people left there since I really appreciate them, but I should not have chapters that have nothing to do with this novel...