Chapter 16: The Grand Library

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“Why do people bear guilt? Why do people practice self-condemnation? Why do you reproach yourselves for breaking your moral code? If anything you can do is advantageous or beneficial to you, why don’t you just do it? Why concern yourself with your morals and your humanity when you can aid your survival, and make your life safer? Guilt is meaningless.”

Assassin Hargreave, Shadow of the Unknown

Year 997

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--POV: Laurence—

--Place: Clarissa’s Dorm Room / Time:06:39—

Passing by the maid, I open the door. “Good morning” I barg- enter into Clarissa’s room, waking her up from her dreams.

“Five….more..minutes” Mumbling excuses? Maybe I didn’t really wake her up, so to make sure I do, I yank the blanket off the bed.

“Ahhh…so…cold” She then proceeds to curl up into a ball, with her arms around her legs and her knees under her chin, why didn’t she just use fire magic to heat herself up? Is her brain even working at this hour?

“You shouldn’t destroy your sleeping schedule, miss” A little threatening tone gets her off the bed and moving “Make sure you hurry up” I tell her another sentence as she enters the bathroom, to encourage her.

After 15 minutes of bathing (that’s a long time), she comes out completely ready, with her hair no longer dishevelled, and her nightgown replaced with a tidy blouse, coupled with a fancy (I think) skirt.

“Prepare breakfast” She orders the maid standing outside her room, and then she proceeds to sit on one of the chairs of this excessively decorated room. “So, what is it?” She asks me in a calm tone as she crosses one leg over the other.

Very shameless of her to pretend like nothing happened, especially when I had to drag her off the bed, she now acts like such things never occurred “I’m going to the library” I can finally start working on my objective since i came to this damn university, which is learning.

“I see” Don’t I see, me you brat.

“Plus, you also have something to do” The only response I get is a confused face “Didn’t you arrange to meet with Mark so he can give you a tour?”

“Ahhh” A look of realization dyes her face (is her brain still turned off?), followed by one of reluctance “Yea…I do have to do that, don’t I?” She is looking at me expectantly, does she think I’ll tell her that she doesn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to? Puppy eyes don’t work on me.

“I’m using your name to get through the library” And with those words, I leave the room, close the door and make my way to the library.

As I walk to the library, I can’t help but recall last night, and what I said.

“Is something wrong, your lordship?” I was angry at Mark, I don’t why I was. But when I saw Clarissa dancing with Mark, it was infuriating.

A part of me just wanted to rip him to shreds, right then and there in the middle of the banquet. Why? I don’t know, but I at least managed to control these emotions with my iron will. However, I have to make sure such a thing can never happen again.

The last time I lost control of my emotions, was on that day. It was….Fuck, I’m recalling bad memories, better to leave these useless thoughts for later.

“And you are?” An elderly woman seated at a desk in the front of what I assumed was the library raises an eyebrow, probably at my butler suit.

“I am a butler of Clarissa Chamberlayne, who is a freshman here” After getting a nod from the woman, I make my way through the shelves and shelves of books, until I find a certain section that piques my interest.

The summoning section.

Looking through the areas of the aisle, I find…..familiar summoning……spiritual summoning……mystical summoning……fairy summoning……ah! This is it! Spatial summoning, this is the most urgent thing I need to know of.

I grab the first book I see in this section, called Concept of Otherworlds, marking the beginning of my 3-hour long reading session.

--Place: The Grand Library/ Time:10:47—

Make that a 4-hour long period of constant reading instead. And I still come up with nothing, the whole section is filled with books on how summoning otherworldly beings might be possible. And then they write pages and pages proving how it is a theoretically plausible event.

But they don’t give any historical people who summoned these beings, or record any beings that were summoned. Not even a hint on how you’ll go about doing this summoning, only telling you, that you could.

I have never been so annoyed, and have never wasted time like I did today. My many years of boredom were more productive than this morning. With a heavy heart, I move onto the biology section next. Why is a dragon reading about biology, you ask?

Simply to confirm.

I don’t know if there are beings in this world that weren’t in my previous world, beings I have no knowledge of. And if there are, I will learn everything I can about them, in case I come across one of them on this world.

With the goal of self-preservation, I dig through this huge biology section.