Chapter 266 - Royal Library

When she arrived back at the castle, she was approached by a maid.

"Miss Shiro, I'm the personal maid that the elders' have assigned to help your group. If you have any inquiries, feel free to ask me." The maid bowed.

[Annie LVL 100 Tempest Queen]

She had blond hair tied up into a ponytail, clear blue eyes and a modest physique. From her appearance alone, Shiro guessed that she was in her early to late 20's. A very young age to be level 100 considering the standard of average adventurers.

"Hm, since you said so, is it ok if I ask you to show me the royal library? I wish to search for information." Shiro asked with a smile.

"Of course. Right this way." She nodded.

Walking through the corridors, Shiro decided to ask her a few questions.

"So if you don't mind me asking, how old are you Annie?"

"I'm 26 this year." Annie replied.

"Heh~ 26 years old and level 100 is quite an achievement." Shiro praise.

"Haha, it's nothing if I compared myself to you miss Shiro. Despite being looking so young, you're already level 60. How old are you?" Annie chuckled.

"Well I'm not too sure. I did have amnesia before I met Lyrica after all." Shiro shrugged. If Annie saw her true form without the disguise, she would surely be surprised. Plus, it hasn't even been a year since her reincarnation.

Constant dungeon runs, quests and raids that were above her level had massively boosted her strength within this period of time. If one didn't follow her path of constant danger, they would need around two to three years to get to her level. Some may even be longer since they could struggle with killing monsters or lack the capability to make the best out of their class.

"Well one can only stay young for so long. With a few exceptions of course." Annie smiled.

"Oh? Seems like you know someone?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"You could say that. We call her The Immortal Saika since she looks like a very young teen despite being in her 40's."

"Heh~ The Immortal Saika huh? She sounds interesting." Shiro smiled with interest. It reminded her of what Helion had told her before. How he had fallen in love with a girl that looked his age but turned out to be a 32 year old married woman.

"Hmm… Lolibaba was the word I think? I saw it on the web and I think it means an older woman that looks very young."

"Haha, Saika will be angry if you call her that." Annie laughed but realized that she was outstepping her bounds as a maid.

"Ah I apologize for my misconduct." She quickly bowed.

"Ai, don't worry about it. I prefer people being casual around me. If you're worried about professionalism, just think of it this way. Since the elders granted us VIP treatment, then I request that you act casual around me or else I'll be uncomfortable and it would no longer be good service." Shiro grinned.

"… If that's what you wish." Annie nodded and relaxed herself a little. Since the elders had told her to respect Shiro as much as she could, she was worried about her performance. Thankfully, it turned out that Shiro was rather relaxed and didn't mind her being casual.

"So anyways, back to the Lolibaba Saika. How young does she look and what does she do?" Shiro asked. She wanted some entertainment after hours of researching about herself.

"Hmm… if I had to say, she looked around 13 to 14? Her husband had been pulled away for questioning a few times now. It's almost become a common sight in this city. As for what she does, she's a government worker that focuses on public order." Annie chuckled at the memory of seeing Saika's husband crying out in protest while the new staff that was patrolling the area dragged him away. It had even become a small welcoming party for new patrolmen who hadn't seen or heard about Saika and her husband.

"I wonder what causes her to look so young though."

"Apparently, it was because of her race. Her father was a dwarf while her mother was a human. Since she's a half dwarf, she ages a lot slower." Annie replied while placing a finger on her chin.

As they continued to discuss about Saika and her husband, Shiro found herself quite eager to meet the woman in question. It wasn't often that one would find someone like her after all.

"Ah we're here." Annie gestured to a large set of doors down the corridor.

Looking around her, Shiro noticed that the library seemed to be inside the giant tree that the castle surrounds. Looking at the tree, she guessed that it was a world tree but couldn't be sure.

"Say Annie, what's with the giant tree?" Shiro asked.

"Ah that's a Juvenile World Tree Sapling. Unfortunately, it's not been able to grow at all since the Essence Flame has been lost. If you don't know, the Essence Flame is a treasure of our race that can heal everything that it touches. It had a special effect with the world tree and helped it grow. But now that it's gone, we can only try to keep the tree alive as best we can." Annie replied with a sad smile.

"Seems like you treasure the tree quite a bit."

"Well the growth of the world tree is a sign of the elven races prosperity. Ever since we've lost the Essence Flame, bad things constantly occurred to the elven race. Example being the conflict between the princes." Annie sighed.

Hearing her response, Shiro guessed that the elven race sees the tree as a religious icon of sorts. Much like Jesus for humans, the world tree was just as important to the elves.

"Ah sorry about the depressing tone. Let me open the library for you." Annie coughed lightly and jogged over to the door.

Pulling out an access key of sorts, a magic circle spread out over the door.

Watching the door open, Shiro peeked through the gap and saw that it was a rather small library when compared to the public one that she had just visited.

'I suppose that makes sense since the other library was made so that lots of people could access it.'

The royal library was made up of three floors. On the first floor, she could see several consoles where one would search up the information they required. On the second floor, it was marked down as recipes and the third floor was for martial art manuals.

To access floors, one would need an access key. One that wasn't given to Shiro since she was only allowed on the first floor.

"Say, Annie, who is allowed on the second and third floor?" Shiro asked curiously.

"Only elders and the ruler can access those two floors unless they were given permission. It's filled with important doc.u.ments after all. Normal people like me can never hope to see the contents of the books stored in those levels." Annie shrugged but wasn't too bothered.

Suddenly feeling a vibration in her pocket, Annie pulled out her phone and checked her notification.

"Ah sorry Shiro, I need to leave for a moment. I'll just be waiting outside ok?" She apologized.

"No worries." Shiro replied with a smile.

After watching Annie leave, Shiro walked over to the consoles and tried to search up more information regarding her identity.

After browsing for a while, she realized something quite surprising. Any information regarding Kuromi had been limited to Japan and the places near japan. Outside of this, all information about her had either been censored or deleted.

It was as if someone was trying to limit the amount of people that knew about Kuromi.

"Hmm… quite strange." Shiro muttered.

Noting down the fact that her information had been heavily limited, Shiro tried to find other useful information but came up empty. All she found was notes regarding her actions and ball crushing habits.

She had also found some records of 'Shiro' in the Kuromi's fan site but was dubbed as someone who was trying to intimidate her. Some people on the site was suspicious but decided to wait for the Asakura family to return from the current Demon Continent excursion before making a decision.

Realizing that this was why the Asakura family hadn't made a move regarding her identity, Shiro wondered how long it was going to take.

'I may have just offended two tier 4 beings by taking over Kuromi's body.' Shiro sighed.

Shaking her head, she looked up at the second and third floor and narrowed her eyes.

'I might be able to sneak into the different floors…' She mused to herself as a grin crept up on her face.

With her knowledge of magic and her skill rift walker, this should be a breeze.