CH 106

The library of “The King’s Sword” had a circular structure, unlike the box-like library Sophie was familiar with in her previous life. There was only one big door, and one could go inside by passing by the counter. There were always five librarians around the clock.

Sophie expected a female librarian to be there, but unfortunately, all of them were males. However, all of them welcomed Sophie with a smile. Apparently, the library would provide Sophie with a cozy place.

The library Sophie entered for the first time was much larger than she expected, and the number of books in the library was nearly double that of “The Queen’s Rose.”

The interior gave a calm feeling and was surrounded by books at all 360 degrees, and the bookshelves, tables, and chairs installed there were all a uniform reddish-brown color. Five large chandeliers hung down on the high ceiling with candles illuminating a gentle light.

As she took a closer look, everything was carefully decorated in detail, even down to the chairs. That alone would cost a considerable amount of money. Some gold star students used money to buy their stars, but it seemed that the money they paid ended up being used for this purpose.

Looking at the bookshelf in the atrium up to the third floor, Sophie thought it bore resemblance to a baumkuchen with a slice taken out of it, even though she wasn’t hungry.

“Ah…”

“Is something wrong?”

As Luca asked, Sophie hurriedly shook her head.

Just as Sophie thought of it having an impression of food, which was unlike her, she recalled it looked similar to the library that he had visited with Tenma during her previous life.

And as Tasuku had seen that, he’d told Tenma: “Look, Tenma. It’s a baumkuchen-shaped library.” Then Tenma had replied with, “Don’t you have any other impressions instead?” Tenma had gotten exasperated about it. And Sophie felt like laughing when she recalled that. 

It was fun…

Although the end of the trip was the worst, it was a fun trip.

Tasuku had gotten to see a landscape he had never seen, had experienced a climate different from Japan, and had eaten different food for the first time. Everything had felt fresh for Tasuku.

Now that I think about it, thought Sophie as she recalled.

On the first day Sophie came to “The King’s Sword,” she had a dream about Tenma. The content itself wasn’t particularly special.

However, it was the first time she had dreamt of Tenma since she became Sophie.

It was a dream about Tenma in his childhood days, where he carried a brand new, dark blue school bag on his back, and he followed Tasuku back when they were just classmates. That was all.

Even though Tenma was young back then, Sophie could already see a glimpse of adult Tenma from his sullen expression, which filled Sophie with nostalgia. 

It was a short dream that only lasted dozens of seconds, but that was certainly Tenma.

Even though Sophie was giggling when she woke up that morning, she had completely forgotten she had dreamt about Tenma until she saw this library.

Well, I guess it is okay to forget about that elementary school student’s face that lacked the cuteness of a child.

While thinking such a thing that sounded merciless to her friend, Sophie was looking at the book titles.

There were history books, autobiographies, picture books, and foreign books. There were thin and thick books. There were books that seemed to glow due to their titles being written with golden letters, and there were books whose titles were barely discernible. Sophie couldn’t help but squint as she felt impressed by the number of books that might surpass the thousands.

“Around this time, there should be no students around since they are in class, so I will be waiting near the door. Please browse all you like.”

One of the requests Sophie made to Ferio was to remove the escort whenever she was doing research, and it seemed that Luca was adhering to that properly.

Luca was cute and gentle, so Sophie didn’t feel pressured even when he escorted her, but she still wanted to concentrate when reading books after all. So Sophie was grateful for his offer.

Sophie went to the second floor while humming.

Then she found a narrow passage between the bookshelves.

There was a door beyond, but the door was open and didn’t seem to have a lock on it.1

As she walked through the narrow passage and entered the room, there were old, tall bookshelves lined up there.

For a moment, Sophie thought the room was to store stories that were written anonymously like those in “The Queen’s Rose” and she opened one of them, but it turned out to be a normal old book. Apparently, this place was a place to store old books.

“Wouldn’t a place like this normally be off limits?”

Because there was no lock on the door, Sophie concluded it should be okay to enter the room, so she proceeded to look at the books. 

Looking from top to the bottom, she found a book titled “God’s Mountain, God’s Tree.”

“God’s Mountain…?”

She thought it was some sort of myth and was about to take the book, but she couldn’t reach it since she wasn’t tall enough. It was only a few centimeters away, but her hand was unable to reach it.

Geez, even though I’d be able to reach it easily if I was as tall as my previous life self!

Although Sophie wasn’t particularly tall in her previous life, Tasuku was still taller than the current Sophie.

It can’t be helped. I’ll just ask someone to take it for me or borrow a ladder, thought Sophie as she lowered her hand, someone reached out to the book from behind Sophie and took the book.

“T-thank you very mu…”

Considering the height, Sophie thought it wasn’t Luca but one of librarians instead so she turned around, only to see a sullen, handsome man.

A handsome person she didn’t recognize took the book and passed it to Sophie.

Eh… who is this?