Chapter 96: Flipping An Invisible Switch

Chapter 96: Flipping An Invisible Switch

Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

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Finally walking up the last few steps and making it onto the top floor, I noticed a short elf, completely absorbed in her book. -Why is she here?-

It was the Grandmaster, the head of the academy, but she somehow didn’t seem to notice me. -I guess I didn't hit her that hard after all...-

Not wanting to stir up more trouble, I quietly walked past and disappeared behind a bookshelf. -Alright.. Let's see what this floor has to offer, shall we?-

So far, each floor had a different subject.

The first floor was mostly books and novels for entertainment, the second floor was ‘recent’ history, the third was math, and the fourth and fifth floors were both mixes of magic theory and some of magic’s darker history as well.

I was hoping for something on religion, the gods, or maybe some hints on how they work or who they are since Kaelallan was once a religious nation, but the shelf I was looking at only had advanced magic theory.

-Oh, come on...- Although I could have found something that could expand my knowledge of magic, from what I had skimmed through, the ‘advanced magic theory’ was far behind my level. -I always preferred figuring things out on my own as well, so it works out...-

*fwip-fwip-fwip* I casually skimmed through books as I walked around, but after clearing entire shelves, time slowly started slipping away, and I was still left empty-handed.

-How is there nothing that can even relate to religion...- Everything I had looked through on my half of the floor was either magic theory or moderately interesting tidbits of Kaelallan’s ancient history. -But besides the church being occasionally mentioned in a few of those, there was nothing!-

It was genuinely upsetting to be left with so little information. -The church still existed only 800 years ago. How is there nothing on it? Is it just on the other half of the floor...-

Coming out from around the bookshelf, I started casually walking towards the Grandmaster to look at the back of the bookshelf she stood at.

"Only a handful of people can come up here, kid. Just walk back downstairs and don't make it hard on me..." She spoke without even turning around to see who I was, likely only sensing my thinned presence.

"And why would I need to ask for permission to come up here?"

She paused in the middle of flipping a page. "Haah.. I don't know what noble family you come from, but just lea-" She slowly turned around before her voice was cut short.

"How are you healing?" I gave a sarcastic smile as I tried to hold back a laugh.

She was wearing some sort of cast on her arm, but it was perfectly wrapped around her staff so she couldn't let it go.Fiind updated novels at novelhall.com

-Pffft.. how does she sleep with that thing?!-

Although I was laughing inside, she clearly didn't find anything funny. "Not wearing a uniform, trespassing in the library, and taunting a teacher... To think a student would dare get so many violations in one go... Haah.."

My playful smile immediately disappeared upon hearing her response. -Wait, what? Does she seriously not remember anything?- "You actually don't recognize me?"

"I'm glad." She still wore a half-forced, awkward smile.

"I..is your mother still not feeling good?" I asked slightly awkwardly.

Viviana’s family, much like countless other folks, especially in the middle or lower class, were affected quite heavily by everything that had happened and during the whole disaster a few days ago, Viviana's family caught the brunt of it.

Her mother, being the maid of a noble in the upper district, was one of the first to succumb to mana exhaustion outside of the palace, but instead of being found and treated fairly quickly, she passed out in the entrance to a closet with cleaning equipment and wasn’t found for several hours.

"The clinic said she is just sick from extended mana exhaustion, but.. it’s already been a few days and she is still really sick..."

I knew from my studies at home that the longer someone went without mana, the more likely they were to succumb to a conventional illness, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell Viviana that since it would just make her worry more. "Do you want to take her to the royal clinic or want me to send someone out to look at her? We have artifacts that can help ease her symptoms..."

Viviana gave me a hopeful look before pulling herself back."No.. I don't want to burden you guys any more than I already have."

"Come on.. you should know by now that you're not burdening us.. maybe the doctor, but not us." I tried to crack a joke and smile a bit to cheer her up, and thankfully, it worked

"Haha.. alright... I'll try to get in and talk to mom about it." Although normally she would have just consulted her father, he was a knight in the military and was currently heading toward the Kingdom of Zan.

"Alright, please keep me updated..." I tried to comfort her a bit before thinking of a way to make it so she couldn’t refuse, but before I could finalize anything, a wave of mana blew across the lunch room.

*Vwoom* It was nothing insane, but easily noticeable with my mana sensitivity.

At the very least though, it was immediately obvious who it was.

-Did something bad happen?- I quickly hopped up from my seat and set my hand on Viviana’s shoulder. "Follow me quickly.. I think Vasilias-" But before I could finish, the mana that suddenly shot into the lunchroom started getting sucked back toward the library before returning to normal.

"Huh? What did he do?" Viviana looked at me, concerned.

"I..I’m not sure.." I looked around the lunch room and noticed very few people seemed to have noticed anything. -The floor didn’t shake so.. Maybe everything is alright...-

But that didn’t really sit well with me.

-I should check just in case, but...- Seeing Viviana still eating her food, I forced myself to sit back down.

"Hm? Are we not going anywhere?" Viviana looked like a confused puppy.

"Haah, we will go later. Let's just enjoy the rest of lunch, alright? You want a few berries?" I reached out to hand her a few small, dark blue berries.

"Yes please!" She immediately swiped them out of my hand before munching on a few with a face of satisfaction.

It was quick to bring a smile to my face and ease my worries. -My worry is probably unnecessary anyways...-