Chapter 39: The library

The library of the St. Leferia Academy.

As befitting a library of the highest academy, its size and collection of books were among the best on the continent.

If there's anyone who visits libraries like that particularly often, it's this man—Professor Lafitte. He is a self-confessed bookworm and visits the library every day at 7 p.m. without fail.

The same thing happened today.

"Hello, professor."

Every librarian he encountered greeted him softly in a small voice. Because they see each other so often, they have become familiar with each other. Professor Lafitte also nodded silently. His footsteps led to a section filled with extensive books on the church, including its history and doctrines.

He was searching through books related to the sect, hoping that they might hold clues to solving the mystery of Leferia Academy.

While he was walking as usual, he suddenly paused.

"Huh?"

Lafitte suddenly made an expression as if he had seen something strange.

Then he shook his head.

'Is presbyopia already here? I need to take better care of my eyes.'

He was convinced that he had seen something. That was because he'd never seen 'that person' here even once.

Was she reading 'that kind of book' too?

That's completely nonsense. Yeah, that's right. Lafitte concluded that he had made a mistake and was about to take another step.

But he looked away again, as if to check if there was even the slightest doubt left.

And...

"What, what? Is this real?"

Lafitte opened his eyes wide and let out a loud noise without realizing it. He quickly covered his mouth. Fortunately, since it was a large library, there were no people around, and no one paid attention to this place.

He looked around once and quickly approached 'that human.'

A sickly-looking girl with a pale complexion. It was a face he knew very well—Blood Witch Riviera. She was right there.

"...What are you doing now?" Lafitte asked with a bewildered expression.

"Reading a book."

Who doesn't know that? That's because the title of the book she was holding was ridiculous.

"No, why are you reading that kind of book?"

****

The book she was currently holding, he had never read it. But he could tell just by looking at it. It was a book written to somehow teach the basics of magic to goblin-level fools.

Why was she reading such a book?

"I... am trying....to..."

Riviera suddenly muttered with a gloomy expression.

Lafitte looked at her with eyes that said that couldn't be true.

She blurted it out to him.

"The look in his eyes was different."

"... ... ."

Eyee? What look?

"He has eyes that yearn to learn."

"..."

What the hell is this? It seemed like she was stressed out and not in her right mind. In this case, it was best to avoid it.

"Uh... Okay... I see. That's good." Lafitte gave a vague answer and ran away without looking back.

Soon only Riviera remained where they had been.

"Pathetic." After muttering like that, she buried her head in the book again.

* * *

"Good."

I closed the magic book with a satisfied expression. Choosing to learn the basics of magic from Riviera had been an excellent decision.

It was so different from Hiresia.

Riviera explained the key points clearly and made them easy to understand with a teaching skill that was almost on par with a regular instructor's.

The concepts and principles were firmly ingrained in my head. Once I started to lay the foundation, studying magic became much easier.

"Why do I know this now?"

Even though I muttered that, it was actually a method that could never be used as the main character.

The only strange relationship that could threaten her was with that bastard Max and his gang.

At first, I wanted to express my gratitude to Max for his human relations, but when I thought about the future, that wasn't the case. It was obvious how she would react once she achieved her goal of infiltrating the academy.

Anyway, that's that, and now is now.

"At this point, things are going pretty well."

Except for interpersonal relationships, everything was going according to plan.

I checked the calendar. An important day was approaching: a dungeon appearance event that occurs on Mount Hakin.

This is a hidden event I absolutely must not miss.

Not only for me but also for the main character.

"I should start taking care of the main character soon."

What can I do, though, because he's an ugly protagonist who can't grow up properly. To survive in this game, you have to take good care of each other and coexist.

"I guess I'll have to get moving sometime tomorrow."

I already have a plan in my head: a plan to drag the protagonist and Annette to Mount Harkin. I checked the plan one last time.