Taking a deep breath, Marik pushed his feet against the ground, moving a few steps forward, he crossed the threshold of the already opened library's door.
With every step, he takes forward, and every whiff of air he inhales, the more excited he gets, and this sensation that keeps echoing in the back of his head 'you're allowed to dream big' getting louder by the second.
Upon entering the library, the first thing that stole his attention was the rows of semi-circle bookshelves.
Inhaling through his nose till his chest about to burst, Marik got to taste the scent of the aged books, he was drunk on the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and he witnessed for the first time that a hall full of books smelled like dessert.
'Ahh! the smell of knowledge....no! the fragrance of power!'
While Marik was enjoying the visual and olfactive impact brought by heaps and heaps of books, a questioning voice lured him back to reality.
"Ah? excuse me! can I help you with something?"
Following the voice, Marik turned his head to that voice's direction. He saw a young man in his late twenties behind a counter; the counter was not that long, built to the right side of the library's door.
Dressed the same as Marik, gray suit, brown hair tall enough to brush his shoulders, deep brown eyes settled above an aquiline nose, not that tall almost half a head shorter than Marik; yet the most striking peculiarity of this young man was the well-read aura wrapping him.
"Oh! hello there! you can call me Marik, I've been assigned a job in the library, this is my token!" greeted Marik, then proceeded to explain the reason behind his presence in the library, while at it, he didn't forget to show his token, to avoid any misunderstanding that may occur.
"Mm! you're new here! but the library doesn't need any new attendants!" replayed the young man with a puzzled face.
He was sure that all the available posts in the library are taken, and non of the attendants of the library is about to retire or change posts.
"Yes. I'm aware of that, still, I was given a post here, more like a new job for me based on what I promised!" said Marik back, calm and collected.
"Well, let me see with manager Edward, this is beyond me, I'm but a servant like you!" suggested the young man in a sincere tone.
"Oh! Yeah! I'm Floyd by the way" suddenly added Floyd with a smile.
Marik nodded back with a smile of his own too.
Floyd turned and started climbing the stairs right behind him, Apparently, they lead to a small separated office on the second floor, because there is another curved staircase on the opposite side of the main door, that Marik just entered from, which lead to the library section of the second floor.
Marik, on the other hand, turned his attention back to the books decorated shelves, he can barely hold himself from rushing in.
Compared to the mission hall, the library is about twice in size, and from the door to the other side of this circular building there is a distance of 100 to 120 meters, which plays the role of the library's diameter.
Yet he already feels the sphere that represents the range of his scanning ability deform and morph according to the different objects and books in the library, with every object is being scanned the range shorten in that specific direction, in the end, the furthest point the range can reach is under 20 meters, which means the scanning ability range is no longer a perfect sphere more like an irregular shape, an irregular disc to be precise, for some reason the sphere is strongly limited on the vertical axis.
Less than a minute later, Marik heard footsteps from the stairs behind the counter.
From the stairs, a middle-aged man in his late thirties with a hooked nose under a set of protruding eyes, a soft brown beard decorate his face that harmonizes with his short well-done brown hair, took the steps down toward Marik in a black suit, a telltale of his rank and status in the manor, Floyd walking calmly behind him.
The moment Edward reached Marik, he went for the main point directly: "who assigned you here?" asked Edward sternly, he knows who is responsible for the newcomers, Colton, a manager with the same rank as him, but status wise he's considered above him, courtesy of his age, and him being the second in charge of the library.
You can say he's not pleased, at least he should be informed, and he made it clear that the library doesn't need any new servants, but first, he wanted to make sure that Colton is the owner of this decision, then, the ball will be on his side of the field to do as he wishes.
Obviously, Marik can clearly perceive this from Edward's expression and tone.
Marik neither faltered nor lost his cool, he responded calmly with some traces of a smile on his face.
"Greeting sir! it was Mr. Alfred who granted me this opportunity, but maybe it's was due to the issue of the spy apprehended this morning, no one reported to you yet, sir!" Marik proceeded to explain after greeting Edward, in a crystal clear way, and composed tone.
"Mr. Alfred!!, Alfred of the Thorned Circle!" shouted Edward back in surprise.
"I'm not sure about the 'thorned Circle' issue, but I'm sure the manager who presided over the job allotment of us, new servants, goes by the name Alfred!" Marik confirmed Alfred's name while highlighting his ignorance of the Thorned Circle.
'Lucky! I asked, before making any harsh decisions!' Edward heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.
"Since it's manager Alfred's decision, then it's naturally that I'm ok with that, just fill me in with the details of your assignment!" after confirming the identity of manager who presided over the job allotment of the new servants Edward quickly accepted Marik's addition to the library in a gentler tone.
Marik went and narrated briefly what happened this morning and the specifics of his job in the library.
Anyway, this matter involves Alfred of the Thorned Circle, approval is the only thing he could do, and it's not like this going to affect him in any form.
"Floyd! I leave Marik in your hand, explain to him what the library for, and how things work around here, and of course what's allowed and what's not; for his accommodation help him after work, the keys are under the counter, as for your jobe, non of the librarians working here or worked here before, attempt it, so you're on your own!" Edward turned to face Floyd to instruct him what to do regarding Marik, then, left Marik's job for him to deal with since it's an entirely new thing to him and the library.
"As you command! sir!" Floyd assented readily.
Right after, Edward returned to his office on the second floor through the stairs behind the counter.
Ten to twenty minutes later, Floyd finished talking about the library and how things run here.
From which, Marik grasped some critical points:
Unless you're a manager or got permission or your last name is Aidass, the second floor is off-limit.
Servants are allowed to the first floor once a month for two hours.
Books can not be copied or borrowed unless you're an Aidass, or for a mission.
Floyd is accountable for registering any borrowed book, and recording all who steps a foot in the library, the Aidass family members, and the library attendant included.
Rank 5 and 4 servants and maid are responsible for cleaning the library.
The second-floor holds books about professions, which seems to be a great deal around here.
This roughly what Floyd advised Marik to focus on.
Leaving Floyd behind his counter, recording his entry to the library and adding his name to list of the library's attendants; Marik went straight to the books-filled shelves, from Floyd, he knew the books are not classified or organized in any order, because the majority of the books in the first floor are journals and biographies, like 60% of the books in the first floor, so he didn't waste time checking the books since he will eventually acquire all of them but focused on the Avatar's passive scanning ability, making sure he doesn't miss any book and calculate how much time it will take to scan the whole library, the second-floor included, he's not allowed to the upper floor but he doesn't have to be there to do it, why?!
It happened, that the library has sliding ladders to help clean or reach certain books high up on the shelves.
Taking the library's inner design in, to plan his path for the intention of scanning the whole first-floor first, Marik took a random book and started reading it leisurely on the spot.
Next, Marik started changing his location every twenty minutes, which is the time needed to scan the books closest to him while
the more distant the books are, the longer it takes to replicate them, taking all this in account Marik prognosticates that he will need from 7 to 9 hours to finish the entire first floor, but could be faster since more object and books scanned means more range, but 5 to 6 hours is the minimum.
...
The main villa, second-floor, the Marquis study room.
Knock! Knock!
Knocks echoed through the well-crafted brown-crimson door of the Marquis study room.
"Come in!" following the series of knocks, an authoritative voice reverberated in the study room reaching beyond the door.
Klick!!
With a twist of the door's knob, it opened, and the gray-haired Eadlyn entered the study.
Closing the door behind him, Eadlyn took two steps forward and greeted with a short bow: "your grace!"
In front of Eadlyn behind a classic antique-like desk made of high-quality solid wood and nice veneer, sat a middle-aged man in an extravagant white suit embroidered with golden lines blemished with the family's coat of arms in gray metallic color on the left side of the chest and the two sleeves, crowned with a coronet, small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring, has no arches, completely encircles the middle-aged man's head.
Short golden hair, a beard of the same color, sharp wide-set sky blue eyes settled above a roman nose.
"Eadlyn? what could have brought you here?" asked the golden-haired man, with a straight face, his presence overwhelming the study with a noble aura, a telltale of his high-birth, yet it's nothing compared to the breath emitting from his body, a telltale of his strength, a proof that he's of higher live-form order compared to a normal human.
"Your grace! we apprehended a little spy sent by the prince this morning, and he claims his mission is investigating the first madam a..and... even protect her and assure her well being if he ever has the chance, which seemed to be a weird motive to send a spy at the age of 22 years old, already in the 6th step of the Aura practitioner, considering the madam's circumstances!" Eadlyn calmly reported the matter of Kal, yet to stutter for a second when he mentioned the first madam, due to the turbulent and savage iron-gray Aura that erupted from the Marquis, the Aidass family patriarch.
With a frown on his face, the Marquis asked: "is the information reliable? this doesn't make any sense!"
"I know Your grace, we are not sure if the spy was fed fake information and tasked with a misleading mission, and it's was meant for us to catch him, but at least he didn't lie or hide anything" elaborated Eadlyn slowly, in a calm tone.
A short period of silence later, the Marquis spoke: "now you deal with it, I don't want this or anything else to affect the current mission, it may be Gytha's chance to recover from her weak body!" gentleness flashed in his sharp eyes when he mentioned the name 'Gytha'.
"Your grace, you mean that creature..." said Eadlyn vaguely.
"Yes! The Popobawa!" answered the Marquis with conviction.