After that, the four parted ways and Alex followed Ashoka.
At night, the corridors of the palace were even more maze-like, and the part that Alex was only a small portion of the palace.
As they were walking through the dimly lit corridors, a particularly bright passage attracted Alex's attention.
When he looked through, he saw...
'Shelves upon shelves, all filled with...books?!' Alex thought that the productivity of his typewriter was quite good, but it would take years of work to fill up all of the shelves in this library with his own printed books.
"Ashoka, how do you have so many books?" Alex had wide eyes.
"Well, every single merchant that passes through here has to provide a copy of any literary text they have with them, and of course, we take the original and give them the copy."
He continued, "Throughout the years, we have accumulated hundreds of thousands of scrolls and books."
"You take the original and...give them the copy....?" Alex burst out into loud laughter.