[Author's Note: Finally! People posted in the comments! Shoutout to Bob Jones and Ken Pan for their comments and votes! I'll create a Special Chapter that focuses on Izelia sometime soon.]
Charles POV:
After reaching the top of the floor, I walked to the plain, double oak doors and knocked on them.
A familiar husky voice called out.
"Enter."
I pushed open the double doors and was shocked by what I had seen.
Before entering Miss Medea's office, I only expected it to be twenty by twenty feet.
Instead, I found myself in what appeared to be a labyrinth of bookshelves.
"By Ishta's name! I must be in book paradise!"
Just look at how tall every bookshelf stretches! They're at least twice the height of the tower I just climbed!
Simply magnificent!
It's as though this were a citadel for books!
Any librarian, scholar, sage or wizard would be drooling over this place.
My only piece of criticism about this place is its disorderly state.
Every bookshelf I saw was lined with books of various states, subjects, sizes, appearances and languages that were all haphazardly placed together.
There weren't any signs that labelled what each bookshelf contained, nor were they placed in any specific order. It was just a mess.
What made me extremely worried was the number of books bound in thick, black chains inscribed with ancient symbols and runes.
Almost one-tenth of the books in this maze are bound by chains and emitted an unsettling aura.
Ignoring the books, I travelled down a wide path decorated with a plush red carpet with white arrows embroidered on it that were spaced several meters apart and pointed in one direction.
Presuming the arrows shall take me to where Miss Medea is, I followed the arrows.
Not long after, I stumbled across a tattered, brown leather book lying on the floor near a bookshelf.
It seems it was knocked over or wasn't placed correctly and fell by itself.
The book was bound in chains, but I ignored it when I couldn't sense any evil or unsettling energy and decided to pick it up and place it back on a shelf.
I really hate disorganization. If I had spare time, I would definitely come by and try to organize this place a little.
Reaching down, I picked up the leather book and looked at it.
What the!?!
This book is covered in moving symbols and runes!
At first glance, you can't make anything out of the book cover except for the wrinkles on the book. However, if you examine it closely and allow yourself to feel its texture without your gloves (Unlike me, who always wears a mismatched arm-length gauntlet and white glove.) you'll find that the wrinkles were actually long, dried-out words and symbols that constantly moved all over the book cover.
Moments later, after I picked up the book and realized its moving words and symbols, I found myself staring at a large flaming orange eye. After registering my presence, it began to shriek from god knows what part of this accursed thing's body.
*SKREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!*
"What the ****!"
I tossed the book to the ground and repeatedly stomped on it as a reactive instinct to make it go silent.
This was the wrong choice as the blasted thing began to scream louder than ever.
Damnit! If this place had a librarian, they would have banned me several dozen times for how much racket I'm causing!
What do I do!? I know nothing about demonic books like these! If only there were a Witch here to help me! Although "quirky," they specialize in handling cursed objects like this.
As though the Goddess had answered my prayer. Someone spoke and offered me aid.
"You seem to be struggling to calm that child. Do you perhaps need some help?"
"Indeed! I am having quite a hard time trying to get this thing to become silent! The damn book just keeps shrieking louder as time passes!"
As though to prove my point.
*SSSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
This latest shriek was so loud it caused several of the crystal chandeliers that illuminated the library/office/maze to shatter, causing a vast swathe of the place to become dark.
The darkness was momentary as the place became filled with numerous small blue flames the size of a fist.
These flames emitted a bright light and enabled me to clearly see what the person who spoke to me looked like.
Oh boy, was I in for a shock!
After turning around to give her the book, I was met face-to-face with a gently smiling, six-feet-tall, endowed, voluptuous and beautiful girl with long floor-length pink hair and kind, sleepy pink eyes.
The girl wore the typical blue uniform of a Babylonia Academy student, although a girl of her size and mature looks wearing clothes tailored for teens and under is a little off and pleasing to the eye at the same time.
Hmm, I wonder how Izelia would look in a school uniform? Her body proportions certainly seem to fit a student in their late teens. Without a doubt, she'll look adorable in it.
The pink-haired girl took the screaming book out of my hands and began muttering in strange whispers and incantations that caused the temperature around us by several degrees.
As she chanted, the book's screams slowly quieted down. Finally, it stopped crying, and the creepy eye on its front cover closed.
After the girl put the book on a spacious shelf, she began to speak to me.
"You should be careful, sir. Every book bound in chains like that one are usually dangerous grimoires or forbidden tomes."
"One small mishap and you might trigger a domino effect that causes the entire Academy to be destroyed."
Cause the entire Academy to be destroyed!? I've seen powerful spells that have destroyed entire cities, but that kind of large-scale destruction takes lots of time and power to cast. Not to mention if you get even single small detail in the spell wrong. You could end up hurting you and your allies instead of the enemy.
"If there's a chance of such an incident occurring, wouldn't it be better to place these dangerous books in a faraway place or destroy them?"
The girl pondered for a few moments before answering.
"Honestly, I have no clue. I agree these books should be locked up somewhere other than a school. However, I think the main reasons are:
1. It'll be a waste to toss away someone's work/research that may be valuable in the future in case we need any information about some unknown plague caused by dark magic or something similar.
2. The greed and dispute between nations, if we were to store the grimoires and other dangerous books in another location outside of our Academy's jurisdiction, nations with hidden agendas like the Beland Kingdom, Francois Republic, Vikar Alliance, and many others (mainly human-ruled) who seek to get the advantage on the other will find our treasure trove of knowledge to be invaluable and do whatever they can to get their hands on information or power that could give them the edge to gain victory. The moment we decide to relocate our library full of grimoires and other forbidden tomes from the Academy to another location, politicians and diplomats from various other countries would come swarming to the Academy like locusts to lush wheat fields and demand we build our library in their territories. If we refuse them, relations will sour, and they might take hostile action against the Academy. On the other hand, if we accept one of them, we'll be assumed to be under that nation's banner, and slowly, bit by bit, the country we agreed to relocate our library to will slowly absorb us and indoctrinate their culture onto us before we are completely annexed.
3. The reason that decides everything. The Headmaster."
"The Headmaster?"
"Yes, she just wants to keep the books here."
...
...
"Any reason for that, like they might contain information pertaining to the secrets of raising someone from the dead or interdimensional travel?"
"None."
"Is it like a hobby of some sort?"
"Pretty much. I'm not entirely sure why. The Headmaster compares it to a child collecting bugs or a wine connoisseur hoarding lots of wine he'll probably never use in his lifetime. It's a very peculiar habit of hers. The Headmaster would always try to collect more books whenever the opportunity arises, but once she got her hands on the books she desires, she'll give them a brief skim before locking/throwing them away into this library."
"The way she behaves is like a spoiled child. They would constantly beg his family to buy a toy they wanted, but after they got bored with it after a few hours of playing, he'll toss it away and then beg their family to buy the next interesting thing they laid their eyes on."
"Oh! Goodness, gracious! I'm terribly sorry for going on such a long rant. I almost forgot to introduce myself!"
The pink-haired girl gave a slight bow as an apology and began introducing herself.
"My name is Isabella Amphrosia. I am a second year at Babylonia Academy. I specialize in Illusions and Curses. Pleased to meet you!"
My, my, my! What a polite young lady! If I ever have a daughter, I would like her to be as well-mannered as her.
Since she gave a brilliant introduction, I shall respond in kind.
"It is nice to meet you, Isabella. I am Charles Integra. I am a knight from another world and Lilith Sharon's Familiar. I may be old, but I still have some spirit in me. If you need some training tips, feel free to ask!"
"Why, thank you! I-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the words I said finally began to sink into her head.
"Hold on! Did you say you're from another world, and you're also Lilith Sharon's Familiar!?"
"Yes, I did."
Isabella's expression turned blank as she sorted out the bizarre information she just heard. This is to be expected as it isn't every day you meet a person who came from another world.
After a full minute passed, with her thinking so hard to the point I could almost see the imaginary gears grinding in her head, Isabella finally responded.
"Do you happen to have any important matters to attend to? I wish to ask you several questions that I'm afraid may take up quite a bit of your time."
"I'm afraid so. The reason I came to this majestic (but also messy) library in the first place was to meet with Miss Medea to discuss my qualifications to join the Academy staff. Then I got sidetracked by a demonic book, then you swooped in to help me out and now here we are."
"Oh! I am terribly sorry! Please, allow me to make up for it by taking you to where the Headmaster is."
"I shall take you up on that offer."
Isabella took out a golden medallion, whose symbols and details I couldn't make out clearly.
The medallion glowed, and the bookshelves came to life, reshuffling and moving around us until a straight path was formed.
"Thank you so much for giving me a chance to make up for your wasted time!"
"Wasted time? Not at all! I find speaking with you to be quite interesting and engaging! As someone not from this world, I don't exactly have many people I could talk to, so I consider myself truly blessed to be able to acquaint myself with a fine young lady such as yourself."
*Giggle!*
"Aren't you quite a talker? I bet in your younger years, many young ladies must have had their hearts broken by you!"
"Oh, you would be shocked to see the numbers!"
We bantered, cracked a few jokes, and talked about trivial things like our favourite colour or foodstuffs. Honestly, if I never met Izelia and was thirty to forty years younger, we might become an item.
That's only "However" though.
In this life, my heart belongs to Izelia and her alone. Unless she pushes me toward polygamy. I'd be surprised if she did push me towards polygamy since elves were known to be very traditional and sometimes conservative in their culture and beliefs.
As I talked with Isabella, I learned about some of the countries of this world.
"Since you're from another world, I might as well give you a brief rundown on the major countries you'll need to know about so people don't mistake a charmer like you for an idiot."
"On Lunara, there are several continents. The largest by far is Luma, the continent we're on right now."
"As the largest continent, it houses many different countries, because we only have a few minutes before we reach the Headmaster, I'll give a brief run-down on the major countries everyone has some basic knowledge of."
"They are the Beland Kingdom, Germain Empire, Elvar, Doral, Bermun, the Vikar Alliance, the Lunaris Theocracy, Francois Republic and the Manaria Confederacy."
"The Manaria Confederacy is the country where we're at right now. Although small and landlocked near the dead center of the continent, the Confederacy is rich in resources and has several mountain ranges that make the country hard to invade. This also means the Confederacy can't invade other countries due to the mountain ranges. Several attempts were made to destroy the mountains through Strategic Magic but the mountains would always return to their original size overnight.
The Manaria Confederacy is made up of a council with representatives from a variety of kingdoms, academies, factions and clans. Although sometimes slow to reach a decision or pass a law, internal conflicts are at a minimum because of the constant threat of other much larger countries invading."
"The Beland Kingdom, the home country of the annoying, red-haired womanizing narcissist you beat, is located west of the Confederacy. It is the largest of the Western countries and the most powerful, with only the Knight Kingdom, Pendar, capable of holding its own against them."
"It is said that the Beland Kingdom was established by a messenger of the gods. Little is known about him except for his commonly known signature black hair and the harem of women he had. The Beland Kingdom welcome trade and interactions with other foreign countries, meaning their relations with most other countries are good for the most part."
"They also rarely engage in war, but when they are dragged into one, their enemies better be prepared as throughout the Kingdom's entire history, they had never lost a single battle, let alone a war."
"Also if you're worried that they might take revenge on you for humiliating their third prince, don't worry. His reputation is bad and the faction that supports him, which was small to begin with, became even smaller after his defeat at your hands became an international sensation."
Wait, hold on.
"Did you say international sensation?"
Isabella became so engrossed in our conversation about the major powers of Lunara that she completely ignored my question. I suppose once I've finished my meeting with Miss Medea, I'll just Miss Helen or Miss Lilith about the international uproar I caused.
"Next are the Germain Empire and Francois Republic. These two countries share a deep history with one another."
"The Germain Empire is located East of the Confederacy, it is by far the largest and arguably the strongest nation on the continent. Originally, the Empire was made up of many smaller squabbling states, with most of them being controlled by the former Francois Kingdom, a powerful island nation, which ruled the seas and had just as much history and fame as the Beland Empire, which was several hundred miles across the sea away from them. The formation of the Germain Empire was complicated, but to sum things up, all the smaller states were fed up with the corruption and incompetence of the Francois Kingdom, and the citizens of the Francois Kingdom also felt the same about their leadership after a costly war with Beland. Together, they staged a two-front revolution. The former mighty Francois Kingdom fell in weeks and was split in two. The smaller states formed the Germain Empire while the Francois Kingdom transformed into the Francois Republic."
"After working together, the newly formed Francois Republic and Germain Empire were at each others' throats. Why? The Francois Republic expected the small mainland nations to continue being under Francois control after the revolution. However, the smaller states finally had a taste of independence and decided to completely split from Francois."
"Under normal circumstances, the Francois Republic might have let them off and accepted their independence if it weren't for the fact that their economy was bust and the form of government the smaller states had (monarchy/authoritarianism) was in direct conflict with the form of government the Francois Republic had (democracy)."
"The next several decades were utter chaos for the Francois Republic and a golden age for the Germain Empire. To keep things simple, otherwise, this entire chapter would become a history lesson, the Francois Republic went to war with the Empire for their resources, but the Empire held and kicked the Republic out of their last mainland holdings. With such a disastrous defeat, the Republic went through economic and political instability that caused several more revolutions before finally stabilizing. The Empire meanwhile, rode on the wave of success and subjugated the remaining smaller Eastern states and integrated them into the Germain Empire we now know today."
"Due to their past militaristic and expansionist behaviour and policies, the Germain Empire isn't received too favourably by many countries. The Francois Republic on the other hand remained isolated due to the distance that separated them from the other mainland countries besides the Germain Empire, who was the closest.
"The last major human nation is the Vikar Alliance, and we know almost nothing about them except for the fact that they live up north in dangerous frozen wastes. However, it is said that due to living in such a harsh place, every man, woman and child was trained from birth to become warriors to prepare them for the harsh life of the North. Although they formed a state and council much like the Confederacy, the clans and factions of the Vikar Alliance constantly bickered with one another over the smallest of grudges. This meant there were little to no technological advancements in their country."
"If you want to know more about Vikar's history and culture, I suggest you ask Professor Emily."
Miss Emily? I didn't take her for a history teacher. I honestly thought she'd be the type that would give out Spartic Training as a light warm-up for Physical Education. A gorilla if you will.
"Next are the three non-human dominated countries, Bermun, Elvar and Doral."
"Elv-"
Before Isabella could tell me more about the last three countries, I heard a familiar husky voice, accompanied by the smell of smoke.
"My, my, my! I see you two are bonding quite nicely! I was worried that my sweet Isabella would be very cold and rude toward you."
"I'm glad to see how well you two get along together!"
We stopped our conversation and turned to look at a chocolate-skinned woman lying on her side atop a spacious couch, with a table laden with snacks and tea.
Just like the first time we met, smoke from the pipe she smoked covered her head in a thick fog that made it impossible to see her true face.
Unlike last time, she wasn't wearing a scandalously revealing black-laced dressing gown that displayed all her curves. Instead, she was wearing normal dark, long-sleeved robes.
Miss Medea then spoke with a teasing tone.
"From the look on your face, were you expecting to see something else?"
"Honestly, from the way you dressed and acted the first time we met, yes."
*Giggle!*
"My! How honest! I really like honest men. You're also quite strong and fit the bill for my preferred looks, body and age. Want to have dinner in my room tonight?"
"I'll be sure to clean it up and change myself into something appropriate for such a special occasion."
"So? How about it? I promise to give you a night you won't forget."
"As flattered as I am to receive the invitation to dinner from the Headmaster herself, I already have someone I'm interested in, and I believe we should discuss the topic we originally agreed to meet together for.
"Hmm, down-to-earth and loyal. That already ticks off several more of my preferences. Fufufu! Alright! I'll be serious. We can make our dinner plans after we've discussed the topic we both came here for."
"Here take a seat."
Miss Medea snapped her fingers and conjured an armchair that I sat in.
Then, Miss Medea turned her attention to Miss Isabella, who was still in the space with us.
"Isabella dear, do you mind staying over at Emily's tonight? Just in case Sir Knight agrees to dinner and a little "Evening Desert" after this. Okay?"
Miss Isabella's smiling and calm composure wavered a little at what she heard Miss Medea say.
"Headmaster, I don't think that's something you be so casual to talk to your students about."
"Don't worry! I've watched you grow up since you were practically a baby! We're like family at this point!"
"Ha, whatever, you never bother to listen to me anyway. This is why you're still single and thirsting for someone even if several times younger than you."
I felt as though my brain electrocuted itself from hearing their "private" discussion.
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing."
"Thought so, if you said what I think you said, I'll make sure you won't be sleeping tonight. *Giggle!*
Isabella turned as pale as a sheet and began to leave.
"Farewell, and best of luck to you, Sir Charles. I hope the next time we meet, we'll both be in one piece. Also, don't feel pressured by the Headmaster's dinner invitation. She's usually joking about that 98.54% of the time."
"Farewell to you to, when we meet, I'd like to hear more about the last three countries you didn't have time to mention."
"Thanks! I'll be sure to tell you more!"
We waved each other goodbye, after that, Isabella left the office.
Hold on a minute!?
How is she able to freely enter and leave the Headmaster's office whenever she wants!?!
What exactly is Miss Medea and Miss Isabella's relationship!?!
Why does she seem to know the layout of the library so well!?!
*PHEW*
Deep internal breaths Charles, focus on what you originally came here for. You can ask questions later. Right now, you need to get yourself a teaching position.
Alright, I'm calm.
"Now, shall we begin, Miss Medea?"
"Let us begin."
[Author's Note: Forgot to talk about the Lunaris Theocracy, sorry about that. I'll talk about it in some other chapters]