I've worked at the ranch for three days until I got transferred to do indoor's work back at The Apeiros Library, named after the very man who founded the House of Ophis. Some said he was born half human and half serpent. His works and other's scholars that followed in his footsteps all have a bit of their legacy, written through the pages of the books, scroll forms that have kept in this large gothic building separated from the main Academy's castle and connected by a colonnade. It built in with hardwood shelves against the walls by niches, a large open sitting area in the middle of the library and wide octagon shaped glazed window, atop side of it, facing the tall royal castle… Truly a masterpiece of architectural work beyond time!
The last time I was here and got lost until late night… haven't come here since then. Now during the festival, there are few who visited here, so it's the perfect time to reorganize these shelves… well if only I didn't have to do all of these alone.
Ahhhhh - I screamed internally. Goodness! There's too many books in here! And these dumb kids… they didn't place the book at the right row of the genre… Damn it! I have to walk across the whole room just to put it in the right place!
"Ichi!! Stop chewing on the book!" I yelled at my familiar. I usually don't bring Ichi around with me, but because the library is quite segregated from the other hall, I thought it would be fine to let him tag along for once.
"Ughh.. this book's torn.. I'm gonna get into trouble." I said to myself.
Even though I estimated him to be around a week old, he has grown to the length of my forearm, which is already thrice the size of his egg… I wonder how big he will grow..
As I bent down to pick a book up, I heard a creak at the door opening, and Ichi instantly ran and hid behind a shelf. I walked up and peeked out of the corner to see who it was. A gloomy girl, with long black wavy hair covering a side of her face entered. Oh! I remember her, the girl that bumped into me awhile back when I walked out of the student's council room. She was intimidating… but looking at her now.. she doesn't look half as bad as I thought.
Hmph should I approach her?… oh never mind, she's walking my way..Crap! Out of instinct, I ducked down, making sure she didn't see me. As I was hiding, I could hear small footsteps slowling approaching towards my direction. As she's gotten closer, my heart kept racing, thumping louder each time that I thought the whole room can hear it.
Suddenly, her marching's sound stopped at the very opposite side of the shelf I was hiding. At the bottom, I could clearly see her shadow, looming across from me. Rustling noises that coming over the top of my head as she's browsing through the books.
Ughh.. she's sure taking her time.. as I waited for her to finish what she's was doing, some thoughts clouded up on my mind and suddenly, it turned into silence.. huh. I slowly turned to look up behind and the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"… where did she go?" I muttered to myself.
"Behind you." It was a dead tone voice coming from a woman behind me. I thought that I have heard this voice somewhere before.
I quickly turned around to find that scary black haired woman standing behind me. She was wearing a uniform, similar to mine but with a inner layer fabric, covering to her very neck. On her left hand she was holding a leather book and the other pressing against her waist like she was waiting for me to turn around. As I expected, she is pretty intimidating…
"H-hi…" I said to the girl.
"Greetings, miss Corvus." The girl replied.
"Oh! You know me?" I asked.
She looked at me a bit dumbfounded. "..? Of course I know who you are. You're the one and only, miss Kannavis of the Corvus, after all." The woman said.
"Ahh.. right." I said embarrassingly. This nervousness's really making me saying some dumb stuff.
I cleared my throat and asked her- "Umm.. is there anything I can help you with? Any particular book you're looking for?"
"Mmm.. nothing of important. I found what I was looking for…but I'm suprised a little bird is here…hah.. seemed like the rumor isn't as true as they said." The woman talked in riddle. And What rumors? No actually, which rumor is she talking about?
"Uhh.. I'm sorry, but have we met before?" I asked, feeling a bit of sense of familiarity from her.
She stared at me, with an absurd expression on her that slowly turned into a frown. Again, that expression when she bumped into me last time. What have I done to deserve such a hateful look?
She finally sighed and replied- "No, I don't think so. Please, excuse me." She then turned away and heads out without any further talk, but that look of her earlier, it was gnawing at me, so I couldn't help but followed her.
"Wait! Did I do something wrong? You were looking so angry… if there's anything I could do, then-" I said, then suddenly she interrupted.
"Haa.. Miss Corvus.. stop trying to pretend to be nice and all that. You're being such a nuisance, you know that.." the woman said irritatedly.
Eeekk! That's hurtful!… but w-what, a nuisance?! Did I accidentally get involved in her business or something?! That would explain why she doesn't seemed to have a good impression of me. Right now, she looked like she might bite my head off if I approached any further; therefore, I just leave her be.
"Anyway.. I have work to do… let's see.." I said. Then, suddenly Ichi came out of no where and landed on my head.
"Ah! Ichi! Where did you hide to earlier huh? You left me all alone with that scary woman.. if that woman saw you, she would have made a meat skewer out of a slimy child like you, you know?" I jokingly said. Mean while, Ichi shivered in fear by mean taunting.. oh poor child.
I laughed- "hehe.. I'm just kidding~… let's finish this quickly yeah.. maybe we can also go sightseeing around the festival for a bit."
It's been four days since the event started. Because of this punishment, I have to suffered from hearing only the excitement and festivities from afar. In game, you're mostly playing as the main protagonist, going around their romance story. It's a shame that the main storyline wasn't able to shown much of the world's vibrancy that is if you're not apart it. This is a grand opportunity, one of a lifetime, to experience a fantasy world's seasonal festival! I couldn't let this slip out of my hand!
As I was rushing to get everything done, a thought crossed my mind. It's been days hasn't it since the champion's candidates tournament start… has it ended yet I wonder.. Everybody were all hyped up because of those epic battles… such a shame I haven't been able to witnessed any yet… maybe there's still some matches left, I should go and see..
*Meanwhile in the alchemist lab*
*Creaks…Click*
Somewhere in a tiny room crowed by brewing tools such as brewing stands, glasses bottles neatly organized next to the stands mixture, and jars that held in some indescribable substances and weird objects were placed in the room.The moment you opened the door, you're greeted by the scents of herbal fragrance like Chinese medicine, shelves of books to the walls facing the side of the door and two rows of hard concrete counter tables that's full of alchemist instruments.
To the right corner, Hedera was in his lab robe, brewing some sort of dark liquid potions. The moment he recited some sort of spell under his breath, it turned bright pink.
The black haired woman walked in and Hedera took notice.
"Ah! You're back! Well..did you find the book just like I told you?" Hedera asked delightedly.
"Of course I did. You know I have good eyes for this." The woman said with a smug look on her face as she handed the book to him.
Hedera laughed it off and continued- "haha!.. that I know. You're the best of us, after all." Hedera took the book from her hand and continued on what he was doing. Meanwhile, the woman went back and hopped on one of the counter, cruising around, touching the stuffed bottles.
"I met little birdie at the library earlier." The woman said.
"Oh yeah? Well, what do you think? Any changes from last time? Oh and You didn't scare her away with your frown, right?" Hedera said jokingly while still dead focused on his work.
But the woman, on the other hand, veins were popping on her head like she was lifting heavy weights as he said that. "Hah.. you know this is just how I look. Besides that, look at her. She transformed again and this time, she even had wings."
"Right? Isn't she magnificent? I'd pay golds to have those constitutions she's having." Hedera said.
"…seriously, that's a freak of a physique. A monster I tell ya.. if we leave her be, she's gonna cause us a lot of trouble." The woman said with a serious tone to it.
Whereas Hedera seemed relaxed about her comments of it- "hmm… has the trauma from her bitting you was that bad?"
.
The woman was a bit flustered by what Hedera had mentioned.
He continued- "We'll need to bring her back to the fort to see if we can do anything about her situation. If we can't find anyway to retrieve the heart back…" Hedera went silent and said nothing.
" if…?" The woman asked in anticipation.
Hedera closed the book that he was reading and stands up, getting ready to head out.
"If we can't have it back, then you Gaillardia, you have to hunt us another heart." Hedera called out the woman.
"What?! Wait are you joking right now?!" Gaillardia said shockingly while jumping off the table.
"Hahaha.. good luck with that~ now I'm off to see my dear student competes. Don't forget to lock up before heading out again." Hedera said then shut the door closed, leaving the poor woman with a load of concern on her shoulder.
… I have to hunt my own dragon?- She thought.