"What th-"
Seeing Emmet's eyes turn white startled her the moment she took notice of it.
"Hey," She shook his arm while trying to maintain a low voice and not cause a scene in the library.
Dark smog emerged from his ring to form his black companion.
"Sire," The black cat called. "How did he fall into a trance?"
She appeared to be as confused as Ashley.
A few more minutes had gone by before Emmet finally returned to reality and his eyes returned to normal.
"Sire," Liesl called and his gaze fell on her.
"The book..." His voice trailed and his gaze moved from the cat to the book before him.
He had only opened the first page of the book yet, it was now at the last page.
His gaze went up to Ashley.
"Did you see what just happened?" He asked, surprised rather than afraid.
"The only thing I saw was your eyes all white," She demonstrated frantically like a mad woman.
Emmet went silent and returned his gaze to the book. Ashley had not seen the pages of the book automatically flip to the last one.
He closed the book and stared at it.
With a sigh, he proceeded to open the first page. For some reason, he didn't fall in a trance as he had the first time.
He, however, ran his eyes through the first page and with every line he read, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"What is it?" Ashley asked, on seeing that he appeared troubled from reading. Wasn't reading supposed to be calming for a nerd like him?
He didn't say a word and continued reading. He skipped through some pages and continued off after them. He read some pages and skipped others all the way to the last page.
He closed the book and finally lifted his gaze to acknowledge the girl seated opposite him.
"This book is about White head," There was a hint of confusion in his tone.
"What are you talking about? First, it was you acting like you've been summoned to a ritual," Ashley couldn't care less.
"It's this book," Emmet slid the book over to her and her lazy eyes lingered on it for a few seconds before looking back at him.
"You can't make me read this thing," She clicked her tongue.
"I don't necessarily need you to read it," Emmet sighed and placed the book back before him. "This book is about my past self but in a different setting than I remember."
"This place is possessed, I tell you," Ashley proceeded to yawn. "Libraries are possessed except yours...well, just because I have to sleep there."
Emmet gazed back at the book and slid his fingers over the title in bold italic prints. He then brought his fingers down to where the author's name was written.
"Rain," He read in a low voice. "How can this person know of White head? Could it have been a coincidence?"
"Definitely a coincidence. Who cares..." Ashley's expression feigned pity. "About you?"
Emmet twisted his lips. It was a coincidence maybe. It may have been the exact description of the White head he once was but it wasn't same the life he had experienced as White head.
Though both stories of him as White head and the White head in the book ended tragically, their lives and ends were different. The most thing in common was that their existence barely mattered to anyone and they came from low backgrounds.
The more he tried to assess both cases of White head, the more he was led into a circle of doubts and uncertainty.
"I don't think I'll be reading this anymore," He stood up to return the book into the shelf he had taken it out of. From that same shelf, he took out another book.
Fortunately for him, it was an ordinary book that didn't instigate a trance.
However, he wasn't able to focus on what he was reading anymore, as his mind constantly reminded him of "The unknown" by Rain.
"You seem troubled again," Ashley said, a hint of mockery in her tone.
"I can't seem to get my head around the fact that the White head in that book was simply a coincidence," He let it all out with a sigh.
"Want to do some search?" She tilted her head to the side in question.
"How?" He raised an eyebrow.
She smiled, pulled out her hands from under the table, and waved two Palets at him. One was glassy blue in colour while the other was glassy green.
"The research feature also comes with Palets but only Palets with the premium feature," She explained. "So I just had to get a Palet with the premium feature."
She smiled, hinting at ' get.'
He shook his head and stared at her in disbelief. Even Liesl could not hide her disgust for the thief.
"What?" She pouted her lips. "Do you know how much the premium feature costs?"
She placed the blue Palet which was hers into her pouch while the other which she had technically stolen somehow, remained in her hand.
"A few buttons," She poked the tip of her tongue from the corner of her mouth as her fingers worked their way on the stolen Palet. "And reset."
"So Palets with the premium feature turn green," Emmet slowly nodded.
"Yes," She nodded in response, her eyes never leaving the Palet. "So what's the title of the book again?"
"The unknown. Author's name is Rain."
Ashley nodded as she took all his information in mind while working her fingers were on the glassy device.
"Ah this Rain guy seems to be quite popular," She sounded impressed from what she was seeing on the screen. "He's got a lot of books and people seems to like them."
She then handed the Palet over to him.
"There's a lot of stuff about his works and him being a great writer," Ashley continued while Emmet's eyes ran through the glass device. "But there doesn't seem to be anything about Rain as a person."
Emmet proceeded to click on a small bar situated at a top corner of the device which read, "Personal Info."
The page loaded for a quick second and les him to another page whose only information he read as,
"There is nothing here. No information found."
"You're right. There's nothing," Emmet sighed and handed the device back to her.
Just then, a man in the library who had been reading three tables away from him and Ashley suddenly cried out.
"Where is it? I can't find it," He was on his feet and was patting around his robe in search of something.
"Hey keep it down!" A young lady from across the room scolded him and a few others joined her.
"My Palet just got stolen and you're telling me to keep it down!" The man charged back.
"Now that's some drama," Ashley sounded impressed and used her palm to support her chin as she watched the scene unfold.
"You've caused a lot of trouble now," Emmet's brows furrowed. She ignored his words, however.
Before things could get out of hand, two men in dark green robes alongside the man who had welcomed them into the library rushed in.
"We are very sorry for the inconveniences but a Palet has been stolen and it would be reasonable that we thoroughly searched everyone," The man who appeared to be in charge of the other two, spoke.
Everyone agreed and the search took place. Emmet was found without a Palet. It was quite shameful when everyone stared at him like he was from the stone age for not having a Palet.
Ashley willingly gave them the Palet in her hand. The man who had searched her checked the user ID on the Palet when he wasn't satisfied, only to see a silly photo of her as the profile, followed by the name, "Ashley Caston." All of her information were in inputted in the device to show that she was the owner.
They, however, proposed to also search her pouch. They found another Palet which also had her user ID.
"You're clear," He told her and moved onto the next person.
"Aye, he couldn't even tell me how nice my profile picture looked," She pouted her lips after him.
By the time the one library session was over, the man who had lost his Palet didn't get it back. Emmet and Ashley, however, left the library after paying off 62 gold coins for each of them.
"You shouldn't do that next time," He scolded her on their way back to the library on the white horse.
She simply laughed.
"I made everywhere less boring. Please, don't say that."
"Just hurry up and get out of my Archive tomorrow morning," Emmet sneered.