"What has gotten into you?"
Aiden stood still, facing the question that was directed at him.
In front of him, the being that was the biggest threat to him sat on his chair as he looked at Aiden with eyes full of unknown emotions.
"…"
Aiden remained silent, having nothing in response.
"Why do you want to return to the dungeon so much?" Enel asked. For some reason, his voice became cold when mentioning the dungeon as Louis shuddered.
'He must be annoyed for having to suddenly work 24/7 because of this dungeon matter.' Louis thought.
This time Aiden tried to respond to his question.
"…I have my reasons." He replied, dropping his head as he endured Eden's screaming in the background.
"…I see." Enel said as he turned his head towards Louis.
Noticing the look, Louis shook his head, as he didn't know any reasons either.
Getting Louis's response, Enel became cold as the atmosphere in the room became grim.
Aiden suddenly found it difficult to breathe and keep himself standing.
"The dungeon no longer exists. There is no point in you getting obsessed over the dungeon." Enel said with a cold tone as Aiden felt his heart sink in.
"Disappeared dungeons reappear again." He said. Hearing his response, Enel lowered his head, looking at a paper on his desk .
"But you can't tell when." He said as Aiden became silent for a moment.
"It doesn't matter when. As long as it appears, that's all I need." He said, clenching his fists, trying to control himself from fainting from the pressure in the room.
"What if it never appears again or appears only after you are no longer in this world?" Enel said as Aiden frowned.
"That is only a what if." He replied, sounding unusually stubborn.
"That doesn't mean it's not a possibility." Enel replied, looking directly at him.
The stubbornness in Aiden remained as he also stared back at him, having a staredown battle.
Both of them didn't move an inch as they stubbornly stared at each other.
'No matter how much he doesn't want to admit it, the resemblance between this father-son duo is unfathomable.' Louis thought as he looked back and forth between the two.
Sigh
"…I have nothing to say to you anymore."
At the end, the one who backed down first was Aiden as he turned around, approaching the door to get out.
"Wait."
But before he left the room, Enel called out to him as Aiden looked back.
"Being this hopeful is only poison to you." Enel said.
'I'm used to being hopeful... is what I want to say, but no.' Aiden thought as Enel opened his mouth again.
"A dungeon does appear after it disappears, but it also changes its place. How are you going to know when or where it appears?" Enel said as Aiden dropped his head.
'That's the most difficult part. I have nothing in that regard.' He thought.
Enel observed Aiden's notion as he raised the paper that was on his desk and extended it forward, pointing at him.
"Take this." He said as Aiden raised his head and stared at the papers.
…Tak Tak
He hesitated for a bit but still walked forward as he took the papers.
"…What is this?" Aiden asked as he felt a little annoyed.
The paper looked like it was torn from a book, but the thing that annoyed him wasn't that but the fact that the paper was completely white with nothing written on it.
'What? He's a joker too.'
Eden said, feeling annoyed himself.
"This is a paper to a book that is in the library of the Verdice Venur Academy."
'No shit, its a paper.'
Aiden heard Eden swearing as he awkwardly stared at the paper.
"What book?" he asked. After spending a lot of his time in the library, he knew that one thing on which he could depend the most was books.
Books had everything in them ready to be explored by others.
…
'It's a legendary book that can give you the location of whatever you want, as long as it exists.'
Eden muttered the exact words that Enel uttered that day as he didn't hold back his doubts.
'I know this is a world where magic and skills exist, but is there really such a book in this library?' He said as Aiden walked forward.
Clack
Opening the door to the library, he stepped in and closed the door.
'There is only one way to know that.' Aiden said as Eden rolled his eyes.
'Do you think the same after seeing that?'
He said as he pointed forward.
'…'
Aiden remained quiet as he silently passed through the things Eden was pointing at and walked towards a donut desk, where an old woman sat.
"…Good evening, Donna." Aiden said as he looked at the old woman and handed over a white card to her.
"Good evening, kid." Donna said as she took the white card and pointed her fingers in a certain direction.
"Than you." Aiden said as Donna simply nodded her head.
Aiden walked in the direction Donna had pointed at as his ignoring them started to become pointless.
Raising his head to look up, he squinted his eyes to fend off the lights.
'…When am I going to finish looking through all of them?'
Aiden thought in pure anxiety as he looked at the mountains of bookshelves.
There were many bookshelves, and to make it worse, they were so tall that Aiden couldn't even see their tops.
The first time Aiden came to the library, he almost hurled everything out he had eaten that morning.
'She pointed at that, didn't she?' Aiden thought as he extended his hand and tapped twice with his index finger on the bookshelf.
Srrrrrr
As soon as he tapped on the bookshelf, a ladder came to his place as Aiden climbed it.
Stopping before the book that Donna had pointed, Aiden picked up the next thirty books after that book as the ladder helped him take those books down to the floor safely.
'I don't find them as heavy as I used to.' he thought as he walked towards the corner of the library that was hidden by bookshelves.
Aiden placed the books on the ground as he sat on the ground and started skimming through the books one by one, looking for a torn part.
'…Hey, I doubt anyone, including that girl, is here at this hour; why don't you go to the center and do it there?' Eden said.
The reading and writing desks and chairs were located in the middle of the library, with the bookshelves acting as a wall for them.
'I have already sat here, so no. Also, this place is more comfortable for me.' Aiden said as Eden rolled his eyes again.
'Don't act like I don't know anything. I know you are doing this mainly to avoid drawing attention to yourself, but at the same time, you are also using this as an excuse to avoid that girl, aren't you?' Eden said as Aiden went silent.
'…Then what do you think I should do? That girl clearly hates me.' Aiden replied as he closed the book he was skimming through and picked up another one.
'What do you mean hate? She just said that she won't address you with any formalities since this is inside the academy, where outside status means no shit.' Eden replied.
Aiden decided to stay silent about that, as he didn't want to talk any further about this matter.
Tsk
Eden clicked his tongue in annoyance as he also remained silent and laid on the bed.
'You are still a dumbass, feeling guilty about things that you didn't even cause.' He thought as he closed his eyes and decided to take a nap.