Chương 110: Chapter 104: Old Man Waxy

The vice-dean led them deeper into the Royal Academy, passing through several corridors before finally turning into another large set of doors. Lira followed behind him, trying her best to maintain a respectable expression and not look too eager. Then the doors opened, and she almost wept. The library was enormous. The ceiling stretched several stories above them, creating a vast open space that made her library look like a dump by comparison.

Bookshelves extended from wall to wall, rising almost all the way to the ceiling. Rather than simply lining the walls, the shelves themselves seemed to partition the enormous room into dozens of separate sections, with each partition containing its own reading tables, benches, and a lectern with a book secured in place by a chain. Several young students and older scholars were already scattered throughout the room, happily reading or quietly discussing their studies. Lira stopped walking.

There were books everywhere, tens of thousands of them. She had spent years dreaming about a library like this, and now she was standing inside one.

"This is..." She couldn't finish the sentence. Vice-Dean Mura glanced back at her with an amused smile.

"Impressive, isn't it?" That was an understatement. She wanted to run into the shelves and start reading. She wanted to grab every book she could reach, absorb them all until she ran out of mana, and then work her way through the rest the slow way until there wasn't a single volume left unread. She had to force herself to breathe and remind herself that she was supposed to be acting like a respectable librarian, not someone who had just discovered heaven. Lyth had no qualms about acting his age.

He ran out to one of the sections and immediately picked up a book. Lira followed at a more restrained pace and quietly reached for the book secured on the lectern. Inside were titles, authors, subjects, and the organizational structure of the shelves. She almost choked. This was a catalogue... an actual catalogue. Flipping through the pages, she found that it contained the books stored within the section, along with their authors and exact locations. They have a proper cataloguing system.

The same one she uses, and not whatever mess she found when she took over the library tower. Lira stared at it for several seconds. This section alone seemed to contain at least ten thousand books. She slowly looked around the room as the library seemed to stretch forever, her mind struggling to comprehend the scale. There seemed to be at least fifty sections that she could see from where she stood. Half a million books? Possibly more. She could live here.

She genuinely could spend the rest of her life surrounded by these books and probably die happy. Her eyes continued scanning the catalogue, and she began recognizing some of the titles. Several historical works were already familiar to her from the Royal Library, including books she had absorbed. But most of the titles were completely unfamiliar, written by authors she had never heard of before. Then she noticed something even more interesting.

The further she looked, the more she noticed books written in foreign languages, alongside translated versions of them. Older historical texts, sources she had a vague reference of, as they were deemed to be groundbreaking early works on the philosophy of history. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Lira almost turned to the vice-dean and asked for a transfer right then and there. She could probably live a happy life here, surrounded by knowledge.

Did she really need to kill Kavard?... No, not Kavard. He was a side tangent. But she couldn't deny that she could never truly be satisfied while Kelroth was still alive, free, and doing whatever fucked-up things he was doing with the money he was gathering through his gambling operations. Lira shook her head and pushed those thoughts aside. That was a problem for another day. For now, she had a library to explore.

"Lira, look, they have the book on the Abadi Kingdom you showed me," shouted Lyth.

"The author has five more books talking about different things." She blinked. She realized she had been standing in front of the same lectern for far too long. So she joined Lyth.

"That's wonderful." She smiled.

"Maybe we can see if we can get you a copy of those." The vice-dean checked the collection of books and blinked.

"That's really advanced reading material," he said in an amazed voice.

"The young prince has a reading comprehension level of someone twice his age," praised Lira. Lyth puffed up his chest dramatically. The vice-dean gave the prince a curious look before gesturing toward one of the nearby tables.

"Wait here for a moment." The boy reluctantly stepped away from the shelves and sat beside Lira on one of the comfortable chairs while Sir Henry remained standing nearby. The two guards that followed them were standing at the entrance of the library, eyeing and analyzing everyone who was stepping inside the space. While sitting, Lira's eyes continued wandering around the library.

She tried to force herself to memorize everything she could, from the locations of the entrances and staircases to the arrangement of the shelves, the windows, light fixtures, the librarians, and even the positions of the guards. She had come here to study the library and investigate the possibility of returning later, perhaps even at night, but right now she was having trouble thinking about anything except the books. After several minutes, Vice-Dean Mura returned. He wasn't alone.

An older man followed behind him, taking small, measured steps as if every step took a considerable amount of effort. He had a long, completely white beard, his face was wrinkled, and his hands remained clasped behind his back as he walked, but even from here, Lira could tell they sometimes spasmed into fits of shaking. Yet his eyes remained sharp and piercing and were aimed directly at her. For one terrifying second, Lira felt as though he was looking past her face, past her skin, and past her mortal coil.

It felt as though his eyes were searching directly into her soul. More importantly, she knew him. There was no mistaking that face. Her heart skipped a beat as old memories resurfaced. The man had been one of her father's most loyal customers. He used to visit their shop regularly, bringing business for her father and staying afterward to chat with him for hours. He always paid handsomely, and when Lira was a child, he would sometimes bring her candy.

She remembered sitting behind her father's desk while the two men talked. She remembered his kind voice. She remembered his long beard. She remembered calling him... Grandpa Waxy. The man was single-handedly responsible for Lira's sweet tooth. Lira forced herself not to react. Don't move. Don't panic. He couldn't recognize you. He couldn't possibly know. She was older now. She looked completely different; she had changed considerably since the last time they had met. And yet, those eyes were the same.

Vice-Dean Mura gestured toward the old man.

"Your Highness, this is Alexander Waxillam Nurad, head librarian of the Royal Academy."

"Lord Alexander, this is Third Prince Lyth." The old man's gaze finally left Lira's, and he gave the prince a polite bow.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Lyth smiled politely and, to Lira's dismay, pointed the older man's attention back to her.

"This is Lira, the royal palace's new library caretaker." The older librarian's gaze immediately returned to Lira, who was trying hard not to overreact.

"Lira... Lira... would you happen to be called Lira Valora, young miss?" Lira could hear a click of metal shift as Henry abruptly moved at that statement.

"I am pretty sure the papers I am carrying have me listed as Lira Tenlan, my lord," Lira laughed, having to answer in a convoluted manner just not to tip off any truth divination spell, just in case.

"My bad..." laughed the old man.

"A friend of mine had a daughter about your age, who also happened to be named Lira."

"I am sorry about the confusion." Lira bowed her head. The vice-dean showed an incredible amount of respect to the man by carefully picking up a chair and placing it facing Lyth. The old man sat with a sigh.

"Thank you, Mura."

"Now, I was told that this young prince had the makings of a scholar." He smiled.

"Let's discuss books, shall we?" As the conversation shifted away from her identity, only then did Lira finally allow herself to breathe again.