Chương 45: Menpower.

Earlier the next day, Lira stood beside the history section of the library, hands clasped behind her back as she examined the shelves with satisfaction. With the library mostly clean thanks to Celene's maids, and with Steward Dalwin's approval secured and footmen finally assigned to assist her, she could move beyond cleaning and begin shaping the library into something more organized. She raised a hand and cast.

"Ladar. Linasara. Oshkan. Cognar. Turat." Her awareness expanded immediately. The sensation was becoming more familiar now, each book becoming a faint signal in her mind. She narrowed her focus to history. At once, most of the books in the section responded. But not all of them were in front of her. She counted twenty additional books elsewhere in the library, books misplaced in neighboring sections or abandoned on unrelated shelves over the years. Meanwhile, twelve books in front of her remained completely silent.

Lira smiled faintly. Without hesitation, she began removing the twelve non-history books from the shelves and stacking them neatly onto her cart. One was a gardening guide, one that sounded historical but after paging through it turned out to be a romance novel, and one was called History of Noodles but was technically a book of recipes. Once the incorrect books had been removed, she cast again.

"Yorad. Linasara. Kaldris." One by one, the twenty misplaced history books reacted to her spell, flying across the library. Most of them emerged from the geography and philosophy sections, but some others were scattered everywhere. They floated toward her in orderly succession, weaving through the air and navigating around shelves with surprising precision before stacking onto the cart in front of her. Lira watched as the final book landed. This spell combination was absurdly efficient.

What once would have taken hours of manual sorting now happened in minutes. She glanced back at the shelves. Twenty books were added and twelve removed. That left eight excess volumes that would need to be relocated upstairs to secondary storage. She cast once more.

"Ladar. Linasara. Oshkan. Cognar. Turat." This time, her criteria shifted from simply history to something more narrowly focused. Books nobles might realistically seek. The spell highlighted several volumes more strongly than others. She used that as a guide and removed four books whose value was minimal, three of which were too narrow in scope while one was addressed to commoners. Then she shifted the focus of her spell once more.

She removed four more books that, while technically historical, were clearly unreliable. Propaganda pieces… the lot of them. She couldn't believe she could curate her library this quickly. It felt nice to be able to apply her own personal standards. Once the final selection was made, she began arranging the remaining books by author name, alphabetically. She was still uncertain where her magical limits truly lay, and yesterday's restoration spell had reminded her to be more cautious.

So for now, she imposed one rule on herself: one section per day, just in case. Once the organization was complete, she turned her attention toward maintenance. Dust had already begun settling over parts of the cleaned shelves. Using a feather duster, she quietly worked, only interrupted by the occasional spell casting.

"Linasara. Luneth. Velar." A ripple of cleanliness washed through a particularly rough-looking book.

"Pika. Linasara. Cognar. Coopar. Nagla." As she absorbed a book's contents with a particularly interesting title. By the time she finished dusting the section, the history aisle looked significantly more respectable. For perhaps the first time in decades, it actually resembled a curated collection rather than an archaeological dig site. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Lira placed her hands on her hips and admired her work. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Then she froze as she heard footsteps approaching. Right on time. Steward Dalwin and the footmen had arrived for their promised visit. Lira turned instinctively toward the entrance, ready to greet them, only to remember at the last possible moment that she still had passive spells active: her danger sense and her warm pocket spell. She quickly focused, dispelling both just as the door opened. A second later, Sir Deren entered first, followed by Steward Dalwin and six footmen.

The men stepped into the library and immediately slowed. The footmen, who had clearly seen the library in its previous state, openly stared. One of them let out a low whistle before quickly catching himself. Even Steward Dalwin allowed his eyes to widen for a second before regaining his composure. Sir Deren glanced around with visible approval.

"This is considerably different from my last visit," he said. Lira allowed herself a small smile.

"I have been making steady progress." She stepped forward and offered a respectful curtsy.

"Welcome, my lords." Dalwin gave a small nod, still surveying the room.

"Well," he said slowly.

"At the very least, the air is now breathable." Lira chose to take that as praise. She led them deeper inside, first showing them the refuse pile she had been accumulating. It occupied an entire corner now. Broken shelves, splintered wood, cracked lamp frames, bent metal fixtures, warped boxes, collapsed stools, and several sacks filled entirely with dirt and debris had been stacked in ordered piles. Dalwin stared at it in silence. There was a lot of it. The undeniable proof of Lira's efforts.

He turned sharply toward the footmen.

"Well? It will not carry itself." The six men immediately got to work. Some began hauling sacks out first, while others started sorting larger debris into manageable piles for transport. The moment they were occupied, Dalwin turned back toward Lira.

"Well then," he said, clasping his hands together.

"Show me what exactly you were up to." Sir Deren followed beside him. Lira guided them through the first floor, explaining her current progress. She showed them the newly organized history section first.

"The shelves are now categorized by subject," she explained.

"And within sections, I am reorganizing alphabetically with a focus on author names so similarly written books remain together." Dalwin inspected the shelves closely by sliding his finger on one of the shelves, he found no dust. His approval increased marginally. Sir Deren glanced at the history shelves.

"This does look considerably easier to navigate."

"That is the idea," Lira replied. Dalwin gave a thoughtful hum.

"Yes. Yes. Quite good." They continued walking until they reached the reading area. Several tables and roughly forty chairs had been arranged there. Braka's work was good enough that every chair looked uniform, but the wood was scratched and faded in places. Dalwin clicked his tongue.

"Oh no." He stepped closer to one table, examining its surface.

"This simply will not do." He tapped the wood dramatically.

"It needs at least a new coat of lacquer." Before Lira could respond, he snapped his fingers toward one of the nearby footmen.

"You." The man straightened immediately.

"Yes, Steward?"

"Fetch Collin."

"Collin Miller, sir?"

"Yes, Collin Miller. Who else would it be?" Dalwin waved impatiently. That was exactly the kind of attitude Lira expected she would have received if not for going through Sir Deren as an intermediary. She gave the young noble an " I told you so" look, and he couldn't help but chuckle. Dalwin didn't notice the byplay and continued ordering his man.

"And tell him to bring his polishing kit, painting supplies, and a bucket of lacquer." The footman nodded and hurried off, and Dalwin turned back to the room, already mentally redecorating.

"We will also need a proper carpet." He tapped his foot against the stone floor. His gaze shifted toward the tapestry concealing Lira's alcove, and visibly recoiled at the sight. His face shifted even more to horror when he noticed two others hanging on different walls of the library.

"And saints preserve us, those need to be replaced immediately." Lira blinked. She glanced at the tapestry. Admittedly, it was ugly, but it had served a practical purpose, but visually it looked so faded it was almost gray.

"I made sure to clean everything," Lira defended weakly.

"It's not like I was given a budget to start buying replacements."

"That is why you should have informed me earlier," he grumbled. He continued scanning the room.

"Curtains as well." He pointed toward the bare windows. Lira had discarded the original curtains because they were so ragged their only purpose was to collect dust.

"Something simple, I think. White perhaps. The space needs light after all." Lira frowned slightly.

"How exactly are we going to pay for all of this?" Dalwin looked at her as if she were an idiot.

"It is simple, my dear. We inform Harwin, and he takes care of everything, of course." He waved dismissively. Having worked in the bookkeeping tower for a short while, Lira now understood why those poor scribes were often overwhelmed with work. Sir Deren, meanwhile, had wandered toward one of the walls. He paused, examining a rusted metal plaque.

"This should also be repaired," he said. Lira had no idea what it was, but it was bolted into the wall, so she had made sure to properly clean it and leave it alone. Dalwin sighed.

"Yes, yes. The heating enchantment." Sir Deren turned toward them.

"We should request the court wizard to inspect the heating runes or perhaps carve new ones." Lira stiffened. A wizard coming here. A real mage… possibly one capable of noticing magical casters. Her expression remained calm through sheer force of will. Internally, however, alarm bells were already ringing. She needed to know how magical detection worked… immediately. Could mages detect recently cast spells? Could they sense other mages? Could they identify unusual magical activity in an area?

Did passive spells leave traces? Did they detect nearby primers? Lira kept her face neutral as they continued discussing logistics around her. But mentally, her priorities had shifted completely. The library organization could wait. Her next research topic had just been decided for her.