Chương 8

I returned all of the books to the shelf in a hurry, then abandoned my position. With multiple ways out of my position all around me, I disappeared into the maze of shelves and books. As I'd feared, the three mana cores walked straight to the spot where I'd just been reading. They paused there, unable to trace me further. I kept walking discreetly, creating distance. So what's their deal? I wondered. If magic is illegal, how does a random librarian have a mana core?

My best guess was that my mana core had somehow been detected. The librarian, whoever he was, had come in to confirm the suspicion, likely seeing through my disguise, just like Trina had when I showed the spell off to her. He didn't want to deal with me alone and went to grab backup. In a country where magic was illegal, perhaps the librarian's whole goal was to watch the magic section to catch people with mana cores.

The other far worse option was that my face itself was recognized and connected to my earlier crimes. I doubted that. The librarian had seemed uncertain about me. Maybe he just thought my mana concealment spell was suspicious. I kept walking, until I came across a large set of stairs up to the third floor. Opposite it, stairs led down to the exit through the back. Curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to confirm one thing. I climbed up the stairs, gaining a better vantage point to see the second floor.

From up here, I could just barely see the magic section, and the seat I'd been reading on. The three people with mana cores were discussing with each other. One of them was a mage officer in grey and red, facing the librarian. The second person was an instantly recognizable, infamous girl. Vaela Ellaris. One of House Ellaris's daughters. She looked young, maybe eighteen or nineteen. Short bright red hair, a long black and red skirt, and tuft-like earrings that reached almost to her shoulders.

The presence of her mana core overpowered the two others combined. Clearly an evolved core. Maybe a level two core? It wasn't an overwhelming presence, but I wouldn't have wanted to fight her. If my core was a candle, hers was a bright streetlamp. She stood back while the mage officer and the librarian chatted. With the way she was positioned, she almost looked like a trainee on her first week of work, being supervised by the mage officer. The way she stood back didn't radiate confidence.

I struggled to believe someone of her power was here just to hang out in a library. Her head turned. At me. I almost flinched, barely preventing it. Her expression wasn't angry, per se. Just the curious eyes of someone turning her head where she felt like she was being watched. I stayed on my spot for a moment, trying not to look suspicious, before swiftly continuing on my way. Did she recognize me? I thought. If she had, I had already screwed up. I kept walking. All three presences stayed there.

Vaela didn't seem to order them after me. I quickly headed to the furthest stairway down and back to the first floor, wrapping around them. I kept my core concealed. The spell clearly wasn't useless; Vaela hadn't chased after me, but it had its limits. The librarian had felt suspicious enough that he brought a direct blooded member of Ellaris to the scene. Did Vaela happen to be on duty there, or was she specifically hunting me down? If the latter was true, I was in danger.

Fuck, I could really use an answer to that. Maybe I could figure that out now. I passed a small info desk by the back door. A middle-aged lady with a braid over her shoulder drank coffee on a seat behind it. She gave me a quick smile, seeming to be in a good mood. I walked over.

"Hello," I said.

"I was looking for the action novels section. Is it around here?" Vora knew where that was, of course, but I wanted to ask a simple, fake question to make my next, actual question less suspicious.

"Yes, the action shelf is found in the back, behind thriller books," she said enthusiastically.

"Any book in specific you're looking for?"

"Oh, I'm just browsing for the next read," I said. Then, putting on a concerned expression, I spoke quietly.

"By the way, um, I spotted Vaela Ellaris in the library. Does she… spend a lot of time here?" With the city as a whole fearing the name, I presented my question as a source of discomfort. The woman seemed to understand that, as she laughed awkwardly.

"She does! Vaela loves spending time here. I've spoken to her personally, once. She might be a mage, but she's also a young girl who loves books. There's no need to be afraid of her." She leaned forward and lowered her volume.

"Personally, I'm more afraid of her older sister, or the mage officers." She smiled.

"Vaela is very nice for a member of Ellaris. You don't have to be afraid of her." I nodded.

"Okay. Thank you. So, the action books were at the back?"

"Yep," she said happily.

"I'm here if anything comes up." I returned the smile, then headed in the direction. A short walk led me to yet another side entrance out of there. The library was just that large. I browsed the shelves for a tiny bit before making my exit. I smiled at the regular, non-magical guards at the back entrance and found myself back on the streets. No more risks today, I told myself. That could have been bad. But I also learned what I wanted to confirm. Most likely, Vaela hadn't been on duty to hunt me.

More so, it felt like she'd happened to be present and was pulled in to check on a potential mage on the premises. If so, I wasn't in immediate danger, though I had pulled suspicion toward my way. I'm not the most powerful mage in the city, I confirmed. In fact, my mana core was still at the lowest level of all. I was confident I could beat mage officers if they attacked me, but all blood-related members of Ellaris would overpower me. So, should I lay low, or should I keep studying? I wondered.

I need to find Trina. I don't have time to waste, just to avert suspicion. There was so much information still available, and I wouldn't let a few officers stop me from seeking it. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

With Saint Aster's Library on high alert, I headed half a mile north to a much smaller local library. Sure enough, they also had a magic section with many of the same books. They lacked the book about mana cores I'd been reading, but I snatched myself a copy of " List of Publicly Known Spell Patterns" and a few theory books. And by snatch, I mean I put them into my bag and stole them without borrowing them with my library card.

I instead only borrowed the fifth book of Astral Hunter, the novel Vora had been reading. Asterra was advanced enough to track borrowed books, and I didn't want anything to do with magic tied to my name. By officially borrowing only a novel, my name stayed clean. Before heading home to read there, I bought a thick marker pen and pieces of parchment, then spent an hour spreading notes that read: " Missing person – Trina Sinclair. If found, report her whereabouts to the constabulary."

I also went to the constabulary myself to see if someone had asked for "Leon Sinclair", but nobody had. I already knew the search wouldn't be this easy, but in case Trina was in this city, I'd be stupid if I missed her by not looking at obvious places. I'd check in a few days to hear if the constabulary had heard anything. From there, I spent the next two days reading and studying spells.

"Any luck today, Vora?" mom asked me at the dinner table.

"A bakery on Rain Street interviewed me," I said, spouting some bullshit.

"They liked how enthusiastic I was about their selection. The pay they offered was too low, though, so I'm looking for better offers." Mom batted an eye at that.

"You mean, you would have been offered a place, but didn't take it?"

"Well, they weren't budging from their offer of thirteen crowns an hour," I said.

"The minimum I'll accept is twenty crowns an hour."

"Mhm," Mom said, looking surprised.

"I suppose I agree with that. You made the correct decision. Assuming you find someone that hires you for twenty crowns."

"I'm confident," I said.

"Job hunting has been more fun than school." My new sister nibbled on her vegetables on the opposite side of the table. Her remarks had gradually died down after I upgraded my outfit. She clearly wasn't used to Vora having an air of happiness around him. That change alone made him a much harder target to bully, leading to Gina mostly just ignoring me. Mom seemed to be happier to see me enjoying life for once. As for Dad, he was once again late.

The few times I'd seen him, he was stressed out to the point even my Mom didn't want to risk chatter tipping him over the edge. He did give my new outfit a nod of approval, smiling for a moment, before opening a beer and spending an hour in the bath.

"Thank you for the meal," I said.

"I'll be reading for the rest of the evening." Mom nodded.

"I'll tell your father about the progress in your job hunt." I smiled back, returning to my room with my stolen magic books. I'd read a lot over the last few days, to the point that my eyes weren't seeing straight from all the text. The results made it worth it. I'd learned more over two days than I could have in years on earth. The most useful book was easily the spellbook. It contained literally what the name implied: a list of spells with the patterns to cast them.

Over two hundred pages of them, in fact, with one spell per page, including spell descriptions and dozens of warnings not to try these at home. The spells weren't anything complex. The book specifically stated that this list was entirely public knowledge. I figured that actual powerful spells were patented and owned by private mages. I wasn't very happy about that fact, to be honest, but for now, the common spells kept me occupied. The nerdy side of my brain was especially fond of comparison.

How did my spells fare against the inventions of this world? As expected, the answer was that my spells were vastly different. The closest match was Mana Dart, which the spell book had under the name Mana Projectile. The spell pattern we used was identical, except my own spell added a Sharp pattern to make the spell more destructive. Mine used slightly more mana at the benefit of more power. The book also had many patterns I'd never even seen. The most foreign spell was called Nutrition Extension.

It lengthened the energy gain from the food eaten with the use of mana, and its patterns were completely unfamiliar to me. The book was also missing a lot of the spells I used. Core Concealment, for example, wasn't listed at all with nothing even remotely similar to it mentioned. My Sleep spell didn't exist, and the Mind Blast spell it taught was much inferior to the one I'd invented. They did, however, teach a spell called Mind Barrier Attack, designed to destroy Mind Protection.

The most interesting spell I wanted to test from the book was called " Spy Perspective". The spell was only available to crimson cores, utilizing an interesting concept. The description read, " Attaches a visual tracker spell to the eyes of a target, gaining the ability to see and hear the world through their perspective. The spell is commonly used by hunters on their flying companions, such as hawks. As with most spells, casting Spy Perspective on humans is possible, but strictly illegal."

How kind of them to teach the spell anyway. I could have cast the spell right now and tried it. Casting the spells, however, turned out to be the biggest problem in all of this I'd had lately. I had no safe area to test spells in. Back on earth, I simply went to an uninhabited forest and started spamming spells. In Asterra, the mere act of drawing mana could draw attention to myself, especially since I lived in the same apartment with another mage. I couldn't think of any good spots to practice inside the city.

Exiting Asterra wasn't necessarily difficult—I could simply walk out and come back if I so wished—but the problem was the distance I'd need to travel just to find the closest uninhabited area. Asterra's suburbs passed miles and miles off, and travel wasn't something Asterrans had yet trivialized. While this new world offered a lot, it wasn't quite the utopia of magic I'd hoped for.

I would have loved to enroll in a magic academy, or even isolate myself on a mountain with an old knowledgeable wizard, but neither option was even remotely available. Magic was much more niche, and much more distrusted than I'd hoped. I'd unknowingly gotten myself involved in a rather dangerous game. Yet, I figured magic was my only option for finding Trina and returning to earth. I had to get stronger, or I'd be stuck hiding from crime as Vora forever.

I lay down on my bed, taking a break from all the thinking, when I heard my dad finally getting home over three hours late from his usual time. My mother welcomed him home, though the tone of the conversation got grim quickly.

"The three officers that went missing," dad was saying. He spoke quietly, but I could just barely hear through my thin door.

"One is dead, and one suffered permanent head trauma and was forced to retire." My mom was silent for a moment, before saying, "Oh… Is it the mage gang again?""' The Survivors of Ellaris' yes," dad said.

"They did it again."

"They could just leave the city to survive, could they not?" mom asked.

"Of course they could!" dad snapped.

"Magic is outlawed here. They could just leave and find freedom where they came from. But no, their goal isn't freedom. They're here solely to steal mana cores from officers. They're not surviving anything; the name is chosen to make themselves look like the good guys, and us bad." Survivors of Ellaris, huh, I thought. That name was familiar to Vora. I wasn't sure how. If he knew more, it was locked.

But seeing as the gang was blamed for a crime I committed, I could presume Vora was indeed working with them for the attack. Once again, hearing his father speak like that, I felt Vora's hatred come through. He really didn't agree with his dad's beliefs at all. I tried poking at Vora's memories again, but to no avail. I sighed. Would be nice if I could learn where to meet your gang, Vora. Was he involved at all? It sounded like the survivors were a mage gang. Vora never had a mana core.

Or maybe that was precisely why Vora was involved? Because he didn't have a core, and thus, would be harder to sense sneaking around.

"My understaff is terrified," dad said.

"Officers are asking to be transferred to the Dungeon. Most of my colleagues would rather fight monsters underground than risk being hunted. Nevermind the fact that the mage gang likely lives in the caverns. It's insanity." My head perked up. The Dungeon? What's that? That info, to my delight, wasn't hidden. Vora knew about it. Just like Paris had an incredibly vast network of catacombs, Asterra also expanded underground with a cavernous dungeon.

That underground level had monsters—magical beasts that dwelled in the high concentrations of ambient mana that the underground provided. Entry was mostly forbidden, and the lower levels were unexplored, too dangerous to enter. My immediate thought was, How can I sneak in there? The next day, I sought to find out.