With a prince who couldn’t afford basic clothing, a shy cat girl who avoided eye contact with anyone else and the heiress of a duchy, we walked casually on the academy grounds. Truth to be told though, I was the one sticking out the most. For starters, everyone was thirteen while I looked like sixteen. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to enlist while being older but even then, my sunglasses and gloves surely caught a lot of attention.
Attention, I was glad to get rid off once we entered one of the oldest buildings on campus: The library, looking exactly as I remembered it. Some things did change though. Books I could have seen once before were inside, but most of the books were fairly new. Additionally, one had to register to enter, which was also new for me.
“I’m going to look for history books.” Once we were left alone by the staff though, we decided to split up for the time being.
“I’ll check out the magic section.” The prince said eagerly and strolled away from the group.
“… I’ll go as well.” Ellie said quietly.
“Yup. See you later.” I said being left alone. Sighing quietly, I headed towards the stairs and soon found myself in the advanced section of the library. The two storey building was wide, but not very tall in comparison to the other institutes. While there was a lot of space reserved for common knowledge downstairs, most of the space upstairs was for reading rooms and more specific knowledge. That means the knowledge nobody would search for, or the really fucked up but still legal stuff.
And there I found myself searching for knowledge frowned upon by the church. And no, I wasn’t searching for slugs and their usage in medicine which did intrigue me a bit at well. I was there for anatomy. Not from a human or other close races, but rather from the races humanity fought for a long time already.
I presumed someone must have studied these beings and wrote down the knowledge they had, but I wasn’t very successful in searching for a long time. I found obscure information about living trees, or even about a prophecy which claimed ‘underground labyrinths would rise to the earth bringing death and opportunity’ but nothing about anatomy.
“Lucy?” But I did find someone else. Or rather, she found me as I was crouching down to get the newest ten year old edition of a book about evolution of creatures.
“Sofie?!” I recognised her the moment I heard her and looked up happily.
“What are you doing here?” She asked right away. She was surprised, but also kind of happy to see me again for whatever reason.
“Oh, you know you know how it is … my sis got a position here at the last second and I had to tag along.”
“Wait, your sister is the new teacher? The one that was announced at the entrance ceremony?” Did anyone mention Hannah? I couldn’t remember that well mostly because I didn’t listen, but I just went along with it.
“Yes!” I exclaimed and grinned happily.
“I heard she is running from one place to another … is she alright?” Hannah was running around? That was quite the interpretation of Hannah’s normal walking speed if I was honest. She always slowed down for me during the day but without me she was basically speed walking.
“I’m sure she is. Hey, do you know where I could find stuff about demon anatomy?” I asked, trying to get her attention away from Hannah who was probably freaking out because she didn’t know what to do at all.
“I’m not sure that’s legal … why do you need such a thing?” There was one simple reason. I had my underground laboratory already planned, a few demons to populate it but I had yet to find anything serving me as a foundation. It did seem as if I needed to start from scratch.
“I am just curious about demons. For example, wouldn’t it have been a better strategy to disperse everywhere, rather than take over the north? Are these lands more valuable to them? Is there anything they need to survive there?” I asked and grabbed my chin in thought. Truthfully, I wasn’t able to answer these questions at all. Demons, despite not being my enemy at this point we’re still a large unknown for me. And I didn’t like that.
“You are … asking questions the church wouldn’t want to hear. They already have the solution to the problem by simply relying on their god given system … you won’t find anything in here.” She answered quietly while picking out a book about the evolvement of the human race and opened page one.
The system, tearing onto my soul every second and mumbling inside my head the whole time was supposed to be the solution to the demonic problem. Not human ingenuity, not the desire to live freely, just a god given system.
It was no wonder I needed to close my eyes and calm myself down. I hated the thought of being instrumentalized by the gods in any way, even though I myself knew I was used since my birth. But still, the church was basically claiming I was the gods’ dog … which I certainly didn’t want to be.
“You will find research in this direction though.” Sofie said and closed the book in front of my nose.
“Thank you.” I hated it. “I’m not here for that alone though. Are you familiar with artefacts? I mean, SS-Class magical weapons and stuff?”
“No, not at all. I suppose you have to ask someone else for that.”
“That’s a bummer. Hey, a few friends and I wanted to head over to the combat arena afterwards. Want come with us?”
“Eh? I’m not good at fighting.” She mumbled and tipped from one foot upon the other.
“Really?” What was Irminsul thinking in picking her? I seriously couldn’t understand the goddess’ reasoning at all. But oh well, if Sofie couldn’t fight, that would make it easier for me.
“I’m a good medic though … so maybe we will see each other there in the future.” Well, that didn’t surprise me that much. After all, she was the apostle of a goddess who fought me for trying to slaughter a pig in our backyard.
“It’s reassuring to know someone who looks after others.” I explained and gave her my hand. “Want to be friends?”
“Sure.” She immediately took mine and shook it with vigour. Her hand was insanely warm even through my gloves, more so than any other I had ever touched. It must have been because parts of Irminsul’s power resided in her. Maybe, just maybe I could solve a few issues with her but I would need to gain her trust first. Smiling gently, I I let go of her hand.
“And? What are you here for?” I asked despite not being interested at all.
“Theoretical studies of applied magic in respect to the laws of nature.” Eh … what an utterly boring and honestly under-researched topic. The most humans could come up with was that magic and nature were intertwined, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
“That’s … are you interested in a study group? I know someone who might be able to answer your questions.” And if the prince couldn’t answer her questions about magic, I certainly could. I would like to avoid such a scenario though.
“Sure … but I have been here for a long time already, so I might know one or two things more than you.” Even though what she said sounded like bragging, her tone and the light in her eyes showed the exact opposite. She didn’t want to dispirit us in any way which would probably happen because she knew so much more than others. But whatever, Luna’s and the prince’s education shouldn’t be too bad either so there was that. I was just a bit unsure about the cat girl … but whatever.
“Every Friday in the library around three?” I asked happily.
“Kay. I’ll see you then.” She said waved and went away after I bid my farewells as well. The whole conversation didn’t take longer than a minute or so but it was very fruitful. For better or worse, I could call her my friend now, just to spite Aska a little bit. He always hated it when I interacted with normal people … too bad I wasn’t putting up with his shit anymore.
And so, I happily walked downstairs once more after searching a bit longer. Quickly, I found Ellie and Louis discussing about a book about magic which was fairly simple because they weren’t that far away from the stairs. Finding Luna though was a hassle. I went through every corridor twice and focused on the history section of the library. But even then, it took me a long time to find her in a corner of a room, quietly reading a book about … myself.
“How did you do that?” She finally asked after I waved in between her eyes and the book. Reading a few upside-down lines, I realised she was speaking about the rioters who did call for my help while I went through their homes slaughtering.
“What do you mean?” I asked in doubt as I didn’t believe she was asking about all the murders.
“Giving others hope. You gave them the feeling that by supporting you, their life would improve which it did. You give me the feeling that I can rely on you, no matter what. How do you do that?” She asked and looked at me with – who would have guessed – hope in her eyes.
“It’s fairly simple … I don’t.” I explained and sat down right next to her. The wall was a bit uncomfortable and made me wonder how she had managed to sit like this for such a long time. My guess was that she was a bit too engrossed in her book to even realise how uncomfortable her sitting position was. “Humans put their faith in the gods. They projects all their hopes onto them, all of their wishes, no matter if the god even would desire to fulfil them. But they are far away, untouchable in a sense, which makes everyone put a little bit too much hope in them. You may call me a hypocrite for saying the gods aren’t the solution for our problems, but that’s how it is. Despite all that, humans put their hope in them in their darkest hours and by extension, also me. In a sense, I am just a blank paper they can project their hopes onto.”
“That’s … not what I had expected.” She muttered quietly, clearly shaken by my non-saintly words.
“Believe it or not, I’m more of a realist than anything else.” I explained and patted her shoulder soothingly.
“But you lifted them all out of poverty easily! That should have been impossible.” She said, clearly still trying to push me into the role of being a saint.
“It’s only impossible because nobody tried before. Luna, how often do I need to tell you I am not some godlike being, but rather someone just like you.” I lied blatantly, but telling her the truth was also out of question.
“But you are! The gods have chosen you for a reason! Because you are better than us! So please, don’t waste your time staying here because of me!” She said a bit enraged. She probably thought she was stopping me from doing anything saintly, while the reality was completely different. With her presence, she barred me from committing unsaintly crimes.
“My time here isn’t wasted. I need to catch up two hundred years and what place would be better than an academy full of knowledge?” I asked and pointed at a few of the nearest bookshelves to underline my position.
“Hannah could tell you everything that happened.” She said while sulking unhappily.
“Luna … I never had a good life so far. Either I was shunned because of what I am, or I was pushed into a role I didn’t want to have. My whole life, the gods were always around me … and I can tell you their presence can envelop your whole life. So please, let me have this time where I can be myself … until I cannot stay here anymore.” I said and finally stood up as I heard the other two approaching us, probably because we were a bit too noisy.
“I’m sorry … I’m not any better than the others who put their hopes into you, am I not?” No … she really wasn’t. She didn’t have blind faith into me, but she still had hopes I would save the world one day.
“You are kinder, Luna. And your kindness is enough reason for me to stick around.” I explained and looked towards Ellie and Louis who strolled into the room empty handed. “Took you a little while.” They originally only wanted to borrow a book and then search for us, but it did seem as if they had some issues.
“Imagine not being allowed to take a book out of a library.” The prince growled a bit angrily which made me laugh a little.
“These books you are talking about can be over two hundred years old. It is only natural to preserve them as much as possible. Have you searched for any newer version of said book?” I asked and chuckled amused by the air headed prince.
“They don’t have it.” What a bad liar he was. “Seems I need to go to the library rather often in the future.” He said and looked away quite ashamed of himself for not thinking that far. But truth to be told, the librarian was also at fault for not guiding him to the same answer I gave him.
With a prince who couldn’t afford basic clothing, a shy cat girl who avoided eye contact with anyone else and the heiress of a duchy, we walked casually on the academy grounds. Truth to be told though, I was the one sticking out the most. For starters, everyone was thirteen while I looked like sixteen. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to enlist while being older but even then, my sunglasses and gloves surely caught a lot of attention.
Attention, I was glad to get rid off once we entered one of the oldest buildings on campus: The library, looking exactly as I remembered it. Some things did change though. Books I could have seen once before were inside, but most of the books were fairly new. Additionally, one had to register to enter, which was also new for me.
“I’m going to look for history books.” Once we were left alone by the staff though, we decided to split up for the time being.
“I’ll check out the magic section.” The prince said eagerly and strolled away from the group.
“… I’ll go as well.” Ellie said quietly.
“Yup. See you later.” I said being left alone. Sighing quietly, I headed towards the stairs and soon found myself in the advanced section of the library. The two storey building was wide, but not very tall in comparison to the other institutes. While there was a lot of space reserved for common knowledge downstairs, most of the space upstairs was for reading rooms and more specific knowledge. That means the knowledge nobody would search for, or the really fucked up but still legal stuff.
And there I found myself searching for knowledge frowned upon by the church. And no, I wasn’t searching for slugs and their usage in medicine which did intrigue me a bit at well. I was there for anatomy. Not from a human or other close races, but rather from the races humanity fought for a long time already.
I presumed someone must have studied these beings and wrote down the knowledge they had, but I wasn’t very successful in searching for a long time. I found obscure information about living trees, or even about a prophecy which claimed ‘underground labyrinths would rise to the earth bringing death and opportunity’ but nothing about anatomy.
“Lucy?” But I did find someone else. Or rather, she found me as I was crouching down to get the newest ten year old edition of a book about evolution of creatures.
“Sofie?!” I recognised her the moment I heard her and looked up happily.
“What are you doing here?” She asked right away. She was surprised, but also kind of happy to see me again for whatever reason.
“Oh, you know you know how it is … my sis got a position here at the last second and I had to tag along.”
“Wait, your sister is the new teacher? The one that was announced at the entrance ceremony?” Did anyone mention Hannah? I couldn’t remember that well mostly because I didn’t listen, but I just went along with it.
“Yes!” I exclaimed and grinned happily.
“I heard she is running from one place to another … is she alright?” Hannah was running around? That was quite the interpretation of Hannah’s normal walking speed if I was honest. She always slowed down for me during the day but without me she was basically speed walking.
“I’m sure she is. Hey, do you know where I could find stuff about demon anatomy?” I asked, trying to get her attention away from Hannah who was probably freaking out because she didn’t know what to do at all.
“I’m not sure that’s legal … why do you need such a thing?” There was one simple reason. I had my underground laboratory already planned, a few demons to populate it but I had yet to find anything serving me as a foundation. It did seem as if I needed to start from scratch.
“I am just curious about demons. For example, wouldn’t it have been a better strategy to disperse everywhere, rather than take over the north? Are these lands more valuable to them? Is there anything they need to survive there?” I asked and grabbed my chin in thought. Truthfully, I wasn’t able to answer these questions at all. Demons, despite not being my enemy at this point we’re still a large unknown for me. And I didn’t like that.
“You are … asking questions the church wouldn’t want to hear. They already have the solution to the problem by simply relying on their god given system … you won’t find anything in here.” She answered quietly while picking out a book about the evolvement of the human race and opened page one.
The system, tearing onto my soul every second and mumbling inside my head the whole time was supposed to be the solution to the demonic problem. Not human ingenuity, not the desire to live freely, just a god given system.
It was no wonder I needed to close my eyes and calm myself down. I hated the thought of being instrumentalized by the gods in any way, even though I myself knew I was used since my birth. But still, the church was basically claiming I was the gods’ dog … which I certainly didn’t want to be.
“You will find research in this direction though.” Sofie said and closed the book in front of my nose.
“Thank you.” I hated it. “I’m not here for that alone though. Are you familiar with artefacts? I mean, SS-Class magical weapons and stuff?”
“No, not at all. I suppose you have to ask someone else for that.”
“That’s a bummer. Hey, a few friends and I wanted to head over to the combat arena afterwards. Want come with us?”
“Eh? I’m not good at fighting.” She mumbled and tipped from one foot upon the other.
“Really?” What was Irminsul thinking in picking her? I seriously couldn’t understand the goddess’ reasoning at all. But oh well, if Sofie couldn’t fight, that would make it easier for me.
“I’m a good medic though … so maybe we will see each other there in the future.” Well, that didn’t surprise me that much. After all, she was the apostle of a goddess who fought me for trying to slaughter a pig in our backyard.
“It’s reassuring to know someone who looks after others.” I explained and gave her my hand. “Want to be friends?”
“Sure.” She immediately took mine and shook it with vigour. Her hand was insanely warm even through my gloves, more so than any other I had ever touched. It must have been because parts of Irminsul’s power resided in her. Maybe, just maybe I could solve a few issues with her but I would need to gain her trust first. Smiling gently, I I let go of her hand.
“And? What are you here for?” I asked despite not being interested at all.
“Theoretical studies of applied magic in respect to the laws of nature.” Eh … what an utterly boring and honestly under-researched topic. The most humans could come up with was that magic and nature were intertwined, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
“That’s … are you interested in a study group? I know someone who might be able to answer your questions.” And if the prince couldn’t answer her questions about magic, I certainly could. I would like to avoid such a scenario though.
“Sure … but I have been here for a long time already, so I might know one or two things more than you.” Even though what she said sounded like bragging, her tone and the light in her eyes showed the exact opposite. She didn’t want to dispirit us in any way which would probably happen because she knew so much more than others. But whatever, Luna’s and the prince’s education shouldn’t be too bad either so there was that. I was just a bit unsure about the cat girl … but whatever.
“Every Friday in the library around three?” I asked happily.
“Kay. I’ll see you then.” She said waved and went away after I bid my farewells as well. The whole conversation didn’t take longer than a minute or so but it was very fruitful. For better or worse, I could call her my friend now, just to spite Aska a little bit. He always hated it when I interacted with normal people … too bad I wasn’t putting up with his shit anymore.
And so, I happily walked downstairs once more after searching a bit longer. Quickly, I found Ellie and Louis discussing about a book about magic which was fairly simple because they weren’t that far away from the stairs. Finding Luna though was a hassle. I went through every corridor twice and focused on the history section of the library. But even then, it took me a long time to find her in a corner of a room, quietly reading a book about … myself.
“How did you do that?” She finally asked after I waved in between her eyes and the book. Reading a few upside-down lines, I realised she was speaking about the rioters who did call for my help while I went through their homes slaughtering.
“What do you mean?” I asked in doubt as I didn’t believe she was asking about all the murders.
“Giving others hope. You gave them the feeling that by supporting you, their life would improve which it did. You give me the feeling that I can rely on you, no matter what. How do you do that?” She asked and looked at me with – who would have guessed – hope in her eyes.
“It’s fairly simple … I don’t.” I explained and sat down right next to her. The wall was a bit uncomfortable and made me wonder how she had managed to sit like this for such a long time. My guess was that she was a bit too engrossed in her book to even realise how uncomfortable her sitting position was. “Humans put their faith in the gods. They projects all their hopes onto them, all of their wishes, no matter if the god even would desire to fulfil them. But they are far away, untouchable in a sense, which makes everyone put a little bit too much hope in them. You may call me a hypocrite for saying the gods aren’t the solution for our problems, but that’s how it is. Despite all that, humans put their hope in them in their darkest hours and by extension, also me. In a sense, I am just a blank paper they can project their hopes onto.”
“That’s … not what I had expected.” She muttered quietly, clearly shaken by my non-saintly words.
“Believe it or not, I’m more of a realist than anything else.” I explained and patted her shoulder soothingly.
“But you lifted them all out of poverty easily! That should have been impossible.” She said, clearly still trying to push me into the role of being a saint.
“It’s only impossible because nobody tried before. Luna, how often do I need to tell you I am not some godlike being, but rather someone just like you.” I lied blatantly, but telling her the truth was also out of question.
“But you are! The gods have chosen you for a reason! Because you are better than us! So please, don’t waste your time staying here because of me!” She said a bit enraged. She probably thought she was stopping me from doing anything saintly, while the reality was completely different. With her presence, she barred me from committing unsaintly crimes.
“My time here isn’t wasted. I need to catch up two hundred years and what place would be better than an academy full of knowledge?” I asked and pointed at a few of the nearest bookshelves to underline my position.
“Hannah could tell you everything that happened.” She said while sulking unhappily.
“Luna … I never had a good life so far. Either I was shunned because of what I am, or I was pushed into a role I didn’t want to have. My whole life, the gods were always around me … and I can tell you their presence can envelop your whole life. So please, let me have this time where I can be myself … until I cannot stay here anymore.” I said and finally stood up as I heard the other two approaching us, probably because we were a bit too noisy.
“I’m sorry … I’m not any better than the others who put their hopes into you, am I not?” No … she really wasn’t. She didn’t have blind faith into me, but she still had hopes I would save the world one day.
“You are kinder, Luna. And your kindness is enough reason for me to stick around.” I explained and looked towards Ellie and Louis who strolled into the room empty handed. “Took you a little while.” They originally only wanted to borrow a book and then search for us, but it did seem as if they had some issues.
“Imagine not being allowed to take a book out of a library.” The prince growled a bit angrily which made me laugh a little.
“These books you are talking about can be over two hundred years old. It is only natural to preserve them as much as possible. Have you searched for any newer version of said book?” I asked and chuckled amused by the air headed prince.
“They don’t have it.” What a bad liar he was. “Seems I need to go to the library rather often in the future.” He said and looked away quite ashamed of himself for not thinking that far. But truth to be told, the librarian was also at fault for not guiding him to the same answer I gave him.
