Chapter 137 The Library
"The Duleans? Is that some kind of nationality? As I gather you're from the Land of Dul." Ellie whispered in a tiny voice.
"Huh? Well, I guess you could look at it that way, but the Land of Dul was not a unified territory." Ekker replied, crossing his arms. "It's like those wilderness regions teeming with tribes of orcs, kobolds and goblins. They stand together against external threats but otherwise spend most of their time fighting. It was kind of the same with us. We were like a conglomeration of tribes except that the neighboring nations hated us quite viscerally. They were territories strictly populated by humans, elves or dwarves and they see us as abominations. Alas, often rightly so. Not all Duleans are able to control their instincts."
A flicker of sadness passed over his face, but at that moment, he patted the shoulder of his beefy companion wearing a necklace of human skulls and added, "If we weren't here to handle Anwar, he would have killed the goblin earlier."
Edward hissed as he was mentioned, but on the inside he was breaking into a cold sweat. Just by comparing their size, if this Dulean had attacked him seriously he would surely have been badly injured. After his recent humiliation he had just realized that he was far from being an apex predator on this campus.
"That's all in the past anyway. The Land of Dul no longer exists." Ekker concluded with a forced laugh.
No one laughed with him. Soon they stopped in front of a majestic building that looked like a haunted castle. Ikaris checked the map twice to make sure they hadn't made a mistake.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Malia raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"It should be."
Having no reason to be afraid, they knocked twice, pushed open the heavy wooden door and entered. The hall that welcomed them inside was warmer than they had imagined, featuring the finest quality red and ochre wood for its floors and walls. A large desk forming a semi-circular arc stood in the center of the hall, its right and left sides opening onto two corridors respectively. Farther back, a large black marble staircase led to the upper floors.
A young woman no older than Ellie was dozing in the back of her chair, a trickle of drool dripping from her lips. She wore a plain white wool sweater and baggy brown pants. Her shoes were the closest thing to a pair of white sneakers in this world.
Her image as a professional librarian was already ruined before she even spoke to them. Hearing the creak of the door, she stretched with an unending yawn, then rubbed her eyes sleepily.
"Awwww- welcome..." She greeted them, failing to suppress another irrepressible yawn that brought tears to her eyes.
As they reached her desk, Ikaris calmly looked at the young woman, pondering on the few purple streaks in her tousled brown hair. Her irises were a pale brown, but purple patterns also danced within.
"Another Fae?" Nardor growled in a bad mood, still wound up against Miss Kiwi.
Ikaris nodded inwardly, but this Fae looked even weaker. She was short, no more than 1.58m, petite, with large half-moon eyes and a face that was both graceful and slightly chubby, which made her look like an immature child despite being an adult. Her glasses were too big for her and the fact that she still hadn't wiped the drool from her lips reinforced this impression.
Upon hearing the dwarf's aggressive tone, the sleepy receptionist woke up completely and glared at him.
"Do you have a problem with the Fae?"
"No. Only with the ones who overstep their bounds and give us a crappy dorm because we're a little different from them." Nardor retorted sarcastically back at her.
The annoyance melted from the librarian's face after his scathing statement. She then took the time to size up each member of their group and putting her glasses back on, she nodded to herself.
"I have a pretty good idea why this happened to you. Well, I'm sorry, but it's not my fault. What I can promise is that it won't happen here as long as you follow the rules of this library, properly care for the books you borrow and return them on time. All right! What brings you here?"
Ikaris took out the scroll with the first years' curriculum and pushed it across the desk to the young woman. She glanced at it briefly and realized,
"You want your textbooks? Do you know what classes you want to take? Usually students wait a few days before coming here."
Ikaris paused and realized that made sense. Magic was a vast subject and no two people practiced it the same way, or learned the same spells.
"Assume that we are totally ignorant about magic. What book would you suggest as a first year?"
"Hmm? What kind of ignorance are we talking about?" She inquired.
"The kind where except for these six, we're all Otherworlders who came to this world less than a month ago." Ikaris smiled as he pointed to Malia, the goblin and the four Duleans.
The librarian's eyes widened slightly at his answer. She looked at them in turn, unable to understand how they had all been admitted here.
"Who is your Lord? You?" She hesitated as she looked at Malia, who was standing slightly back. The Dhampir did not give her that impression.
Not being able to read or write, Malia was indeed uncomfortable in this place. The other one who was uneasy was Edward, the goblin. He clearly hadn't seen many books in his life either.
"I am." Ikaris smiled again, but not his eyes.
The receptionist's jaw dropped to the floor.
"Impressive." She blurted out a moment later, still in shock.
Reaching out, Ikaris heard her mumble under her breath, "The second Crawling-Thrall Lord of Tartarus Shade. I hope for his sake that he doesn't end up as badly."
"Hmm? What happened to that Lord? This is not the first time I've heard of the unfortunate end of the past lucid Thralls who joined the Warring Lands." Ikaris questioned with genuine curiosity.
The young woman gasped behind her desk as she realized that her mutterings had been overheard. Then she considered his question more calmly and after gathering her thoughts she disclosed,
"Actually, he's still alive. But we had to lock him up. Rumor has it that Raine Morgunis personally intervened to capture him after he committed a heinous crime, but I don't know more than that. All I know is that there were countless casualties and several Ruling Houses, including House Morgunis came out weakened."
Ikaris stiffened as he remembered Anaphiel and Ramiro's reactions upon discovering his identity. Given their own clan's history with a Thrall like him, he was amazed that they had given him a chance anyway. If they hated him then they were excellent actors.
It did make him realize, however, that Anaphiel surely hadn't allowed him to join House Morgunis without reason. It was probably also to keep a close eye on him.
The librarian then left to fetch the textbooks that met their requirements. She returned a moment later with several shockingly thick books. Spreading them out on the reception desk, Ikaris saw titles like "Introduction to the Five Major Arcana," "A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body," "Meditation for Dummies," "The Most Common Sorcerer Archetypes," "The Way of the Sorcerer," and so on.
He and his comrades quickly flipped through the books and soon discovered that they were far more detailed and advanced than they had predicted. There were still some useless books like "Introductions to the Elements", which presented absurd definitions to a modern scientist like him, but on the whole they were real mines of information.
For example, "The Way of The Sorcerer" and "Most Common Sorcerer Archetypes" clearly explained how to go about developing a certain range of skills with the least amount of time.
The experience of many generations of Sorcerers of the past had refined these methods to what they were today.