Vol 1 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3 - The Book of Wisdom

Episode 03: Liber Sapientiae

Part 1

Huey awoke in darkness that day

So the sound offrom time to time It was the sound of armor

”—Wake up, Huey Huey!”

A slightly lisping girl was calling his name by his ear While her voice was pleasant and clear, the tone that cahty

”Uh” groaned Huey, while opening his eyes

He groped for the pocketwatch that was next to his bed, but he found hi he could tell was that it was pitch black

The same held true for the scenery outside, which was as dark as in the depths of the sea

In this darkness stood a s black hair

She wore black clothing which blended into the night The entire garment was adorned with countless laces and frills that were partially covered by metal plates It was an odd mixture that could neither be called dress nor armor

And in front of her chest, an old lock, tied by silver chains, shone dimly

”What happened, Dalian? It looks as though it is night outside,” asked Huey, still bleary-eyed

”You irl in black that had been called Dalian replied tonelessly

Huey paused for a moment and then put on a frown, ”what's the time?”

”The sun will rise soon”

”Mh,” Huey sat up with difficulty He could still see nothing but thick darkness outside and could sense no indication of dawn

The whitein the eastern sky Not even the roosters of the farmers had awoken yet

Similarly, Huey had been deep in sleep too, of course, and was violently roused froirl

”So why did you wake ht?” asked Huey in a powerless voice after he had shaken his dozy head

Dalian was standing vacantly in the darkness, with a incredibly beautiful face that would remind one of a well-crafted porcelain doll In her ar it evident that she was anxious to go out

Huey contorted his face slightly upon noticing this, for the only plausible reason for hitting him awake he could think of was that there was soency

Dalian, however, told hi to the bookstore”

”Eh?”

Huey'sat her with eyes that signified his bafflelared back at him and protested, ”I'h all books in thisto buy books”

”You read yourself through all of them?”

Huey stared at Dalian in amazement

As hard to believe as it was, she was not carrying a book around with her

His grandfather, an ereat number of books from all parts of the world And as it see piles had been too few to her

Unless there was a special circu so Hence, it had been a h all of them, which, by chance, happened today, this very moment

”How long do you plan on counting sheep there? Get on your feet already, you fish down to him

”a fishether and raised his face again ”But you know, Dalian bookstores aren't norht!”

”Even morons know thatthe obvious Are you by any chance a moron?”

Huey shrugged his shoulders tiredly

”Then why do you wake me this late?”

”If we take the first train, we'll reach the capital before noon,” she answered his question straight away

Huey leaned forward, surprised

”Wait a o to the capital just to buy some books?”

Dalian nodded

”Yes We will also go to the capital After buying most of the i places and buy the rest Aet yourself prepared when you're done adirl said, before turning fro after her for a few ain

”oh please spare me”

There was still nothing but darkness beyond the

Part 2

That bookstore was situated in a side street of the university tohich was lively with restaurants and shops

The interior of the two-story building was buried in tall bookshelves in which countless books were put tidily With sparkling eyes, Dalian looked around in the shop and as soon as she had found a shelf to her liking, she rushed to it like an energetic puppy

”Hoods” Dalian flashed a s up at the titles in the shelf

”This is the oldest university town in our country If you're looking for scientific books, I think you'll have better fortune here than in the capital,” said Huey as he sighed He wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes and shook his head slightly to get rid of his sleepiness

Dalian didn't give hih spirited mood that was not often seen

She scurried around in the store, took all kinds of books just to put them back, and at last, stood still before a shelf deep inside the store Then, after searching with her gaze for sohly

”Hey, that shopman over there Hand us all the books from this shelf to that shelf in the corner over there!”

The shop assistant turned around, bothered and wordless

A queerly clothed black girl had entered his shop and was saying absurd things; who could bla his discontent?

Dalian, irritated by his attitude, twisted her mouth, ”Have you not heardthe co all the books from here to there!”

”Hey, Dalian”

Huey rushed to Dalian in a hurry He covered the irl and removed her forcefully from the baffled shop assistant

”Stop it! What are you doing, Huey!” Dalian struggled fiercely to cos With a scowl, she glared at Huey, ”Let go of eezer!”

Huey acquiesced and let go of her Dalian was pulled down by gravity, however, and fell to the ground headfirst Her ar noise

Huey shook his head and let out a sigh

”Dalian Listen up Don't you think it's strange to buy books like that?”

”What's strange is your head What is wrong with buying books in a bookstore?” A teary-eyed Dalian looked up at hi her reddened forehead

”You know, you don't normally buy whole shelves! We haven't co, after all”

”But Wez has always bought books this way”

Dalian glared at Huey in disbelief, who then frowned slightly ”Wez” was the nicknao

Wez was a so-called bibliomaniac and famous in a certain lobby Consequently, the mansion Huey had inherited from him was filled with thousands upon thousands of books It was said that a those books one could even find soht for horrendous prices, as well as cursed books Apparently, he had once given away half of his property for a single book

”Don't corandfather In the first place, how do you plan on getting all those books hoh money with us anyway”

”Ngh then what should we do?”

Dalian bent her brows in disturbance

Huey just shrugged his shoulders, ”Just choose those you really want to read Restrict yourself to five or six books and I'll buy them for you”

”Five or six?!” Dalian widened her eyes She shook her head weakly as though she had experienced a huge shock ”You tell reat number? How do you call this type of torture?! Is it so fun tor others, you hopeless sado?”

”At any rate, we aren't going to buy a whole shelf Select only the ones you need”

Ignoring the girl's tirade, he headed back deeper into the store

The bookstore did not only handle scientific books, but also dramas and the latest novels

While letting out a sigh, Huey took one of the new releases that had been piled It was a detective novel by a popular author At first, he only speed read soes, but as soon as there was a h it with a serious mien

In the beginning, Dalian left it at just scowling at him, but then she sneaked behind him on her tip-toes and whispered into his ear, ”It's the mail delivery”

”Eh?”

”The culprit age bag, therefore the gatekeepers didn't notice”

”Ugh”

Huey contorted his face when he was suddenly given away the ending, whereas Dalian chuckled lance, Huey took another book from a shelf

Dalian narrowed her eyes immediately, ”In this one it's the narrator himself, the doctor Just read the depiction carefully when the corpse gets discovered”

”Why are you doing this?!” Huey burst out

Dalian countered, unimpressed, ”You were mean to me first”

”I ht you common sense!”

Understandingly enough, his voice was rough Dalian pursed her lips and sulkily turned her head from him

Suddenly, so woman's voice—addressed them from behind

”Hey, hey, don't fight at such a place You're just causing trouble!”

When Huey turned around, he found a young wo a book, which she had apparently been reading

Her age was around Huey's; either in her late teens or at most, in her early twenties She was rather short, but still a head taller than Dalian

She could surely be called beautiful because of her pretty face, but what left even hed innocently like a child

”If you lack the money to buy those books, shall I lend you soh,” teased the young wo into Huey's face

Huey gazed at her, completely taken by surprise ”Camilla?”

”Yaaay! It's been a while, Huey Why didn't you get in touch with land?” Camilla nodded over-happily

While all this was happening, Dalian was hiding behind Huey

At last, she hesitantly poked out half her head with utmost care It was the behavior of a small animal Moreover, she had taken a thick book and was shi+elding her head with it

While pulling the hem of Huey's coat, she whispered, ”Who's that blonde over there that looks as if she had no strong points at all apart from her face?”

”Well how should I put it,” whispered Huey auously

Camilla leaned towards Dalian, ”Who's this little one? Isn't she a little too tall for your daughter, Huey?”

”daughter?!” The black-dressed girl reddened and was bereft of speech Apparently, she took offense at being treated like a child and treer

Cahtly, ”No, just joking! Don't worry, I'randfather has adopted, right?”

”Adopted huh More or less, yeah,” Huey nodded aardly

After hearing hiested, ”I'd love to chat a bit with you Do you have time to have a cup of tea with me?”

”We should have tiirl behind hilared at Camilla

Ca, and looked up at the ceiling Then she took out a little package fro for some reason

The package rapped with a ribbon and was from a famous confectionery on this street As soon as she untied the ribbon, the delicious smell of baked sweets filled the air

Cae and Dalian leaned forward

She closed the package and Dalian quickly hid behind Huey

Caain

”How about enjoying a cup of tea together? I'll even add some freshly baked sweets! Wow!” Camilla asked with a broad smile

Dalian fell into silence, caught between the two options that enfolded before her, but eventually asked with a oddly serious voice, ”will I get some clotted cream to the scones?”

”Yes, of course I'll even get you sohed merrily

After putting back the book to its original place, Dalian walked towards her Then she turned back to Huey and urged hi for? We're going!”

Part 3

Huey and Dalian were taken to Camilla's holiday house within the town

It was a pleasant building that had a little, yet beautiful garden There was a large river nearby, which they could adlass veranda where the tea room was

”Huey and I are childhood friends!” explained Ca Dalian, as still a little wary of her ”My father works as a trader, you know, so our fa Especially Old Wez because he was a patron of us and visited our mansion quite often That's also how I met Huey”

””

Dalian wordlessly turned her gaze towards Huey in order to have him confirm Camilla's statehed

”That was ages ago! She went to the new continent for a while”

”New continent?” Dalian slightly raised an eyebrow

”Yay!” Camilla showed her the thumbs up and nodded over-cheerfully

Dalian was taken aback and put on a frown Apparently, she was overwhelmed by Camilla's America-style frankness

”I was there conducting soht after the as over”

”So that's why you're dressed like this?” asked Dalian, apparently having a queer ahaeyes upon Camilla's clothes from top to bottom

”Ugh so it looks strange, after all? But over there it's quite nor up the heers

Though not as much as Dalian, her appearance was also quite uncommon

Camilla

She wore a white blouse with a necktie, and a fedora on her head Her slightly peculiar yet pretty fair hair was cut at shoulder length and on her feet were tall lace-up boots The unadorned skirt she as fastened with a leather belt so un into it She looked much more like one of the pioneers of the new continent rather than a daughter of a wealthy man in the capital

”Come to think of it, ere you in that bookstore anyway, Camilla?” asked Huey suddenly

Her parents ealthy and ed several enterprises, hence, it would have been normal for someone in her position to just send a servant or call a bookseller home

Camilla, however, shook her head casually

”I wouldn't necessarily bother going myself for normal books, yeah But you know, since it's about the textbooks I'ive to the kids, I wanted to check and select them with care”

Dalian cocked her head

”Textbooks?”

”I' a small private school You see, there are kids that live in poor faher education Well, as soon as they rant, but until then, there's no way around studying on their own And that's what I' them with,” explained Camilla proudly

Dalian surveyed her with hts, ”you are one queer woman”

Huey gave a laugh and nodded ”She is Has always been”

”How rude!” Cain with, you're no different, Huey Have you found it by now?”

”It?”

”—the Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian” Caoes by the nae and is depicted with books in his hands The prohibited repository that holds 900,000 and 666 phantoht to exist You've been searching for that all the time, haven't you?”

”Who knows?” Huey feigned ignorance While giving Dalian, as glaring at hi, he added, ”Did I ever talk to you about such a thing?”

Caot a little huffy and approached his face

”You can't tellit, you know, since I thought Old Wez could actually possess it”

Huey refrained fro and instead took a sip of the black tea that had been brought by a maid

Cah, upon which she iht! Now that we're talking about books, I've beenSay, are there books that hter?”

”books that hter?”

”Yeah Books that raise your intelligence just by reading them”

”Well, I do think there's always soe, i else,” Huey answered frankly

However, Caly seriousit, you get as bright as though you were someone cos you aren't supposed to know or you become able to easily solve the most complex calculations”

”A book that raises your mental faculties?”

”Mh, yeah I think that's what it is” Ca ”To tell the truth, I' about Mildred”