Free Web NovelChapter 5: Librarian’s secret
Thud
The book in his hand hit the floor with a loud sound in the dead silent library and the girl’s red eyes snapped open and met his blue eyes directly through the gap in the bookshelf.
For three full seconds, neither of them moved. He stood there like a statue and her fingers still inside her.
’...Well, shit.’
He has many questions or many thoughts running through his brain, with neurons activated. All he knew about her was that she was lazy and he never expected to witness something like this for free.
After seconds of playing the statue game, Eren recovered first. He picked the fallen book from the ground and slid it back on the shelf, breaking her stunned eye contact.
He closed both his hands and his eyes, as if in prayer.
’Dear listening entity. Please let that be a hallucination. Please let my horny brain have manufactured the last thirty seconds. I will accept insanity as an explanation. I will even accept brain damage from Reinhardt’s attack.’
He decided to walk away as nothing happened in the last thirty seconds.
But before he could take one step forward, he heard hurried footsteps from behind.
"Hey... you!"
A breathless yell came from behind, but he didn’t turn back. Instead, he just started walking forward, still dismissing it as a hallucination.
"Did you think you could just walk away?" she yelled.
Suddenly Eren felt some energy behind. Before his survival instincts kicked in, something wrapped around his torso, his arms, and finally his legs. He lost his balance and fell on his back onto the wooden floor.
He was bound by some rings of light made of mana.
He jerked his head back and the petite girl came into view with disheveled brown hair and red eyes that burned with fury. She slowly stepped towards him, pointing her staff at him as if he were a threat.
Norelia narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you see that?" she demanded, voice low and dangerous.
He looked at her face from a low angle, too close to under her skirt. Even though she was angry and messy, she was surprisingly cute. The fact that she was trying so hard to look intimidating only made it funnier.
He smiled at her. "Which one?" He asked cheerfully. "Abandoning duty? Reading some suspicious literature? Or the part where you were enthusiastically fingering yourself while moaning? Be specific."
He saw her face turning red, her grip around her staff tightening. "How did you manage to enter my detection barrier without getting noticed?" she muttered, face turning redder.
Eren blinked. "You what now?"
"Don’t play dumb!" She jabbed her staff into his face. "I set up a barrier around the library. Anyone with a single drop of mana would be detected if they stepped inside. So how—"
She stopped her rant, red narrowing like she found something unusual.
"You have no mana. Not even a bit," she revealed, lowering her staff. "That’s why the barrier couldn’t detect you."
Eren was more shocked than Norelia. First, the system refused to give him any rewards and this body has no mana?
’Fuck me and my life again.’
She pointed her staff at his face again. "Since you saw something you shouldn’t, I will end your life and... bury you in the garden."
"Fuck. Why is everyone so fixated on killing me? First the blue-haired simp and now a cute librarian?" He said out loud in frustration and Norelia twitched at the word ’cute.’ "Also, I’m the son of the duke. Killing me would bring you more hassle, don’t you think?"
Norelia thought for a moment. It’s a hassle to kill someone in a higher position, but the rumours also say he’s an infamous stalker who harassed some women in the academy. How could she trust him after witnessing something like this?
Eren reads all those thoughts from her expression.
He sighed and used his strength on the magic bounds she used around him. They popped up like they were made of glass.
Norelia’s eyes went wide. "Wh—at? That’s my most powerful spell," she whispered, trying to step back and lean against the bookshelf, her earlier demeanor vanishing into fear.
"Your best?" Eren said as he got to his feet, brushing the shards off his pants. He genuinely thought it was a low-level spell as he felt like they were paper.
He looked at her, now inches apart. She’s surprisingly short despite being twenty-four years old, and with a petite face and a medium chest, she looks more adorable than in-game.
"Shall we talk properly now?" He took a step forward. She closed her eyes, fearing the worst from his reputation.
"I want your help, Miss Norelia," he muttered. Norelia stared at him like he was making jokes before he did something.
"Look," Eren continued, rubbing the back of his neck. "I came here because I need your help with something."
Norelia’s red eyes widened. "What... help?" She mumbled, still being cautious.
"I want someone who could develop some mana devices with me and I know you’re specialized in mana engineering, so I need your help for my sister’s cure," he said with a sly smirk on his face,
Her face twisted from curious to suspicious in a nanosecond. "How do you know? No one here knows that I am a mana engineering expert." She tried to raise her staff, ready to blast him off. "Are you really a stalker?"
’Fuck damn,’ Eren cursed himself, trying to gather his thoughts for explanation.
"I checked your records back in the academy," he said, hands raised like surrendered, but the smirk not going off from his face. "As I said, I am doing my research for my sister. Trust me."
She studied his face for a long moment and he let her look.
"You’re weird," she finally said. "What exactly are you proposing?"
"Here’s the deal," he said. "You help me with this project. I provide the materials, blueprint, and the workspace. In return, you have to help me to create a few devices."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I will find someone else. Eventually." He sighed. "It’ll just take longer. And Liora..." He looked away. "I don’t know how much time she has left."
"If I agree," she said slowly, extending her hand for a handshake. "You should never mention what you saw."
"I already erased everything from my mind," he replied, both shaking their hands to seal the deal.
He looked at her hand gripping his. "By the way, isn’t this the same hand you fingered with earlier?" He asked casually and looked at her face turning beet red again.
