For most adventurers, the highlight of the Capital was the Grand Arena or the high-end armor shops. For Shino, it was the ivory tower that pierced the clouds at the city’s highest peak: The Royal Library of Oakhaven.
While Kazuto was summoned to the military barracks for his mandatory squire drills, Shino took her Copper Plate and headed upward. The air grew thinner and sweeter the higher she climbed, scented with the musk of ancient parchment and the ozone of preservation spells.
The Labyrinth of Ink
The interior was a cathedral of knowledge. Spiral staircases wound around pillars of books that stretched a hundred feet high. But as Shino walked through the "Foreign History" wing, her nose wrinkled. Her ears twitched in irritation.
"This is... a disaster," she whispered.
Books on dragon anatomy were shoved next to cookbooks from the Southern Isles. A rare manuscript on mana-veins was being used to prop up a wobbly table. To a professional librarian, it was a crime worse than a monster raid.
[Analytical Eye: Active]
The world turned into a grid of data. Shino didn't even think about it. She began to move. She was a blur of fur and focused energy, her tail snapping like a whip as she caught falling scrolls. She vaulted up ladders, her Cait Sith claws gripping the wood as she rearranged entire shelves by subject, date, and magical resonance.
The Unseen Master
"What in the name of the Great Sage are you doing?"
Shino froze, clinging to a ladder fifteen feet in the air. Below her stood an elderly man with a beard so long it was tucked into his belt. He wore the star-patterned robes of a High Librarian.
"I... I was just fixing the filing system," Shino stammered, her ears flattening. "The 'Ancient Era' section was mixed with the 'Culinary Arts.' It was... physically painful to look at."
The old man adjusted his spectacles, looking at the shelf she had just finished. His eyes widened. "You... you categorized the Chronicles of the Void? Those are written in a dead tongue. Nobody has been able to read those titles in three centuries."
Shino looked at the books. To her, the characters looked remarkably like a stylized version of Old Kanji and Latin. "They’re just... records of a celestial event," she said simply. "I recognized the radicals."
The Forbidden Text
The High Librarian, whose name was Master Elian, didn't kick her out. Instead, he watched in stunned silence as she spent the afternoon "cleaning" the wing. By sunset, she had done more work than his entire staff had managed in a decade.
As a reward, Elian led her to a restricted alcove behind a velvet curtain. "Since you have the eyes for 'dead' tongues, perhaps you can tell me what this is. It was found in a ruin fifty years ago."
He pulled out a small, leather-bound diary. Shino’s heart nearly stopped.
The cover was worn, but the text was unmistakable. It wasn't in the language of this world. It was written in neat, modern Japanese.
Property of Satou Kenji. Year 2018.
"A World-Crosser," Shino breathed, her fingers trembling as she touched the page. "I'm not the first one."
The Lingering Shadow
She spent hours translating the first few pages. It spoke of a "Gate" and a "System Error." But before she could get to the core of the mystery, a shadow fell over the table.
"Shino? It's dark outside. I was worried."
She looked up to see Kazuto. He looked tired from training, his hair sweat-slicked, but his eyes lit up the moment he saw her. He looked at the book, then at her intense expression.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked softly.
Shino closed the diary, her mind racing. "I found a ghost, Kazuto. And I think... I think my being here isn't an accident."
Kazuto didn't understand the "Earth" part of her secret, but he saw the weight on her shoulders. He reached out, gently squeezing her hand. "Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. But first, you need to eat. And my father... he wants to meet the 'A-Rank' girl who’s been distracting his son."
Shino’s tail gave a nervous flick. Surviving a Frost-Claw Bear was easy. Meeting a Duke? That was the real boss fight.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmSDjK1HaN
and then Add to home screen.