I Am Reading

The librarian’s eyes widened as I charged straight into her stupid poison mist.

“R-Ryuuko!? What are you doing!?” Priya exclaimed.

Oh. Shit. We were supposed to be baiting her outside.

“Change of plans. My idea’s faster.”

BOOM!

The entire room shook violently as I rained blow after blow into the librarian’s miasma shield in rapid succession. The sound was deafening, and Priya had to cover her ears despite standing rather far away.

The poisonous mist had stopped spreading almost immediately once I began a full-frontal assault, and the smugness in the librarian’s expression was completely gone.

As for me, I didn’t even feel any exhilaration as I spammed [Devouring Healing] every time the alert for poison showed up. It was really the most braindead way of earning a victory, but the most efficient.

Her entire skill list was geared around inflicting the poison status and other ailments while hiding behind her bitch bubble, so there really was nothing she could do against me.

Plus, the way I was spamming [Devouring Healing] completely disrupted her magic. Even though the ambient mana that I was consuming refilled nigh-instantaneously, my continuous usage of the skill in the same area was causing the barrier to waver tremendously.

Just a little more!

My latest blow managed to puncture the miasma barrier, my arm shooting straight through it and creating a lasting gap. I could see the fear and panic in the librarian’s eyes as she froze up.

Clearly, she’d never been exposed to anyone who could actually break through her extensive defenses, which made me wonder about the state of anti-mages in this world.

I promptly grabbed her by the neck, causing the barrier and the last remnants of the poison fog to dissipate into the air and return to mana.

“See? Way faster.”

Priya shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t know how anyone could’ve withstood all that poison... If it wasn’t for us, you would’ve just charged in, huh?”

“Yeah, probably.”

I looked at the librarian who was now wriggling weakly in my grasp. With my free hand, I wrenched the book out of her hands and tossed it toward Priya.

“Now what the hell do we do with her?”

Priya shrugged and started flipping through the book, so I ended up knocking her out and then tying her arms together with my jacket. We’d bought some rope at the store earlier, but left it back at the camp, which was probably a stupid idea now that I think about it.

I hefted the librarian on my shoulder and the three of us made our way to the entrance with book in hand. It was now time to get the fuck out of here in case the brief battle I had ended up raising an alarm.

It was a shame that I couldn’t read some of the books here since some of them contained knowledge that [Rulebook] didn’t have, but staying would simply be too dangerous after what just happened.

“Might I ask what you are planning to do with her?” Antenora gestured to the small girl slung over my shoulder.

“Information. We’re going to need to know more about the Black Constellation before we start charging in again. I don’t want us to get ambushed again like at the count’s castle.”

I dashed ahead of the others, making sure that the way was clear as they followed from behind. Before long, we made it out of the mine and back to the camp without encountering any further obstacles.

Antenora and I immediately got to work using the book that we’d retrieved, searching through its pages for the cipher that I remembered seeing. The librarian was still unconscious, so I left Priya to watch over her while Lucrezia was fixing up a quick meal for all of us.

“I believe this part here is directly referring to Aurelia.” Antenora tapped a fingernail on one of the translated documents. “‘A slave with blood relations to the offering vessel shall serve as the catalyst. She will be transported to Redyce fief tomorrow night.’”

“Yeah, but that’s probably where you first found her and tried escaping together, right? I don’t think the archbishop’s gonna bring her back to the same place.”

“Hm... Then the only other place would be this. The ‘Precipice of Night.’ I assume it’s where their main headquarters are.”

I nodded in agreement. We sifted through the documents and read a bit more of the book in an effort to find a clue related to the location of the Precipice of Night, but ultimately failed to do so. There wasn’t even a mention of it in the book.

“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t kill her. I’ll interrogate her when she wakes up.”

“Why not simply wake her up now?”

“I gave her a good smack on the back of the head. She’s probably concussed, so it’ll be better to wait ‘til she’s got enough rest.”

Antenora begrudgingly obliged, saying that the girl’s magical prowess was dangerous. I had no doubts about that, but since she was outside of the library, she wouldn’t be able to maintain her defenses on such a scale or duration again.

I left Antenora to continue reading through the documents and then joined Lucrezia at the campfire, helping her finish cooking before grabbing both my share and Priya’s.

After we both ate, I gestured to the still unconscious girl.

“C’mon, help me put her in the ropes.”

“You sound like a villain saying that, you know?”

I grinned. “Can’t help it.”

I retrieved my jacket and re-bound the librarian’s arms with our rope, using part of it to bind her legs as well. Then, I parked my ass in front of her as I waited for her to wake up.

Hopefully, she’d be conscious before daybreak.

Looking at her this way, she really did seem like nothing more than a harmless girl, but this encounter taught me otherwise. Honestly, I’m not sure when the hell I started judging people by their looks.

Back on Earth, I hated that sorta superficial bullshit. But here I was, lowering my guard around people just because they looked nice.

I shook my head and glanced at Lucrezia who had offered to swap places with Priya and watch over the librarian with me.

“Hey, Lucrezia? I’ve been meaning to ask, but what did you talk about with Antenora the other night?”