Chapter 13 The librarian: Mrs. Nancy

"What happened to your parents? And did they tell these symbols to you?" Nancy asked, shifting her attention from the paper to the boy. Aron got the wink from Julia and knew it was his turn to give the story a genuine emotional touch. That wasn't hard for him since his end goal had always been to look for his parents.

"Both of them were small-time mages. Around 9 years back they had to leave me and go on some task. Before leaving me, for a month they made me remember all kinds of strange symbols like these." Nancy nodded her head lightly before continuing with her further questions. "So is this all that you remember? Or there are other symbols too, like these?"

Aron had meticulously prepared for these inquires, answering without hesitation. "There should be more but they keep appearing and disappearing in my mind. Over the period of last few months, I have collected the these many." From what Hera told him, this language of gods was very mysterious. So what's stopping him from adding his own twist to the mystery?

His words seemed to have worked as Nancy fell silent for a while, choosing to mull over it. Julia's hearted palpitated. This was the time of reckoning. Glancing to the side she found the boy with a content expression. She cursed in her heart. Was he trying to act cool at this moment? But in truth, Aron was calm for another reason. He believed in giving his best. As long as he thinks that there was nothing better he could have done in a precarious situation, then it doesn't matter if the results come in his favor or not.

"Come to me, little boy." Nancy believed the boy. No one will lie about their deceased parents. This left her with two scenarios. Either the boy's parents were some kind of expert mage but they hid it from him. Otherwise, the only other possibility was they were really two weak mages who managed to somehow come across this ancient language, by sheer luck.

And for a great mage like her, it was easy to discern between these two prospects. Check the boy for his mana aptitude. It was a simple fact that weak parents will always give birth to weak kids. Though mana aptitude mostly depends on luck but its dependency on heredity was just as pronounced.

But how can Aron know her reasoning? His heart fell as soon as she called him close. Was she going to check his memory? It wasn't impossible for powerful mages to be able to do that. Nancy sensed his nervousness, chuckling in response. "Haha.. don't worry granny here is not some old witch who will try to drain your memory. I just want to see how much aptitude you possess."

Her answer as well as her kind face laid his heart to rest as he took a few steps and walked next to Nancy. "Give me your hand and try not to resist my mana flow." Once Nancy held onto his hand, Aron relaxed his nerves as he felt her cool mana entering in his veins through his hand.

A few seconds later, although Nancy's face had a small smile but from the inside she was exuberant. She had discovered a gem. It was just as she had thought. His parents must have been some hidden experts. There was no other explanation for his outstanding talent.

Right when she was gladly going to cease the test when a few scenes began flashing in her mind. It was of a pitch-black location. Some cave, maybe? She can't tell exactly. But it felt like a presence there was trying to lead her consciousness inside. She wasn't able to resist her curiosity and let it drag her mind inside.

The aura began turning sinister as she was dragged to the deepest parts of the lair. A few minutes passed and only then Nancy discovered, what has pulled her here. The blood in her streams ran cold at the sight.

There was a being chained to the walls. All over its body, there were spells placed in the ancient language. The being was humanoid but around twice the height of a regular human. It had a set of 4 black feathered wings behind it. From the naked body of the being, it was easy to tell that she was a female. The thick chains had even wrapped around her wings, holding the angel-like being. The black chains seem to be connected directly to her body as she saw most of them ending directly inside her.

As Nancy was analyzing the lady, her presence seems to have alerted the prisoner. *Boom* A massive ripple of mana threw her consciousness against the wall behind. The being seems to have been woken up by her intrusion. *Ahetffec* *jsgg* She heard her mumble something but she can't make any sense of it. The only thing Nancy can feel right now was a mountain-like rage simmering inside her. Right then, from behind the winged woman, the mage saw two red glowing eyes stare down at her directly.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* Julia and Aron saw the older woman fall into a fit of cough. "Are you okay, granny?" Julia came forward to support the woman but she seemed to have gotten better. "Haah... it's nothing. Don't worry little girl. Just some old wounds resurfacing."

Nancy turned to look at the boy as she placed a small card in his hand. "Here, this will help you get into the faculty section on my authority. Work hard and do your parents proud." She wasn't sure what she had seen exactly but it was definitely due to the boy. She had decided against telling him about his aptitude. Instead, choosing to let the boy continue on the path of hardship. She had seen too many talents get wasted due to undue arrogance. She will let him discover it on his own.

She saw the boy's face turn ecstatic after receiving the gift. Turning to look at the hopeful expression of the blonde girl she shook her head. "Haha.. sorry, Julia. Rules are rules. No 'students' in faculty section." She was aware of her plan. She wanted to ride on Aron's shoulders to get herself the same access as him. Her words were clear. There was a loophole in the rules at the library since it said nothing about the entry of slaves but specifically denied entry to the students.

"Huh.. granny you are always like this." Julia stomped her foot on the ground before walking to Aron. "You better work hard, stupid slave. Lest all this goes to waste." Saying that she left the room in a huff, putting her disappointment on display. Aron can only smile wryly at her sudden change in mood.

She had already shared with him how much she had desired to visit that part of the library and that was one of the reasons why she chose to walk an extra mile for him. He didn't mind her having her own motive in helping her.

"Haha.. looks like I offend her. Nevermind. So boy, what are you waiting for? You won't be waiting for these old bones to personally guide you?" Aron shook his head hurriedly, bowing to her once again, he said his heartfelt thanks before turning on his heels and leaving the room.

Once Aron left the smile on Nancy's face vanished, now replaced with a grave expression. "Ahh... I am not young anymore. Why do I have to deal with all this?" After lamenting for a while she got up and left her room.

***

Asking all around, Aron managed to find the faculty section on the third floor. It took him a full 20 minutes to reach the barricaded section. There was a single guard at the entrance and she tried to shoo him away, taking him as a new student who managed to find himself at the wrong place. But her face changed a full 180 degrees as soon as Aron pulled out the identity card.

She swiftly allowed him entry, even going so far as to bow her head to him. This was the first time Aron was commanding so much respect. He can't lie that this felt rather thrilling.

*Clink* He was wandering among the wooden shelves, scanning through the subsections with amazement. Books were covering every department. He saw the books relating to all kinds of different magic disciplines, elemental, alchemy, support, divine, beast taming, necromancy, etc. As he passed through one of the bookshelves he saw a pen drop down from one of the tables and land on his feet.

Picking it up he went to the woman who was too lost in her book to even notice. "Excuse me, Miss. I think this belongs to you." The lady had long curly red hair that had hidden her face of Aron was a bit taken aback when to turned to him. The woman had a very attractive face but that was what left Aron surprised. Rather, the complete left side of her face had was scarred.

The scar had covered the complete left side of her face. The strange pattern formed by it dampened her overall looks. From how she looked on the right side, without that ugly pattern she would have even given Mrs. Yana a run for her money. But however she looked, had little to do with Aron. After just a moment of pause, his charming smile resurfaced on his face.

The woman first took a look at the innocent grin on the boy's face before shifting her gaze to the pen in her hand. She must have dropped it. "Thanks." "Hehe.. no problem!!" The boy courteously bowed his head a little, since the woman was a senior, and happily strolled away. The delight in his heart was so much that he can't stop himself from grin like crazy. At last, he found the way to decipher the spells. Now, it was just a matter of time and hard work.

Contrary to the boy the woman was left stunned. This might as well be the first time she didn't even see a shred of disgust flash on someone's face after looking at her directly, without a mask. Had the boy shown some kind of repulsion towards her then that would have been perfectly normal. Conversely, she didn't find even a tinge of aversion on his face from the start.

***

Madelyn was once again engaged in her usual paperwork when some practically blasted through her door, shocking the living daylight out of her assistant. "Hahaha.. little Mady, never knew you could be such an earnest worker." Both the ladies saw a blue-haired woman blast through the door, laughing uproariously.

"Yeah, I want to pay someone to take me away from here." Madelyn found the opportunity to take a breather as her body slumped on the table, with visible longing in her eyes.

"Haha... Sorry, but big sis can't do that. You will have to find yourself a man for that. But I can surely ease your fatigue hehe.." *Thud* The blue-haired lady pulled out a large bottle of alcohol and placed it on the table ahead of her sofa. Madelyn's eyes shined with bright stars as her attention was captured but the wine.

Suddenly a woman's body cut her view short. "Mrs. Nancy, this is not appropriate behavior. These are official premises, you can't dr.... Ahemm.." Wendy felt her body lose all strength as her mind blanked out. She began falling backward, only to be caught in Madelyn's bosom.

"My.. my... little Mady, looks like you are not properly feeding your assistant. See, how fragile she had come to be. No wonder she fainted." Nancy smirked while remarking. Madelyn grinned showing her full set of pearly white teeth. "Hehe... It can't be helped. She is such a hard-working girl that it seems she is harming her health. I need to guide her better." Saying that she dragged the younger woman and made her lay in her chair, before happily skipping to sit in front of Nancy.