The Young Lady with Ringlets
Whoa… just how many volumes is this place holding?
The original novel had briefly mentioned the grand duchy’s library as well.
It was the scene where Lumiang’s maid returned books and borrowed new ones here.
They were volumes on magical research that Lumiang had requested, but the maid also borrowed some “personal” books.
Namely, sweet romance novels.
That was why I had decided to stop by.
If there were romance novels, then of course there would be fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.
Reading romantic fantasy novels in a romantic otherworld was as natural as finding a needle where there was thread.
The problem was—
This place is way too complicated.
Old man Rendler had already vanished somewhere.
He had been going on about “food for the mind,” so I had told him to fetch books related to “magic theory.”
It was so I could study theory from books while doing practical training with Rachel starting this evening.
From the way he had hurried off, it seemed he had been to the library before, but if I had known it would turn out like this, I should have asked for directions first.
Hmm…
The bookshelves lined up endlessly like the open doors of a subway train were so tall I had to crane my neck to look up.
The books packed so densely just looking at them was enough to make me dizzy.
There were plaques for major categories above each shelf, but there were so many types that identification was difficult.
It was complexity enough to feel as though I would be crushed to death by books.
Even so, I was in a good mood because of the musty yet nostalgic smell a library gave off, the silence and peace as if cut off from the world, and the fun of shopping inside the cradle of knowledge.
Anyway.
I need someone to help… ah.
My wandering eyes spotted a librarian wearing a hat embroidered with the library emblem.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes. How may I help you?”
The librarian who had been arranging books looked at me.
“Eh, Young Master Elden? Wh-what brings you here…?”
As if it were the natural order of things by now, wonder and bewilderment settled into the librarian’s pupils.
Elden Raphelion’s hometown was a three-day ride by horse from the northern territories, yet even a librarian in a library this far away knew of his notoriety—just what kind of things had he been getting up to?
He must have been quite something.
A familiar gaze.
In the librarian’s eyes I must look like an arsonist come looking for firewood.
Rather than explaining, I chose a declaration.
“I’m looking for the fiction section.”
“Wh-why? No. I-I’m sorry. What kind of novels do you mean?”
“Hmm.”
As I said earlier, Elden Raphelion’s memories were not perfect.
Like how after heavy drinking the previous day’s memories come back in bits and pieces, it was the same for me.
Especially for subjects the original Elden had never taken an interest in, my thoughts would sometimes fail to surface to a degree that felt almost stupid.
So when asked to define what kind of novels, the answer circled in my throat.
Fantasy? But this was a fantasy world, so it would be like a modern person looking for modern fiction—weird.
Genre literature? Did such classifications even exist in the Middle Ages?
“……!”
As the silence stretched and the librarian’s face grew paler, looking ready to cry at any moment, I had to cut my deliberation short.
In the end.
“……Novels that a grown man can enjoy reading.”
An embarrassing answer even as I said it popped out of my mouth.
Since I could not define it in a single word, I had no choice but to explain it descriptively.
Fortunately, with an answer that was my best effort and truly Elden Raphelion-like, the librarian’s complexion returned to normal.
“Ah, then would you follow me?”
Alright.
Thinking that communication had thankfully been established, I followed the librarian who scurried ahead.
After about five minutes of weaving and pushing through the maze-like bookshelves, the librarian’s steps stopped.
“Here we are! Then have a pleasant time~!”
…A pleasant time?
It was a somewhat odd greeting for a librarian to give, but thinking that from a librarian’s perspective time spent picking books might be as fun as playing games, I approached the shelves.
The Dragoness’s Ecstatic Journey
How a Chaste Woman Cools Her Body
The Brothel Owner
The Well-Endowed Hero Tames the Demon Queen
……
Looks like communication failed after all.
“Eek! I-I’ve committed a crime deserving death-!”
I went back to the librarian and conveyed my intention again, and this time I safely arrived at my destination.
I wonder if there is a reference book like How to Live as the Scoundrel Elden Raphelion.
With that idle thought, I entered the Pure Literature section.
Well, in a fantasy world, fantasy novels are pure literature, I suppose.
To me they are fantasy novels, though.
In the pure literature section, as expected, novel titles full of romance and mouthwatering appeal were lined up densely.
The Red Wolves
Chronicle of the Lion King Ratan
The Lania Chronicles
The Ebony Emperor
Of course, even if they were fantasy, being written against a medieval past era they might be like fermented soybean paste that a child gobbles up to a modern person like me, but fortunately I was that kind of kid.
Lee Junuw was the mongrel of mongrels who had voraciously read not only web novels but also classic fantasy works.
Hmm~ What should I start with?
First, I decided to take a lap around the pure literature section.
If I borrowed everything that made my mouth water, it would easily be a hundred volumes.
To narrow it down to the most interesting ones among them, careful consideration was needed.
Whatever you start, the first step is important.
Success in the first step heralds the smooth sailing to follow.
So like an old man gambling, I walked around the pure literature section with my hands behind my back.
Hmm, do I have choice paralysis?
There were so many mouthwatering novels it made me wonder.
How nice it would be if there was a search chance at times like this.
Or if I had a friend who was a novel maniac.
Lamenting the absence of modern civilization’s conveniences and a novel-obsessed companion, I started another lap, and ended up having to pick up seven first volumes of tasty-looking novels.
With no blurbs, just titles and authors carelessly written on the covers, I felt I needed to at least take a nibble to get a sense.
Holding a seven-story tower of books, I started moving to a place where I could read.
But….
Annoying.
Something had been lurking at the edge of my vision for a while.
It was a woman who looked about my age, and from her attire she seemed to be a young lady from a noble house.
I glanced at her face, but no memory surfaced.
A scoundrel and a library.
Thinking that someone who could not understand the combination of those two words would only be a nuisance, I ignored her pretending not to notice.
But.
Thud.
Click.
Thud.
Click.
…
…
Thud.
Click.
She started matching my footsteps and following, so I could no longer ignore it.
First, I decided to put down the seven-story book tower.
Clack, arriving at the space prepared for reading, I placed the books on the desk.
A presence felt behind me.
With the unpleasant feeling of a bothersome peddler sticking to me, I frowned and made a fierce expression.
Even if a bad reputation is useless, a notorious one has its moderate uses.
I turned and faced the peddler.
“I’d prefer if you kept your business brief.”
The reason she had only been lurking at the edge of my vision, the reason she had only been trailing after me without easily speaking up, must be because her status was below that of a duke’s house.
I had no reason to endure the displeasure of having my reading time interrupted.
So I warned her coldly like that…….
“…Whoa, what? It’s really Elden Raphelion?”
The young lady with curled ringlets, holding two books to her chest, said with a bright smile.
“Hmm hmm~”
A hum that came out on its own.
Light footsteps.
This time buried in the musty paper smell searching for something to read never got old.
“What should I read today~”
The young lady of a count’s house who loved reading so much that saying she entered the Royal Academy for its library would not be an exaggeration.
The young lady jokingly called a bookworm by her close friends had come all the way to the distant northern territories for none other than the grand duchy’s library.
Even the bitter cold could not stop her reading passion.
“Kya~ This looks fun!”
It had been more than four days since arriving in the northern territories, and with the feast of novel books she had never seen, only heard rumors of, and desperately wanted to read, she was crossing the boundary of happiness every day.
“Wow! It’s a novel by Author Ront? I absolutely have to read this!”
Today was the same.
She was smiling happily among thousands of novel books.
Spinning so her skirt flared, running around as well.
Then, a question caught on her smile.
Huh…?
A familiar silhouette caught her eye.
A man with jet-black hair rare in the Elperion Kingdom and ruby-like red eyes.
Especially because of where she had sat, she had often seen the back of his head and his profile.
She was about to approach and greet him right away, but her steps stopped short.
Right.
There’s no way Elden would be in a library. Dummy.
Even though they were classmates, they had not had much contact or been close.
Even so, she knew he was the polar opposite of a quiet place like a library.
Hanging out with Deron, Kyle, and Blund, he had preferred alcohol to books and dynamic things to static ones.
So thinking she must have seen wrong, she was about to look away.
Come to think of it, those four became the final candidates for the Grand Duchess’s betrothal contest, right?
She recalled what she had heard from a maid.
Knowing she was a classmate, the maid had asked which of the four she thought would win.
For her, who had no interest in anything but novels, so few close friends even during school that you could count them on one hand, and whose grades were so low that school life had passed with indifference, the betrothal contest was just one of those things she did not care about.
That the man’s face looked like Elden, and thus she felt glad, was only because of the unexpectedness of meeting an unexpected person in an unexpected place.
Hmm, no matter how I look, it seems like Elden.
Looking this way and that, it was Elden Raphelion.
Moreover, as a final candidate in the betrothal contest, there was enough reason to encounter him at the grand duchy.
But what on earth was he doing in the pure literature section?
Had he finally opened his eyes to the fun of pure literature?
At the question thrown by unexpectedness, the young lady with ringlets found herself unconsciously lingering around Elden.
Then when he stacked a seven-story book tower, she had to sigh.
Uh, those are really not fun at all.
They were all near-flops, books written to make readers uncomfortable.
For Elden who had stacked seven stories of books that could never be recommended as introductory works, she had no choice but to follow after him.
And.
“…I’d prefer if you kept your business brief.”
She faced him.
It really was Elden.
“…Whoa, what? It’s really Elden Raphelion?”
“…It is, but.”
“What are you doing here?”
“As you can see, I was thinking of reading some novels. But who…?”
“Huh?”
Even if there had been no contact throughout school years.
Could you fail to recognize a classmate you spent three years in the same class with after just a few years?
Of course she had kept her distance because he seemed like a bad sort, but treating her as if they had never even met once was a bit sad, the young lady thought as she had to introduce herself.
“You don’t know me? I sat in the seat diagonally behind yours in the graduating class?”
The young lady with ringlets who always only read novels sitting diagonally behind Elden, the second daughter of Count Elrond and a novel maniac, Ariel Elrond.
“Ahem.”
“You remember, right?”
“I don’t.”
“…….”