Finally, having made it to the doorstep of Kaelus's library, he would open the door, walk in, and casually faceplant into the ground out of exhaustion. Before dragging himself off the ground and closing the door.
It had been a long day, not made any better by the strange vision William had received after killing the Moonbeast. Speaking of Wei, they were currently in the form of a parrot on William's shoulder.
'This Fourth Wall ability.....did it seriously cut to some villain's introductory bit? What a mess.....This means I'll probably have even more work soon...I'll ask my mentor when he gets back.'
He would collapse onto his favorite armchair and doze off for a while. Finally getting some rest after all this time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------After waking up, he would get a nice stretch in and check his phone to see the time.
November 10, 2031
6:27 A.M.
He would get up and walk around the library, going to reread one of the thousands of books inside of it.
After a bit of searching, he found one that he hadn't read in a while. An old-looking book titled
He would sit down on his armchair with the book and flip it open to the first page.
Time and Love
Fan Shi Lian （返失恋）
"Autumn leaves guide my eternal pain,
A sin of solace for my wrath, my only gain.
In the brightest days I play the fool.
The one who sings and dances like your mule.
In the deepest nights my heart burns for thee.
For my true love, my one desire, not even Time will stop me.
If even a broken clock strikes right twice a day,
How strange that there's no time for my name?"
'What an interesting poem, I suppose it's about a guy that was too shy to confess his love and in the end he was rejected when he finally worked up the courage, how tragic.'
William would shrug and read on.
There were a total of 51 poems and the book, and William read through all of them and analyzed each one. They were all mediocre in his opinion though. Of course, it wasn't like he could write any better than those poets, his job as a reader was just to observe and critique.
By the time he had finished, it was already quite late outside. A windy breeze would claw at the library's windows, as a friendly knock came from the door.
William would open the door to see a familiar face, standing there in his typical gentleman's attire and equipped with silver rimmed glasses. It was his mentor Kaelus. He seemed pretty much the same as the last time he saw him except for the fact that he seemed more exhausted and disheveled than usual, probably due to whatever mission the CVA sent him on.
"How come you had to knock? Do you not have the keys to your own home?"
Kaelus would simply chuckle and wave him off calmly while walking in.
"Using keys is too pedestrian for me, I rely on my slightly-cold and distant but very kind student to get inside! Now if you'll just excuse me, I have some rest and relaxation to catch up on."
"Is that just an excuse to say you lost your keys?"
Kaelus would simply ignore William and head into the main area of the library, gesturing for him to follow.
William would sigh while closing the door, before following after him.
'Seriously, sometimes it's like I'm the one taking care of a adult child.'
Once they reached the center of the library, Kaelus would sit down on a white foam armchair and cross his legs. William would take a seat directly across from him in a wooden chair.
"So Master, how was your mission? Any purple haired guys that seemed suspicious?"
"It was easy, for a guy like me of course. So theres nothing for you to worry about. Also, no purple haired guys, if that's something important to you. Oh yeah, what reader did you awaken as?"
"I am...the Reader of Lore. I can write stories that come to life and apply adjectives to people to affect them."
"Lore huh? That seems to be a really versatile ability, probably just restrained by Ingenuity, both metaphorically and literally, right?"
"You'd be correct, I recently had to opportunity to use it too, I accepted a low level mission and for some reason it turned out to be an A rank monster I had to beat. It wasn't any real problem for me though I took care of it easily."
William would shamelessly copy one of his masters catchphrases.
'You....'
"Oh, is that so? Well done Will, I'm glad to see you helping others. By the way, I'm sure you probably got a lot of loreld from that mission right? Whatever you do, don't invest it in those weird cryptid currencies or whatever they're called, total scam I hear."
William would sigh at his master's modern media illiteracy, it was 2031 and he still only just learned about this stuff? He knew his master was a total bookworm before the debut of The Library, but even then.....
"Yeah, I know. I also made sure to sign up as an official verifier at the CVA like you reminded me to in that letter of yours, and I got evaluated to the Nu rank."
Kaelus would nod thoughtfully.
"That's a nice position to be in, slightly above average. Not a whole lot of work but nice benefits included. By the way, do you plan to advance further up the stages of Literacy? With your current abilities, Loreld, and status, you could easily have a nice and cushy living inside of this country. Isn't that what you've always wanted?"
'Ah, is this what he was trying to get at...'
"Advancing would be ideal still. Firstly, theres no guarantee that this country will last as long as live with how chaotic the outside world is. Secondly, there will always be people trying to mess with me and interrupt my life unless I gain enough power to triumph over them. The one thing that matters in this world is power. People have realized that fact and adapted, and if I don't I'll become the stepping stones for their apotheosis."
"I see, I get where you're coming from then. Fine then, come with me, it's about time you learned about truth of advancing through the stages."
Kaelus would get up and pull a book from a bookshelf next to him, and when he did a loud shudder would echo across the library, as a hidden stairwell would appear infront of that very bookshelf. He would gesture towards it and say to William
"Here lies the door to power, all you need is the key."