After taking her bath, Dunha was smiling as her maids gently dried her body with towels.
"That was refreshing," she thought.
"My lady must be in a good mood today," one of the maids commented.
"Isn't that obvious? I can't remember the last time I took a proper bath, especially with warm water!" Dunha thought. "I almost cried seeing a bathtub for the first time in years."
"My lady?" said the maid.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just happy to take a bath," said Dunha.
"S-so cute!" the maids thought.
Once the maids finished drying Dunha up, they proceeded to dress her up in a small stylish blue dress.
"It's all done, my lady," said the maids as they bowed their heads.
Dunha nodded in satisfaction and signaled them to leave her room. Once they left, Dunha stretched her arms and smiled.
"Now that I feel refreshed, I should head to the library," she thought.
🔸🔸🔸
[The room of knowledge]
Once Dunha entered the library, she looked around the room and stared in astonishment.
"Whoa..." she thought.
The entire room was filled with thousands if not tens of thousands of books to the point that a literal small hill could be made by gathering all of them in one place.
"Wow, the library looks so much bigger than I remembered," Dunha mumbled. "It's probably because I rarely visited this place in my first life," she added.
She then shook her head.
"Now's not the time to be mumbling to myself! I better find the books that Mason destroyed in my first life," she thought.
Dunha then looked around the library to search for the books that were destroyed in her first life. However, there was one problem.
"You have got to be kidding me," said Dunha.
Dunha faintly remembered where the fire started in her first life so it wasn't difficult to find the location again in her second life.
"There must be thousands..." said Dunha.
The problem was that there were three large bookshelves in the location where the fire started and each bookshelf had at least 3,000 books. The bookshelves were also so tall that it would require a ladder to reach the top of the shelf as an adult.
"What should I do?" she wondered. "I still have a few months before my mother reveals her pregnancy. The only problem is that I don't think I'll be able to read through even half of these shelves before the announcement..."
While Dunha was trying to figure out what to do, a book suddenly fell off the shelf on its own.
"Eh?" (Dunha)
Another book fell.
"Is someone behind the bookshelves?" Dunha wondered.
After witnessing another book falling off the shelf without any reason, she dashed around the bookshelves and witnessed something unexpected.
"Zzz..." (???)
"Lily?!" Dunha shouted.
She saw Lily sleeping in one of the empty parts of the bookshelf.
"Ha... Dunha?" Lily yawned.
Lily slowly began to open her eyes as she yawned after hearing Dunha calling out her name.
"Good morning," said Lily as she rubbed her eyes.
"What are you doing here?! Why aren't chu sleeping on a bed?" Dunha asked.
Although Dunha tries to speak properly, she still sounded a little funny due to her missing teeth.
"Mmmm... Because it's comfortable..." said Lily.
After telling Dunha the reason why she was sleeping in the library, Lily proceeded to yawn again and fall back asleep.
"Just 5 more minutes..." said Lily as she drifted back to sleep once more. "Zzz..."
This caused Dunha to sigh.
"Ha... So that's why those books fell off the shelf," she thought. "She probably moved around in her sleep and caused them to fall from the other side. These bookshelves are double-sided so you'd be able to see through them when these shelves are empty."
Dunha simply grinned as she looked at Lily sleeping.
"Coming to think of it, Lily would always sleep in one of the most random places I can think of. I guess it's okay to let her sleep here as long as she's okay with it." Dunha thought. "There's a heater here, so she shouldn't feel cold..." she added.
Dunha walked back to where she was standing to pick up the books that fell.
"Coming to think of it, there are more books behind these bookshelves. That means that's another 3,000 books on each bookshelf," she sighed. "That means it's 18,000 books in total... Ha..."
She returned to her original spot and proceeded to pick up the fallen books. As she picked up the books, they caught her interest.
There were a total of 3 books that fell off the shelves. The books were called [The Journal of Blake Lars by Jane Lars], [John Star's Conquest of the East by Pendrick Younder], and [The Forbidden Love of Two Souls by an unknown author].
After reading the titles of the books, Dunha paused for a moment before looking around her surroundings.
"Is this really a coincidence?" she wondered.
She then opened every book to see what's it's about. She opened a random page of the book called "The Journal Of Blake Lars" and quietly read it.
"Ever since the battle at Ember's Gate, Gregory's condition continued to worsen. It appears that the Vindorians used poisoned arrows during their assault. One of these vile arrows struck Gregory in the arm and despite treating and bandaging the wound, he showed no signs of recovery. The other men who were also struck by these arrows also fell ill. I fear that this is no ordinary poison as none of the antidotes were working..."
Dunha suddenly stopped reading to think.
"Blake Lars... I think I heard of that name before... Oh, I remember. That's the name of one of the 45 founders of the Star Kingdom and the ancestor of one of my father's companions, Kenny Lars," she thought. "From what I remember during my history lectures, Blake Lars was considered to be the greatest warrior of his time until his tragic accident that cost him his right arm and leg."
However, despite being forced to end his career as a soldier, it did not stop him from accomplishing many other things that would make history remember him.
He would later be remembered as one of the greatest strategists and healers who've ever lived.
"Tch, if only he was alive during my mother's illness..." Dunha muttered after remembering Blake's accomplishments.
According to history, Blake Lars along with 100 of his followers disappeared during their third expedition to the foggy valleys in the east. He was never seen again and after several failed attempts to search for him, it was assumed that he died and was given a funeral with an empty coffin. What he was searching for in the valleys remains a mystery to this day.
"I'll have to keep reading this later. Since he was known to be the best healer, maybe he wrote something down that could be related to my mother's illness," she thought.
The next book was "John Star's Conquest of the East".
"So this about my great-great-grandfather when he nearly conquered the entire Eastern side of the continent..." she thought. "I guess I'll read this later. I don't intent on conquering anything right now."
Dunha skipped the second book and placed it on top of the book about Blake.
The last one is "The Forbidden Love of Two Souls by an unknown author".
"I have a bad feeling about this..." she thought.
Dunha then opened the book in the middle and read a random page.
"She slowly took off my clothes and although I was embarrassed, for some reason, I also felt excitement. She then pushed me onto the bed and sat on top of me. She began to remove her top as she li--"
Bam!
Dunha quickly closed the book with a loud bam after reading a page. Her cheeks began to turn pinkish-red from embarrassment. She then quickly looked around to see if anyone was nearby and let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew... The librarian is currently not here and the guards are outside..." she thought. "Lily's also asleep, so that means nobody heard me read this..."
She then placed the book on top of the two books.
"If anyone saw me read this, it'll be a very huge problem. So, for now, I'll put this back and read it later," she mumbled.
She felt as if her conscience was judging her decision as she put the third book back.
"Hey, don't judge me! It may be an embarrassing book but a book is still a book. They are meant to be read for knowledge and entertainment!" she internally shouted.
She stood up and was beginning to leave the library with two of the three books and paused when she was about to head to the door. She then looked at the wall clock.
It was currently 7:31 am.
"Breakfast usually began around 8... This means that I still have half an hour..." she thought.
Dunha looked at the book that she put back and smiled. She proceeded to head back to the large bookshelves and pulled out the third book again. She then opened the book as she sat on the floor and began to read it from page 1.
(To Be Continued)
2020/05/25