Aegon's face contorted in disgust.
'Why's this guy everywhere I go?'
Aegon's blood instantly ran cold, he froze in place.
The girl finally tilted back her head then opened her eyes and see Aegon standing in front of them.
Petrified.
"Argh."
She stumbled off Eli, shuffling for her clothes to cover herself.
She picked up her discarded top on the floor and whipped her head to see Aegon was still there— like a creep.
"Get out of here!"
She screamed at him, disregarding the fact they were in a library.
Aegon's brows knitted together, raising his hands in surrender.
"It's a public library, literally anyone could stumble back here."
Eli, reaching for his underwear, tripped over one leg, raised his eyes to Aegon in the most pathetic way.
"Please go."
Aegon averted his gaze and walked away from them, settling next to a sturdy beam, arms folded and head downcasted in awkwardness.
A few moments later, an irate girl marches past him, hand raised next to the corner of her eyes to shield herself from Aegon's gaze as she basically ran away.
The same was for Eli, he tried moving as fast as he could to ignore Aegon until—
Aegon grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.
Aegon's mouth opened but words failed him, his hand gestures were enough to shame Eli.
Eli, in his defence, "It's not what it looks like—"
"It's not what it looks like, again. Dude, you sure you're not a sex addict... I've known you for less than a day and I've caught you having sex twice... With two different girls."
Eli, raised a finger to stop him.
"Technically, Trixy's not a human girl, she's a succubus—"
"Yeah, 'succubus', I know."
Aegon raised his finger to quote 'succubus'.
"Whatever, it's not like you're so innocent, what type of Novus goes to the back of the library on their first day?"
Eli tried to redirect blame.
"Uhmm... You."
Aegon said as he pointed at Eli.
With nothing else to say in his defence, Eli retro walked away, first looking at Aegon before exiting the library.
"..."
Aegon shook it off, he still had a long day ahead of him.
He proceeded back to the last shelf, taking the note that Olivia gave him.
It said here that there were only six books of Etrigan.
He stretched to a shelf and brought each other out, they were generally the same design.
Red-black cover with the writing, Poems Of Etrigan, in golden inlays.
He took them, moved them to a desk and laid them all out on the desk in front of him.
The only differentiation was the volume 1, 2, 3 till 6 that was on the side.
He took a deep breath and opened the volume one.
'I just need to find the clues that'll lead me to the entrance. How hard could this really be?'
---
Four hours later,
"Arrgh."
Aegon signed as he finished reading volume 5 for the third time and he still had no idea what it meant.
The sun had dipped now slightly making it hard to make out the words on the page but by now he'd read them so much he had them to memory.
It was all basic poems with their explanation except for the last page— the last page of each volume highlighted a poem that seemed to be a hand written poem with no explanation.
It was obvious that those were the clues, but the clues to what? What exactly did any of this even mean?
He threw his hands into the air in frustration, then buried his head into his table.
"I need help."
He mumbled to himself as mental fatigue started to show signs.
~Knock. Knock. Knock.~
He immediately raised his head to a familiar, very pissed off face.
Her hands on her waist and a look that said she was already done for the day. It was Olivia.
She arched a brow at him.
"What are you still doing in my library? Aren't you supposed to be a Novus?"
He scratched the back of his head not knowing what to reply.
She was right, Aegon was indeed still just a Novus and they weren't exactly prone to go to the library especially on their first days in school except for 'the spot'.
She glanced over at the books sprawled in front of him, open at random pages.
Olivia sighed, lowered her glasses slightly to rub her eyes in annoyance.
"What's the problem? We're closing up soon, so I might as well help you if it'll get you out of here fast enough."
She was direct— too direct.
'What exactly do I even have to lose?'
He thought as he moved the first book into her gaze.
"These books... Are supposed to be the secrets to something. Something that could hypothetically help me out."
She tilted back, a little confused.
"That's vague but okay, what does it say?"
Aegon then recited the ending poem of the first book.
"Kheum... Before ink dreamed of digital gleam,
When quills drew heat in candle's beam,
A woman wrote her sins as art,
Her hills of fancies, soft yet smart.
Seek her pleasure, bound in shame,
Where long still whisper her name."
"Wow..." she pushed her glasses slightly, "That's even more vague."
"Arrrgh."
He exclaimed and hid his face back down.
"Look, I still have work to do...
But I'll give you a few more hours, if it's a riddle from the author then all you have to do is put yourself in the author's shoes, make his mindset yours and it'll come to you."
And with that she turned and left him.
His head shot up from the desk, eyes wide open like he'd struck gold.
"Make the author's mindset yours."
He repeated Olivia's words like she'd just given him the last piece of the puzzle.
"OF COURSE! I've been focusing on the words too literally, I'm not in a high budget Netflix.
This, at the end of the day, is still just a smut harem book made by the most deranged and perverted author there is.'
"Etrigan might be the name of the poet in this novel but at the end of the day, Etrigan's just the brainchild of a harem addicted pervert."
He read the first poem again, analysing every word like it was an audit.
"Before ink dreamed of digital gleam... When quills drew heat in candle's beam.
Before digital gleam and when quills drew heat— it's ancient and handwritten."
He reached for an empty piece of the piece beside him and scribbled it down.
He read the next lines.
"A woman wrote her sins as art... Her hills of fancies, soft yet smart.
Wrote her sins.. Hmm... Female protagonist and probably an erotica.
Seek her pleasure, bound in shame... Where long still whisper her name."
He raised an arm to his chin.
"Seek her pleasure confirms it was an erotica, where long still whisper her name."
He immediately pushed back his seat.
"I've got it. Hill of fancies— the first ever erotica, and one of what the author said was his biggest inspiration.
This puzzle— they're nothing more than just smut books."