Chapter 273

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Chapter 273

"Why, how could this happen…?" This doesn’t match her understanding of the world. Throughout her many years of studying, there has always been a theoretical foundation to support all the phenomena she sees. Even if she herself doesn’t know at the moment, Xerath certainly does.

"Because at this stage, when no one can explain something clearly, they either say the phenomenon doesn’t exist or accuse the other person of using ‘tricks.’ These are tricks commonly used by arrogant old masters. This is the biggest weakness in your paper, in how you explain the key steps with alchemy. Are you prepared?" Xerath’s eyes held a hint of sarcasm, yet she appeared sharp and charming.

"Of course, I am prepared!" The apprentice wasn’t discouraged by her, instead answering with full determination, "As long as the experiment can be repeated, and the data obtained is consistent, there’s no use in trying to refute it."

Xerath’s furrowed brow slowly relaxed, her eyes curved, and a smile appeared on her face. She seemed even more triumphant than Sylas. "Yes, that’s right. Let’s continue."

Sylas lowered her head and saw the ancient book, her confidence immediately dwindling. "Uh…"

"It’s alright, from phenomena to laws, laws are firstly a summary of phenomena. The library is still open."

Sylas stood up and quickly ran off, but unfortunately, this casual library had casually closed earlier than expected. The third library they had stayed in the morning now had its doors tightly shut, while the first library in the morning still had many people inside, borrowing books.

Dejectedly, she walked back to the inn while Xerath put away her pen, stood up, and pulled her towards the exit, saying, "Let’s go, let’s see if the bookstore might have it. We can grab a meal while we’re at it, how does that sound?"

As long as I’m with Xerath, there’s no problem no matter where we go. She didn’t mind and obediently followed the old master. Even if Xerath loosened her grip, Sylas still held onto her hand and refused to let go.

Xerath noticed but didn’t tell her to let go. Instead, she turned around and smiled, saying, "Oh you, even though you’ve defeated a Lich, why are you still acting like a child?"

Sylas asked back, feeling indignant, "Then how should adults hold hands?"

Xerath thought to herself that adults usually don’t hold hands.

However, she took Sylas’s hand, interlocking their fingers, and pretended to demonstrate, saying, "This is how adults usually hold hands." Then she walked forward without looking back. She walked quickly, so they soon arrived at a bookstore. There were some posters at the entrance of the bookstore that made Xerath furrow her brows. They passed by a long fiction counter and arrived at a section called "Alchemy," which was squeezed into only a small space. Of course, there were also "Metallurgy," "Forging," "Machinery," "Construction," and more next to it, but they were all squeezed into a tiny area too.

Luckily, there was still an introductory book on alchemy. Xerath flipped through one, felt unsatisfied, and threw it down. Then she flipped through another one and settled for it.

"How about this one?" Sylas handed her a book and said, "I think the categorization is helpful."

She pointed to a row of metal categories, where precious metals and base metals were arranged in a certain order, with some incomprehensible explanations written next to them.

"It’s pretty good." Xerath pretended to be calm and nodded. "Let’s go pay."

But her face was still feeling hot. Grown-ups don’t hold hands like that, only… but Sylas obviously didn’t know that.

She was still as innocent as a child… Xerath thought in frustration.

But the "innocent child" walking back with her after paying also thought the same way. Xerath was undoubtedly someone who didn’t understand the ways of the world and was focused on studying. Except for lovers, nobody holds hands like that, but she didn’t seem to know.

She still had to maintain an indifferent appearance in order to reluctantly match Xerath’s naivety and conceal the unbalanced relationship between them.

The next day was a nice sunny day. Mordant was located on a plateau, slightly north, so even on sunny days, it was quite cool. As long as they didn’t stand directly under the sun, nobody would feel hot. Xerath and Sylas sat in the same seats as yesterday after the museum opened at eight o’clock.

The morning sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the table perfectly. Sylas’s view was all bright, which was great for writing. However, the long shadow behind her hand blocked Xerath’s view.

Would it bother her? Sylas pulled her hand back, causing the shadow to move and disturb Xerath, who was completely absorbed in writing. The archmage looked up and smiled at her against the light.

Sylas’s face was completely covered by her own shadow, but her shiny golden hair appeared even more radiant under the light, as if it was framed in a golden border.

In recent years, Xerath had started to smile more and more, and the degree of her smile deepened day by day. When Sylas first arrived at Aimekotes, the most she would see was a faint smile or a mocking smile, but now, she loved seeing Xerath with her eyes and eyebrows curved in a smile.

"What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?"

Sylas shook her head, "Did I block your way? I feel… the shadow is a bit bothersome."

Xerath smiled and said, "No, not at all. I think it’s acceptable as long as you don’t move around, okay?"

"Hmm… yes," Sylas nodded gently, but neither of them diverted their attention back to their work.

The blue sand in the hourglass hanging on the wall fell down, one by one, forming a small mound at the bottom. With Xerath’s scrutinizing gaze, Sylas asked nervously, "Is there… anything else?"

Xerath shook her head gently, "I hope to make it in time for the end-of-year submission this year."

The submission period starts in October, and it’s due one week before Revealing Day. Considering the time for delivery, we need to send it out by early November at the latest. Sylas wasn’t sure if there was enough time.

Seeing her hesitation, Xerath whispered, "Don’t worry, we still have time."

"Hmm… yes," Sylas quickly averted her gaze, afraid of revealing more secrets under Xerath’s scrutinizing gaze.

But her handwriting looked really nice. Before, I could only watch from far away, but now I can see it up close. There’s a phrase Luna often says, "Distance creates beauty," which sarcastically refers to those emotions that disappoint us when we get too close. But I only think her handwriting looks even better now.

Someone suddenly patted her waist, but Xerath didn’t look up this time. She just whispered scolded her, saying, "Pay attention."

Oh no, she must have noticed. Sylas hurriedly wrote, trying to make up for her careless mistake earlier that gave away her intentions. But then her waist was patted again.

"Being focused doesn’t mean being impatient. What will you do if you make a mistake?"

If there’s a mistake, I can either change the paper or use a small knife to erase it. Both options are quite troublesome. Sylas tried to stay calm, but Xerath’s bright smile in front of her kept tempting her to sneak glances.

Xerath still didn’t turn her head, but warned, "I’m about to turn the page."

Sylas panicked and sped up her writing, but no one cared about what she was thinking inside. So, she kept thinking faster: If I had met her when I was seventeen, would it still be like this? Would we challenge the difficult puzzles about scrolls together and go to remote little towns to copy the same book?

And Archmage was knighted in her twenties, her powerful magic protecting her body from aging. How much does she really look like she’s seventeen?

The whole day passed quietly like this. They went to eat a different kind of food for lunch, with a strong and spicy meat sauce poured over crispy green beans. It was very appetizing, and before she knew it, she had eaten too much. Xerath had to take her out for a walk.

Because the food was too spicy and the sun was very hot at noon, Sylas couldn’t bear the heat. She unbuttoned two buttons and took off her coat, then Xerath took it and handed her an apple that appeared out of nowhere.

When they returned to the library, it was still not working hours, and the laziness of the old mage was very prominent lately: she never worked before working hours. She leaned against the handrail on the second floor, staring blankly at the small garden outside the empty hallway. Sylas wandered around her, but caught sight of the crowded first reading room and couldn’t help but want to go and see what was happening.

She walked in and immediately felt the atmosphere was awkward. Everyone was staring at her, which was quite normal, it occasionally happened at school too.

This is just a library, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

She walked to the bookshelf and indeed noticed that these books were a bit problematic. Each one looked very old, some book spines were clearly repaired, and the exposed pages were all noticeably yellowish – poorly maintained books always looked like this.

Most of these books were paperbacks: the pages were covered with hard cardboard on the outside, and then covered with a layer of leather or simple paper covers. They were incomparable to the beautifully made books at home, but the titles were very… strange. Look at this one, "The Kiss of the Wilderness"?

She always felt that the titles of these books were subtly similar to those in Fenika’s bookstore.

Most of the people around were men, almost everyone was looking at her. It was normal for a fairy to be noticed in a place where there were many men, but everyone seemed to have a hidden agenda, which made her feel disgusted.

Judging from their attire, most of these people were workers, wearing similar work clothes, some of which were severely worn, indicating long-term heavy lifting. A decent and burly man walked up to her and asked, "Little girl, are you here to borrow books?"

His attitude made Sylas instinctively uncomfortable, even though the tone and manner of his approach was no different from anyone else’s. She could still sense that there might be a trap waiting for her ahead. But she had no awareness of this trap, so she had no idea how to avoid it.

However, she would not tolerate this unreasonable behavior, and replied firmly, "Of course, why not?"