Chapter 274

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Chapter 274

But to her complete surprise, everyone in the room started laughing – some were snickering, some were covering their mouths, and some were simply leaning on the table, laughing. She anxiously looked around, and someone shouted, "You’re not grown up enough to be here!"

Sylas pretended to stay calm and said, "Are there any books that I can’t read?" as she randomly grabbed a book that seemed the safest.

Generally, the most crowded area in a whole library should be the reading room that contains literature or art books. It was probably the same here, she understood that from the name, so the book she grabbed, "Snow White and the Witch of the Night," was likely a fairy tale that Luna often told.

The cover was adorned with a simple silhouette sketch, with a simple style. She casually flipped open a page and immediately felt as though her throat was being squeezed. It was an illustration, depicting a woman with long hair, partially lifting it up, and leaning down to kiss something. The bottom half of her face was obscured by a slightly bent leg, making it unclear where her kiss actually landed.

But it was obvious that the leg belonged to a woman – her arched back and prominent chest hinted at that. The positioning of their bodies also clearly indicated where the kiss landed – a place that Xerath had previously made it very clear that no one (except for her) was allowed to touch.

Sylas felt her face burning. With a "snap," she closed the book, staring angrily at the man in front of her. However, her mind had completely stopped functioning, not knowing how to handle this situation.

The room was messy, and people’s whispers gathered into a beehive-like sound. At that moment, another voice appeared, and a few men teased, "Oh, does another little girl want to borrow ‘men’s books’?"

She didn’t need to look to know that Xerath had arrived. As expected, a hand fell on her shoulder, and Xerath softly asked, "What’s wrong?"

Sylas didn’t even know how to answer. She couldn’t say, "They intentionally made me look foolish knowing that there are problems with the books here," or worse, "There are two women drawn in this book…" She didn’t even know how to describe what happened in the picture.

Xerath looked around, and anyone who met her gaze couldn’t help but quiet down. Without a care, Xerath put the cloak she was holding onto Sylas’s hand and said, "It’s a bit cold in the library, put on the cloak."

A mage with colorful silk thread was intimidating wherever they went, while an apprentice wearing only a shirt was always seen as someone with unreliable spells. However, at that moment, Sylas didn’t think about these things. She just mechanically followed Xerath’s commands.

Xerath casually took the book from her hand, and after Sylas put on the cloak, the smile on the man’s face across from her froze.

The archmage casually flipped through a page, seeming to read a couple of paragraphs, then suddenly snapped the book shut. Among the people who ignored Sylas and eagerly awaited her embarrassment, there erupted a burst of vulgar laughter.

The elder mage raised their head, smiled lightly, elegantly raised their hand, and suddenly a golden glow burst forth. The room instantly quieted down, with only the echo faintly reverberating and gradually fading.

Xerath placed the book back on the shelf, turned around to help Sylas straighten her collar, and then pushed her hand into the empty space, causing a deep blue tentacle to push away the men who were too close to them. "He’s right, these vulgar and boring pastimes are not suitable for you. You have important things to do. Let’s go back."

After speaking, she took Sylas away from the library, leaving behind a forced calmness caused by a spell of silence.

Sylas followed her anxiously, suspecting that the entire book was filled with such content, but she was too afraid to ask Xerath what she had seen.

Xerath had no intention of explaining and silently started transcribing books after returning to the third reading room. The sound of the pen scratching didn’t dispel the lingering awkwardness in the air. Sylas felt a shiver down her spine, with every word teetering on the edge of being written incorrectly, almost making mistakes several times.

Calmly transcribing two pages of a book, Xerath suddenly whispered, "You are not allowed to be curious about this kind of book, you promise."

Sylas instinctively asked, "Why?" After speaking, she immediately realized how strange her response was; she shouldn’t have been curious in the first place! She quickly corrected herself, saying, "No, not curious…"

Xerath tried to grip the pen tightly, but Sylas could still see a faint blush on her face from the corner of her eye. While diligently writing, the archmage explained earnestly, "… The reason why a novel is a novel is because it is fictional. Different genres distort and exaggerate reality to varying degrees. It is not an academic paper, and when you come to understand ‘these things,’ you should not seek them through this method."

Sylas once again asked instinctively, "Then how should we seek them?" After speaking, she regretted asking this question, making the already awkward atmosphere even more uncomfortable, and she already knew the answer.

This time, Xerath’s neck turned red as well, and her tongue hesitated between "of course, through practice and reflection," but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She tried to maintain the dignity of a teacher, but her tone ended up sounding somewhat annoyed, "… Stop asking, I don’t know, and I’m not interested in knowing."

Watching her frantically transcribing, Sylas felt certain that she had made Xerath angry, but she didn’t know how to apologize. Silence and awkwardness persisted until the evening, when Xerath turned the recliner in another direction, silently refusing to communicate with Sylas.

The little creature Xerath was extremely worried, fidgeting several times, making the archmage also restless.

Separated by just a chair back, both of them had different expressions. The only difference was that Xerath sat still, while Sylas kept standing up and sitting down.

The archmage couldn’t stand it anymore and said, "Sylas, please… stop pacing."

Taking this opportunity to start a conversation, Sylas quickly said, "It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have asked you… those questions."

"Let’s not talk about that."

"But, it’s all because of me, right?"

"That doesn’t matter!"

"But you look angry…"

Suddenly, Xerath stood up and angrily said, "I don’t care about any of that! Can’t you just pretend like nothing ever happened?"

Her pushy attitude scared the usually mild-mannered apprentice. Xerath knew she overreacted and said quietly, "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so mean, but… I don’t want to talk about these things, I’m going to bed."

Xerath lowered her head as she passed by Sylas, creating a gust of wind and leaving a bewildered apprentice behind.

Xerath was still angry, and it was obvious that if she hadn’t said those words just now, she wouldn’t be upset. Frustrated, she slumped onto the couch and thought to herself: Maybe it’s not just about this one thing, that kiss, that confusing night together, she didn’t want to talk about any of it as if it never happened.

She couldn’t focus on reading anymore, her mind was filled with Xerath’s flushed cheeks. They were undeniably adorable, but there were invisible thorns that kept her at a distance.

That was just what the archmage emphasized.

"I don’t want to talk about this, please pretend it never happened."

Sylas had plenty of experience being liked by others, but Xerath had plenty of experience rejecting people. She amusingly thought to herself: The Adventurers Guild should give a SSS rating for defeating the archmage, defeating the Lich must be much easier than this.

The next morning, Xerath, who was already dressed neatly, sat on the couch waiting for her. When she saw her, she greeted her with a smile.

The smile seemed quite forced, to the point that Xerath dropped her head halfway through the greeting. She couldn’t see the latter half of the smile, and when Xerath looked up again, her face had no expression at all.

They went downstairs to eat, just like they did two days ago. Then they went to the library and sat together, copying books under the warm sun. They continued until Sylas’s stomach growled, reminding them it was lunchtime.

The events of yesterday had an impact on their lives – everyone now knew about the bookish four-color thread sorceress in the almost deserted reading room. People gathered at the door, whispering, which annoyed Xerath. The flattering wind took it upon itself to blow through the heavy door.

The dozing administrator at the entrance was awakened by the sound, then fell back asleep.

Everything else remained the same.

By "the same," it means Xerath would still suddenly smile, share strange ideas, sometimes compliment her, or get very close to her, to the point where Xerath could hear Sylas’s breathing clearly.

Xerath would also speak to her during these times, whispering as she contemplated the next steps for their experiments. For example, she might say, "I think we should determine the ‘quantity’ of silver based on this equation," or simply, "It’s been a while since I used my laboratory, I should clean it first."

Her voice could be heard especially clearly during these moments – the sound of her tongue separating from the roof of her mouth when she opened her mouth, the friction of air against her lips and upper palate when she spoke, the slightly nasal and lazy tone.

On one or two occasions, Xerath tilted her head and admired her own handwriting, leaning her head on Sylas’s shoulder.

As they approached the end of copying the book, Sylas felt a deep reluctance. It meant that all their "excessive" intimate contact would disappear. Sylas herself was infinitely attached, but as she watched Xerath’s cheerful expression… she certainly wasn’t.

Thinking about this, she couldn’t help but slow down, but Xerath urged her, saying, "You need to hurry, we have to proofread this afternoon and I have to start copying the second book tomorrow."

Sylas suddenly became happy and asked, "The second book? Why do we need to copy a second book?"

Xerath frowned slightly and glanced at her as if she said something silly, "Of course, you have one, and I want to have one too."