Chapter 3: 3. An Unexpected Encounter

Entering through the double doors, falling into her usual habit of wandering around before picking a book to read she once again marvels at the vast size of the family library. Holding a collection of over 300,000 books Elyssia had read just under a third of them all ever since she had started to come here every day at the age of 6. With photographic memory and her ability to perceive time slower she was able to read all of the important titles in the library, everything from world history to physics research papers and war strategy.

The library was a project that the family had been adding to from generation to generation. While many of the oldest documents had succumb to the passage of time, there were copies made of some which were sill sat on the shelves today making this particular library quite unique holding so many precious ancient documents and records. There was an incident in the 1800's where a fire broke out after someone had fallen asleep and knocked over a lantern that was still lit, resulting in the loss of some 5000 books at the time and many seriously damaged. Given the era and the number of books in the collection, it was a massive loss. The story goes that he was said to be having a dream about his wife which had caused him to be quite active in his sleep while the lady in question had been waiting upstairs for him to finally get his head out of his research. The only part of his research that miraculously managed to survive the fire was the piece under his head covered in drool.  'Quite the black mark on the family history' Elyssia thought to herself while giggling.

The library itself was a massive structure attached to the main building of the mansion. After walking through the main doors, you would find yourself in the main atrium which was in the shape of an octagon. With the door on one side, the other 7 sides were two story tall halls that lead away from the atrium for about 30 meters. With 4 isles leading down each hall as well as a balcony on the second floor with even more bookshelves, it truly was an impressive sight.

Making her way from the through the atrium which was bathed with moonlight shining through the massive skylight overhead, Elyssia wandered into one of the secluded sections of the library letting her feet lead the way. Looking at the titles neatly lined up she noticed she had made her way into a section that was filled with books about ancient mythology and religion.

Pausing for a second, she decided that she would listen to the feeling she usually felt when picking what to topic to read and decided to stay here tonight and read some of the books around her. Looking through the bookshelves she picked a few books up and flipped through them before deciding to put them back and continue her search. After 5 minutes of searching through the shelves Elyssia had decided on a pile of 10 different books 6 of which were about the Greek and Roman pantheons and the legends surrounding them. Walking back to the atrium she placed the heavy pile of books down on a small table with a 'thud' and settled into the armchair nearby to start reading.

Starting off by reading about the myths of the Greek gods, Elyssia recognised many of the interesting stories she was told as a child such as how Hermes stole Apollo's cattle as an infant and the 12 labours of Hercules. While some of the stories were quite tame, others while looking at them with more life experience and a better grasp of what they were actually depicting about seemed honestly quite disturbing.

One such example is the story of medusa. She was a faithful priestess of Athena, however after Poseidon forced himself on her in one of the Goddess's temples, she was cursed by the being she loyally served. And to top it off, Athena then guided the hero Perseus to kill her because Medusa had compared her beauty to the Goddess.

'How can Athena be so cruel! Curse a mortal because she can't stand up to a forceful god?! How ridiculous! And then have someone kill her because of a comparison of beauty? How fickle and spiteful can these gods be! And its not the only occasion, there was the case with Arachne. I can understand mild punishment for a mortal's supposed hubris, but these gods just went too far."

Moving onto the book she picked up about Norse mythology she continued read about the myths around Odin's search for knowledge and Loki's pranks and tricks. Thinking to herself 'well at least the Norse gods were not as bad as the Greeks, however they were no saints either.' Continuing onto read about the Japanese and Mayan pantheons Elyssia ended up with a mixed opinion of these mythical gods. While in some cases they can be good and in other cases just plain evil, there are few cases of gods who seem truly kind. Feeling slightly depressed Elyssia decided to call it a night and head to sleep.

**3 days later**

The next three days seemed to fly past for Elyssia as she followed her usual routine. She would get up in the mornings for an early run followed by a tedious day at school sitting through lessons where she had already memorised all the content. She would then return home to spend time with her family and practice the sword with Nosuri before he returned home to Japan.

Waking up, Elyssia yawned and crawled out of bed, taking some time to stretch and wake herself up properly. Getting herself ready for her morning run she got herself dressed and tied her hair back into a loose bun. Making her way down to the entry hall she bumped into Harold who was in the process of assigning the mornings tasks to the mansion's maids. With the Harold and the maids greeting her and asking her to stay safe, Elyssia started her morning run out in the fresh misty air. Running down into the village she followed her usual morning route going through the centre of the old historic village and making her way down the side of the valley to the river that gently flowed between the fields of sheep.  Stopping on the small wooden bridge that stood a few metres above the flowing river she enjoyed a short break lost in her own thoughts.

"Good morning, Elyssia, it seems I have run into you once again"

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Startled at the voice of the young man who had managed to walk up behind her without her noticing she quickly turned around to see a good-looking young man around the age of 22 with short blond hair and an athletic body. Wearing shorts with thermals underneath, a loose-fitting hoodie, alongside some expensive looking trainers with a big orange 'H' on the side he looked like the son of some well-off businessman

Sighing in relief, Elyssia exclaims "You scared me half to death Herwin, honestly, you have got to stop doing that!"

"Well, you are the one to blame, leaning against the railing staring into space" Herwin replied Chuckling

Herwin was a young man who Elyssia had run into quite a few times over the last year. After finally being allowed to go running through the village she would occasionally meet Herwin and have a short conversation, sometimes even running along the same route. He would always ask her about her life and occasionally offer advice and unexpected golden nuggets of wisdom that would help Elyssia solve some issue she had been having.

Sighing once again, albeit out of exasperation this time Elyssia retorts "Well this is not the first time you have seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Anyway, it's been a while since I have seen you, how have you been?"

Looking at Elyssia with a teasing smile, he answers "things have been quite chaotic recently, my father has me running about nonstop these days. There is some big change about to happen at home, so everybody has been getting ready."

Puzzled, Elyssia asks "Oh, I hope everything is alright?"

"Haha, yes, everything is fine for now. We are just making some preparations for the future. Oh, before I forget, its your birthday in a couple of days, right? Here, I got you something."

Herwin then proceeds to take a small box wrapped in red and gold paper from his hoodie pocket and hand it to Elyssia.

With a charming smile on her face Elyssia accepts the small box. "Thank you Herwin, I can't believe you remembered the small comment from a year ago!"

Finishing off their brief conversation, the two parted ways heading in different directions as Elyssia continued on her run.

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