Chapter 42: Grand Library

There wasn't much fuss in the process.

The personnel of the 20th floor was already waiting for him so he immediately was able to use the teleported as soon as he arrived.

Literally, in a blink of an eye, he found himself standing in a completely different place but he knew that he was where he's supposed to be since he's surrounded with bookshelves.

"Hmm...I'm not expecting a student...ah! Are you the new guy?"

Ashton looked behind him and saw a tall man with a bearded face and a monocle standing there, inspecting him from head to toe.

"Ah, hi. My name is Ashton West, I am here to report to work. Sorry if I was late, Prof. Aisha extended the class for a bit."

"Ashton West. Yes, I do recall this name. The Regal King's chosen."

"He is the one sponsoring me, yes. May I know your name, Sir?" Ashton asked.

"Oh, please. Don't call me Sir. Leon would do. I'm the Chief Librarian here. Come, Young Ashton. Let me show you around."

Leon was a 7 foot tall guy, Ashton has to literally strain his neck just to look at his face. He wasn't just tall either, he was built like a truck. He had a rough facial features, sporting a vertical scar that starts from his right eye down to his chin, that's also where his monocle is. But his voice sounds calming and gentle. He also has a sun-kissed skin.

He wore the same uniform as he does but white instead of the royal blue collar. He also wore a lot badges, one of them had an open book etched into it.

Leon then took Ashton for a brief tour of the Grand Library.

According to him, the Grand Library is located at the 5th floor of the Castle Main. The main entrance looked like two sliding doors which is different from regular classrooms so it shouldn't be too hard to distinguish from others.

Apparently, a lot of students always underestimate just how big this place truly is because it's outside appearance is too deceiving.

The Grand Library is where all the records and books that the Academy uses are kept. There's multiple copies of each book, sometimes a single version of a book can fill multiple shelves depending on the demand of course.

Leon said that a powerful mage who graduated from the Mystic Academy folded the space several times over in order to fit this massive library into one room. An extremely impressive feat especially considering how it hasn't collapsed yet.

"We're not usually busy here." Leon said to him as they walked in an aisle. "Even with how many books there are here, only a few students truly come here. Even scholars barely spends time here. They said that the smell and sight of books were bad for them."

"That's little ridiculous if you ask me, but well, it's not like we can force them anyway." Leon chuckled wryly.

"The only reason why we requested for more people is because it is quite difficult for us to maintain the place with just us." Leon stated, "There's only 14 of us here, you're the 15th. Our task is to just maintain the peace and serenity of this place. Also to keep it clean...which is the hardest part."

"Since this Library is so big, it is too difficult to keep all the books at clean and free from dusts. Due to the lack of man-power, there were always books that are aging faster than expected. This results into them deteriorating too much and eventually turning into dusts."

"The Academy then had to commission new requests for the same books which means more money to spend. It's truly troublesome. This is why we need more people working here."

"Uh...the books age? I don't understand..."

"Ah, right. Sorry about that, let me explain." Leon cleared his throat and said: "You know the policy that filters the release of information to the public, yes?"

"Yeah."

"That applies to pretty much everything. As you can see, we are surrounded with books containing all sorts of knowledge pertaining to Cultivation. This can't be leaked to public without permission therefore a bill was passed to control textiles as well."

"The materials used for these books are designated to have a limited lifespan. In other words, they aren't meant to last forever."

"The minimum is 5 years, the maximum is 100 years. All books here fall under that condition and all books here are just copies of the original ones held by the Federation."

"To explain it in a more relatable way, all of these books are photocopies and are programmed to delete itself when met certain conditions."

"Such conditions are either reaching the limits of their life expectancy, or if they are taken outside of the City. The 'death' of the book will also be triggered once it automatically finds it way to the wrong hands to prevent our knowledge from being stolen. Do you still follow?"

"Yes." Ashton nodded.

"Good. Now, there are certain books here that are quite unstable, either a) because knowledge contained in them are too powerful or sensitive, or b) they're a bad product."

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"Either way, the unstable ones will often need a lot of care to be maintained. Leaving them as is would just cause them to deteriorate faster which also shortens their expected lifespan."

"These are the troublesome books, and the reason why we need so many people to maintain them." Leon pursed his lips, "They're also expensive to boot to if we don't take care of them, the academy will need to buy more copies of them sooner."

"Oh, I see." Ashton nodded.

"This is where we come in, Librarians." Leon stated, "Our task is to man the Library and keep the books in their peak condition so that when the students or Professors need them, they will be ready."

"I won't talk about salary here since the Regal King is already paying you. I do want to say that if you become a Librarian, majority of the books here will be available to you."

"So long as you're doing to your job properly, I wouldn't mind you reading the books you are interested in. Keep the peace and serenity of the library, keep it clean and make sure the books are in their best condition, this will be your job here. It shouldn't be difficult right?"

"Yes, it doesn't sound complicated but it also doesn't mean that it's not going to be challenging either." Ashton replied honestly.

"Indeed." Leon sighed, "There's just too many books here. Sometimes, even I get overwhelmed. But I'm sure that once you've adjusted to it, you wouldn't mind it anymore."

"Looking forward to that." Ashton softly replied.

"Alright, tour's over. Let me bring you to your station." Leon smiled and lead Ashton to another place.

The Grand Library is composed of at least 10 floors, each floor was huge on its own.

Leon brought Ashton to the 3rd Floor of the library. At the end of the staircase, just a few meters away from it, there's some sort of a receiving area.

Ashton saw a few rows of wooden tables and chairs, behind those is a station which looked like the receptionists tables at hotels. He saw someone in there but that person doesn't seem to notice their presence.

"That's Aria." Leon stated upon arriving there. "She's like you as well, but from a different sponsor. She's a sophomore so you can ask her questions. You two are in-charge of the 3rd Floor."

Ashton nodded, then they finally reached the station. However, the girl named Aria still doesn't seem to notice their presence.

"Oi, you lass!"

"Eep!" Aria jumped from her seat like a frightened rabbit. She got so surprised that her round glasses nearly fell off. "O-oh, Chief! I didn't see you there, hello!"

"Yeah, we noticed." Leon snorted. "Anyways, this is Ashton. He'd be working with you since you're horrible at your job. Teach him everything you know. If his performance is terrible, you can say goodbye to your job."

Leon didn't bother waiting for another reply and just promptly disappeared, leaving the two awkwardly face to face.

"Uh, hello. My name is Ashton. Nice to meet you."

"Ah, yes. Hey. I-I'm Aria. You don't have to so polite, we'd be co-workers now so let's get along."

"...yeah, let's." Ashton felt really terrible.

Aria doesn't seem to be a bad person but she's too horrible in communication. That line she said earlier sounded so rehearsed. She can't even look at him properly while saying that, she just kept fidgeting where she stood.

The awkward silence lasted long enough so Ashton decided to take the initiative again and asked: "So, uhm...if you don't mind, can you tell me what to do here? I mean, Chief Leon briefly talked about it but I don't still don't know what I'm supposed to do exactly."

"A-ah! Yeth."

Aria's eyes widened.

"..."

Ashton blinked and watched in amusement as Aria stood there, blushing like a ripe tomato. He literally saw the moment she realized that she lisped and can almost see her soul leaving her body.

Unfortunately, he doesn't really know what to say to diffuse this situation.

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