DED 30

Chapter 30

Lucy headed into the city early in the morning.

After getting off the carriage, she looked around the shopping district.

Soon, she spotted a signboard displaying a map of the shops.

There were a total of five bookstores.

‘There might be a bookstore among these that has a special book.’

Could she check them all in one day?

She felt a bit overwhelmed, but since she’d gone out anyway, she resolved to make sure this trip bore fruit.

Realizing she needed to manage her stamina carefully, she headed to the first bookstore.

It was the very bookstore she had visited with Bartholomew.

The clerk remembered Lucy.

After all, she was the customer who had bought dozens of short story books.

“Welcome.”

At the appearance of a big spender, the clerk greeted Lucy warmly.

“Are you looking for a particular book?”

Lucy said she would browse on her own and wandered around the store by herself.

The Bibliophile skill.

The Collector stat.

Lucy had hoped that the combination of the two would give her the ability to identify certain books.

However, no matter how much she scanned the shelves, no book stood out.

‘Still, I can read the titles better than before.’

As a test, Lucy pulled out a book.

It was fairly thick.

Flipping through the pages, Lucy saw the letters blur and then come into focus again.

‘If I concentrate, I can read it.’

This meant the level of books she could read had gone up, which would help raise her Intelligence stat.

Still, this wasn’t what Lucy was looking for.

She was searching for a special book.

After leaving the first bookstore empty-handed, Lucy headed to the second.

The result was the same.

Feeling hungry, Lucy ate alone at a restaurant.

Her escort knight stood at a distance, guarding her, but that didn’t change the fact that she was eating by herself.

‘Maybe I should’ve come with Bartholomew.’

Having spent so much time with him, his absence now felt oddly uncomfortable.

Of course, even if Bartholomew were here, they wouldn’t be chatting loudly over their meal.

Lucy was usually the one who talked, and Bartholomew was the one who listened.

Still, without anyone to talk to, she felt bored.

‘What is Bartholomew doing right now?’

Yesterday and today, Bartholomew hadn’t come to the annex.

He was the kind of person who acted as if thorns would grow in his mouth if he didn’t touch Cerberus even for a single day.

‘Did his condition get worse?’

Lucy felt worried about him.

Over the past few days, Bartholomew’s complexion had improved.

It really did seem true that his illness wasn’t terminal.

But Lucy couldn’t forget the time he’d had a fit.

Bartholomew coughing as if he were dying, spitting up bright red blood.

‘He might’ve had another fit.’

Would he be okay without any medicine?

Lucy knew that the emergency medicine he’d been taking was a powerful drug, and since she had told him that, he likely wouldn’t take it anymore.

‘Why did Bartholomew burn the medicine in the first place?’

Lucy recalled the moment when she and Bartholomew had first started talking.

He’d been burning medicine prescribed by the temple over a lamp.

Given his condition, it made sense that he should be taking medicine regularly.

And yet, Bartholomew didn’t take it—

Even while receiving treatment in the temple’s special care ward.

‘Anyway, if he has a fit without even emergency medicine, it’ll be hard on him.’

How would he endure that?

Lucy decided that once her Intelligence stat rose a little more, she would send a letter to Cecil.

She would add a request asking him to look after Bartholomew at the temple.

Having finished her thoughts, Lucy hastily finished her meal and stood up.

It was time to resume her bookstore tour.

Unfortunately, the third and fourth bookstores were also a bust.

Now, only one bookstore remained.

‘What if I don’t find anything here either?’

A sense of unease crept over Lucy.

‘What if the stat doesn’t give me the ability to identify special books?’

What if she had to find them manually?

If that were the case, then her approach so far might have been wrong.

All the time she’d spent visiting bookstores might have been completely pointless.

‘I’ll check the last bookstore, then come back tomorrow if I have to.’

If she gained nothing this time either, Lucy planned to spend an entire day combing through a single bookstore in search of clues about special books.

The final bookstore was visibly run-down.

It was tucked away in a remote corner, and its walls were covered in creeping vines.

Lucy pushed open the old door and stepped inside.

Creeeak.

“Welcome.”

The clerk, who had been reading a book, stood up.

“Are you looking for a particular book?”

Lucy almost replied, as she had before, that she would browse on her own—but then she hesitated.

‘I’ve struck out every time so far.’

This time, should she ask for help from someone who worked at the bookstore?

With that thought, Lucy parted her lips.

“Um…”

Her voice dropped, as if she were whispering a secret.

“Do you have any special books that aren’t easily found in other bookstores?”

The clerk’s eyebrows shot up.

“Special books?”

Lucy nodded vigorously.

“Something rare, or books that exist only in a few copies within the Empire.”

At that, the clerk’s expression turned peculiar.

Regardless, Lucy waited seriously for his answer.

After scanning Lucy from head to toe, the clerk spoke with a reluctant look on his face.

“I’m not sure if it’s the kind of book you’re looking for, but… come this way for now.”

Lucy’s eyes widened.

‘There is something!’

With an excited heart, she followed the clerk.

He led her to the most secluded bookshelf in the store.

It was so dark that lanterns were lit even in broad daylight.

At a glance, the shelf exuded a mysterious atmosphere.

“Here it is.”

After speaking in a solemn voice, the clerk stared at Lucy for a moment, then suddenly snapped out of it and stepped aside.

Lucy calmed her pounding heart and scanned the books on the shelf.

This time, she truly felt like she might find something.

‘I can’t read a single title.’

With a troubled expression, Lucy picked a book.

It was one of the thinner ones.

Still, even standing on her tiptoes, she couldn’t reach it.

Just as Lucy bit her lip and stretched her hand with all her might toward the book—

An arm suddenly reached out and pulled the book down for her.

“Oh, thank you—”

Lucy turned around and fell silent.

The man who had taken the book down for her was strikingly handsome.

Silver hair like moonlight, and amethyst-colored eyes.

A smile curved on his lips, as if it had been drawn there.

‘Why does he feel so familiar?’

There was a strange sense of familiarity.

The man didn’t seem bothered at all by Lucy staring at him blankly.

He simply handed her the book.

Only then did Lucy close her gaping mouth and accept it.

For a moment, she worried that her Aestheticism skill might start spouting nonsense, but no strange commentary appeared.

“That’s quite an unusual taste you have,” the man said.

“Pardon?”

“You’re the first female customer I’ve seen at this shelf.”

Lucy didn’t understand his words right away.

Then she frowned.

‘Is he saying women can’t read books this difficult?’

Feeling belittled, Lucy bristled.

“Do books need to be divided by gender?”

She looked the man up and down.

At a glance, he looked like a noble gentleman.

Though he wore a robe, the fabric was clearly high quality.

‘What a waste of a handsome face.’

To think someone like him was so full of prejudice.

Instead of being offended, the man smiled even more deeply under Lucy’s sharp gaze.

“That’s not what I meant. Everyone has different tastes in books. I spoke out of turn.”

“Good that you know,” Lucy replied.

As if to prove a point, she deliberately opened the book right in front of him.

Then, with eyes wide open, she snapped the book shut.

Lucy’s face began to turn red.

The page she had opened contained an embarrassingly explicit illustration.

‘No way.’

Is this… an adult book?

Only then did Lucy understand the clerk’s reaction.

Under the pretense of showing her rare books, the clerk had guided her to a section full of adult literature.

Lucy slowly lifted her gaze.

The man was still looking at her with a smile.

It felt like he was teasing her.

What excuse could Lucy possibly give him?

That she couldn’t read the text and didn’t realize what kind of book it was?

Lucy decided it would be better to act even more boldly.

“Fine! Women can read books like this too! Things like this—things like this… everyone likes them anyway!”