BXBX NOVEL Chapter 456
“Ohh! Those two books are quite spicy, hehe. Ohh! And the other one is a bit silly, but a good read nonetheless.” Lilith interrupted Vincent when she recognized some of the books in front of him.
“Do you like stories like them?” She curiously asked.
“Spicy...” *Cough* “I mostly like heroic and adventure stories, but Kazumi wants to read all the books in the library. So no matter the book, I gotta open it for her.” Vincent honestly answered.
“Is that so?” Lilith said while averting her gaze.
Vincent noticed Lilith’s sudden change in her behavior. After living with her for so long, Vincent had a hunch that Lilith knew something he wouldn’t like.
“Is there something you are not telling me?” He asked.
“Well...” Lilith’s cheeks lightly blushed. She cleared her throat and said, “As far as I saw, all the books were stories of the genre I love to read.”
“All romance!...” Vincent covered his mouth not to make a fuss.
.....
Vincent felt scammed by Kazumi all of a sudden. He had to open thousands of books about romance stories if it was true.
Vincent believed that a spy looking for important documents and Vincent looking for a non-romance storybook were the same.
[Don’t act as if it is the end of the world. It’s important to let me read the books.]
[I remember a detective show you watched once. A professional profiler talked about how people’s mannerisms will reveal crucial parts of a person’s character.]
[However, mannerism isn’t subject to physical actions alone. Spoken and written sentences can also reveal it.]
[Ahem. So, in other words. I need to see what fads are in this world and how they perceive romance.]
-So you want to read the books...-
[Fear not, Vincent, as it will be similar to hitting two birds with one stone. You will also be able to understand what kind of romance Lilith fantasizes about.]
*Sigh* “The books aren’t going to flip page after the other by themselves.” Vincent resigned to the fate of page flipper for Kazumi’s encyclopedia of romance stories.
A few hours later, Kazumi memorized the contents of fifty-five romance books placed on one bookshelf.
Vincent grunted, and he wished to call this project quits. He looked at the books in front of the adjacent bookshelf, hoping to read a title that didn’t sound like a story’s title.
As Vincent was reading one title after the other, Kazumi brought to his attention a book in the bottom row. After pulling the book out and opening it, a smile appeared on his face.
“The Red Rock.” Vincent skimmed a couple of pages and became interested as it was mostly about the dwarves and their kingdom. There were also about a few non-human factions to be wary about while heading to the dwarven kingdom it appeared. “I need to read this, but I think it is better to head back.”
[Yeah. Let me find Lilith and tell her to meet you at the center of the library. I have enough mana to look around for half an hour and use Soul Visit to talk to her.]
Kazumi said before leaving. She was quite interested to read the book with Vincent.
Later, they met at the center and went to Gusto. They filled out a form and borrowed the books.
“Interesting choice. A book about traveling as you wanted to read. The book was a best seller about a decade ago. It mostly focuses on the red rock volcano. It is the only active volcano in the world, and it will guide the reader with the paths that were available a decade ago. The book also includes places to avoid as the reader’s safety would be in danger.” Gusto gave a spoiler-free summary of the book to Vincent.
Gusto looked at Lilith and continued, “Interesting choice. The story was a best seller before it was sold out in a few days. Regrettably, I heard rumors about how the writer sold the story’s rights to a company, and it didn’t continue publication for some reason.”
Gusto showed how he only needed to see a book’s cover and title to recall its contents. His memorization took Vincent, Kazumi, and Lilith by surprise.
After leaving the library, Lilith asked if Vincent had any interest in visiting the dwarven kingdom located in the red rock volcano. She also asked if it was because of Ester’s heirloom sword.
“Yes. We will go in the hopes of finding the creator of Elsir. The sword needs a hilt as well. So we will still gain something for the trip if we don’t find the creator of Elsir.” Vincent said.
“Does it mean I can come?” Lilith asked, and her heart raced. She was afraid to be left at home, similar to Sakura, since the trip wasn’t to help her.
“I will not say no to my cute wife and travel without her.” Vincent gently pinched her chubby cheek and continued, “If you would like to join us, you are free to come with us.”
[Why need a party to go adventuring when you can adventure with your harem. Am I right?]
-What if Sofy takes us with the carriage while Plow and Zero accompany us?-
-Aren’t we going to be a lot of people?-
[Then we become the platoon of the harem lord, haha.]
-...-
Vincent remained silent for a while.
The garden full of flowers connecting the academy to the library was bustling with couples. Later, they went back to their island after seeing all the benches taken.
Maria was meditating with Ester and Iris. The three of them grew a friendly bond over the last week.
This all happened because Maria had a lot of free time last week. Maria decided to meditate with Ester and Iris if she was going to meditate anyways.
Thus, Maria visited every day in the past week and spent almost half a day in their company. However, no matter how friendly they became, no one told Maira how Vincent could cast Ice Lance now.
Only one person saw Vincent cast Ice Lance, and she was in a confused state. After Melissa suffered from a heavy blow to the back of her head, she couldn’t believe what her eyes saw was real, yet it didn’t feel like it was a dream at the same time.
Nonetheless, Melissa kept her word and reported how Vincent used scrolls and trickery to defeat the Great Yok Boars when she was required to inform her father about what had happened.
Vincent and Lilith didn’t want to disturb them, so they went to their study room to read their books. Plow later joined them, and she slept on Vincent’s lap.
The book with the title “The Red Rock” had a lot of valuable information. Even if it might be outdated.
On the first page was an easy way to call the five contents. Apart from the names and a picture, there wasn’t any written information. However, the picture gave a lot of information about the world.
At the center is the desert content. The desert continent’s art showed how it was mostly compromised with sand.
At the west is the ice content. The ice content’s art was mostly with mountains and frost.
At the east is the jungle content. The jungle content’s art had a massive tree in the middle, and the rest of the content was covered with trees.
At the south is the red rock content. The continent Vincent is currently in.
The red rock content’s art had a volcano. It was at the top center edge of the continent, above the Lusterfall Kingdom. It looked as if it once was a part of the desert continent.
At the north is the adapt content. The adapt content’s art had a lot of colors and depictions varying from mountains, barren lands, and fertile lands.
Unfortunately, the art only showed the main points of each continent, and it could not be used as a map.
In the following pages, the book explains how there are three human kingdoms and one dwarven kingdom officially recognized in the red rock continent. Others, such as small villages of non-humans, aren’t considered.
The dwarves of the Dwarven Kingdom only lived beside the volcano, and the Selos Kingdom had a lot of uninhabitable areas because of the mountains and wyverns nesting on the peaks.
On the other hand, the Berlucia Kingdom was fragmented. As if it had a civil war and many of the areas are owned by others or given as a gift.
Sakura had mentioned how the recently deceased king of the Berlucia Kingdom had given some lands to the demon kind to live in peace.
A few areas, such as a small village by the shore managed by mermen and mermaids and a forest village managed by lamias, were the most noticeable areas in the book.
The Lusterfall Kingdom appeared to have the most open land for the entire kingdom to flourish, yet at the bottom portion of the kingdom was a vast location that was left uninhabited.
There was a forest spanning until the edge of the continent, but it was unlike the vast Aero Forest that is between the Selos and Lusterfall Kingdoms.
Aero Forest acted as a natural defense against invasion by the two neighboring kingdoms, while the forest at the bottom of the kingdom appeared to be abandoned.
Something felt amiss as the book mentioned how the area was infertile land, yet it only mentioned vague details about the forest. The book also mentioned unbiased rumors about sightings of an Ancient Magic Beast and hordes of bandits using the abandoned land for their hideouts.