Agarthala took Pragna to owner’s office along a long corridor. On the corridor’s walls, there were many interesting paintings.
As he was observing the paintings, both approached the doors that lead to the owner’s office.
These doors are big and looked majestic!
On the centre of the doors there is a large statement across it.
Knowledge always has a price.
This statement is very eye catchy and seemed very imposing.
But at the very bottom of the door there is another small statement, it was carved to look almost insignificant.
So pay the least possible price!
Agarthala opened the doors and told Pragna to follow him.
The office is much bigger than it is expected it to be. The room has no windows or any ventilation. It only has another door other than the entrance of the office. Surprisingly the room has proper flow of air in it. In the centre of the room there is a large table and chair. In the large chair, the owner is seating. The chair is so large that the owner seating in it looked comical!
He is wearing a velvet suit. While eating a bar of what seemed to be a candy, he is reading a book.
Without lifting his head he said, “What is your wish?”
Pragna has already been told by Agarthala how the registration process is done. After the owner grants a wish, Pragna has to sign a contract for the job.
Pragna said, “My memories.”
Putting aside the fact the he made a bargain with toshiro; to Pragna finding his memories is still a top priority!
Owner continued talking without raising his head from the book, “What are you going to do after knowing it?”
Pragna answered, ”That depends upon my memories.”
Owner continued, “Well let’s just say you know where you came from, then what you will do?”
Pragna is silent for few seconds, then he answered him, ”Go back there?”
Owner smiled while reading the book, “You will be dead the moment you leave realm of Anantha. Worst part is, even if you know why you are going to be killed and who are trying to kill you, you will still die. ”
Pragna calmly looked at the Owner and said, “So what is the least possible price?”
When the Owner heard that statement, he put down the book and started paying full attention to Pragna.
Owner said, “Right now you are weak. I will provide the infrastructure for you to get strong enough, so when you face your enemies, at-least you will be able to escape from them. When you show me satisfactory results, I will think about your memories.”
Pragna calmly thought about it. These people in-front of him are powerful! In every sense and meaning!
When Pragna tried to read Agarthala’s window and he got back saying, nice try!
They are powerful enough to mess with the display system!
All this time he had to take the data displayed by the windows by face value, yet Agarthala somehow altered that window! And this man is just a sub-ordinate of this pudgy little man seating in the chair! Just how powerful could he be?!
Either they are as powerful as those so called elder god’s council or even more!
Yet with all that power they are actually trying to help him.
Even if they have an ulterior motive, Pragna cannot leave them because they have something that Pragna needs, his memories.
Right now the only thing he can do is go with their plans.
Pragna replied, “Alright, I will do as you say, but instead of my memories, I want to use my wish for something else.”
Owner casually said, “Harima will get the job.”
Pragna said, ”No, I am not talking about that.”
Owner looked at him confusedly, “You want to use you wish for something else other than for the Harima’s job here?”
Pragna answered calmly, ”No, you will grant that wish anyway, so I want another wish.”
Owner is surprised, “You want two wishes?”
“Yes”
“What makes you so sure that I will grant both of them?”
“For some reason you directly cannot give Harima a job. So you are using me to give him a job. If you are going to use me, at-least I should be compensated.”
Just because Pragna has to go with their plan does not imply he has to agree with everything they say!
Owner is silent for a second and said, “What makes you think I will not cancel the contract and kick you out of the library?”
Pragna answered back, “Simple, because you need me. Whatever you are planning I definitely have a role in it. But till you execute that plan you need me here in library, safe.”
Owner who is seating on the chair got up and laughed!
While looking at Pragna he said, ” not bad”.
Excitedly walking towards Pragna he asked, “So what do you want?”
Pragna asked, “I want all different kind of fires that exist in battlefront.”
Owner answered back, ”No, not going to happen! You might as well as ask me to kill all your enemies and no I am not doing that. Let’s negotiate, how many do you want?”
Pragna did not know how to negotiate from here! He knows that there different kind of fires in battlefront but what are they and how many are there? He has no clue!
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Owner, who is so excited, calmed down when he saw Pragna’s expression. He looked at Pragna at pitifully and said, “This is what happens when you are not prepared! You were so close to getting a good deal. You need this library more than I need you!”
Pragna felt like an idiot! He was so close! He felt he should have at-least asked for something else!
Owner looked at Pragna who is struggling to make a comeback argument. He sighed and said, “Fine, today you did something that did not happen in a looong time. At-least for that I have to give you some credit. Well how about this”, he flicked his hand and two books appeared out of thin air. They flew towards Pragna and he caught them reflexively.
The owner continued, “Read this books and tell Agarthala what you want. By the way, you only get to choose one primal fire. So ready to sign the contract?”
Pragna looked at the cover of books for few seconds and said, “Yes”.
Owner laughed, ”Ok! Agarthala, after finishing the formalities, end the exam. Tell the idiot that his brother got the job.”
The Owner, who is leaving the room, turned back and looked at Pragna and laughed.
He said, “Look at you! You have no valid information, yet you almost cornered me into a negotiation! I might actually have fun with this batch.”
Owner left the room while skipping and hopping happily. When he saw that scene, Pragna felt weird. Owner looked more like a ball that is bouncing its way through the corridor.
While Pragna is looking at the Owner, Agarthala said, ”Don't be bothered about it, he is likes that when he finds challenging scenarios.Anyway, this is your contract. Sign it if you’re fine with the content.”
Pragna took the contract and started reading it.
In the name of @#%%% and ^&&@)(@# I, the owner of the library will abide the following conditions during the term of employment:
Monthly payment:- 3 star mana stones
Nourishment and housing will be provided
Before Pragna could ask, Agarthala said, “Don’t worry about the names. The contract is legit. If you are ok with it, sign it.”
After Pragna signed it, Agarthala took the contract and said, “Ok follow me, I will take you to your house.”
Instead of leaving through the same door they came, they left through the other one.
Pragna followed Agarthala through that door and when he saw what is there on the other side he is shocked!
He is standing on a road which leads to a single large house. The entire place is well maintained with neat roads, well-trimmed plants and trees. There seem to be even a pond here. All of this is seems to be maintained by the soul puppets that are hovering there. Pragna noticed that these soul puppets are different from the ones he has seen at the portal point.
But what shocked him is not this. When he entered this place it is already evening and sun is setting. Pragna is very sure that when he entered the library along with Agarthala it was early in the morning. He is sure that he was in the library for not more than few hours. Which can only mean one thing, this is different realm!
Pragna asked, “Mr. Agarthala-”
Agarthala said while walking in the front, “You can call me Mr.A or Senior.”
Pragna asked again, “Senior are we in a different realm?”
Agarthala said, “Yes.”
“Is library in a different realm?”
Agarthala answered back, “Well to be more accurate, library is a collection of private realms.”
Pragna is silent for a moment then asked, ”doesn’t that make travelling really hard?”
“Not really. We actually give each employee a marked symbol. As long as you have it you can enter and leave all the private realms of library that you have access permission for.”
Pragna asked again, “so with whom will i be sharing this house with?”
“This house is only for you.”
Pragna who is walking suddenly stopped, “Only for me? Wait does that mean this entire private realm is for me?!”
Agarthala who is walking stopped, he smiled and said, ” Yeah we like to give privacy to our employees. ”
Both of them reached the house and entered it.
There is only one storey to the house. This house has a large main hall, with six doors leading to six different rooms. One of the rooms has a name tag on it called bath-room. In the main hall there is a large table with a big screen computer on it. The floor of the house seemed to be made out of a smooth dark blue coloured stones.
Agarthala told little bit about the house, “The computer you see is attached to the main frame of the library. You will get the access rights tomorrow. As for the other 5 rooms they are empty. You can do what you want with them. One more thing”, he took out a blue metallic card with house symbol on it. “Once you soul-bind this, you can always open a portal to this realm as long as you have the card. So do not lose it.”
After giving the card to Pragna he walked to the table and opened one of the drawers. Inside it there is a black card and a transmission device.
“You use this card to open a portal to the main hall of the library. If you want anything you can ask through this device.”
Before leaving Agarthala said one more thing, “Tomorrow at sharp 9 AM, come to the main hall. You will meet rest of the newly recruited junior librarians. After that you will assigned your work. Rest well.”