A week has gone by since then.

Mereli and I spent the majority of our time lounging around the library. As a result, the once untouched gem of the castle was now messier than ever before.

Towards my better judgement, Mereli somehow convinced me to help her move a king-sized mattress into the library. She found the thing inside the castle’s royal chambers, and was instantly attracted to its soft and luxurious texture. I don’t know much about mattresses, but this one in particular was of rather high quality.

Its exterior was made of something softer than cotton, while its insides were packed with thousands of individual feathers, probably plucked from some high-class bird raised especially for making beds.

Now, those white crystalline feathers were spread across a mattress far too big for the room it occupied. The entire floor of the library was covered either by the bed, or by the numerous blankets and comforters that Mereli had gathered over the past couple of days.

As for the books that once peacefully resided within the library, they were sadly pushed off to the corner of the room, where they still lay there to this day, forgotten and abused.

While I felt a tad bit remorseful over mistreating such ancient and well-preserved books in such a way, Mereli on the other hand was rather casual about the whole thing. I don’t exactly know how this child’s mind worked. She placed quite an emphasis on her father’s memory, and even now, it wasn’t rare to see Mereli absentmindedly looking out into the distance, reminiscing about her past. On the other hand, the books that her dear father owned were things that did not even seem to enter her mind. In fact, there were few things within this castle that could move her aloof and carefree personality. Of course, there were always exceptions to this rule.

For example, she treated that worn-out picture book with an almost unhealthy level of care and obsession.

Mereli treated that thing like an invaluable treasure, and carried it around with her everywhere she went. In fact, within Mereli’s relatively blithe week, she spent the majority of that time reading and rereading the picture book. She wasted upwards of four hours on one sitting, just flipping through the pages over and over and over again. Within those four hours, she would have at least read and reread the book ten times. If it was a particularly good session, then that number could be as high as fifteen.

Occasionally, when her body grew too stiff to continue reading, Mereli would then get up and stretch her limbs. During this time, she would forcibly drag me along and explore the castle’s interior.

If I hadn’t mentioned this already, the castle was immensely large, and every day, there were new things to discover. Even for Mereli, this fact didn’t change. Back when this place was still filled with people, she had only really experienced just a tiny portion of this gigantic estate.

Being the owner’s daughter, Mereli was naturally confined to the inner chambers of the castle. The rest of the castle was practically a giant enigma to her. In this regard, she was like a trapped princess, although her carefree personality didn’t give much indication to this.

Every day onwards, our little forays would take us farther and farther away from the interior of the castle, to the place where the knights and other servants usually frequented.

In theory, that Sage’s room should be somewhere around there. Of course, this was Mereli’s primary reason for her daily exploration. Was it a burning sense of revenge, or merely this little girl’s clumsy method of expressing longing? I don’t know, but I don’t really think it matters either way.

As for me, I had more practical views. After talking with Mereli, I learned that within this castle, there were a few important places that would prove quite beneficial.

The armory and the royal treasury were probably the most important. Weapons were definitely a necessity, especially when we were surrounded on all sides by such a menacing forest with an equally as menacing reputation. Seriously, the bad vibes that those coal coated trees gave me were far too strong to be just a mere misunderstanding.

The treasury too was equally important.

Things like royal heirlooms and valuable treasures were only secondary. My real goal was something else. Since this world was definitely a fantasy world, then I’m sure the treasure vaults here contained more than just simple gold and useless trinkets. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll run into a magic item or two.

There were other places too, like the servant’s quarters, guest rooms, and official meeting rooms. Although those places might not seem all that useful at first glance, valuable things were always hidden in plain sight. Especially for the meeting rooms, something like a map of the surrounding location wasn’t too farfetched of a thing to hope for, right?

Spending the mornings reading in the library and the afternoons exploring the castle, Mereli and I lived quite an idyllic life style. Outside of our concern for food, and the constant ominous feeling that damned forest was giving off, it really was a peaceful week.

When the sun hovered just over the horizon, and a faint orange glow illuminated the library, without fail, Mereli would ask me to read the picture book to her. It was a somewhat similar process to what we did during the first day we reached the library.

With her sitting on my lap, and with me quietly narrating the incomplete fairy tale to a deathly silent audience, my day ended when the sun completely sank beyond the horizon and the myriad stars filled the skies.

Like I said, it was a peaceful week.

Right now, it was another one of those days. The sun shone bright above the sky, while a paltry humidity permeated the air. I could feel each individual bead of sweat trickling down my body and dampening the bed sheets underneath me.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Although I did not have a clock, if I were to make a guess, then it would be somewhere around noon. It was the time when the ache in my stomach acted up, and when even the smell of leaves that wafted from the forest seemed appetizing.

Of course, I had to hold myself back. Aside from what little Mereli had in her rucksacks, there was no food in the castle. Even the castle kitchen was empty, filled with nothing but empty containers and spoiled goods.

In order to prolong our situation, we’ve limited ourselves to one piece of bread a day. I felt bad about having to limit Mereli like this. She was still a child, and a bad diet was detrimental to her growth. Still, with the way things were, there wasn’t anything I could do. I couldn’t just not eat. Even if I offered such a solution, Mereli wouldn’t have any of it.

Was she just kind hearted, or did she possess a certain sense of responsibility for being the one who created me? I don’t know, but in the face of her incessance, it was difficult to refuse. Really, even though I’m such a convenient existence, it would be more convenient if this body of mine did not need to eat.

Sooner or later, what was left of our dwindling food supply will run out.

When that time comes, then forest exploration will become a necessity. Of course, that’ll have to wait until I have the proper confidence in facing off against the supposed “monsters” that live there. At the very least, it needed to wait until I can find the armory.

In order to suppress my current hunger, I buried my face into the book in front of me. The Alchemical Compendium was a godly existence, in the sense that it was one of the two books within this castle that I could actually read. The Compendium itself was packed full of knowledge, with the majority of it detailing the creation of various potions and other alchemical related objects.

Rather than a book that guided and taught the reader how to use alchemy, this Compendium was more akin to an instruction manual. To properly appreciate it, there seemed to be an unspoken perquisite of having already learned the basics of alchemy.

Of course, I was clueless on almost everything about this world. Alchemy was no different.

Me reading this book was akin to a kindergartener reading a book about thermodynamic physics. I was severely unprepared, and the majority of this book appeared as a ridiculously difficult jigsaw puzzle.

Still, despite that, it wasn’t like it was impossible. I could still learn a thing or two, even with this book being what it was.

For one, I learned that the majority of alchemy was heavily based on potioneering. Potioneering was the art of creating potions and other concoctions. Things like manufacturing poison, drug refinement, and pill concoction were all small parts under the umbrella of potioneering, which in itself was part of the much larger label named Alchemy. The other part of alchemy involved things similar to the creation of a homunculus. Artificial life, universal solvents, and the pursuit for the philosopher’s stone, you know, typical alchemy things.

As for potioneering, it relied heavily on herbs and various other forms of plant life. Of course, there were other ingredients, like body parts of a particular animal, or some mysterious water from some specific lake, but all in all, it was heavily centered on herbs. At the very least, this particular Alchemical Compendium had the majority of its ingredients constitute of herbs.

I learned a lot about alchemy from this book, but even if I learned it, it wasn’t like I could actually do it. Pushing aside the lack of ingredients, there was one key issue stopping me from becoming a self-taught alchemist; magic.

Alchemy was something closely linked to magic. Rather, alchemy had very specific requirements when it came to this aspect of the job. For instance, in almost any potioneering recipe, a certain type of magic was necessary in order to extract the medicinal essence from the herbs. Magic and mana were the things that separated alchemy from the regular concoction of drugs.

Basically, without magic, I could not do alchemy.

What sucked even more was the fact that the author of this stupid book did not include training methods to learn magic, or even so much as an example. It was just casually written as a requirement for the concoction of a majority of her spells.

Even back when Mereli created me, she had used mana in the process. The rest of alchemy was the same. Without magic, you would not be able to do alchemy.

Of course, I wanted to learn magic. Even without alchemy as the reason, I’d still want to learn magic. After all, it was magic. Magic was a man’s romance. Shooting fireballs from your hands, conjuring illusions, changing the weather with a mere flip of the hand, those were all things that would get anybody excited, especially someone from Earth like me.

Unfortunately, my current resources were very limited. I had nothing to help me learn magic. In fact, even if there was something like a magic textbook within this library, it wasn’t like I could read it. After all, they were all foreign, and completely incomprehensible to me. I’d have better luck if they were written in actual Chinese.

I let out a despondent sigh.

As expected, if one day, I get the chance to learn the divine mystic arts, then the first thing I’ll learn is a translation spell. Screw the language barrier!

While idle thoughts roamed my mind, my dreary gaze landed on Mereli.

She was as care free as ever. Despite the heat, right now, this little girl was curled up underneath an especially thick blanket. In her left hand was a piece of moldy bread, while on the other was the picture book. She was absentmindedly reading.

Sometimes her perseverance amazed me. Her situation obviously wasn’t very good, yet she acted as if nothing was wrong. Any normal child would have broken down by now, but the one in front of me had the mind to waste her days reading picture books. Was it ignorance or resolution? At this point, was there even a difference between the two?

Still, although a little part of me was quietly impressed, a larger, more reasonable part of my brain could only shake my head and sigh. This absentminded little girl, she was currently sleeping while sitting down. Although her head was directly pointed at the book before her, and there was indeed a piece of bread in her mouth, her eyes were thoroughly closed, while a soft snoring filled the room.

Falling asleep in the middle of reading wasn’t really that weird, but falling asleep in the middle of eating… that was definitely abnormal. The drool that spilled out from her crooked lips was dampening the bread in her mouth. A soggy piece of moldy bread flavored with saliva… nothing could make me lose my appetite faster than that.

I let out another sigh. It was hard to believe that such a person was the one who created me.

“Wait a minute…” On that thought, a sudden idea sprung to mind. Without hesitation, I quickly walked over towards Mereli’s drooling visage. I shook her shoulders, while frantically calling out to her. “Mereli, wake up already!”

In response, she sprang to her feet. Her hair stuck up on ends, while a look of confusion morphed her face. Without thinking, she reflexively swallowed the bread between her lips.

“Brother Karm?” She raised her head and looked up at me. I could see imaginary question marks floating above her face.

“Mereli, you remember how you created me, right?” I asked ambiguously.

“Yes? Mereli created you.” She was utterly confused, but she still obediently answered.

“And you did that using mana, right?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

“Then, does that mean you can use magic?” I finally asked.

Mereli did not answer immediately. Instead, her brow scrunched up, while her gaze grew hazy with consternation. After a while, her eyes widened as she looked up at me with a somewhat surprised look.

“Does Brother Karm want to learn magic?”

There was no point hiding it, so I quickly nodded in conformation. To this, Mereli’s expression only grew more jubilant. A particularly off-putting smile stretched out her lips.

Seeing that odd expression of hers, I couldn’t help but frown.