Sitting around at the coffee shop with everyone, sipping our respective drinks as we jovially talked about our days, one would expect me to be quite content with the way things are. However, that couldn't be further from the case, as my first week of attending classes had come and gone in the blink of an eye without anything noteworthy happening.

"Ugh, and then those sluts from my class made fun of my chest for the ten thousandth time this week." I rolled my eyes, "What the hell is their problem, making fun of a thirteen year old's chest?"

"Don't worry, anyone with that as their priority surely has many complexes of their own." Javi nodded, "Don't let it get to you. Whenever someone older than you tries to belittle you, just know that you and them are the same rank-wise."

"Right, whilst I do not appreciate you calling them such names, Nelly, I still believe that you did nothing wrong." Meil tried his best to chain the consolation, "If you want, I can have them expelled if I asked one of the teachers of the school. The University doesn't take bullying too kindly, so..."

"No, please don't!" I stopped him from committing, "If you do that, I'll forever be known as the crybaby tattle-tale of the University! No one will ever treat me with respect, nor will my words ever be credible! So please, for the love of Prylos, let me solve it myself."

"Yeah, I was about to warn you about that, but it seems there's nothing to worry about." Lem sipped his coffee, "They can say whatever they want, but as long as you don't take them seriously, you're invincible against their dumbassery."

"Heh, dumbassery." I giggled, "Yeah, you guys are right. I just wanted to vent a little, so sorry for dropping all this on you."

"No, please do." Kiria finally spoke up, "Don't ever bottle up your emotions when you've got us to lean on. Remember that you're not alone here, so if anyone ever tries to cause you trouble or pick on you, don't hesitate in the slightest to come to us for help."

"Damn, if only they were guys..." Kevin groaned, "I'd wait for them after class and show them exactly what it means to pick on our princess!"

"Yeah, you show em!" Waitress girl suddenly sat down as well, "What're we talking about?"

"Don't just join a conversation you know nothing about..." Kevin looked a bit peeved, "We were discussing about how to bury our Nelly's bullies' bodies without getting caught is all."

"Wait, we did not even kill them yet, though?" Meil said something ominous all of a sudden.

"Um, Meil, he was just joking..." I bailed him out from the embarrassment, "And they're really not bullies. They're just kind of annoying is all."

"Never mind them, they'll forget about you when you get better scores on your next exam." Javi gave out some down-to-earth advice as usual, "Just focus on your studies and everything will fall into place. At the end of the day, our University isn't a place to mingle, but a place to study. They'll figure it out the hard way eventually, but by then you'll have already advanced plenty of ranks higher than they could ever dream of."

"Yeah, right now our priority is finding out more about Meil." I looked over at the person in question as he calmly sipped his coffee next to me, "Meil, you keep putting it off, but when are we gonna go to the Library?"

"Well, I think my schedule is clear for the rest of the day, so if you want we can even go after this." He replied with a soft, quiet smile.

"Hold on, is it really safe to send her in alone?" Lem asked an odd question.

Tilting my head at him before turning to ascertain Meil's expression, it seems even he was left utterly confused by Lem's query. What does Lem mean by that, did he mishear us? No, the coffee shop is pretty empty at this time, so even if we were quiet, he would have clearly heard us talking about going together. Well, I'm still new here, so it's best to leave Meil to do the talking.

"What do you mean?" Meil outright asked.

"Eh?" The others seemed surprised and worried that he didn't know something he apparently should have, "Meil, y-you can't go to the Library anymore. It's restricted."

"What?" I couldn't handle my silence anymore, "What do you mean by that? Are you saying it's closed or something?"

"No, it's open 24/7." Kevin explained, "But Decions and above are forbidden from borrowing any more knowledge from there, though no one knows why this rule was ever set up in the first place."

"Wasn't it just an old rule made up by the founders or something, and people just kept it there for tradition's sake?" Kiria chimed in, "In any case, everyone but Nelly falls into that category, so we won't be able to go with her."

"Well, I can still go despite my rank because I work there." Javi explained, "But the way our work is split up, I can only walk around the portion of the Library that I'm assigned for that day, so I'm afraid she can only go as far as I can see her."

"Oh come on, I'm not a kid anymore." I rolled my eyes at them for worrying too much, "It's the Library of a Thousand Passages, not a shady alleyway! Nothing bad's gonna happen."

"Don't be too sure." Both Meil and Kevin said in unison before Meil allowed Kevin to speak for him, "We thought the same thing until some guys tried to mug us at the top floor. They even had weapons."

Huh?! That all happened in the Library of all places?! What the hell was Javi even doing if he allowed them to just get jumped like that. Seriously, how do you even smuggle weapons into such a serious place like that? Good thing they made it out safe... Hey, hold on.

"And what the hell happened to those guys that tried to mug you?" I turned to Meil, though he went quiet for a bit before finally smiling a hollow smile.

"They are not attending the University anymore." He plainly stated.

God, can't you just say you had them expelled? Geez, why do you gotta make it sound so sinister?

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***

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Still, we have no other choice, so after a long while of convincing Meil that I was gonna be fine, he had finally allowed me to go inside on my own.

"However!" He then gave me some sort of square shaped device with a red button on it, "Use this if anything scary happens."

"What is it?" I started fretting for my life, "Gasp! Don't tell me it's like a bomb or something!? Y'know, kind of like an: "If I'm dying, you're coming with me!" type shit."

"Please do not use such vulgarities, and no." He shook his head, "It is a device I've recently been working on for a project - a wireless communication device."

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"A what now?"

"Call it WiCom for short." He sighed, "Basically, just press that button. It is easier than having me explain it to you."

"..."

"...It is not going to explode..." He said with a sullen voice before turning around, "Just trust me. Look, I am going to go in the other room now and close the door."

"See?! That's exactly something a person who made a bomb would say!" I pointed at him as he happily ran away, "Grr, dear Prylos, please don't make me die because of my crush's device...!"

With my face turned away from the scary device and my outstretched hand keeping it as far as possible, I had used my other finger to shakily press the button. A short yet scary noise-like sound came from the device, and not a moment later...!"

"Nice, it works." Meil's voice came from the device, "See? Holding down the button makes it so you can talk to me wherever you are within a 500m radius. Pretty neat, right?"

"Ehh?!" I still held down the button as my eyes saw stars, "B-But you're all the way in the other room though, so how can I hear you so well!?"

"Technology." He proudly stated, "By the way, this was something your father and I worked on back while we were in Oden, but we never could figure it out properly."

Huh? Dad and Meil did? But wait, that was almost a whole ten years ago, I was hardly even a toddler back then, yet they had such ideas? I don't really doubt Meil did, but dad? Really? He never really struck me as the sharpest tool in the shed, though...

"Alright, I am coming back now." He said as the doors opened, "With this, I have no qualms about letting you go in alone. Happy searching."

And so, with Meil's personal blessing and brand spanking new device he had lent me, I was off to the Library. Of course, he had to follow me there because of the whole 500m range thing, but he would still be waiting outside just in case something bad did happen and he could react quickly. He also told me just to repeatedly press the button to alert him if I was found in a position where I couldn't talk. Basically, we had all of our bases covered, so now the only thing left is for me to get to reading!

Entering the Library and checking in with the librarians at the booth, Javi gave me a bit of a worried look as he asked if I was allowed to he here.

"Humu, yes I am!" I proudly puffed out my chest as I showed him the fancy new toy I had gotten, "Ask Meil himself if you don't believe me!"

Pressing the button as Meil explained the situation to Javi, it seems I had caught the attention and interest of a lot of the other workers as well. They started pestering me about the device, as they were intrigued and never really saw something like it before, but I just told them I didn't make it and went upstairs where the books were.

Walking through countless floors until I made it to the section of the books starting with "R" were, I carefully sifted through each spine, looking for books with the word "Raaman" in them. Raaman cookbook, Raaman fashion, Raaman fiction? Geez, just how much do they know about these guys!? Aren't they supposed to be known as the mysterious ancient civilization of a time long gone or something!?

"Hm?" I caught an interesting book title out of the corner of my eye, ""The known language of the Raamans", eh? Maybe I could take a peek... No, I came here for one thing and one thing only!"

Continuing my search until I had ran out of books starting with "R", I had realized that maybe what I was looking for wasn't a book starting with "R", but another letter like "H" instead.

"Right, if I was looking for a historical book, then I can imagine a book existing that's titled something like "History of Raamans" or something to that degree."

Thus, I had moved one floor down to where the "H" books were and continued my search. History of Cardina, History of Simpleton, How the System came to be... No, none of these are what I'm looking for, dammit! Wait, that last one sounds kind of interesting... Eh!? Meil wrote it!? What the hell, stop getting distracted, brain!

"Hm?" A brown book fell next to me, "What the, no one was here the entire time, though...? Hmph, someone must've put you haphazardly on the edge then, stupid scholars..."

Picking it up, I had went to read the book's title if not purely for the sake of satiating my own curiosity, but I was surprised to see the book's cover actually being left blank. My first guess was that it was some sort of diary that someone had left for shits and giggles or something like that, so I opened it up to see what was inside, when...

"The protagonist finally finds out the truth. Her caretaker, Meil Deram, is without a doubt the reincarnation of the Sun God Ouroboras."

The book had some ominous contents inside. Finally, I saw some mentions of the Raamic race, or more specifically the Sun God they worshipped which Meil also recently took a liking to. But still, why does this seemingly random book mention Meil's full name like that, and what does it mean by "He's the reincarnation of Ouroboras"? Is this some sort of prank Meil had Javi set up for me? No, no one's around, and the chances of the book falling right next to me are too small to have been planned like this. Without a doubt, this is the work of fate.

"But, it can't be, right...?" I skimmed through the rest of the book, which was mostly empty. Though, when I went back to the first page, I saw another passage which seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"The protagonist will slip down the stairs, though no long-term harm shall befall her."

Thinking nothing of it, I had closed the book with a shrug before going down to the booth to check the book out and ask Meil directly what was going on. I was feeling a bit excited after seeing such a mysterious thing pop up, but I'm also pretty scared, because what if this was the truth? I mean, if anyone's the reincarnation of a God, it'd have to be someone as weird as him. But then, how would he react...? No, there's no time to think about that, gotta hurry up and-!

"Ack!" I slipped near the end of the stairwell, falling on my butt as the librarians ran to check if I was okay, "I-I'm fine!"

"Watch it, Nelly!" Javi helped me up, "Ugh, you scared the daylights out of me. Meil would kill me if something serious happened..."

"No, I'm good, seriously." I chuckled, "Let's just pretend this never happened, for both our sakes..."

"Yeah, haha." He then smiled, "So, found anything regarding the case?"

Realizing that the book I had wanted to check out had accurately predicted what would happen to me, "the protagonist", I had instinctively hid it behind my back and under my shirt. Shaking my head as I lied about not finding anything, I had then left the Library with a book I didn't check out.

"I take it the first day did not bear any fruit?" Meil joked.

"...Who knows?" I kept looking down as we headed home, "I'll need to investigate some more..."