66 A Nasty Little Joke of Epic Proportions 10 (1/2)
The familiar row of bookshelves that formed a large perimeter of the platform, and the furniture at the center, they were well ingrained within her memory. The seventeenth platform of the second gateway's library was indeed the location where she had shaken off the plaguing harrows and worries of her previous life.
”The … should be on this platform… but where?”
The girl mumbled to herself as she began to tour the perimeter of the platform, her eyes skimming past the bookshelves stacked neatly next to each other to form an indomitable line. Only, as she gradually neared the end of a complete cycle of the perimeter, An Fei's worry increased with each book that she counted.
…a row exceeding a few thousand books in number, how was she to find a specific book amongst all of them?
The only saving grace that prevented the young girl from descending into a mental nightmare was that the title of the book was neatly printed on the spine in bolded characters. Otherwise, it wasn't far fetched to claim that An Fei would hunker down onto the ground to give the black book resting against her bosom a sound thrashing.
However, the girl wasn't spared from having to tour the seemingly never-ending row of bookshelves for another circuit.
This time, she went at a snail-like pace, her gaze carefully examining each title to ensure that she hadn't accidently skipped over her desired target.
”.”
”.”
”.”
”.”
”… I suppose that should be fine since there's a dense, scarlet light emitting from the cover?”
”… can I stop here?”
Having covered a tenth of the books displayed on the seventeenth platform after several hours, An Fei massaged her throbbing temples, sitting down to relax her body.
She was well aware that attempting to utilize such a harebrained method of searching for a golden nugget in the middle of the sea was akin to unnecessary mental torture, but couldn't think of a more efficient strategy that would display fruition in a relatively unknown location as the seventeenth Archive.
Once again, the appearance of a book bound by twine entered her thoughts, causing the girl to stew in rage. Pondering for a few moments, An Fei decidedly stood and marched towards the other corner of the platform, taking unusually long and uncontrolled strides.
Since the book kept appearing in her thoughts, she would settle this curiosity before continuing to ruminate over the issue of searching for the . Although, to be quite frank, discovering the book bound by twine was a task of significant ease compared to the previous search for a needle buried within a haystack.
Thirty books away from the door that led to the miserable, torturous ladder. The third row of the row of bookshelves parallel with the door's surface.
The event of the being forcefully repelled by the twine-bound book, and even the incident where her finger was nicked by the pair of butterfly swords, both were deeply stored within the girl's memory. Promising herself to remain vigilant and not fall into carelessness like before, the girl came to a stop before the book bound in twine, her gaze focused on the pale-gold radiance emanating from the leather strips.
If comparing this book with the rest within the seventeenth platform, the book bound in twine was thoroughly dilapidated compared to the others. The pages were rough and uneven in size and thickness, and some were even discolored by a noticeable margin.