Brewed of Memories

Chapter 6: A bookworm's dream

The library feels as welcoming as always when you arrive. It's cozy and fairly under-crowded, with the barest hint of the setting sun's light casting rays through its windows. You find a table to settle at and collect your thoughts.

The day has been quite...eventful? All you've really done is talk to Zhongli, as not one other customer had stopped by, but it feels like so many things happened within your brief conversation.

His memories, your memories, crying and laughing—

Tea research.

Right.

You'd left off with three things to investigate further: sweet flower roots, lotus petal leaves, and glaze lily extract...

...and no idea how the hell to actually figure out which is capable of clearing one's mind.

You let your head fall noisily to the tabletop.

Giving up? Currently an option. A very attractive one, too.

Hey, at least the table's nice and cool—

"I didn't know the library's tables were so appealing."

You shoot up in your chair, posture straightening as you hurriedly push some hair out of your eyes.

Beside your library table stands a boy, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years of age, ruffled sleeves crossed judgmentally across his chest. He wears an unique dark blue cape-like outfit that's cut at an angle below the line of his shorts, and paired with white, high-calf boots. And if his clothing choices aren't strange enough, his choppy cerulean hair is something else entirely. It almost appears as though someone's taken scissors to everything except his bangs and left a few longer strands to hang around.

"Uh...no. The tables really aren't that great," you inform him, feeling quite embarrassed, as anyone caught practically kissing a table would be.

"I see. You seemed so engrossed that I assumed..."

"Well, you assumed wrong," you say flatly.

"I suppose so, my liege."

"My...liege?"

The boy waves his hand dismissively.

"I am a man of literature, a book connoisseur if you will, so it is only natural that my vocabulary and diction reflect that, is it not? A liege refers to a lord or a king, and I make a point to address almost everyone as such, in order to—"

"A book connoisseur?" you ask, hopeful, as the immediate question of whether or not he could be of any help in your investigation pops into your mind.

Yes, you're desperate. Who wouldn't be in your situation?

"Yes!" he chirps, clutching a dramatic hand to the left side of his chest as he continues to speak passionately. "A lover of the written word, a bookworm, a novelist—"

"Can you help me research something?"

He pauses, looking a little put off by your interruption.

"How exactly do you mean?"

"By helping me find information in books about some herbs that I'm researching," you respond.

"What's in it for me?" he asks, squinting at you from beneath narrowed brows.

"Uh...free tea coupons...?"

That earns you a glare.

"Tea coupons simply won't do. Instead, I propose that you buy me a book in exchange for my services," he suggests.