Life is so unpredictable. I never thought a day would come when I would actually be able to understand the praise and glory attributed to Anikas, she mused with amusement. Thinking about her Ramita made her feel secure. If before her arrival to Mahar made her feel like she’d won the lottery, now it felt like this was the winning prize!
She felt invincible, that there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do with her Ramita. It wasn’t like her power had any direct effects on the people around her.
She was starting to realize that simply spending her days cowering in the fear of the unknown wasn’t going to help with anything. So she felt that there was no longer any need to push Kasser away in fear of not being worthy enough for him.
Also, it would be ridiculous to take his saying of starting over in the literal sense. Were they supposed to go on dates, and be shy in bed? Pretend to be anything but innocent? They have feelings for each other, but aside from that, she won’t deny she loved him beneath the sheets.
She’d even gone as far as climaxing from his tongue alone, she’s way past that level of naivety.
With all these thoughts going through her mind, she barely noticed she’d arrive at the library. Due to there having been so much going on in the past few days, it had been a while since the last time she had visited the place.
I’ll probably be able to see a new memory.
Placing her hand on the door handle, she took in a deep breath before pushing the door. On one hand she was feeling excitedly expectant; on the other hand, she felt somewhat afraid of what she might discover.
She entered the library and closed the door quietly behind her. She slowly looked around the book-filled library walls, fingers lightly trailing against the spine of the books. Nothing had changed since the last time she had come here.
Even the book she had left upon the table was still exactly how she had left it.
As she approached the table, Eugene came to a sudden stop. One of Jin’s memories suddenly appeared before her. Eugene held her breath and focused on watching the memory, engraving it into her own.
Jin had placed an old book on the table and opened its cover. Right next to her, there was a sharp dagger and a brightly lit oil-lantern. She lifted the dagger, passing its blade through the lantern’s flame. Once the blade had been deemed heated enough, she used the dagger to slice through the pages of the book.
Several of its pages fell to the floor…
‘Way of magic, vessel, medium. Looks like I still have a long way to go.’ Jin muttered to herself as she closed the book with a disinterested sigh. Placing the dagger back on the table, Jin closed the book…
And the memory ended.
Eugene searched around the library, looking for the book that bore the same cover as the one she saw in her memory. Skimming through the endless row seemed endless, and luckily for her, the book that she sought was placed on the table along with other volumes.
Quickly, she looked for the page that had been roughly cut out by a dagger blade, and the jagged scraps matched the one she saw in Jin’s memory.
She tried to recall the contents of the page, but the only thing that she saw from the memory was the swift cutting of the blade as it tore through the paper, no memory of Jin reading along the page.
All she knows from the brief glance that she had is that the pages are full of scientific diagrams and drawings, and a few words strewn across the page written in short phrases describing the illustrations.
“Way of magic, vessel, medium…”
These are the words that Jin muttered to herself. Eugene had no idea what she meant, but she guessed that it might have been important. “It’s probably related to the page that she cut.” Eugene thought.
Having seen this memory, Eugene finally confirmed her suspicions. Jin had not been collecting books as a hobby, but she was looking for something specific, and she had managed to find it in this book, ripped the pages off and kept it to herself.
“Where could she possibly hide those pages?”
Eugene probed the other books on the table, but unluckily for her she wasn’t able to stir up additional memories. She thought maybe she could search through the room for more clues, but she stopped in her tracks and called it a day. She realized that even if she spends the whole day in the library, she still won’t find out much considering that the memory she remembers is entirely incomplete, deeming the search worthless. The recollection gave her a hint, though.
She has to use that hint to her advantage and search in a different way.
She was no longer the girl that didn’t know anything and barely understood everything. No longer the clueless girl that had been dropped into Mahar. She had already learned so much.
She had access to money and power whenever she needed it. With Marianne acting as her loyal investigator, Eugene’s trust towards her grew stronger. As long as their actions won’t negatively impact the kingdom, everything will fall into place.
Eugene exited the library. The guard keeping watch in front of the study bowed his head towards her in reverence as she passed him.
“Once this is all over, I’m going to get rid of that library.”
Eugene wanted to destroy all the remaining traces that Jin had left in this world, starting with that library. It seemed like she’s committing a crime doing this, but it did not bother her one bit.
With an unfazed look, Eugene realized, “To be honest, it’s not like Jin did something to me personally…”
If anything, she’s the one who’s supposed to be feeling sorry for having taken over Jin’s body. But she couldn’t seem to diminish the hatred she felt for Jin from time to time.