Chapter 38 Library Buddies
Alicia White flipped the pages of the book she was reading, silently consuming the information within it.
As her eyes teetered across each letter—every word—she could see all the information she desired to understand.
Still, for some unknown reason, she could not grasp it.
'Looks like my mind is wandering again…' Alicia thought to herself.
After reading for hours without end, it seemed she had finally arrived at her saturation point for the day.
'It's around 7 PM already. Maybe I should take a break…'
As she sighed and closed the book that she read, a small sigh echoed from her lips.
She glanced around and noticed that no one was present in the library but her.
Times like these felt lonely, but also somewhat comforting.
There were no eyes to glare at her, or no mouths to bash her.
'It's not so bad…'
The moment she had this thought, the doors to the library creaked open, and someone entered.
The moment she heard this, Alicia swiftly carried her book and shoved it in her face, as if she had been reading this entire time.
'He's here!' Her thoughts echoed as she tried her best not to peek behind the pages of her book.
Pretending to be so immersed in reading, she kept her eyes locked on the texts therein.
"Um… hi, Alicia."
The moment she heard the very familiar, but awkward voice, Alicia straightened up and slowly looked up from her book.
As expected, she found Rey standing right next to her.
"O-oh, hi Re—"
"What are you reading?" He suddenly drew nearer as his face closed in on hers.
'Did he just take a shower? He smells nice…' Her thoughts echoed as she tried her best not to look directly at him.
'Let's just pretend I'm reading, and—"
"Your book is upside down, Alicia. Are you sure you're okay?"
"…Eh?"
At this point, she had no point but to look at Rey, and then turned to see that her book was indeed upside down.
She had been in such a hurry to act like she was serious that she didn't realize such a simple blunder.
'How embarrassing!' Her thoughts echoed, mortified by the experience.
But what more could she do at this point? How could she salvage this situation?
"I-I know. I was trying to see if I could understand it upside down. There's a chance that a hidden message could be located underneath…"
It was a flimsy excuse that she came up with under the spot, but Alicia really hoped it helped her save face.
"Ohhh… I see. I have heard of some kinds of writings that reading them normally and upside down bring out different meanings."
Alicia didn't know if Rey was just trying to make her feel better about her mistake, or if he genuinely thought she was being serious.
But, since the ball was already rolling, she stuck to it.
"Precisely! You get it!"
There was no other choice but this. Rey was smiling, and so was she.
It seemed like they both understood her blunder but chose to keep it under wraps.
Well… it was better this way.
"Got any recommendations for me today?" Rey backed away slowly, his voice still the constant in their conversation.
"Yeah, sure. Got any idea of what you would like to read? Or should I just choose randomly?"
After the both of them had spoken about two weeks ago, Alicia and Rey's Library Relationship had somewhat gotten a bit stronger.
They now spoke to each other, and more often than not Rey would ask for recommendations.
It was a little awkward initially, but Rey seemed to be getting more and more assertive as the days went by.
Alicia had no idea where he was getting his confidence from, but the 'Rey' that she knew when they first arrived in this world was vastly different from the one beside her.
His personality had changed. From being a dreary, sad-looking person, he was now more like a mysterious persona who intentionally refused to associate with anyone around him.
The only person he consistently spoke to was Alicia, and she preferred it that way.
'His physique has also taken a huge boost. I don't know what training they're doing in the Beta Group, but it's definitely working.'
Rey usually wore baggy clothes, so it wasn't very easy to see his muscle tone and well-defined biceps—among other major improvements—but Alicia was very observant.
She could pick things up over time, and right now, she could tell he was very jacked underneath his current oversized hoodie.
'I wonder why he's like this, though…'
She thought guys like him would try vying for a position among the popular kids, seeing how he had improved greatly since coming to this new world.
Sure, his abilities weren't too impressive, but his current physique was impressive in her opinion.
'He's also not terrible looking. He's definitely above average…'
More importantly, he was pretty chill to be around.
So why was he not talking to anyone else? Why did he only come to the library and speak to her?
'Maybe I'm just overthinking things. I'm always cooped up here, so maybe he actually had friends I don't know about…'
The moment Alicia had this thought, she sighed and nodded.
"Hey, Alicia… did you hear anything I said?"
Rey's voice woke her from her torrents of thoughts, and she instantly felt a wave of shock flow through her as a result.
She sharply turned in his direction, and her face nearly touched his thanks to him being very close to her.
'A-ahh…!'
His gaze was intent as he stared straight into her eyes, and she could feel a strange weight placed on her mind.
"W-what did you say?" She quickly looked away.
It felt like her heart was racing for a second there, but now it was perfectly fine.
"I was asking if you've read any books on Goblins—specifically Hobgoblins. I've only read about them in the General Monster Encyclopedia."
"O-ohh… that's quite a specific topic." Alicia muttered, rubbing her chin slightly.
Thankfully, she had the ability to switch from embarrassed to serious if the situation called for it.
"Y-yeah! I need it for… reasons…"
Once again, Rey was being mysterious. Alicia didn't know whether to like his current personality or find it a little discouraging for her.
She wanted to know more about his plans, and what he was hiding, but she didn't know how to phrase it without seeming like a busybody.
'If I'm too forward, he might think of me like a prude…'
That was the way most of her classmates viewed her, despite most of her actions being geared towards the greater good of everyone.
'I… I don't want him to dislike me too…'
As a result, Alicia decided not to speak on the matter despite her fervent curiosity.
"A book on Goblins and Hobs, huh…?" She mumbled, slowly rising from her seat.
A smile formed on her face as she stared at Rey with an official, yet friendly, demeanor.
"I think I have just the thing for you."
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