Chapter 18: Second spell

There is an old but huge mansion with two huge pillars at front. Karl gets a ominous feeling just by looking at it. It looks quite spooky at first glance.

Just as Karl is about to knock on the door, it opens by itself.

Karl walks in and sees a girl around his age siting at what looks like a front desk. She has a absent look on her face as she is staring at Karl. Her face resembles a Japanese person. Small eyes, straight long nose, Hair tied back gracefully and a look of depression was all over her eyes.

Karl advances towards her. "Hello."

Karl greets and waits for a respond which does not come. He clears his throat and asks "Do you have any book related to space element?"

She looks down and a black card comes floating from below the desk.

'Wind element?' Karl guesses as he looks at the girl's pale skin and grey hair.

He grabs the card, [E wing, 4th column on second row.] This was written in cursive white ink.

The girl glances at the stairs behind her. Karl nods and follows her guidance. As he is walking, he notices that the stairs are getting wider with each step.

'There are 5 different continents in this world. The eastern continent which is ruled by elves and dryads. Southern continent falls under the rule of various beastmen's clans. Western continent is home to deadly wild beasts and other creatures. Northern continent is over taken by vampyres and these same vampyres are trying to enter the central continent where humans live. They are at war since millions of years. But this time vampyres has the upper hand as they conquered more than 90 percent of the central continent. There are only 3 blocks left of human settlement. Luckily U-block is the farthest away from the war. I need to quickly get stronger if I need to survive.'

Karl stops as he reaches the second floor. There countless shelfs around. Karl sees a wooden board hanged beside a shelf. It reads [A wing]

Karl continues to walk straight as he goes through the wings alphabetically. Finally, he arrives at E wing. He finds a black colored book which matches the paper. Karl tries to grab the book but is too far.

He jumps to grab the book but fails. Frustrated, he backs up a little and jumps in dunking position to grab the book. But he is too short. Karl grabs a random book from lower shelf and throws it towards the black book. It changes nothing and the random just falls on the ground. Just then, Karl gets that ominous feeling back.

Something is telling Karl that he shouldn't have done that.

Suddenly the book which was on the ground starts to float and it goes into its place. Karl turns back and sees the same girl. But something tells him that she isn't normal. Karl takes a step back instinctively.

The girl smiles at Karl.

"Throwing books in a library is not good." 

'Her face! It isn't moving.' Karl thinks as he maintains a poker face. The girl's smile never changes.

"I am sorry." Karl bows a little.

"Since it's your first time I shall forgive you. But never do it again or you shall be punished." The girl says with the same happy expression.

The black book which was way up in the shelf suddenly floats down. But now Karl sees it. A thin string is connected to the book. It has great luster. Karl catches the book.

'Definitely not wind element.'

She then turns back and slowly walks away in a robotic way. Karl sits down and opens the book. The title is [The adventures of Arcturus]

'This is a story book?' He complains but reads it anyway.

As he is reading time passes and evening comes. Karl is halfway through the book. Till now Karl hasn't found anything useful. The story is about a boy who likes stars but his parents sold him to a merchant for money and now he is supposed to buy his freedom back.

'Pretty generic saga.' That was Karl's honest reaction.

Until he recognizes a line from the book. [He who has the power to keep everything in this world, In thy's hand. He shall be the Arcturus.]

"Isn't this a reference to my void storage? I have the ability to store anything in my hands as long as I have enough mana." Karl sees some hope and continues reading. Few more hours passes and Now Karl is near the end of the book.

He re-reads a line which he doesn't understand. [All the existing matter is equal to Arcturus. As it passes through flawlessly.]

'Through what? A portal or something?' Karl ignores this line and continues reading. 'At the end the boy is buys his freedom back at the cost of serving a tyrant emperor.'

[To be continued.] Karl sighs as he closes the book.

"Took you long enough." Karl sees the same girl.

"Now get out. I need to close for the day." Her smile still not moving.

'Her voice contains emotions but her face does not? Interesting.'

"Is this the only book which is about the space element?"

"Yes. I think you can find it's next part on the auction online."

"Online?"

"Yes, there is an monthly auction which offers great weapons and research material. You might be able to find this book's sequel there. I personally found it there a few times."

"Okay, Thank you." Karl bows a little and he leaves the library.

He glances at his watch and sees it's 8:45. 'I guess I attend the mess.'

Halfway towards the mess Karl gets the message that mess has been started. He enters the mess area and gets in line. There he spots Remi and his friends just few meters ahead of him.

'Should I take them out?' Karl wonders but drops the idea as he needs to leave the academy tomorrow. Karl feels Leonard's the urge to fight Remi and beat him up so he would never touch Andressa again, but Karl controls it.

Karl quietly gets his lunch and sits at a random seat and proceeds to eat. As he finishes half the food, he hears something.

"Hey, isn't that the boy who assaults woman?"

"Shush. He will hear us." Few girls seating not too far from Karl recognizes him. Karl looks straight at the girls.

"Eek! He is looking at us."

"Will he come for us?"

Everybody around Karl notices his presence. 'Ugh! Way to kill my appetite.' Karl gets up and throws his half-eaten tray away.

Karl is now on the footpath, alone. He looks at the sky thinking about something. Just then, his hand vibrates. Karl sees that it's Ian and picks up. "Hey,"

"Hello."

"Did something happen?"

"No, I just called because I was bored at home." Karl smiles.

"Do you know what happened-" Karl proceeds to tell Ian about the strange library girl and the appetite killers.

"The girl which you saw must be Serena. She is one of blessed. She is the president of research and reading club."

'There are clubs here?' "What is a blessed?"

"There are sometimes few mutations in your body which allows you to wield a unique type of element along with normal one. People who use such elements are said to be blessed by the horizon. For example, Serena's unique element is metal which derives from earth. So, she can use metal spells just like normal earth spells. But using an unique element requires a lot more mana than it's normal counterpart. That's why people use their unique element as their final trump card."

"Okay, makes sense."

"There are duals too." Ian clarifies.

"Dual? Like someone who uses two elements at the same time?"

"Exactly. Duals are usually stronger as they can inherit very different elements and use it for very low mana."

"Okay."

"Speaking of dual elements, stay away from instructor Ken."

"Uh? Why?"

"I searched about this Levihano family and found nothing. I suggest you to stay away from them."

'But I was thinking of visiting Ken to learn the second stage.' Karl agrees.

"Hey, do you know about a book called the adventures of Arcturus?"

"No?"

"Okay. This is the only book in the school which tells me about my space element. But sadly, only 1st volume is available in school."

"This was expected. Even if almost nobody in the entire world uses the forbidden elements the collectors and sentinel families collect any artifact or anything related to the forbidden elements and keeps them in their vaults for decoration."

'So, is that line my only reference for my second spell?' Karl sighs. 

Ian continues. "As for the normal girls having their opinion about you, you deserve that." 

"What do you mean? The federation didn't find anything and I was released. How could they say that?" 

"The problem is not the federation or the fact that you were released. It is that a member of the Lumineux family accused you. Even among other sentinel families Lumineux family is known for the righteousness and faireness. They always perform their role as the sentinel family, But all of their members has a superiority complex. So, even if Mikaela was a outer member of the family she is still considered a Lumineux. Therefore, they blindly believe that you assaulted a girl." 

'I didn't knew that braindead followers still existed in this world.'

Just then Ian says "Oh! I need to go now. I will call you tomorrow."

"Yes." Ian hangs up.

Karl reaches his dorm. Karl stops at a corner and peeks. But this time the doorstep is empty. Karl sighs in relief. He opens his door and jumps on the bed without changing his clothes. Karl stares at his empty side for few seconds and turns away.

He falls asleep.