Chapter 11: The Library

"If I can remember correctly, you told me about a book on what priests do to gain the favour of their gods…"

As she said these words, a sudden realisation came to Isabella's face as she asked

"Oswald, you're not planning on converting to priesthood, are you?"

To be honest, Oswald's memories of this whole current situation were blank, so he had no clue what the previous owner was trying to do, but of course, he wouldn't say that to her and instead replied.

"What does it matter to you? As you said, things are over between us. Thank you for your help. This is the only question I had, so as you said, I won't be contacting you again."

After saying this, Oswald didn't linger longer than he needed to and quickly left in the direction of the library.

As soon as Isabella watched Oswald leave, she instantly crouched down with her hand over her chest.

'My heart feels like it's about to explode'

Isabella's hand felt her raging heart as she remembered the feeling she had just now.

'Whenever I'm near that man I just can't control myself'

Thinking about the tall handsome figure, her face instantly flushed red, but as soon as she remembers those cold green eyes, her face instantly paled as her body trembled

'Maybe… Maybe he hates me already,' thought Isabella

The thought of this possibility brought a sickening sensation to her stomach as a set of words she couldn't allow herself to say to Oswald were whispered in a soft tone

"I'm sorry…"

For the next few moments, Isabella reminded crouched in the corner thinking about why the gods forced her to live this way

…

Oswald was quickly walking towards the library as the newfound knowledge swirled in his head

'Priests? Rituals? What the hell was the previous owner truly up to?'

Soon, Oswald arrived in front of the library doors and didn't even think before he stepped inside.

As he walked inside, despite being here for the first time, Oswald was greeted with a strangely familiar sight.

The previous owner of the body was a bookworm that had always studied extremely hard, so the library was practically a second home to him.

The floor was covered in a comfy looking thick carpet while 2 metres high bookshelves covered everywhere the eye can see showcasing the Academy's terrifying accumulation of knowledge.

Oswald had originally thought of looking for the book by himself just using the clues Isabella had given him, but after seeing this overwhelming ocean of books, he knew that if he just went looking off a vague description, then he might be there looking till next week.

As Oswald was pondering his next course of action, a sudden thought crossed his mind.

Instead of searching mindlessly, why doesn't he just ask the librarian?

As Oswald was a frequent visitor, he and the resident librarian could be said to have a rather good relationship. The librarian even allowed Oswald to specifically reserve some books and even borrow them for longer periods of time than would normally be allowed.

Oswald didn't believe he wouldn't take away a book he had been studying intensely and a librarian should have a log of all books checked in and out of the library.

Besides, even if it failed, it wouldn't hurt to try.

With his mind made up, Oswald walked towards the location of the librarian.

Within seconds, Oswald was at the librarian's desk and was greeted with the sight of a familiar man.

The resident librarian was a frail-looking, middle-aged man, fitting perfectly with the image of a scholarly Mage.

He wore a set of large reading glasses and had a face that wasn't handsome, but it wasn't ugly either. Regardless of his appearance, he always had a kind, amicable smile that would make one comfortable having a conversation with him.

"Hello, Mr Cooper." Said Oswald.

Hearing the familiar voice, Mr Cooper looked up in surprise, before replying with a smile

"Oh, hello there, Oswald. Here to borrow another book, I presume?"

"Not quite." Responded Oswald.

"Today I'm here to ask you for a favour, Mr Cooper."

"Favour? What could that be?"

"Well, you see... you know my circumstances over the past few weeks. The past few days I've spent them drowning my sorrows and I seem to have overexerted myself and my memory of the last few days has become quite hazy. I was just wondering if you could look up the last few books I borrowed from the library."

Hearing this, a strange expression appeared on Mr Cooper's face.

"Are you sure you really can't remember anything of the past few days?"

"I've tried remembering but the memories are just so foggy," replied Oswald

"Is memory the only thing affecting you or are you getting any other strange feelings?" asked Mr Cooper

"Strange feelings? No, other than my memory, everything else seems to be normal."

"If that's the case, then this could be more serious than we thought. Your mental space has been greatly damaged. Who knows if the damage has led to your soul and in doing so affected your memories? I think you should go to the Church of Dawn to get it sorted out."

"It's fine." Snapped Oswald.

Oswald didn't mean to be rude to Cooper, but he had to stop Mr Cooper's train of thought now.

Oswald knew that he wasn't the real Oswald and was merely possessing his body.

Even though this was a world of the supernatural and the divine, things like body possession and stealing a body were completely outlawed.

If he was checked out by the church and found to be possessing a body and not the true owner, then he would probably be declared an evil spirit or demon and purged on the spot.

From Oswald's tone, Mr Cooper quickly inferred that he didn't want to take matters too far and slowly opened his logbook for the past week and after turning the book a few times, suddenly pointed at a page.