17 Spell Danger

"Gave up on Epictetus already?" 

The question came from the girl. Her looks were still the same as yesterday, her eyes still baggy and her skin still pale.

Yet, anyone who saw her would be gawking at her beauty. She was very charming despite looking sickly. No, maybe it was her sickly visage that held the charm.

Regardless, I was still pretty clear about my thoughts. I didn't wish to get involved with people that spelled danger. That said, I also took things related to writing seriously.

If she spelled danger, then it might just be good to understand what letters make her up. 

"I finished it," I said. 

The girl's eyes slightly widened. "Finished it, huh? How did you like it?"

I crossed my arms at her words and leaned against the shelf too, facing her. 

"It was quite something. Epictetus was born in slavery, and Marcus Aurelius was an emperor, and both of their philosophies were still extremely overlapping. Stoicism felt more like a science after reading both perspectives."

A smile had bloomed on the girl's face at my words. I looked at her, she seemed slightly excited, but that small smile was just as fleeting as flowers.

"There is a deeper subtlety in both of their reflections. Epictetus' discourses are very practical…"

She stopped, as if she wanted me to complete her sentence.

"While Aurelius' meditations are more introspective? They are very different bodies of work, but they do reflect their situations and life in some way."

"That's the beauty of it." The girl nodded. "I haven't seen you before. Freshman?"

As I guessed, she was older than us. 

"Yes, I am Ed—"

"Shush!"

The girl quickly brought her fingers to her lips and shushed. She looked around, afraid she might have been too loud and then turned to me. 

"I don't want to know your name. A junior, that's enough of an identity."

[Hoh. How amusing]

I agreed with the system this time.

This girl was quite amusing, more so than I had thought. She also seemed more knowledgeable about philosophy than I was. 

"Then, you stick to that and I'll refer to you as just a senior?" I said.

"That's good. What are you looking for this time?"

"The prince, Machiavelli."

She winced at my words. "I hope you don't say something like you grew up in a white room or something."

Before I could protest at the unfair judgment, she turned on her heels and gestured at me to follow along.

The library was vast and expansive. Shelves covered the place, making a labyrinth or even a maze inside the room. 

It would be quite annoying for anyone to walk out to the desks and then return to get their books, so instead they placed bean bags and stools around every section in the library.

The girl led me to the seating section made next to the shelves full of philosophy, mythology, and ancient history books. 

Few people were interested in history or myth that wasn't Percy Jackson and philosophy that didn't promise a self-help hack to join the billionaire club, which meant this space was pretty much empty for us.

My eyes fell on the stack of books she had made next to a beanbag chair. She plopped down on the beanbag bag and started sifting through the books. "Not a fan of that guy, Machiavelli. The Prince is in here, I was just reading it."

It was quite funny. She said she wasn't a fan, but she was also reading it moments ago.

The girl found the prince and handed it to me.

"Here you go, Junior."

"Oh, thank you…" I accepted the book and flipped through the pages. 

I couldn't focus though, this senior was much more interesting than a dead, exiled politician.

She seemed to think the same as she pointed at the bean bag across from her. "You can sit and read here. I am usually in the library for an hour after classes."

"An hour… that's good, I like to read at least an hour every day."

She nodded, and I took the seat.

We didn't talk much after that. I wanted to, but whenever I looked up and saw her deeply immersed in the book, I swallowed my words.

The hour passed by sooner than any other hour today, for which I was very angry. In the end, we said goodbyes and set off on our way.

Operation Proximity ended up a major success today. It had hit two birds.

There was still no reply from Bite Novel.