Rivers of the Night

Theron looked up to find a familiar young woman had caught up to him. At this point, he couldn't understand why she was so insistent at all. Was it really this serious?

He found himself getting a bit annoyed, but the feeling simmered inside him, calm and controlled, before it vanished into wisps of smoke as though it had never existed.

This was just the frivolity of nobles.

He gazed at the young woman for the first time in earnest. She had caramel skin and a dense pack of almost shimmering brass filaments that made up her curling hair, not to mention a pair of bright amber eyes to match it.

Just from her look alone, Theron knew that she was from the Teran Clan, a Duke Clan of the Imperial Capital. She had been pampered since her youth without much of a doubt, and it had made her so willful.

No one who had truly scratched and clawed for everything would waste so much time on something so insignificant. Right now, he was much more interested in finding out more about these abilities of his and what they meant.

As powerful as it sounded, being able to shift the freezing and boiling point of water a handful of degrees wasn't enough to change anything, especially since he couldn't even get close to those freezing and boiling points.

Theoretically, if he matched it with an external item…

'Wait, that is possible…'

Theron's eyes flashed and he suddenly wanted to try it. If he could find a worthy treasure, he could take a shortcut. Rather than waiting until he was strong enough to lower the temperature of his Water Mana considerably, or the opposite, if he just took advantage of the changes to its freezing and boiling point instead…

'Relying on external items too much would harm me. But in the right situation…'

Theron stood up. His eyes flickered up to meet the young woman's furious gaze.

She was already in her twenties and he was still just a teen. Plus, considering the family she came from, it wasn't too much of a surprise that she was taller than he was.

"Let's settle this, then. It will save us the trouble of dealing with this in the future. We'll keep it simple. Name the book, I will find it."

The young woman blinked, looking at Theron in surprise.

"You… what?"

"Isn't that what you want? You think I don't understand the cipher, and you'll keep bothering me until I prove that I can, is that right? So name the book."

The young Teran calmed when she heard this.

"Conce—."

Theron cut her off. "I'm only giving you one chance at this. Don't choose randomly. Think about it. I don't want to hear your excuses after the fact."

Her eyes narrowed. "It sounds like you're quite confident."

"You're only here wasting my time because you've already heard about me, no? Is there a need to say such worthless stuff?"

"Fine." She sneered. "I admit that I am wasting your time, so I will give you something in return if you prove that I've been doing so without cause. You're just a little kid, right? I'll give you a little feel if you can manage it."

She bent forward as though she wanted to make Theron uncomfortable. But judging by her actions and the slightly awkward way she pressed her elbows together, Theron could tell that she was only doing this because she really did see him as a little kid. Her robes went all the way up to the mid-point of her neck; there wasn't even any cleavage to see.

Theron's reaction was deadpan. "I have a wife. Please refrain from such things."

The young Teran seemed legitimately surprised to hear this. But to her credit, she didn't seem embarrassed at all. It was as though he really was just a child to her.

"A wife? You're a little brat…"

"Name the book."

She looked at Theron, her eyes narrowing again.

"Fine. There's a book here that's usually tough for even new librarian recruits to find. It's called Mazes of the Mind, by Scholar Duran—."

"Found it."

Theron spoke out to cut her off and then hopped down the ladder, sliding down its length.

When he hit the ledge below, he moved to the side.

"—Hey! Wait!"

…

Theron pulled out a book from the shelf as the Teran rushed to catch up.

"You…" she blinked, looking at the book in Theron's hand, almost fumbling it in the air when he tossed it at her.

"Alright, I think we're done here. I hope that in the future we can be more like real teammates. It would also be great if you could help me to appease the other members of our team as well. I don't want to go through this another dozen times."

She opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it, but then she opened it again.

Theron turned to leave again, but this time his wrist was caught.

"Yes?" Theron asked. "Is there something else?"

"I'm a woman of my word," she said with surprising calmness.

"I told you I have a wife. If you want to pay me back, then do as I asked."

The woman didn't seem to be listening to Theron at all. Instead, she took a quick look around before pulling Theron's palm to her chest. She pressed the back of his hand down with her other hand, held it down for a second as though to make sure he couldn't accuse her of backing out, and then released him.

"Okay, go, go, scram," she cleared her throat, coughing to cover up her slight embarrassment.

Theron raised an eyebrow. He hardly felt anything. Her robes were thick, and she definitely tied her breasts down quite stiffly. It must have been uncomfortable.

He shook his head. Regardless, this was better than the alternative. If she wasn't his teammate, he wouldn't care. But he didn't want to spend too much time avoiding knives from the back while he was facing off against knives from the front too.

The young Teran watched him leave, looking down at the book in her hand. Inwardly, her heart was shaking.

She was lying through her teeth. This book had been missing ever since the last librarian died. No matter how hard she tried to find it, she couldn't.

And yet, it took Theron all of a second.

…

Theron left the library and suddenly flipped a palm, a book resting in his palm.

'Interesting… I wonder why a book in a public library would have a false cover like that… what's hidden here?'