The Nightshade Terror (BL Harem)

All Valentius life, he had been told that Lord Claudius had the best library in the entire region! Then, he had killed the man and saw him for the con he was.

And the lord had been a con.

Because his library… his library was…

"Holy…!" Valentius clapped both of his hands over his mouth. He really shouldn't curse. His mother had taught him better than that!

 But there it was: A tiny library, hidden in a magical tome!

Valentius had seen those before. Back when he was little, his parents had taken him to the library at Ashfeld.

It was the central town of their valley. The only one where knowledge was shared.

Oh, how his parents had tried to get him set up at the school there. Poor as they had been, they had still tried to get him a spot at the entrance exam.

Valentius' chances hadn't even been all that grim! He knew how to read and write, being six years old.

He also knew his numbers!

But… the second one wasn't something he excelled at.

 As soon as the practitioner had realized that the cute chubby boy who had regaled her with his short story moments prior couldn't tell her how many apples he would have if he had five and then was given eighteen, well…

 It was the best school in the region. One where the tuition was free!

 Provided you were smart enough.

Still, Valentius had gotten a piece of candy on his way out. And a fairy tale book which he had to sell, after…

He sighed.

No! This was not about what he had not managed to do! Or even about the fact that he still found it difficult, most days, to do math without an abacus!

But he knew how many apples he would have gotten now, darn it! Bloody twenty-three!

 His mother had made him learn it so, as if his life depended on it. Because she wanted him to stop crying, he that too.

Valentius began to turn the library book this way and that. So, the lord really had a library. He had simply kept it hidden.

So well hidden, that no one, not even the servants who cleaned his room every day, knew where it was.

The brunette boy ran a meaty hand over the cover. Then he pressed the clasp…

"Not Worthy!"

The letters were golden. Not worthy, Valentius asked himself? Not worthy, when the lord Claudius had been worthy? A man who couldn't even read or write?

What wasn't he worthy of? To read some skill books?

"I am worthy!" Valentius yelled at the book. He rummaged in the backpack.

A couple of hours ago, he had pulled out a pen so bejeweled, that it was probably just meant for the lord to write his daily 'X' on his paperwork.

But now, he was going to use it to murder a book!

A book which he was going to sell into slavery at a goblin black market afterward! Because it was mean, and it wasn't opening, and he didn't want to be a reject his entire life, darn it all!

"I am worthy!" He wrote over the golden letters. "And eighteen plus five makes twenty-three!"

"Huh?" the new word was a strange one. Valentius decided to continue. The book must have a system! Someone he could vent at!

He didn't even hope that him being able to write was going to let it soften up.

He remembered how bragging Albert had been, staying behind in the room with the rusty iron door and the iron bars on the windows, only to…

A black, dead, clawed hand flashed before the boy's eyes. Dread pooled in his stomach. He placed the book on the grass. No longer feeling like arguing with it.

Wasn't he like Albert? This was a magical book! What was he thinking? What if it found a way to put a slave rune on him?

"My, you can actually write? I'll ask you something simple. Something the lord never managed to answer: What is confusion?"

The words were taunting him. Promising him danger. Best-case scenario, Valentius decided that he could stuff the book back in the backpack and hope it went back to sleep.

His fingers twitched; he touched the book.

Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to throw it back in the backpack. That bottomless pit made from leather, which was sure to contain it.

What if, Valentius asked himself, the lord didn't really have a library? What if someone had sold him this book to kill him?

 And the lord, even a lord who didn't know his letters, had done the smart thing and stuffed the book somewhere where it couldn't hurt him?

"Kid," the book knew that he was young! Valentius grabbed it, trying to stuff it inside of the backpack!

It refused to go inside!

"Answer the question!" The letters were no longer golden! They were red!

"Confusion is…" what if it ate him? What if it used his blood as ink to write the next riddle for whoever found it?

What if…?

He gulped.

"When you mistake mana berries for red berries," it was even true, for all that it was the first thing to come to his mind.

Because, as much as it would have been the smart thing to drop the book and run, leave it to rot in the clearing next to the bush which had made him run like someone was on his heels, it was what a coward would have done.

A smart one.

One who would have grown to be an old man. Maybe even one with some farmland to his name and more children than he could shake a stick at.

Valentius smiled at the picture. It was a pretty one. One meant for a Valentine, not for a Valentius.

Because, as much as he hated the moniker, he knew that he would have had a good life as a Valentine.

A full one. One filled with joy and hard work.

"And… what I am feeling now!"

There were three golden dots in the place of the red letters. Valentius prepared to be eaten, his life flashing before his eyes…