Chapter 57: Restricted Library Section

I couldn’t believe it. That fucker Zeph was once again trying to ruin my life, it seemed. He was always putting his nose where it didn’t belong.

"We are just using the library, that’s all," Tom stepped up to say something. "Is this against the rules? I don’t think so."

Zeph smirked. "It’s not, usually, but didn’t you hear the principal ask for all students to return to their dorms? If I’m not mistaken, y’all are students. You should do what the principal told you to."

Frederic had let us use the library, and I knew very well that explaining it to Zeph would be impossible. He would always try to find a way to discredit what we were saying and come out on top. That was just how his shitty personality was.

So, I had to do something. We had to make good use of that opportunity. Wasting time chatting with him wouldn’t do it.

I just ran toward him as fast as I could, similarly to what I did when we fought the first time. Once again, my movements were just too fast for him to defend himself.

In just a few seconds I was already behind him, jumping on his back like a serpent coiling around its prey.

"N-Not again," Zeph murmured, not quite having the strength to say anything as I was choking him.

He passed out on the ground. I picked him up and threw him in a corner, hiding his body with the bookshelves.

"That might be problematic in the future, no?" Tom looked worried. "He’ll speak with the principal, I’m sure of it."

"Relax, alright? I’m being protected. We are being protected. Also, the principal has bigger things to worry about. Let’s look around and find the restricted section."

I searched the librarian’s desk again without being interrupted. There was nothing there that might help us. If there was a key, then the librarian had it. So, we just walked around the library, hoping to find anything that might indicate where we should go.

The restricted section wasn’t easy to find. It wasn’t like a section of the library had a sign saying, ’restricted’ or something like that.

Tom, who was the person in our group who knew the most about the library, had no idea where the restricted section was.

In fact, despite searching everywhere inside the library, there was nothing weird about it. Just rows and rows of shelves packed with books. No matter where we looked, it all appeared to be normal.

"Must be hidden behind a secret wall," I said. "Tom, you come here often, right? Did you ever see the librarian go to a specific location inside this library?"

"I think he usually visited the third floor," Tom said. "In fact, now that I think about it, the third floor is the only place he visited every time he left his table. Weird."

We went to the third floor to check it out.

"We already searched this floor, didn’t we?" Ethan said, stating the obvious.

Yes, we searched everything, but like I said, the restricted section must be hidden behind a secret wall.

So, I focused on my senses, my eyes changing to that of a serpent’s. Tom and Ethan saw it. They weren’t scared, just excited to see me using my powers again.

"What does this do?" Ethan asked.

"I can see traces of mana left behind by people," I said. "Maybe I can see where exactly the librarian came every time he visited the third floor."

"Awesome. That’s how you were so good at tracking during our mission."

"Exactly."

It was nice not having to keep everything to myself, having others to share my secrets with.

Anyway, to our luck, the librarian was one of the few people who visited the third floor. For some reason, the books in that section were all... useless? Like, not the type of books a student would find interesting to read.

Sure, a few students went to the third floor as well, but way less than on the other floors. I think they put shitty books there on purpose so that students wouldn’t linger on the floor where the restricted section was. Smart.

The librarian left a much thicker trace of mana. He was much stronger than the other students, so it was easy to differentiate the mana traces while looking around.

I searched around with Ethan and Tom just walking behind me, not saying a word. They didn’t want to make me lose my focus.

"Found it," I said.

The thick mana trace left by the librarian was more concentrated in front of a specific shelf in a dark corner. Not the most inviting place to go.

"This shelf?" Tom asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. The mana trace here is strong. The librarian came here often during the past few days."

Tom started scanning the books on that shelf.

"Usually secret passages like this open when you pull the right book, but I don’t think this is the right move. Students usually just pull random books to check, so what if one of them opened the passage by mistake?"

"It might be similar to what we faced in that puzzle. A sequence of books being pulled to open the passage, or a hidden button somewhere... There are just too many ways for this to open."

"Can you see where the librarian put his hand?" Ethan asked me.

That was just too much. If it had happened recently, like a few hours ago, then maybe, but it didn’t. I only managed to find the overall location of the mana traces left behind by the librarian. Where he put his hand? No fucking way.

So I said, "Nah, impossible, sorry. We’ll have to look for it ourselves."

No one wanted to do the boring task of looking for it, but at least this time we narrowed it down to just one shelf, making it way easier than searching everywhere without a direction.

So we began. Pulling books to see what was inside of them, looking behind them to see if there was a hidden button or something like that.

It took us 30 minutes to find something... Zeph had woken up at that point, so I went there before he did and choked him again, making him pass out... I just hoped he wouldn’t die, as that would bring me a lot of trouble.

Tom was right about it, though. To open the secret passage, one had to pull 3 different books from the shelf, and you couldn’t wait too long to do it. It was like pull one, then the second, then the third, all in sequence.

How did we find it? We didn’t. Tom did. The nerd read the book titles and found three weird ones that didn’t look like real books in the first place.

"This author, I’ve never heard about him before, and this book contains such impressive knowledge. I would have known the author, as I read this kind of thing."

He found three books with unknown authors yet impressive contents inside. Then, all we had to do was pull them from the shelf until it worked. Took us only a few tries, as it was just 3 books. If it were more, then the combinations would be quite difficult to guess.

Eventually the shelf moved, and a creepy tunnel stood in front of us. At that very moment, I heard two voices down on the first floor.

It was Zeph, who had woken up again, and the librarian.

"Why are you on the ground like this, kid? Aren’t you supposed to be back in your dorm?"

Zeph put a hand on his head, still getting back to his senses as he got up from the ground, with the librarian giving him a hand.

"There are students in the library, sir. What if they try to steal something while this is empty? Can you go check it out?"

Ethan and Tom didn’t hear what they said. They only knew two people were talking.

I heard it all.

"The librarian is looking for us," I whispered. "Should we enter and risk it, or close the passage and come back here another time?"

"Risk it," Ethan said. "There’s no way we can get another chance with the library this empty. The librarian is always there. This is our best shot."

Ethan was damn right. There was more than one librarian, so the library always had someone watching over it, even during the night. We couldn’t sneak in. There wouldn’t be a better chance than this one.

So, agreeing on that, we entered the tunnel, walking into the darkness. The bookshelf behind us slowly closed, but at the very end, it made a sound, almost imperceptible.

But the librarian, having opened that passage multiple times, knew what the sound was.

I could hear his footsteps going up the stairs, right toward where we were...

"Let’s fucking move," I said. "He knows we’re inside this place. We need to find a way to hide."

Inside that tunnel, it was impossible. We had to reach the restricted section, hoping it would be an open space where we could use Ethan’s invisibility to hide from the librarian. That was our only chance.

So, we ran.