The winds wisps through Soutas hair as he rushes toward the Library
-the scent of the ocean as well as unsetup venues of street food urge him to slow down and satiate his gnawing hunger.
"I can't waste any time!" Souta shouts to himself as he continues to run down the near empty street narrowly avoiding crashing into an unassuming vendor setting up shop for the day.
'Any information about this world is critical.. Maybe talking to the locals can aid my lack of knowledge about this world.' Souta thinks to himself before hearing a call seemingly directed towards him
"HEY YOU! HEY! KID WITH THE BLACK HAIR, STOP RUNNING" a man bellows. Stopping Souta, he turns around seeing a man in a white and gold-gilded guard's outfit approaching him
"How flashy can a person get.. " He snarks in his head, humoring himself.
The guard takes post near Souta, irritated.
"What reason do you have to be running through the street so recklessly?!" the guard angrily says
"I.. Uh.." stutters Souta
"Speak already boy, why are you running through the streets so early.." the guard repeats seemingly growing more impatient by the second.
"I was.. Just heading for the library to do some reading.. Yeah" Souta finally says. The guard obviously skeptical of what Souta said asks
"And what are you planning to read there?" the guard asks, still seeming quite upset. Remembering the barkeep's words about telling people why he is clueless he decides that saying to learn more about the world would be far too suspicious. Noticing the guards impatience he finally says
"My family just moved here andI wanted to see the library as I heard it's quite grand" Souta says confidently believing that to be the last of it, but as he turns to leave the guard grabs his arm.
"Did I say you could go? Boy." The guard says seeming more suspicious of him than before
"Sorry, no. What else did you need?" Souta says now, feeling his heartbeat quicken.
He looks around noticing that there seems to be much more people than before and quite a few people are looking towards him now.
"There isn't a problem sir? Is there?" Souta questions
"You seem mighty suspicious boy, do you happen to be with that carnival that's coming through here?!" the guard seems almost ready to attack him with how skeptical he sounds. Remembering the barkeeps words the swallows hard before saying
"N-no sir, i'm not" Souta says fearfully, noticing the guard doesn't seem to be buying it Souta begins looking for a way to get out of this situation before hearing another voice chime in.
"Leave that poor boy alone" looking towards the direction the voice came from he sees an older lady in about her early fifties wearing a more medieval style dress and an apron standing in front of a fruit stand holding a basket of ripe fruits.
"Do you know this boy?" questions the guard
"Aye I do" says the lady in a thick accent "he's my new neighbor, and I can assure you he isn't with those clownish freaks" she says while inspecting a juicy looking fruit.
Souta sees his salvation from the guard, as he lets go of Souta "at least let your fellow man know of the vile trickery that's been passing through here" says the guard still seeming quite peeved about something.
Souta sneers at the guard and slowly approaches the lady after she convinced the guard of their 'relativity'
"Thank You ma'am" Souta says while covering his expression as to not give his flippancy away.
"Oh no problem honey, I would hate to see someone as ambitious as you get haggled away by some guard because of some jogging" The lady smiles at him
"What's your name dear.. If you don't mind.?" She inquires
He thinks for a brief moment.
"Souta..- Mam"
The Ladies expression contorts to a look of a mix of surprise and confusion.
"You must not be from around here. That name sounds foreign? Where did you travel from?" The lady continues to question.
Souta never thought of how to answer this sort of question and lazily makes up the first thing that comes to mind-
"It's some run down town over up north from here, I came to Vaeloria to seek new opportunities and purpose" Souta realized how vague his statement was and smiled back at the lady only to receive confusion looking back at him.
'well.. shit.' He thinks to himself-
"Oh!.. Is that so.?" The lady retorts
"Yes!" Souta reaffirms her hoping this conversation would just end.
"Well Anyways.. I have to continue setting shop to get ready for the morning rush! Let's talk later!" The lady does a parting wave and kneels back town setting up her ingredients.
"Finally.. it's over" Souta sighs as he looks at the cobblestone ground below him.
"Time to start heading up to the Library the barkeep was talking about" Souta looks forward
Souta starts progressing up the trail again, seeing a glimpse of The Grand Library 'ScrollHaven'.
He thinks back to the incident that happened not even a minute ago-
'The people here are too gullible' he thinks to himself.
After traveling for 15 minutes he finally makes it to the Library.
-He walks towards the library entrance noticing that it is indeed quite grand.
"Lets see what we're dealing with" Souta mutters to himself
*creeeeaaaak
The door is quite squeaky as if it hasn't been opened in years. Upon entering the library he notices that it seems almost abandoned, in the same moment he gets The only sign that anyone has been there was the old lady at the front desk who looked as if she had been there since the library was built 'well it's a start I guess' Souta thinks to himself as he heads over to the old lady.
"Excuse me mam" Souta says sheepishly walking to the front desk.
"Oh dear, call me Daeyr" says the old lady as she looks up from the book she was reading a smile growing on her face "what do you need child?" she says in a soft tone.
"Ah sorry, I was looking for some books. If you don't mind" says Souta sheepishly.
"Don't mind it dear, what books did you hope to find in this grand library" the lady kindly recites
"Well I was hoping to find some books about the 9 deities" Souta says hoping that he doesn't arouse any more suspicion than he already has
"Ah I have just the book for you.. Just ..give me one moment" she says as she begins navigating the large library as if it were the back of her hand. While she looks for the book Souta decides to study the library a little bit more carefully, noticing that there are many books open on Daeyr's desk he looks back over to her and sees that she is still occupied with finding the book. Deciding in that moment to snoop around a little bit, picking up a book and looking at its contents he comes to a dreadful realization.
'I CAN'T READ THIS LANGUAGE' Souta screams in his mind quickly putting the book back he can't help but think to himself 'what am i gonna do when she finds out I can't read but asked for a book so confidently' Souta takes a second to ponder what he is gonna do when his thoughts are interrupted.
"Here it is child" Daeyr says in her melancholic voice "would you like to check it out?" feeling utterly defeated he decides to keep up his charade
"Yes ms Daeyr" he says feeling dejected
"Well then, may I see your library card."
"Huh?" Souta is shook out of his stupor realizing that he doesn't have one.. feeling powerless he says "Im sorry mam.. but I dont have one."
"I suspected as much" she says pulling out a strange crystal that is perfectly oval in shape "please place your hand on this" Daeyr says holding the crystal out to him
"What is that" Souta says with more than a tinge of skepticism
"Don't worry child, it wont bite"
"Okay then" Souta says as he places his hand on the crystal. Upon doing so he feels a warmth coming from the crystal and sees it begin to emit a faint turquoise light.
"Now state your name" Daeyr says calm as ever. Thinking quickly Souta comes up with an alias to use hoping that it's more normal of a name than the one he has been using since coming to this world.
After stating his name a card manifests in front of him possessing his name, gender and a photo of himself as well as a symbol with an open book on it. After thoroughly studying the card he looks to Daeyr.