Once inside, Takeru saw a pair of twin sisters: the older sister, Ram, with red hair and bangs on the left, and the younger sister, Rem, with blue hair and bangs on the right.
"Welcome back, Emilia-sama!" Seeing Emilia return, the two spoke respectfully.
However, Takeru noticed that while they appeared respectful on the surface, they didn't truly hold much respect for Emilia in their hearts.
"Emilia-sama, who are these two...?" Looking at Takeru and Felt, Ram, as the older sister, asked curiously.
Bringing strangers home was a first for Emilia, which piqued their curiosity.
"This is Nara Takeru and Felt. They saved my life. Due to some circumstances, they will be staying here for a few days." Hearing their question, Emilia quickly explained.
"I understand. I will prepare rooms for the guests immediately." Hearing Emilia's words, Ram spoke obediently.
"Mm-hmm, thank you. By the way, Takeru, let me introduce you. This is Ram, and this is Rem. They are twin sisters." After gently speaking to Ram, Emilia quickly added.
"Is that so? You can call me Takeru. Nice to meet you." Hearing Emilia, Takeru showed a gentle smile and extended his right hand.
Seeing Takeru's gesture, Ram and Rem calmly looked at him, giving a slight bow but not shaking his hand. Takeru didn't mind and simply withdrew his hand.
However, this action by Ram and Rem made Felt somewhat dissatisfied, and she felt they were being rude. But since they were guests in someone else's mansion, and seeing Takeru didn't say anything, Felt remained silent.
"Please follow me, guests." Then, the two directly spoke to Takeru and Felt.
"Thank you." Hearing them, Takeru and Felt followed Ram and Rem to separate rooms.
Takeru and Felt's rooms were adjacent, so if anything happened, Felt just needed to call out.
As Takeru expanded his Observation Haki, he quickly understood the layout of the mansion. He also sensed a special space… the Forbidden Library. Based on his understanding of space, he found a door with peculiar fluctuations. Clearly, opening that door would lead into the Forbidden Library.
The connected door wasn't fixed. In Takeru's perception, its location changed randomly every two to three minutes. One point was that the connected door always appeared in empty rooms, obviously Beatrice's doing to avoid disturbances from Ram and Rem.
"Excuse me, may I use the kitchen?" Just as Ram and Rem were about to leave, Takeru called out to them.
"I understand. Rem, please take him." Hearing Takeru, and seeing the gentle look in his eyes, Ram nodded lightly.
"Thank you." Hearing Ram, Takeru turned to Rem and spoke.
"No, it's nothing. Please follow me." Hearing Takeru, Rem lightly shook her head and led the way to the kitchen.
Looking at the somewhat dim kitchen, Rem turned on the lights, revealing the interior.
"May I use some of the ingredients here?" Looking at her, Takeru asked again.
"Feel free." Hearing Takeru, Rem, who hadn't left yet, nodded lightly.
With permission, Takeru looked at the ingredients, thought for a moment, and quickly prepared a meal. Considering it was evening, he didn't make too much, as eating too much at night wasn't good. But Felt probably hadn't had dinner.
After quickly making three portions, Takeru directly stored the prepared meals in his inventory, not hiding this from Rem's sight.
Watching Takeru cook skillfully from start to finish, Rem was somewhat surprised. She hadn't expected the gentle-looking Takeru to know how to cook.
"All done." After finishing, Takeru directly said to Rem, who had been waiting.
Hearing Takeru, Rem nodded lightly and indicated Takeru could leave.
Soon, Takeru went to Felt's room and knocked, but there was no response. Seeing this, Takeru used Observation Haki to check inside and found Felt wasn't there.
Then, through continuous sensing, he found movement in the direction of the bathroom, with Ram waiting there, holding two sets of clothes.
Seeing this, Takeru chuckled lightly. Through perception, he opened a neighboring door and saw a girl with hair the color of pale cream, styled in vertical ringlets forming twin drill pigtails, wearing an ornate frilly dress.
Beatrice sat in the center, holding a book, looking at Takeru expressionlessly.
"How did you find this place?" Seeing Takeru's sudden arrival, Beatrice spoke expressionlessly.
"Guidance led me here." Hearing her, Takeru pointed to his heart.
"I felt something here calling me, urging me to come. So I came. Are you the one who summoned me?" Speaking calmly, Takeru asked in return.
Hearing Takeru's words, Beatrice was stunned. This answer was somewhat unexpected. She frowned as she looked at Takeru.
"What's wrong? Frowning isn't good. By the way, I'm Nara Takeru. What's your name?" He said to her with a light laugh.
In the vast Forbidden Library, filled with heavy, sturdy bookshelves crammed with dense books, Takeru curiously walked to a nearby shelf.
He casually took a book and found he couldn't understand the text, so he simply put it back.
"Beatrice! That's my name." Hearing Takeru's question, Beatrice spoke softly.
"Beatrice? That's an excellent name, as lovely as you are." Hearing her, Takeru lightly praised.
"Hmph! Betty is already the cutest." Hearing Takeru, Beatrice stated confidently.
"Haha, truly adorable." Hearing her, Takeru was amused and directly picked her up.
"H-Human! Let go of me now, or I won't be polite!" Seeing Takeru actually pick her up, Beatrice said angrily.
"Is that so? How will Betty be impolite to me?" Hearing her, Takeru looked at her fearlessly, even rubbing his cheek against hers.
"Grr!" Seeing Takeru like this, Beatrice angrily placed her hand on Takeru.
As her small hand touched him, Takeru felt a special energy within him flowing through her arm into her body.
This change surprised Takeru, but though the energy flowed out, he didn't feel much pain or anything.
Takeru directly looked at his personal status panel and saw that his Mana, which he hadn't used much, had decreased. He had lost several dozen from two thousand magic points.
After a minute, Beatrice, shocked, lowered her arm. After a full minute of absorption, she still hadn't felt Takeru's magic power deplete.
In that short minute, she had drawn at least three to four hundred magic points from Takeru, yet seeing him completely unaffected, she was stunned.
"Are you really human?!" Thinking this, Beatrice directly asked.
"Of course. The genuine article. If Betty needs more magic, feel free to keep drawing." Hearing her, Takeru spoke softly, then affectionately patted her head.
Although she had drawn about 380 magic points, with his special physique and equipment bonuses, his magic power had already recovered over a hundred in that minute. It would fully recover in a few minutes.
Since Beatrice directly drew from Takeru's personal magic power, the over hundred thousand magic crystals stored via Gluttony weren't prioritized for absorption. However, Takeru could voluntarily supplement his magic power from the crystals.
"Mere human!" Seeing Takeru's actions, Beatrice said, pouting.
"Getting angry will ruin that cute face of yours." Seeing her expression, Takeru said with a laugh.
"Impudent person!" Hearing Takeru, Beatrice wanted to punish him. She transformed magic into an attack, intending to knock Takeru down, but against his formidable defense, it was less than a tickle.
"Hmm? Were you attacking me, Betty? That's not good." Sensing her earlier attack, Takeru directly picked her up and gave her bottom a few light smacks.