An unexpected incident happened after two nights.
I lived my days the same as every day. I went to the academic district in the morning and would come back to my camp afterward.
I would've usually already left the academic district by dinner time, but I somehow ended up staying quite late today.
I set a goal to have a safer living environment for myself, and to do that, I was going to build a proper wood cabin.
The library was a great resource to learn the basic design of how to build one. It also had information on the necessary materials and how to properly cut down the trees to use.
I didn't really need to worry about food anymore, and there wasn't anything that needed my urgent attention or couldn't be put off until the weekend, like homework. So I thought it should be fine if I stayed late in the academic district today.
Nothing good ever came out of getting lazy after already deciding to work on it. I should use this time to collect information to build my cabin.
Since I was so used to living life by the hour, it only made sense that I did everything I needed to do at the library all at once while I was already here. After all, the northern forest and the library were so far away from each other that it wasn't efficient to take frequent trips to and fro.
The library also had a limit to how many books a student could check out, and I had already exceeded that limit for my academic studies. So since I was already here anyway, I might as well get all the reading I could.
It was around the time that I was passionately focused on reading for my cabin and had books piling up around me that I heard someone.
"It's already closing time. You have been studying quite hard."
Another student approached me. She gave off a warm impression and was modest in appearance.
I looked around and saw that I was the only one left. It seemed that time had passed by quickly while I was focused on my research.
I hadn't even eaten dinner yet, but now it was already time for the library to close down.
I looked at the student who approached me and saw she had a blue badge on her chest. This meant she was a first-year, and I could speak casually to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
It had already grown dark outside the window.
I looked at the books piled up like a mountain beside me. The librarian would have a hard time organizing all of these right before closing time.
"I would have cleaned up in advance if I had known earlier."
"No, it's okay. You were totally focused, so I actually felt sorry having to bother you."
She had light pink curly hair. I couldn't seem to remember her well… and yet I had this strange feeling that I had seen her before.
Oh, she was an apprentice librarian at Silvenia's student library. What was her name? Moka? Elka? Delka? What was it… At the very least, she wasn't a main character in the story.
"Even though I know I should study, all I had been doing was sitting around eating snacks and gaining weight… Oh my! I overshared, didn't I? What am I saying?!"
I answered her half-heartedly as I closed the book. I planned to construct the base by the end of the day, but I don't think that was still feasible.
"Even still, seeing an upperclassman like you motivates me to study harder. You don't come here often, but every time you do, you are always focused and so immersed in your reading that I can't help but respect you so much for it."
She smiled.
"My name is Elka Islan."
It seemed she had been wanting to talk to me for quite some time now, considering how the flow of the conversation so naturally led to an introduction.
"Ed."
"..."
This reaction of them freezing up after they heard my name had become all too familiar now, and honestly, had rather become boring.
Though it had been a while since the entrance exam, rumors about Ed Rothstaylor never stopped. I had tried to stay on the down-low as much as possible, kept to myself, and studied quietly, doing what I needed to do. But it seemed my reputation hadn't gotten any better.
Just how arrogant and hateable was this guy?
I mean, in the first place, rumors never seemed to flow in a positive direction, but they always tend to flow smoothly like oil in a negative direction instead.
I was not so naive as to be upset and offended by every single rumor, but I couldn't help but let out a sigh each time I got the occasional reaction like this.
"This… might be a bit rude, but—"
Nevertheless, if I lived as quietly as I could, just doing what I had to do, all while diligently studying every day and striving to survive day by day, there would come a time when people's perception might change completely.
"You're very different from the rumors."
"The rumors?"
"No, uhm… I hope you don't think it's weird, but…"
It was quite rude of her to bring up rumors. I should just go and quickly head back to camp. It was already pretty late.
But she kept going on.
"I usually spend my time here at the library after school since I'm an apprentice librarian. And every few days, you would borrow Elemental Studies books, right?"
"..."
"You read and returned dozens of books with hundreds of pages each in just a few days, and you read five or six books all in just one sitting… Seeing things like that makes me wonder if the rumors about you being arrogant while not knowing anything were actually lies… Ack! S-Sorry if I offended you."
She suddenly hesitated to talk and quickly picked up the books.
"A-Anyways, I should clean this up quickly and head back to the dormitory. Have a safe trip back!"
She talked in a hurry and ran away, right into a bookshelf.
Then, out of nowhere, the bookshelves began to fall down like dominoes.