5 Book Safe-Box

Watching the orange-skies blankly, Exia dragged back from his own thought upon hearing a sound of a coin being dropped on his bowl. Thanking the person who gave the coin, Exia shakes his bowl lightly and couldn't help but sucked in a breath, "So many ah."

Living as a beggar with no food for almost 12 hours make Exia realizes that his past life suffering wasn't as much as this. A sight of coins also now able to blind him in greed. It was due to the sake of getting out of Braun's shackle; he needs to find more money. He didn't wish to live under a crumped and dirty room forever. Just the thought of spending another night under the smell of animal piss lingering around and rat squeaking sounds made him irritated already.

Exhaled a heavy breath, Exia mumbled under his breath while inserting the coins inside his pocket, "I should start to look for a job now."

As he said, he really needs to find a job right now. At least one job that could help him escape from this town safely and heads to another town to begin a new leaf.

...

"I think this should be sufficient now," Exia concluded after counting the coins he received today amounted to 53 coppers. If he brought these coins back, he'd definitely get a loaf of soft bread. However, 50 coppers in exchange for a loaf of bread really not worth it in his eyes. Moreover, Mr Braun would undoubtedly force him to hand over the other three coppers since the children were not allowed to carry money on their own.

'Where am I gonna save these coppers? Hole? Should I dig a hole? But that's way too risky. If somehow mister Braun managed to track down my hole, that would be a disaster for sure.'

When Exia busy with his thought, an idea spring to his mind.

"Hopefully, this gonna work." Exia quickly packed his things and started to walk away from his spot.

...

After exploring the city a bit, Exia noticed Lite City wasn't too small as he expected at first. While doing so, he also asked a few people regarding Lite City Library's whereabouts.

After following their guidance, Exia finally arrived at the little staircase leading into a two-storey building made of neatly arranged stones. On the building's right-side were windows in a row with a view of a little garden filled with different kinds of beautiful flowers. On the centre was a wooden door carved by unique motives, giving people a sensation of calmness. The building's left-side was extended into one block away, which Exia assumed was where the books were stored.

Ascending the stairs, Exia subconsciously knocked on the door twice before pushed it lightly.

Entering the building, Exia was greeted by the sight of vast space, illuminated by a huge chandelier, enough to fit a dozen candle-light. On his right side, lined up a few hangers that probably available for visitor use.

Hearing the sound of the door get opened, Ruri immediately stood up from his seat and already broke into a polite smile when his eyes caught a skinny figure with slightly torn dirty clothes standing before the entrance door. His smile immediately froze before he swiftly runs in the door's direction as he exclaimed, "I'm sorry, but we did not accept beggar here."

Exia, who's busily surveyed the place, gawked for a moment hearing someone forbid him from entering. The corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch in annoyance and amusement hearing a person mentioned the reason he couldn't do so was due to his identity as a beggar.

Well, Exia couldn't blame him though. If he were in the same position as the man, he would also do the same thing. Who'd want a man with a dishevelled appearance barge into their library?

Swallowing his ego, Exia forced a smile, "I'm sorry, but I'm here not to beg anyone's money."

As he spoke, Exia briefly scanned the man's appearance before him. It was an average-height guy with a pair of big-glasses on, showing his greenish-eyes vividly, looked like a nerd.

Before Exia could carry on with his words, Ruri quickly cuts his words off, "We don't accept homeless either."

Exhaled a deep breath, Exia reassured him, "I'm not planned to use this place as my sleeping hut. I'm here just to read."

"Really?" Ruri skeptically said as he eyed Exia's appearance once again.

Getting judged repeatedly by his look, Exia, who was never treated this way becomes slightly angry, "Just tell me the rules here, and I'd make sure to behave."

...

"Got it?" Ruri asked with his eyes still gazed at Exia in an untrusted manner.

"Yepp! Thanks." Exia straightly walked away to the left-corridor connected to the other room with many bookshelves filled with dozens of books on each rack.

Passing by the bookshelves, Exia's mind brought back into the main lobby, where he listened to the librarian's man's explanation. The library had two-floors with the first floor required to pay 5 coppers to access. The second floor was actually a lot more expensive with 1 silver is needed. However, Exia's intention for coming to the library wasn't to read but to search for a place to keep his money safe. Knowing the library would at least had some books that get rarely picked, Exia planned to use those books as his moneybag.

Directly went to the most corner part of the room, Exia scrutinized each wooden rack's surface keenly.

After wandering around the place for a few minutes while scanned thoroughly, Exia finally found what he been searching for.

'Lucky! The librarian must be quite lazy to leave this surface gets dusted.' Exia thought to himself in relief and proceeded to pull the book out gently without sweeping the dust off. All this while, Exia seek for a rack that had some dust accumulated on it. In other words, the rack he chooses was rarely get sighted by people, and the books attract no interest from the people.

Unfurling the book, Exia flipped over its pages a few times before slipping some coins inside pages. He repeated it until his coins remain only 23 coppers. After thinking his work is done, Exia slipped the book inside the rack carefully not to accidentally touch the dust.

Wiping his imaginary sweats, Exia started picking a random book from another rack and went to the available seats to begin his false reading with the purpose to not raise the librarian's suspicion. If he immediately leaves the library without being visible reading a single book, the librarian must be had a hunch that Exia had a hidden goal of visiting the library, and getting found out was the last thing Exia wished.

Since it was already around 17 o'clock, the library has no more visitors, making the atmosphere quieter with the only sound audible was the flipped papers.

...

Assuming his pretending action was enough to fool the librarian, Exia stood up with the dizzy head and returned the book to its original rack. Although he convinced himself not to try to read and just need to stare at the book blankly. Exia couldn't stop himself from studying the words, resulting in his head going throb from forcing his brain to understand the unknown words.

Taking a stride to the main lobby, Exia thanked the librarian the moment he arrived, "Thanks."

Still, with the same dubious looks, Ruri gazed at Exia, "You can actually read?"

"Heh, you shouldn't judge the book by its cover." Exia shook his head and turned around while waving his hands, "Adios~."

Without waiting for the man's response, Exia walked out of the library through the main door.

The main lobby turned silent for a while before Ruri's mumble echoed softly, "What's adios mean?"