Arrival in the Empire (2)

"Ellen, why didn't you buy the ingredients for your Alchemy course earlier? Now I'm wasting the time I could've used to create some super cool magic spell!"

"It's not like you have anything better to do, do you?"

Seraphir scrunched her nose in annoyance as she followed her best friend through the potion shop. Even though she also had a problem with procrastination, her best friend surpassed her by a magnitude in that regard. She always does things at the last minute.

"Come on Sera, you're always just sitting inside of your room and studying some form of magic."

The Elven girl looked at her best friend with pouty lips.

If anyone else were to do this, Seraphir would've probably cringed. However, this was Ellen and she knew that Seraphir had a weak spot for her.

"You barely have time for me anymore. Don't you think of me as an friend anymore? Do you hate me?"

And as expected, her tactic worked.

"You..."

Seraphir had a dangerous smile on her face, and it felt like the surrounding air was slowly getting colder. She was obviously irritated. Everyone else would have probably backed up by now, but Ellen continued.

She knew that her cute little devil friend would never do something to hurt her. Contrary to the stereotypes of 'devils', they really weren't as bad as people made them out to be.

Sure, there are a few nasty devils here and there, but there are also some really good ones. Like her childhood-and best friend, Seraphir!

Seraphir was the sweetest and kindest girl that Ellen knew, even though she doesn't want to admit it and mostly hid her feelings behind an icy facade.

"No! Don't say it! My heart wouldn't be able to bear the pain!"

Ellen exclaimed while doing a dramatic gesture and leaving one eye open, judging the reaction of Seraphir. However, this, of course, didn't go unnoticed.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You can stop guilt tripping me."

Seraphir paused for a moment to sigh and rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, if you weren't so cute, I would've frozen you to death multiple times over!"

"Naww. You wouldn't dare to do that. You love me way too much."

Ellen had a smug look on her face and stuck her tongue out like a little kid, which in turn irritated Seraphir, who was already embarrassed by the words that Ellen just uttered.

"You cheeky brat!"

Seraphir grabbed the cheeks of Ellen, squeezing them tightly.

"Oww...stowwp thaaaat...it hurts.."

"That's your punishment for being so annoying, you cheeky little brat!"

After a while, Seraphir finally let go after she had the impression that Ellen got enough punishment.

"I was just joking, Sera. Besides that..we are the same age. So stop calling me a brat!"

Seraphir just stood there with crossed arms and a blank facial expression and silently stared at Ellen. Somehow, Ellen felt kind of attacked by that stare and chose to defend herself.

"Okay, I might act like a brat sometimes...but it doesn't change the fact that we're the same age, does it?"

Seraphir just rolled her eyes in response and made a 'whatever' gesture with her hands.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Aren't we here to buy your ingredients? Please speed up. You're wasting my time."

Ellen snorted in response before she went off and disappeared behind the shelves, walking like an insulted little kid.

"Meanie."

She muttered before going off to get her ingredients.

"Seriously...that girl."

Seraphir whispered while rolling her eyes once again. She then looked around the shop. Waiting until Ellen was done would be boring, so she decided to take a look at the shop herself and explore the shop a little.

While she can't really do anything with alchemy, she saw a second floor when she entered the shop. And she was pretty sure that she saw some books there.

'Maybe there's something that could help me progress in my magic.'

After only a short while, she found the stairs that lead to the second floor. Although the place was quite crowded, it didn't seem like the second floor was a very popular place.

Although it kinda made sense to her, as most people come here only to buy their ingredients for potions. They probably didn't even think about exploring the shop.

With careful steps, she ascended the stairs, which looked quite fragile and old for such a popular place. They almost threatened to fall off, if she were to take a wrong step.

With each step, a small creaking occurred.

As she finally arrived at the second floor, she looked around.

That place really was empty.

'More peace and quiet for me, I guess.'

Seraphir strolled through the shelves, her eyes wandering on and off the dusty books, looking for something interesting to catch her eye. The familiar smell of old books was a thing that lingered on the second floor, which actually made it really comfortable to just be there.

Her eyes were passing from book to book, only giving each one a single look. That cycle repeated for a long time. Until she arrived at the end.

There really was nothing here that looked even remotely interesting to her, even though she looked through everything. Now she knew the reason why nobody ever goes to the second floor. It's useless.

There was nothing but trash on the second floor.

She was almost about to give up, when her eyes suddenly stopped at a certain bookshelf. She didn't know the exact reason why, but for some reason, her eyes seemed to be drawn to it.

To be more precise, they were glued to a certain run-down book. It wasn't in the best shape, but for some reason, her eyes were glued to the book.

In addition to that, the book was located on the 'trading shelf', meaning that somebody didn't want the book anymore and just decided to give it away for free as they didn't believe that they would be able to sell it.

Still...

For some reason...she was just drawn to the book. Even though the book didn't have a cover or a name and looked old and run down, she couldn't help but feel drawn to it.

It was just a feeling...if she were to explain it to someone, she wouldn't be able to find an existing term for it.

Well...let's just call it 'a devil's intuition'.

Without further thinking, she then approached the shelf and took the book out of it. After that, she leaned against a nearby wall and carefully caressed the empty book cover.

For some reason, it gave her a sense of satisfaction to feel the book.

'Well, let's see what the content entails. Something inside of me is telling me that it's going to be something good.'