A Failure in Class S (5)

Late evening.

After finishing Hong Bi-Yeon's 'Special Lecture', I immediately left the academy site and headed for Arcanium.

I had to go to a bookstore.

"Does she really believe in all that?"

Thinking about what I had just done, I felt a sense of shame and guilt.

Hong Bi-Yeon. She was obviously a good and smart mage, but her disadvantage was that she had a stereotypical way of thinking.

But, that did not mean I should have taken advantage of her.

'Well, it doesn't matter since she's a villain anyway.'

I could not help it. Right now, Argento's image as a magic sword was hovering in front of my eyes.

I have to convert Argento into a magic sword as soon as possible to increase my involvement in the academy plot.

'Let's stop thinking about it. I have to buy books too.'

Tomorrow, I would need books for my major because I was going to take practical classes and lectures earnestly.

As I walked through the streets of the magical city of Arcanium, a panoramic view of the colourful Mage tower and numerous magic academies unfolded.

Carriages were led by winged horses, and small floating islands hovered in the air. The streets were quite crowded with students, including me, who came out to purchase books in haste. Men and women could be seen walking around in pairs.

They were truly cheerful, those young ones.

The streets were beautifully paved, and colourfully lit buildings were lined up one after another. As soon as I entered an alley while looking at the essence of magic engineering, I immediately activated Flash to move away.

'Is it here? I can't remember.'

In the game, one could automatically press 'listen to the lecture', but in reality, one needed a major book.

Another absurd thing was that the increase in grades differed depending on which major book was used.

At first, I remembered buying books at a fairly famous bookstore in the city. There were many kinds of books along with a lot of customers, so I thought it was better anyway.

But, I was wrong. It was later revealed by the players that there were hidden books all over the city that added to grades.

In particular, the bookstore where such books were most often hidden was 'nameless bookstore'. It got its name because its signboard was empty.

After wandering along the alley for a while, I arrived at an unnamed bookstore. It was a pretty old place.

As I creaked open the wooden door of the crumbling bookstore, which looked like it would scare away even ghosts, a smell of musty books greeted me.

There was an old man dozing off at the counter. That perverted old man pretended to doze off like that and observed guests with magic detection skills. Well, there was always something unique about long-lived mages

Without hesitation, I walked inside. It was quite old, but there was 'Maela's Handwritten Notes'. He was someone who graduated from the Stella Academy as a top student 10 years ago.

I did not know why it was being sold here…. However, if you take a magic engineering class with those handwritten notes, you would get a perfect score almost unconditionally.

My grades might not really matter because I had Sentient Spec, but there were hidden recipes stored inside, so I might find something useful later.

'As long as I have that, I can study the rest of it with just plain books.'

After all, I got a perfect score thanks to the Sentient Spec.

'Let's see… I think I found it.'

No one had also touched it. Maela's name was clearly written on a 'Magic Engineering Theory Handwritten Notes.' Some might say that having a lot of hand stains was annoying, but it was beneficial to me. Old books, by the way, were always preferable.

As I reached for it, a white wrist appeared from the other side and grabbed the book I had chosen.

"...?"

"Oh?"

I turned my head slightly and noticed a sky-blue-haired girl, slightly smaller than me, frantically withdrawing her hands as if they were on fire.

While I recovered my hands, I was frankly bewildered when I saw her.

"Eh, Eisel?"

"What. Do you know me?"

"Huh? Uh, you know you are famous."

It was because Eisel Morph, also called the 'Miserable Mistress', was looking at me with an old used book in her arms.

She flicked the strands of her waving sky-blue hair and stared intently at me.

"Oh, you… the one from before?"

"Uhh."

'It's nice that you remember me, but can't you remember that we met two times before?'

Eisel stood like that for a while and then shook her head.

"I enjoyed the discussion earlier… It was quite disappointing that you didn't explain it to the end."

Come to think of it, Eisel could not solve all of those problems. So, while trying to solve the problem, there might or might not have been a story about building a relationship with Mayuseong.

"Anyway, it was nice to meet you," she said as she turned her head coolly and went to the other side.

By the way, why was she in the store that sells used books?

I hurriedly pulled out Maela's notebook. Since I did not lose this, everything was going great.

Then I took out other books one by one and glanced sideways at Eisel.

She was taking out one after another books, but strangely, she seemed to care about the price tag.

'Oh, that's it.'

This bookstore mainly dealt with second-hand books, so someone rarely came here unless he was a poor student like me.

However, admission to the Arcaneum's five prestigious schools was only for the truly wealthy. It meant that the few students with my background had to spend all of their life savings right before their parents died to raise their tuition fees.

In other words, coming to an improvised bookstore… would mean she was as poor as I was.

'It's a bit sad.'