167

Chapter 167 Hunger

It had been a long, long, long time since Saul had seen himself.

So much so that he froze for a few seconds before realizing that the person lying there was his former self.

A poor social animal who was nearly thirty years old, but already bearded and with greenish-black eyes.

To this day, he didn't know why he had crossed over in the first place.

Was it a sudden death from working late at night, or did he fall down in alcoholism?

It was as if his memories before coming to this world had been ransacked, and all his experiences were blurred like a dream.

"So what I fear is my death in my previous life? Is there something particularly horrifying in the part of my memory I've forgotten?"

Inside the library, the white fog around the room thickened, blurring the line of sight.

"Time is limited, and the mysteries of traveling through are clearly beyond the reach of the current me." Saul held out his hand to the human body in front of him, "One who probes into the unknown will fall deeper into the unknown, let nature take its course."

As his hand touched the person in front of him, Saul's eyes suddenly blinked, the body disappeared, and the bookshelves reverted back to a heavy book amongst them.

These books were different from any other books anywhere else. Each book was at least ten centimeters thick, and the books were bound with thin silver chains all over the outside.

Hanging from the silver chains were small cards with the names of the books written on them.

The fog began to obstruct Saul's vision, and the visibility around him became less and less.

Staying in the depths of the library for a long period of time risked getting lost, and it was a means of eviction instituted by the instructors to prevent apprentices from accessing too much knowledge in a hurry.

He plopped down on the floor and quickly scanned through the cards one by one.

Before the bookshelves were completely flooded with white mist, Saul finally selected two books.

He pulled out the two books and returned to the passage between the shelves, looking from side to side.

After determining the direction he came from, he carried the books and ran wildly.

The white fog was getting thicker and thicker.

Saul's running speed also became slower and slower.

Finally, when his speed was about to return to zero, Saul stepped out of the field of white fog.

The door to the library appeared in front of him, and along with it was the elderly librarian.

Saul clutched the tome in his arms hard and looked back.

Behind him, the group of bookshelves was still submerged in a faint white mist, quiet and silent, waiting for someone to read, and everything just now was like his illusion.

But even though he was nearly left in the white mist, the diary gave no warning of death.

Could it be that this white mist wasn't dangerous? Or was it because he had been promoted to a second level apprentice?

"Do you want to borrow these two books?" The elderly administrator, who was originally standing at the door suppressing his inner excitement, actually took the initiative to walk forward when he saw that Saul was slow to come over.

Saul turned around at the sound and realized that the administrator was close to sticking to his face.

He hurriedly stepped aside to the right, "Yes."

"Let's see." The elderly administrator held out his hands, surprisingly, to take Saul's book.

He never used to initiate contact with the apprentice except to reach out for money.

Saul was caught off guard and failed to avoid the administrator's outstretched hands, and the book in his arms was snatched hard.

However, after the other party snatched the book, he only glanced at it lightly and immediately shoved it back into Saul's arms.

Everything was as fast as if nothing had happened.

"These two books are not recommended to be borrowed for more than three days." He even gave Saul advice.

"Is this bad-tempered old man on medication today?" Saul thought in surprise and thanked him repeatedly.

Before leaving the library, Saul also couldn't help but look back at the other party. However, he saw the elderly administrator with his hands behind his back, smilingly nodding at him.

After Saul left, the elderly administrator raised his hands and looked at them, the fingertips of both his hands were all shortened by a section, as if they were swallowed by something.

However, he was thrilled to reveal a smile.

"You were right, it's the smell of freedom."

...

Saul held the book and did not return to his dormitory, nor did he head to the second storage room.

He was going to find a relatively safe place to read the two books.

For example, Mentor Katz's lab.

Each tutor's lab had an apprentice permanently stationed there, organizing the lab and at the same time, policing it.

When an abnormality appeared in the lab, the resident apprentice would directly notify the mentor through their unique summoning device.

Unsurprisingly, the mentor would arrive very quickly.

Saul hadn't been to Mentor Katz's lab for a long time, and as soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a familiar figure. Angelita was writing and drawing in front of her desk, only that she was in a trance and didn't know what she was thinking about, looking a bit haggard.

Saul had heard Mark mention that since entering the Sorcerer's Tower, Anguita had never gone to work outside of the lab.

No matter which senior was in charge of organizing the lab, she always managed to apply for the position of assistant.

As time went by, the apprentices of Kaz knew about such a character like her.

In Saul's familiar words, it was the flowing senior, the iron Angelita.

She never seemed to want to change her job, and stayed at ease in the lab.

Saul walked in and sat directly at the table directly across from Angelita.

The sound of the chair dragging woke up Angelita, who was in a daze, and she subconsciously stood up and looked at the doorway as a reflex.

Seeing that there was no one there, she only noticed Saul across the room as an afterthought.

"Saul, it's been a while since you've been over." She tried to show a smile, but it made the dark circles under her face even more pronounced.

"Uh-huh." Saul remembered Angelita's suspected split personality appearance last night, and took the rare initiative to greet her, "You look terrible, are you sick?"

"No, no!" Angelita immediately retorted stiffly, but she quickly reacted that her tone was too forceful, and smiled awkwardly, "I just haven't rested well lately."

The other party was unwilling to elaborate, so Saul naturally didn't mind his own business.

He placed both books on the table and looked back and forth at the titles twice, then held up one of the books and began to carefully undo the chain on it.

Angelita looked at Saul's lowered head as he read, wanting to say something. After several agonizing moments, she finally couldn't resist the urge to speak.

However, her right hand was suddenly raised, and she put up her index finger, blocking it in front of her lips.

Shhh ...

Anguita blinked, her eyes instantly overflowing with tears.

She lowered her head and two tears dripped onto her robes, blotting them out.

Angela hastily stood the booklet up and carefully dried the tears from the corners of her eyes by the cover of the book.

Saul did not notice Angela's abnormality, the contents of the book had captured his full attention.

The first book he opened was a collection of stories. It was written about lurid events related to nightmares that had happened in the wizarding world.

Saul quickly flipped through each story, he didn't really want to read hunting stories, he just wanted to look for the words Nightmare Butterfly here.

To his surprise, Saul really found the Nightmare Butterfly in the fifth story.

The story was simple.

A very powerful official wizard suddenly realizes that his son has actually discovered his hidden secret and wants to use it to kill and inherit all of his legacy.

The formal sorcerer knows exactly why his son would want to kill him.

He had advanced to full sorcerer at an early age and his appearance was stuck in his middle age. His son, however, was dying because he had no talent and could not break through to the apprentice stage.

The formal sorcerer's heart ached for his son, and although he foiled the plot, he did not punish him.

Unfortunately, the son was unrepentant and took advantage of the time to admit his mistake to launch another sneak attack.

This time, the official sorcerer took direct action to kill the son.

But the moment he did it, he realized that he was the son.

And before that, he had somehow had the memories of a formal sorcerer, confusing his own existence.

The moment death came, the son saw a beautiful silver butterfly fly away from his eyes.

Here the story changes perspective to an unknown narrator.

He says that the butterfly was caught by the official wizard as it flew out of his son's brain. After several inquiries, he finally determined that the butterfly was actually a nightmare butterfly, which was very rare even in the wizard world!

But not long after, the official wizard also died.

Before he died, he gouged out his own eyes, pierced his eardrums, cut off his nose, and finally jumped naked into the fire of the earth's vein and was burned to death.

Before he died, he kept shouting, "It's all a lie, it's all a lie!"

Seeing this, Saul closed the book with one hand.

"The Nightmare Butterfly, indeed, can affect a person's consciousness, or rather, copy the consciousness of other people. If the subject doesn't have enough willpower, they will lose themselves because of it ..."

Suddenly, a burning hunger came from Sol's stomach. The thirst for food immediately interrupted his thoughts.

Food ...

Saul raised his head and glanced across to see Angela, whose eyes were slightly red and who was reading silently with her head bowed.

Saul gulped.

(End of chapter)