Ch 8: First Library trip

'Hmm, interesting! How interesting! I don't know what is going on inside that head of this little miss, but I want to rip it open and see inside.'

The more Mary observed her charge, the more she confirmed that this little girl did not act like a kid.

Most kids would have freaked out if they were told that they were drinking poison. But this silver-haired girl only showed milk indifference.

On top of that, her body recovered too quickly for it to be expected.

Mary did suspect this girl to be some kind of demon sent here to cause trouble to her and her master, but that did not sound right either.

Something about this girl was too 'normal' and 'human' to be classified as a threat.

'A human with a unique constitution, huh? Things are beginning to get even more interesting now. I better keep a closer eye on this kid. She has potential.'

Moreover, this child had silver hair, which was rare. 

It was said that people with silver hair had powerful magic but short lives due to their abundant magic.

Mary wondered how long her young miss would live after learning magic. Would she lose her enthusiasm for living and beg to be killed as well?

"Hand me that book on the top shelf with a red cover. I'd like to check it out. While you are at it, take the one at its side, too."

Mary looked at all the books her young miss had asked her to get.

Most of these books were starting guides for magic and other strategies and were good places to build the foundation for one's future.

That said, there should have been no reason for someone like Layla to know about these books.

Even if these books were common knowledge among children, they did require one to have some prior knowledge about the topics they wanted to study.

As far as Mary knew, her young miss had been a poor orphan in an abandoned orphanage where no one could use magic.

'Where did someone like her gain the knowledge? Did I miss some kind of crucial sign? Or did someone decide to use magic to impersonate the young miss and sneak in here? Kek, what a daring plan.

I will allow them to do this for now. The more lenient I am with her, the more this person will drop their guard. And once they trust me, I will check who dared to infiltrate the Duke's place right under his nose.'

...

"Will these books do? If you want more, please let me know. I will get you as many books as you want me to."

Mary's smile was exceptionally soft and radiant. Looking at her hurt Layla's eyes, especially since she knew his attitude was not genuine.

"Yes, these will do. You can take a seat and grab a book if you want to. I will spend the rest of the day reading in the library."

Layla assured her maid before she went back to reading.

She knew his actions made the older female more suspicious, but Layla felt she had no choice.

[???Mary is curious about you. She has decided not to end your life]

'See! Hiding things from Mary was never an option in the first place. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have ended up dying if I did anything suspicious. But because Mary is curious about me, I survived. Curiosity can be the biggest asset I can ask for now.'

Layla continued to look down at her book. She did not inform Mary that she was aware of Mary's stares the whole time.

The maid also did not say anything. Instead, she grabbed and read a romance novel (The Irony) from the library bookshelf.

Once it was clear that Mary would not kill her, Layla stopped paying attention to her and instead focused on the book she was reading.

The first one she had decided to start with was called 'An Introduction to the World.' 

Layla was excited to see that there was a book she could look forward to reading to help her understand her circumstances.

But the more Layla read the book, the more she did not understand what it meant. 

The biggest reason behind it was not Layla's inability to read but the mere fact that she did not even know what some common words meant. 

For example, the book talked about Mana and how it made up the matter and spirit's emblem core, which granted them nirvana. But Layla did not understand what an Emblem Core or Nirvana meant in this context.

The way this textbook detailed these words made it clear that they were supposed to be common concepts that even babies knew about.

'Is this similar to how people know about things without an explanation because they grew up with these concepts? It's a good thing I am young. Should I ask Mary about what this means?'

Layla looked at Mary while opening her mouth, but she instantly closed it. Mary was humming as she kept turning the pages of her book. She was reading her book too fast to be humanly possible.

This likely meant she was pretending to see if Layla would ask her.

'Ugh, I wish I had a dictionary for these difficult words. I don't understand half of what they mean.'

Layla complained, causing her system to ding.

[The dictionary feature is available to the user. Would you like to make the beginner dictionary available?]

The system asked all of a sudden.

Layla's eyes twitched as she looked at the translucent screen before her. She knew that the system was taunting her by giving her this offer.

'Beginner's dictionary? I guess it is better than nothing.'

The long list of words appeared before Layla when she made the feature available. 

It did make things easier, but that did not mean Layla had a secret cheat code that could help her gain knowledge. It just meant that she had another tool to give her more power.