Chapter 6: A Love Letter Within a Well-Loved Book

After a few laps of the library to help with memorising the layout, I found myself a nook, hidden from Lisa’s ever present sight, and sat myself down to finally read the volume of ‘Flowers for Princess Fischl’ she’d kept from me, placing the volume on the table before me.
It didn’t make sense, the amount of effort she’d put in to ensuring I couldn’t read this specific volume when I had wanted to. Was the volume that good? Or was it so bad that it would ruin my view on the story as a whole? I hoped there weren’t stories out there, which could retroactively ruin a story I had grown to like.
As I dwelled on the horrendous idea of bad stories, the sound of a THUD! and a smell reminiscent of the Electro devices the Alchemists used, announced the rival of a strange raven, breaking me from my doldrums.

As I studied the odd bird, I was taken in by its strange beauty.
The midnight black and electric purple plumage was quite the sight, with a crest I hadn’t seen on any birds in the area.
Its eyes were unique, one a grey that seemed to drink in the purple energy it exuded, the other a brilliant green, and both were staring intently at the book I was holding.
“How’d a pretty thing like you in here?” I mused aloud, looking around for Lisa.
Despite her languid attitude, she ran a tight ship, and wouldn’t let anything potentially ruin her library. Yet this ostentatious bird sat before me, eyeing one of her treasures.

“I’m told I’m quite handsome, yes.” a bemused masculine voice sounded from the beak, the raven’s head turning to look at me with its grey eye as I fell back and made some very alarming noises as I crashed backwards into my chair, toppling over it on to the floor behind me.

“Don’t worry, he’s well behaved too~.” Giggles descended from the highly amused Librarian, leaning on the railing; my nook apparently not as free from her gaze as I thought. Having watched my pratfall, she seemingly went back to work after blowing a kiss in my direction.

“Oh, well that explains it all then.” I groaned from where I was sprawled, back aching from the fall.
I’ve encountered a lot of strange things during survey work, and having to help the Knights; but a talking animal was not something I was prepared for, especially this early in the morning.

Under the raven’s watchful green eye, I dusted myself off, righted my chair, and sat myself back down.
“Sorry about that.” I held out my hand, “My name is—“
The raven took to the rafters, its sudden departure throwing me off further.
After a moment of confused silence, I started to say “Well, that was kind of ru—“

“May I sit here?” a quiet feminine voice piqued up.
Not even looking at the individual and still watching the odd raven as it began to clean its feathers, I sighed about my supposed ‘quiet’ nook, and gestured toward the seat that the strange raven had landed in front of.

I placed my hand on the cover of the latest Fischl book, pinching the bridge of my nose, hoping to drive away the embarrassment and frustration of everything that had happened this morning.
Today was supposed to be a simple one, where I read the book Lisa had weirdly denied me the day prior.
I sighed loudly.
I guess this is to be expected when I spend enough time here.

“….ou okay?” a quiet voice asked, distracting me from my annoyances.
I looked up to see the young woman across from me, shielding her face with her book, a single green eye barely visible from behind a veil of blonde hair and a large brimmed hat, but the fact said eye was trying very hard not to dart from my annoyed gaze probably meant she was trying to talk to me.
Poor thing probably didn’t talk to people much.

“Sorry for disturbing you.” I apologised, “But I’m fine, just frustrated at my morning.”

“Rough morning?” she enquired, as the book lowered a little.

I slumped back, and stared at the railing above me which, as I stared and realised, was roughly the area where the strange little nook was. Another little thing to irk me, because of course Lisa would see me with little effort if I was close enough for this realisation.
“Not really. Just a lot of little new things I wasn’t quite prepared to deal with happened all at once, and I’m not good at dealing with that.”
Not technically a lie, but I wasn’t going to tell an innocent young woman that I’d had a moral quandary of whether or not to fuck an unconscious woman, who’d then woken up and told me she’d have been more than happy for me to have done so, despite the fact she hadn’t been clear on that.

The young woman nodded in sympathy, the book lowering to now only partially shield her rather beautiful face. The bolero helped her hair to frame to face and show off the gorgeous emeralds that were her eyes, making her hair look like spun gold.
“I’m not good with surprises either.”

Breaking my gaze away from her own mesmerising one, I properly noticed the book she was reading, and quickly changed the subject.
“Is that book any good?”
According to Lisa, this was the most recent release for ‘Flowers for Princess Fischl’, which meant I would need something new when I was done.

The young woman blinked rapidly, apparently confused about something.
“Huh?”

I pointed to the book she was holding, that was now resting on the table.
“The book, in your hands, is it any good?” I held up the copy of the Fischl book, “I’m new to novels, so I was just curious if that was worth reading, like this one has been.”

The embarrassment quickly drained away, as her eyes followed every little movement I made with the Fischl book.
“Um,” she started slowly, “Uh, i-if you like the F-Flowe-ers F-for Princess F-Fischl, you m-m-might like the L-leg-gends of the S-s-s-s-hattered Halberd.” Her nervousness was very obvious as she stumbled over that sentence.

Poor girl probably didn’t have many friends who shared her taste in things, if this was how she was reacting to something as simple as a reaction.
I couldn’t blame her; it was a common reaction for many late bloomers, especially the sort I’d work with, in the Surveyors or the Alchemist. I’d only gotten over it by sheer accident, since the constant exposure to being naked and indulging in ones sexual preferences made being embarrassed about non-sexual interests feel trivial.

“I look forward to giving it a try.” I pressed the Fischl book again my chest, fondly.
“This was my first novel, and I have to say, I’m quite happy it was my first.”
I’d read plenty of scientific notebooks and grimoires, and a few historical texts known for their inaccuracies.
But the novel was quite a….novel experience for me.

Her eyes widened at some revelation.
“You mean to tell me, my beloved Fischl was your first?”
Her breathing was now rather ragged; the intense look in her eyes something I was not used to seeing outside of my sexual relationships.

I blinked, stunned and failing to process what the young woman meant.
What did she mean, Her Fischl? That made no sense, for I was under the assumption that the writer was Inazuman, given that Lisa told me that she had to import new copies when they were released, hence why she only had the singular copy of the latest copy.
The one I had still not managed to read.
“Yes?”

The young woman was quick to stand, giving me a lovely view of her buttoned up blouse, the pale red colour unique in a city renowned for its green and brown clothing.
It very much reminded me the bard who stood out front of the Embassy, if Majorie had stolen her colours for herself.
“ImsorryIneedtogoIjustrememberedsomethingBYE!” was the strange spell that she uttered, as she raced off and up the stairs.

“Bye?” I halting said after her, not thinking she would hear me.
Were my first few days of normalcy the outlier? Was the Library actually where most of Mondstadt oddities secluded themselves?

As I sat down, stunned at the second sudden departure to frazzle my morning, a voice called out to me, from atop the stairs.
Turning my head, I saw the young woman, waving to get my attention.
“AMY!” she cried.
Seeing the confusion I must have been broadcasting to anyone who might be witnessing my embarrassing morning, she added “MY NAME!”

Before I could get a chance to follow or call out something, Lisa was quick to do her duty and escort the young woman from where she was causing a public disturbance.
Wait a moment. I was the only person here, besides Lisa, and the young woman who called herself Amy.
Why did she usher her out?

As I rested my head in my hands and massaged my temples to control the throbbing sensation that was building up from all these weird social interactions, the usual Library crowd began to file in, and I could feel a Gaze I should’ve been aware of prior final leave me.
The Librarian was beautiful, but the fact I could feel the weight of her gaze leave me now that she had a job to do was somewhat terrifying.
……and kind of hot.

I shook my head, clearing the lust. That could come later, once I had started my damned book, which I promptly did, since now there were no interruptions.

====================

The mid-day bell tolled, and I finally finished the last page of the latest ‘Flowers for Princess Fischl’ novel.
THAT’s how you end this volume?
I couldn’t believe Mr Nine had the audacity to end this volume like th—

A small envelop dropped from the back of the book, grabbing my attention and distracting me from the sudden emotions I was feeling.
Was this a common thing for novels?

I picked the simple envelope up, and examined it.
Now that I thought about it, it wouldn’t make sense for a novel to have unattached pages, for that would mean part of the story could easily be lost.
Then what was this envelope? And who was it for?

Mentally apologising to whoever had left this odd bit of correspondence in the novel I was reading, I opened it to find a simple but fancy piece of paper, a familiar yet different smell coming from it, as if someone had managed to catch the moment a bolt of lightning had struck a beautiful flower.
I’d taken note of what stationary Lisa had, and while it was of a similar quality, this wasn’t hers, given how she had both an Official Knights set and her own rose set; and while the ionised flower smell would confuse a regular person into thinking that was Lisa’s unique calling card, Lisa’s was actually a unique type of rose, whereas this smelt more like an electrified celicia, a flower commonly used by lovers and dreamers.
Given how only the Alchemists had access to devices that could create the ionised smell, I figured whoever had sent this, was involved with an Electro Vision wielder. While there were a few romantics in the alchemists, none of them were this subtle.

So who had gone to such effort, for a small envelope in a book anyone could take?
I unfolded the page, and began to read.

THAT explained why the poor woman had been so awkward and embarrassed. She had been under the assumption I had read this note.
Which I hadn’t done, because Lisa had withheld the book!!!!

Thankfully, do to my surveyor’s training, I always had note paper on hand on the offhand chance I needed to do work, so I pulled out some spare pages, and quickly wrote a reply, using the same envelope but marking it with a rough drawing of a Celicia, so she didn’t receive the envelope thinking it had been returned un-opened.
I raced up the stairs, mirroring how the sender had left me earlier, and stopped in front of a very perplexed Lisa.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked, obviously confused at why I had run up the stairs in such a hurry.

“Could you pass on a letter for me?” I proffered my return letter. I didn’t want to chase after the young woman, since while earnest, she seemed the shy type, and I was kind of charmed by this whole ‘sending each other notes through books’ thing she seemed to like.

An all-knowing gaze that made no sense with the context I gave her overtook her features, and a smile that felt smug joined it on her lips.
She snatched the proffered note from my hand, asking “And what would you do for me?”

“You aren’t going to ask who it’s for?”

Lisa giggled. “Cutie, she talked to me first about this. I know who this is intended for.”
She learnt forward, and rested her chin on steepled fingers, her cleavage on full display and doing its best to distract me from her eyes.
“But how do you intend to pay for this favour~?”

I knew what she wanted, since it was part of my commission here.
“What do you need me to do?” I sighed, still a little uncomfortable at the more exhibitionist sex she wanted me to partake in.

She giggled again, this one the seductive laugh that seemed to make ‘the Seed’ flood my body with liquid heat.
Placing the letter in one of her drawers, and without breaking eye contact, she spoke to someone who wasn’t me. “Oz, can you tell your Master that her…” Lisa paused, before settling on a word she found agreeable, “’sister’ has an answer awaiting her here, for tomorrow.”

A voice above us, in the rafters, answered.
“Understood, Miss Lisa.” quoth the raven, sitting in the rafters above the library door.

Lisa made a gesture in the direction of said door, the midnight raven flitting through once the door, reversing the gesture to shut the door afterwards.
She leant forward, rubbing her hand on my crotch and firmly grasping it.
“Get hard, and I’ll show you what your payment will be~.”