Haven Online

"Uuuggghhh," groaned Melting Snow, while rubbing his hand against his forehead in confusion. 'Why the heck does my head hurt so much?' 

Even though the boy was dazed and not entirely aware of his surroundings, he could still sense a menacing presence nearby. Feeling that his life might be in danger, he quickly moved to get up only to be stopped by a pair of familiar hands.

"Slowly, Melting Snow. You still have a couple of seconds left before your stunned state completely disappears," Xinya whispers soothingly in the boy's ear before wrapping an arm around his waist to help him to sit upright.

It took a couple of seconds of leaning against Drifting Cloud for the dizziness that came with being stunned to fade. Opening his grey eyes for the first time since he was knocked out, Melting Snow took in the destruction around him. 'What a mess I made.' 

"Can someone tell me," Pan Yinjie, the librarian began through gritted teeth, looking like he was visibly trying to calm himself down. "Why shouldn't I just kick you both out of my library right this instant?!"

Melting Snow now understood where the ominous presence he felt earlier when he first came too, had come from. 

Looking away from the dark looks the NPC was throwing him, Melting Snow slowly peered down at the glowing orange book clenched tightly in his right arm. With how angry the man was at him, he started to worry that all that trouble he went through to get it was all for nothing. 

Noticing that the wolf-eared boy's attention was wavering, Pan Yingjie started to tap his foot impatiently. "Speak now before I decide that I care naught for your excuses!"

"Mr. Pan...," Pulling Melting Snow up along with him as he stood, Xinya tried to swiftly come up with some justification for this mess. Even though he had nothing to do with what happened here, Xinya felt that it was his duty to shoulder the blame since he was the older one. 

However, before he could continue trying to think of how to bullshit his way out of this problem, he was stopped by Melting Snow. The boy hastily inserted his body in front of Xinya before giving the NPC a 90-degree bow. 

Melting Snow couldn't allow Drifting Cloud to get in trouble because of something he did. This was his fault, and if anybody was going to be blamed, it would be him and only him. 

"Sir, It was all my fault; please don't blame Drifting Cloud, he had nothing to do with what happened here." Melting Snow said contritely.

With his gaze still locked on the ground, Melting Snow didn't notice that for a split second, a pleased look appeared on the librarian's face before disappearing just as fast as it came. Even though the boy didn't notice, that didn't mean that Xinya didn't.

"I'll give you one chance to tell me what happened; if I don't like your answer, I will ban you both," threatened Pan Yingjie. 

Xinya, who had been watching the NPC for a while now, felt that there was something up with the man. Because there was no way any librarian worth their grain of salt wouldn't have already kicked them out after their book had been violated like this. 

He had a feeling that this had to be a set up for some kind of quest, and it most likely had something to do with this NPC. Before Xinya could warn Melting Snow to be careful about his response, the boy began to speak. 

~

Even though he might not be the brightest bulb on the shelf, Melting Snow understood that it would be stupid of him to tell the NPC that he destroyed the library because he was curious about a glowing book. 

"What happened was," Melting Snow began to rack his brain to think of an excellent plausible excuse that the man would buy. "After reading the animal book you gave me for a while, I started to get bored..."

"So, you wrecked my library because you were bored?" Questioned the librarian, cutting Melting Snow off mid-sentence. 

Quickly shaking his head, Melting Snow replied, "No! No, it wasn't like that."

"Then what was it like?" Pan Yingjie asked.

Suddenly Melting Snow could hear Drifting Cloud speaking to him through the party's voice chat: 

DC: Be careful about what you say, Melting Snow, something more is going on here. I have a feeling you triggered some quest.

Slightly so that NPC wouldn't notice but the green-haired man would, Melting Snow nodded his head to say that he understood. 

"I love animals, but the book you gave me to read was about exotic ones I would never see. Knowing that the book wouldn't be useful to me, I went searching for a new one. But being unfamiliar with the library, I got lost and stumbled across this aisle."

Narrowing his eyes, Pan Yingjie just looked at the boy and said, "That still doesn't tell me what happened here."

"Well, while I was walking down this aisle, I noticed this book on the top shelf," Melting Snow held out the book he was grasping and showed it to the man. "I felt drawn to it and wanted to read it, but I couldn't reach it and decided to try an alternative method of getting it."

"Was that method knocking the bookcase over?" Pan Yingjie sarcastically asked.

Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, the boy looked anywhere but at the librarian. "No, sir, nothing that drastic. I just scaled the shelf... I'm really sorry! I should have known better not to do it; I promise to clean everything up and make it look like it did before. Please don't kick us out."

Pan Yingjie knew that not just anyone would be able to find that particular book that the boy was holding. Only people with certain qualities were worthy of finding it.

And as he gazed into the boy's glistening puppy dog eyes, Pan Yingjie had a feeling that he had those qualities. Especially after witnessing how he stood up for his friend, but the boy still had to be tested.

He might have loyalty, but does he have the dedication to go through on what he promises. 

~~~~~~

AN: Sorry that I didn't update Friday. I was having a bad week I was about to rage quit at one point. If you follow me on twitter you know. 

I'm looking for another editor: If you like Litrpgs /Rebirth novel please DM me on Twitter. 

Also, if you like food porn and system check out my new novel Sweet Chef: Fan Jiali and tell me what you think.