Chapter 44: boredom and books
New day, new things to do. I'm just kidding; I don't have anything on my agenda. It's annoying! I've always had tasks to complete, but today I woke up, and nothing came to mind. So, I started working out, ate some food, but still, I couldn't find anything else to do. This lasted only a little while… until I summoned my Grimoire.
It turned out I could always check the spell modification or spell creation sections, and I would have something to occupy my time.
There were many modified spell models, ranging from a harmless lighting charm that creates fake rainbows to a very cruel castration curse—which, after reading about it, I couldn't unread.
It was a painful and dark curse, yes, dark and evil, that I would not use, even on my worst enemies.
I stopped reading there. I didn't have any newly created spells, so I thought I would use my time to seek inspiration and create as many as I could.
I then started performing my Sagely duties, which include purifying natural energy. While doing that, I noticed that even though I had a lot of pure natural energy stored in my body—which passively strengthens me—I didn't have many ways to use it for combat; I usually utilized it as an auxiliary skill for scanning, sensing, etc.
My bad—it seems I do have things to do.
I heard a knock on my door, so I stood up and went to open it. I was so engrossed in thinking of ways to develop and use natural energy that I didn't notice a devil teleporting in.
I stood face to face with a tall blond guy with silver eyes. He was carrying a luggage bag. I looked at him, then at the bag, then back at him, and all I could say was, "I'm sorry, this is not a hotel. You've got the wrong address." My tone sounded professional. I don't even know why I said that.
"Ahem, excuse me. Are you Harry Potter? I'm Liban Crocell, knight of Sairaog Bael. I am here to deliver the books you requested," he said with a straight face.
I stared at him for a few seconds, then it clicked. "You're telling me that the luggage bag has the books I asked for?" I asked, feeling a bit weirded out. I thought they would come in a package… or maybe with an equivalent of pouches with a space extension charm… even a duffle bag would have been okay. I would have asked about the unusual method of delivery but this has Kuisha written all over it.
"Yes," his answer was short and concise. I didn't need to use natural energy sensing to know he had been instructed to deliver this and return immediately.
"Okay then, thank you," was all I could manage at that moment. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this…
He didn't say anything more; he just turned around and left via teleportation.
I took the bag inside, opened it, and started sorting through the books. There were many on different topics—from the history of human magic, both modern and ancient, involving deities and gods, to various runic inscriptions and languages. There were basics on magic circle creation, theories of magic, and books about the general supernatural world, the human magical world, and their organizations, associations, and families. Although I noticed that the books didn't cover much about devil society beyond the most well-known aspects.
It was very obvious that they were trying to establish a good and long-lasting relationship with me.
They also understood that I don't use the same magic as most humans, which they could attribute to me being a sage.
They were more insightful than I had given them credit for.
It seems if I want to gain enough knowledge, I will have to step up my game and make myself in high demand. I should also take advantage of Gaia's protection to make my life easier… yeah, I'll do just that.
It took a while to organize the books in the library; I did that manually by hand because I could… and because I wanted my Grimoire to finish analyzing everything it had just copied, but that's not important.
After that, I started my research. I began by reading everything normally while giving my Grimoire the task of comparing the new knowledge with my old wizarding knowledge, which, now that I think about it, I have not delved into more deeply—but that was the fault of my younger, naive self.
I figured it out. The reason I don't notice or care about how much time passes. This discovery came to me when I finally finished studying everything in the books and realized I didn't know how long it had been. I only noticed the time had passed by the unpleasant smell in the place—the unclean cooking utensils… when did I cook? I have no freaking idea! The dusty surroundings, the various plastic wrappers, and last but not least, me. I even smelled bad!
I don't usually stink; magic and natural energy usually make me smell fresh. Oh, I still shower daily, but still, I shouldn't smell… But all of this is not important right now.
I tried hard to figure out why I blocked everything else—how did I not care about time and why didn't this happen to my younger self? It turned out, it did happen to my younger self; he just always had someone waking him up.
Anyway, where was I? Oh right, the reason. Well, I don't have a biological or internal clock like most people. It seems the old man was right about the side effects of being in the 'void.
So even if there are people like me who can focus and fixate on one thing, they could still snap out of it after some time to do something else; I can't do that. I pretty much leave my body on autopilot, and that, coupled with my lack of urgency brought on by time—unlike most humans, I will not die from age for a long time—explains everything for now.
I may be wrong, but that's the most plausible explanation I have for what happened.
It took me a while to get everything in order again; the cleaning was done by magic. I am not cleaning this mess by hand. The shower was pleasant, and I felt like a new person afterward.
I also figured out how long I had been studying—ten days, that's how long. I still don't know how I still have food in the fridge after so long. I sure hope that I didn't go to the grocery store… Oh, and I also figured out a way to tell the time while purifying energy…..I just ask about it, and I'll know.
Oh, I know there are different charms for that, but I don't really know the date, time, and such to go by to use them...
Anyway now I need some sleep.
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Enjoy 😊