Noel was silent and did not respond for a few moments, his eyes silently on the carpet as he rubbed his thumb on the side of his chin in thought.
"You are a good storyteller, Mrs. Elias, if nothing else."
Raising his gaze, he looked back into her amused expression plastered across her face. She tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ears, playfully moving her legs as she was on her belly, her head resting on her two small palms.
"Well, that is expected of me. It is accurate to say I feel quite shocked at how low of expectations you had of me to merely judge my storytelling skills as 'good.'"
Standing up from his chair, Noel adjusted the lower part of his robe that had stuck to his inner clothing due to friction, before taking off his monocle that seemed to have been unclearly smudged, and put it in his pocket, feeling a slight protruding feeling as if confirming its presence. He grabbed a handkerchief in his breast pocket, unfolded it, and coughed twice before he folded it and put it back, his eyes not leaving Elias.
"So do tell me, are we in King Markus's Empire? Or are we, by splendid chance, in another Empire?"
Elias did not reply to his question, but merely blinked her eyes in response to his question, as if his reaction truly surprised her.
"Do you not have the solution to that question yourself?" she inquired, perplexed. She sat up on the bed with her legs in a V-shape, wriggling her toes at the dry air of the hexagonal, honeycomb-like yellow light of the library.
Playfully moving her toes, she raised her eyes once more to Noel who was still watching her silently.
"Is that a confirmation to it being the Everal Empire?"
Her moving toes stopped as Elias closed her eyelids and exhaled in evident patience."... Noel, you seem to be lacking mentally more than I have thought. Don't worry about it, however. You will have a guest who will be quite happy to provide answers to your questions."
Motioning with her chin behind Noel, she expressed her dramatic disappointment before sprawling on the bed, purple strands of her creating a waterfall pattern on the bed. Fidgeting a bit on the bed, a stuffed rabbit with buttoned light-blue eyes appeared in her embrace, and a small half-top hat appeared glued to her head.
Noel turned his body, his robe slightly fluttering, as he looked back to the rows of books and the red carpet that extended past it to reach something akin to the limits of the floor.
"Is that so?"
Beyond that limit was the other side of the same floor, yet on the other side. Walking forward, he raised his head to the current ceiling which showed several beautifully carved domes, with intricate drawings that did not seem to have much meaning to them. He walked over to a nearby shape that stood upon a small table, a round object that seemed to resemble an atlas, and slightly held it with his hands as if trying to see whether there was a map.
Upon finding nothing but blank white, he placed it back and, using his fingers, pulled the circle back a few inches before he spun it on its axis. It spun quite fast for a quite old-seeming atlas. He concluded it had quite good friction.
"What are you doing?"
Not raising her head to take a look at Noel, Elias asked quizzically, as if she expected to be questioned about who would answer his inquiries.
"Nothing much. Just exploring the library."
Yet Noel decided not to ask the questions. In terms of efficiency, asking her directly would be the correct solution. That is for normal individuals, however. For more eccentric individuals like her, it would be more tiring; thus, he judged that since he would find out anyway, it would be best to wait and see for himself.
"Do you not have any questions to ask the magnanimous, forgiving, and all-merciful me?"
Noel shook his head in denial as he checked the library with particular interest. As his fingertips traced a shelf, a splinter entered his finger. He pulled his finger away, observing a red bead and a tiny, wooden-colored object that intruded into his body. He attempted to remove the splinter.
"Not in part—"
Knock-knock.
Noel and Elias paused their current actions, with Noel forgetting his splinter and walking down the red carpet toward the guardrail that overlooked the lower levels of the library, which appeared like a bee's comb; very far down on the right was the door that he had entered the library through. His eyes swept the library for any presence before focusing on the wooden door, as if waiting for the presence that had knocked on the door.
"Were you expecting someone?"
Elias did not visibly answer, as she fiddled with her stuffed cute rabbit in her arms, holding its hands and moving it as if she was playing with it.
"No, no, Mr. Wolf, please don't eat this little rabbit, and for you alone, will I sing a song~"
She mimicked with her voice in a low, cute-like voice, before her voice changed into a bit of a deep, profound, and wise sense, as if she was quite the old individual.
"Little Rabbit, I will devour you, and I will not even leave your bones, nor will anything of you remain. But if the song you sing is to my liking alone, perhaps I will give you a chance and make you my personal bard."
"But Mr. Wolf—"
"So you were expecting someone? Is he the one you mentioned to be the 'guest'?"
Noel looked back at her, expecting an answer as he exhaled, looking back to the door that was creaking as it was pushed open. Yet the only response he got was a sigh as Elias lowered her rabbit to the mattress, giving a nonchalant reply that transformed completely from her play-pretend mimicking.
"You should be more patient, Noel."
He didn't reply to her, as he leaned on the guardrail, looking down at the doors that had opened, his chin leaning on his palm in disinterest. His mind was occupied with different thoughts on the incoming individual, and what significance he would hold in comparison to what Elias had informed him of.
Was he perhaps a friend of Friezdal? Noel was unable to judge, as countless thoughts popped in the vast area of his mind, his fingers tapping the guardrail in interest as he considered those thoughts. But even if that was the case, why didn't she just tell him directly who he was? Was she trying to appear mysterious? Annoying? Or was there more to it than he thought?
His tapping stopped. Raising his leaned forearm off the wood, he moved his neck slightly as if loosening his stiff muscles. He would soon find out in a few moments the 'secret' that Elias was irritatingly stressing the importance of not releasing the surprise of.
Upon the doors opening around forty-five degrees, a large figure that seemed to be close to two meters entered the first level of the library, a black boot clicking against the marble flooring before halting.
Adjusting its clothing, the figure pulled its collar as if properly aligning it in a proper dressing code before taking off its cap that overshadowed its features using both of its hands, slightly tapping its boots on the flooring. The boots were quite clean considering the clothing that suggested that it stood most of the time in a world filled with smoke and gunpowder. Most likely, said individual had previously wiped their feet on the carpet outside the door before entering.
Thinking about it, it suggested the level of importance that the individual figure associated with the library, or so concluded Noel, who stood rooted in his position. Running its hands through the thin hair on its nape, the figure took off its cap with both hands, slightly shaking its head as if shaking away anything that may have made its way onto his hair.
The face of a middle-aged man appeared, wrinkled, yet not entirely old. Behind the old mask were two light brown-hazel eyes that glinted with life with their dark pupils, as if they were in the epitome of their youth. Stroking his well-kept brown beard, the currently-identified man pursed his dry lips as he held his cap in one hand and reached into his pocket with his other.
Noel focused intently on the man as he gained a sudden thought upon sensing something odd about the man's posture and dignity that did not belong to most people.
"Is that the 'guest' you were mentioning, Mrs. Elias?" Noel remarked as he observed the man below him many floors down. Despite the drastic difference in distance, oddly, and perhaps oddly so, he was able to accurately identify the man's features.
"I suppose so. Now leave me alone, and go deal with the old man, forget-me-not. He will inform you with everything you need to know about this world," she muttered lazily, her voice laced with annoyance as she flipped around on her bed.
The man raised his head, and his eyes turned toward Noel, who was on a much higher floor, spotting him after hearing a sudden voice in the library. Startled, Noel held his breath as he stopped leaning against the rail before raising an eyebrow in interest. The man's gaze, if anything, was not ordinary in the sense most people would have.
In fact, his gaze, despite the wariness in it, was quite sharp, as if scanning and evaluating Noel. After a few seconds of eye contact, the man averted his gaze to the object he had pulled out of his pocket, which turned out to be a light-blue-and-black pocketwatch. A faint blue energy appeared for a moment around the pocketwatch before disappearing. Instead, an elevator in the shape of a rectangular door appeared before the man. Without hesitation, the man walked inside it before muttering something under his breath.
Of course, because of the distance, Noel was unable to hear what the man was muttering. His eyes widened as he took in the appearance of the faint blue rectangular shape appearing out of nowhere.
"Mrs. Elias, I know earlier you had demonstrated something like magic, but is everyone really like you? Knowing how to use magic? Is it common knowledge?"
"Hmph! You ungrateful Nolie, what do you mean something like magic? I was using magic, in fact, in fact, I was using an ancient type of magic."
Elias's eyebrows twitched at Noel's remark as she directed toward him a cold gaze. Pausing for a moment, Noel observed the fast change of her personality when she was narrating the story of the farmer and when she was normally speaking.
"... Nolie?"
The name—nonsensical, if he had ever heard someone call him that back in his past life. A drastic difference between both speaking methods. Almost as if she had dissociative identity disorder, or... perhaps she was hiding something, using her cheerful personality as a curtain? If there was one thing he was able to conclude, it was that there was more to Elias than what met the eye.
Putting his thoughts aside, Noel, who was quite intrigued by the aspect of magic and the benefits that came with it, went on asking her.
"Does that mean I can use magic as well?" Noel strolled toward her, his hands clasped behind his back, yet a small smile appeared on his lips as he inhaled the mystic air of the library that resembled that of a comfortable home, not that of a library.
"Hmph, Betty has informed Pepa that otherworlders are subjected to a conventional process in Mana processing where they are unable to harness its availability in the environment due to insensitive parts of their mind, I suppose, as agreed upon by the Council."
"I don't quite understand your words, Mrs. Elias."
"It's Mrs. Pepa. And I suppose my words are too much for a homeless thing like you, Forget-me-not."
Ah, it seemed that when she switched modes, she also switched names as an anchor for her identity—or so Noel was able to understand. Currently, Noel was silently enumerating the points Pepa had made to identify the information he had just gathered.
For starters, this was the second time he had heard the name Betty, most likely a nickname that was relative to someone who held relation to Pepa, as she held subtle influence on her.
Secondly, there seemed to be otherworlders as well other than him; upon deep ponder, it could be summarized that Pepa's attitude toward him was indifferent despite knowing he was from another world.
Although it could be that she had seen things that were much more significant than a mere otherworlder, it could also mean she had met several individuals like him in the past.
Third of all, the council. From her tone, Pepa seemed disconnected from said thing, which seems like an organization, but from her words, it can be concluded that Mrs. Pepa is not part of it, but rather Bett—Pepa?
Noel watched Elias... Pepa silently. Noel crossed his arms across his chest as he got lost in thought. Subconsciously, he had changed his naming choice when Elias/Pepa changed her tone automatically without any conscious decision.
Although it could be marked out as something normal as the mind gets used to conversations, it was only two hours since he met her, or so he approximately estimated from the pocketwatch he had received, as the timing was different.
From what he had learned, 'this world' operated on a 28-hour system; it could not be judged based on previous earthly knowledge. Many things changed based on this, whether the weather, climate, seasons, etc.
Too many factors changed on that single fact alone, and calculating the potential variables that had been modified merely from the hour system alone... was simply too overwhelming to calculate. Too many factors to behold, to consider, that threatened to send a sharp, painful nerve signal toward his now-wavering mind.