Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 69

Library
“I’ll have to refuse”

The clearly baffled face of the man barely spoke a single sentence:

“A-ah, is that so? Ok then, I’ll be here in case you change your mind”

After getting rejected in public, he did feel quite embarrassed, but also didn’t harbour any ill feelings towards Hans.

After all, he had been the first one to have done something not so praiseworthy.

Asking in such a public manner, in front of the various branch leaders, he tried to put a bit of pressure onto Hans’ reasoning.

Making him perhaps change his initial decision.

But what he definitely didn’t expect, was for the young man to blatantly refuse his offer.

After that embarrassing moment, Mr. Quinn felt like hiding with his head under the ground, like an ostrich.

‘I’ve truly gotten old, to think that I’ve been refused without having my proposal listened to’

“Well then” now ready to get the hell out of that hall, Hans dashed towards the exit, but just before he could take a step outside, the reason why he initially had come to the association returned to his mind.

He picked the first staff worker he met, and asked him for directions to reach the library.

When told where to go, he followed the instructions, soon finding himself in front of the huge white double door, covered in some strands of gold.

He pushed the door open with both hands, and watched the magnificent sight unleashed in front of his eyes.

The whole room was lighted by natural sunlight, that transpassed the glass wall opposite to the entrance.

The library covered the other three walls, measuring up to about twenty meters in height.

All the books were accessible through the sliding stairs positioned in each corner.

The middle of the room, that was slightly lowered than the borders, connected to them by a couple of white marble steps, was filled with sturdy white tables.

The room gave a feeling of supernatural, being that there was close to no corners in it.

The tables had strange wavy shapes, and even the ceiling wasn’t linear.

Most importantly, the whole room felt untouched.

The steps weren’t swollen by the use of the people, and the tables were extremely neat, even the stairs that were used to access the books looked extremely clean.

There were only two options, either many people spent various hours of their lives every day to clean it, or it was simply left unused.

Under normal circumstances, even Hans would’ve just passed by that door without entering it, knowing that it was a library, but now, he felt like it was such a shame to leave it there without using it.

So much that a few of whispered words came out of his mouth:

“What a pity”

Without wasting any more time, he walked to one of the corners, and grabbed the ladder.

He moved it around a bit, before arriving at the section regarding mathematics, as written on the marble in between a row of books and the other.

He got up, and started taking down a few books, he avoided the famous ones he had already read in his city’s library, and also the ones he had previously ordered online, that he would’ve found when returning home.

When he finished taking them all and transporting them to the tables, two dozens of bookshelves were almost empty, like this, he had saved his future self the bother of getting up to change the book every time he finished one.

Also, reorganizing them on the shelf wouldn’t have been a problem, since his memory was better than normal’s.

‘Let’s get down to reading’

‘That’s what I would like to say, but the sun is already down, and there doesn’t seem to be any electric lighting in here’

‘How annoying, do I have to return tomorrow?’

As he thought, he touched a strange looking surface of the tables, that seemed detached from the rest.

As his hand clicked it, it rose, revealing a white lamp, measuring about 50 cm, that lit up the space beneath it.

‘Never mind then, it seems like I won’t have any problems’

The first page of the first book was turned, and Hans immediately focused.

Pages after pages, books after books, the moon also came to set after a certain time, but Hans was still reading, as in a trance, the sun was seen another two times, before he stopped reading.

When the last page of the book was closed, Hans watched the stained glass window, and behind it the raising orange in between the grey buildings and the blue waters.

He almost reorganized everything, but when it came down to the last few books, he fell asleep on the table, and slept for twenty eight hours.

When he woke up, the sun was shining high in the sky, and the almost dead phone in his pocket was ringing loudly.

He picked it up, still half asleep, and the voice coming from the other side belonged to someone he knew, it was Lucas talking.

“Sir, where are you? The branch is chaotic without anyone looking over it, you must come back as soon as possible.

Understanding half of the words said to him, Hans replied: “I’ll come back in a couple of weeks, if anything happens ask Kenta about it”

“But sir-”

‘Beep-beep-beeep’

He hung up the call, after all, when working at the association, he always had to solve everything himself, no one ever managed to do something by themselves, probably because Garrison had been too good at his work, and all the people of the association branch aside from him had become slow and lazy.

‘A period of time alone will do them nothing but good.

But… will he be able to manage it?’

Thought Hans, with a certain blonde Asian man in mind.

A few seconds of pause came before his mind continued:

“I’m sure he’ll survive”

Just like that, Hans (dumped the responsibili-) resolved the matter.

He was starving, but still wanted to read all the other books in the library, other than mathematics, 16 compartments full of books awaited him.

He ordered a delivery, and got down to work once again.

For five consecutive weeks, he read about countless stories and theories, regarding physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, languages and science in general.

“How strange” he said, munching on a sandwich he had ordered.

‘It should’ve increased, why am I still stuck at this tier’

After five weeks of restless reading and understanding, his wisdom had increased incredibly, he also went up a tier, finally reaching tier 6, meaning he was now officially more powerful than an A-rank knight, even though it had been like that for a while already.

However, his wisdom had surpassed the two thousand five hundred, and no message had popped up.

Being a tier 6, he was now at the highest level before reaching high ranking mage, so he guessed that more than five hundred wisdom would’ve been necessary for an increase, just like passing from tier 2 to tier 3 took double the points.

‘If I were to fight now, what level would I be?’

Hans couldn’t help but ask, he was just like a baby with a new toy, he wanted to try what he had worked so hard for.

Unfortunately, he still had to wait a bit before having the chance to do so.

He burnt the paper that wrapped the sandwich in his hand, not leaving behind even the ashes, and got up, heading out of the room.

As he walked past it, he grabbed both the handles of the double door, slowly closing them, until not even a ray of light passed through.

‘Thank you for your assistance, I won’t forget what you’ve done for me, well then, farewell’

He left the room empty, just as he had found it, a place he would’ve never returned again to.

As he passed the hall, the lady at the desk bid him goodbye, they had become quite accustomed, as he came out three times every day to take the ordered food.

He greeted her back, and took a taxi, that was waiting beside the walkway in front of the association.

“Where would you like to go?”

“The airport please”

After about six hours, he was back at the association, he had already sent his luggage home, and since Aiden was at school, he was now ready to face the piled up work of the association branch.

He walked inside the familiar building, and immediately saw Emily working, with a file in her hands and the glasses on, making her seem like a responsible person.

She greeted him with a smile and he smiled back.

He then waited for the lift, and got up to the last room of the building, where his office was.

He walked out of the elevator, and taking a couple of steps, before arriving in front of his office door.

‘Come on, I can do it’ said Hans to himself’ pulling down the handle.

As he entered the office, he found neither the piled up work nor the dust he expected.

Instead, the room was dark, and a blade came near his neck.

“Hans Ritcher, you are dead meat!”

‘Oh crap, I forgot about this!’