Reverie. As in a noun regarding someone asleep or lost in a daydream.
I was comatosed for...I didn’t know how long, but I was somewhat lost in a dream, wasn’t I?
I had closed my eyes in fear that I was going to be laughed at, but when I fluttered my eyes open, people had moved on to the next students.
However, "God" continued to stare at me longer than I would reckon was normal.
He eventually looked away.
The library was a dream for both existing academics and imbeciles.
Clad in uniform and a toga, I entered the library.
I only had common sense to live with and no technical skills, so I was clearly of the latter.
After orientation had come to pass, it was three in the afternoon, and I decided to go by the library.
Colegio de Santo Rafael’s campus spanned the whole 68th floor of the tower of Babel. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the specific dimensions, but there was not only the school. There was a small town wherein students could shop, dine, and have all sorts of leisure.
When I opened the entrance, I was immediately enamoured by the scent of old books and dust.
It reminded me of something that I could not discern.
The building looked more than a century old, and, unlike other students who found the smell of acidified paper unbearable, I had no need to persevere and simply went on.
On my way to borrow a stack of books embraced by my arms before leaving I spotted, through a gap in a shelf in between leatherbacks, a pair of students wearing crimson purple togas of silk as I was.
Divinity students?
Beyond them on the table were notes and drawings of anatomy.
"No, no. Nephs don’t have a palmaris longus. Therefore—"
"As if most of humanity does," retorted the twintailed girl.
"—they are unholy devils. Offspring to angel and human. How on earth can we complete this potion then? They aren’t like us, Samreah. Come on, woman, use your mind."
The man who spoke with the fashionable girl had blond hair and a rather irritating personality which made me think of who really was the offspring of devils.
"Sure, Basil," said Samreah, sighing melodramatically. "I suppose you wouldn’t expect a woman to be of your caliber."
Though his back was facing me I could tell that this Basil was grinning.
Hey...weren’t these students too carefree? Why were they throwing around their names like it was nothing?
My eye peeked out of the gap.
"I’m glad we’re on the same page. Anyhow, you’re smart for a woman, Sam, I’ll tell you that much. And so, I shall give you a recommendation and you will be shifting from your current course to a bachelors in mysticism. Understood?"
"You don’t own me, Basilian."
"That’s for sure." Basilian sighed in annoyance. "And neither does Solomon but if you want to be seen as an equal to men—not just you, by the way, but all of the few women in this university—then you really must look at things another way.
"Arts won’t do jack shit to your future nor is it easy to study it. You pay hundreds of pesos for one limb of a nephilim and for what reason?
"It just doesn’t seem like you to boast about your money, or lack thereof. Seriously, where do you get the money from? No, don’t answer that. I know where. We all do."
Sam glared at him pointedly. She could nearly pierce him.
"It’s Solomon, isn’t it? You get the money from him—?"
"I’ll fucking beat you, Basil—"
"Heavens, no. A girl who barely reaches my chin will annihilate me."
He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment.
"In any case, for someone who cares a tad too much about nephilim you really like making grotesque artwork of them. How unladylike."
Samreah spoke no further and had turned her head downwards where parchment cluttered on the desk.
I glanced curiously; in the center: drawings of anatomical and naked creatures with unintelligible faces. On the side were sketches of wings and its bone structure. Some drawings of the layers of skin with the writings in cursive adjacent to it.
I didn’t know that wings had bones, but now it seemed rational.
While I had been curious about this conversation, I had a feeling I should not be involved at all. Braham and Horace would probably have an idea of it, for I assumed they themselves were interested in the mystic arts.
However, I had no means of contacting them.
Maybe through the agent that was watching over me?
I didn’t care that much, anyways.
In the end, as I was now studying divinity and mysticism, I might find out about it firsthand.
"Fuck you, Basil."
The twintailed girl smashed her palms on the table, the drawn-on parchment drifting away violently.
She walked away with an exasperated expression.
Basil only watched Sam walk away.
There was silence.
And, when I realized that nothing interesting was going to happen any further, I walked away.
"You."
The serious voice was from the blond Basilian.
I was opposing him on the other side of the wall, my body blocked by arrays of books and the only thing that revealed a part of me was my eye, so he couldn’t have seen me.
"Have you no shame? Eavesdropping on other people’s conversation?
"Show yourself. What are you, mongrel townsfolk? Your kind shouldn’t be in the vicinity of the Colegio. I repeat, show yourself."
At once, I ran.
The corridor which was decorated with wallpaper and paintings, I passed by them in a flash. At one end of the hall was the restricted section of books, but I had no time to check it out.
My feet sprinted.
There was no need for me to run, that was clear to me.
However, I did not want to be seen as more than a violent person as the other students saw me as.
There was no need for another title to be added. "Eavesdropper."
I was running for a few minutes when I realized...
Hey, isn’t this library way too big?
How vast can a library be?
I heard footsteps that were more of stomps.
Looking around for shelter from the blond devil, I entered what seemed to be a closet.
I was then faced with masked men and women.