“They are gone! You can come out now!” 

The young girl came out from behind the aisles. 

“So, why were you hiding from them?” I asked bitterly. The girl lowered her gaze and fiddled with her hands, she nervously looked around and quietly mumbled, “…...” 

“Wait what?” 

“Because he hit you!” She exclaimed. She looked into my eyes with a fierce gaze determined to prove her actions appropriate. From what Felix had told me, Charlotte has always been a protector for Kai. She took care of him like he was her brother, making sure he eats well, gets his work done, sleeps well and overall, doesn’t get into trouble with anyone. On many occasions, she has covered for him. She protected him. That’s why I felt that I should let her go. From all this protection, she has made countless enemies. And I don’t want to burden her even more. I need to take care of myself and she should too. That’s why I said ‘Goodbye’. 

“Why would you do that!? Jack doesn’t care about girls, he’ll beat you up mercilessly. I told you to stay away from him!” I yelled at her. I could see her expression waver from my questions, but she really needed to understand this. 

“Why wouldn’t I hit the person who beat up my best friend!?” She stated. Charlotte’s eyes were teared up, but she still glared at me fiercely. She had the eyes of a warrior. Seeing her reaction, I felt relieved knowing that Kai had such a friend. Best Friends, that sure sounds lovely. Will I ever meet my best friend? I know it’s unfair to Kai, for me to be treating his best friend like this, but after seeing those bruises. I can’t just let this be. 

I turned around and grabbed the basket. I walked up to Charlotte and handed the basket to her. 

“You can take this back. I don’t want it.” 

I placed the basket in her hands and walked away from her, back to the incomplete aisles, back to my lonely corner. 

“Why are you doing this to me? We were fine until now, so why now? WHY DO YOU KEEP PUSHING ME AWAY!? TELL ME KAI!” Her voice was shaking. She was in pain, I could feel it. 

“For the last time, leave.” It hurt. 

The girl grabbed the basket, clenched her teeth, with tears dripping down her face, she stood in the same spot for a couple of minutes. After the silence passed, she wiped her face and walked out of the library. 

My heart shattered. Although I personally didn’t know Charlotte that well, I still remembered Kai’s memories. Watching them all flood back into me made my heart ache. I fell to my knees from the unbearable chest pain. It hurt so much. A black furred creature walked past me, and sat in front of me. “Nero?” 

I looked up to see the cat, only to find my vision blurred. I couldn’t see the cat anymore. 

A tear fell on my hand. 

Ah, I understand. 

This is Kai’s heart crying. 

And so, I sat there with the company of Nero crying my heart out.

Losing a best friend is painful. A horrible one at that. 

………

After that day, the baskets never appeared in front of me again. However, a certain guest had been making quite a lot of visits. 

“Nero, come on let’s go eat!” 

That day, when I cried my eyes out, Nero stayed by my side the entire time. I guess you could say our bond was strengthened. The black cat walked out from behind the aisles and came up to me. After ensuring it was lunch time, the two of us headed out. Ever since Charlotte stopped delivering the food baskets, I had to walk down to the servant’s quarters every day. Although there wasn’t much left of the meal, I appreciated getting food. 

“Awwww, it’s even less this time.” I took the piece of bread and a small side of veggies and sat down to eat it. For some reason, Nero seems to dislike the servant’s quarters. As well as that, Nero doesn’t seem to enjoy the food much either. “I guess you’re sick of being a herbivore too huh.” I really miss eating meat. 

Due to the small portions, lunch doesn’t take too long. There are still 3 more days left till the butler comes to inspect, and I only have 100 books left to organise. It feels like such an accomplishment, organising 5000 books in 15 days. The butler made it sound impossible but here I am; Broke and Exhausted. 

Since we still had time, I decided to take the longer route back to the library. Nero is very patient when it comes to walks. Usually cats dislike taking walks but I have yet to see Nero complain about it. “AHHH! Let GO!” A girl shrieked in the distance. 

It sounds exactly like Charlotte. 

I ran over to the sound of the scream only to find Jack and his two goons cornering Charlotte. She had a large red mark on her face and her hair looked like it was pulled vigorously. 

That little- I lunged out of the bushes, ran up to Jack and whacked a good few years out of him. 

.

.

.

Protip if you ever find yourself in my situation: Don’t do what I did. 

Jack felt around his face and spat out a tooth with his blood. (Strength +1) 

“Did you just hit me!?” 

"Nah….the tree did.” Unfortunately the joke didn’t work. 

“I’LL KILL YOU!!!” He shouted in my face as he readied his fist behind his head. He lunged the punch towards me and all I could think about were the ancient texts I was reading a while before. 

In this world, to use magic, you need two things; Mana and Spells. I previously tested Kai to find that he had extremely low Mana capacity along with affinity for undefined elements. 

As his attack got closer, a few words appeared in my head:

“Draft skill…Flash attack?” 

A blinding flash of light appeared before me, Jack backed off from the sudden flash in his eyes. His two friends looked at each other confused. 

“Kai, did you just use magic?” asked Charlotte, except I did not have an answer. 

I looked to find Nero looking at me with sparkly eyes, awed by what just happened. 

So, I’m not wrong…

I just used magic, right?