Preferring to ride to the palace by horse, he chose a brown horse from the stables and mounted it. The skill was about the only one he had properly developed from his years locked inside the von Sane Manor. His destination was the royal library, which was only opened to the royal family and those with His Majesty's permission. Lincoln, who was involuntarily introduced to him during the prince's engagement party, extended the archduke’s permission to him. The presence of nobles and knights undoubtedly occupied the main entrance to the palace so once he made it past the gates, he rode off in search of the side entrance he had been frequenting. 

A knight welcomed Lincoln and grabbed onto the reins of his horse as he jumped down from the saddle awkwardly. Sharp pains shot up his foot as he fell backward into the side of the horse.

"Are you okay, my Lord?" The knight asked.

Lincoln, using the horse as support, tried not to show his intense pain as he got up. "Yes," he gritted out. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Should I call for the royal physician?"

"No. I am a competent doctor and I know when I am okay," he adamantly insisted.

After half-carrying Lincoln to the royal library, he thanked the knight and let him get back to his post. The librarian was a young man but older than Lincoln, maybe in his mid-twenties but the exhausted expression he bore with his deep eye bags suggested he was a middle-aged man. He took the brooch-shaped access badge out of Lincoln's hands and examined it carefully with a magnifying glass. Handing it back to its owner, the librarian shooed him away before returning to his nap.

Lincoln walked over to the section of the medical journals he had been so acquainted with over the past month. The journals that he had possessed from his teacher were still currently on their way back from the village. Bored at home, Lincoln's been visiting the Royal Library almost every day for the past week. He pulled out a book titled The Healer’s Hangover Handbook while searching for a copy of Healing Arts from the Maveric Kingdom. After he had surveyed the entire shelf of books, he went to the next row, already carrying four different books. The novice doctor put the stack of books on a ladder he found as he flipped through the pages of another book.

"People with red hair have a higher risk of developing a dangerous form of skin cancer called me-"

A book fell on Lincoln's head, cutting him off from reading. Rubbing his head, he closed the book and added it to his pile before looking up, only to have another book smack him right in the face. On the other side of the shelf, a certain knight who had mistaken Lincoln for the uptight librarian was chuckling a tremendous amount.

"What are you doing up there?" A voice groggily asked.

Leon stopped laughing to see the exhausted librarian standing behind him, squinting his eyes without a single book-shaped bruise on his head. Readjusting himself on the ladder, he pretended innocently, "I was looking for a book."

Too tired to think otherwise, the librarian nodded slowly and returned to the front desk with a yawn.

If he was there, who was I dropping books on? Leon thought nervously.

"You. "

Lincoln appeared from the other side of the shelf rubbing his forehead and glaring daggers at Leon.

The latter looked around before pointing to himself, asking, “Me?”

The black-haired man nodded with an unrelenting glare. 

“Do I know you?” 

Lincoln only responded by pointing at a mark on his forehead that was becoming more prominent by the minute. The knight then began uncontrollably laughing at the book-shaped bruise on the stranger’s head, his vibrant laugh echoing in the otherwise quiet library.

Crossing his arms, Lincoln continued to glare at his assailant as he kept laughing. "I hope you get melanoma."

Wiping a fake tear from his eye, Leon looked at him. "Is that a type of dessert? Sounds delicious."

“It’s a disease.” 

“...oh.”

A few minutes of silence passed between them as Leon grew uneasy under Lincoln’s intense stare.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Lincoln said in a dry tone. The young man wasn’t usually so confrontational, but something about this assailant just made it so easy to bring out that part of him.

The knight’s face morphed into one of realization as a smile returned to his face. “Ah, you’re right. My name is Leon Davis Krylington the Third. Nice to-”

“I don’t care,” the doctor cut him off and ran a hair through his hair again.

“How did you get into the royal library, anyway?”

“What?” 

“The guards are pretty strict so I didn’t think they would let a hobo inside.” 

Lincoln’s eye ticked in irritation as he froze, his hand still in his hair. Without answering him, he used his foot and knocked the ladder over, making Leon lose his balance and fall backwards. As Leon groaned on the floor, Lincoln smiled with satisfaction.

That ladder was thicker than I thought. My foot… His mind lamented. 

He stood over Leon, shoving the access brooch in his face. "I’m actually allowed to be in here. What about you? Surely someone with your intelligence level couldn't have received one."

Jumping up from the floor, Leon brushed the dust off of his sleeves. "The librarian leaves a window open all the time. He's so tired he doesn't even remember he didn't let me in."

"So you're an assailant and a trespasser," Lincoln determined.

"No, I'm better than a trespasser. I'm a trendsetter. Get it?" Leon threw his head back in a laugh.

"No," the doctor replied bluntly, pushing his glasses up. "as your joke makes no sense. I highly doubt trespassing is going to become a new trend."

Returning to the other side of the shelf, Lincoln picked up his stack of books. Hauling them to a table nearby, the persistent redhead appeared next to him. "Need any help?"

"No. Go away.” No matter how heavy the pile of books were, he would rather have his arms snap than to have to be indebted to him. 

"Are you sure? Because you seem like you're having a hard time and I'm really strong so-"

They arrived at a table where Lincoln angrily dropped his pile of books on with a loud thud, earning a loud “shush” from the librarian. His face heated up slightly as he turned back to Leon.

"Yes. I. Am. Sure," he gritted out. It was bad enough this guy won’t leave him alone, but he had caused him to get on the librarian’s bad side. Hoping the knight would leave if he ignored him, Lincoln pulled one of the chairs out from the table and sat down, taking the top book from the pile and opening it to the first page. 

To his unfortunate luck and dismay, Leon decided to sit down across from him, take the next top book of the pile and flip through its pages. Suddenly, he let out a yelp and threw the book past the man sitting in front of him.

Getting annoyed, Lincoln gently put his book down and went to go pick up the one Leon threw. "You got scared by a picture of a leech?"

"It’s the inside of a leech,” Leon defended. “And I wasn't scared. Just surprised. There's a difference." 

"Of course," Lincoln picked up his book and resumed reading. “Because then you would be a cowardly assailant and that just sounds pathetic.”

Almost an hour passed of those two being in the library; Lincoln continued reading the medical books while Leon threw ripped pieces of scrap paper at his head.

"Hey, you never told me your name you know~"

No response.

"Should I just guess?"

Still no response.

"Gregory?"

"Moses?"

“Lycan.”

Lincoln’s eyes paused on the sentence at the sound of his real name. The glare returned to his face as he looked at Leon. 

“It’s very hard not to hear about the return of the archduke’s long lost son in the capital,” the redhead merely shrugged. “But I gotta say, you’re much different than the rumors s-”

"Lincoln."

“Huh?” 

Lincoln heaved out a sigh and crossed his arms. “If you’re going to keep bothering me, I prefer you call me Lincoln.” 

“Are you warming up to me?” Leon exclaimed, bracing himself on the table’s edge. “Does that mean we’re friends now?”

As his voice echoed around the walls, they earned a harsh “shush” from the librarian. 

The young doctor’s ears turned a slight pink at yet another scolding as he replied, “Only if you stop talking immediately.” At this, the knight clamped both of his hands over his mouth, but his smile could still be seen. 

Lincoln picked his book back up and was once again reabsorbed into the world of controversial necromantic surgery. 

During times of severe fractures, the use of magic cannot be ruled out as a possible pathway by the surgeon. Boneweaving is one of the lesser frowned-upon arts within the realm of necromantic healing magic. It borders the line between necromancy and advanced healing magic as it-

“You ever dabble in sword training, Lincoln?” Leon interrupted. The black-haired man looked up slightly from his book, narrowing his eyes at the knight who was attempting to balance a quill on the bridge of his nose. 

Lincoln ignored his question and returned to the book.

-doesn’t require the patient to be deceased. This procedure based on the foundations of magic is most commonly seen in hospitals and institutions across Maveric, the birthplace of the world’s sorcery. If you look into more controversial cases, you might see the topic of organ transference be referenced many times over. This is due to the consequences-

“Hey, Lincoln?”

-of the procedure whether or not it is successful. Faulty precautions and incantations may lead to a failed transference while a successful procedure may give the patient a life akin to immortality. Where is-

“Lincoln~”

-the line drawn? Wizard and physician Samorel Takashan conducted several studies on this topic-

“Linc~”

-which included the misuse of -

“Linkie~”

Lincoln’s last nerve of patience disintegrated. He stood up violently, causing his chair to skid backwards and topple over. 

“What do you want?!” He shouted, no longer caring what the sleeping librarian might say. 

“I was just going to-”

"Leave? Please do! You have been bothering me for the past hour while I was trying to study. First, you drop several books on my head-"

"Actually, it was only two-" Leon corrected.

"-which created a bruise," the apprentice doctor continued ranting, "then you throw pieces of paper at me which not only bothers me but harms the environment! Why don't you just go literally kill two birds with one stone then!"

He sure is loud, Leon noted in his head. Damn, is he louder than me?

"Well, I've never-"

"And don't get me started on your absence of morals! Why would you sneak in here just to bother that stupid librarian? It's not like he even knows who you are! He's too busy falling asleep standing up to realize what's even going on around him!" He finally finished with a huff.

"Lincoln."

"What now?" Lincoln let out an exasperated sigh.

But Leon wasn't looking at him. He was looking at something behind him.

When Lincoln noticed this, his arms went slack and his face paled a bit. "It's one of those situations where the person I just insulted has been directly behind me this entire time and has heard everything I've said, correct?"

Putting his mouth into a thin line, the knight nodded gravely and gave him a thumbs up.

________________________

Lincoln was promptly kicked out of the library and was banned from checking out any more books for the rest of the month. The librarian was then quick to file a report about Leon's transgressions to his battalion commander, who was the merciless Marquess Irwin Basileus.

"This is all your fault," Lincoln complained.

"My fault?!" Leon exclaimed incredulously. "You're the one who insulted the librarian!"

"How was I supposed to know he was actually awake this time?" He mumbled to himself.

As they walked to the side entrance where Lincoln came in, the redhead looked up at the sky. 

“Hey, Linc, you got any plans?” He asked, nudging the doctor with his elbow. 

“No,” Lincoln curtly replied. 

“Wanna spar with me?”

“I have plans.”

“What?! You just said you didn’t!” The knight stomped his foot like a child.