After walking for a few minutes around the corridor of the training area, Shaan finally saw one of the officers a few meters in front of him. Without lingering, he immediately approached the officer and asked about the whereabouts of the reading room, which was his destination.
"Sir, I have something to ask. I'm confused about the whereabouts of the reading room. Do you know where it is?"
The officer lowered his sunglasses slightly. "Hmm... Amateur Daemonist. The location of the reading room is not far from the Main kitchen. Walk through this corridor until you reach the main kitchen area. Turn to the left and keep walking until you find a brown door there. Behind that door, you will find the reading room."
"Alright, Sir. I appreciate your help."
"You're welcome. Glad I could help."
Shaan quickly followed what the officer said well until he finally managed to find the brown door, just as the officer had said before. He slowly opened the brown door and immediately saw that there were several people reading books quietly and peacefully.
"Gosh, I don't expect this place to be as quiet as-"
" Pstt!" An old woman wearing glasses stared directly at him with a cold gaze. "Be quiet."
"Uh, I'm sorry. I'm just-"
"Psst! I told you to be quiet and lower the sound volume if you want to speak," said the old woman, walking closer to Shaan. "Don't make noise and disturb this place."
"Oh, yes. I'm sorry." Shaan whispered. "I just want to find a book that talks about the wildest survival in the dark realm. Do you know about this book?
"Yes, I know about the existence of the book. Come with me and don't make a scene."
"Okay."
As he walked behind the old woman in front of him, Shaan saw several sets of bookshelves that were twice the size of his height, made of wood, facing each other. All the shelves were filled to the brim with books, the kind of place where a bookworm would gladly spend hours without getting bored.
"Here you go." The old lady picked up one of the books on the shelf. "This is the book you're looking for. Now, find a seat and read it. Remember, don't make any noise, okay?"
When Shaan saw the dark brown book in the old lady's hand, he immediately widened his eyes. He had not expected that the book would be twice as thick as a normal book. Damn, now Shaan knew the reason why Mr. Maximus had said such a thing to him and surely if Shaan were to read the whole thing, it might take weeks or months to get through the book.
"Hey, hey." The old granny snapped her fingers. "Do you hear what I'm saying?"
"Oh, yes, yes. I heard everything," Shaan nodded his head, taking the book out of the old lady's hands. "I'll take this book and start reading it. Once again, thank you for your help."
Shaan quickly walked over to look for empty seats, but it seemed that almost all the seats were full except for the section close to the window. With quiet yet swift steps, he made his way toward the table before anyone else could take the empty seat.
"Good, time to read."
With a burning passion in his soul, Shaan immediately opened the book and started reading it. At first, he was still enjoying himself because the theories presented seemed to be easy to remember. For example, when in the dark realm, there was no such thing as the sun, and it was only illuminated by a red moon. Places like temples and buildings that have a red moon symbol will rarely be touched by creatures of darkness. This is because the red moon symbol has some sort of mystical power.
'Interesting. Looks like I can memorize all this easily.'
However, the longer he turned the pages of the book, the deeper the frown on Shaan's forehead grew. The information kept piling up until his brain started to feel overwhelmed. Just think about it, there were about 100 kinds of plants in the dark realm, and almost half of them were very dangerous to consume. Not only that, in the dark realm, there were also many mysterious runes, each of which had a different meaning, and it felt like his head would explode if he had to remember them.
"Argh. Dammit." Shaan immediately ruffled his hair, a frustrated look on his face. "How can I remember all these things with-"
"Pssst!!" Everyone simultaneously turned to Shaan and looked at him with cynical gazes.
"Uh, I'm sorry." Shaan immediately lowered his head and kept quiet. 'Never mind, instead of my energy getting drained here. I think I'd better find something sweet in the main kitchen for a while before I go nuts from all this information.'
Shaan then closed the book and walked out of the reading room. He had originally intended to take the book out of the reading room, but before he had a chance to finish his sentence, the old lady shook her head and took the book out of his hands.
"That's not possible. Things that are in the reading room must stay in the reading room." The old lady placed the book beside her desk. "I've lost so many books in this place, I don't want this book to disappear like the others. This book must stay here. If you want to read it, come back to the reading room. Understood?" The old lady lowered her glasses slightly, looking at Shaan with a cold gaze.
"Al-Alright."
Without even saying anything, Shaan finally walked out of the reading room and headed to the main kitchen to look for snacks that might restore the energy in his body. However, as he was walking through the corridor, he slowly stopped for a moment and accidentally overheard the conversation of a blonde woman with a man a few meters in front of him.
"Hey, we're not done yet!" The red-haired man grasped the blonde woman's wrist. "You've dared to humiliate me in front of many people, and don't think you can get away easily. Remember, I am a noble family and I can do whatever I want. Keep that in mind."
"Fool." The woman immediately let go of the man's hand then walked away from the man without saying a word.
"Damn you, woman! I swear, you'll pay for this!" the man shouted, his voice echoing as he stormed away from the scene.
'Strange… What could she have done to drive him into such a rage?'