“Is Ethan here?” Chloe asked Luna, who was currently watering the flowers in front of Dud Manor.
“Ethan? I knocked on his door this morning to invite him to breakfast, but he wasn’t inside his room,” Luna replied. “According to Sir Henry, he left the Dud Manor last night and hasn’t come back.”
“Then, do you have any idea where he went?” Chloe inquired.
Luna shook her head. “No. But, I’m pretty sure he’s somewhere in the Academy. Why don’t you visit the Gardens first? Maybe he is with the Fairies.”
“With the Fairies?” Chloe pondered for a bit before nodding her head. “Thank you. I’ll go and see if he is with Ruby and the others.”
Having a destination in mind, Chloe left in order to find her cousin, who had a troubled look on his face when he left the Grand Coliseum a day ago.
‘He must be feeling anxious right now, and trying to think of ways to beat Lily,’ Chloe thought. ‘Tomorrow will be his battle against her, and it’s not going to be easy.’
Chloe had seen Lily’s true powers. When the cute teenager fought against Kurt, they thought that she wouldn’t be using her Therian Transformation Ability in front of many people.
However, to their surprise, she used Partial Transformation on specific body parts in quick intervals. Because of this, Ethan realized that even if Lily didn’t fight him using her full powers, she was still a force to be reckoned with.
‘I just hope he doesn’t do something stupid out of desperation.’ Chloe sighed in her heart.
Luna gazed at Chloe’s retreating back with a calm look on her face. However, just like Chloe, she was also quite worried about the handsome teenager, who hadn’t returned to their manor last night.
Actually, Luna went to see Ethan before she went to sleep to discuss various ways to counter Lily’s abilities. But, to her surprise, Ethan wasn’t around.
She even waited until midnight, but the boy didn’t return. Then she thought that she would find him after waking up, but the teenage boy was still not there.
Because of this, Luna decided to stay in the Manor to wait for Ethan’s return. That way, she would be able to advise him on various spells that could help him against Lily, who became the favorite candidate to win the First Year Division in the Clash of Manors.
While Chloe and Luna were both looking and waiting for Ethan to appear, the handsome teenager was currently asleep inside the Library of the Academy.
The teenage boy was resting his head on an open book, with drool flowing through the corner of his lips. The book in question was struggling under the weight of his head, as if it wished to break free from its captor.
Around him, many other books were piled up, with some of them even circling around him, as if waiting for him to wake up.
After talking to Professor Lionel and Professor Violet, Ethan had stayed in the Library, looking for spells that he could use in his battle against Lily.
He had read until dawn, and managed to find a few spells that might work. However, until tested in battle, Ethan wouldn’t know how effective they were.
The Librarian of the Academy, Ms. Lyra, looked at the sleeping teenager in annoyance after seeing that one of her precious books was covered in the boy’s drool.
She then took out her wand and raised it slowly. As she did this, the book slowly rose from the table, carrying Ethan’s head with it.
With a flick of her wand, the book flew away, causing Ethan’s head to slam against the table, making him cry out in pain.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” Ms. Lyra said coldly. “Did you have a good sleep?”
The book that Ethan was resting his head on earlier flew towards the Librarian and flapped its body as if making a complaint.
“I know,” Ms. Lyra commented before waving her wand to instantly clean the stain on the book’s page, which was caused by the teenager’s saliva.
Ethan who was now wide awake due to the pain, looked at the Librarian, and the floating book fearfully.
“Mr. Gremory, I will turn a blind eye just this once,” Ms. Lyra stated. “If, in the future, you use my books as pillows, and dirty their pages while you sleep, I will turn you into a book for a day and read everything about you.”
The Professor then poked Ethan’s forehead with her wand, with a devilish smile on her face.
“I will know your deepest darkest secrets, that even you don’t know about,” Ms. Lyra declared. “After that, I will write a biography of you and post it in the Bulletin Board. I’m sure that the Witches of the Academy would love to have a new source of gossip, and it will be about all the embarrassing things you have done in your lifetime.”
Ethan subconsciously gulped after hearing the Librarian’s threat. He then immediately apologized and promised to never do what he did again in the future.
If his deepest, and darkest secret were to be known by everyone, they would know that he just arrived at the Academy by mistake, and it might cause a lot of complications in the future.
After listening to Ethan apologize profusely for a few minutes, Ms. Lyra left the handsome boy alone.
Ethan looked fearfully at the Old Librarian’s back until she was out of sight. Only when she was sure that Ms. Lyra was no longer around did he breathe a sigh of relief.
A second later, his stomach started to growl, telling him that it was already time to eat.
The teenage boy then looked at the piled up books around him, which were now starting to sneak away.
He then hurriedly grabbed three of the books that had almost flown away, and went to the Librarian’s desk.
“I’ll be taking these books with me,” Ethan said with a smile.
A young lady with long black hair, and wearing glasses, looked at the handsome teenager with a dead-pan face. Ethan was sure that the teenage girl in front of him would be very popular with the boys, if she learned to smile a bit.
Her name was Emma Harper, and she was currently writing down the titles of the books that Ethan was going to borrow from the library.
“You have to return these books in three days,” Emma said. “For every day that passes beyond the specified time, you will receive a penalty of 20 Merit Points per book. These points will be automatically deducted from your Library Card, so make sure to return the books on time.”
“I will, thank you,” Ethan replied.
Just as Ethan was about to go, Emma cleared her throat, making the teenage boy look in her direction.
“Make sure to beat Lily Langley,” Emma said in an almost commanding tone. “She disrespected this place by bringing her fans, who do nothing but make noise in the library. Make sure to beat her up good, or I will revoke your Library Card and ban you from entering this place again.”
“W-Wait, you can’t do that,” Ethan’s face became pale after hearing Emma’s unreasonable order.
“I can do that,” Emma stated in a flat tone. “I am a Librarian.” 𝔬𝒱𝑳xt.𝒸𝚘𝓂
“Assistant Librarian,” Ethan corrected.
“Still a Librarian,” Emma countered. “So shut up, or I will confiscate your Library Card. I’m sure that Ms. Lyra will agree with me because she is quite annoyed with you right now.”
The corner of Ethan’s lips twitched after experiencing Emma’s high-handedness.
But, since the Library was important to him, he could only promise that he would do his best, and left before the black-haired beauty, who was wearing glasses, could make more unreasonable demands of him.