A Villainess Should Be Strong

Today was the second day since the challenge was imposed upon Estelle. She treaded along the corridors, hiding her features with illusion magic and clad in a hood.

Her hair was a shade of brown, her eyes green, and her features dulled down to not attract any attention.

She was currently assuming the identity of Luna Alaster, and her destination was to meet her 'teacher', Aleksei.

He proposed to help her go through the learning process, and one of his suggestions was to visit the inner libraries in order to get a clearer story and context on the origins of Alfheim.

Their meeting place was in one of the hanging gardens inside the palace, which was somehow common. It was a complex architecture that could be said to be exclusive to Alfheim.

The reason being that the Royal Sculptors' abilities are needed, and the environment itself needed to support the garden.

A controlled amount of wind needed to exist around the garden in order for it to float and keep its balance- hence, a hanging garden.

Even though it was possible to make, not much of these gardens exist. Inside the palace, there were only three places.

Since Estelle was given a map of the castle to memorize, she was now pretty familiar with the place and could navigate around without being lost thanks to her excellent memory.

In mere minutes, her walking finally came to a halt. She had reached the location, and the conspicuous floating piece of rock was positioned above her.

She used a gust of wind to propel herself upwards, getting to the garden's platform with ease.

There, she saw Aleksei's elegant figure sitting by a table, in the middle of sipping a cup of tea. His gestured were refined and contained endless grace. The lighting and scenery made him look ethereal, like a divine being that had just descended upon the mortal realm.

"I'm here.. Master," Estelle still felt quite awkward calling her that, but since they had to act out a perfect play, she dared not slip at any moment.

Her voice alerted Aleksei. The man turned his head towards the girl's way and nodded, acknowledging her arrival.

"Good. Are we good to go now?" Aleksei asked, tying up his long hair in a ponytail and donning a silver robe.

They weren't at a haste, but saving time was always great.

"Yes," Estelle nodded as she continued to walk further into the gardens.

This was her second time stepping inside one. It turned out that the garden where she first arrived was actually also considered a hanging garden, but it was at a larger scale.

It was also exclusive to intimate members and figures, as the garden was locked and needed authorization in order to successfully enter.

The current hanging garden, however, had a different feel. Since it was clearly high above the ground, around several meters at that, you could see the vast castle from the peering balcony.

Although Alfheim was described as a large forest that was very closely intertwined with the nature, the architecture that existed in this place did not actually mirror her expectations.

It was much more beautiful and modern-looking than she thought it'd be after being told that it was a forestry setting.

"Then, let us depart now," Aleksei walked to the entrance, which also acted as the exit.

One needed to use wind in order to get in and get out of the garden since there were no staircases or steps.

Aleksei jumped off the platform, using his wind spell to safely land on the ground. Following his actions, Estelle did the same thing and came to land beside the man.

"The library you were talking about.. is the one not far from here, right?" Estelle asked.

"Yes. That was why I suggested to meet in the Althea, since it was the most convenient out of all of them,"

'Althea' was the name of the garden they just stepped out of.

The other two gardens were named 'Aurae' and 'Anfalen'. The one she visited previously was 'Aurae', which was the restricted garden Shirley frequently visits.

It was not a secret that the Elven Queen adored the place for unknown reasons, so she was able to get the information with ease just by browsing around.

The two proceeded to walk towards their next destination, a library named 'Heirieth'.

Heirieth was apparently a place that contained thousands upon thousands of informative books. The rarity of said scriptures spread far from common ones to exclusive, extremely rare pieces.

If Estelle looked inside the library, she would certainly be able to find valuable pieces of information, whether it was related to her mission or not.

Thus, Estelle was looking forward to this excursion.

After walking for minutes, they quickly arrived at the supposed library. From the first glance, it was a normal-looking building that had a dome-shaped roof.

Although it was very wide, you wouldn't think that there were thousands of books stored inside the place.

"You must be thinking, this is not as large as I thought it would be, right?" Aleksei grinned.

Estelle nodded, wondering what was the reason.

"Well, the building was built with considerations to the space it could take. Although the Sculptors knew that with each passing year, new books would have to be added to this building, the space that they had to consume was limited. Thus..."

"Spatial rooms, is it?" After observing deeper, Estelle was able to find out traces of magic mixed into the entire building. Standing out apart from all the mixtures of magical energy was the spatial elements.

"Correct. A magician came forward and offered to create these spatial rooms, which solved the problem of room saving. The books are categorized and further assigned into their own smaller rooms, which not only saves unnecessary space but also makes searching easier," Aleksei explained further.

At this rate, the title 'teacher' that they used for their falsified identities would no longer just be a hoax. Estelle was learning a lot from the man, and possibly in the future as well.

They both entered the place, with Aleksei leading in front.

Once they entered, Estelle gazed into the interior and saw neatly spaced shelves with books lined up on each segment, and doors spread out across the place.

The doors were where the spatial elements took effect, since the placement was right on the building's walls. It would lead to nothing if they were just simple doors.

"There you go. This is the place," Aleksei announced.

Estelle stepped inside, finding no other individual apart from her and the man.

"How long do you think you'll stay here?"

"Umm.. Give me some time. I'll be fine by myself, I might take a long time picking the books," Estelle mused, raising her head up to view the upper shelves. "Actually, can I use magic inside this place? To elevate myself,"

"Light magic is fine. No offensive magic, though," Aleksei said.

Nodding, Estelle gave a gesture of approval for Aleksei to safely depart.

"I will wait in a private room then, have this," Aleksei handed out a conch seashell, with blue hues all over the surface. "This is a communication device. Speak into it and the message will be transmitted to me,"

"..I also have something like this, just in a different shape," Estelle pointed to her earring, which she used as a communication device. Only, both parties had to be active and willing to speak in order for it to activate.

In other words, it was quite hard to achieve the perfect communication line between two individuals. If one party did not know that the other party was trying to contact them, they would have no ways of being notified. This was why Estelle rendered it as a prototype- an unfinished product. She sought to improve it, but couldn't do so perfectly.

However, in Aleksei's hand actually laid an object that matched with her aspirations.

Estelle took the conch away from his palm, observing it with great interest.

"That's all, I suppose. I will be going now, have fun inside the room!" Aleksei said, wishing his farewells and waving as he walked away.

Estelle gave a small smile as she waved back, watching Aleksei's figure disappear out of her sight.

Estelle spent her sweet time inside the place, admiring the selection of books and navigating inside the place by herself, looking at the list of introductory pamphlets that she got from the entrance.

The spatial rooms worked very simply. Since it was a close distance, bound room, the connection between the spaces were tight.

It still required a complex magic to activate, though, which led Estelle to become curious on exactly who managed to formulate the place.

After searching for a while, she had bagged several books that she regarded as quite desirable, which were all compiled up on one table.

Then, she found one book that caught her eye. It was positioned on the higher shelves, so she would need the assistance of magic to get it.

With the help of magic, she reached the book and pulled it out.