Why must I be a woman? (WMW)

After the chat with Joan's parents, I went to my next lesson with the dapper teacher, Timothy Smokes. A cool guy, if not for the invasion of privacy that I keep feeling from the magic he casts, I'm guessing it's some identify skill but anti-scrying and anti-inspection is the basics of what I get as a Champion.

But from what I know, my information is much harder to learn than normal. This is due to the tea I drank which boosts my blessing-based abilities.

Right now, I was in my room, resting after swinging around my spear to take a look at a few things. First, the reward for the mission I got:

The reward was activated the moment I passed through the gate, the problem was I had no idea where to begin,

So fucking specific... the real issue was that I didn't want to give out any information. If someone who supposedly had no knowledge of the local area started asking about a place called, 'gathering of the howling moon' then it would be difficult to avoid scrutiny. Especially with how close an eye Mr Smokes has been keeping on me.

My focus on my incomplete spearmanship made me want to find a more complete set of skills. If I keep this up, there's a large chance I would end up with flaws that I would spend even more time correcting. Therefore, I got up and wore something more appropriate. I took a simple, white dress and wore a leather jacket on top in an effort to look more gender-neutral and thankfully, it worked.

I pushed open the large, wooden doors to my bedroom to peek outside. The three maids weren't here at the moment as I had them go and collect my custom-made clothes. The doors were really heavy and unfortunately, my body was still quite weak, even for a child. After huffing and puffing for a bit, I managed to exit, "Wait, if I'm so weak right now, just how light is my spear?... should I just call it a pointy stick?" The thought was truly demoralising.

I continued to brood over my identity crises as a spearman while walking to the library. The soft, red carpet on top of the marble tiles felt sensational in between my toes, it was really relaxing and encouraged my to take walks in my free time. Another minor skirmish with library doors allowed me to access the never-ending rows of books. 

The library was on the first floor of the mansion, I had to go down the stairs. It was only after I entered that I realised that the library was three floors high with entrances on each floor. I wasted time navigating the mansion and asking directions from the maids after I came down the stairs.

The library was truly impressive, It was at least 20 meters high and around 800 meters by 200 meters in length and width. The size was almost excessive based on the size of the mansion. Bookshelves of many kinds were in here, some looked normal, others had glowing lines, a few had what looked like words moving over them and there were a few floating in the middle of the place.

It was an atrium library so the second and third floors could be seen from where I stood, bookshelves floated in the air with books flying here or there based on their own theory of organised chaos.

It was a library straight out of Hogwarts and I loved it. I could also see orbs of what looked like silver, or would that be mercury since it was fluid? There was even a book that seemed to be reading itself... to itself over on the second floor. Anyway, after letting the magic sink in, I turned to see the librarian standing behind a shelf and reading a newspaper. 

As someone who was a librarian for a period of time in my past life, as well as a book lover, I felt rather close to any librarian I met. So I smiled warmly and waited for them to finish reading after I made my presence known. Oh, did I mention the librarian was first, a woman and second, thicc?

She was kind of tall, around 175cm I think? It was hard to tell since she had her body behind the counter. She had a figure that made one feel she was slender, but one look at her hips and chest and you would know there's a lot more meat on her than you first thought. Her hair was dark with a hint of green, her eyes were slits and golden which gave a hint of her non-humane origins. It was my first time meeting a non-human and suffice to say I liked what I saw.

She noticed me a moment later and gave me a professional smile, the curiosity in her eyes was easy enough to notice. "Good afternoon, are you here for a specific book and if so, would you like some help in finding it?"

I nodded, I immediately realised a really easy way to find the 'the gathering of the howling moon'. I said, "I'm not sure if you've heard of me or my situation, but I'm not familiar with the local area nor am I knowledgeable about this country. Can you recommend to me books on local folklore, basic maps if they are available and other such things that would help me familiarise myself? Other than that, books on the basics of weapons and their basic stances would be appreciated."

"Yes, I've heard many rumours about you Lady Lilith, Great Cassandra's Champion." Her eyes flickered lower as she licked her lips, a movement I picked up on easily since she clearly wanted me to notice. "Please take a seat over there, I'll bring you some books that would suit your needs." She pointed to a closed terrace where a large reading desk was placed.

Soon enough, a small pile of books were placed in front of me. Now, where to begin?