It was quite unusual to find King at a library. Out of all places in the entire town, he ended up leading himself towards the library, following the town’s map that he had received when he entered Magnolia. The building towered above him, casting a shadow behind his figure as he stared up at the structure. It wasn’t entirely grand or large as he had expected, although it was not necessarily terrible either. Climbing up the stairs, he pushed the oaken doors open to the library and entered. Golden eyes glanced around the entire area, taking everything in his sight. Worn, rustic and yet warm, the building held itself well-aged, welcoming, yet it felt so forgotten or at least, quiet.

Dust collected everywhere as far as one could see, spider webs wove loosely around the corners of the structure. Busted lamps hung from the ceiling and braided wires were embedded into the cracked walls. The ground was littered with dirt, books and torn paper. All that was heard were the faint batch of shuffling feet in a distance and the low screech of chairs scraping against the wooden floor. It seemed that there were hardly any people inside the library, although the place was entirely made for mages to study and research more about magic. He wondered if the mages in Fiore weren’t that serious enough in their jobs. The librarian sat at the help desk, almost too bored to be in the library as if she had been waiting to get out of the place as soon as possible.

There were rows and rows of neatly lined up books with their spines facing outward, colour coded with dots and sections arranged in alphabetical order. Housed in that tiny, cloistered space was a melody that the library branded its own – the soft flip of pages and the flop of books from cover to cover, his shoes scratching against the carpet, making idle taps atop the wooden floorboards, and thick silence that organized the blend of elements far too nicely for his own good. ”…What am I doing here?”, he mumbled, idly glossing his fingers over the dips of the rowed books, feeling the textures of their spines. But there, cornered under but a prickle of light was a girl, focused onto a book she had in her hands and when she noticed his appearance, she would turn into his direction, her eyes slightly wide.

The features of her face were hidden behind those thick frames of her glasses and when she caught him staring at her, the girl retreated a few steps back as if she was afraid of meeting people and scuttled away to her table. With nothing else to do, he walked over to the help desk where the librarian was sitting. ”Hmm, is there anything I can help?” The librarian looked up to him and a wave of colour flushed her cheeks upon seeing his appearance. The woman let out a cough and lifted her spectacles up onto the bridge of her nose and began, ”I’m glad you asked. There’s actually a task that has to be attended. If you’d like, I can hand it over to you.” The young man nodded, accepting the request without saying another word.

King exited the building carrying a bunch of books and stack of paper in his arms, as he looked around the area. The woman back in the library requested him to deliver these papers to a local school, which he assumed would be located nearby. Curious, he would take a glance at the notes written on the paper and they appeared to be lessons planned for the grade school students at the school. It didn’t take him long to arrive at the school and upon his arrival, he would be greeted by a young lady who appeared to be one of the teachers at the school. Seeing the notes in his hands, the brunette approached him and questioned if they were from the library. Nodding, he would be invited inside the hall and into her office. There, he laid the stack of papers and book on her table where she would ask if he was free for the day. At first, he had thought that this brunette was hitting on him. Instead, she requested him if he would be able to teach her class since she had to go visit her sick mother.

A sigh escaped his lips and seeing how she desperately needed her help, he couldn’t refuse. He wasn’t a fan of teaching and he hated dealing with the kids since he thought they were extremely annoying. Going over the notes that Sandine, the brunette, has given him, he noticed how they were just the basics of math and explaining them how each method works. Having educated by numerous tutors back in his home, he was much smarter than the kids who live nearby though of course, his social life was as terrible as one could imagine. King walked into the class and all eyes would be on him with confused expressions on their faces.

”Good morning, students. I’ll be your substitute teacher for the day.”

No doubt, King didn’t even look like a proper teacher with his strange outfit yet, none of the students questioned him and he preferred it that way. And so, the class began. It started with the basics of math; the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. He had to explain how each single method worked with a few examples given and he was even surprised by how fast the class caught up to him. It seemed that he wasn’t entirely a bad teacher after all. The entire procedure took a few hours until a loud bell rang and children would cheer, excited to have their lunch. Afterwards, they would continue the class again. Multiplication and Division were the hardest to explain, but with the notes written by Teacher Sandine, he didn’t struggle much with the explanation.

The bell rang once again, indicating that classes were over for the day. When King looked out of the window, he could see the sun casting its golden rays upon the clouds billowing smoke, turning them bright red; fire red and orange. Sun was just about to set.