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After exchanging a few more words, Evan bid his new acquaintance farewell. “Thank you again for looking after my dog. We gotta head back now. Good day.”

Delos nodded, bearing the same serene expression, “You too.”

As Evan and Rue disappeared into the distance, the youth was still staring at their backs before lowering his eyes with a smile. “See you around, Evan.”

There were a few places in Emberlyn that were considered off-limits and strictly forbidden by locals. These places included the Dark Woods, the Old Temple ruins, and sometimes Evan’s residence.

Evan had trespassed intoalmostall of those places. Yet, the only place he positively avoided was the town’s old library.

Although it wasn’t exactly forbidden, no one really visited it other than a few elders who sought a moment of quiet away from the bustling streets. The building had an ancient air about it, with bare brick walls covered in vines and wooden windows that creaked in the wind at night. Most of the books inside werestored away in old cupboards with shaky legs, buried in dust. Sometimes a rotten stench would waft from the agape windows and into the streets—like a whole colony of rats had been mass slaughtered inside—making the people outside scrunch their faces in distaste. No sane person would willingly visit such a place.

Evan, however, had a different reason for not entering the town’s library, despite having a reputation for appearing everywhere he shouldn’t.

He hated anything that reminded him of studies or his time in school as a kid.

Being different as he was with his “gifts” from his ancestors, Evan would always repel other children by the things he would innocently say or by the way a dim blue spark would flutter past his eyes. It was involuntary, but the more he tried to desperately explain to his friends how he was normal, the moreabnormalhe turned in their eyes.

After a few years, even if some dim-witted kid did decide to stay with him despite his “exceptionality," Evan readily pushed them away too, because there was only one thing he despised more than the smell of leather: the look of pity directed towards him.

Rather than suffocating under people’s sympathy, he chose to enjoy solidarity to its fullest. And yet sometimes, unwillingly, his mind would revert back to the days of his childhood that he spent alone and dejected, to the times his mother cajoled him into distractions, keeping him from withering under self-sabotage.

But in the fragile heart of that outcasted child, instead of sadness, a deep-rooted hatred took birth. And with no particular individual to direct this bitterness towards, Evan chose to hate anything that reminded him of that phase of his life.

The town’s library, for example, was filled with books and paintings left behind by the last generation of kids who lit up its corners. Walls marred with untidy scribbles and crayon stick figures. There was no doubt this place used to be a hideout for naughty friend groups and teen lovers.

Those were things Evan had never experienced, and that fueled his resilience to never set foot in the town’s old library.

But now his streak had come to an end as Evan stepped inside the dusty construction, scrunching his nose as he clutched the leather-bound book in his hand. It was the one Rhea had given him.

Two weeks later, he had finally found time to read it.

With the unpredictability of his profession, it was impossible to tell when or what kind of case would be thrown in his face. One month, he was struggling to get by on whatever crumbs he could gather from small exorcisms, and the next, he was dealing with three cases per day with hefty earnings—most of it snuffed out by the debt collectors.

Presently, the dark rings under his eyes suggested it was one of those latter months.

To top off the sweetness, there was a wandering demon who enjoyed popping into his room in the middle of the night or at the break of dawn to play with Rue—or watch Evan sleep. The poor dog, not knowing he was licking the hand of a beast, would enjoy snuggling into his red robes while Xen smiled softly at a fuming Evan sitting upright on his bed.

Evan spent several nights like that, wide awake, repulsed by the thought of Xen watching him sleep, then dragged himself to solve other people’s problems during the day. Every time he opened the book to skim through the contents, the damned demon would show up. It was as if he didn’t want Evan to read it. He feared Xen might burn the book someday and Rhea might skin Evan alive to carve a new book out of him. Not wanting totake the chance, he had decided to take himself and the book someplace else.

It was ridiculous. Sneaking out of his own house because of a perverse lunatic.

Evan frowned upon his surroundings as he surveyed the library. The high ceilings were barely visible from under the jam-packed network of cobwebs. Benches were missing legs, and chairs were missing backrests. Bugs were scattered like Christmas decorations across corners, and a faint rotten stench lingered behind cupboards that were stacked with books.

It wasn’t as bad as Evan had thought. It was worse.

Out of curiosity, Evan nudged open the nearest wooden cupboard with his pinky, readying himself for half-rotten book covers and mice running along the shelves. But to his surprise, a neatly stacked row of clean spines greeted him. No stench. No rodents. Even the shelves were spotless.

Someone had cleaned the place. But only the books. Shutting that door, he opened a few other cupboards and was met with the same sight.

I mean, books are the main component of a library, but investing a little energy in the surroundings wouldn’t hurt much.

Said the wise man, who never took his trash out for months.

As he wandered inside, Evan found a tall, oval glass window with a concrete sill that could easily fit five to six people. The space looked like it had been used recently, with its dust-free sitting area and squeaky-clean windowpanes.

Taking a seat, Evan pushed open the window, and a gentle breeze blew in.

The ever-present gloomy clouds peered over the town as pedestrians strolled down the street and children jollied their way towards the nearest park. Evan watched the merryatmosphere with a bored look before turning to the book in his hand.