Chapter 200: The Prettiest Librarian in the Kingdom

Mark, who was already walking a few steps ahead, turned his head at the sound of the slam.

"Everything alright?"

"Everything’s perfect, Master," Aria replied with a forced smile.

After that both of them continued down the corridor toward the library in a silence Mark chose not to break.

After a while they both arrived at the palace library. It was an enormous place, much larger than Mark had expected for an indoor library.

The shelves rose from floor to ceiling, so tall that in some sections there were wooden ladders on wheels to reach the upper shelves.

Every single one was completely full of books, scrolls, and leather-bound tomes that had probably been accumulating for centuries, generation after generation.

Mark swept his gaze across the room as they moved through the library. And that’s when he saw her.

Behind the main counter, carrying a stack of books in her arms, was Cali.

The succubus was no longer wearing the clothes she used to wear in the dungeon. Now she had on a servant’s uniform like the other palace staff, a black dress with a white apron, long stockings, and a new pair of glasses that suited her surprisingly well.

Cali looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, and the moment she recognized them her face lit up completely.

"Master! Aria!" she said, greeting them with a smile while carefully setting the pile of books down on the counter. "I wasn’t expecting you this early."

Both of them walked up to the counter where she was standing.

"That outfit looks good on you," Mark said, looking her over.

Cali flushed instantly and looked down while fidgeting with the edge of her apron between her fingers.

"Th-thank you for saying so, Master..." she murmured, not daring to meet his eyes. "Ely helped me have it adjusted to my size."

"So tell me, how are you doing?" he asked, resting an elbow on the counter. "Have you settled into living in the palace?"

Cali thought about it for a moment before answering.

"At first all the change overwhelmed me quite a bit," she admitted, looking at the floor. "Going from the dungeon, where everything was quiet and I knew everyone, to a place this big, with so many corridors and so many people moving around constantly... it was a bit hard to process the first few days."

"I can imagine," Mark said in a sympathetic tone.

"But now I feel much more comfortable," Cali continued with a more genuine smile. "The library is quiet and I like being surrounded by books, so little by little I grew fond of the place."

"That’s good," he said, nodding.

Aria, who had been listening in silence while looking at the nearby shelves, turned toward Cali.

"And how do the other library servants treat you?" she asked.

Then Cali’s expression dimmed slightly at the question.

The smile she had didn’t disappear entirely, but it lost some of its brightness, shifting into something more forced.

"They’re still a bit distant with me," she replied, trying to downplay the matter. "They don’t talk to me much, and when they do it’s only what’s strictly necessary to coordinate the work... If I ask them something they answer, but they never start a conversation or anything like that."

"..."

"But I suppose given the history elves have with demons it’s normal for them to treat me this way..." Cali continued, lowering her gaze to the counter. "To them I’m a stranger, a succubus who appeared out of nowhere and on top of that is close to the new ruler who came and turned everything upside down."

She paused.

"Sometimes I even wonder if it was a good idea to come live here..." she murmured quietly.

Mark looked at her for a moment and frowned slightly. There was something in her tone he didn’t like — as if Cali had already decided on her own that she didn’t belong in that place.

"Don’t worry too much about that," he said in a calm but firm tone. "I’m the one in charge here now, and if anything happens, if someone disrespects you, treats you badly, or makes you feel like you don’t belong, I will personally intervene for you."

Cali raised her gaze.

"W-would you really do that for me, Master?"

"Of course," Mark replied without hesitation. "You’re part of my group, Cali. And I take care of mine."

The succubus looked at him for a couple of seconds with her eyes slightly more open, and little by little a much warmer smile than the ones before appeared on her face.

"Thank you, Master..." she said in a slightly softer voice.

"Don’t thank me," Mark said with a half smile. "Just give it time and I guarantee the others will end up getting used to you, whether they want to or not."

Aria, who had been watching the whole exchange with her arms crossed, decided to get back to the reason they had come.

"Well," she said, placing her hands on the counter. "Are the things Rose asked for ready?"

"Yes," Cali replied, pointing to the pile of books she had just left on the counter. "It’s all of these. It took me a little while to gather them because several were stored in the oldest sections of the library that almost nobody goes into, but I managed to find all the ones she asked for in the end."

Mark looked over the pile of books. There seemed to be quite a few, so he picked one up and examined the cover. However, the elvish characters engraved on it meant nothing to him.

"What are all these books Rose asked for about?" he asked, setting it back down.

"Most of them deal with beastmen and semi-humans," Cali replied, adjusting her glasses. "History, culture, customs, social hierarchies, old peace treaties, that sort of thing."

Mark frowned slightly.

"And why would Rose want all of this?" he asked, more to himself than to the others.

"It’s probably because a beastman kingdom embassy is coming to the palace," Aria replied, flipping through one of the books she had picked up from the pile.

Mark turned his head toward her sharply.

"An embassy?" he asked, surprised. "Why didn’t I know about this?"

"Because the notice only arrived in the early hours of the morning," Aria explained without looking up from the pages. "A messenger arrived while you were still asleep."

"I see..."

"And that was precisely one of the topics we were going to address at the midday meeting," she continued, closing the book and looking at him. "So you were going to find out anyway, Master. Just a couple of hours later and in a more orderly fashion."

Mark let out a sigh and ran a hand over the back of his neck.

They had barely had the kingdom under their control for ten days and delegations from other kingdoms were already starting to arrive.

He didn’t know whether to take it as a good sign or as the beginning of a new headache, but he suspected it was probably the latter.

"Alright," he said finally. "Better to talk about it later with the others. There’s no point discussing it here halfway through and without all the information on the table."

"That sounds like a good idea, Master," Aria said, nodding.

Mark picked up some of the books from the pile and Aria took the rest, dividing the weight between the two so they could carry them without trouble to the meeting room.

"Thanks for gathering all of this, Cali," he said. "You saved us quite a bit of searching."

"It was no trouble at all, Master," Cali replied with a smile. "That’s what I’m here for."

"And remember what I told you," Mark added as he headed toward the exit. "If you need anything — anything at all — you can talk to any of the girls or to me directly. Understood?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Cali nodded firmly.

"Understood, Master," she said. "Thank you so much, truly."

"See you later, Cali," Aria said, waving with one hand while holding the books with the other arm.

"Good luck at the meeting!" the succubus replied, waving as she watched them head toward the exit.

Mark and Aria left the library carrying the books between the two of them and began making their way through the palace corridors toward the meeting room.

The walk was long, as almost everything in that castle was, and as they moved Mark couldn’t help turning the matter of the embassy over in his head.

’A beastman delegation right now,’ he thought, looking ahead. ’We barely have the kingdom stabilized and visitors are already starting to arrive.’

He didn’t know whether that embassy was coming in peace, to test the waters, or to look for trouble. But whatever the case, he would need to be prepared.

And for that, he first needed to hear what Rose had to say.

The two kept walking down the corridor until they finally reached the doors of the meeting room, where the rest were already waiting for them.