Chapter 260: The Quiet Central Hall
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
No one could predict that Kisaragi Library would fall into an unprecedented chaos after 7 hours.
After searching for almost a day, there was no progress report about the third book from Siri. Finally, someone got impatient. The sound of the first explosion which ignited the chaos came from the library's ceiling. This was quickly followed by a successive series of booms and bangs with fire and sparks flying everywhere. Then, the library fell into darkness.
No one saw clearly the direction which the attacks were launched from. All the lights were destroyed in an instant.
"Hey, youngster from the east wing!" Right after the library became dark, the man with the fingernails-on-blackboard voice suddenly rang out. His voice was so loud that the ceiling vibrated noisily as if his voice had been amplified a few hundred times.
"I know that you have at least one target book. You better hand it over now!" The ear-piercing voice almost seemed to have a life of its own, boring right into the listeners' mind, giving the listeners the urge to roll about holding their head.
Perhaps it was the sudden darkness or the unexpected yelling demand, but the library fell into an abrupt silence for two seconds. Shockingly, the next person that spoke wasn't Silvan.
The woman from the south wing spoke with a cold, ruminating voice.
"My blond-haired brother, considering the current circumstances, why don't you just come clean with us?" The woman from the South wing scoffed, "I'm not as intelligent as you. It took me this long to realize something. Both of you have already formed an alliance with that skinless person from the central hall, right? You guys coordinated your words so well, you really fooled the rest of us. You probably released the information that the target books are in the non-book sections after you guys found a book as a team, right? "
The library went silent for a moment before Silvan replied. He did not raise his voice purposely like the people from the two other wings, yet everyone could still somehow hear his deep, mellow, gentle voice. Everyone could even hear the breath between his words clearly, like a lover whispering in their ears. "Miss South Wing, what do you mean by that?"
His voice was like a feather gliding softly across his listeners' necks. Even the woman from the south wing needed some time to calm herself before she could continue speaking without blushing, "I said that you guys had all this planned out! There is only a small reading area with tables and chairs in each of the four wings, but there is a large reading area connecting two different wings. You put on a joint performance with the people from the central hall. After each getting a book, you guys are waiting for us to fight amongst ourselves!"
Just as she finished her sentence, a person with a "rustling" voice added impatiently, "Youngster, there should be a book in the reading area connecting both our wings, east and west wing. A moment ago, we prepared ourselves well before heading there to search for one of the target books. However, we found nothing. We didn't find a single book and we didn't meet you guys!"
"Oh?" Silvan exclaimed as if considering something. After a while, he suddenly asked, "Our friends from the north wing, aren't you going to say something?"
"This book-searching thing requires too much mental work," the man with a top hat laughed softly and spoke with a cold, stony voice, "We have our own way of leaving this library. You guys can go ahead and fight for the five books."
They actually chose to stay out of the tussle.
Meanwhile, the central hall was silent. There wasn't a single sound coming from them. The skinless person and the pair of teenagers seemed to have suddenly become deaf and dumb. They did not make any responses despite the ongoing conversation.
Silvan suddenly frowned slightly in the dark. The woman named Peach had been observing him silently. When she saw his expression change, she immediately whispered, "What happened? Is something wrong?"
Despite her questions, she did not sound even a little anxious, instead, she sounded like she had the same blind confidence that Silvan had, "What should we do next? Tell me what to do and I'll execute it immediately."
"It's okay. Don't worry," Silvan looked behind and consoled her. When Peach caught his gaze, she couldn't help lowering her head to avert it immediately.
"I just find the people from the central hall strange. As for the other teams, I don't even care about them," Silvan continued.
The current situation was very obvious. The south wing and west wing had silently formed an alliance at some point in time through some unknown means.
"But with the worth wing involved, I don't think the people from the south wing can do much," Silvan said casually. He narrowed his dark green eyes which were like the green cenotes in the forests, "I'm not afraid of those people in the west wing, but the central—"
Before he could finish his sentence, there was an unexpected turn of events.
A whistling sound filled the air and a few black shadows appeared on the banisters on the second floor of the south wing and north wing, at the same time. They were so fast, it was as if they flew there. Almost at the same time, Siri's monotonous voice rang out, "Progress report: the third book has been found."
Footsteps rang out from the area near the west wing. The noise traveled through the reading area between the east and west wing, heading toward the west wing.
"What's going on?" Peach was really shocked this time around. She held Silvan's sleeve helplessly. "Who found that book? Why are they all attacking us… Huh?"
She suddenly noticed what was wrong but momentarily couldn't make sense of the situation. The black shadows on the second floor of the north wing jumped down. They were targeting the team in the central hall. The two people from the south wing quickly rushed over to the entrance of the east wing—that was the staircase from the east wing leading to the central hall.
The situation should be very dangerous for them, but Peach sensed Silvan letting out a sigh of relief, as if he had gotten a burden off his mind. She did not know why he was relieved but she didn't care to know. With a trembling voice, she asked, "What should we-we do?"
"It's alright," Silvan seemed to pity her uneasiness. He touched her hair and said, "Didn't I tell you what to do? Let's act now."
Peach nodded firmly. She turned and sprinted.
She had just left when a loud boom came from the few bookshelves at the edge of the east wing. The bookshelves at the frontline were damaged. Someone among the people from the west wing, had a terrifying amount of strength. That attack flung a few tall bookshelves into the air, as if it was as simple as flicking a few water droplets. The floor shook and the bookshelves started falling over, one after the other. Once the people from the West wing were convinced that the target books weren't on the bookshelves, they had no qualms destroying all these stupid hindrances.
In stark contrast, the people from the north wing team, who had entered the central hall, acted very differently.
"Be careful, don't touch the books!" the man in the top hat snarled. "Have you found them?"
He came prepared this time. His members were all holding different books. They were either about spying on one's love rival, seeing through tricks or area surveillance. If Lin Sanjiu and the siblings were still in the central hall, they would definitely find them using the effects from their books…
However, after searching the book section upside down, the man with the top hat was stunned.
"Where are they?!"