Chapter 59
This is really terrible. Even Dismiss had to be on duty to guard this enraged Son of the Wind. But unexpectedly, it discovered a clever use for the north wind. It began to freeze the water droplets with the fury of the north wind and used them to build fortresses. What's even more marvelous is that frozen water droplets are lighter than water and perfectly float on the surface. They no longer need to hide beneath the water to avoid strong winds. They can ensure their safety from behind the solid ice (although sometimes they might accidentally get frozen). They can even launch water arrows and water guns from behind the ice (they might even turn into ice arrows and ice guns).
Unfortunately, the good times didn't last. The Sons of the Wind actually united with the Sons of Fire. The sea surface suddenly became calm and peaceful. Under the baking of the fire, the fortresses gradually melted. And the north Son of the Wind seemed to know what was happening. It actually restrained its own rage and refused to create any more ice. But with the help of the wind, the fire burned even stronger. The wind and fire rushed into the fortress. The fortress melted from the inside, and it seemed like they were about to take away the north Son of the Wind. Dismiss selflessly embraced the north Son of the Wind, and the north wind finally couldn't contain its rage. Its erupting fury swept away everything, even freezing the fire.
Dismiss was almost frozen and lost consciousness, turning into a shapeless ice sculpture. Luckily, it wrapped the North Son of the Wind in the middle, preventing the wind from escaping the imprisonment of the ice block. Surprisingly, the unique blending ability of the water child gradually consumed the North Wind.
Dismiss, with even greater power, became the new core of the fortress. It replaced the furious North Wind and continued producing ice blocks. The new ice blocks constantly replenished the front line, while the water children hid behind them, fearlessly fighting against the raging waves and heavy rain. Finally, they forced the invading wind to retreat.
After everything calmed down, a new problem arose: Dismiss couldn't stop the cooling process. Nobody could even approach it. It floated day and night on the surface of the sea, resting by lying down on the water, but the surface would freeze because of it.
It couldn't dive deep into the sea to gather water elementals, nor could it become the water lord. However, luckily (or unfortunately), due to the special properties of ice, water elementals naturally gathered around it. It became the first Frostlord, and the entire sea area remained frozen. Its magic generated more Frostchildren, who could even create rock armor for themselves. The Frostchildren became the strongest defense against the invasion of wind elementals.
Everyone was satisfied with this outcome, except Dismiss itself, which struggled endlessly with its inner madness, hanging above the icy sea.
The story ended here. Sylas closed the book, still wanting more, and went to ask the chubby librarian, "Are there any sequels to this book?"
"Did you enjoy it? It's great, isn't it? Unfortunately, it's the only book in the series. The publishing house went out of business."
Sylas looked at the book and said, "That's a shame. Does the author have any other books?"
"No... she doesn't. The author's name is Sert Eabby. There are many pirated books in the market under her name, but according to my... hehe, my brother and sister's research, they're not written by her."
"Research? How do you do this kind of research?"
"To make a long story short, they studied the sentence structure of certain expressions in this book, trying to understand his writing style. They made some progress, but unfortunately, his writing wasn't included in famous novels."
"Did they expand their search range?" Sylas noticed the puzzled look on the lady's face and explained, "Maybe he has written academic papers or something, even though the writing style is different."
"Very strange perspective, madam. However, yes, they did it when they were extremely bored. But they only wanted to read the sequel, so they didn't pay much attention. Do you want to talk to them about this book and the author? And my brother and sister."
"I'm really happy that I can!" Sylas showed a big smile, but then her shoulders drooped. "But I can't... I promised my teacher that I won't leave the library, and we have to go back this afternoon. I can't just come out, and I can't use the teleportation array by myself."
"That's a shame, but you can still communicate. Would you like to tell me your address?"
Sylas was thrilled. She had been helping Xerath open mail for a long time, so she knew their address by heart. However, letters sent to Aimekotes didn't have "Sent to Aimekotes" written on them. Instead, they had Xerath's mailbox number at the Withered Leaf City post office, which would be regularly brought back by Shamodial. Only a few direct routes were taken by Shamodial.
In exchange, the lady also left her own address for Sylas. Sylas happily went to the retrieval room, a room filled with search catalogs. Many institutions compile keyword indexes for each paper and publish them for easy reference. It's a convenient way to search. However, there is a disadvantage: although different disciplines share keywords, it is rare for people to cross-discipline to search for papers.
Just looking at the indexes, Sylas couldn't help but think: Did Xerath really read all the books in the house?
Under the section about magic theory, she took out a book and looked through the index from the back. Unfortunately, she couldn't find any relevant entries. This made her wonder how important the puzzle piece she had was, and why there was nothing related to it anywhere.
"Sylas?" Xerath's voice was soft, but it sounded right next to her ear. Sylas was so startled that she took a sharp breath and quickly closed the book, turning to look at Xerath.
"Teacher, how did you come out? Are you done with your work?"
"Yes, aren't you hungry? It's almost time for dinner."
"Not hungry..." However, as soon as she finished speaking, her stomach made a grumbling sound. Xerath pursed her lips but couldn't help laughing.
"Let's go, we'll have dinner. If you still have books to read, you can come back in the afternoon. Did you find anything?"
Sylas quickly denied it, claiming that she was just casually flipping through the pages, using it as an excuse to wait for Xerath to come out.
They left the library and went to a nearby Nislan restaurant for a meal. They sat at a booth by the window, and Sylas ate while watching the people passing by. Xerath noticed that she kept staring at other women's chests.
"Did you find anything?" she asked, trying to hold back her laughter.
Sylas replied very formally, "I have noticed that people who are fat tend to be more obvious, while those who are thin are not. However, it seems that body weight and breast size are not completely related."
Whether intentional or not, she glanced at her teacher and then looked at a lady nearby who was very straight and had little curves.
Xerath smiled, as if in admiration, "It's hard to believe that you have never thought about related matters before. Is there anything else?"
"Um... aesthetically speaking, it seems that bigger is not necessarily more attractive."
Not sure if it was Xerath's imagination, she felt that Sylas's gaze once again drifted towards her with a hidden meaning.
"Sylas," Xerath couldn't help but furrow her brow, "there's something about social etiquette that I want to remind you of."
"... What? Did I commit some taboo?" The entirely clueless little creature brought her gaze back, fully focused on Xerath's face, looking very nervous.
Xerath said, "Indeed, you have discovered... my liking for you... your perceptiveness."
Sylas couldn't be happy.
"Okay, I'll be straight with you. Before, I only told you to look into the other person's eyes when talking. But now I have to tell you, don't stare at a lady's chest, it's very impolite and in some places, it can even be seen as offensive and provoking."
"Why?" Sylas looked confused, "Does this mean that I can't admire a beautiful woman's chest, with its graceful curves?"
"...Let's put aside your motivation to praise a woman's chest for now. You need to understand that it is a common social taboo. If you violate it, people will consider you abnormal, with strange preferences. Of course, it's fine if you really have such preferences, but if you don't, your reputation can be unjustly damaged, and this kind of damage is often irreversible."
"Okay... I will remember."
Unlike Sylas's disappointment, Xerath appeared mysterious. She discreetly glanced around, smirked, and leaned closer to Sylas's ear, "What I mean is, hide your gaze."
Seeing the puzzled look from Sylas, Xerath winked at her apprentice.
"Are you saying..." Sylas quickly glanced around, "Do you mean that you don't consider it a strange preference?"
"That depends on what your pronoun is referring to. But for a considerable period in human history, appreciating the beauty of the human body was seen as a normal interest in mainstream society. In such an environment, it was acceptable to admire a lady's chest with an artistic perspective."
"Why has there been such a change? I mean... why has this behavior, like staring at a lady's chest, transitioned from being normal art appreciation to a social taboo?"
Xerath shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'll be honest with you upfront. I'm explaining this because you don't know much about it, and I can't give you a homework assignment that you can finish quickly. Even though all the answers are in the library, which, by the way, I know you haven't been to, because you don't like reading history books, right?"
"Yes... it's a bit boring."
For Sylas, books without any magical elements were a bit dull. Xerath knew exactly what she had read. The only history book she had ever finished was about the Undead War.
"Now, here's my personal opinion."
"I understand that."
"There's something I'm not sure if you remember... Do you have any memories of breastfeeding?"
Sylas's expression turned to astonishment. It seemed she had never considered the connection between a woman's chest and breastfeeding. But as her eyes shimmered with a green light, her face gradually lit up with a reminiscent look.
"I vaguely remember... It does seem to be true."
