How To Survive A Cute Ghost Yandere
Chapter 12: Tower Keeper

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Tower Keeper

The moment class ended without a single result to show for it, Eiros didn’t waste a second.

"Hm? Where are you headed?" Leiden asked as Eiros started to leave the field.

"Well, I think I’ll head to the library."

"The library...? I never pegged you as the reading type."

Leiden laughed, amused, but Eiros didn’t even glance at him as he answered.

"What choice do I have? With the first-semester exams coming up, I figure I should read up on a few things. Who knows, maybe I’ll find something useful."

"Ah, fair enough."

After thinking it over for a moment, Leiden ended up deciding to tag along to the library too.

This was exactly the kind of step Eiros needed if he actually wanted to understand this world properly. So far, all he knew came from what he’d seen in the webtoon, but what he’d seen there was bound to look different once he experienced it firsthand, in reality.

He couldn’t afford to let some gap in his knowledge get him killed by mistake.

Lucky for Eiros too—for whatever reason, Erness hadn’t come looking for him today. Whatever the reason, it worked in his favor.

’Maybe she’s just busy with her own class.’

Well, the academy was brutal on its students anyway. Getting a peaceful stretch of time like this was rare enough as it was.

Once he reached one of the towers stretching high into the sky, Eiros could see a huge crowd of students moving in and out, ranging from first-years all the way to third-years.

A few among them were even academy graduates who’d chosen to stay on and work as staff.

The moment he stepped into the tower that housed the library, Eiros immediately felt just how different this building was compared to everything else at the academy.

The library took up an entire tower. Every single floor was packed wall to wall with bookshelves. That was exactly why the distinct scent of old books hit him the moment he stepped inside.

Plenty of students were reading, but there was no noise, no murmuring in the background. Just silence, broken only by the occasional rustle of turning pages.

"Wow."

Leiden let out an awed exclamation from across the room, and even Eiros couldn’t help feeling impressed himself. He nearly clicked his tongue in amazement, but held it back.

His gaze settled on the neatly arranged bookshelves, lined up along the walls, forming rows that curved all the way around the room.

Eiros and Leiden then split up. After all, each of them had their own specific needs—things they wanted to read for themselves.

Eiros checked the labels hanging high overhead, then made his way to the section stocked with books on world history.

There were countless of them, each one looking old but somehow free of dust. All of them chronicled recorded legends and the great historical events that had shaped this world.

With his limited time, Eiros wouldn’t be able to get through all of it. Besides, all he really needed was a general grasp of the basics.

So he pulled one book off the shelf and flipped it open.

It turned out to be the most famous history book, chronicling the single greatest legend in this world. Even Eiros had picked up a faint impression of it through the webtoon.

He glanced around, took a random seat, and started reading.

The thick tome covered quite a bit of ground, including explanations of Soul Essence and Soul Core.

The corrupting blood moon, the Abyss holes teeming with danger, and finally, records of the heroes and the Stigmata they’d used to fight for humanity’s survival.

Then, on one particular page, Eiros’s gaze caught on a single line.

"Back then, there were already around four thousand recorded types of Stigmata? That’s a huge number."

He wetted his lips, thinking about the current era. The number of Stigmata had grown dramatically since then.

If Eiros remembered correctly, the count had reached nearly fifteen thousand by now. And that wasn’t even counting the types that weren’t widely known or officially recorded.

After that, Eiros spent his time skimming through quite a few more books. He didn’t finish any single one—instead, he kept moving on to the next without ever reaching the end of the last.

All he really needed was a basic understanding.

In that time, he picked up quite a bit about this world. Things like the Imperial family, the western region with its sea full of demons, and various other details Eiros had never actually encountered directly in the webtoon.

Then, eventually, Eiros arrived at one conclusion.

This world was enormous.

So vast that it left him genuinely worried about the future—about how this webtoon, spanning six hundred Chapters, was actually going to end.

And in the end, across all those Chapters, would every problem actually get resolved neatly?

Would it land on a happy ending, or something far worse?

That thought left Eiros uneasy.

He let out a sigh.

"A history book? Are you some kind of history buff or something?"

Just then, Eiros heard a boy’s voice beside him. He tilted his head slightly, tired, and glanced over at the boy, who wore a long white uniform that marked him as clearly not a student.

The boy looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years old. His hair was a pale blue, his pupils hidden behind the frames of his glasses, while his face carried a smile far too mature for a boy his apparent age.

Seeing him, Eiros blinked.

’Who’s this now...?’

Was the academy accepting little kids these days?

Seeing no response from Eiros, the boy chuckled, clearly amused.

"Well, I guess not many students take an interest in history books."

His gaze swept around the library, taking in the students absorbed in whatever books interested them, none of whom happened to be anywhere near the history section.

"Just a little surprised to see a student interested in history, that’s all."

Then, as if struck by a bolt of lightning, Eiros suddenly remembered a line of dialogue once spoken by the webtoon’s main character.

—I couldn’t believe the one in charge of the tower and the library was just a little kid. Ah, no wait, he said he might look young, but he’s actually over seventy years old!

—What was his name again? Oh right, Estiel Rumias.

Estiel Rumias.

One of the tower keepers of the academy.

Eiros suddenly went rigid, tensing up all over.

"Hellooo~? Heyyy....! Did I scare you or something?"

Estiel narrowed one eye at him, looking puzzled.

Meanwhile, Eiros, having caught up to the situation a beat too late, coughed awkwardly.

Then forced a smile onto his face.

"Sorry for not recognizing you sooner, Tower Keeper."

***