Chapter 05: Strange

'Could it be a treasure?'

With this possibility in her mind, she felt fearful towards the crystal ball. 

The thought of playing with it for a long time vanished in her mind. God knows how much a treasure is worth, be it a common, uncommon, or rare treasure and it is not something an ordinary person like me could afford.

'Even if I save my lifetime salary, I can't fork out even half of a treasure's price...'

Thinking back to her actions, Lillian's heart bled.

'Good thing that I didn't damaged it even for a bit.' She cried inwardly.

Lisa, who already snapped out of her deep thoughts, saw her staring fearfully at the crystal ball. A confused expression appeared on her face.

She left the library counter and went near to Lillian while she stared at Lillian and the crystal ball repeatedly with a confused expression. 

"What happened?" She asked.

Lillian stared at her with the same fearful expression and glanced at the crystal ball with vigilance. 

"That... crystal ball..." Lillian muttered while stuttering. 

"What about that?"

Lillian looked at the crystal ball and was lost in her thoughts. 

After a while, Lillian removed her gaze from the crystal ball and looked once again at Lisa who was staring back at her.

"Is that... a treasure?" She asked cautiously. 

Lisa gave her a blank look. She walked towards the crystal ball and lifted it up with both her hands.

"Nope." She said while staring at the crystal ball.

Eh?

It wasn't?

Lillian was dumbfounded.

'Then what am I worrying for?!' She complained in her mind.

She calmly exhaled. It was like the pressure that was put on both of her shoulders had been finally lifted up.

"Actually, I got this from an acquaintance of mine who told me it was from a royal family." Lisa said.

"Huh?!" 

As soon as her words reached Lillian's ears, who had calmed down, she became shocked once again and a horrified expression appeared on her face.

As if not noticing Lillian's exclaim and horrified expression, Lisa continued to speak.

"If estimated, it should cost about 90,000 to 110,000 jewels." 

Hearing her speak the price of the crystal ball as if it was a common vegetable sold in markets, Lillian almost fainted.

Meanwhile Naomi, who was oblivious to what happened between Lillian and Lisa, was continously browsing for books in the shelf where a lot of new books was displayed.

Her hands continued to brush against the book covers. Everytime a book catches her attention, she would pick it up. 

There are a lot of books in different kinds of litsrature. Some were about history, a guide to a better archery, how to properly handle a sword, steps in forging an armor, and etc. 

There were even books that are forbidden to be displayed in public. They were mixed among books that were displayed in each shelves. Those were books that aside from this library located in an alleyway, no other library dares to display those books in their shelves.

Naomi also wanted to have her hands on one of those forbidden books but she dared not to.

'Why is Lisa displaying those forbidden books in these shelves?' Naomi couldn't help but ask herself out of curiousity.

Despite being curious, she didn't dare to ask Lisa about it. After all, she was in no position to ask and it isn't her business in the first place. 

She was continously browsing for books but when she reached the end of the shelf, something caught her attention. It was a tainted gold covered book in the corner of the shelf. 

She went to grab it and was satisfied with the book. The book title was "Art of Medicine".

Naomi didn't have any skills when it comes to medicine but when she remembered the protagonist of a novel she had read before, she was full of expectation towards the book.

The novel was about a lady, the protagonist, being an unparalleled genius in the field of medicine. She was praised for her skills in medicine but something unexpected happened. She transmigrated in another world and the glory she had in the field of medicine was gone in an instant. She became a daughter of a wealthy family who is known to be useless. It was fortunate for her that the skills she had in medicine was still embedded in her mind that she was able to use it to her advantage as she slaughtered her way towards the top.

Thinking back at it, Naomi couldn't help but feel excited. There were even times where she would dream about her being the protagonist of that novel. 

She was soon lost in her dreamy thoughts. As she regained her wits, she looked at the book with a face full of excitement. Slowly, she opened the book.

The excitement on her face disappeared in an instant and was replaced with a blank look.

'I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE THING!' She roared inwardly.

The characters used for writing the book was different from theirs that not even a single character was familiar to her. Even the writing system of the other kingdoms was different from this. 

She wasn't disappointed but EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED towards this book that she picked up while being full of expectations.

She was about to put the book back when a photo fell from the book.

It was impossible for Naomi not to notice the photo that had fallen. Curious, she went to pick it up and stared at it.

It was a photo of a kingdom. Just like the characters, Naomi was unable to recognize the kingdom. 

It had to be known that at the libraries in Florence, there are books where photos of each kingdoms were shown including their language, writing system, traditions, and etc. The kingdom shown in the photo was not included in those books.

Due to being full of colors, it was so vivid and looked like it was full of vitality despite being a photo. Compared to the other kingdoms, including Florence, the kingdom in the photo looks more beautiful.

Naomi's attention was immediately snatched by this single photo. She was calm at first but the longer she stared at the photo, it feels like something was wrong.

There was like an invisible suction in the photo, trying to draw her soul into it. She felt weird. She wanted to remove the photo out of her sight but it was like her eyes were glued into it as she was unable to retract her sight. She don't know what to do.

"Young miss!"

Lillian's voice reached into her ears and the suction feeling disappeared in thin air and everything was calm again. 

She stared at the photo and found out that it was in black and white. Compared to it being vivid, it was utmost dull. It shocked her.

Trying to clarify things, she called Lillian who was walking towards her.

"Lillian, take a look at this photo. Can you notice something weird in it?" She held out the photo in front of Lillian.

"There isn't. It's completely plain black and white. Why do you ask, young miss?" Lillian said as she stared at Naomi.

Naomi couldn't help but frown at her answer. She looked at the photo once again and it was indeed what Lillian said. 

The vivid photo had now became dull. She find it extremely weird.

'Are my eyes playing tricks with me? But it's clear as day that it wasn't like this earlier!' She thought.

She contemplated for a while while frowning. Lillian noticed her expression and became curious.

'Did I say something wrong?' 

After contemplating for a while, she inserted the photo back in the tainted gold covered book and returned it to the place where it was displayed.

Naomi turned to look at Lillian with uncertainty in her eyes.

She heaved a sigh.

"Let's go home."

She bypassed Lillian and headed towards the library counter where Lisa could be seen reading the book she had with her earlier.

Lillian followed behind Naomi puzzingly.

Naomi talked with Lisa for a while before heading home with Lillian together with the books she had picked earlier.