"Sir, you are?" Russell asked in surprise.
"Franken. My name is Franken, Young Master Russell." The elderly administrator performed a gentleman's hat-tip salute.
"You're a scholar?"
"Yes. Seventeen years ago, I earned recognition from the Grand Scholars' Round Table of the Red Castle with <Prehistoric Geography of the Shadowflame Grand Duchy> and was granted the title of scholar." As Franken spoke, his somewhat stooped back unconsciously straightened.
"Hmm." Russell asked curiously, "As a scholar, why are you working as the administrator of Bluebird Castle's private library?"
Though Bluebird Castle's library might have been even larger than a public library.
It was still, in the end, a private library.
Franken touched the Scholar's Medal on his chest and smiled with a sigh. "Because I accomplished nothing afterward... When I was young, I served the Monochoria Family as a caravan steward, traveling far and wide and seeing every corner of the Shadowflame Grand Duchy..."
It was precisely his experience as a caravan steward that had given Franken a clear understanding of the Shadowflame Grand Duchy's mountains and rivers, along with some personal conjectures.
In the end, he wrote <Prehistoric Geography of the Shadowflame Grand Duchy>.
And thus obtained the title of scholar.
"But I gradually grew old. My legs became inconvenient, and I could no longer travel with caravans. My greatest wish was to leave the Shadowflame Grand Duchy and see different mountains and rivers abroad..." Franken sighed. "Unfortunately, that will be impossible in this lifetime."
Russell continued asking, "Then you still needn't work here as an administrator, right? You could teach at an academy in the Red Castle or Furious Wind City. With that geography book, plenty of academies should be willing to hire you."
"Cough, cough..."
Franken coughed awkwardly. "Because of certain changes, I was expelled from the academy in