Shade and Matilda exchanged glances for a moment, letting their reflections fill each other's eyes before beginning another kiss in the small corner of the cabin.
This left Bella feeling that her apprentice was in an exceptionally good mood after the divination ended that day. A professional maid should rarely reveal her true thoughts, but Matilda had clearly "crossed the line" that day.
The Countess ultimately failed to get any answers and could only attribute it to an isolated occurrence. Tifa, also a professional maid, guessed what sort of "line" had been crossed. Of course, only Matilda herself knew that the vivid red rose in the vase by the bed had been a gift from someone.
Aside from the knowledge represented by the leaves and the new effects of his Thaumaturgy, Shade's gains from this time adventure also included a gift from a god.
The Old God, Lord of the Black Robe—the Guardians of teachers—had given Shade a great many books. These books did not physically exist, but had been directly added to the Moon Library.
This was Shade's Thaumaturgy, not the wondrous space left behind when the Ancient God of the Silver Moon departed. This time, the number of new books added to the library had multiplied its collection several times over.
But Shade obviously could not finish reading every book here in just a few days. Even now, he had not finished all the books left on Green Island by Laplace Howard, the ancestor of Megan and Audrey.
Still, he had at least looked through them a little. The books left to him by the god were not secret histories or stories about gods. They seemed to be the former collection of Strange Tree Academy, covering everything from the most basic introduction to supernatural power to elementary knowledge