Love

In order to find that "Love".

Elizabeth gave up on going back to her dorm to rest. She said goodbye to Nancy and the senior librarian, and returned to the library alone. Actually, Nancy wanted to go with her to see "Aquinas," but Elizabeth refused, saying that Nancy was too tired.

Nancy is a difficult person; most of the time she's quite lazy, but if she's interested in something, she always displays a rare tenacity.

Fortunately, after some unknown period of thought, the librarian chose to stand by Elizabeth's side and helped Elizabeth pull Nancy away.

Elizabeth stopped another familiar librarian, a senior student who took turns working with the female student.

She called out her senior's name.

The senior student was stunned. When he saw Elizabeth walk over, his eyes lit up, and he asked Elizabeth in a gentle voice what help she needed.

In Elizabeth's memory, this senior was a smoker with a low, husky voice. After getting to know him, she hadn't heard him speak in such a high-pitched voice in a long time.

Elizabeth didn't understand what was going on; it felt like her senior hadn't recognized her.

But they've been working together at the library for almost a year now.

Elizabeth asked her senior if he had seen Love.

The senior student asked, "Who is Love? Is it the name of a cat?"

Elizabeth said it was a white-haired boy.

Her memories of Hope were hazy, and she had never met Love, so she used her senior's description. "Messy hair... but very handsome, like Aquinas, the protagonist of ' The Wandering Noble '."

When he heard it was a boy, the senior lowered his head in disappointment. When Elizabeth described him as handsome, the senior sighed without any attempt to hide it.

He replied in Elizabeth's familiar, low, husky voice, "I don't know any Aquinas."

"Not Aquinas," Elizabeth explained. "It's a white-haired boy who looks somewhat like Aquinas."

The senior student waved his hand. "There are no gray-haired people, I didn't see any. Do you want to borrow a book? If you don't, you can leave."

The senior's attitude changed drastically. He was enthusiastic and gentle just now, like a model employee, but now he was tired and perfunctory, as if he was working three jobs.

"No Aquinas." The senior muttered, "If you're not borrowing the book, please don't bother me while I'm working."

Elizabeth looked around. It was lunchtime, and no one was borrowing books. The senior student had been resting and was now planning to rest as well.

He wasn't working at all.

Of all the librarians, Elizabeth was most familiar with one besides her senior; Nancy would be even more familiar, but Elizabeth didn't bring Nancy along.

Elizabeth did not seek out any other librarians.

She had another method.

She went to see Mr. John.

Mr. John was the library Gatekeeper, the lowest-ranking employee in the library.

Most people wouldn't know the old Gatekeeper's name, but Elizabeth did, because Mr. John was one of Professor Armitage's friends.

Professor Armitage was actually well past retirement age; the only person in the entire library of similar age to him was Mr. John.

Elizabeth knocked on Mr. John's small window.

The old man looked up and peered through the window at her.

"Yes, Love has already left," Mr. John said. "You're a little late; he's been gone for about twenty minutes."

Elizabeth was still persistent; she continued to ask.

"When I first saw him?" The Gatekeeper thought for a moment:

"It was on the night of the 11th that I was almost asleep, but old people's sleep is never deep. It rained that day, Love and August —a graduate—came here to take shelter from the rain. I was woken up by them and then lent them my umbrella."

"It was also because of August that I didn't stop Love from coming to the library the next Love. He was even more... disheveled that day than he is now. Now you could say he was unruly, but that day he was a complete vagrant."

The Gatekeeper seemed a bit bored, so he decided to chat with Elizabeth for a bit longer:

"I hesitated for a long time, checked him repeatedly, and was already thinking of persuading him to leave, but he was different from ordinary homeless people. Just standing there made people feel very gentle, and my heart softened, so I let him in..."

"I'm sorry, I don't know much about him, and I don't know where he lives. August? No, I don't know his address either. I do know him, but he's always the one who comes to me."

"If you're not in a hurry, you can wait a few more days. I can't be sure about Love, but August will definitely come again."

"How long will it take?" Elizabeth asked.

She didn't know why, but she felt a little impatient and unwilling to wait.

"About three or four days," the Gatekeeper replied.

"Do you know where Dr. Morgan is?"

My senior said that Love and Dr. Morgan are together.

"You can't find him right now." The Gatekeeper shook his head.

"He left with Armitage; they have some business to attend to. If you're in a hurry, you might want to go check on Simon. Love isn't a student at the school; he might have registered when he came in."

The West Gate of Miskatonic University is the closest gate to the Phillips Library.

Elizabeth met the two guards on duty there.

"No, miss." The guard shook his head.

"I don't know who Mr. Love is... a homeless man? I'm not so sure, but I did see a homeless man that day, because this is a university, so I remember it very clearly... Yes, he had white hair, but he neither went out of this door nor came in through this door. I'm quite sure of that."

"He might have come in through another gate... climbed over the wall? Maybe, but Miskatonic University has the highest and strongest wall I know of, and the Campus Maintenance Department checks it every day."

The other guard thought of something:

"Little Hawkins came to school today, but he left lying down. He's not a student, so the school hospital had a reason not to take him and had to send him off-campus."

"I heard him muttering something about calling someone a ' White-Haired Ghost,' and I guess that's the ' White-Haired Ghost ' who injured him."

Elizabeth knew Little Hawkins., a young thug, the son of a professor at Miskatonic University, whose favorite pastime was kicking over the school's trash cans.

Elizabeth wanted to visit Little Hawkins at the hospital.

But she had already come to the school gate from the library. Was it really worth wasting so much of her time on information about this "Love"?

She gave up and went back to her dorm.

When she got to the dorm, it was Nancy gave her some new information.

Nancy has confirmed that the person who hit Little Hawkins was Love, and the librarian senior brought the accurate information.

The two of them gave up their lunch break just for this.

The conflict between Love and Little Hawkins was caused by a girl.