A Trip to the Library

Hogwarts Library was located on the fifth floor of the castle, and it could be said to hold the richest collection of books in all of Britain.

Aside from the library, the entire fifth floor was filled with empty classrooms, so Roy found the place easily.

School had only just started, and most students were not yet under much academic pressure. Only a few fifth-years sat in the library, looking up materials to prepare for their O.W.L. exams.

Madam Pince, the librarian, was not someone to be trifled with. The slightest sound would bring a harsh warning from her.

Thousands of bookshelves, each two stories high, filled the entire room. Every shelf was crammed densely with books in all kinds of wildly different styles. "Stunned" was the only word that could describe how Roy felt.

Seeing so many books, Roy had only one thought: collecting them.

"It's probably impossible to learn them all. When will I have a collection this rich?"

Roy had a powerful collecting habit. In his previous life, his collection room had contained rare treasures from all over the world. Now, faced with so many books, the hoarder soul of the bee doctor within him was already screaming.

Although there were many books here, recording the contents of all of them and storing them on a computer or disc would not even take up 10 MB of memory.

A wonderful idea formed in Roy's mind. Technology changed lives, and information gave you limitless possibilities—he had heard Havoc say that countless times. A framework for integrating and utilizing endless information began to take shape in Roy's mind.

"Technology can't be used at Hogwarts, but if I can create an alchemical item that scans and records books, then train it using personal knowledge, categorize and organize everything, I can create the ultimate encyclopedia of the magical world."

A grand vision capable of changing the world was born. Roy named it the Mendelbrick Project.

"Alright, there's another item on the to-do list. Let me think: build a special operations base in the Forbidden Forest, cultivate the magical plants brought back from the greenhouse, research the Mendelbrick Project, apologize to Aisling... though that one seems to have gone badly."

"Oh, right. I also need to write a letter to Mia and the others." He could not forget that; he had promised the children at the orphanage.

Roy decided to visit the Forbidden Forest after afternoon classes. For now, he could explore the library first.

It had to be said that Hogwarts truly had an abundant collection. There were many extremely old books here that were difficult to find outside. The crystallized wisdom of all British wizards over thousands of years had created this treasury of knowledge, yet most young wizards studying here ignored the enormous gold mine right beside them.

"Let's see... hmm—Complex Alchemical Analysis. Nice."

"This is Theory and Practice of Alchemical Development. I need to take this back and study it."

As Roy walked farther inside, he pulled books from the shelves. Before long, he was carrying a stack of books taller than his head.

However, when Roy continued deeper inside, Madam Pince stopped him.

"Stop. Beyond that is the Restricted Section. You may not enter without a professor's signature. And you are not allowed to borrow so many books at once."

Stopped in his tracks, Roy placed the books in his arms on a nearby table. He looked at Soul Alchemical Creation on one of the shelves in the Restricted Section, then at the utterly uncompromising Madam Pince, and immediately admitted his mistake.

"I-I was just looking. I won't borrow so many."

Roy scratched his head and smiled at Madam Pince. Then he sat at a nearby table, quietly opened a book, and began reading.

Madam Pince returned to her seat, though her eyes remained on Roy, who had taken a pile of books.

Every year, there were many overconfident young wizards who came to the library as soon as school began, pretending to study diligently like Jiahao. To show off how outstanding they were, they would take a stack of difficult books from the shelves. In the end, none of them could last even half an hour before shamefacedly returning every book they had taken, one by one.

Seeing Roy's somewhat foolish-looking face, Madam Pince took him for another Jiahao who had come to the library to put on an act.

Yet Roy's learning ability truly was exceptional. In his previous life, despite never having attended school, he had entered one of the world's top universities on a military recommendation and still graduated with the best grades.

The knowledge of the magical world was not much harder for Roy than the advanced medical knowledge he had studied in his previous life.

Madam Pince watched Roy rapidly flip through those rather profound alchemy books. From time to time, he used a pencil to scribble and draw in the small notebook he carried with him. He sat there for nearly two hours.

"Uh, I'm getting a little hungry."

Roy checked the time. The dining hall had been serving lunch for quite a while already.

The other fifth-year students in the library who had been studying also packed up their things and left one after another.

Roy looked over the pile of books he had taken out, selected a few more important ones, and prepared to borrow them to study later.

In the end, Roy took only two books and returned all the rest to the shelves. Carrying those two books, he went to Madam Pince to register them.

Madam Pince looked at the two books Roy was borrowing. Both were complex works usually borrowed only by professors. Combined with Roy's earlier performance of flipping through books at high speed, she gave him a solemn piece of advice.

"Reading is a long and profound undertaking. For a young wizard, thoroughly mastering simple books at a slow pace is already more than most people can achieve."

Roy neither agreed nor disagreed. In his previous life, when he could barely recognize all the characters, he had entered one of the world's best universities on a military recommendation. Many people had told him the same thing back then.

"I'll take that to heart."

Although Roy loved talking nonsense, he did not like arguing over meaningless things. Besides, Madam Pince was not wrong.

Carrying the books he had borrowed from the library, Roy jogged all the way toward the dining hall. If he arrived too late at noon, there would be nothing left to eat.

Fortunately, lunch had not been cleared away yet. However, in the corridor, Roy ran into the person he least wanted to see right now.

Aisling was always followed by a group of Slytherin students of all ages. Seeing Aisling at the front of the crowd walking toward him, Roy cursed inwardly, but still forced himself to step forward and greet her.

"Good afternoon, uh... right?"

Having no idea what to say, Roy was stunned by the lion-like language system that came out of his own mouth.

Aisling stopped before Roy without saying a word. After hearing his lunatic-like greeting, she gave a disdainful snort.

"Hmph—"

The Slytherin students behind her burst into laughter.

Aisling left with the large group. They seemed not to take Roy seriously at all, but Roy felt not the slightest ripple in his heart at Slytherin's mockery.

He felt somewhat guilty toward Aisling mainly because she had treated him quite well at first. Otherwise, with Roy's thick skin, he would never have kept chasing after her to apologize.

"Whatever." If this was Aisling's final answer, Roy did not care.

That was Roy's good point: he never tormented himself internally and never kept things bottled up. If he offended someone, he apologized. If an apology did not work, then whatever.

He had plenty of friends. He did not need this one.