Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 4 - Ch 5.09

No, no, no, let me hear about that. Was there something that you wanted to do here in the Imperial City, but were unable to do so because of your becoming a slave?

I was curious about Sherrys aspirations and plans form before we met each other, so I asked her about it. I wonder if the thing that she wanted to do here was something she could only have done in the past and lost the opportunity to do so now, or is it something that we will be able to help her with?

Uhm, so. . . . . the thing is, that. . . . . here in the Imperial City. . . . . . it has the largest library in the entire empire, so. . . . . so when I was still not a slave, I. . . . . I used to dream about visiting it one day.

A library, huh?

So all this time, she wanted to go to the library housed here in the Imperial City? As expected of a member of an intellectual faction, her thirst for knowledge is a truly admirable thing.

Before you became a slave, did you have any books at your old home?

It was quite a while ago. . . . but I do remember that we have at least ten of them. However, because it was a Dwarven household they were only the books about blacksmithing and other things related to the smithing industry and the process of item creation.

Unfortunately, I am not able to determine if ten books in the house is a lot of them or not. All that I know is that apparently genuine paper is a rare and precious resource in this world, so normal people probably could not afford to have as many books as they wanted to have. But if Sherry says that they had ten books in her old home, then does that mean that she was actually a rich lady from a rich household, or someone similar to that? But. . . but if that would be the case. . . . . . . . then I really do not understand why did she became a slave in the first place. She said that visiting the library was a dream of hers from the past, but that is the only hint she has given me. I wonder if she has fallen from grace, or did her family perhaps went bankrupt and that s why they had to sell their own daughter? For the time being those are only my own speculations that have no ground in reality whatsoever, so the smart thing to do here might actually be to not to delve too deep into that subject, at least not until she is going to be willing to talk about that herself.

You had a house with books in it? That is amazing!

Since Roxanne has no idea about Sherrys past either, her reaction was obvious and natural. But who would have though that this would be the detail that she would be the most amazed by?

Thank you, Miss Roxanne, but that is a story of a past long gone. When he was still alive, my grandfather was a pretty influential person in our Dwarven community so he sometimes used his connections to get things such as books for his house.

I see. Did you become as smart as you are now by reading all of the books he had at his disposal?

Even though I want to know more about Sherrys past and how she was back them it would be wiser to start steering the conversation away from such heavy topics, because continuing to talk about them too much is only going to do us more harm than good. Things like that should only be talked about when the person themselves feels ready to do so, not simply because I wanted to satiate my own curiosity.

I did, because back then I used to stay home most of the time after. . . . . . . . the obvious thing happened.

And your idea that you wanted to become a Master Smith came form those books?

They certainly were part of my reasons for wanting to become one, yes. And when I became an Explorer, I thought that I might try entering the Labyrinth and giving my all to exploring its depths.

So right now we have two possible scenarios regarding Sherry that do not rule each other out: one is tat she was actually a wealthy rich lady, and the other one pertaining to the fact that there was a period in her life where she has become this worlds version of a hikkikomori. That would also explain why her level as a Villager was so low: because she never got a chance to properly gain enough EXP to level it up.

In other words, you liked books ever since you were little, and that caused you to want to visit the Library of the Imperial City?

Yes.

And what about now? Do you still want to do it?

I am afraid that our house in Quratar is missing heavily in the books department, because we do not have a single one of those in there. . . . . . . . . unless you would count a poorly-made booklet that contains the written maps of all the known floors of the Labyrinth of Quratar as a proper book. In that case, we would have one whole book, and at the end of the day, one book is certainly better than no books at all.

Uhm. . . . . . . . . . . . . now that I have become a slave, I do not know if I am allowed to have such selfish wishes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So you do not want to go to the library simply because you became my slave?

It is not that I do not want to do it, but because I have become a slave, there are some things that I simply cannot do now, no matter how bad I would want to do them.

Is it really like that? Because it it is truly so, then if she cannot go there at all, what was the point of her dreaming about going there in the first place? Is it one of those unobtainable dreams are the best kindor even if you cannot have something, no one can forbid you from dreaming about themkind of scenarios? Is that wjat we are dealing with here?

Okay, but. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . what exactly is the problem here, because I am not seeing it so far. Is the library the kind of institution that slaves are prohibited from entering?

No, it is nothing of the sort. The library is equally accessable to anyone who pays the money for entering it, but cost wise it is pretty expensive.

Pretty expensive, you say? How expensive are we talking about, exactly?

There is a normal admission fee that needs to be paid by every person who wishes to go inside, and there is also a deposit fee. You can get the deposit back when you leave on the condition that you will not damage any books that you have come into contact with, but the cost of admission fee and the deposit is one gold coin per person.

Ahh, so that might actually be the librarys way of countering the possibility of the valuable books getting damaged or stolen. In that case, I guess the admission fee and a deposit are both justified. If you implement something like that, you automatically decrease the possibility of thieves or any weird people going to the library, because the costs of deposit and admission fees are going to be too great for the regular masses to afford without sacrificing the finances that could be spent on something else and much more essential, like food or clothing. And even if something like theft happened or the books somehow got damaged or even destroyed, then the cost of the deposit can be used to more than make up for the loss that happened.

I see now. So that is how it is. Well, in that case, maybe we could go to the library sometime if that is what you truly want, Sherry.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . huh?