The next day, Kyle got up at the same time and ate breakfast with his family. He told his father he was going to the library which earned him the response "Okay, but don't get angry when you find out it's not what you expected." and Fred laughed.

Fred was not very good at reading and writing, but he could sign his name. Elena was totally illiterate, but she thought Kyle might be a genius and asked Fred to check about membership with the library. Elena knew that libraries were places people went to learn things that were written down, but because she could not read it was best for Fred to check what it was all about. Fred informed her the library contained books and cost 100 coins just to enter.

It was a calm morning in the winter, so it was a little chilly out. There was no breeze as Kyle walked towards the 3rd district and passed by several people. Almost everyone had on cloaks to shield themselves from the weather, and Kyle wondered what the people in the 1st district would do when it got even colder in a few months.

'No reason to worry about them, i'm not a hero anymore.' But that was not Kyle's responsibility. Kyle had 800 coins to his name and way about to use 100 of them on a library membership. The other 700 could probably buy 2 quality coats. Even if Kyle was a hero in his past life, it was not from selflessly giving to people. Some people might say that those were the real heroes, but by that definition then none of the 5 heroes were really heroes.

As the density of people on the sidewalk increased, Kyle took a right on the crescent towards the library. The building large and wooden, and probably had two floors. Unlike Kyle's home though, the library was made by a real craftsman. Hanging just above the wooden door with large glass windows was a sign that read "Thornberry Public Library".

Kyle opened the door and was greeted by an unfamiliar smell. It smelt like dozens or even hundreds of quest sheets from the adventurer's guild all taken and thrown into a pile. To Kyle's right, right after entering the library, there was an old man sitting behind a desk reading a book.

POV: Mr. Reese

'Some kid just walked in.' Mr. Reese was sitting at his test in the Thornberry public library just the same has he always had for the past 20 years. He was 58 years old and had gray hair and a bushy gray beard.

"Little boy, this is the library, not some place to play." Mr. Reese had enough of rich kids thinking the library was a fun place that just because their fathers went there they could too. Most kids couldn't even read at the level they would need to use in the library until they were 8, and the kid in front of Mr. Reese now was half that.

"I'm not here to play, I would like a membership please." The young child looked up at Mr. Reese and politely spoke to him. There was an air of falseness in the voice, and Mr. Reese who worked as a words teacher in a neighboring town for almost 20 years could pick up on those kind of things from kids.

"Kid, do you even know how to read?" Mr. Reese was skeptical of obvious reasons.

"Yes, I can." The child proudly claimed he could read, so Mr. Reese began to think of a challenge for the boy to prove himself with.

"Okay, how about this..." Mr. Reese reached under his desk and pulled out a book. "If you can read what it says on this page, you can have the membership for free." Mr. Reese held out the book and opened it to a page near the 1st quarter mark.

'Kid, this is not some children's book. This is Theo Kaltor's Inspection of Modern Lumitus' Mr. Reese had pulled out a book about a city where a criminal purposefully infected themselves with dangerous and deadly diseases before being imprisoned, where he infected all the guards. After 20 days all the guards died and the prisoners escaped, killing the city lord and many inhabitants. The criminal was the older brother of a prisoner and he too died just 5 days before the escape.

"Okay, from the top of the page is says "the guard Jarad Allycia first developed symptoms of the disease 'Miner's Joint' 6 days after the reception of prisoner #837. In just 4 more days, guard Jarad Allycia had died from a multitude of other diseases, and 8 other guards were infected with 'Miner's Joint'..."

Mr. Reese was shocked. The child who must have been younger than 5, too young to be in school yet, was reading from a book meant to shape prisoner handling procedure. Mr. Reese had taught hundreds of children how to read and write, and only the children of nobles knew how to read before they entered school, and they weren't even as good at it as the child in front of him now.

'Hell yeah, give me my free library membership.' Kyle gladly accepted the challenge and passed it excellently. To save 100 coins was 1/8 of all the money he had. He would be able to give the 100 coins to Elena and... he wasn't sure what it would get him, but it had to be something good.

"That is some good reading boy." Mr. Reese was impressed by the reading.

"I already read all the book at my house, so now I'm here to read more." Kyle had to make something up to continue the dialog naturally until he got the free card. He did read all the books in the house, but that was a total of zero books.

"And how many books do you have at home?" Mr. Reese did not know how many books that was though. Most families had 2 or 3 books, even the Droughts had two books. One was about the teachings of Saint Ajoras and the other was on proper parenting.

"Not enough." There were none.

"Hahaha! Here you go, a Thornberry Public Library membership." Mr. Reese held out a piece of paper to Kyle with the letters 'TPL' at the top and under it 'Member'. Under that was 16 dots. "With this card, you are allowed access to the library, but I think I will remember you. If you want to take a book out of the library, just come to me so I can write the necessary information down and punch a hole in the card. After 16 books you will still be able to enter the library, but you cannot take books out. 100 coins will get you another card to take out another 16 books." Mr. Reese explained the workings of the library membership. It might be a little hard for Kyle to remember it all, but he was not going to take books out, so it would be fine.

"Next are the rules of the library. No food or drink allowed in the library, even if you are not eating or drinking it. How old are you boy?" Mr. Reese did not know how old Kyle was, so he guessed that Kyle was a very small child of almost 5 years old.

"I am 3 years old." Kyle did not see much reason to lie. Telling Mr. Reese he was only 3 was not as big as telling him he was a 30 year old man who was reborn 3000 years later.

"Wow, that is really young. Anyway, since you are so young, you are not allowed to access the books on the top shelf or the books on the magic rack." Mr. Reese was smirking as he remembered the books on the top shelf.

"Why is that?" Kyle thought it was strange to not be able to read magic books. In the past, learning magic was the first thing people tried to do, they even learned how to read with magic books.

"Well, the books on the stop shelf are only interesting to adults, and you are not allowed to learn magic until you complete your EDME."

"What is EDME?" Kyle had not heard of that term before, so he asked what it was.

"I would have thought for already being able to read you would know. The EDME is the Education Decree Mandatory Education. Every citizen of the empire must attend school at the age of 5, with certain exceptions."

"Is already being able to read an exception?"

"No, it is not."

"Damn." Kyle's future would be put on hold significantly. Mandatory education at the age of 5 would be like prison. Not only did he not know how long it would be, but 5 years old was a great time to start learning magic and sword skills. It was no wonder this town had a school and no adventurer's guild, they were a bunch of softies.

'Maybe I could fake an illness...' Kyle knew plenty of rare diseases, but to pick one that people would know about and get him off from coming to school, it was hard.

"Hey, watch your language." Mr. Reese was not pleased with the sudden swearing.

"Sorry sir. By the way, my name is Kyle, what is yours?" Kyle realized that the old man behind the counter had been calling him kid because they did not know each other's names.

"You can call me Mr. Reese."

Kyle walked away from Mr. Reese after thanking him for the free membership and headed for the books. He was told he couldn't read the magic books or the top shelf books, but all the others were fine. Kyle started on the far left shelf and picked a book from the bottom. The book's title was "Investigating herbivores, Why Meat Can't Be Beat".

Kyle flipped through the pages but most of it was on how people who only eat plants grow weak and are not strong swordsmen. It was total rubbish.

Kyle moved on to the next book, but once again it was a study on some mundane aspect of society. 'Why the water in the bowl spins' 'Onions and Horses' 'Basic boat building' they were things that Kyle did not need to read, and as he looked through the books, he could not find ones on larger history.

The other bookshelves had the same thing, and they did not seem to be ordered in any special way. Most were books on why something happens, why something is better than something else, or what happened at one point of time in one place. A single book with many years of history was not found.

'I guess I will have to read all the books and put the information together myself.' Kyle thought as he looked at the books. There was at least 1,000 books.

'But I wonder what is on the top shelf...' Kyle remembered that Mr. Reese told him they were only for adults, so he wondered what they could be.

'Could it be additional magic books?' Magic books were also not allowed to be read. Kyle walked to the second floor, but it was mostly the same thing. There was no section for magic books labeled like the first floor though.

Kyle reached out his hand to get a book from the top shelf, but it was too high.

'Darn, I need to find something to stand on.' Kyle looked around but could not see anything.

'I'll just use [Fly]' Kyle thought, but then he remembered something else.

'Wait, I reached the lever... I should be able to reach the book too.' Kyle did not know how he was able to move the lever without touching it, so he tried to move the book too.

He reached his hand out...

But nothing happened.

And the book fell into his hand.