《The Retribution of the Ice Cold Maiden》22 - Should we ask for a refund?

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"Tzz...!! Tzz...!! Tzz...!! Wakey, Wakey Sleepyhead...!!" Soul made the sound of an alarm going off in hopes of waking Selena up from her slumber.

"I wonder if I can weld the ring to my finger?" Selena thought to herself as the rude awakening made her wish to evict Soul from her mind.

She sat up on her bed with a sour face. The heavy drapes still covered the windows.

"Why did you wake me up at this ungodly hour?" Selena asked with an annoyed tone while rubbing her eyes.

"Ungodly Hour? It's freaking noon, lady...!!" Soul claimed.

"What?" Selena was shocked. She quickly got up and opened the drapes.

Woosh...!! Harsh Sunlight entered the room as it illuminated every square inch of it.

"Did I overslept? What the hell?" Selena was shocked. "Why didn't anyone wake me up? Don't the maids usually wake me up whenever I oversleep?"

"If I have to guess, the image of you bashing your teacher is still fresh in their minds. They would be complete idiots if they dared bothered you after seeing that." Soul replied.

"Ah...!!" Selena's mind jolted as yesterday's events came back to her mind.

She had beaten Teacher Claire Walker for misguiding her education. Then she beat her up some more and threw her off the floor. Then she beat her up even more and revealed her dirty schemes for the world to see. Afterward, she went to the library, made an arrogant yellow dressed slut run away with her tail between her legs, and gained a loyal follower. Then she went to the library, absorbed the information of around a thousand books which left her tired. Then she found an Azure Magic Book which before she could study was interrupted by a challenge by Lady Nina of Marquis Hamilton Manor. With the help of a violent but cheery little Chess program, she utterly obliterated Nina who once had defeated the third ranker in chess of the country. After which, the girl went home crying, quite literally. After she left, Selena walked around the rest of the library collecting the books present and while she was doing that, the other aristocrat children kept a distance from her in fear of incurring her wrath. It seems they saw how Nina went away crying and it also seems that somebody witnessed her "harass" Mila and quickly informed the others.

But Selena was too tired to care. After Soul finished collecting the books, she went straight home and went to bed without dinner.

"I am hungry..." Selena patted her stomach after feeling the pangs of hunger.

"Is anyone there...?" Selena called out.

"Yes, My lady..." Maid Gwen immediately walked in. Apparently she was standing outside the door waiting to be called in, which was very proactive of her, but also a bit creepy.

"Get me breakfa---" Selena stopped midway and looked outside.

"Get me my lunch... I shall have it after my bath."

"Of Course..." Maid Gwen bowed.

"Before you go, is there anything to report?" Selena asked as she made preparations for her bath.

"Yes, as per your instructions, Rhys Yale has been given a primary inspection and is currently hired as an outside guard for now." Maid Gwen informed Selena.

Selena nodded. A Personal Guard needs to go through many background checks before becoming one. It is a time-consuming process, so it was normal for the applied guard to be temporarily posted somewhere else until the checks were finished.

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Maid Gwen swiftly left after reporting other minor things and Selena took her bath.

After finishing her bath and changing into a blue dress, she waited in her room for her lunch.

"Hey, so I finished compressing the information of the remaining books of the library. All in all, there are still 9,376 books remaining for you to assimilate." Soul reported to Selena. Since Selena was dead tired after assimilating around a thousand books from the first floor, Soul did not transfer the information to her yet. It was obvious she was going to get more tired after taking in the other books.

"There's no need to hurry... the exam is still two months away." Selena responded. "Transfer the books at night only before I go to sleep so yesterday's events won't happen again, also let's reduce the number of assimilated books to 500 per night. Otherwise, I will get the habit of waking up only after mid-noon."

"Okay..." Soul replied and then asked, "So, what are we going to do about this book?"

Selena's attention went towards her table where a Book with an Azure Cover lay on it. She had found the book with Soul's help and apparently it was a magic artifact on par with a Record Crystal. With everything that had happened, she had forgotten to check it out.

She stood up and approached the book. It was around half the size of her forearm and it had around 500 pages making it a very thick and heavy book. There was a seal placed on the middle-right part of the cover that locked the book. However, since the seal was unclaimed, one can transfer their magic into the seal to claim ownership of the book, or in Selena's case, a drop of her blood.

"Why is such an artifact still unclaimed?" Soul asked after understanding how the book's seal works.

"I don't think it was unclaimed, rather I think the original owner of this book is dead, and when a person dies, their magic on every seal they own dissipates on its own thus leaving this book without a master." Selena explained.

"Oh...? That's convenient. I wish my world had a setting like that. Do you know how many dead people still have emails registered to them?" Soul replied indignantly.

Selena chose to ignore Soul's whining and took out a needle. She pricked her finger and dropped a single drop of blood on the seal...

*Drip...!! Click... Wwriiinnnggg.....*

The Book gave off a small blue glow as a small ringing noise rose from it. It shook a little as if it was waking up from a deep slumber and with a click, the seal was unlocked.

"Huh...?" Soul remarked.

"What's wrong?" Selena asked.

"The book turned invisible again. I can't seem to perceive it without the radar."

"Eh? But I can see it clearly though." Selena remarked. 'Could it be...? Does it stays invisible to everyone except its owner?'

The Book was already a rare artifact as it is, but with its unique ability to turn invisible made it more so. If people knew of its existence, they would try to obtain it by hook or by crook, and that would mean even killing Selena to erase her ownership. She would have to be extra careful in hiding the book now.

"Well, open it...!! I am freaking dying of curiosity to know what's written inside it." Soul pushed Selena.

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"Okay..." Selena replied as she slowly turned over the cover.

-Gluttony-

That was what written on the first page at its very center.

"Gluttony? Is it the name of the book?" Soul asked.

"Probably? But why Gluttony?" Selena asked as she flipped open the book.

"..."

"..."

"Eh?" Selena became more confused as she flipped the pages.

"They are all... blank?" Soul was flabbergasted.

All 500 pages of the book were blank. There was not even a droplet of ink on it.

"This..." Selena was shocked beyond words. For a book with so much grandeur, it was emptier than Selena's pity for her enemies.

"Should we... ask for a refund?" Soul asked bitterly. He felt as if someone dropped a bucket of cold water on him, bringing his excitement down.

"To whom?" Selena asked as she rubbed her temple.

"Maybe... this is a diary?" Selena thought after pondering for a bit.

"Diary? oh... OH...!!" Soul suddenly exclaimed as he thought of something.

"What?" Selena was alarmed by Soul's sudden loud scream.

"Try writing on it...!!" Soul instructed Selena.

"Write? Why?" Selena frowned.

"Well, in my previous life, there was a novel. In the novel, a boy chances upon a book. When he writes inside it, the book responds by showing words of its own." Soul replied excitedly.

"The book was self-aware? How?" Selena asked as she picked up a quill.

"Well, that was because the book contained a part of an evil wizard's soul who kept it there in order to come back to life." Soul replied.

Selena froze at that.

'Evil Wizard? Part of his soul? If that's true, then should I just burn this book to be safe? Why the hell would I keep a timebomb with me?'

"Forget it..." Selena exclaimed as she started to write on the second page of the book. 'If something happens, I will simply throw the book in the fireplace.'

Selena began to write her name, but suddenly...

*Wwrriiinnggg....!!* The book glowed and rang out a long chime. During which, the Quill Selena was holding suddenly started drowning in the page, as if the book was absorbing it.

Alarmed Selena quickly let go of the Quill. After which, the Quill completely drowned inside the page and after a sharp white glow, the before empty page had a realistic drawing of the Quill on it.

"This..." Selena was shocked. Of all the things, she did not expect the book to absorb the quill.

'Aren't writing books and Quills supposed to get along? Why did it eat the Quill? Is this the start of a war between the two sides? If so, stop that. There can't possibly be any winner in this struggle.' Selena thought as she slowly touched the page with the Quill's drawing.

*Wwrriinnngg...!!* With the same glow and ringing the page glowed again and before Selena realized it, the Quill was in her hand again.

"This..." Selena was thoroughly confused.

"IT'S A STORAGE DIMENSION...!!" Soul screamed in excitement.

"Can you stop screaming for a minute...?!" Selena scolded.

"Don't you get it? The book is capable of storing items in its pages...!!" Soul screamed ignoring Selena's scoldings.

"Storing items?" Selena shook with surprise.

She immediately took a paperweight beside her and touched the page with it.

With a glow and a ringing sound, the paperweight drowned inside the book as if the paper was made of water and it produced an image of the paperweight on it.

She touched the paper again and similar to the quill it materialized the paperweight in her hand.

"Gluttony... Of Course...!!" Soul exclaimed.

"What do you mean?"

"Gluttony, as in someone who eats excessively. The act of absorbing things can be considered as being eaten by the book. It is one of the seven deadly sins, how could you not know it?" Soul explained.

"Seven deadly sins? What's that?" Selena asked.

"Eh? Don't you guys have a church? Didn't they teach you about the Seven Sins?" Soul asked in astonishment.

"The Church? The Church of Light was created by Saint Ferin, I doubt it has anything to do with your world's church." Selena explained.

"I see..." Soul pondered for a bit then continued, "Well, basically all the bad things one can do that will send them to hell as punishment are counted as Sins."

"The Sins are largely classified into seven categories...

1.) The Sin of Lust - Basically means having extreme desires for things, mostly lustful.

2.) The Sin of Gluttony - Overindulgence or Overconsumption of things, mostly about food.

3.) The Sin of Greed - Extreme pursuit of materialistic needs, mostly about money.

4.) The Sin of Sloth - Aversion to exertion or hard work, basically means being lazy.

5.) The Sin of Wrath - Having extreme feelings of hatred, anger, or rage, basically losing control of one's principles.

6.) The Sin of Envy - Having a desire that one cannot accomplish but is accomplished by others, basically jealousy.

7.) The Sin of Pride - Thinking of oneself as an existence above others, it is considered to be the biggest Sin as being prideful is considered as challenging God."

Selena "..."

"Wow, the religion of your world didn't want you guys having any fun at all." Selena said as she memorized the seven sins.

"I know, right?" Soul agreed.

"So, going by your logic, there are six more artifacts that are similar to this book?" Selena asked.

"Not necessarily. As you said, the concept of Seven Sins does not exist in your world, so it was probably named like this by the previous owner without having any deeper meaning to it." Soul replied.

"I see..." Selena nodded as she turned her attention to the book. Out of curiosity, she started experimenting with the book.

***

Roughly fifteen minutes later...

Knock... Knock...!!

"My lady, We have brought you your lunch." Maid Gwen and Petra knocked on Selena's door and proceeded to enter without waiting for her to reply since Selena hadn't eaten since last night and they didn't want her to wait any longer.

Ccreeaakkk...

The door slowly opened and before the maids could enter, the sight before them shocked them to their core.

Empty...

The entire room was literally empty. Selena stood in front of the fireplace holding a very familiar fireplace poker.

Selena and the maids stared at each other without reacting for a whole minute.

"Would you believe me... if I told you I was renovating my room?" Selena asked without batting an eyelid.

Maid Gwen and Petra "..."

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