Cinnamon Bun Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty-Six – Broccoli Bunch and the

Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty-Six - Broccoli Bunch and the Search for the Public Library

"I think I'm gonna miss Booksie," I said. I was back in the dining room of the Beaver sitting down on the seat that had beco, through repeated use, 'my' seat. Not that I'd mind taking another, but everyone seed to go back to the sa seats at altis. Weird how we did that.

"We'll see her again soon enough," Amaryllis said. She paused to look at , then at the thing in the centre of the dining room table. It was the clockwork tir that Rainnewt had sent. We didn't really have a place for it, and having it in full view was probably smart. "Are you planning to spend the rest of the day wallowing or did you have other things in mind?"

"Hmm?" I wondered as I let my head fall onto the table. "Maybe just a bit of wallowing. But I'll do so lolling about after, then maybe so moping? I might even do so indulging later."

"What will you indulge in?" Desiree asked as she stepped into the room.

"Self-pity?" I answered, uncertainly.

"How about you don't?" Amaryllis asked. "I recall you being in need of so training. You still haven't unlocked Mana Regeneration or Thick Skin. I'm full up on mana, if you want to practice dodging so more as well."

I looked up, my face partially hidden by my flopped ears, and tried to hit Amaryllis with my most pitiful, teary-eyed, sad bun look. It bounced off of her like an arrow ricocheting off a mountain. "I don't wanna train," I said.

"Were you not just going on about becoming stronger to Booksie not an hour ago?" Amaryllis asked.

"I ant... like, incidentally, while having fun? It's like getting stronger by playing gas and running around with friends instead of going to the gym to train," I said.

She huffed a sort of 'you're very silly' kind of huff. "If you're not going to be productive in training, you can at least head out and do sothing else. Check out that library, maybe?"

"I like libraries," I said. "But can't we just have an at-ho day? I think that rest and relaxation is very important for growth too. You need ti to process things, you know? Let your brain calm down, lower your stress levels, and all that."

"Pft," Amaryllis said. "Sounds like the kind of hogwash you hear from lazy birds. None of that here, captain. If you want a break, you can have it once you're retired."

Then I'm retiring. Right now." I said, yawning. "I can co back out of retirent tomorrow." Amaryllis gave a look. I shrank back a bit, then sighed and sat up straighter. "Okay, fine. I'm not sure I want to do more training just yet though."

"That's fine," Amaryllis said. "I'm hardly going to push you into doing sothing you don't wish to do. But have you considered not being a lazy bun?"

"Amaryllis!" I whined. "I'm not lazy."

"Oh? You're not?"

I stared at her. "A few months ago I only had the clothes on my back. Now I have an airship filled with cute friends, I have contacts across multiple kingdoms, I've fought my way through nine dungeons, leveled up twenty-five tis, raised Cleaning to S, and I've helped a lot of people along the way."

Amaryllis pushed, frowned, then eyed suspiciously. "Okay... that's a fair point. It's hard to argue that you may be lazy when you've accomplished so much in such a short amount of ti. But that's no excuse to beco lazy."

"Yes it is," I argued.

"Get out of the airship, Broccoli," Amaryllis said. "Go get so fresh air."

"Oh, fine," I said as I stood up. "I guess I'll go to the library. I was aning to anyway."

"If you will have ," Desiree said. "I'll accompany you there as well. No doubt it will be educational. Furthermore, I've yet to master the local dialect, and wouldn't mind the practice."

I nodded. I wasn't about to say no to so company! "I'll ask around and see if anyone else wants to co," I said.

"Awen and I are going to the Exploration Guild," Amaryllis said. "So she's out. For that matter, so am I."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Want to et on the main deck in five?" I asked Desiree.

She nodded, and so I skipped off with a smile to put on sothing warr. I wasn't gonna slip out with my breastplate on. A big chunk of tal like that was the opposite of warm, but I did have a nice sweater sowhere that could serve as armour against the cold!

Maybe I could bring so money along to buy a nice winter jacket? Oh! And a scarf! Scarves were comfy.

I found Calamity and Caprica chatting in the corridor and asked them if they wanted to co. Caprica said she couldn't. She had so paperwork to do for one thing or another, and wanted so ti on her own in her room to take care of it, but Calamity said he had nothing better to do, and when I ntioned scarf shopping, he grinned and said he was in.

And so, about ten minutes later, with the three of us bundled up as best we could under the circumstances, Desiree, Calamity and I stepped off the Beaver to explore so of Port Royal.

"So," I said as we walked down the busy docks.A few light flurries gusted around us. The roads weren't covered in snow, but there were a few piles off to the side where the snow from the last few days had been piled up and left to lt. It was just a bit below freezing at the mont.

"So what?" Calamity asked.

"Well, I was wondering, where's the library anyway?"

Desiree raised a hand to cover her giggles. "Do you an to say that we've departed from the vessel with no clear idea of our destined destination?"

"I an, I know it's in Port Royal," I said. "I figure that if none of us know, we can always just ask soone." I gestured to the dock workers moving about. We were just a bit past noon, so people seed to be coming back from their midday als. I saw so food vendors looking like they were taking care of their last few custors before packing up for the day as well.

"Nyeah, that might be the best idea," Calamity said. "I don't rightly know where to begin looking for a library, though I'm guessing it'll be in the nicer parts of the city."

"I guess. But libraries should be spread out a little. Everyone should get to have one."

"Indeed. Sharing knowledge is a good way to foster civilized behaviour," Desiree said with a serious nod. "However, I believe that the library Miss Booksie... hmm, what is her proper na now?"

"You know, I never thought to ask," I said. "Do dragons even have family nas?"

"Curious," Desiree said. "In any case, Miss Booksie suggested a singular library, so I suspect that there may only be one central repository in Port Royal. Mayhaps we'll find it by searching, or we may take the easier route and question soone along the way."

That's exactly what we ended up doing. We slipped out of the docks and headed towards the inner city. Port Royal had all of these big walls and gates inside the city itself, with various parts cut off from each other. The guards were usually a little rude about who could go where. The noble quarter to the north was hard to enter for normal people, for example.

Still, we didn't even get questioned as we moved into the rchant's quarter. Perhaps we were recognized, or the guards saw the Exploration Guild pins on our clothes, or a group consisting of a bun, a catboy, and a two-tailed fox person was strange enough that they figured we probably had business in the area.

I ended up stopping so nice-looking grenoil ladies on the road to ask them where the library was, and they gave us directions that lead up and deeper into the city.

It wasn't exactly the noble quarter, but it was quite close.

The library was a stately building, all carved stones and pretty arches. There were several huge windows at the front to let light in. It wasn't as big as so of the other libraries I'd seen, but it seed welcoming enough.

"Do you think they'd let us borrow sothing?" Calamity asked. "Or are we gonna have to pay?"

"So libraries lend books for free at ho, but most charge a small security deposit," Desiree said with a knowing smile. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if they have so rare tos they guard jealously."

"Rare books, huh?" I said, my ears perking up. "Let's go see! And then, we buy so scarves. We can't forget that, it's important!"

***