Chapter 3872: Blue Ink Library

"The air in the Upper City Area and Lower City Area is so good; it turns out that the pollution was left to the Outer City Area."

Xia De sighed in his heart; although he had been to quite a few cities, at this moment Xia De still marveled at the scenery before him:

"However, it is really amazing that this city can be built into this appearance."

In Xia De's view, Arcadia City absolutely had the potential to be built into a fortress city; the Upper City Area and Lower City Area were located on the mountain body and were easy to defend and difficult to attack; as long as the logistics supply was guaranteed and steam cannons were set up, the difficulty of capturing such a city would be greater than the difficulty of getting Little Mia to agree to tie a bow.

Under normal circumstances, Xia De wouldn't think about such things, but now it was the War Era.

"This library is located in the area between the commoner area and the noble area."

He thought to himself, and returned to the library gate again. Compared to the area of this library, its door was quite small, about the same as the door of Saint Delan Square No. 6.

The library door was indeed locked tightly with chains from the outside, but the rusty metal nameplate above the door explained the name here—【Blue Ink Library】.

Since there was a name, Xia De had plenty of time to find out the reason why this place became like this during the day tomorrow. If there was a chance later, he didn't mind buying this library; after all, the entrance and exit of the 【Space Labyrinth】 should be mastered in his own hands.

"Don't know if Arcadia City has any delicious food; hope it's not like the golden grilled fish of Fatumengster Island."

Xia De thought to himself, and took another look at the night view of the city at the high place, and then returned home.

Miss Lu Lu Weiya was very satisfied that Xia De really didn't take advantage of the night to explore the city, so she gave Xia De a hug after he returned home, and then signaled him to accompany her to eat midnight snacks and then go take a bath.

What happened afterward went without saying; the girls staying at home would absolutely not run to the guest room to sleep, otherwise there would be no need to come here.

And it was only when Xia De opened his eyes on Wednesday that he remembered he actually didn't use that time key yesterday; from the beginning of heading to Saint Byron, a series of things made him not have any leisure time at all.

"Then today, are you going to Arcadia City?"

When Xia De sat up from the bed, Miss Lu Lu Weiya, who was sleeping beside him, asked sleepily.

Xia De reached out and stroked her brown hair:

"I'll go to the snowy mountain first to leave the letter for Margaret in the high tower. Margaret is helping to investigate the 'Gray Glove' stronghold in the City of Scholars; I'll go and get familiar with that city today."

Miss Lu Lu Weiya obviously didn't have the intention of getting up now; seeing that the time was still early, Xia De didn't get out of bed immediately to freshen up:

"Regarding the City of Scholars 'Arcadia City', Miss Lu Lu Weiya, do you have any other intelligence there?"

"Of course I have. The Diviner Association of the City of Scholars is the third largest in the Old Continent, second only to the headquarters and the Weilundaier branch."

When Doctor Shi Nai De was in school, he stayed in the medical school in that city for half a year; he used to tell us how magnificent the 'Candle Fortress Library' at the top of the city was, and also mentioned that there were many neutral-natured ring sorcerer organizations in that city.

For example, the Apuna Library we contacted before has its headquarters in the City of Scholars."

Miss Lu Lu Weiya rubbed against Xia De's hand placed by the pillow like Little Mia, while the real Little Mia was still asleep in the cat nest on the desk, and it was just six o'clock now:

"The area of Arcadia City is much larger than that of Time Wheel City. If Weilundaier City is the political center of the Southern Kingdom, then Arcadia City can barely be considered the cultural center."

The steam industry there is also developing very fiercely; many inventors live in that city, and the prototypes of many modern steam mechanical equipment were made in Arcadia City. Oh, I remember that part of the Kansenrike Royal Academy of Sciences is also in Arcadia City."

Xia De then asked again:

"Then Arcadia City, in terms of occultism, does it have any special features? For example, the center of the earth, the place where space is most fragile, etc."

Miss Lu Lu Weiya shook her head:

"No, at least I haven't heard of this news. However, the Papal See of the Creation Church has been next to that city since the Fourth Era, I think there should be a reason for it."

She kept her eyes closed while speaking:

"We don't have any acquaintances there, and it's not easy for you to contact the local ring sorcerer black market to inquire about news."

"My purpose for going to that city is temporarily just to find the 'Big-Mouthed Sparrow'; although going to the local black market to see if there are any special coins is also possible, not contacting ring sorcerers should also be no problem."

Xia De thought about it:

"However, I am very interested in that Candle Fortress Library and might go in to take a look. Does entering that library require a ticket? Or are there special identity requirements?"

Miss Lu Lu Weiya shook her head:

"I don't know about this, the doctor might know."

"I don't have the need to cross half the city to find the doctor; I'll inquire about it locally in a while... That library is so large, who does its ownership belong to? The Anjou royal family?"

"Should not be; that library has existed since the Delin-Or Kingdom era, at that time the Anjou family was just an ordinary aristocratic family. I remember hearing someone mention that the ownership of the Candle Fortress Library is quite complicated, but the Creation Church owns about 30% of the ownership."

The remaining ownership is scattered in the hands of nobles passed down from the Delin-Or Kingdom era, and the Anjou royal family should also have some, but not much."

Miss Lu Lu Weiya reminded again:

"You have also been in contact with the Delin-Or restorationists; Arcadia, as the most important city of the old Delin-Or era, anything can happen in the current War Era. Although I don't worry that bullets or bombs will hurt you, if it's not particularly necessary, don't let yourself be dragged into that kind of trouble."

"Yes, Miss Lu Lu Weiya, I know. Get up quickly; I have already heard Winnie push the door from the kitchen, preparing to make breakfast."

"Don't~ sleep a little longer~"

But in the end, Miss Lu Lu Weiya still appeared at the dinner table with Xia De, and Winnie didn't leave after finishing breakfast today but ate with everyone—she sometimes stayed and sometimes left, and Xia De didn't see the pattern either.

When Xia De proposed that he was going to head to a new city, Winnie also asked if she needed to accompany him, but Xia De refused:

"Temporarily not needed; I'll explore that city by myself first; if I need help, I'll go call you at any time."

After breakfast, Xia De wrote a letter to Margaret according to the plan, and asked Winnie to put it in Miss Miss Feilian's high tower.

Subsequently, Xia De said goodbye to Miss Lu Lu Weiya who went to the Diviner Association to work, and confirmed that the cat wanted to watch pigeons on the windowsill and didn't want to go out, and then headed to that new city alone.

Arcadia City's sky was floating with a few dark clouds last night; Xia De originally thought it would rain today, but only after walking out of the "Blue Ink Library" covered in dust did he discover that the sun was shining brightly today.

It was already the end of the Month of Sowing; although it rained a lot in various places this spring, the temperature rose very quickly. Now winter clothes were completely gone, and when Xia De passed by the library gate, even the newspaper-selling children were no longer wearing thick coats covered in patches.

It was easy to figure out the situation of the Blue Ink Library; just like the situation Xia De observed last night, the "Green Vine Street" where the Blue Ink Library was located, although not the main road, was only separated from the main road by two streets. The entire street was not only a slope but also presented an arc shape; the top of the arc street was an arch, and passing through the arch, one could go to the main road connecting the Upper City Area and the Lower City Area.

Green Vine Street belonged to a street that allowed carriages to pass through; the buildings on the entire street were similar to each other, and they were all two-story buildings, and there were alleys between the buildings, which were not connected to each other.

The library had two sides, which were an optical shop and a spice shop, among which the roof of the spice shop extended a rope bridge to connect with the roof of the building across the street, and the building across the street also belonged to this spice shop.

Although there was an old library that had been abandoned for many years here, it could be seen that this street was still very prosperous. People coming and going shuttled through the streets and shops, and Xia De even saw the sign of a tavern further down Green Vine Street.

He first found the newspaper boy just now, and while buying a copy of the local newspaper "Candle Fortress Daily," he asked the little boy about the situation of the Blue Ink Library. The boy didn't know much either, but because he received Xia De's tip, he said everything he knew:

"Old Larry said that this library was sealed by the City Hall 8 years ago. It is said that illegal things were printed here, so the bookstore owner was arrested, and later no one dared to take over this place."

This was about the same as Xia De's expectation; after all, there were only a few types of criminal activities that could be carried out in a library.

"If it was sealed because of crime, the ownership of this library is most likely in the hands of the City Hall."

He thought to himself, and the information provided by the boy was only general, so Xia De walked down along Green Vine Street and entered that tavern. Although it was Wednesday morning, the tavern was still lively.

Xia De, who looked like a Northern Kingdom person, didn't attract too much attention when entering here; Xia De discovered that although this City of Scholars was a Southern Kingdom city, even in the War Era, there were many Northern Kingdom faces.

After sitting down at the bar, Xia De ordered a glass of rye beer at random, but the paper money he gave was far higher than the price of the beer:

"I want to know about the Blue Ink Library."

So the tall and thin middle-aged man behind the counter prepared the beer for Xia De without a word, and after putting the beer in front of him, he wiped his hands with the dirty towel that had just been draped over his shoulder and said:

"This is not a message that is very difficult to inquire about, but we generally don't take the initiative to mention it.

The Lebury family, the owner of the Blue Ink Library, has been operating on this street for three generations. But eight years ago, that is, in the spring of 18... let me think, 1847, the City Hall cracked a case related to Delin-Or restorationists, and then the police discovered that it was young Lebury who used the printing machine in his own basement to help them print leaflets and booklets."

The bartender had no expression on his face, and the surrounding guests didn't pay attention to what they were talking about:

"In this city, being involved with Delin-Or restorationists is a greater crime than assassinating the mayor; you should know the specific reason.

After that incident, the Blue Ink Library was sealed, and old Lebury's friends spent a great price to fish him out, while old Lebury himself spent his life savings so that the people in the police station wouldn't move all the books in the library. Now that library still belongs to that old gentleman, it's just that he is forbidden to continue operating that library. He lives in Heath Lane not far from here; I don't know the specific address, but you can find out if you go to that lane to inquire."

Xia De didn't ask how the other party guessed his purpose:

"What about young Lebury? The library owner saved his library, and still had money to save his child?"

The bartender shook his head, draped the towel back over his shoulder; Xia De guessed that he was wearing a black vest, just so that the dirty towel wouldn't excessively affect the color of the clothes' shoulders:

"Young Lebury's paper letters with those criminals were found; no one could save him; this is not something that money could solve. Although he was not the main culprit, just responsible for printing, he was also sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment.

That child often ran here to play when he was young; I couldn't tell he actually had the guts to do that kind of thing. It is said that he fell in love with a girl among those criminals, and as a result, the girl ran away in the end, but he didn't run away. Tsk tsk~"

The bartender shook his head and didn't say anything more. Xia De nodded, took a small sip of the rye beer, then put down the wine glass, picked up the newspaper, and left here.

Although Xia De didn't have a map of this city, the bartender had pointed out to him how to find Heath Lane just now. The distance between there and Green Vine Street was not far, and Xia De, relying on 【Strong Space Perception】, was not afraid of getting lost, and seeing the weather was so good, he planned to walk to the destination.

This strange city in the middle of the Old Continent was much more prosperous than Xia De imagined. The prosperity here was different from the wealth of the City of Wealth - Moon Bay City, but was reflected in the prosperity of the small citizen economy and cultural style.

Starting from Green Vine Street and walking toward the bottom of the slope, during the twenty-minute walk, Xia De saw shops with complete categories, saw a large number of libraries and bookstores, and saw young people wearing different academy uniforms walking on the street.

This "City of Scholars" was a Southern Kingdom city, but even in the War Era, there were many Northern Kingdom faces.

The city area on the mountain body was a city area that had existed since the Delin-Or Kingdom era, so the architectural style was not the typical Southern Kingdom architectural style of today. And because the culture of Kansenrike today had long been inseparable from the culture of the Delin-Or Kingdom era, Arcadia City gave Xia De a familiar but strange feeling.

The city was built against the mountain, and there were still many white stone buildings of the old era, and the building buildings built in the new era also mostly used stone materials, which was very similar to Kyle-Todd Town. And because most of the factories in the local area were in the Outer City Area at the foot of the mountain, walking on the road in the Lower City Area and looking at the sunny city area, bookstores, and young people everywhere, Xia De felt that this was probably the best city in this era.

Of course, if you look at the Outer City Area completely shrouded in haze in the direction of the foot of the mountain, this thought would immediately disappear.

A relatively affluent city, there would also be more stray cats and dogs in the city; this point was the same whether in Moon Bay or Arcadia City. A black cat with quite beautiful fur was walking on the side of the street, and following its footsteps, Xia De successfully led him to Heath Lane at ten o'clock in the morning.

The golden doorplate was hung on the door panel, but it had already rusted somewhat. The flowerpots on both sides of the steps at the door were also withered, looking like the owner of this house lacked the ability to take care of the house.

"That old gentleman spent his life savings to save the library, and now he is huddled here, the economic condition should not be very good; I if I offer a very high price... but why did no one buy that library before? Are the locals worried about the connection between that place and criminals?"

Xia De thought to himself, and after saying goodbye to the enthusiastic children, he knocked on the door, and after waiting for a good while, the door opened with a creak~. Subsequently, an old man with a withered face poked his head out from behind the door, looked at Xia De, and confirmed that the strange young man outside the door didn't look like an ordinary person, so the old man asked:

"Do you also want to buy my library?"

This sentence proved that Xia De was indeed not the first person to take a fancy to that place. The location of the Blue Ink Library was very good, and although the library was old, it could be operated again after cleaning up the interior.

"Yes, Mr. Lebury, I am willing to offer a price that will satisfy you."

The old man didn't express too much about this:

"Come in, let's talk inside. I don't have good tea to entertain you, please forgive me; you can't require a lonely old man to be very good at enjoying life."

This old gentleman was not a ring sorcerer; he looked to be about fifty years old, wearing a brown wool vest at home.

The house was slightly messy, but the ground was not very dirty, and there was no big odor in the air. It was just that although the sun was shining brightly outside, the first floor of this house was very gloomy because the lighting was not good and most of the curtains were drawn.

The living room was not large, and the structure was relatively compact. The old gentleman let Xia De sit down in the living room, and subsequently prepared tea for him. Xia De noticed during this period that there were also many books in this house; Mr. Old Lebury, although forbidden to continue operating the library, seemed not to have put down his love for books.

The old gentleman put down the teapot and sat down opposite Xia De:

"Young man, you are not the first person to come here to find me. If I were willing to take money and give up the library, then I definitely wouldn't have waited for you to come to the door."

His tone was somewhat dispirited, but his eyes, although tired, were not truly losing his expectation for life:

"If you want the library, help me do some things."

This situation of being able to get the reward after accepting the commission was very familiar to the outlander:

"Help you fish your son out?"

The old man sitting on the black-cushioned sofa shook his head; his feet were still placed with a stack of old newspapers tied up, and the wooden coffee table between the two was made by putting wooden boards on a pile of books:

"Don't mention the past things again. He was sentenced to 18 years; after these years of commutation, it was reduced to 15 years. Now it has been the eighth year; with my physical condition, I can fully wait for him to come out."

The old gentleman with white beard and hair sighed, and continued to look at Xia De:

"However, when mentioning this matter, you didn't have a difficult face, I think I really didn't look at the wrong person, young man, you must be a person with great ability."

Xia De blinked, showing his usual smile:

"Forgot to introduce myself—John Watson, considered a travel writer. My ability is still some... do you want me to use Luo De cards to win you?" ===== CHAPTER 3873 =====

"However, when mentioning this matter, you didn't have a troubled expression. I think I haven't grown senile and misjudged you after all. Young man, you must be someone with great ability."

Xia De blinked, revealing his usual smile:

"I forgot to introduce myself—John Watson, a travel writer, so to speak. I do have some abilities... Would you like me to win against you at Rodé Cards?"