Chapter 3873: Lost Manuscript

Old Mr. Lebury was very surprised:

"Of course not, why would you think so?

It's like this, starting from my grandfather, our family has been operating the Blue Ink Library; it should have been the fourth generation in the hands of my son who didn't fight for it, unfortunately he... our family is now forbidden to operate a library in this city again, I accept this punishment, after all, my son did do something wrong at the beginning. But during the period when our family was arrested and put in prison, the library lost several important books, and I want to get them back."

He was worried that Xia De would misunderstand, and explained again:

"During the period when I was arrested and put in prison, thieves entered the library, so a batch of books was lost; later, when the local police kept the precious books I collected, several were borrowed and lost; plus before I was released from prison, old friends, in order to save me, donated some precious books, so those important book manuscripts of the family flowed out from me."

"I see, very reasonable... all are genuine, not fakes, right?"

"That of course."

Xia De felt he understood:

"So, you want me to help you get those books back?"

The old man sitting on the sofa nodded heavily:

"Yes, but I also know that full recovery is already impossible, but there are three copies that are orphans left by ancestors; I cannot let them be lost from my hands; I only want those three copies. People who came here wanting to acquire the library before also got this requirement from me:

Help me recover the original design manuscript of 【Mark I Steam Engine】, the 1688 edition of "Illustrated Book of Rare Plants in Southern Continent", and the original manuscript of "Wuthering Heights" by Master Newcastle."

Of these three manuscripts, Xia De only heard of the last one; Dorothy said that this was a very famous popular novel in the classical era.

However, although it was the first time hearing about the design manuscript, Xia De knew the "Mark I Steam Engine." This was the most classic steam engine in the early Steam Era; although it was not the earliest, it was the most widely promoted.

The Sun 10 【Original Steam Engine · Mark IX】 that Xia De possessed was the subsequent improved version of "Mark I."

"Looking for books..."

Xia De didn't have anything to do for the time being, and the whereabouts of the "Big-Mouthed Sparrow" probably still needed to be investigated for a period of time, so he was also willing to do this kind of troublesome task, just treating it as a way to familiarize himself with the situation of this city:

"Then, do you know who exactly holds these three manuscripts? Or, do I need to investigate it myself?"

"【Mark I Steam Engine】 original design manuscript is in the hands of Baron Ramsey of this city; he is not only the deputy mayor of this city but also a core member of the Kansenrike Royal Academy of Sciences; the 1688 edition of "Illustrated Book of Rare Plants in Southern Continent" is in the Candle Fortress Library; this book uses hand-drawn illustrations and the size is quite large; the original manuscript of "Wuthering Heights" is in the hands of a lady with a great reputation in this city; that is her collection now."

These three manuscripts were all purchased by them from merchants; the inheritance is orderly and absolutely no problem; even if taken to an auction house for sale, it is legal."

The old gentleman emphasized, looking at Xia De:

"Those two manuscripts need you to show your connections to think of a way; I have a need to explain the "Illustrated Book of Rare Plants in Southern Continent" to you carefully.

You look like an outsider at a glance, maybe you don't know the rules very well. The Candle Fortress Library only allows copying, not allowing the original to be brought out, let alone borrowing and selling books; the difficulty of obtaining this book is the greatest."

Xia De nodded gently, not agreeing immediately, but asked instead:

"I know the difficulty of obtaining these three books is quite great, otherwise the library wouldn't have been unsold for eight years. Then correspondingly, I paid such a great price to find back three books, what can I get? Is it just the qualification to trade the Blue Ink Library with you?"

Old Mr. Lebury had already thought that he would ask this:

"I only want those three books and 300 crowns; after getting these, the land and house of the library are yours. If you want the remaining books inside, I can sell them to you at a 50% discount."

Although Xia De didn't know the specific value of those three orphans, the conditions offered by the other party were absolutely generous; just looking at the location of Green Vine Street, he knew that the housing and land prices there wouldn't be cheap:

"The conditions are indeed very good, but you also said it yourself, the Candle Fortress Library never sells books."

"Young man, I only want those three books; you have to think of the method yourself. I offered such a high reward, just considering that the last book is not easy to obtain. Of course, wanting to get the other two books is also not easy; in fact, other people who visited me like you gave up immediately after hearing about the Candle Fortress Library."

Xia De nodded:

"Then I'll try it first; maybe I can think of a way."

After all, it was impossible for the other party to sell the library in the short term, so Xia De was not in a hurry at all; he picked up the teacup:

"Speaking of which, the original manuscript of "Wuthering Heights" belongs to which lady in the local area?"

Old Mr. Lebury sighed:

"It belongs to the lady of the Astley family. Young man, I don't know if you know that the vast majority of spice businesses in the middle of the Old Continent are related to the Astley family; although they don't have aristocratic titles, since the unification of the Southern Territory, their family has been firmly controlling the management of the Gray Rock Pass. If it weren't for the fact that they were related to the Delin-Or royal family in the past, in fact, Astley would have had an aristocratic title long ago.

The lady I mentioned is the head of the current generation of the Astley family. This family has hereditary blood disease, and the population has always been not prosperous. Although this generation's Lady Ast

"In my opinion, the book in Ms. Astley's hands is probably not easy to recover either."

The old man just sighed:

"There's no helping that. After all, it's something passed down by my ancestors; I can't just lose them, can I?"

He seemed unwilling to lower his requirements, so Xia De didn't say much more, intending to go and try first; it wouldn't matter even if he couldn't get them. At worst, he could wait until someone actually acquired that library and then buy it back at a higher price.

Right now, the things he lacked the least were gold pounds and crowns.

However, Xia De had no clue how to obtain the three manuscripts, as he had no foundation in the local area. Thus, Xia De thought that the two manuscripts in the hands of the nobles and big merchants could wait until news of the "Grey Gloves" came from Margaret's side before inquiring, while the "Candlekeep Library" could be visited today.

Old Mr. Lebury trusted Xia De—a manifestation of supernatural charisma—believing that Xia De might be able to help him retrieve the lost manuscripts, and therefore was willing to explain some things that seemed like basic common sense to the locals.

For instance, the "Candlekeep Library," located at the highest point of the city, could be entered and read in two ways. One way was to hold a special "Candlekeep Silver Medal," and such a medal could only be given by those who owned the library, or obtained by donating valuable books to the library.

The second way was the simplest: paying to enter. The library adopted a membership fee plus annual fee model. The membership fee was 4 Oer, which, at the current highly volatile exchange rate, was 8 gold pounds, and the annual fee was 1.5 Oer, which was 3 gold pounds.

This was a quite expensive price; one should know that even the fees for those libraries in Tobesk were twenty percent lower than this price.

And the high fees of Candlekeep Library were because its collection was quite large. Old Mr. Lebury believed that the books in the area open to outsiders in the library exceeded one million volumes.

Considering the large area that library occupied, Xia De thought this number was not an exaggeration.

"Additionally, entering the library through the annual fee method, although it allows you to browse most books, only allows you to take out one manuscript already in the library's possession each time. If you want to borrow books that don't have manuscripts, you can only spend extra money to copy them yourself."

Old Mr. Lebury warned again. He could see that Xia De was very interested in that library, so he introduced the specific situation inside the library. It was just a pity that the 1688 edition of the "Illustrated Guide to Rare Plants of the Southern Continent" was a rare exhibit and couldn't even be browsed at will; Old Mr. Lebury said he went to see it every week.

Candlekeep Library was located at the highest point of the city. To enter, one had to pass through the city's Upper City, but fortunately, this city did not prohibit people from moving across districts at will. Therefore, after saying goodbye to Old Mr. Lebury at ten in the morning, Xia De sat in a carriage at the alley entrance and set off for that library.

The talkative carriage driver had clearly hosted more than one outsider like Xia De heading to the library, so he told him a lot about that library on the way and also shared more intelligence about this city.

For example, how to get from the city to the Holy See of the Church of Creation, the worship rules of the cathedral, the recent explosion at the Academy of Sciences, local specialty foods, the recent increase in troops stationed in the Outer City, the adjustment of train schedules due to the war on the front lines, the very efficacious spring for seeking children southeast of Arcadia City, the mayor in his fifties having a young daughter, and so on.

While passing through the Upper City, Xia De looked at the city scenery while chatting with the driver. The higher this city went on the mountain, the smaller the area became. Because the mountain was relatively steep, although the straight-line distance from the old gentleman's house to Candlekeep Library was not far, the carriage had to travel on the winding mountain road to go up.

This resulted in the carriage taking a full half-hour for a road that didn't look very far, and that was with the road conditions being very good.

When the carriage reached the destination, Xia De paid extra money to thank the driver for the things he had said. After the driver drove the carriage away, he raised his head to look at the towering library before him.

Or rather, the towering palace.

"Isn't this a bit exaggerated?"