Chapter 6

Ellie buying flowers from the flower-selling boy, Ellie helping an elderly lady with heavy luggage, Ellie carrying books across the square, Ellie sitting by the fountain in the sunlight.

Cal often watched Ellie in the plaza in front of the library.

Unable to approach Ellie directly, Cal was only able to observe her from afar. Then, through his southern friend Johnny, whom he’d met after moving south, he learned another side of her.

“Elysia Nord? You mean the goddess of Nyx? Oh, excuse me. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“The goddess of Nyx?”

Johnny waved his hand, saying it was a slip of the tongue, but Cal couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard. Only after Johnny promised several times not to spread the story did he finally open his mouth.

Cal learned from Johnny what Nyx was and what kind of place it was.

And Elysia Nord was quite a celebrity at Nyx. Occasionally visiting, she would give her partner for the night a dreamlike evening—a goddess of the night. She was practically the incarnation of Nyx itself.

The iron wall woman who rejected every man’s advances and the goddess of the night who enjoyed one-night stands—both were Elysia Nord.

By northern standards, Ellie was a woman at the peak of decadent southern culture. She was someone he couldn’t understand and didn’t want to understand, yet Cal wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know why she was so different by day and night.

Cal’s infatuation deepened, and Johnny recommended that he try, even if it meant crashing and burning. That’s how southern men do it. Approach a southern woman in the southern way.

“Oh, now that I think of it…”

Johnny remembered the men Elysia Nord had chosen at Nyx and smiled mysteriously.

Big build, white skin, blue eyes.

Johnny predicted that a northern man, clearly Elysia Nord’s type, could move her heart.

Through Johnny’s introduction, Cal obtained membership at Nyx. Hearing that Ellie had visited Nyx, he hurried there. Not knowing when she would appear, he waited nearby for days, until he finally received welcome news.

“Welcome. Thank you for visiting.”

The server at the door handed Cal a small glass. Cal, already aware of what it was, hesitated briefly. Receiving this glass made him realize what kind of place Nyx really was.

A place where men and women come to spend the night together.

By drinking this and stepping inside, he would become one of the many men who came to Nyx for that purpose.

Cal brought the glass to his lips. The liquid that went down his throat was sweet.

“Thank you. Please enjoy your time.”

The door opened, and Cal walked straight toward one person. Even her back seemed to shine.

When he finally reached her side, Cal’s heart pounded so hard he feared it might be heard outside. Yet, all the times he’d rehearsed how to approach her seemed pointless, as Ellie spoke to him first. Cal’s heart dropped.

“Hello. Is it your first time at Nyx?”

Cal blinked at Ellie’s greeting. And at that moment, he realized—he would never be able to escape from this woman.

***

“Miss Elysia, you’ve been looking really good lately! Is something nice happening?”

At her coworker’s greeting, Ellie touched one cheek and smiled. Spending perfectly satisfying nights was a good thing, but she couldn’t say that honestly.

“I’ve been using a face pack before bed lately, and it works well.”

“Oh, really? Which one? Let me try it too.”

“I’ll bring some for you later.”

It was close to quitting time, so the two continued their light chat.

“Ah, did you hear? The intern is coming next week.”

“Oh, yes, I heard. An intern—it’s been ages.”

The Royal Library wasn’t a popular workplace, so new hires were rare. Most current employees were people who simply loved books—a bunch of oddballs, one could say.

“So, Miss Elysia, you’ll be in charge of training the intern!”

“Huh? Really? I haven’t heard anything about it!”

“Oh, Miss Elysia, honestly. The youngest always gets these jobs.”

Ellie, the youngest among the library staff, became tongue-tied. Training an intern sounded bothersome, but remembering when she herself was an intern and was trained, she accepted that someone had to do it. And that someone was her.

“And, from what I heard, he’s a very handsome man!”

Seeing her colleague’s sparkling eyes, Ellie just laughed. As the only unmarried person among the library staff, Ellie often became the subject of romantic curiosity. It was clear she’d be entangled with the new intern for a while.

Ellie’s love life was the main topic in the otherwise dull library because she had never dated anyone. To be exact, except for men she met at Nyx, she never let any man get close to her outside.

She’d received several confessions, but never responded to any. The “iron woman” of the Royal Library was Ellie, Elysia Nord.

The only reason Ellie avoided romance was simple—she was an orphan, a free citizen without family.

Ellie’s first memory was the orphanage run by the cathedral. Like other children, she grew up under the care of priests. There were many children in the orphanage, and Ellie was just one among them.

Still, Ellie was lucky. Growing up in a cathedral-run orphanage, she wasn’t wealthy, but had no trouble with food, clothing, or shelter. Fortunately, she was also naturally bright, so she could receive higher education. It took some effort to get into the academy, but she managed.

And at that academy, Ellie began her first romance. Her partner was an older student, and swept up in the excitement of her first love, Ellie was completely devoted to him. After their first kiss and affectionate embrace, she wanted to spend her whole life with him. She thought he felt the same.

But it wasn’t long before she realized it was only her own misunderstanding.

“Elysia Nord? The goddess of the Literature Department?”

“Goddess? Well, she is pretty.”

“She’s famous enough that students from other departments come to see her—how did you end up dating her?”

“She’s just barely an adult. She fell for me as soon as I treated her kindly.”

“Man, you lucky dog! Are you serious about her?”

“What? Of course not! An orphan girl from the orphanage? She’s not in my league, not at all.”

He wasn’t a noble, but a free citizen. Yet, Ellie, who attended the same academy, was just “an orphanage girl” to him. Despite both being free citizens, simply because she had no parents and grew up in an orphanage, Ellie was someone he considered “not in his league.”