It was only around a dozen minutes' walk from school to the library. Eric and Hannah sped up a little and took around 8 minutes to arrive.

  Both of them confidently walked inside the library, and as usual, the guard outside totally ignored them as if they were thin air.

  Many don't know, the town’s Mayor Jarvis had long ago commanded all the guards within the town to ignore the orphanage people. Unless they were causing too big of a commotion or disturbance within the town, the guards were to close their eyes to the small issues they might cause.

  So, these guards completely ignored the fact that Eric was underage and, by the order of Librarian Paul, underage people were not allowed inside the library.

  Hannah was a well-known person from the orphanage; almost everyone in town knew her. Eric was famous for his bright blue eyes and his overgrown body for his age, and was also famous for rejecting every wealthy and noble family's adoption interest in him.

  Eric and Hannah continued to walk toward Librarian Paul.

  Paul was least happy seeing the two.

  But the moment he received the book from Hannah, he started caressing it like his lost lover had finally returned to him.

  He swiftly began checking page after page for any damage.

  Eric told Hannah to watch over Paul. Even if there was any damage to the book, they didn’t have anything to fear. But he also didn't want to create unnecessary problems for Bella Noll. So, in case Old Paul did something underhanded and blamed them back or charged a large sum as compensation, Eric told Hannah to watch over Paul.

  The book had too many pages, so Paul would take quite a while to check atom by atom of his lover. Meanwhile, Eric would go around secretly touching all the other Paul's wives spread across the ground floor of this small library.

  While Eric was walking toward the last bookshelf, he asked, "Riya, why doesn’t my 'ability' have any effect on that old man? Any idea?"

  Eric never spoke aloud when conversing with Riya- always just with thoughts.

  Riya thought for a moment and answered, "Two that I can think of. First, the old pervert might be too strong but hiding it. I think your 'ability' probably only has an effect on people who are physically weaker than you. On this point, we need to do more experiments to fully understand."

  Eric nodded. He also noticed that. All who were affected by his ability so far were people he could defeat, probably. Also, the people whom he considered 'friends' were not affected. In other words, he subconsciously didn't want to impose his ability upon ‘his’ people. In short, they all received friendly-fire resistance buffs.

  Riya continued, "Second point: My guess is that to activate this 'ability,' you probably need to have strong emotions, such as anger or rage. And all you felt for that old man was that he was too funny and a weird book pervert."

  Eric laughed internally, that was indeed true.

  "Eric, I have a suggestion," Riya suddenly spoke with a very serious tone.

  Eric nodded. "Go ahead."

  "Don’t use your ability as much as possible until you become a Mana Wielder. No... I think it’s better if you don’t until you are at Rank 2 or just about to reach there. In other words, use it only when you are already ‘very used to’ being a Mana Wielder."

  Eric raised an eyebrow. "Why so specific?" he asked curiously, though he also felt Riya’s reasoning made sense.

  "I don’t know what changes happen after becoming a Mana Wielder, but you’ll probably have much better control over your ability, at least you won’t randomly affect everyone. We’ll check that again when you get there." Riya’s tone turned even more serious. "You probably didn’t notice, but after using your ability, your soul was burdened. I need to do a more thorough checkup since I’m not monitoring your soul all the time. But you don’t need to worry; I’m certain it’s nothing too severe and should recover in time."

  In fact, Eric’s soul had been in terrible condition since birth. Riya didn’t want to inform him of this yet, so she wished to avoid discussing ‘soul’ topics for now.

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  Eric’s eyes widened. 'Damn, I forgot that one needs fuel to run anything!'

  Well, he also hadn’t used his ability consciously. He also didn’t know how to suppress its activation.

  "For that, I have a guess," Riya continued thoughtfully. "I think it has something to do with your inner state, on how tense you become. If you’re angry, pissed, or even annoyed, you’ll probably activate your ability. That’s why I said to wait until you’re used to being Rank 1. After that, you’ll likely have better control over your body and mood."

  Eric’s mouth twitched. "In other words, you’re telling me to always joke around and never get tense for any reason? At least until I reach Rank 2?"

  Riya solemnly agreed.

  She was deadly serious. Right now, this ability was like a sword with no handle—touching it once or twice was fine, but if Eric unconsciously used it too often, he might lose his fingers without realizing it. He needed to understand how it worked, what it did to him, and gain better control, or he might end up harming people he didn’t want to.

  "No need to reach Rank 2. As long as you’re used to being Rank 1 or close to reaching Rank 2, let’s say until you’re at late-stage Rank 1. If you still can’t control it by then, it’s better to postpone using it further. Just make sure to stay playful until then."

  Eric didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  Thanks to this ability, he’d lost the right to get angry. No, he couldn’t even get annoyed!

  Normally, he was always joking around, at least in his mind, even if his expression stayed blank. He was a pretty chill guy, at least, he thought so. For example, even when he was about to die in his past life, he’d honestly been enjoying it and laughing. But if someone really pissed him off, he didn’t like holding back his annoyance either. Now, he had to monitor and control that too!

  Eric sighed, but he fully agreed with Riya.

  He reached the end of the bookshelves.

  Thanks to Riya speeding up their conversation, the entire exchange had taken only moments.

  "Riya, I’ll be flipping fast. If you find anything missed, tell me immediately."

  Riya agreed and reminded Eric, "Just make sure where you put your finger so no words get concealed. The rest is fine as long as you have a clear view of each page, even if it’s not at the proper angle or in the right order. You can even start flipping the pages from the backside or upside down—I’ll handle the rest!" she declared, slapping her wall-shaped chest.

  Eric nodded stiffly. Riya was photocopying; page numbers or angles had nothing to do with it. She could adjust those later.

  He began flipping pages at full speed.

  One bookshelf was done, then the next, and the process continued.

  Half an hour soon passed, and he completed half the ground floor’s books.

  'Great! There’s hope to finish everything today!'

  Eric continued his forceful molestation of Paul’s wives. Finally, after another half hour, he finished.

  As Eric was putting the final book on its shelf, Hannah called out from her position beside the librarian’s counter, "Time’s up, Eric! The ‘Great’ Librarian Paul is also on the last page of his checkup!"

  Eric sweated. Just to check one book, that old man took an hour! Was he really checking word by word, atom by atom?

  After Eric arrived, Hannah glanced at him curiously to see what book he had selected.

  Eric gestured for Hannah to wait.

  The Great Librarian Paul took another three minutes to finish checking the front, back, and side covers!

  Why did Paul skip the open ends? Because he checked them page by page!

  No wonder Hannah called Paul the Great Librarian—he was indeed great!

  After Paul finished his checkup, he snorted in dissatisfaction. He pointed out fingerprints on the cover and some pages to both Eric and Hannah.

  Eric had enough of Paul’s complaints about how his wife had been humiliated. He wouldn’t mind showing compassion another time, but right now, he was already running late to pick up two princesses!

  Eric demanded, "Old Paul, I need access to the higher floors."

  The old pervert jumped as if his tail had been stepped on. "Absolutely impossible! Be content with the ground floor!"

  Before Eric could retort, Hannah interjected with a nasty expression and scheming eyes. "Old man, I’ll tell House Mother about this. Seems you don’t want to keep your job!"

  Old Paul’s face paled. He knew his job would be over if Bella Noll filed a serious complaint with the town mayor.

  He slumped lifelessly into his chair and 'requested', "S-six months! If you return the books in good condition for six months, I’ll allow it!"

  Hannah was about to threaten him again, but Eric stopped her. Six months was fine. He wasn’t in a rush, as long as he had access, he only needed an hour to 'seduce' all the books.

  "What books on the ground floor are currently borrowed? You have the list, right? Show me," Eric ordered.

  Paul didn’t want to obey, but he knew he’d be threatened again, so he complied.

  Eric checked: 27 books total, one being his returned book. Probably most were storybooks or random references.

  He nodded and threatened outright: "Old man, I won’t take any books now, but the moment those 26 are returned, you’ll send them to the orphanage—swiftly! Don’t worry, I’ll return them pristine. But if I don’t get all within three months, prepare to bury your wi... ahem, books with your own hands!"

  Paul's face whitened. He almost had a heart attack imagining all his precious wi... books, books! That he had to bury with his own hands! And he wouldn’t even be able to get justice for them too!

  Paul's eyes turned vacant, as if he had lost his soul.

  Hannah nearly laughed out loud, totally enjoying the annoying old man Paul's expression. She was holding a grudge for making her wait for an entire hour to finish his check-up.

  Eric snapped his fingers and spoke coldly, "I also don’t want such tragedy and injustice to befall your wi... ahem, books! So you’d better not disappoint me!"

  After saying that, Eric turned around and started walking toward the exit door.

  Hannah laughed and followed behind Eric.