Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 76

After practicing his world essence control and the section of the spectral attunement that he actually knew, Dante headed out, eager to get his day started.

He walked down the steps that led to the main room of the inn, and was surprised to see Melisandre waiting for him. Generally, they only got together for his ‘lessons’.

Those lessons had been unbearably uncomfortable after the first. After waking up and realizing that he had cried in front of Melisandre, he had been mortified. He didn’t know what had come over him. Needless to say, he had been guarded after that.

Thankfully, Melisandre hadn’t delved further into his past after the first. They talked for hours every night, covering a variety of subjects; social dynamics, social norms, power dynamics, and relationship dynamics, among other things. Surprisingly, Melisandre reinforced every lesson with stories from her past, and she would also deconstruct and make sense of the things that they had gone over from his past on the first night.

The way Melisandre explained things made everything far more clear, and made everything that happened to him seem far less personal. The world no longer seemed to be against him, or at least not as much as before…

Upon seeing him, Melisandre smiled enchantingly. Dante froze. That enchanting smile usually meant that she was going to make him do something that he found to be uncomfortable.

“Dante!” Melisandre waved for him to come over to her.

Dante slowly walked toward her, dreading every step. The previous night’s lesson had been ‘small talk’, and he had been forced to hold a weird, almost cocky grin the entire time. Now his mind was wandering, thinking of how Melisandre would force him to apply that in his daily life.

Now, it was time to utilize that cocky grin. “Good morning Melisandre.”

Melisandre’s smile deepened. “You look absolutely delightful when you smile like that!” She brushed his hair until it was to her liking, then smirked playfully. “It’s going to be quite the challenge to keep the women off of you.”

Dante had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Melisandre’s relationship with him had changed drastically after he had cried in front of her. Instead of being threatening, she became almost too nice and playful. “What are you doing here? I thought I wouldn’t see you until tonight.”

“I came to bring you great news!”

The enchanting smile was back, and he was becoming more than a little skeptical. “Oh?”

“I managed to snag a reservation at one of the nicer inns in the Merchant’s District for tonight. Since Olivia and I are going to be busy, you can invite whoever you want to go with you to the Golden Goose inn.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but his grin stayed in an attempt to mollify Melisandre. “I’m afraid I’m going to be busy today and won’t have the time. I appreciate the offer though.”

It was Melisandre’s turn to slightly narrow her eyes, smile still on her face. “What are you going to do today?”

“I’m going to go shopping. The bookstore is getting a new shipment today.” Reading had been a newly discovered joy in his life, something that he was quick to grasp now that he had the ability and funding from Melisandre.

From what seemed to be thin air, Melisandre pulled a large sack out, the sound clinking coins was heard as she did so. “I’m sure that a few more gold coins would speed up your shopping trip.”

Dante involuntarily gulped as he stared at the bag of coins dangling in front of him, his mind was already thinking of all the books he would be able to purchase with the large sum. He cleared his throat. “A few more coins might make my trip a bit faster.”

Melisandre’s eyes narrowed further, and a hand flashed inside of her pocket. A second, and equally large sack of coins was pulled out. She dangled it in front of him, one of her eyebrows raised.

Dante let out a deep sigh. “Fine. You win.” He snatched the bags out of Melisandre’s hand and placed them inside his coat pockets. Causing a large bulge to protrude where they were hidden. “Where did you even keep them?”

“What a rude question!” Melisandre looked pleased. “By the way, who are you going to invite?”

Dante shrugged.

“What about that nice girl who works at the bookstore, the two of you seem to get along well.”

Dante froze, unable to understand how Melisandre could possibly know about what he did at the bookstore, neither she or Olivia had ever gone with him. On the other hand, Melisandre’s suggestion may have been a good one. The girl she was talking about had a vast knowledge and understanding of the books in the store, and had been able to answer almost all of his questions. A dinner with her was an excellent opportunity. “Okay, I’ll invite her.”

“Great, I’ll be back tonight to make sure you are suitably ready for your date!” Without another word, Melisandre walked out of the inn, disappearing into the streets outside.

Dante let out a sigh and followed in her wake. Asking a random person out to dinner seemed overly uncomfortable, but it was hard not to be a little happy when he heard the sound of gold coins clinking with every step he took.

It only took him a few minutes to get to the bookstore. The guards didn’t even give him a second glance as he walked past the gate to the Merchant’s District, and he followed the familiar path until he arrived.

He had frequented the store often. Mainly because the girl who worked there, or his new ‘target’, allowed him to read them prior to buying them. It was a privilege that none of the other patrons had, but was to be expected since he was their largest customer by far. All of the money he managed to separate from Melisandre was almost immediately spent on the best books he could find.

Dante opened the door to the large building, and the familiar scent of dust saturated his senses. The massive bookshelves in front of him were a sight to behold, and he subconsciously smiled upon seeing them.

The selection of books in the store was enormous. Mainly because there was almost no one in Desas willing to waste such a vast amount of money on books, so they were collected over time. Today was a glorious day though, one of the towns that Warlord Auron recently sacked also had a large bookstore, so for the first time since arriving in Desas there would be new books for sale.

“Good morning!”

Hearing the familiar voice, Dante shifted his smile to the one Melisandre had taught him. “Good morning.” He walked up to the desk that his target was sitting behind. She was small, almost petite in all aspects, but had dark brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and a pair of reading spectacles covering her face. She couldn’t be described as beautiful, but neither as ugly. She gave off a comfortable comely feeling. “Did the new shipment of books arrive?”

The girl nodded with a trace of excitement. “It was even larger than the report indicated, there are hundreds. Care to take a look?”

At his nod, she stood and walked to the door in the back of the shop. Inside the large room, there was a massive pile of books stacked together. Next to the pile of what seemed to be hundreds of books, three of the four other shop workers were sorting through them, dividing them into different piles by their type.

Unlike the girl who was leading him, the other three who worked at the shop were all older. It was a family run business, so he came to understand that it was her father, grandmother, and grandfather. Similarly to the girl, they were all relatively small, thin, and had the air of a scholar. It was somewhat surprising to see all three of them at the store, her grandfather was very rarely seen.

Upon walking in the room, the girl’s grandpa, Al, turned to him with a smile already on his face. It seemed that everyone was thoroughly excited by the new books. “Ah, I was wondering when you would arrive. Come, take a look.”

Al was by far the person he was closest to at the bookstore, even though he was almost never there. The two of them had gotten into a very long discussion the first time he was at the store, when he had mistaken the old man as a random patron.

Having no desire to stand on ceremony, Dante eagerly walked to the piles of books.

Al gestured to a small stack of extremely large books. “The encyclopedias we have found are all over there. We still haven’t finished sorting through the pile, so there will likely be more.”

Al emphasized the encyclopedias because he bought them almost exclusively. He had wandered into the store on a whim, but after seeing the vast amount of information stored within the encyclopedias, he could hardly believe it and frequented the store whenever he had the spare change or time.

Dante practically dove into the pile. He had already acquired all of the encyclopedias that the store had available, over twenty different tomes that covered a wide variety of information.

Seeing his attention focused solely on the books, the girl who led him in gave a short laugh. “The store will be open late tonight, so feel free to take your time. I’ll be at the front desk if you need anything.”

Unwilling to divide his attention, Dante gave a short nod. There were already several books that drew his attention. The largest tome in particular covered hybrid creatures. It was something that he had never even heard of, but just by flipping through he gleamed new information about which species of creatures could interbreed with each other. He instantly set that book aside, he would definitely be buying it.

There were several tomes that covered creatures and plants at a base level, something that he already had. Still, he took the time to glance at the index of each one, checking the number of entries and comparing them to the number of entries the ones in his possession had. He was rewarded by an encyclopedia on plants that had almost 15 additional plants in comparison to the one that he already had, but sadly none of the encyclopedias that covered creatures seemed to provide additional information.

In the coming days, he would definitely bring his own volumes and check to see if the ones in front of him had information that his didn’t have. For the time being though, he placed them to the side.

The rest covered a majority of basic topics, and aside from a book that covered enchantments, they weren’t immediately useful. He wasn’t hurting for money though, so any that he didn’t own previously were kept.

After that, he moved the stack of ‘guide’ books. A relatively small stack consisting of three books. Cooking, farming, and hunting. All of them only covered the basics though, and didn’t offer any specialized information. Deciding to keep the farming and hunting books, he moved them into his keep pile.

After that, he moved to the massive pile in the middle, constantly pulling out items of interest. He even stumbled over an encyclopedia that covered potions. Unfortunately, the rest that he found were only somewhat useful, as whoever created the books seemed to have a fascination with stories and legends, something he had no interest in. He did keep an eye out for any books that would possibly have mention of what an archaic was when he glanced at those stories, but couldn’t find anything.

By the time he was done, he looked back to see that his pile had well over thirty books, seven of which were the extremely expensive encyclopedias.

Seeing that he was finished, Al gave his pile a wry smile. “So many? Maybe you should only buy a few and wait until I get done reading the rest. I can tell you which ones are worth buying.”

Dante gave a short laugh, Al always seemed reluctant to part with any books, no matter how few. It made him a decidedly bad bookstore owner. “Finding out which ones are worth reading is half of the fun.”

That earned him a quiet mutter of agreement from the other two, and a sigh from Al. Hoping Melisandre had given him enough, Dante began to stack them and move them toward the desk out front in several trips. His target seemed quite surprised by the quantity.

“Are you sure you want all of these?”

Preparing himself mentally for what was to come, Dante put on the cocky grin that Melisandre had taught him. “Of course.”

She seemed skeptical, but still began to look through them to count up how much he owed.

She was quick, finishing in the span of single minute. “78 gold, 32 silver, and 5 copper.”

Books were far too expensive. Despite wanting to choke upon hearing the vast amount, he kept a calm demeanor. One of the things Melisandre had taught him was the importance of confidence, especially around women. Praying that he had enough, Dante pulled out the first sack and began to count through the coins.

To his relief, the first sack had 50 gold coins. Pulling out the second, he counted out 29 and handed them to her. “Feel free to keep the change.”

That brought a faint smile to her face. Warlord Auron technically owned all of the books within the shop and set the price, so any additional money would likely go straight to her. “Do you need me to send for someone to deliver these to you?”

Dante looked over the large stack of books and grabbed the encyclopedia of hybrid creatures. “Yes please.” There was no need to mention where to send them, he was too frequent a customer for that. Shipments from the merchant’s district were provided for free from mercenaries that were being disciplined, so there was no point in not having the books shipped.

Taking a moment to make sure his grin hadn’t slipped, he followed up. “I don’t think we’ve been properly acquainted, my name is Dante.”

Hearing what he said, she smiled in turn. “My name is Liza, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“By the way, I managed to snag a reservation at the Golden Goose inn for tonight. Would you care to join me after you get off of work?” His small talk lesson from the night before definitely hadn’t made a large impact, it felt like he was stumbling through the conversation. Still, he managed to keep the smile on his face and remained calm, and what he hoped to be confident.

Liza froze, then her face flushed bright red. “The G-Golden Goose?”

She was clearly flustered. A reaction he hadn’t been expecting. Clearly, his smile was more effective than he thought. He nodded in confirmation.

Liza didn’t seem to know how to respond. “S-Sure.”

Mission accomplished. “Great! I’ll see you tonight then.” He scanned his memory, but realized that Melisandre hadn’t given him a time for the reservation. “The reservation is for 9, how does that sound?”

Liza’s bright red face had a trace of confusion. “It sounds good.”

“Excellent, I think we are going to have a great time.” His words brought another blush. Dante spun on his heels in an unhurried manner, eager to leave the shop before he ruined whatever progress he made.

It was hard to keep the genuine smile from his face. That was far easier than he had thought it would be. The reservation might still be a problem, but Melisandre definitely had the capacity to adjust that if need be.