The Book Of Order And Anarchy

"So... first, why don't we go to the library?" The saintess suggested.

"Sure. Come on, Stella. I'll show you where we will study." Anne smiled.

They planned to show her each of the true facilities inside the Church one by one. Their first stop was the Library.

The library was in a huge fortified building. Many runes were etched onto their walls. There were many apprentice holy knights stationed here, Including ten actual holy knights.

Stella examined them in more detail. The apprentice holy knights had around 40000-50000 EP value. But, the holy knights exceeded 150000.

They were much more powerful than the Empire's magical knights. But their numbers were small. Stella found a total of 172 holy knights in this church. However, this kind of force was still terrifying. Especially when they were proficient in both offense and defense.

"Why is this place so heavily guarded?" Stella asked the saintess.

"This place has a lot of information and books on magic, runes, Divinity, healing, fortification, and so on. Many forces would do anything to get their hands on them. So this place has to be defended properly." Saintess Lavonne explained.

"This place only has a single exit and no widows. Anyone who enters this place is monitored at all times." Anne joined in.

"Furthermore, the entire building is covered in a space destabilizer rune array. Nobody can use any spatial storage tools, nor can they open any proper spatial tunnels. Each book is marked with...." Saintess Lavonne kept telling her about its security features.

"Saintess...." Anne whispered.

"What is it?"

"She understood nothing that you said. Why are you trying to explain all this to a seven-year-old? Look at her, she almost fell asleep listening to your explanation." Anne whispered into her ears.

"O...oh. I got excited, you see. Never mind." The saintess got a bit embarrassed.

"Stella, look up, we're here." Anne patted her head.

"Hmm? *yawn* We're here? Oh." Stella lazily rubbed her eyes.

The library was huge. Rows and rows of books sat on the bookshelf. Each floor was filled to the brim. A few people were roaming around taking and placing back the books. There were a lot of study tables placed in the middle of the room.

"Mm-hmm. We're here. I study at this place. Doesn't this look nice?" Anne smiled.

"So many books? I didn't expect this place to be this big." Well, Stella did expect everything. She saw all the places on the planet, after all. But she had to say something to them.

"We mostly study about healing and defensive magic. But many also specialize in runes, alchemy, and forging." Anne explained the subjects they study.

"Over the next few days, you'll come here with Anne and see what piques your interest. We'll only explore the first floor for today. Next up, we'll go to the practice area to see how every specialization works. And then, we'll go to the knight's training area. Maybe you'll like it too." Saintess Lavonne told them their schedule.

"Alright. Let's head off." Anne took Stella's hand and started walking with the saintess.

But as they started to leave the room, the entire world turned grey. The time came to a halt. However, Stella was unaffected.

She had complete immunity against Space-Time manipulation. It was even impossible for someone to time travel back to deal with her because she wouldn't even exist in the past anymore.

Stella was a bit surprised. Someone stopped time, even inside her dominion. Her [Absolute Authority] was always active. So she had a fairly good idea of who had enough authority to overpower her.

'But I don't see anyone.' Stella swept her consciousness. 'Weird. Nothing is happening. I can't resume the flow of time either.'

She started to float inside the library, looking for any clues as to why the time flow was stopped. And sure enough, she found her clue.

Her [Gaze of ######] scanned all the books in the library and found out all their details, except one. Only one book didn't have any details.

Stella picked up and floated the book towards her with [Space Authority]. Its color was red and white, divided right in the middle. It seems like a fairly new book too.

But as soon as she touched the book, it shockingly entered her consciousness directly, without needing her permission.

'Hmm? This book didn't trigger my [Absolute Protection]? I see. So this book is indeed from those beings.'

She retrieved the book from her consciousness again. Touching the cold exterior of the book, she felt a bit nostalgic somehow. But her memories were hazy, in a weird way.

She glanced at the cover and found the name of this book very peculiar.

'The Book of Order and Anarchy? What could be its contents?'

Stella tried to open the book. but she couldn't open it. She was quite intrigued. 'How is this book resisting my strength and abilities? Am I supposed to open this book later?' Stella found no definite answer so she could only throw it back to her consciousness. She tried to store it in one of her sub-dimension, but it refused to enter.

Stella floated down and grabbed Anne's hand. Then she took over the law of time and resumed the time flow.

"Do you want to see the medical wards first? Or do you want to see the alchemy labs?" Saintess Lavonne asked Stella.

"Hmm.... Let's see the alchemy labs." Stella smiled as if nothing happened a moment ago.

"Okay." The saintess smiled back. She really liked this little girl, especially because her personality was the complete opposite of Anne's. She wanted to do everything to keep her with Anne because she had less and less time to check up on her. Stella was the perfect person for the job. While giving an official church position to Stella was definitely uncommon, considering her age. But this was necessary because she knew Stella wouldn't receive money for free.

So, Stella had to 'work'. And her job was wandering around the church watching others work. Which is exactly what she would be able to do best, procrastinating.

And at the end of the month, she would receive a gold coin. It was a considerable amount even for the children of upper-class families. So, the saintess was quite sure Stella wouldn't feel short of money.

However, giving money to Stella would be the most unfortunate thing for the world and its economy. She loves 'Anarchy', after all.

.

.

.

*******

.

.

'Hmm.... she should like this one.' The little girl started writing something on her copy of the white and red book. "Bomb an old fogey? No. That's too boring." Her eyes shone with mischievousness. 'I should teach her the proper path of order.' She nodded to herself. Then she wrote something in the book again. "Kill two people by angering them to death.... Yes, this is nice. Very orderly." She kept writing more weird things.

And unfortunately, Stella's real job was being written in the pages of the book by this mischievous and terrifying little girl who bobbed her head each time she could churn out another 'perfect' mission.