Immersion

Chapter 40 Immersion After the hat finished speaking, Kailey rushed to the shelves as though fleeing from bandits and began frantically searching the books for a cure. Kailey spent hours searching through countless books and couldn't find a solution and felt disheartened after putting down books one after the other. As this continued, books were scattered haphazardly around her as she immersed herself in reading. The hat looked on, puzzled by Kailey's frantic search. Then, it remembered Kailey's request when they first met: "Might you lend me some of your research so that I might be able to cure the curse that has been plaguing me for some time?" After recalling what she had said, the hat hopped over to Kailey and tried to strike up a conversation to cheer her up. "I'm pretty sure this library has many books in a wide variety. You will likely find what you're looking for." With this attempt to help boost Kailey's spirits, the hat left the library through the tunnel, but not before leaving some magic bags containing food and water, knowing that Kailey would require them. Kailey had spent several days searching the library for a cure to her curse. The area was filled with countless books littered throughout the ground, giving the impression that a tornado had hit the place. She sat against the wall, skimming through the piled books. Her eyes had lost their spark as she turned page after page, finding no solution to her predicament. The only sound was the flutter of pages as she sat in silence. Suddenly, her stomach rumbled, breaking the silence and reminding her she needed to eat. Just as she lifted her head, she noticed the provisions left at the tunnel entrance by the hat before departing. Just as she rose to her feet, she stumbled, realizing how weary she had become. After regaining her balance, she went to the unopened bags and found bread and water inside them. She retrieved the bread from the bag and drank some of the water before eating the bread, taking small bites. While she ate, Kailey began looking around the room to see if she had missed any books. To her surprise, the room, which had initially looked majestic, was now messy, with many books open and on the ground. She regretted making the room lose its grandeur and decided to clean before doing anything else. She got up from her seated position and began reorganizing the books scattered throughout the room. Hours passed as she diligently put the books back where they belonged, although she didn't know how they were organized before. She did the best she could in making up her own arrangement.