While Elysia was in the Academy City pretending to be a new teacher and spinning tales for the children, Ryn was searching for someone he was curious about.
Ryn sat in the library of Senba Academy within the Academy City, waiting for his prey to walk right into his trap.
He had been to this library several times because it housed books written by Dr. Einstein and that little Dr. Mobius. Out of curiosity, Ryn also searched for any books he might have written himself.
Since the books he wrote were mostly about his research in the field of artificial intelligence back then, he was searching in the AI section…
Coincidentally, it was there that Ryn unexpectedly met the person he had been curious about and had wanted to meet ever since he arrived in Nagazora City.
"Hello, may I sit here?"
Mei, holding a few books, stood beside Ryn and asked softly.
"Of course, just a moment."
Ryn glanced at the seat Mei was asking about, then picked up a cup of bubble tea that some jerk had left to save the seat and casually tossed it into a nearby trash can.
He then stood up, pulled out the chair for Mei, and cleared the tabletop.
"Please, have a seat."
"Thank you."
Mei's lips curved up slightly into a polite smile. She then sat down gently and began to read her chosen books with rapt attention, occasionally jotting down key points in her notebook.
Ryn sat to the side, propping his cheek on one hand, and watched the reading Mei from the side.
To an outsider, it probably looked like a diligent student engrossed in her studies, while a perverted young man next to her was unabashedly staring at her.
Ahem, Ryn wasn't a pervert, he was just righteously appreciating what Mei's counterpart from 50,000 years ago looked like.
In her youth, Mei wore the same Senba Academy uniform as everyone else. But even the loose-fitting uniform couldn't hide Mei's rapidly developing body during puberty.
She had a face very similar to Mei's and smooth, long black hair. But unlike Mei during her student days, who was like an unapproachable flower on a high peak, this Mei seemed much more approachable.
Her eyes were glued to the content of her book, and she would occasionally gasp in amazement. The large, round glasses on her face added an air of scholarly elegance to the young girl.
Just as Ryn was lost in his observation, a male student with a backpack walked over.
Without a word, he forcefully shoved Mei.
"Hey, you took my…"
Interrupted from her reading, Mei was forced to look up from the sea of books. Just as she was about to turn and see who it was…
Whoosh—
A gust of wind blew past, causing the books on everyone's desks to flutter noisily. Mei's vision was obscured by her own flying hair.
When the young girl brushed her hair aside and could see clearly again, she found that everyone was sitting quietly and reading, as if no gust of wind had just occurred.
She turned to look behind her, but saw no one.
"Strange… didn't someone just call me?"
Mei turned back, puzzled, and asked Ryn who was beside her:
"Excuse me, did you happen to see who called me just now?"
"Someone? Nope! It was just a noisy mosquito passing by, and I swatted it away."
Ryn waved his right hand to show Mei that he had indeed just swatted a mosquito.
"Is that so… Strange, but I thought I heard a voice… Never mind, I must be hallucinating from lack of rest."
Mei thought for a moment and decided not to dwell on it. As for the feeling of being pushed just now, it was probably Ryn hitting her by accident while swatting the mosquito.
Opening her book again, Mei found herself in a predicament. The wind had messed up the pages, and she had forgotten where she had left off…
Authors these days write such messy books… especially the one Mei was currently reading, "On the Possibility of Achieving Cross-Spacetime Communication via Quantum Entanglement" by Dr. Ryn.
A book of several million words, written like a diary, with tiny slivers of scientific truth sandwiched between piles of meaningless nonsense…
Current research in the quantum field has stagnated, and all existing literature consists of wild hypotheses.
Only the appearance of Ryn's book had been a breath of fresh air for Mei. Although the book was filled with a lot of nonsense, its research into the quantum field was very comprehensive. While the title was about the possibility of cross-spacetime communication through quantum entanglement, it also touched upon many other areas of the quantum field.
Notably, Dr. Ryn had written about something that had never been circulated in the outside world—the Sea of Quanta.
Mei was filled with curiosity and longing for the Sea of Quanta, desperately trying to glean information about it from Ryn's book. However, every mention of the Sea of Quanta was just a casual note, potentially scattered in any corner of the book.
Now that the pages were mixed up, and the chapter titles in this blasted book's table of contents had no relation to the actual content…
Mei could only painstakingly flip through the pages one by one to find her previous spot…
Searching for a single passage in a book of several million words… it was a good thing Mei was very patient, otherwise she would have given up long ago.
Ryn: "Are you looking for where you left off?"
"Mmm…"
Mei continued flipping through the book without looking up, answering Ryn as she searched.
"This book is very poorly written, with no outline at all. The titles and content are all jumbled… so now I have to search page by page, which is quite troublesome…"
"Hahaha…"
Ryn scratched his nose awkwardly. Being told by a reader to his face that his book was poorly written was quite embarrassing.
"You were on page six hundred and thirty-seven. Just turn there."
Mei looked up at Ryn for a moment, then tried turning to that page. Just as Ryn had said, Mei found that she had indeed been reading that very page.
Mei quickly placed a bookmark on the page and looked at Ryn with delight.
"You even remembered which page I was on, that's amazing!"
"Wait, how did you know which page I was on?"
——————————————
Outside the library, the person who had used the bubble tea to save a seat, the one whose spot Ryn had given to Mei, was now standing blankly at the main entrance.
"Strange… why am I standing at the library entrance?"
"Eh… what was I going to do?"
"Oh right, buy bubble tea… two cups."
"Hmm? Why am I buying two cups for just myself?"