Chapter 155: Evil Book.

Damien was seated cross-legged at the centre of the ritual dais, the Tome of Avarice laid flat across the small makeshift table before him, but it was not where his focus lay.

Across from him was Hannah. She was no longer wearing her armour, which allowed her endowed chest to breathe freely. She wasn’t that much taller than Damien even while she sat, but she was certainly heavier, at least Damien thought so.

Her body was temptingly curvy even from where he sat, but she couldn’t see his fixated gaze as she was focused on a pile of ancient papers before her. Her attention was entirely occupied by the strange material spread across the table, each page containing information that Damien had been completely unable to understand on his own.

"Why did we have to come here again? I see no reason why we can’t study at your place."

Damien snapped out of his reverie, then coughed awkwardly. "Remember I accidentally blew it up while trying to figure the Tome out on my own? It was a week ago and I have been sleeping here ever since."

Hannah paused for a second before looking around the place. The makeshift study area was hardly impressive, especially compared to what Damien had apparently destroyed. There was little here besides the open sky, ritual dais, the small table, and the ancient materials they had gathered for their studies.

She almost felt pity for Damien.

She rose and sat down next to him, adjusting herself before turning her attention back toward the Tome. Damien watched her for a second before quickly looking away when he realised she might notice.

"Can I take a look at the Tome of Avarice?" she asked curiously.

Damien was hesitant, but still reluctantly passed it along. His fingers remained on the edge for a second before he finally released it.

"I believe it is more than just a spell book. For some reason, I feel it answered the question I asked on its first page. I just have no idea what is written on its page."

Hannah studied the page Damien referred to closely.

At first, her expression remained normal. Her eyes moved across the strange writing, following each line carefully as though she were trying to decipher the meaning. But after a few seconds, something changed.

Her cheeks gradually began to turn rosy red.

Damien noticed the change immediately.

He didn’t say anything, but his curiosity only increased as Hannah continued staring at the page. Whatever she was reading, it was clearly not what he had expected.

Then Hannah suddenly snapped the book shut.

"This book is evil, evil I tell you..."

She turned to Damien with a forced smile that did absolutely nothing to hide her shame.

"Let’s use my material to study. It’s basically the same thing, and only one page of your Tome has any words in it. We can’t exactly study with only that, now can we?"

Damien stared at her for a few seconds.

He glanced at the Tome, then back at Hannah, there was clearly something wrong.

Hannah was acting unusual, and Damien knew her well enough to recognise when someone was deliberately avoiding a subject. She had gone from being curious about the Tome to refusing to even keep it open within the span of a few seconds.

But Damien also felt like if he inquired further, she might actually punch him in the face.

So he wisely let the matter rest.

He reached for the pile of ancient papers instead, leaving the Tome where Hannah had placed it.

Whatever she had seen on that page, he would figure it out eventually. For now, there was no reason to risk getting punched over it.

Damien was a quick learner, although at first Hannah felt like it was because he was an Awakened. One of the changes they all experienced after awakening was the ability to retain large amounts of information in a single sitting and comprehend subjects they normally wouldn’t have been able to understand.

It made learning much easier than it had been before, especially when they were dealing with ancient knowledge that would have taken years to properly study under normal circumstances.

But as they continued, she quickly realised that Damien was quite the literary talent. The way he would use words and apply meaning in ways she could have never even thought of made her wonder if there was more to him than she had initially assumed.

He didn’t just memorise what she taught him either. He would occasionally take a concept, look at it from another angle and somehow explain it in a way that made perfect sense.

Hannah eventually couldn’t hold back her curiosity.

"Don’t tell me you’re some kind of genius."

Damien chuckled lightly. "It’s nothing impressive, I just read a lot of books while I was on Earth. I was never really able to keep a job for more than a month, nor maintain long-term relationships, except with books."

Hannah’s face appeared frozen.

She stared at him for a few seconds, as though she was trying to figure out whether he was joking or being completely serious. Somehow, with Damien, both seemed equally possible.

"Wait, if you can’t keep long-term relationships, then how are you supposed to maintain that one?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly before she shook her head, quickly pushing whatever she had read in the Tome of Avarice out of her mind. There was absolutely no reason for her to think about that page again.

"Were you like a shut-in, neat?" she said, covering her mouth with one hand.

Damien shrugged. "You could say that, except I actually do pretty well with people when I want to."

That answer seemed to confuse Hannah even more.

"Like you are with Yuri and Andrea?"

Damien didn’t think much of it. "With you too, we get along pretty well, right?"

Hannah looked away with both hands over her face, but she still managed to squeeze out a response.

"Yeah, definitely."

Damien simply nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, completely unaware of why Hannah was suddenly hiding her face. He had no idea what was going through her mind, and from his perspective, there wasn’t anything particularly strange about their conversation. As far as he was concerned, she had answered his question.

He would’ve inquired, but a figure ran up to them from a distance. The approaching figure was moving quickly enough that Damien’s attention was immediately drawn away from Hannah, leaving whatever question he might have asked forgotten before it could even leave his mouth.

"Hey, it’s the glorified guard dog." Damien said a little too enthusiastically.

Rex almost stumbled to the ground before them, but managed to hold himself up. He looked like he had rushed all the way there without bothering to slow down properly, and judging from his expression, he had probably been hoping for a more dignified reception than the one Damien had given him.

"Damien Sir, could you please stop calling me a glorified guard dog, it’s really hurting my chances with the ladies."

At that very moment, Hannah turned and faced them, she said coolly. "Huh. Glorified guard dog, what brings you all the way out here, isn’t Andrea at home right now."

Rex shook his head. "No..." After a long moment he realised that she also called him a glorified guard dog, which made him start to question his life choices. He had already grown used to Damien calling him that, but hearing the same thing from Hannah made the nickname feel considerably more unfortunate. His expression sank as the weight of the situation slowly settled in.

He said dejectedly. "Andrea led a small team deeper into the ruins of humanity, she just sent back word, asking you to join her, apparently they found a wall carving that needs your attention."

Hannah nodded. "Send word back, I will be joining her shortly."

Rex had a complicated look on his face. "She actually asked for Damien."

"Me?" Damien exclaimed in surprise, he would expect her to ask for someone with more knowledge of runes. Like Hannah, or old man Bo, why him? He wondered if it was because he was a Round Table member. There were certainly people around who had spent far more time studying ancient writings than he had, making Andrea’s choice somewhat unexpected.

He turned to Hannah. "You wanna come with?"

She shrugged, but still agreed. There wasn’t much reason for her to refuse, especially considering that Andrea had specifically requested her students attention.

Damien didn’t think too much about it either, his curiosity about the wall carving already beginning to replace his surprise at being called for in the first place.

Rex flinched and backed away as black miasma permeated the ground, the Therizon emerged with all its glory.

Damien turned to Hannah and said mischievously.

"Well then, my lady".

Hannah clicked her tongue. "We’re riding a big chicken".

Damien didn’t see it that way, so he corrected her. "We’re riding a really big chicken".