Lunation of Fate

“Is this really the library?” Maxill pointed this out at Chastine. He happened to be familiar with the urban environment.

“Why, what’s wrong about it?” Juste was innocently curious at Chastine and Maxill’s behavior towards the edifice in front of them.

Chastine mulled over their current situation on whether they would step inside the unconventional book building or not.

She told to Juste, “Libraries don’t usually look like these…”

“Hello there!” There was suddenly a tall man with a steampunk suit and an over-the-top top hat who sneaked up behind them.

Chastine and Juste were startled, while both of Maxill’s brows raised up. Maxill was eyeing the flamboyant witborn on his peripheral vision.

The tall witborn then rested his hands onto Juste and Chastine’s shoulder, his right hand on Juste’s right shoulder, and his left hand on Chastine’s left shoulder.

“W-who are you supposed to be?!” Juste asked while he was still freaked out by the sudden entry of the strange witborn.

“Why, I’m Duke-X’s Makina! And I keep the library up and running.” He smiled after he introduced his name to them, the tone of his voice cheerful.

Chastine had weird vibes about Duke-X, so she made sure that they were speaking to the right person, whatever quirks he or she may have. “The-heh, so you’re the librarian then?”

“Well I’m absolutely am! Come, come, and see that we have books that might suit your aching interests.”

Duke-X nudged them from behind and they started to go where their feet was taking them: inside the casino-like library.

They settled in a lounge area where they get to drink tea or coffee with biscuits on the side.

“What happened to this library?” Chastine was asking Duke-X about the backstory of the interiors of the current book building.

The strange librarian heaved a sigh. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I now have the responsibility to tell the tale.”

Chastine sat up straight, while Maxill crossed his legs, and Juste leaned forward while sitting on the couch.

“I was really a showman at a casino. But because there were more people in the slots that in the library, the town leaders asked for my help to pull in people to enter this building.”

Duke-X sipped some coffee and went on in his story.

“Makinarians were forgetting the essence of how the city was built: through knowledge. So, I made some redecorating to attract both visitors and townspeople.”

He leaned backward on his seat and concluded his tale.

“So there you have it. The Makina Library looks like what it is now because people lost interest in reading books.”

Duke-X’s story tugged at Chastine’s heartstrings. She wanted to help the peculiar witborn but they needed to get what they came for in there: the Herb Codex.

Maxill was straight up focused on this motive of theirs. So he immediately brought it up in the conversation.

“This might cheer you up: we’re looking for a book that might be available on your shelf.”

“Oh, really?” Duke-X went suddenly giddy with joy. “Sure, sure, but I made sure that every reader will feel rewarded for their efforts.”

Chastine was puzzled at what he said. “Rewarded? What’s the reward?”

Duke-X explained about his new archive storing system. “The book itself.”

“Huh?” Juste was more puzzled than Chastine and Maxill.

“You see, I made modifications about the archival system in this library. Books are now shelled inside each egg that keep them in their top condition.”

He added, “you have to get the book that you want from the box machine where the eggs are stored. The box machine has claws that you use to get the egg from the box.”

“Hmm, sounds like a gacha-machine.” Maxill smirked at the thought.

“Exactly! I made it like this because of what I learned in the slots. It’s gamification, but for books!”

“Ok.” Chastine smiled; she was ready to play the box machine so that they could get the codex in no time.

“What book are you looking for?”

“It’s called the Herb Codex,” Juste answered Duke-X as he waited in anticipation whether it was available at Makina’s library or not.

“I’ll go check.” He was grinning from ear to ear.

Duke-X turned to the corner of the lounge room where a slot machine was situated. He browsed through a catalog, typed the book name on a connected typewriter, and pulled the lever.

Out came the color green on the slot machine’s roller, which means that the Herb Codex was available at the Makina Library.

Duke-X happily announced that the copy of a book they were searching for was under his care. “Good news lads, The Herb Codex is hidden in one of these eggs!”

“Great! Now we’ll play. Pick me!” Chastine was excited to try out the gacha machine.

“Not so fast, young lady,” Duke-X told her while winking his eye. “Because the book you want has limited copies, you need a password to unlock the gacha box.”

“Hmmp, so many obstacles.” Juste pouted his healthy-looking lips in dismay.

“Aah, but once you get the book it would be ten times as rewarding,” this was Duke-X’s words of encouragement to Juste.

Chastine frowned. “How will we know the passcode?” she had disappointingly asked the peculiar witborn.

By then, Duke-X was humming a tune and sang out the instructions for them to know the password:

“Looky here, o curious mind

Enter the depths of this thing behind

From side to side you’ll see fun

But it gets better as no coin is run

Take your pick from these books in the box

But some volumes need a code to unlock

You’ll find out the right combination

From the catalogue in this direction

The good thing is that if you fail

You can try until you hit the coffin’s nail

So what are you waiting for, oh curious fellow

Browse through the catalog until your eyes yellow.”

“Long song, but it’s quite draggy. You only need to tell us to search into the catalogue,” Maxill said blunty and didn’t mince his words

“Anyone knows the decimal system?” Duke-X then started to hum a tune.

“Err, nevermind. Lemme just think…” Maxill looked into the tall man’s eyes.

He was looking into the memories of Duke-X!

Maxill then pretended to browse through the catalog. He then blurted out what he had extracted from Duke-X’s mind.

“580-53 is the passcode,” he told everyone in the room.

Maxill then snapped his fingers and the foggy expression of Duke-X vanished.

“Ugh, well, that’s right. It’s in the plant section..” He couldn’t believe they found out the password so easily.

Duke-X taught them how to read and use the code that they have uncovered.

They went to the fifth floor of the gacha machine room and looked for box 80.

“There!” Chastine hurriedly went in front of box 5. She scanned through the glass window of the box and saw a transparent egg with the words: The Herb Codex. The eggs were arranged like actual eggs in an egg carton.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

She adjusted the number combination to 53 in the numbered knobs. The cover on the controls quickly opened.

She tried to move the controls, but it was too hard and stiff.

Juste noticed and offered himself to take her place instead, “let me have a hand at this, Chastine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I got this. Just tell me what to do.”

When Chastine had taught Juste about the controls, Juste started to try his luck to move the claw.

“Ok, Juste, ready?”

“Alright. Here goes nothing…”