Chapter 10
The squad continued on their journey into a dead forest, where Trevor suddenly saw a tree and yelled, "There! That's my tree! I used to play in that tree! We're nearly at the house." Sypha looked at the tree for a second before she said, "It's hard to imagine you playing," making him scoff as he said, "Yeah, I suppose so. But it was everything—that tree. It was my house, my boat, my fort. Anything I wanted it to be." "Goodnight, tree," he said solemnly. They continued until they arrived at a half-broken-down castle. They all got off as Sypha asked, "This was your home?" Trevor replied, "Yeah," as they continued to explore the broken-down state.
"It definitely says that it has history," Levi said as he looked around. All of them had torches except him, as he cast a spell to enhance his eyesight. "You grew up here?" Sypha asked as Trevor kneeled down. "Yeah," he said as he looked for a door. "I can't imagine what it was like to grow up in a single place," Sypha said. Trevor answered, "Mm, it was… it was fine. It wasn't the worst way to grow up." By this point, Levi was engrossed in exploring the ruins, tuning out their conversation. "How old were you when your family home was taken?" Alucard asked. Trevor paused for a second before he answered, "Thirteen, fourteen, something like that," he said as Sypha asked, concerned.
"You've been on your own since you were thirteen?" Trevor replied, "Maybe twelve. Who remembers that sort of thing?" Alucard, now concerned, asked again, "Twelve?" making Trevor annoyed as he asked, "Is there a point to these questions?" Alucard replied, "I'm disturbed to find that I had more of a childhood than you did." Trevor retorted, "And your dad's fucking Dracula." Levi finally asked, "What?" making Alucard say, "Sypha and I had more of a childhood than Trevor." Levi looked at them weirdly. "Wait, you guys had parents?" he asked, confused.
They stood there in silence for a complete minute before they all laughed. That was when Trevor suddenly found something on the floor—a tombstone-like slab. "Hmm. I think this is it," he said as he tried to lift it and failed. "Your hidden entrance looks like a hearthstone?" Alucard asked, noting that the entrance was a big piece of golden stone with inscriptions on it.
"Just help me clear it," Trevor asked as Levi sighed. "Oh magic, clear the rubble on the door," Levi chanted. The stone glowed bright blue before it was lifted and moved to the side. "Nifty," Trevor said as Alucard looked at the entrance before saying, "Congratulations, you've just discovered a big piece of stone," making Trevor look at him like he was an idiot. "It's the door," he said. Levi inspected it for a second before he chanted, "Oh magic, please open it." A chunk of his mana was gone, and suddenly, stairs appeared. "Huh, it was magically sealed. Quite tricky to undo," Levi said as Trevor and Sypha looked at him.
"Yeah, one of my ancestors put it there. They were supposed to teach me how to open it when I came of age, but, you know," Trevor explained. "The inscription on it, it was in Enochian," Sypha said as Alucard nodded. "Well, shall we go down?" Levi asked excitedly as he descended. The rest of the group followed while arguing about how Belmont wasn't even a Wallachian name, with Trevor explaining that they moved from France and Alucard insisting they were chased out instead. Levi, however, was looking at the large banners with the crest of the House of Belmont. That was only the first floor of the basement. A large spiral staircase led to a vast, expansive library, which made Levi nearly drool as he announced dramatically, "I am going to read every single book that is here," stretching out his hands toward the vast hall that was the library.
Shelves upon shelves of books stood before him. "That is literally impossible," Trevor said. Alucard added, "We don't have time," followed by Sypha, who said, "Every minute we waste is another life lost to the night creatures," trying to dampen his mood. All they got was Levi's sly smirk as he said, "Don't worry. Once you get what you're looking for, I should be done." He chanted, "Oh magic, enhance my speed as much as you can and enhance my memory as much as you can." Magic listened, using up nearly all of his mana, but in return, his memory immediately became clear—things he could barely remember resurfacing. Not to mention, everything else started to slow down as he got to work, blitzing from one book to another. "Did we just encourage him?" Alucard asked as Trevor sighed.
"I very much doubt that he could get through all of these books before we find our solution," he said confidently as they started their search on how to stop Dracula's castle from teleporting away. While Alucard was looking at a glass cabinet full of the skulls of his species, Sypha was searching through a big book, and Trevor was awing at a chain whip with a mace-like head at the tip called the Morning Star. They were all doing their own thing when they noticed Levi.
He was moving at a blinding speed, skimming through each and every book at an inhuman speed that no one could possibly read in. But from his perspective, he was not only reading each word but also remembering them, and despite them all being written in different languages, it was nothing to Levi, who quickly cast a spell to understand the writing. He was reading, memorizing, and understanding at a very, very vast speed.
The trio looked at him weirdly, like he was doing something pointless, but he didn't pay them any attention. In fact, he moved from one floor of the library to the one below it, as there were several of them. The library was extensive, giving Levi knowledge that was expansive. He also found quite a few interesting items on display, but he didn't take any, as this was Trevor's inheritance, something he was entitled to. Instead, Levi took interest in a particular dim crystal, which he had an idea of what to do with, along with a simple ordinary empty book. But he still continued, even when the trio discovered a magic mirror called the Distance Mirror. Even when Trevor and Alucard bickered, even when Sypha and Trevor bonded over his name, which originated from Trefor, which he hated, Levi was still going strong. He had been at this for hours, only stopping to recover his mana just to go back at it again.
They thought he was doing something foolish, but draining his core and refilling it to the brim was a method of strengthening his core, so he was multitasking, gaining knowledge of both arcane arts that he couldn't use. As it turned out, magic from this world was nonexistent for him. He couldn't even cast the very basics of it, which he didn't find odd, as he was quite content with his own magic system. But knowing other magic systems did allow him to get creative with his own spell casting. Unknown hours had passed as the trio got tired. Sypha and Trevor even slept together while Levi was reading in his enhanced mode. Alucard also sped up as he asked, "Aren't you tired?"
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A/N yeah, they had no idea what they have done, encouraging levi to read all those books created something.