On the other side, Bella and Elena are seriously looking for books on the shelves.

According to the instructions of the "Ratatosk II", what they were looking for should be on the two shelves in front of them.

Although black magic is a forbidden art, the library of the University of Paris has an astonishing collection of books, and even this shady discipline has an objective number of documents and materials.

The books here cover all aspects, including what Bella and the others have heard of before, and some methods that seem to be normal, but are actually very dangerous items, are listed as forbidden arts.

Some methods have even been lost for a long time, and have been sorted out by later generations through research.

No matter what time it is, there are people who challenge the forbidden realm.

According to the traditional concept, black magic, as a thing that is rejected by the major magic associations and aristocratic families, can be regarded as a crooked way.

However, just as beauty and ugliness are relative, angels and demons exist in opposition only. As the saying goes, if there is no righteous Lucifer, there is no evil Satan.

People in the world tend to stand on the side that they think are bright, and deny all the shadows in the world one-sidedly. In fact, it is the presence of shadows that supports the bright side.

All human beings cannot survive without people working at the bottom of the labour, because the most basic material resources are not guaranteed. In a sense, both the commoner class such as peasants and blacksmiths, and the aristocratic class such as kings and dukes should have the same status.

And this alternative view was once mentioned by Mr. Márquez with Bella's father during a small talk.

At that time, Bella was still young, almost the same age as Anna now, and she didn't have any special feelings at that time.

If there is any impression, it is that Uncle Márquez is a man with an eccentric personality.

He has traveled far and wide, to almost any corner of the world. Those anecdotes in foreign lands added a lot of stories to Bella's childhood, and made her full of curiosity about the scenery outside.

So, Uncle Márquez and Elena's grandfather, Mr. Giovanni de' Medici, would have gotten along?

Perhaps, when they were traveling, they also met each other!

"It's ridiculous." Elena was flipping through a book with a brown cover when she suddenly muttered.

"Did you find anything?" Bella put down the book in her hand and asked.

"You know what? There's a ridiculous thing in this book." Elena replied.

"Oh? What's the matter?" Bella's curiosity was also piqued.

"It is said that in the far east, there was once a king who, in pursuit of the elixir of life, actually let his men take three thousand boys and girls and sailed to the sea." Elena said.

"Is there such a thing?"

"yes, isn't it ridiculous?"

"Did you find it in the end?" Bella asked.

"Of course not." Elena replied, "How is this possible? There is no logic at all."

If you really want to achieve a little longer, studying the way of health is the normal way, right?

"What are you looking at, and why are you recording these strange stories?"

"Looks like it's called ......," Elena looked at the cover and title page again, "'Arslan's Travels.'"

"Why is a travelogue here?" Bella wondered.

It's all forbidden magic and stuff like that. If you want to travel in the humanities and social sciences, or the works of celebrities, no matter how bad it is, it should be regarded as a geographical investigation.

"Hmm...... I think it may be that there are some customs written in it that look strange to outsiders." Elena analyzed, "For example, it also talks about some wedding and funeral etiquette in the East. I heard that when people get married, they like to blow and blow, and when they are at funerals, they still like to blow and blow."

"Huh? Really?"

"It's kind of weird, indeed. Maybe it's a different custom."

Elena said, closing the book and placing it back on the shelf.

Then move on to the next one.

After a while, Bella found a book on alchemy.

"Look at this one." Bella handed the book to Elena, "You should be better at this."

In the field of alchemy, Elena can be said to be at the expert level.

"Let me see."

Elena said, taking the book from Bella's hand.

"It's ...... Research on philosopher's stones." Elena said.

"Philosopher's Stone?"

"Well, or the 'Philosopher's Stone'."

"Is that the one that is considered the 'Fifth Element'?" Bella asked.

"That's right." Elena replied.

"Isn't that something from a legend?"

"yes, there really are people who have studied this kind of thing." Elena flipped back a few more pages with great interest, but quickly looked a little disappointed, "Still, it doesn't seem to have worked."

"Did you fail too?"

"Hmm...... How so?" Elena replied as she flipped through the pages, "According to the above, it seems that this person did make some kind of special magic item. Although it is still far from the 'Philosopher's Stone', it is already remarkable from an alchemical point of view."

"But why did such research become a forbidden technique?"

Wouldn't it be useful if it was actually made?

"Well, maybe it's because it's not really turning stones into gold, but turning something into pure magic." Elena explained, "Know that the essence of alchemy—or rather, the basic law of alchemy—is equivalent exchange. Just as it is impossible to conjure gold out of thin air, magic cannot appear out of thin air. The so-called "philosopher's stone" is actually a catalytic medium that can carry out material transformation. For example, to extract mana from the surrounding environment for the user to manipulate."

"I see." Bella roughly understood.

Because this kind of thing may upset the existing balance, the people of the Magic Association, of course, will oppose it.

"But this author is really talented, and he can actually think of using the affinity between substances to achieve the extraction of magic."

Elena flipped through the pages for a few more pages, but found nothing helpful, and handed the book back to Bella.

Bella took the book and put it back in its original place.

The two of them continued their search.

Speaking of the front desk of the library, Mademoiselle Margaret and Monsieur Pierre are on their side.

Since the ratatorsk II was restored in the hands of Monsieur Pierre, Miss Margaret has used it for several searches.

Thankfully, it didn't have any more problems.

After playing for a while, Marguerite also felt a little tired, so she left the "Ratatorsk II" and stayed aside, quietly watching Monsieur Pierre copy the notes of borrowing and returning books.

"Excuse me, what's this code?" Marguerite asked, gesturing to where Pierre was writing.

For each book he copied, Mr. Pierre recorded a mixture of letters and numbers, in addition to the title of the book and the name of the borrower and the date of the loan.

"This is the number of the book." Mr. Pierre explained.

"Number?"

"Because after each book is included in the library, it is assigned an easily recognizable 'identity code' to distinguish different books."

"And what's the use of this code?"

"Hmm...... Generally speaking, different books have different codes. If there are two identical books, the previous serial number will be added after the same code, in the order in which they were stored. In this way, even books with the same name can be distinguished." "Recently, for example, three students borrowed the French version of the Geometry Original, and one borrowed the English version. You can clearly find the relevant records here."

"Sounds amazing." Miss Margaret exclaimed, "What a meticulous job."

"Actually, it's not that exaggerated. Usually, there is nothing to do, just do the registration of borrowing and returning books, and then return the books to the shelves in order. Occasionally clean up and tidy up the bookshelves." "This massive rearrangement and indexing is just a whim of mine," said Monsieur Pierre breeze.

"Then you're even better. I can do such a lot of work by myself."

"It's not that heavy, and when the books were being put in order, it was actually Josep and the others who helped me do it. Now that's all that's left for indexing, and I'm on my own."

"But how did you manage to write them all down with so many books, different categories and locations?" Margaret had always been curious about this.

"Well, it's not that difficult." Pierre didn't seem to think he was any great, "Just like learning the spelling of a word, you practice it a lot, you apply it over and over again, and you have mastered thousands of them. And these books, too, are the same for me. They are here every day, and I stay here almost every day. I know them, and they know me. After spending a long time together, I naturally became familiar with the location of most of the books."

"Uh......" Margaret seemed to understand, but she didn't seem to understand, "Forget it, if I'm looking for a book anyway, I'll ask you." And isn't there still "Ratatosk II."

"That's right." Monsieur Pierre didn't care, "Not everyone has that much time and energy to spend all day in the library, anyway."

Mr. Pierre is here both for his work and for his personal interests.

However, the two retrieval machines named after the squirrels were really the product of Mr. Pierre's personal hobby and passion.