Albion took in a deep breath.

  Breathing in the smells of home.

  He took off his clothes and climbed right into bed. He wasn't waiting a moment more. He lay down as soon as he could and slept off all the hard work he had gone through. And he slept for nearly 12 hours.

  A deep and restful sleep.

  A kind of sleep he hadn't gotten since his mother passed.

  He hadn't woken up feeling refreshed since, and it was a magical feeling.

  He sat up in bed, stretching his arms and taking in the afternoon light. A slight breeze found its way through his window. He hadn't thought of shutting it when he returned.

  It was nice…finally feeling some fresh air.

  Not breathing in a room full of dust.

  Breathing in the fresh air was like drinking clean water after drinking from a puddle.

  The difference was night and day.

  He stared down at his hand, imagining the ring to appear. He was still a bit surprised when it did. He thought it might have been a dream, however doubtful that was. It was just a bit too strange for him.

  “No work for me today, I’m going right on out and getting myself something to eat.”

  With each step, he kicked up a little bit of dust. He hadn't thought about it too much but now that he saw how settled the dust was in the hallway...he had to wonder how long he was gone.

  It couldn't have been that long...right.

  He went downstairs and pulled out a calendar. It was some sort of magical item...he never quite understood how it worked. It was just a crystal but it kept the date and the time perfectly. He took out the paper calendar that came with it, matched the information the crystal gave out to the date, and found the shocking truth.

  It had been more than a month and a half.

  Over 93 days had passed.

  'It’s been nearly two months! That's not possible.'

  He double-checked.

  Triple checked.

  The answer was the same.

  "Shit! Payment is due!”

  He checked the door and found that a letter had been slid inside.

  "Payment due by the week's end...and it was sent 8 days ago."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He was done for. There was no way the shop could make enough money to give them by tomorrow. Unless he sold all the books that were stacked up in the safe…

  'What the hell?'

  It was busted open.

  All of the contents were emptied.

  "Fuck. I locked the door what the hell happened…”

  ‘The window…’

  He never got the chance to close the windows. He left them open whenever he was home or in the store. He was done for.

  His books were gone. He had nothing to sell. It would take him months to get enough spellbooks to make up for the lost ones, and even longer to sell enough that he would come out of the massive debt that the store would put him through in the meantime.

  He had to face the truth.

  The store was lost.

  {You don't need this store. You have the library.}

  The journal had popped up suddenly in front of him, flipping its pages and making sure that it was read. Adamant that Albion saw what was written.

  "Yes, I do. How will I eat if I have no money? It doesn't look like anyone visit's that old library anymore. And beside's that I need somewhere comfortable to sleep at night. The Library is wonderful and gorgeous and there are so many… beautiful books...but it’s so damn stuffy and I can’t even fall asleep there.”

  {You can live in the Library for the time being. You do not have to stay forever. Bring new books too. It could always use new books.}

  That was true, he could just stay in the library while he figures things out. It was better than sleeping on the streets or going bankrupt.

  "Alright."

  {Don't forget to bring more books.}

  "The books that are already there fit so perfectly on the shelves I really don't think that there is enough room for that."

  {The Library will expand.}

  “What do you mea-whatever, it's a magic library, I'm not going to try to understand right now."

  First and foremost, finding out if he could make a door big enough to fit the bed through.

  He was happy to learn that he could. He traced his finger along his wall and it created a door that nearly reached the ceiling and spanned the whole wall.

  It wouldn't be a convenient door for a home, but it was perfect for moving in. Piece by piece he haphazardly shoved his furniture through the doorway. He didn't go through himself because he didn't want to keep going back and forth, but once he had tossed everything he needed through the door, from furniture to books, he was ready to pass on through as well…but not before making himself a bowl of noodles.

  It was the only thing in his house that hadn’t expired.

  And he would be damned if he wasn’t going to enjoy a meal while he was still able to get hungry.

  That aspect of the library was a blessing and a curse.

  As he was cleaning out his bowl, getting ready to leave once and for all, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

  He hadn't noticed at first but it seemed that he had missed a room...he remembered that closet being there...but he had never been able to unlock it. His mom told him it was just a broom closet that she had lost the key to. He had pretty much forgotten about it, but...he had to wonder if it was actually locked or not.

  He never put much thought into it as a child, but now he could see the glaring flaw in her excuse. There was no keyhole.

  Naturally, he was smart enough to understand what he should do here.

  Everything so far was solved using the ring or the journal.

  The ring was the key, the journal was the owner's manual, or so far that's how he saw it.

  He willed the ring to appear and placed his hand on the doorknob.

  Click

  He couldn't help but smirk.

  'I'm so smart...'

  He was ready for some magical item, some knowledge to do with why his mother even possessed these items in the first place.

  Something to help him understand what was going on.

  Instead...he got more books.