The Northbend library elder still did not offer them seats.
He paced slowly in front of the shelves, hands clasped behind his back, robes swaying as if the entire library were a stage built for him alone.
"So," he said at last, smiling thinly, "Northbrook finally remembers it owns books."
Jin said nothing.Bo stared at the floor.Ren leaned against a pillar and waited.
Cael stood quietly.
The elder's gaze slid to him.
"…They sent a servant."
Cael did not react.
"Is that truly how low Northbrook has fallen?" the elder continued conversationally. "Or did their Bookkeeper decide sending a nobody would be less embarrassing than coming himself?"
A few nearby disciples snickered.
"Oh yes," the elder went on, warming to it now. "I've heard of him. Twenty-five years old, acts eighty. Hides behind shelves and dust so no one notices he's never done anything worth remembering."
Cael breathed in.
Out.
The elder circled closer.
"And you," he said, flicking his eyes toward Cael's torn shirt. "Unawakened, yes? Sent to fetch books like a dog retrieving sticks. Does Northbrook at least feed you afterward?"
Jin's jaw clenched.
Cael stayed silent.
The elder leaned in slightly, voice lowering.
"Tell me," he said, smiling, "did your mother raise you to be this obedient, or did she simply stop trying?"
Something shifted.
The system surged.
Embarrassment Event DetectedTrigger Type: Personal Insult (Familial)Target Count: 1Environment: Library
System Actions Available:
A) Polite Social Reversal– Mild discomfortRewards:• Embarrassment Value +1• Mental Stability Increase
B) Severe Awkward Exposure– Target loses composureRewards:• Embarrassment Value +5• Technique Insight Fragment (Minor)
C) Catastrophic Public Embarrassment– Reputation damage– Fully plausible chain of eventsRewards:• Embarrassment Value +8• Technique Progress Boost (Locked)• Embarrassment Authority Growth (Locked)
Cael's breath remained steady.
He chose.
Option C.
Option Selected: CExecuting system action…
The elder straightened, clearly pleased with himself.
Then—
A junior disciple near the reference desk frowned at a registry scroll in his hands.
"…Elder?" the boy asked hesitantly.
"What," the elder snapped.
"This borrower record—uh—it says the marginal annotations in Volume N-23 were made by Lady Han."
The elder stiffened.
"That is irrelevant."
The disciple squinted. "It's just—same handwriting as the personal notes you asked us to store separately."
A second disciple leaned over. "Wait… Lady Han?"
Another voice piped up, confused. "Isn't that the elder's mother?"
Silence.
A very uncomfortable silence.
The first disciple blinked. "Oh. I thought… uh… because the dates—"
Someone coughed.
Another disciple stared hard at the ceiling.
Then someone else—trying very hard not to laugh—murmured,"So that's why the annotations are… descriptive."
The elder turned red.
"No," he snapped. "You are misreading—"
A fourth disciple flipped a page. "Elder… there's a dedication."
He cleared his throat.
To my dearest Han—your visits bring me warmth beyond ink and breath.
The library exploded.
Someone laughed.Someone else dropped a book.One elder from another section turned his back immediately, shoulders shaking.
"That's—""No way—""Is that why he always says family visits?"
The Northbend elder's face cycled through red, purple, and something approaching violence.
"OUT," he roared, yanking the bundled books off the shelf and shoving them into Cael's arms. "TAKE THEM AND LEAVE—ALL OF YOU—NOW!"
Guards rushed forward, desperate to usher them out before the situation somehow got worse.
No one met the elder's eyes.
Outside the gates, Jin finally exhaled.
"…We just watched a man get defeated by his own handwriting."
Bo nodded solemnly. "Books are dangerous."
Ren looked at Cael. "You didn't say a word."
The system chimed quietly.
Embarrassment SuccessfulSeverity: Critical
Rewards Granted:– Embarrassment Value +8
Cael adjusted the books in his arms.
"I think," he said calmly, "we should go home."
Behind them, the gates of Northbend Sect shut with exceptional enthusiasm.
And Cael walked away knowing something important.
The system didn't invent humiliation.
It only nudged reality—
and let people embarrass themselves.