Rudis said, pointing to a flat bowl placed on the floor. Inside the round wooden bowl, white fish and milk were finely chopped and mixed like porridge together.

  Max happily watched the cats eating on a plate while they dined bravely, then she concentrated on reading again.

  Max told herself.

  She took out a new piece of parchment from her leather pocket, spread it out, and opened the last page of the book while Laura, the white cat who was snuggling against her stomach, crept out and began to play tricks against her skirt.

  For a while, she scratched the cat’s back while watching the cute scene and as the cat began to rattle violently, the letters she was reading began to dance in her head and she could no longer comprehend what she was reading.

  Max glanced at the cat with an embarrassed face. Rudis quickly picked up the cat and put it in its sleeping basket, but the heartbroken cat did not stop crying.

  Rudis suggested.

  “Don’t worry. They will be calm soon after I feed them some milk.”


  Rudis affectionately stroked the cat, took the pot out and heated the milk in the fireplace. Max gave her a thankful smile before she put a robe over her clothes, took the book and went out.

  Finally, Max found peace in the library as she entered it after she passed through the cold corridor, as soon as she settled into her seat and began reading, she heard a familiar voice greeting her.

  Max, who had a perplexed expression on her face, blushed at the thought of drunkenness last night.

  Max snapped at Ruth.

  Max glared at him with a look of distrust.

  Max even raised her voice and outright denied it.

  For a woman, there could be no more embarrassing title than being a drinker, she figured. Fortunately, as if he had no intention of making fun of her any more, Ruth shook his shoulders and sat down at his desk.

  For a moment, Max stared at him with discontented eyes, before sitting weakly on her desk.

  Max pulled out a pre-arranged bundle of parchment from her pocket. Ruth picked it up and looked over it. Max noticed that as he read the pages of her notes, he had a satisfied look on his face.

  As she murmured shyly at his rare praise, Ruth coughed in vain and came back with a stern look again.

  Max quickly took out her stack of clean parchment, the quill pen and the ink bottle. Looking at her, Ruth smiled and began to explain, and every word he said was written down by Max.

  With Ruth’s monotonous voice and the sound of her pen gliding against paper, they spent a long time inside the library.

  Max asked the maid to prepare a simple meal and bring it to the library for them, as her study hours grew longer.

  They sat face to face on the desk when their dinner arrived, eating bread and soup, and exchanging questions and answers.

  Max held the bread in one hand and ate it bit by bit, while busily taking in Ruth’s explanation as the latter talked.

  With each new learning she had, Ruth became excited from time to time, and when she asked him to repeat the explanations, he explained them again, step by step patiently. He was kind to her unexpectedly, so she did not worry and tried her best to earn his reproach, even though she did not understand the topic all at once, Ruth had a generous attitude so she felt relaxed and able to ask questions about anything without worrying about being wrong.

  Ruth suddenly muttered with a look of nostalgia on his face. His expression made Max wonder what he was thinking.