Valentine

The Fabricate carries all of the useful information for the Citadel, nearly all of which are academic writings. For Valentine, although she can readily memorize the book titles, covers, and locations on the shelves, she's more keen on fiction books, which are sadly in short supply in the Citadel's archive.

As a result, after preparing for some time, she submitted a request to the Citadel, wanting to create a small area in the archive to store non-academic publishings, such as recipe books, travel diaries, fairy tale books, romance novels, and other similar "casual books." These are all completely unnecessary content for the Citadel, but to the people there who crave some other form of entertainment, this is the best kind of consolation and trade-off. Everybody who visits the place is incredibly grateful for Valentine's mini library.

Being able to share the joy of reading with everyone enraptured Valentine. Whenever it's break time or if the archive is free from visitors, she'll sit at one of the small desks in the mini library and read the new books or even those that she has already read numerous times.

To supplement the mini library's book collection, Valentine regularly takes the train to travel to all kinds of places. Her heavy luggage is constantly filled with books, excluding basic travel necessities. Not only does she bring books from everywhere back to the Citadel's headquarters, but she also donates some of the excess to various library facilities, especially the Climbers in every Bonfire City.

She has discovered that similar to the people in the Citadel's headquarters, those living in Bonfire Cities enjoy reading entertainment books too, but in hectic cities, these books aren't the people's foremost choice and have even progressively been replaced by other more modernized types of entertainment. Whichever bookstore Valentine goes to, she will earnestly purchase all the books that have been labeled as "casual books" and ship them back to the Citadel. Her tone always sounds dismal when she talks about these things to the kids in Senanonic, for it has been her belief that the charm and value of books can't be replaced by any other forms of expression. All that she has been doing is also to spread the charm of books to others, particularly young children.

Of course, not everyone will develop a love for reading. Valentine won't pressurize anyone about it, nor will she draw up booklists or stipulate reading time for the kids. Many of them simply enjoy listening to her story-telling, but her overly relaxing voice often becomes their lullaby... Still, at least the kids always end up quieting down. That is why Valentine is someone the parents greatly respect in the Citadel.

Just like the stereotype people have of traditional beauties, Valentine fancies a cup of tea while reading. She routinely stocks up her small cabinet with plenty of snacks and desserts to go with it, but once she munches away on these snacks, that stereotype will instantaneously vanish, as her favorites are mostly crunchy stuff like potato chips and rice crackers. Naturally, to prevent leaving food remnants on the books, she eats extra cautiously and even bought a pair of tongs specifically meant for snacks while she was away on a trip.

To a certain degree, Valentine has changed everyone's impression of the Citadel's scribe and the Fabricate. She is not only approachable but also interested in things other than books, and she even patiently responds to questions asked by people who have sent letters seeking help. The Citadel members eventually felt that although scribes who love snacks weren't common, she was pretty intriguing. This recognition truly left Valentine over the moon.

"So long as you have a beacon of light in your hand, you will not get lost in the Fabricate," is the understanding the majority of people have about scribes. But sometimes, Valentine can't help but wonder how good it will be if she can also be the light in someone's path to enlightenment.