Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 41

Medusa turned over another page.

"The Company of the Ring stood silent beside the tomb of Balin. Frodo thought of Bilbo and his long friendship with the dwarf, and of Balin's visit to the Shire long ago. In that dusty chamber in the mountains it seemed a thousand years ago and on the other side of the world..."

This was the normal pastime of Medusa. The girl turned over the page, after which she moved her blindfold around to be more comfortable, which is now resting peacefully on her chest, removed due to the need for it to be absent on her eyes while reading. Of course, Medusa could easily navigate the world without the aid of vision, in a magical environment or not. Otherwise, she would have faced many obstacles in life, ranging from walls to just normal people, the amount of mana in which was too insignificant for the Servant to determine their very presence next to her. Medusa could perfectly navigate the world around her, but even she could not read without using her eyes. Theoretically, of course, she could learn Braille and learn to read in this way, but she did not want to bother doing it.

'Well, I can read no more for a long way,' said Gandalf, 'except the word gold, and Durin's Axe and something helm.'

Medusa turned over the next page.

She liked to read. Really enjoyed reading. But, unfortunately, it was not so easy to do. In order to read, she needed to remove her blindfold. But having removed the blindfold, she was forced to look at the world with her cursed gaze.

You cannot live comfortably with cursed eyes. Her eyes were really damned, anyone who looked into her eyes would die. Not immediately, but inevitably they would. Even if the gazer was strong, even if he was a Servant, her damned gaze would sooner or later kill the gazer. The unblinking gaze of the eternally disfigured and damned eyes of Medusa.

At first it could be a little discomfort. Then - fear and cold. Then - only cold stone would remain from her victim.

This was not always a quick process, but it was inevitable. A simple person needed only to look for a moment - and he would have become petrified instantly. It was safer for the Servants - and yet it was inevitable. Even if her opponent was strong, they could not escape from her damned gaze. Even her sisters could not.

Medusa stopped for a second when she realized that being lost in thought, she completely missed the contents of the previous paragraph and began to re-read again.

Her damned eyes was really a curse. Of course, perhaps in battle its usefulness could not be underestimated, but outside of a battle there was not a single positive thing associated with it. She was forced to wear a blindfold not because she wanted to, but only because she had no other way to live. It's hard to live knowing that your one casual look can - and will - kill random people. She had no control over this ability, only power, which she could not control.

Therefore, Medusa loved to read.

Somewhere in the distance, at the other end of the library, a door suddenly opened and Medusa carefully listened. Not many people wanted to visit the library at such a late hour. Exceptions of course existed, but there were very few.

If this was a simple visitor, they will sit in the central hall and simply go about their business. Medusa was in the farthest corner of the library, where no one could disturb her.

"Leadership secrets for young leaders," the girl read the name of a book, which was standing next to her on a shelf and looked away. The entire rack next to Medusa was crammed with volumes of such useless literature, so that she could be sure that no one would come near to her in search of a book. Who could ever need such a thing?