“It’s dangerous. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Well, I guess.”
I understand what he’s saying. That Letty’s purity and adherence to righteousness as a hero is beautiful but precarious.
Almost no one is so straightforward without an ulterior motive.
I don’t have a heart that can selflessly help others as a hero without expecting any reward. I’m full of impurity, acting only for myself. I don’t even know if Letty’s way of life leads to happiness.
…but it does.
“I don’t think it’s wrong either.”
It’s not wrong. If that’s what Letty really wants to do, there’s no reason to interfere. I wouldn’t want to be scolded either.
“Hmph. Then watch carefully. You’ll regret it when it’s too late. The best thing would be to stop being a hero.”
No answer comes when he asks why he doesn’t quit as well.
Instead of saying something, he starts walking toward the exit.
Seeing this, I take out my watch from the Dimensional Storage to check the time – Crap! It’s that late already!?
I panic and quickly get ready to leave. I’m going to be late, damn it.
I hurriedly try to get back.
“D-rank.”
I turn to face him. What?
Without looking in my direction, Lucas says-
“Thank you.”
Just that, and Lucas leaves without waiting for an answer.
“Yeah…”
I say, taking my eyes off his back.
Man, what an unpleasant guy. He’s way too condescending and serious. Even Aldi seems more charming in comparison, but only in appearance.
…Well, but.
Despite his clearly irritating attitude – strangely enough – I didn’t feel angry at all.
After finishing my business, returning to the stables and waking the still sleeping Rafine and Letty, we head for the Magic Library.
Since entering the Magic Library requires special methods, an employee of the Magic Institute joins us.
Originally, Aldi was supposed to come, but apparently there was a sudden discussion between the bigwigs of the institute (super important people, apparently). They don’t have to come.
Anyway, now we’re in the Magic Library.
The Institute employee’s job was to get us in, so he’s gone now. It’s just us in this stupidly huge room.
Maybe because there are no other eyes around, Rafine has removed the ring of metamorphosis and returned to her original form. Well, there shouldn’t be any chaos here.
“It’s… my first time. Amazing…”
“S-so many books…I wonder how many there are…?”
The excited girls are in high spirits, restlessly looking around at the new sights.
Books as far as the eye can see. Rows of towering bookshelves line the area, magical texts floating through the air as if they were alive. If you look closely, the books in the shelves also seem to move and play on their own.
The Magic Library’s other name is the Library of Will.
As the name suggests, each book has a will and moves as if it were alive. Shockingly, even non-magical, ordinary books gain a will to move when they are brought here.
This is due to the special magical power that permeates the entire room.
As an isolated dimension – an alternate plane – it’s governed by the specific rules of the magic circles used to create it.
Violators are attacked by the library’s automatic puppet guardians, the “Protectors”, and chased endlessly until they leave the library. They’re super strong, by the way.
I’ve come a few times in the past.
Of course, I was attacked like crazy because I had entered through irregular means. In fact, I was so happy that I destroyed so many Protectors that the weird woman who called herself the head librarian came to complain. I think it was about 5000.
Moreover, the number of collected works here is said to be uncountable.
Fittingly for a place called the repository of all the world’s books, all kinds of genres are housed here. From ordinary magic guides to the highest level of magic, emperor class magic texts.
“Th-this is…ah, no way-!”
“Hey.”
It seemed to contain even more extreme, adult content. Eve, who was silently reading in a corner, has her eyes glued to it, apparently to a disturbing degree. I confiscated it, of course?
In short, if it’s books, it’s all here. So it’s ideal for gathering information. If it’s not here, it probably can’t be found anywhere else, I would think.
“Anyway, like I said, let’s finish Aldi’s request first, okay?”
I say as I grab Letty, who is about to jump onto a floating book.
“The request is to find certain books. The deadline is tonight. He wants us to find as many as possible from this list, it seems.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
I hold up the list, which contains nothing but outrageous books.
This was the requirement to enter the Magic Library this time. Although it is called public, only a small part of it is actually open to the public. We are now in an important restricted area. Only a limited number of people can enter.
I was sure that Aldi could submit the application, but apparently he couldn’t, and instead had to ask a high up at the Institute (supposedly a super important guy) to do him a favor and get him approved with the condition [then go find me some books].
So besides us, no one else is visible in the area. Practically reserved for our private use.
“As you can see, the list is full of outrageous books. In addition, the books in the library move around. Finding these numbers will be quite difficult.”
Even with Detection Magic, it is extremely difficult to find books without mana. There’s an anecdote about a scholar who spent years trying to locate books by hand.
Any serious search would require dozens of mages skilled in Detection Magic. Expensive and time consuming. Way out of my price range. No motivation either.
“Well, here’s the main problem…”
I start to explain, then cut to the chase.
“Moving together is a pain and I’d rather we split up-“
“No!” “I don’t want to!” “No way!”
Instant rejection. Whoa there.
“Whoa whoa whoa, wait. Wouldn’t it be more logical to split up? Think about it, we’d finish the search faster if we searched separately, right?”
“Sure, but something seems fishy. There must be a catch.”
“Ugh.”
“Besides, we don’t have to find it, right? In fact, Master Aldi said it’s okay if we don’t find any.”
“Guh…”
My holes poked through, I stumbled in panic. Met with suspicious looks.
Crap, so they heard it from Aldi, huh. The application as a formality is blown. Damn it.
…No help now. Plan C it is.
“Then how about a contest? We split up, and whoever finds the most books gets to command the one who found the fewest. How’s that-“
“Deal!” “I’m in!” “Let’s do it!”
Instant agreement. Your eyes glow with motivation.
“Um, anything you can order?”
“Y-yeah. But keep it reasonable.”
Hearing that, they start talking as if my loss is assured. “I can do anything to Master Jirei!” “A date with Ray, then we’ll-” “Take Shisho to my party and-” Choose your words carefully, don’t talk as if my defeat is guaranteed.
“Basically, anything goes for search methods, but… Rafine.”
“Yes? What is that?”
“Clairvoyance is forbidden. Got it?”
“I understand. That would be cheating.”
“It’s not that. Your magic still hasn’t recovered from using it on the spirit grass, has it?”
Surprised by my words, Rafine opens her eyes.
“Yes…thank you very much.”
-smiles gently with a pleased face.
Well, that is fine. While Clairvoyance is tiring from the delicate mana manipulation, it consumes massive amounts of magical power. No matter how much power Rafine has, frequent use puts a great strain on the body. Collapsing would be problematic.
“Unfair.”
For some reason, after I feel satisfied, Eve puffs up her cheek and complains, “Unfair. Huh?
I think it’s the other way around, balancing things out, but…
Rafine beams smugly while Eve looks irritated for some reason. I don’t really get it.
“Fufu… I get the right to have private time with Master Jirei!”
“Shut up. I’m winning. Adult date with Ray.”
“I’ll do my best too! Defeat the Demon King with Shisho! Raa!”
Highly motivated, it seems. Happy and excited.
“Alright…”
While they’re talking assuming my defeat, the point is that this allows us to go separate ways. I can move on to my real goal.
After agreeing on a time and place to meet, we disperse.
Rafine and the others rush around with Detection Magic and such, trying to find the list books.
But I don’t search, I go straight to a certain place.
“Lose? Hah…that’s not going to happen.”
The girls were excited to talk about winning, but did they really think I’d just say that without any countermeasures? Me, this genius?
No, impossible. Of course, I only want to win.
Smiling wickedly, I reach my destination after a few minutes of walking.
The spiral staircase that connects the vast space of the library and leads to other levels.
Rafine and the others probably know about this. I explained before. Unaware that it’s my trap.
I simply go up the spiral staircase, also called the Infinite Staircase, and –
-Not really.
Instead, I go to the empty floor on the opposite side.
This is Floor One. No stairs down, just an ordinary floor. But I know what lies “beyond” here.
Crouching down, I place my hands on the floor. Then I let a little magical power flow through them.
And then…
Tick, tick… With a sound, the floor begins to shift. The gears are activated.
“Hehehe…”
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