The Library
The library.
“This is the library.”
“Thank you.”
As dawn broke, Joseph immediately headed to the library following the servant’s guidance.
Viscount Folmers had accepted Joseph’s proposal to entrust him with the task.
The key to the library was the compensation.
“I will allow you to take one grimoire of your choice.”
He had said that if Joseph wanted another grimoire, he could stay in the castle longer, but Joseph didn’t respond.
It was smaller than I thought?
The library was smaller than Joseph had imagined.
He had thought that since it was called a library, there might be a separate wing in the castle. But it seemed like they had just turned one adequately spacious room inside the castle into a library.
Strictly speaking, it would be more appropriate to call it a study rather than a library.
Well, books aren’t exactly common items...
In this era, ordinary farmers can’t even read. Unless you’re a noble or a mage, there wouldn’t be much demand to begin with.
So naturally, there wouldn’t be much need for a large library.
It was a new realization that the village chief of Bari Village, who had somehow invested in acquiring even cheap grimoires, had made a substantial investment.
Creak—
When he opened the door, a musty smell of dry wood and old parchment wafted from inside.
The lack of dust suggested that someone was maintaining it.
The sun was still up, but the library was dark because no light entered.
If only there were something like a flashlight...
Joseph thought this as he lit the candle lamp to illuminate the surroundings.
This really is like a school library.
The monotonous rows of wooden bookshelves in the not-so-large space made it even more so.
The books in the shelves had a strong impression of being expensive luxury items.
The book spines were decorated with elaborate patterns or had locks to prevent casual handling, making it clear that they weren’t items for ordinary people to see.
Joseph immediately began quickly scanning the nearest bookshelf.
He hadn’t intended to read the book spines one by one to find the needed grimoires.
From seeing the Fire Grimoire and Zallier’s Grimoire, he had realized.
A proper grimoire can be identified at a glance.
“Huh?”
As he was quickly flipping through the books, Joseph stopped in front of one bookshelf.
Old grimoires that he had seen in the junk shop outside the castle were shelved there.
But Joseph didn’t take them out to check.
His gaze naturally locked onto one book as if being sucked in.
This one.
Joseph reached out and slowly pulled the book from the shelf.
Holding the book with blue-dyed leather covering made him feel it even more surely.
At least on the level of the Fire Grimoire.
It was found faster than I thought.
The blue grimoire had been left unattended for quite some time, so its surface was slightly sticky.
There was no writing on the cover, making it look like some random junk at first glance.
However, since it wasn’t so serious that he couldn’t open it, Joseph immediately opened the grimoire.
To learn magic, one must have the talent to sense the mana of all things in the world.
Those without talent who fail to realize this should quickly give up and live a humble life as ordinary people.
It was indeed a proper grimoire, and like the others, the beginning had basic theories of magic written in it.
However, there was one peculiar point: it emphasized talent particularly.
It felt like the author’s intention to only teach those with talent.
As he read through the basics of magic and the praise for talent...
He finally found where the actual magic was written.
When learning wind magic, the most important thing is to find its unique mana in the flow of air.
“...Wind magic?”
Joseph’s expression became a bit subtle when he saw the words “wind magic”.
In fact, Joseph hadn’t been particularly interested in wind magic.
Controlling the wind.
It sounds plausible at first glance.
But wind has infinite uses, yet compared to fire or water, it’s weak in power and thus not very useful.
With simple magic, at best you can only make sweat or cool things, and unless you create a tornado from your hand, it’s hard to use as an attack method.
Even if I make a tornado, how much mana do I need to accumulate...
If accumulating elemental mana was easy, the Fire Mage in the northern battlefield wouldn’t be so overwhelmingly active.
Finding wind mana is a task that requires significantly more talent than other magics.
Wind mana only manifests in strong winds, so it requires stamina, concentration, and talent.
Moreover, according to the grimoire, accumulating wind elemental mana seems to have quite a high difficulty.
It made sense why this grimoire was tucked away in a corner of the library.
This won’t be easy to use right now.
Joseph confirmed the grimoire for a while and then closed the book.
Because even if he read more, it seemed he wouldn’t be able to attempt magic.
It would be best to come back on a cloudy day.
The wind grimoire in hand, Joseph immediately returned to his research room.
He looked at the book on the table and muttered.
“Zallier’s Grimoire...”
Joseph recalled the magic Zallier had used in their fight.
No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem like it would be very helpful to him now.
Rather, it might even interfere when using fire magic.
Just check the general content.
Thinking this, he turned the pages nonchalantly.
If you want to become a great mage, throw away this book.
“...?”
Joseph frowned at the sentence written from the beginning.
He wondered if Folmers had mixed up the books, but then shook his head.
A proper grimoire can be identified at a glance.
The aura from this book was definitely a grimoire.
Another book written by a crazy mage?
Joseph scratched his face for a moment and continued reading.
Mages often boast that magic is their special privilege, but it’s just an arrogant misconception.
If you have even a slight talent for mana, you can freely use magic.
Those who don’t know this are always...
As Joseph quickly flipped through the author’s story filled with inexplicable resentment towards mages, he finally realized what kind of grimoire this was about after a while.
“Artifact?”
If you apply the flow of mana to objects, you can realize various magics according to the method. In other words, I intend to make it so that anyone can use magic through artifacts.
The moment Joseph saw the word “artifact”, he immediately put his hand into his bosom.
And he took out the mana recovery artifact that was now broken.
Perhaps if I research this grimoire, I can repair this later?
Joseph had been suffering from mana depletion, fatigue, and headaches during his training of the Fire Grimoire.
Since he couldn’t recover mana easily anymore, he had been accumulating it inside every day.
If I get the skill to repair this artifact...
The Fire Grimoire will have to be put on hold for a while.
Joseph’s face lit up with anticipation.
Thinking about it, I ended up not using this after all.
Joseph looked at the artifact he had stuffed away in a corner of the research room.
It was the item prepared by Folmers, containing ice.
Fortunately, he had heard that he could take the items needed for the request, so he had brought this along too.
The Fire Grimoire.
The Wind Grimoire.
Zallier’s Grimoire.
The ice-filled artifact.
There had been various things, but the result wasn’t all bad.
The problem is that there’s no space to research this conveniently.
Since leaving Bari Village, Joseph hadn’t had much time to focus on magic research.
Whenever he found a good environment, a problem would arise.
A safe place is needed.
Not a place where he’s treated as a guest, but a place where he feels safe on his own.
Being treated as a mage was good, but the risks were greater than expected.
It was a desperate realization of how good the security in his previous world was.
This damned world. How much nonsense do I have to go through to become comfortable...
Joseph grumbled as he packed his luggage and left the research room.
At the castle entrance, a splendid carriage was parked, and next to it were Folmers, servants, and a few soldiers.
Among them were those who had participated in the northern beast subjugation.
Are these the ones?
“Yes.”
Folmers had provided some soldiers for this request.
They would part ways with the soldiers after finishing the task.
It’s also for monitoring...
It seemed like there was preparation in case Joseph disappeared on his own.
In fact, even if that were the case, if Joseph decided to run away, there was nothing they could do.
Folmers couldn’t have not known that.
After all, this request was based on trust.
Thinking about it, Folmers had given Joseph the reward first.
That was the meaning of trust. Or perhaps it was an unavoidable measure.
The soldiers were all tense, watching Joseph’s every move.
It couldn’t be helped since some had participated in the subjugation.
The carriage is quite splendid.
There were two prepared carriages, but one stood out noticeably.
From the surface of the carriage to the canopy covering the roof. It was quality enough to tell at a glance that it was ridden by someone with money.
It was one Zallier used.
“...”
Joseph let out a dry laugh.
Folmers had decided to give him that carriage too.
After all, it was a carriage Zallier couldn’t use anyway, so it didn’t matter.
Baron Auger is waiting in the southern fief.
“Baron Auger?”
It seemed that while Joseph was doing magic research, Folmers had been helping him solve the fief’s problems.
No wonder no one noticed the commotion...
At first he said he wanted to go to the battlefield, but after the beast subjugation, his thoughts seemed to have changed a bit.
Recalling Auger, who had been terrified during the beast subjugation.
If his skill was that of Auger’s, he wouldn’t even be able to show off in the battlefield, and it would be fortunate if he was wiped out in an instant.
“Rather, it’s fortunate.”
Joseph didn’t care much about others’ affairs, but as a person, he couldn’t help but feel affection for that rural knight.
After all, he had been purely kind to Joseph.
If he heard that he had died in the battlefield later, it wouldn’t feel good.
“Then, let’s depart.”
“Please take care.”
With five soldiers and two carriages, they left the castle.
There were some onlookers at the unusual carriages, but since they recognized it as Zallier’s carriage, it quickly became quiet.
Soon, the carriages left the castle and moved south.
“Refn.”
As the flat road gradually became bumpy, Joseph called out to Refn.
He was the decurion who had participated in the previous beast subjugation, a soldier specially assigned by Folmers because he had a connection with Joseph.
“Did you call, sir?”
“How many bandits are there in the area we’re going to now?”