The Imperial Library
Dawn broke after we had driven off the Four Heavenly Kings.
Somehow, Pope Glacia's face didn't look particularly good. Outwardly she was clearly in her twenties — so why, today of all days, did she look every bit her true age?
"How on earth did the Papal Palace end up like this?"
"It couldn't be helped. How was anyone supposed to know Clanis would show up out of nowhere?"
"Then at the very least—"
She had wanted me to use teleportation, by the look of it. That was impossible. Even for me, carting that monster of a woman outside the Holy City was more than I could manage. Even if I dropped her as far away as I could, it would still be somewhere inside the Holy Kingdom, and civilian casualties would have been unavoidable.
Crushing her at the Papal Palace was the better option by far.
"Don't even start about moving the fight somewhere else. Even I can't teleport that thing. And we couldn't exactly do it in the middle of the Holy City streets, could we?"
"I know. But still… even so."
This woman was awfully attached to her buildings. It was just a Papal Palace — you rebuild it, what's the big deal?
I had half-hidden the truth, but either way, I had driven off Clanis after she'd gone ballistic because of me. Wasn't that enough?
Even if I said nothing, she had more or less pieced together what had happened. That was why she was glaring at me.
"So just put up with it. I brought your worthless grandson back, didn't I? Honestly, this bastard was in real danger."
That too had been my design — but she ought to be grateful I'd kept him alive. Right?
At my signal, Celia's teddy bear behind me dumped the unconscious William at our feet, returned to human form.
"So it comes to this after all. What a disgrace of a boy."
"What about the other Holy Knights?"
Surely the Mage Corps hadn't lost.
"Your Mage Corps subdued them."
"The Holy Knights are going to have a serious gap in their ranks for a while, then."
We couldn't trust the ones who had sided with William. And as for the cardinals' knights who had been suppressed, their numbers would be short as well.
"What choice do we have? We'll have to request troops from the Kingdom and station a detachment in the Holy City, even if it means splitting their forces."
"If it comes to it, the Imperial Army could—"
"Don't even think it. I'd sooner leave a fishmonger's shop to a cat. The Imperial Army? The Emperor and that Pope of theirs would laugh themselves sick at me."
She was right. They would laugh enormously. The Empire's Pope especially — after refusing to recognize the Imperial Goddess Church with every fiber of his being, only to turn around and ask the Imperial Army for protection?
Besides, it was a matter of the Holy Kingdom's sovereignty. The Kingdom was one thing — somewhat understandable — but Imperial troops garrisoned in the Holy Kingdom would not look good to other nations.
"That's exactly why I said it."
"You little—"
Ordinarily Elias would have been frothing at the mouth by now, but Elias was currently rescuing the surviving cardinals and rounding up what Holy Knights remained.
"Anyway — a promise is a promise."
Recognizing the Imperial Goddess Church and the rest of it. In my case, there had clearly been something to gain.
"Leaving already?"
Glacia asked, sounding a little forlorn.
"I have to head back for now. There's a lot to investigate, and an ungodly amount of work waiting for me."
The Emperor was summoning me. Founding Day was almost upon us. Playing around with the Mage Corps had been fun while it lasted, but somewhere along the way my Aetlina vacation had evaporated.
As Taesa, I could have skipped it. But a woman who was, after all, a student of Aetlina and a princess skipping out didn't sit quite right.
"Was what you found in the library useful?"
"More or less."
Not a great deal of help, but not useless either. Records of Clanis had survived even in the Holy Kingdom's histories. She had clearly existed for a very long time. Her name never appeared, but descriptions of her appearance from centuries back in the Holy Kingdom's records made it unmistakable.
Back then, too, Clanis had prowled the Empire's borders or meddled with the Holy Kingdom — only to be driven off by the Hero of that age.
That wasn't enough. Which meant the answer ultimately lay in the Imperial Library.
The Imperial Library, where history written in blood might still remain. I fully intended to dig through the place, Founding Day or no Founding Day. When the time came, I would learn something — anything.
I was already looking forward to how she would try to provoke me the next time we met.
Founding Day. Every year on the twenty-fifth of September — the day the Empire was founded — the festival was held.
Chieftains of the nomadic peoples under Imperial dominion, nobles, everyone gathered in the Imperial Capital for a grand celebration. The White King and all that nonsense had long since been forgotten. Most Imperial citizens didn't even properly know who the White King was. Even those who did would think of him as little more than the king of some petty state.
It wasn't war-weariness so much as the simple fact that it wasn't even time for a preemptive campaign. From the Imperial family's perspective, there was no need to rattle people by bringing up war at all.
In any case, the Empire was in full festival mood — and the Emperor was no exception. He stood before me performing a solo dance in the distinctive style of the nomadic peoples. After dancing for some time, he carefully opened his mouth.
"So then, on the day itself — if Taesa would step forward—"
"You want me to shoot a bow and so on?"
"Exactly. You look like you'd be good with a bow."
Ugh. What a hassle.
"I really can't use one properly."
"Oh? And the arrows fired at Aetlina — those weren't yours, Taesa?"
His ears were uselessly sharp, as always. If he was going to put it that way, I had no choice.
"Before that, I'd like to take a look at the Imperial Library first."
"That won't be possible yet."
"Excuse me? What do you mean, not possible?"
He had said he would show me, and now he was breaking his word?
"It isn't the time yet. The Imperial Library has times when it can be opened and times when it cannot. Especially during Founding Day."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"During Founding Day, even the nomadic peoples who submit to us are still outsiders — so the Imperial Library has to be sealed."
Fine. That much I could accept. Honestly, would the nomadic tribes under Imperial rule really do something as insane as barging into the Imperial Library? Still, Founding Day hadn't even started yet. Shouldn't it be fine until then?
"Those shepherds haven't even arrived yet. What if I finish my business before Founding Day?"
"The keepers who guard the library would keep the doors shut even if this Emperor himself showed up. It's a tradition observed since the Empire's founding."
If it was tradition, there was nothing to be done — but even the Emperor couldn't enter? Just who were the people guarding the Imperial Library?
"Who exactly are those people?"
"Those who protect history. Guarding history is simply natural to them."
Natural to protect history. Well, of course. Fifteen hundred years of it. To preserve something like that, you invent laws that never existed before. That was precisely why I was so fixated on the Imperial Library.
"Nothing to be done, then."
"Don't worry. Once Founding Day is over, it'll be soon enough. Anyway, you really should shoot that bow. Don't you think?"
"Understood. But about that—"
If that was how it was, so be it. Still, I was curious.
"If the Scribes who guard the Imperial Library are 'those who protect history,' what kind of people are they, exactly?"
"Even if Parliament holds the power, that doesn't mean the Imperial family is incompetent."
The Emperor answered my question with a non sequitur. What was that supposed to mean?
"Yes, you have the right to speak. And when Parliament is paralyzed, it becomes a state of emergency and the Imperial family assumes all authority—"
The Imperial family's powers amounted to a voice in Parliament, and the assumption of all rights in Parliament's place during a state of emergency in which Parliament was paralyzed. A state of emergency of that kind effectively only applied when rebellion broke out or the nation was on the brink of collapse. Outside of that, Parliament would never be paralyzed.
"But even in a state of emergency, the ones who don't answer to anyone are the ones guarding that library. Gatekeepers of the archive. Scribes, they're called."
Just what were those people, to be like that?
"You're saying they outrank even His Majesty the Emperor?"
"Within the library, yes."
Within the library? Something felt off. The twisted look on his face was almost pitiful.
"Even Your Majesty the Emperor can't get in…"
"More precisely, just approaching them makes me uneasy."
Uneasy? If even this Emperor was wary of them, what kind of creatures were these scribes?
I knew the Emperor as a man who lived by appearances. Everything he kept close was always beautiful. That was surely one of the reasons I had become Taesa.
"Could I see them once? When do they come and go for work?"
If they were shut away in the library, the only chance to see them would be when they entered or left. And if they were that suspicious, there was no reason to gamble my way all the way into the archive just to find out.
"Come and go for work… They hole up in the library every day, so I wouldn't know. They probably live in there entirely."
"Could I meet them if I went now?"
I wanted a look at those faces. What did people who sealed themselves away like that even look like?
"It's possible, but if you go without any reason, they'll throw a fit asking why you're there."
"No helping it, then. Still, I'm curious — I'll have to use at least a transparency spell."
"Alone?"
The Emperor's expression crumpled into that of a pitiful puppy.
"No. Your Majesty is the Emperor — you could go alone, couldn't you? Or are you saying we go together?"
Wasn't that basically suggesting we die together?
"Of course. Isn't that how it should be? I am the Emperor, after all."
"Unbelievable."
If he was the Emperor, he could at least go by himself.
"Don't tell me the Emperor's magic teacher can't even cast a two-person transparency spell?"
"It's not impossible, but—"
I was supposedly the Emperor's magic teacher, and I had never actually taught him a thing. At best I was a conversation partner, nothing more.
"Without Us, going alone would be difficult, wouldn't it?"
"That's just low."
Low was putting it mildly.
"Don't take it the wrong way. Even I need a little diversion now and then."
In the end, I had no choice but to turn the Emperor invisible. Refusing would only make him more of a nuisance, and I wanted to see them at least once — those so-called scribes. For that, I needed the Emperor's help.
And so the Emperor led me down to the library. We descended and descended through the underground of the Imperial Palace until at last we arrived in a space that shone on every side.
What kind of place was this, exactly?
"Here?"
"Yes, here. Enormous, isn't it?"
Whether it was made of gold or merely plated with it, I couldn't tell — but it was a perfect exhibition of the Empire's ability to throw money around.
"While we're here, what about browsing a few books—"
"Do you think that would work?"
"So it really wouldn't, then."
Coming back again would be a pain.
"The scribes would come swarming. Watching how they behave would be entertainment enough. With a little luck, you might even get a book out of it."
Just what were these scribes, that he would say something like that? Honestly, I was far too curious. What kind of beings were they?
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing for it, I suppose."
It wasn't that urgent. I had more or less already figured out that Clanis was a descendant of Kart. What I wanted was knowledge — and as for Clanis, I could simply thrash her the next time we met and be done with it. I wasn't in a rush. But I needed to know about these scribes if I was going to plan for next time.
"It's that huge, though. Is getting inside even possible?"
"There's a hole down below for people to enter through."
"I see."
I could see it, sure enough — beneath that enormous door. But was there really any need to make it that big?