Imperial Library (2)
Almost an ogre. No—this was big enough for the giant races that had supposedly existed in the past to walk through, wasn't it?
Just the fact that a door and archive of this scale existed beneath the Imperial Palace was strange enough. I couldn't be certain, but something this massive underground should have flipped the entire palace over by now.
No. Wouldn't the whole imperial capital be at risk?
"Isn't it normal for something this big under the Imperial Palace to just collapse?"
I knew nothing about architecture, but if whatever sat inside was truly that enormous, the ground itself shouldn't be able to hold.
"Hmm. I don't know. I don't even know how that Imperial Library was made."
What? If you don't know, then who does?
"Why wouldn't you know?"
"Do you think an emperor knows everything? I heard some archmage made it, roughly. The founder ordered a visiting archmage of the empire to do it. Free of charge, and alone at that."
What kind of lunatic would build this for free? And alone?
If a mage made it, that meant magic. Creating a space of this size would wreck even my back, and I was no slouch.
Fifteen hundred years ago counted as ancient, sure. But even if the ancient mages were strong, this felt excessive.
"Just what kind of mage builds something like this for free?"
Was he completely insane?
"His Majesty the founder declared that as the supreme sovereign of a great nation, the Imperial Library was a necessity."
"No, what was wrong with the founder? Were the ancient mages just that powerful?"
No. If any ancient mage was stronger than me, the continent would have been wiped out long ago.
"Why make it so huge in the first place?"
When I asked the Emperor, she seemed to ponder for a moment before carefully opening her mouth.
"It was for just-in-case. That thing. Ordinarily the scribes enter through the small one."
The Emperor pointed to the center of the great door—more precisely, to the bottom.
A small golden door, just large enough for a person to pass through.
"Okay, so what exactly is this 'just-in-case'?"
"Because history might come out of that library."
The Emperor carefully indicated the archive. Even she grew serious at the mention of this "history." Suddenly the mage's instinct—the craving to pursue knowledge—stirred fiercely inside me.
"What the hell is history, then?"
"History is history. If it expands needlessly, a tiny door risks being crushed in an instant."
So if history flowed out of there it would be a disaster? Was history some giant living mass or something?
Come to think of it, they said an archmage built it. In that sense, perhaps he had simply defined a form of magic as "history" and sealed it away. Simple enough.
Or that "history" might be a monster.
"Is it a magical meaning?"
"Mm. Just... everything, I suppose? Even I don't know precisely. And after that, scribes who devoted everything to history came to dwell there."
So, as expected, I would only understand by seeing it myself.
"When do we go in?"
"If it's now, it should be time for the inner patrol. Let's enter right away. We don't know where the scribes might be, so use invisibility magic."
How slapdash can you be?
"Hold my hand tightly. If you let go I won't take responsibility."
"Very well."
The Emperor's eyes went round as she stared at my hand, then gently took it.
Looking closely, even at her age her hands were soft and smooth. Between the Pope and the Emperor, what kind of magic were they using?
Beneath the center of the giant door—large enough for a giant to come and go—sat the small one. The Emperor and I carefully opened it and stepped inside.
"But to avoid being noticed by the scribes, don't the scribes themselves have to come out?"
"I don't really know either. Either way, it's not bad for us."
"Why don't you know that?"
Still, it was the Emperor speaking, so it was probably fine.
As we entered, the place that had been pure darkness gradually brightened.
"Huh. So a place like this really exists."
Looking around, the interior was surprisingly well-lit. From the outside I had thought the door was huge but the inside would be cramped. Instead it was vast. A space created by magic, and bookshelves filling the entire field of view.
I couldn't even tell how high they rose. It looked as though every book in the world had been gathered here.
"What is this enormous space..."
Wondering if my eyes had gone strange, I closed them and opened them again, yet the books were simply too many. At this scale one might well call it history itself. But how exactly did those books "flow" outside?
"Wait. The scribes are coming over there."
"What? Who are those people?"
In one hand they held golden lanterns crafted in the ancient style; in the other they gripped scythes. Women wearing the scraps of cloth once worn by those called priestesses of old.
Veils covered their faces so nothing could be seen.
Beings of an eerie atmosphere.
Srrrrrrng.
With every step the chains hanging from their scythes dragged across the floor, weaving a desolate air through the silent library.
"So those are the scribes. They look ordinary enough."
"They may look ordinary, but those things aren't normal."
I could tell just by looking. Carrying lanterns around in a place this brightly lit already screamed abnormal. And beyond that, their bizarre presence felt suspicious in its own right.
"Carrying lanterns in a bright place already makes that clear."
"This place is also called the Room of History, so day and night exist separately here. That's why the scribes always carry lanterns."
They carry lanterns... Well, with a place this size it made sense to walk around with them.
"But what about those scythes?"
"To cut history?"
"So everything somehow leads back to history?"
"I'm not lying—that is the truth. For example, that sort of thing."
The Emperor pointed to a bookshelf at the far right edge.
Mana began to rise from one of the books on the third shelf.
The mana swelled, and then—
Kudududuk.
Something huge and black appeared: a bird.
What the hell is that? It's terrifying. A monstrous bird? One of the creatures said to have vanished in ancient times. A bird that had once gone extinct had just popped out.
More precisely, a bird formed of mana. So that was what they meant by history.
["Kiyooooot!"]
To hear the cry of a monstrous bird that could only be heard before its extinction... the feeling was strange. If that counted as history...
I flicked my eyes toward the scribes. In that short time one of them had adjusted her grip on the scythe and charged the monstrous bird.
-Return.
["Kiooooo."]
With the scribe's uncanny voice, the scythe took the bird's neck.
The mana-construct bird, its head cleanly severed, scattered into mana on the spot and was sucked straight back into the book.
If "cutting history" meant this, then those scribes were no ordinary beings either.
"Just who are they?"
"They existed before I ascended the throne. More precisely, they probably existed before 'I' was even born."
"What? Then why don't they age?"
The Emperor was one thing, but those too? Why didn't any of them age? Even if the Emperor had some special circumstance, those ones shouldn't.
"Because this is a space where history exists and where history stops. Within these walls, history does not flow."
"Not time, but history?"
"When you think about it, a person's life and history are only a hair's breadth apart. Those scribes' history exists solely here, so they do not age."
So by the Emperor's logic, those scribes might have existed since the founding of the empire. Something about that was deeply chilling.
Even their voices were closer to resonance than speech.
"To seize and cut history here?"
"Yes. Solely for that single purpose."
"Then is that giant door meant to guide a giant history outside if one ever emerges?"
That actually made sense.
"Such cases are rare, but there are many books recording giants. If those come out, they guide them beyond the door."
"Ah. Now I roughly get the idea. Guide them outside and, since they're mana masses, they'll eventually vanish?"
"I'm happy to have such a clever teacher."
The Emperor began kneading my hand in a thoroughly disgusting way.
The motion was exactly like a middle-aged noble starved for women, and it was deeply unpleasant.
I considered pulling away, but if I did we might be noticed, so I couldn't simply let go.
"Hey. Is this really the time to be groping like that?"
"Did I not say? Every woman in the Imperial Palace is mine. So if I wish to touch my woman, is that not allowed?"
That damned "my woman" declaration again. If I had been the previous emperor I would have cracked her skull open long ago. But she was the Emperor, so I couldn't just do as I pleased.
"Ah, whatever. Just stop groping. It feels nasty."
"Keep that up and I might just stage an abdication show, you know? There is that other thing. In a certain eastern country, when ministers refuse to listen or a ruler takes political damage, they throw a fit about abdicating to their children even when it isn't the time and throw the entire nation into chaos. Even if the imperial family has no real power, if I declare I'll abdicate to the demoted crown prince Aslan..."
That would be a nightmare. Fuck. I could already see the nobles rising up.
And in the end it would all become my fault, wouldn't it? Ugh. Just imagining it was horrifying. And later they'd pin the blame on me for sure.
This was getting a bit serious. Better to sacrifice one hand than deal with that.
"Fine. Do whatever you want. So you don't touch those scribes?"
"I nearly got one of those scythes buried in my chest once."
How much of a pervert was this person?
"Well now. I'm surprised you even tried it."
"Don't be jealous. It's simply because I am greedy."
That was just lust, wasn't it? This woman wasn't suited to being emperor at all; she belonged in some back room, holding women all day. The fact that she was a woman made it all the more absurd.
"Anyway, do we just keep going like this?"
"Yes."
The Emperor and I advanced farther, little by little, slowly.
I didn't know how many scribes there were, but this vast library seemed divided into zones, and similarly-looking scribes stood in each one.
Relative to the size of the archive there didn't appear to be that many. Were all of them beings who cut history?
"Why does this library even exist? Even for records this is a bit much."
Looking closely, every book here was an ancient grimoire. Some held no mana, but of those I could see, more than half counted as grimoires. The fact that mana could be felt from them was the reason.
Perhaps history emerged from the books because, as the books neared the end of their lifespan, the spell formulas of the grimoires gradually wore away.
It didn't happen now, and even if it did the grimoires would naturally be discarded, but in the past history must have spilled out just like that.
"No. I understand now."
"Understand what?"
"You can't take books out of here, right?"
"Correct."
If they could have been taken out, a great many books would have vanished long ago.
The reason the Four Heavenly Kings never touched this place was that there was no particular reason to. Seto and Clanis and their kind had already lived long enough that the library's history meant nothing to them.
Yes. All my questions were finally answered.