47. Discipline (4)
47. Discipline (4)
- 1 -
"「Application of Magic in Real Life Volume 3」... This one's here too."
Over the past few days, Sonia's daily routine had revolved around practically living in the library that Libertas had granted her access to.
The magic lessons she received from her teacher occurred three times a week.
Those were mainly practical training, and aside from time devoted to dungeon management, sleep, and meals, she had been pouring nearly all her remaining time into reading, so to speak.
This was because her growth rate lately had been fast enough that even she herself could clearly perceive it.
'I'm not sure if I should be feeling this way given the situation... but honestly, it's fun.'
The 'Curse' magic in which she possessed the greatest talent, and the 'Freezing' element magic, which shared similarities with that curse while also possessing excellent power in both offense and defense.
These were the two things Sonia was now learning from the Dungeon Lord, and at the same time, every time she took a lesson, she felt herself growing rapidly.
Vaguely, she also sensed that this was not a temporary phenomenon.
'I don't know if I'm a genius like my teacher said... but just the fact that I can make progress at all is so wonderful.'
The sensation of growth naturally became the driving force for learning.
Moreover, ever since she was four—as far back as her memory reached—her body had been terribly frail, leaving her with little immunity to the sense of accomplishment that came from self-driven progress.
In the end, drunk on the self-growth she hadn't properly experienced for over fifteen years, she became so immersed in books and study that it seemed as if she was locking herself away in the library.
Today was no different, but...
"That place over there..."
Today's Sonia had gone into a different section of the library, not the bookshelf she practically lived in every time she came.
It wasn't the well-organized magic archive, but a messy bookshelf where books on obscure topics were crammed haphazardly in every direction.
It was a place where things like magazines and novels from this world had been scraped together and roughly shoved in.
Libertas had collected them for his own amusement, but they had ended up pushed aside by magic books and had been gathering dust—those very books had now caught Sonia's eye.
"「Secrets of the Ancient Empire」, 「The Truth of the Corrupt Priests Hidden in History」, 「List of Past Heroes」... There are so many I've never seen before..."
If Libertas had seen her behaving this way, he might not have understood. 'How could her gaze turn elsewhere when there's magic to study?'
This was due to the fundamental difference in perception of magic between Libertas and Sonia.
For Libertas, magic was a kind of 'psychic power'—an entirely new element never seen in daily life, and at the same time, a toy.
For Sonia, while it was true that magic was rarely seen in daily life, she perceived it not as something completely new like Libertas did, but as a universal field of study.
'I can't live every day reading only one type of book. Shall I pick out a few?'
If a person could live utterly consumed by one thing the moment they felt interest and made up their mind, the word 'three-day resolution' would not exist in this world.
It was simply fortunate that for Sonia at this moment, novels were not another fickle whim but nothing more than a form of rest.
"「Prophecy of the Elf」, 「Legends of the Forgotten Gods」 look interesting... 「The Golden Ratio of Outer Space」. This one seems like a miscellaneous magic text. And..."
She had been told she could take non-magical miscellaneous books to her room, so after picking out five books to read in the time remaining before bed, Sonia was searching for a sixth.
Her fingers, which had moved without hesitation, paused and stiffened briefly over one book.
"This is..."
It was because she had discovered a title that was out of place among the rest.
"「Secrets of the Noble House」...? What kind of book is this?"
A small book with a highly luxurious appearance, decorated with gold leaf on a black background.
Was it because of the word 'Secrets'?
With her fingers still resting on the book that piqued her curiosity, Sonia examined the other books around it.
She wondered if there might be a clue.
"Next to it is... 「24 Short Stories Loved by Bards」...? I'll have to tidy things up later if I get the chance."
But since this area, which fell outside Libertas's interests like magic or swordsmanship, was so disorganized, even looking at the other books shelved nearby gave no clue as to what this book was.
Tok. Tok.
"Well, I might as well take a look."
Sonia, who had fallen into brief contemplation as she tapped the book idly with her fingers, decided that if it wasn't to her taste she could simply put it back, and placed 「Secrets of the Noble House」 into her arms as well.
Sarak.
Huluk. Dalkak.
Thus began a trance of study and reading.
Just as her teacher Libertas always did when reading, Sonia brought tea and refreshments from the tea room adjacent to the library and spent a quiet moment of her own among more than ten books.
The space created beside the library for reading was illuminated by external daylight brought inside through magic, making it a perfect time and place to forget the reality that this was inside a dungeon and that she was practically a captive.
If someone had asked her at that moment which she found more enjoyable—studying or meaningless reading—she would have answered, with great confidence and a bright smile, that both were.
"Ah. This one was here too."
That is, until she read that book.
"There's... a little time left. Then, shall I take a quick look?"
After confirming there was time left before the evening meal, Sonia set 「Secrets of the Noble House」 aside with the books she hadn't yet finished reading, then inserted feathered bookmarks into all the rest and returned them to their places.
And then.
Teop!
Having flipped the book open at random and examined its contents, she shut it faster than she had opened it and set it down.
It was because, on the page she had opened, there was a certain illustration that a mage with a particular private hobby had drawn with great precision.
'It's an obscene book...!!'
「Secrets of the Noble House」 was a book whose contents consisted of matters concerning 'secret nights,' something anyone even slightly perceptive could guess at a glance.
The reason its exterior was so luxurious was, naturally, because it was a book read by nobles.
[Why is it that every novel written ends up being about love between superiors and subordinates. Eve.]
[Tak!]
[That's fantasy? Even all this adultery here?]
Because, well, it was common to include such content in the novels of this world.
From ordinary stories of love between men and women, to tales of a hero's concubinage or stories reimagined as 19+ versions of real events, and even the affair between a hero and a queen of a nation that had made Libertas let out a hollow laugh.
For Sonia, who wasn't even a commoner let alone a noble, to come across such a book would have required the complicated process of learning of its existence many years into a normal life and then making a special request to obtain it, but the libraries of nobles were filled with such books.
[... Dalkak.]
[It's not your fault, so what is there to be sorry about. Anyway, since I bought it I won't throw it away... but there's also no need to bother organizing it. There's erotica practically once a page.]
Even if Libertas had known the contents, he probably wouldn't have hesitated much about purchasing it, but it was the kind of book that would have given him pause at least once.
Thus, it was no coincidence at all that among the countless novels he bought indiscriminately, books with such salacious content were mixed in.
It was also close to inevitable that Sonia, who was attempting to read every book in the library, would encounter some of those obscene texts.
Of course, Libertas had never anticipated such a situation.
"Hoo, hoo..."
After shaking off the shock with deep breaths, her face flushed bright red, Sonia immediately picked up the book and moved to put it back in its original place.
This was a time when she ought to be thoroughly intoxicated by knowledge.
A momentary intellectual deviation might be permissible, but something like this was poison and absolutely could not be accepted.
... That was what she thought.
"..."
But why wouldn't her hand move, still resting on the book she had placed on the shelf?
Desperately denying the pounding of her heart, Sonia glared at her own fingertips.
"... A lady of the house who is always gentle and kind, and receives evaluations of being amiable to everyone. Yet such a woman, in a stern voice unlike her usual self, commanded her maid..."
"... The maid, too, was of a noble house. Yet she ignored the authority within her own blood and, heeding the command of the lady who had descended upon her..."
A curiosity toward a new world she had never encountered before.
The peculiar heartbeat characteristic of one who glimpses at taboo and deviation.
And yet another emotion, and that relational dynamic, which she herself did not recognize.
Those three emotions ultimately made her pull the book out once more, inserting the other bookmark she held in her hand into the scene she had been looking at.
'Just once... just this one book...'
And so, Sonia stepped out of the library, clutching two novels and one obscene book—three books in total—in her arms.
Her mind was filled with a pink-hued curiosity that had not yet been resolved.
But had she known that book would become the trigger for two major changes, she would not have attempted to satisfy that curiosity so easily.
- 2 -
"Sonia."
"Unnie...!"
As she walked to her room with books in her arms and a meal provided by the dungeon, Sonia turned around and smiled brightly at the sound of her name.
It was the voice of an acquaintance from the days she had endured pain and memories caused by her excessive talent—someone she believed she might be able to build hope together with going forward.
"Maria unnie...?"
It was their first meeting in five days.
But the moment she saw her, before feeling gladness, Sonia felt the hairs on the back of her neck stiffen and her vision shake violently from side to side, all at once.
A maid uniform thoroughly disheveled, hair scattered and unkempt, and eyes with heavy dark circles and bloodshot veins.
Maria's appearance was so ruined that it clearly looked as if she was on the verge of becoming a wreck of a person.
Just like Sonia herself had been when she was tormented by her constitution.
"Unnie, what's wrong with how you look...? Are you hurt somewhere? Or is it an illness?"
"No... I'm healthy."
Without realizing it, Sonia had grabbed Maria's empty hand and spoke as if pressing her. But soon, her hand dropped powerlessly as Maria pushed the grasped part away with force.
Although most of Maria's abilities were sealed, the strength she originally possessed allowed her to overwhelm Sonia—that was one reason.
And the cold 'heartlessness' contained in that touch was another.
"Unnie...?"
Sonia's voice, trembling subtly as if she had sensed something, escaped her lips.
The voice that answered was rough, as if scraping against metal.
The eyes of that voice's owner, too, mercilessly displayed something seething within their bloodshot whites.
"You've been looking really good lately. You've even put on some weight. Sonia."
"I... I, got better... from my illness."
"I see. Your stamina must have come back a lot. You probably won't be sick in bed much anymore."
"I think... so. Now when I get hurt, I won't have to... lie in the hospital wrapped in bandages for a long time..."
"I see..."
After Maria's brief affirmation, the two maintained a moment of silence.
But Sonia sensed it. She had to say something here. Even without yet knowing clearly what it was, she knew she had to do something.
"I, un—"
"I wish you wouldn't call me unnie anymore."
"Yes...?"
A heartless voice that cut off her words like a thrown dagger.
But Sonia, unable to grasp the meaning contained in that concise statement, forgot even what she had been about to say and questioned her in return.
"If they were coming, they should have come two days ago. That was the peak."
"What do you mean...?"
"My parents. Sonia. Mine and Lemia's parents. If contact had been lost, they should have come right away. But they didn't."
Only then, barely comprehending Maria's words, Sonia wanted to cut her off somehow.
She knew the cause, naturally. She simply hadn't been able to bring herself to tell Maria beforehand, fearing she might break.
But she felt she had to speak now. That Libertas had already done something regarding that 'contact method.'
"That was my teacher, no, Liber—"
"Even the scheduled signals aren't coming. Sonia..."
The habit she had developed from always relying on others, of standing behind everyone else and speaking later.
That was the problem.
"If that man were alive, the signal he absolutely had to send every week wouldn't have stopped. Right after I talked to you...!!"
"I'm... I'm not...! Unnie!"
Maria, who had no intention of stopping her own words, continued to press Sonia. Trapped inside her own thoughts, her own words, and her certainty.
Only then did Sonia finally manage to raise her voice, as if wringing it out.
"What...!"
Everything was already over.
"What isn't!!!"
Peong!!
"Kyaak...!"
A trajectory of sunlight slashed between the two of them.
The line created by the mana boiling forth from both of Maria's hands was swung cleanly, as if to sever something.
Seogeok!
- Dalkak!
What blocked it was a single Skeleton wearing a short bow and carrying a short sword.
Mire. Another protagonist whom Maria did not know.
Seeing her, Maria smiled at the corner of her mouth. It was a thoroughly twisted smile, one the Maria of before would never have been able to make.
"Ha... look at this. Sonia. This is inside the dungeon, and yet it came running so fast. For you."
"She's just trying to protect us!"
"She? Calling a Skeleton 'she.' You must have really grown fond of it."
Certainty.
And hatred.
"Look at this."
Then, Maria's eyes, scanning among Sonia's books that had fallen to the floor, soon discovered something and became tinged with a different light.
She was a mercenary with extensive experience dealing with nobles, and she knew well what some of those luxuriously finished books without any cover illustration were.
"How vulgar."
In the end, the last thing mixed in atop those two emotions was contempt.
"You must have been trying to charm that monster. Sonia."
"What, that's...!"
"Don't call me unnie. You're not my little sister, nor my little sister's friend. Just... well, fine. Out of respect for our past memories. I'll just call you a stranger. Though even calling you an enemy feels like a waste."
"I said it's not!!"
Sonia's excuse, having realized what Maria's gaze had landed upon, still did not reach her.
It was nothing more than the muttering of a madwoman trapped in her own certainty.
"I'll say it once more. I wish you wouldn't call me unnie from now on. Sonia Medib."
In the end, Maria, who had turned her body on the spot, was about to leave after leaving those final words.
"... I have no idea what all this commotion is about."
Had Libertas not appeared on the scene at that moment.