Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Secret Society: Celestia (4)
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Symbiosis.
Or, parasitism.
How should this situation be described?
I gazed at the magic grimoires watching me with complicated stares.
Above the shattered noise.
The eyes hanging there were still shifting, searching for me.
The countless histories I had piled up in this vast library.
Now, they had all become chains shackling me here.
“This is your true form, isn’t it.”
I opened my mouth toward the ‘magic grimoires’ staring at me.
Was it the aftermath of the summoning magic’s shock?
Beyond the noise scattered everywhere, those things’ essences were emerging outward.
Each record embodied a dignity matching its worth.
Words forming sentences, sentences forming incantations—
The collective of countless magic grimoires compelled this space to claim existence as an ‘ideal library’.
And the space encompassing all of it was the magical library binding my existence—‘Illusory Archive Celestia’.
A structure inscribed with the traces of history accumulated by a single mage.
- …….
- …….
The magic library’s collection.
Gazes with nowhere to go kept pursuing me.
As if they hoped this library’s master would not leave.
As if they desired for me to remain here forever.
The shattered noise revealed their true hearts.
At such a scene, I let out a hollow laugh and threw a glare at the eyes.
“Are you openly putting on a show of defiance against me?”
A brief remark slipped from my lips.
Twitch—
At those words, the dark-red eyes closed in unison.
The magic grimoires withdrew their gazes from me, as if unwilling to provoke my ire.
The eyes peering from beyond the noise all went silent.
No hostility toward me existed there.
For this library was a space made complete by the presence of me, its ‘master’.
“…….”
Static, crackle—
The shattered noise began mending one by one.
The eyes emerging on the covers vanished, and the planes overlaying the space lost their hold.
A sigh escaped my lips as I watched the space start to repair itself.
The experiment had failed.
Ordinary summoning magic could not get me out of here.
That was the conclusion of this experiment.
“Ha… Demons must have it nice. They could slip right out with a single summoning spell.”
Scribble, scribble—
The pen floating in midair began inscribing letters on the blank paper.
This was to record the experiment’s results as data.
The detailed outcomes would need checking after Crayton returned to the library, but I doubted the surface had yielded anything favorable either.
Just recalling the sight of those eyes made the ending predictable.
“Something must have changed outside as well.”
Chaos had surely erupted on the surface.
The backlash from failing to summon such an absurd library would not have been minor.
“Information is insufficient. Be it data on magic or details about this library… I need more.”
I had been bound to this library for centuries.
Yet even so, I did not know everything about it.
A scene like today’s was something even I had never witnessed before.
I felt the need to continue investigating Celestia moving forward.
If only to escape this place—
I had to uncover more about Celestia.
And for that, I required additional pieces to move on my behalf.
“Raising them with time invested isn’t bad in itself. But for efficiency, scattering them across multiple locations would be better.”
Scribble, scribble, scribble—
The ownerless pen raced across the blank paper.
The thoughts in my mind took form as letters.
I needed more people.
I needed more magic.
The conclusion I reached amid my deliberations was singular.
“If they won’t permit me to go out, then I have no choice but to summon the ones outside inward.”
Swoosh—
A thick line was drawn over the incantation in the magic grimoire I held.
I reversed the incantation’s direction.
I would alter the magic meant for exiting outward into summoning magic targeting this place as the destination.
I would personally recreate Celestia’s inexplicable entries and exits with my own hands.
That was my new plan.
“Modify the summoning magic to draw in humans from outside. Whether the subject gains entry privileges like Luana Crayton… I’ll only know after summoning and testing them.”
I had no intention of lingering here indefinitely.
Nor of being bound by the will of others.
Not in the past, nor now.
Only that one goal remained for me.
“If once doesn’t succeed, I’ll attempt it again and again.”
I would escape this accursed library.
That was everything.
* * * * * *
Madman, Begerton Antares.
The mage from the Zealous Magical Research Society, who insisted on the title of doctor for himself, was ascending a steep mountain in the northern frontier margraviate.
Boom! Boom!
Each time Begerton—secured to the structure—moved, massive booms echoed from the ground.
Beneath the legs of the mountain-climbing Begerton moved a monster with six legs.
The Multi-Legged Chimera Bug, ‘Bug’, crafted personally by Begerton.
A special lifeform he had painstakingly cultured for mobility across diverse terrains.
“Hmm… This must be the right vicinity.”
Click—
Begerton, advancing toward the summit, adjusted the monocle fitted over one eye and peered up at the sky.
The towering sky that Begerton’s gaze reached.
In the midst of the cloudless blue expanse, a faint straight line existed—visible only upon close scrutiny.
The remnant of the massive mana disaster from days prior.
The peculiar phenomenon that had drawn the madman Begerton all the way here.
“I haven’t the foggiest what they tried to summon to rend the sky like that, but……”
Begerton murmured to himself, face alight with intrigue, as he gazed heavenward.
Days ago, while roaming the frontier margraviate, Begerton had stumbled upon an anomaly.
Far-off in the sky, dark clouds had abruptly gathered, unleashing a torrent of thunder.
Had it merely been a thunderstorm, Begerton would have dismissed it as weather-control magic.
Even that alone would have been remarkable.
Magic of such magnitude was quite rare within the Magical Research Society.
Yet what Begerton had detected that day was no mere weather-control spell.
Summoning magic to invoke something—
The spell he had sensed aimed to call forth something utterly outrageous.
“…….”
Begerton Antares remembered it vividly.
The fractured sky.
The darkness looming beyond.
A fragment of something beyond human comprehension.
In the end, the summoning magic to bring ‘something’ had failed, but Begerton had not abandoned the trail.
Begerton, obsessed with magic and embedded in the Magical Research Society.
Having glimpsed such perilous magic, the society’s doctor could not simply overlook it.
Thus, Begerton had pursued that dangerous spell he witnessed, ultimately reaching the very mountainside where it had unfolded.
“Almost there, Raintas. Anticipate it. Soon, we’ll behold the magical traces we’ve awaited!”
“Hey, Doctor. All well and good, but got no fix for this godforsaken monster’s ride?”
As Begerton waxed enthusiastic about the impending magic, Raintas behind him struggled to hoist himself up.
Thud, thud—
Raintas rapped the knuckles against Begerton’s masterpiece, ‘Bug’, airing minor grievances.
“Keep riding this, and I’ll croak from the motion sickness.”
The chimera Begerton had engineered boasted superb versatility and mobility alike.
However, it harbored one unbearable flaw—even for a swordsman like Raintas.
Namely, the atrociously severe motion sickness.
Urp—
Stomach roiling, Raintas clutched the railing.
Begerton replied with a mischievous grin.
“Didn’t I tell you? Swing by my lab for the motion-sickness modification.”
“You think I’m nuts enough for your mods… Urp……!”
Raintas’s face contorted upon hearing Begerton.
The moment Raintas extended a hand toward Begerton.
Urp—
Nausea surged anew, forcing him to clamp his mouth shut.
Any more chatter, and he’d hurl.
Once Raintas barely quelled the queasiness with great effort.
He addressed no further words to Begerton.
“Well, I’ll tweak it upon our return.”
“…….”
“Though I reckon patching up the rider would be swifter.”
Begerton sneered at Raintas thus, then lifted his gaze skyward once more.
The sky etched with a single fissure.
That eerie vista stirred myriad thoughts in Begerton.
Hmm—
His monocle, lost in contemplation, scanned the heavens.
What had sought descent?
Had it reached the ground, how might this region have transformed?
Amid such musings, as Begerton kept staring upward.
Crack—
Begerton’s eyes seized upon the abrupt anomaly tearing across the sky.
“……!”
The sky bearing the straight-line crack.
A portion of it began to split open, spilling thick darkness from beyond.
Spreading darkness.
Starlight devouring gazes.
Beneath it, Begerton’s consciousness blurred as he gazed up at the sky.
“Rain… tas…….”
In his tilting field of vision, Begerton’s hand desperately seized the railing.
Thud—
Begerton Antares’s awareness plunged into total blackout.
* * * * * *
A vast and majestic library.
Bookshelves crammed with countless tomes.
Upon opening his eyes, the first sight to greet Begerton was the endlessly sprawling grandeur of the library.
Begerton himself cared little for art, yet even he found the vista breathtakingly beautiful.
There, in the heart of that exquisite library, he stood alongside a blonde girl whose identity he knew not.
“Wh-where… is this place……?”
A terse query escaped the girl’s lips.
Begerton’s monocle-clad gaze turned toward the girl posing the question.
She posed it in a manner of refined poise.
Likely the daughter of some imperial high noble.
She carried the precise air of those capital-bred noble ladies.
Her utterly clueless expression suggested this was her inaugural visit.
“Hmm—.”
Tearing his gaze from the unfamiliar girl, Begerton now surveyed the opulent library.
Click—
He adjusted his monocle to probe it, but the inscribed magic incantation failed to activate.
His contemplative gaze swept the library’s expanse but briefly.
Soon enough, Begerton raised a hand into the air, priming a spell.
When faced with the unknown, the wise course was to ignite it first and observe.
Swoosh.
As he marshaled mana and pondered the incantation—
“Enough games already?”
Thud—
A callused palm thrust from behind seized his shoulder.
“Best cease the impudence.”
“…….”
“His Excellency abhors commotion within the library.”
Behind Begerton, shoulder gripped firm, stood a middle-aged mage bearing a hearty demeanor.