Chapter 3
Chapter 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Phantasmal Library: Celestia (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ten years had passed.
During that time, I finally decided to acknowledge the truth I had avoided for so long.
The truth that this massive magical library was not a physically real space.
Through long years of research into illusion magic, I had finally come to understand that fact.
“…….”
But this library was no mere illusion.
The Phantasmal Library: Celestia undoubtedly existed.
It simply existed not in physical form, but as a manifestation of mana.
A dreamlike space of consciousness that was both illusion and reality.
That was the true essence of this vast magical library, the Phantasmal Library: Celestia.
And my own essence was likely no different from this massive library.
A pseudo-living being, my body lost, with only my mind left to wander.
That was the conclusion I had reached after ten years of combing through the library's collection and conducting magical research.
“Yeah… I’ve missed this taste.”
It had been ten years since I immersed myself in magical research.
The results of that long study were not limited to uncovering the library’s true nature.
Today, I had finally obtained what I had so desperately longed for.
In my hands right now were a hamburger and a cola.
The taste of food I had searched for over those ten-plus years.
I had finally succeeded in recreating it here.
“To think the moment would come when I could taste Earth’s food again in this place…….”
My eyes, brimming with emotion, gazed at the hamburger clutched in my hand.
Illusion and reality. What distinguished the two?
In a space of consciousness, how was something real any different from an illusion?
Through such contemplations, I had come to understand what a “space of consciousness” truly was.
And now, at last, I had succeeded in obtaining what I had aimed for.
Earth’s food, complete with its full flavor.
My hand gripping the hamburger wrapper began to tremble slightly.
“How in the world… did I survive ten years without these?”
Hamburgers. Pizza. Stir-fried pork. Kimchi stew.
Countless foods flashed through my mind.
Memories of my lost homeland bloomed vividly in my head.
A mere dish stirred overwhelming emotions within me.
“……Someday, let’s go back home.”
In the tenth year of my magical research.
I truly felt my long-forgotten humanity.
* * * * * *
Fifty years had passed.
I had to admit that I was getting on in years.
Not in terms of my visible face or appearance.
In this space of consciousness, my looks remained those of a young man.
But I could feel my mind slowly wearing down.
“…….”
Emotions began to dry up.
My tastes in food shifted.
Memories grew hazy.
Instead of the fast food I once loved, I now preferred tea time in the rooftop garden.
My speech, deprived of anyone to talk to, began to rust.
“……Even if I went home now, it wouldn’t mean anything.”
I had lost all reason to return home.
That realization hurt deeply.
I still hadn’t found any answers.
Let alone a way back to my home, I hadn’t even discovered how to escape this place.
“What have I been doing all this for?”
I felt an urgent need to continue my magical research.
I needed a way to preserve my memories.
If this kept up, my mind would collapse.
So, I needed to find a way to protect myself.
“……Outside.”
The human mind is so fragile.
In solitude, people become vulnerable.
I felt that truth keenly.
“……Let’s go outside.”
I needed a trigger.
All that kept me going was an obsession I couldn’t let go of.
* * * * * *
One hundred years had passed.
Over that long span, I had to face the fact that I was slowly going mad.
Even so, I struggled desperately to retain my humanity.
I reclassified every book in the library from the beginning.
No one would ever visit this library, but still, I sorted countless magic tomes by level.
The Phantasmal Library: Celestia was reorganized into four sections.
First Repository. Filled with countless magical theories, papers, and daily-life spells.
Second Repository. Housing standard combat magic.
Third Repository. Containing “special” magic tomes and theories I had written over long years.
Fourth Repository. Storing vital materials on dangerous research.
I placed security spells on these four sections of the library, each requiring separate access permissions.
Those without authorization for the upper sections could not enter the higher repositories.
Additionally, on the library’s first floor, I created a dining area for meals.
Not by picking and manifesting whatever I wanted as before, but by selecting from a predefined menu.
Honestly, it was a meaningless endeavor.
Yet, through these pointless acts, I felt myself still alive.
“I wonder what to eat today.”
I was still alive in this library.
This vast library was the only proof of that.
* * * * * *
Three hundred years had passed.
The collection in the Phantasmal Library: Celestia had grown incomparably larger than before.
And I, too, had developed rather refined hobbies unlike in the past.
After meals, opening a book and enjoying a solitary tea time.
During tea, I inspected the library’s collection.
“…….”
Rustle, rustle—.
I sipped fragrant tea while turning the pages of a magic tome one by one.
Older tomes sometimes contained inefficient impurities.
Checking and correcting those had become my new hobby lately.
A dignified pastime befitting an archmage over three hundred years old.
As I turned the pages one by one today, reading as usual.
Something alien suddenly entered my field of vision.
“Hmm…….”
Those who linger long in a space of consciousness occasionally see hallucinations.
The frequency had increased sharply after three hundred years.
It was a sign of my mind’s gradual erosion.
Of course, they faded on their own, so it wasn’t a big issue.
Today, too, I planned to let it pass quietly with that thought.
Zing—.
If not for the sudden activation of translation magic in my ear.
“Do you really think there are even more incredible spells up there?”
“Of course there are! Haven’t you seen it already? This library hides tremendous magic! This is a discovery for the history books!”
“I’m a bit worried whether we’re even allowed to touch such precious items without permission…….”
“Don’t worry! It must be a legacy left by some great archmage long ago for future generations!”
Flinch—.
I doubted my ears at the voices resounding in them.
I’d seen hallucinations a few times before, but never heard voices.
Yet the voices in my ears continued to ring clear and vivid.
Through the translation magic I had developed one hundred fifty years ago, no less.
“Even as a Blue Tower graduate… it’s a bit much to take risks just on the word of a senior I met today…….”
“Is that all the passion you have for magic? That’s why you’re stuck at apprentice mage!”
“Ugh……!”
“A true mage must stake their life on exploring the unknown! Don’t you need a new challenge to reach the upper levels of the tower?”
I turned my gaze toward the source of the booming voices echoing through the library.
Beyond the shelves densely packed with magic tomes.
There stood a middle-aged man wielding a staff and shouting loudly, followed by a girl hugging an armful of books.
She clutched them as if they were priceless treasures.
The girl in the witch’s hat gripped them tightly, struggling not to drop any.
The first people I had encountered since arriving in the library.
At the sight, a heavy voice reflexively escaped my lips.
“To think I’d live to see thieves in my own repository.”
Thud, clatter—.
The girl’s arms spilled countless books at my words.
Magic tomes in ornate covers tumbled across the floor.
From her flustered lips came a stammering voice.
“Th-thief… N-no, I’m not…….”
She averted her eyes as she spoke.
Trembling pupils.
A deeply pulled witch’s hat.
From that, I understood the situation.
The people before me were no illusions.
“First, let’s hear how you got in here—.”
The first incident since I entered the Phantasmal Library: Celestia.
Uninvited guests had come to my magical library.