Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Seven Corners: Celestia (2)
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The lowest floor of the Fantasy Archives, Celestia.
On the path leading to the dining hall, Austin walked along with a pensive expression.
Step, step—.
His face, fresh from his conversation with the Doctor, bore a complicated air.
The steps that had carried such emotion when he set out to find the Doctor now seemed aimless and uncertain.
“…….”
A flurry of thoughts raced through Austin’s mind.
Creak—.
His hand carefully pushed open the door to the dining hall on Celestia’s first floor.
Should he drown these swirling worries in a drink?
It was the kind of thought the old Austin would never have entertained.
Of course, the one who had instilled such a habit in him was none other than Lord Creighton, the regular at the liquor corner.
The lead mage of the Magic Engine Corps had been indulging in Celestia’s spirits lavishly, day in and day out, long before Austin first arrived at the library.
“Lord Creighton, are you here—?”
“Mmm…….”
Just as Austin flung the dining hall door wide open.
Munch, munch—.
A familiar face, mid-bite into a hamburger at one of the tables, met his gaze.
Regrettably, it wasn’t the boozehound mage Creighton welcoming Austin to the dining hall.
Instead, someone Austin never would have expected sat there.
“Uh, uh……?”
“…….”
Austin’s eyes fixed on the mercenary eating right in front of him.
—Friela Atria.
One of the sword inspectors of the Eight Swords Society was now chomping into a hamburger before his very eyes.
A short sigh escaped Austin’s lips.
It was a scene utterly incomprehensible to him.
Friela, who should have been in the Great Forest, dining in the library—.
Austin couldn’t even begin to guess how such a thing was possible.
“Lady Friela, what are you doing here?”
“……You know me?”
Austin’s question directed at Friela.
She swallowed the food in her mouth before responding.
This must have been how Creighton felt that time he ran into Austin in the library.
Austin felt as if his mind had gone completely blank.
“No, how in the world…….”
Thud—.
In his fluster, Austin’s hand slammed the dining hall door shut.
Creak—.
Then he reached out again, flinging it wide open.
Beyond the fully open door.
Friela was still there, eating.
“What in the… how is this possible?”
“……How do you know me?”
“Come on, how could I not know you? We were swinging swords side by side on the battlefield not long ago.”
There was no way he wouldn’t recognize someone he’d been patrolling the Great Forest with just moments before.
No matter how he looked at her, it was unmistakably Friela.
Naturally, Friela seemed annoyed by Austin’s demeanor.
“I’ve never seen you before. Who are you?”
Only then did Austin realize he wasn’t wearing his armor in the library.
He’d always been with her in Sirius, so it made sense she wouldn’t recognize him like this.
Had he spent so long clinging to the magic engine armor that boarding Sirius now felt second nature?
“It’s me. Sirius.”
“……Sirius? For real?”
“Of course, that’s just my field name. My real name’s different.”
Swish—.
Austin grabbed a burger from nearby and approached the table where Friela sat.
He pulled up a chair nearby and took a big bite of the burger in his hand.
The ever-delicious burger flavor spread through his mouth.
Friela finished her burger down to the last bite, then finally looked at Austin with a gaze that said she got it.
“Oh, so you’re part of this place too, Sirius.”
“Well, I’ve still got a long way to go… but yeah, like everyone else, I’m with the secret society.”
Was it because she’d only had skewers for days in the Great Forest?
Friela looked possessed as she promptly fetched the next plate.
Watching her, Austin even felt a twinge of guilt over that soup incident.
“So, Lady Friela, how did you end up in the library?”
As if to shake off that guilt, Austin straight-up asked her why she was here.
Hmm—.
Friela’s gaze lingered in brief contemplation for a few seconds.
Soon enough, she looked at Austin with an indifferent expression, replying as if it were no big deal.
“Got scouted, somehow.”
“Pardon?”
“They said if I prove my worth, I could become the owner of a demon sword.”
Friela’s casual words.
Austin’s face went slack as he heard them.
Nom nom—.
With Austin right there, Friela emotionlessly bit into a sandwich.
“…….”
Austin’s eyes turned to Friela.
Perhaps, unlike him, she’d joined the secret society in a way that wasn’t all that risky.
Such a thought flitted through Austin’s mind.
* * * * * *
A library should be a place of silence and tranquility by nature.
That had been common sense to me ever since my days living as a modern person before entering Celestia.
However, at some point, that obvious truth began to crumble in this massive magic library.
And the culprits were, predictably, the two loudest voices in the place.
“Nee—? Sirius is completely wrecked?”
Rustle, rustle—.
As the pages of the magic tome in my hand turned slowly one by one.
Lua’s voice, laced with shock, boomed right beside me.
Lua Polaris, the mage from the Blue Tower.
The second-loudest in the secret society had just erupted in astonishment at the shocking news.
“I had him try out a spell from the Third Archives once, and it seems that put serious strain on Sirius’s magic stone. Quite the pity—.”
Cackle, cackle—.
Across from her, the library’s noisiest man was yammering away.
The Doctor, Begerton Antares.
The researcher known to the world as a madman let out his grating laugh as he dove into the details.
Apparently, during the retrieval of the World Tree’s fruit, irreparable damage had occurred to the magic engine armor Lua developed.
They had secured the World Tree fruit itself, so it was a loss within acceptable bounds.
“Th-that, th-that… how does something you built even……!”
Of course, Lua herself seemed pretty shocked by it.
Begerton paid no mind to her reaction, continuing with a disagreeable smile.
“But wasn’t the outcome pretty good? We got the World Tree fruit we aimed for, and we secured plenty of Sirius’s combat data.”
“That’s not the point… Do you know how much time we poured into making it?!”
“In my view, the magic engine armor you made this time was quite excellent. I, Begerton Antares, vouch for it personally.”
Was it the praise from the Doctor that swelled her mage’s pride for a moment?
Lua’s lips twitched upward briefly.
But only for a moment—.
Her smile snapped back as the Doctor followed up with his absurd plan.
“So, let’s mass-produce one per week.”
“Pardon……?”
The Doctor held up a single finger.
Lua’s face went from shock to enlightenment.
A grandiose scheme poured from the Doctor’s mouth toward Lua.
“My calculations show I can probably crank out one barrier frame per week myself. Let’s mass-produce them as fast as possible and drop a Sirius in a different spot every week.”
“…….”
“This week in the imperial palace, next week in the holy city, the week after in the border patrol. Isn’t it a brilliant idea?”
Haa—.
A sigh leaked from Lua’s lips as she listened to the nonsense.
“Those are intricately handcrafted parts by dwarf artisans, fitted with high-grade magic stones engraved with spells! We can’t make them that fast!”
“Oh, what a shame.”
“And why drop Sirius on the palace or holy city in the first place? There’s no reason for it!”
“We can come up with reasons starting now, can’t we?”
“Doctor—!”
Their boisterous exchange naturally became the library’s loudest noise.
Rustle, rustle—.
I quietly turned the pages amid the two of them.
Perhaps my composure looked like a lifeline.
Lua, fed up with arguing with the Doctor, turned to me for help.
“Lord Johan! If we make a Sirius every week, Tuga and I will drop dead from overwork before it’s even complete!”
Lua Polaris stretched her arms toward me as I read my magic tome, her eyes sparkling pleadingly.
Heh—.
I gave a faint smile at the sight of her.
Come to think of it, Lua had been working hard lately.
So it wouldn’t hurt to indulge her once in a while.
“Lua Polaris. I’ve already delegated full authority on Sirius to you. Judge it within the limits of your schedule.”
“Lord Johan……!”
“Doctor. There’s no issue with using the library’s resources, but let’s avoid excessive waste.”
“As the great one decrees—.”
Lua and the Doctor.
Both seemed convinced by my words, falling silent.
The library commotion appeared to be wrapping up.
Finally, I issued one warning to Lua, who was glued to my desk.
“Maintain Sirius as needed, but don’t let it delay the ongoing plans.”
“Eek—.”
The plan to distribute communication crystals—.
Lua buried her face in the desk upon hearing it.
* * * * * *
At the altar in the heart of the Great Forest.
There, Rafaria, leader of the Eight Swords Society, gazed down at her soundly sleeping comrade.
Friela, one of her comrades who had come to the Great Forest, slumbered leaning against Rafaria’s lap.
Rafaria had carried the collapsed Friela from a corner of the battlefield and tended to her here.
“……Friela.”
At Rafaria’s waist hung an unfamiliar sword.
A demon sword swirling with blue energy.
It was one of the two demon swords once wielded by Isaac Leoblant, recovered by Rafaria.
The demon swords used by the Brotherhood’s leader were quite famous.
Though one of the pair had broken, leaving her with only the one.
“…….”
Gazing at her sleeping comrade, Rafaria quietly lifted her head and let out a deep sigh.
Hoo—.
Heavy emotions overflowed from the Sword Ghost’s lips.
The fierce battle had long since ended, but Rafaria still couldn’t get her bearings.
Elder Porfort, who should have led them, was dead.
The World Tree fruit hadn’t been protected.
The black knight who caused all the chaos had vanished from the battlefield long ago, leaving only parts of his armor.
The survivors of that brutal field were few, Rafaria included.
‘Even returning to the village would be pointless.’
The weight in her chest crushed her.
No one would welcome her back if she went now.
There was no reason left to stay in the Great Forest.
This vast woodland no longer suited her.
‘In the end, my plan to uncover the World Tree’s secrets… failed too.’
Rafaria had failed.
Despite giving her all, she had failed.
She didn’t even know what she lacked.
She merely gazed emptily around her.
For a moment, Rafaria’s eyes scanned the battlefield meaninglessly.
Trip—.
Soon, something caught at her toe, halting her.
“…….”
Rafaria looked down at what lay at her feet.
An old book stained with blood.
The book that had been in Friela’s arms moments ago must have slipped free as her strength gave out.
Swish.
Rafaria’s hand picked up the fallen tome.
Its title was written in human script.
“Great Forest… Expedition Log……?”
—Great Forest Expedition Log.
Rafaria’s eyes, on the unfamiliar title, shifted to the name below.
Pilgrim Bartov.
It was a log penned by a certain mage she knew well.
The moment she spotted Bartov’s name, a spark of curiosity stirred in Rafaria’s chest.
Thump, thump, thump, thump—.
An impulse pulsing with her heartbeat.
Drawn by instinct, she carefully turned the pages of the log in her hand.
“Ah—.”
A human perspective on the Great Forest.
Not the sort of book to intrigue an elf long resident there.
Yet she followed the pull.
Rustle—.
The log’s opening entered Rafaria’s vision.
And soon, her eyes began slowly reading the contents.
“—Incomprehensible unknowns. The Guide of the White Garden, the Librarian of the Fantasy Library, the Pilgrimage of Heavenly Ascension…….”
“—Foolish sages’ attempts to mimic the great laws that existed before the continent’s birth have persisted for ages.”
Rafaria’s mind sank into the log as if entranced.
She continued reading cautiously.
“—Among the attempts to touch those great laws, the one boasting the oldest history is undoubtedly the elves’ ritual long held in the Great Forest.”
“—This is my record, Bartov’s, of the traces left by the oldest failures.”
Letter by letter.
Rafaria’s rapt reading went on for a long while.
So much so that she didn’t even notice the bizarre spider scuttling past below her—.