Chapter 86. The Reader's Heart (2)
Chapter 86. The Reader's Heart (2)
Chills. Favorability: 95.
And before my very eyes, I saw exactly what happened when Favorability reached 95.
"Master Bitja! Until I beheld you, I was nothing but a blind beggar!"
The Librarian cried out, clutching my sole and kneading it.
"Until I heard your words and your lines, I was deaf!"
Attempting to snip away at my little toenail with a nail clipper, the Librarian's eyes gleamed.
"You are my light! You are my music!"
The look in those eyes was terrifying.
"Since your name is Gong-ja, I shall joyfully convert to Confucianism! I shall become a scholar devoted solely to you! Ah, is it not a delight to have friends come from afar! From this day forth, this Librarian is a Confucian scholar who serves Master Gong-ja!"
"Hey. Knock it off, hey!"
What kind of doglike scholar in this world goes after a person's little toenail?
I wanted to ask that in return, but looking into the Librarian's eyes, I understood. The look in those eyes was not ordinary. Those were eyes that would cheerfully ignore whatever I said. For one thing, the breathing was already ragged.
"If you keep this up, I won't enter any more Apocalypses from now on!"
"......."
He froze. The Librarian stopped, still clutching my sole. The chilling part was that even as his movements stopped, the hand kneading my foot never ceased. Was he insane?
The Librarian deliberated like a scholar sunk in deep worry.
"...Indeed. That is a valid threat."
So my words had worked. It was a moment of relief.
"However, that would be impermissible when analyzing your character, Master Gong-ja."
What?
Character analysis?
"Because you know, Master Gong-ja. You know that there must be figures in other Apocalypses who, like the Heavenly Demon, are withering away unjustly. And given your character, you could not bear to leave such people unhelped."
The Librarian smiled.
"Do not underestimate an otaku. This Librarian knows you more thoroughly than you know yourself! I could describe, across two pages, which hand you used—left or right—and what expression you wore when you popped that fasting pill into your mouth on day one of the Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon......."
So he really was insane. He was crazy. This was madness.
"Now then, Master Gong-ja. Hand over what you ought to hand over to this Librarian! Even so, the mere fact that I have not put you to sleep with sleeping incense shows that I am astonishingly conscientious."
"I, too, am astonished by your conscience."
"You could not understand, Master Gong-ja. For you have never been anyone's fan. Ah, what a tragedy! How pitiful is a life that has never once devoted itself to fandom! How cold must the heart of such a person be? Even so, this Librarian must understand our Master Bitja......."
"Back off before I say [I hate you]."
He stopped dead.
This time the Librarian truly stopped.
"Step five paces away from me. Otherwise I really will say it."
"......."
The Librarian meekly retreated, shh-shh-shh.
"And use your usual formal speech. It's revolting. Honestly. And please give me back my hair and nails."
"I cannot! Th-this is utterly unjust and unreasonable!"
His old manner of speech had returned.
The Librarian clutched the silk pouches tightly to his chest and put on a tearful face.
"You might as well cut off my head and take it! No. Wait, hold on. Master Gong-ja. Just now, that was a kind of hyperbole. Please do not make an expression as though you are actually considering whether to cut off my head....... I would be genuinely wounded......."
The Librarian muttered like a single dejected hamster.
In the end, I succeeded in calming the Librarian down.
After burning the silk pouches full of those unpleasant things (a horrible scream rang out), the Librarian and I finally began to have something resembling a conversation.
"It was magnificent."
First, the Librarian reviewed the newly completed [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon].
"Your heart for the Heavenly Demon was truly admirable! Merely becoming the Heavenly Demon's disciple would have sufficed to see the [ending]. But you did not stop there! The final Orthodox-Demonic War... the greatest duel....... Ah, I feel as though I have tasted a sweet chocolate ice cream bingsu."
"So now the jianghu of [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] has been incorporated into Floor 22?"
"Indeed."
The Librarian smiled faintly.
"Other hunters may now freely enter and leave Floor 22. It is also possible to learn skills by reading the martial arts manuals stored in the Heavenly Martial Hall. All of it is your achievement, Master Gong-ja."
"......."
I rested my chin on my hand.
"There's something I got curious about while I was in the Apocalypse. I'd like to ask you, Librarian......."
"Ask me anything! I will answer almost anything!"
"Stop casually trying to slip off my shoes, for one. Why is [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] an Apocalypse?"
The Librarian tilted his head. My question seemed unfamiliar to him.
"Why? Hmm. Does [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] require a separate reason to be an Apocalypse?"
"In my opinion, yes."
I put my shoes back on.
"Do you like happy endings, Librarian? Or do you prefer bad endings?"
"Neither can be ranked above the other."
The Librarian answered immediately.
"An ending is the harbor where the lives of the characters finally arrive. Life can be happy, and it can be arduous! Wishing for them to be as happy as possible is, of course, the heart of a reader, but I also wish to embrace even their sorrows and failures."
"So a bad ending is still a proper, legitimate ending."
"Well, that is only natural."
"That's why I'm even more puzzled."
I grabbed the Librarian's wrist as he tried to circle behind me and snatched the scissors away. The Librarian hopped and hopped, trying to take the scissors back, but he couldn't reach.
"Even if I hadn't intervened, [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] reached a proper ending. A bad ending, but still."
"......."
"My master did her absolute best, together with the Murim Alliance Master, until the very end. She tried. Even if the Murim Alliance Master died first and my master lost her mind... that, too, is an ending she reached."
I looked into the Librarian's eyes.
"Why is [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] included among the Apocalypses? Librarian. Is the Murim Alliance Master dying and my master losing her mind and taking her own life not even treated as an ending?"
In truth, this question had been with me ever since I saw the fairy tale called 'Me and Our Scapegoat.' Setting aside whether I could accept it or not, it had literally looked like a world that had met its natural conclusion.
The Constellation fell silent.
In the library, only the quiet breathing of the unconscious hunters flowed. Hhhh, shhhh....... As the hunters' chests rose and fell, the Librarian was expressionless.
"For some reason, I wanted to see a happy ending. Would that reason not suffice?"
"If you don't like the ending, you can fix it yourself."
"......."
"You're strong, Librarian. To a hunter like me, you're omnipotent. And yet, instead of fixing the Apocalypses yourself, you dispatched us."
In other words, this Constellation is a 'reader.'
A reader who detests intervening in the story and merely receives it. One who never wishes to ascend to the position of 'author.' Even though he could, he refuses.
A reader who never intervenes himself.
Called [Shut-In Librarian].
"Shall I try a bit of character analysis too? Someone this thorough would never classify something as an Apocalypse simply because it ended strangely. Not the Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon, and not the other Apocalypses either. There must actually be some other reason why an Apocalypse is classified as an Apocalypse."
"...Truly, you do not let things pass easily."
The Librarian smiled bitterly.
"Follow me."
The Librarian took my hand. With his remaining hand, he picked up a book.
The book's title was Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon (天魔實錄).
"...I will show you the truth of the Apocalypses."
The Constellation opened the book.
And light swallowed my vision.
3
When I opened my eyes, we had arrived in a world of snowfields.
But there was no need to walk across the snowfields. The Librarian still held my hand tightly, and with his long sleeves fluttering like the wings of a wild goose, he flew through the winter sky.
"If."
We crossed the snowfields.
"If the zombie virus were a plague that arose naturally within [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon]. If that were truly so. Then as you said, I would never have made this place an Apocalypse."
We crossed the snowy mountains.
"That means......."
"The zombie virus is not a disease that arose on its own here. It is a plague thoroughly introduced from the outside world. Just as a new continent was invaded by an external force."
Haaah, the Librarian let out a white breath.
"There, it is visible."
It was a towering mountain peak.
The sacred peak of this world.
At the summit, touching the ceiling of the sky, there was something enormous.
[Sparkle senses an ominous energy.]
The holy sword at my waist trembled.
Noticing it, the Librarian spoke.
"Oh-ho. Your sword seems to feel it as well. It is no strange thing. The sword you carry was also originally a whole Constellation. A person quickly recognizes another in circumstances similar to their own."
"Similar circumstances......."
"Master Gong-ja, have you ever seen a Constellation fall from heaven?"
Falling from heaven. Demon King of Fall Rain. Agwi.
"Yes, I have."
"Then have you ever seen the corpse left behind by a dead Constellation?"
"......."
"As I thought, you have not."
The Librarian smiled forlornly.
"It is a rather rare sight, so take a good look this time."
It was a dragon.
The corpse of a dragon.
A dragon lay dead atop the mountain.
The hide that must once have been smooth as silk was burned black. The horns on the dragon's head crumbled like coal. The wish-fulfilling jewel, shattered into two pieces, was buried in the snow.
And.
[Sparkle senses the presence of a sister.]
In the very center of its chest, a sword was embedded.
[Sparkle says that is the second sister-sword of the Holy Sword of Protection, the Sword of Compassion!]
From the sword flowed a black turbid qi.
In terms of its nature, you could call it aura. But it was not ordinary aura. It was something similar to what had shrouded the Demon King of Fall Rain—no, something even more turbid. The surging turbid qi wrapped around the dragon and blanketed the mountaintop. When white snowflakes fell upon the peak, the turbid qi immediately infected them, dyeing them black.
-It hurts.......
Pitch-black snow.
-It is unjust.......
From the eyes of the Black Dragon (黑龍), where the light had vanished, groans leaked out.
-It hurts. It hurts so.......
-It is agony.
-It is unjust. It stings. It smarts. It hurts.......
For a moment, I lost my words.
"...Didn't you say it was dead? That thing is still alive."
"It is already dead. What you see and hear there is nothing but the resentment of a corpse. When a being's rank reaches that of a Constellation, it cannot die gracefully even in death."
The two of us landed on the snowy peak.
The black dragon, close by, endlessly leaked its groans.
The Librarian gazed upon the final end of a Constellation with sorrowful eyes.
"The plague that your party called the zombie virus. Its true nature is a curse."
"A curse......."
"Yes. The curse left behind by the Constellation of this martial world, [Yellow Dragon Dwelling in the Great Lake], as it died. A grudge that cannot die even in death. A corpse that, though already dead, must still remain in the flesh and endure agony. When infected by that curse, the people of the martial world became jiangshi."
I looked up at the dragon's corpse.
-It hurts.......
The host of the plague. The epicenter of the curse.
The disease that destroyed this world began from that very corpse.
In the end, the reason my master had to take her own life was also because of the dragon's curse.
"...If the Constellation didn't stab itself in the chest, then someone killed it."
"Common sense would suggest so."
"Who is the culprit?"
"You already suspect the true culprit."
I ground my teeth.
"Lefanta Aegim."
"Indeed."
The Librarian nodded.
"His alias is Constellation Killer (殺天星). A figure who crosses the boundaries of worlds and kills Constellations."
Sparkle had said that a Constellation signifies a being that represents its world.
"And a world that has lost its Constellation is like a castle that has lost its walls. The likelihood of meeting such a brazen destruction rises."
An Apocalypse.
A world whose representative has died, and whose inhabitants have all vanished.
"Why does that bastard kill perfectly fine Constellations? If he founded the Aegim Empire, he should just quietly play emperor in his own country. Why does he go around ruining innocent worlds?"
"That, I cannot answer."
The Librarian studied my face closely.
"I am nothing more than a single reader. You called me omnipotent, but that is not true. If I must say, this Librarian is omniscient yet impotent. I can know the truths of the world, but I do not intervene there."
The Librarian, who had spoken self-deprecatingly, suddenly pointed at my waist.
"But you are different."
At the sword hanging from my waist.
"You, who can intervene, are also intervening. Whether you wish it or not, you are repairing, one by one, the things that someone has broken."
"......."
"Once can be called coincidence. Twice is connection. When it reaches three times, it becomes inevitability. You saved the empire that the Constellation Killer abandoned, you took in the Constellation that the Constellation Killer split apart, and now you have arrived at a world destroyed by the Constellation Killer."
The Librarian spoke.
"The means by which [Yellow Dragon Dwelling in the Great Lake] was killed is vicious and cruel. An ordinary person cannot even lay a hand on that sword. But you can. Master Gong-ja, coincidence and connection have overlapped within you to form a single inevitability."
I looked again at the black dragon's corpse.
Muttering in my heart.
'Sparkle.'
The holy sword trembled faintly.
[Yes, Hero, Sparkle answers.]
'What do I have to do to take in your sister?'
[Sparkle says to draw herself and touch the sister-sword.]
'Good.'
I drew my sword.
The winter air split.
I struck down with my blade upon the sword embedded in the black dragon's chest.
[The Goddess of Protection absorbs a fragment of herself.]
In an instant, my sword was enveloped in light.