Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Librarian Ernst (14) - Dealing with Troublemakers
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Tap, tap.
After running side by side through the narrow alley for a while...
Suddenly, Ernst spoke up.
"Hmm. We're in trouble."
"Pardon?"
"It means we've lost our way."
Eris blinked.
It took her a moment to process what Ernst had said.
"Are you kidding me right now!? No, more than that, why are you saying it so calmly!?"
"Panicking won't make the situation any better."
"Fine! Then let me take the lead... What the heck is this?"
Pushing Ernst aside to survey the surroundings, Eris quickly noticed the blatant abnormality.
Dead ahead.
A dim passageway. Trash on the ground. Stains on the walls. Branching paths to the left and right.
To the sides.
A dim passageway. Trash on the ground. Stains on the walls. Branching paths to the left and right.
Behind them.
A dim passageway. Trash on the ground. Stains on the walls. Branching paths to the left and right.
The paths were all identical.
No matter where she looked, no matter which direction they went, no matter which alley they entered, it was the same.
No ordinary village would design its back alleys with such a paranoid layout, so there was only one conclusion.
"Illusions again."
"Perception interference. Hallucinations. Phantasms. It seems our opponent excels at concealment and deception. However, they haven't pinpointed our exact location. They've likely just cast a wide-area barrier centered on the main body."
Even trapped in this unidentified illusion, Ernst showed not a hint of anxiety.
His calm analysis dispelled the unease and impatience bubbling in Eris's heart.
When Eris pulled out her staff and cast a dispel spell, the surroundings shimmered like heat haze, revealing the 'real' scenery beyond.
But it was only for a moment.
"Ugh...!"
With Eris's groan, the scenery that had briefly returned to normal was once again enveloped in illusion.
The mana sustaining the illusion clashed against the mana trying to dispel it.
In this raw contest of power, Eris was being pushed back.
Unlike her fight with Marik before, she couldn't find any openings to exploit or deflect the spells this time.
Eris bit her lip in frustration, but Ernst nodded.
"That's enough."
"What do you mean─ah."
Grabbing Eris's hand, Ernst dashed forward.
Twenty steps straight ahead through the open path. Then a sharp turn right into what clearly looked like a dead-end wall.
Eris was about to demand what he was doing, but instead of colliding, their bodies passed right through the wall without issue.
Only then did Eris understand. In that brief instant when she had dispelled the illusion.
In less than two seconds, Ernst had memorized every visible path in his line of sight.
"Dispel once more in five seconds. 5, 4─"
"I don't need you counting every second!"
Eris's spell detonated, the illusion wavered, and true reality emerged.
Ernst swiftly memorized the street layout, calculated the steps to each key point, and instructed Eris on the next dispel timing.
After repeating this process about three times...
-Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
-Play with us! Play with us! Play with us! Play with us!
Two pale-faced men and women, looking like corpses, repeated the same monotonous lines like a broken phonograph as they charged toward them.
While running, Ernst said,
"Regrettably, as a librarian and not an adventurer, I lack the brute force to take them down in one go. Nor do I have the stamina to carry you while running. Inside the library, that might be another story."
"I never expected you to in the first place!!"
Eris, who had secretly hoped Ernst might show some heroic flair, yelled even louder to hide her embarrassment as she unleashed her spell.
A massive surge of water and intense cold.
As she poured both magics forward, the two pursuers froze solid, frost forming over their entire bodies, halting them in place.
Ernst grabbed Eris's hand again and kicked off the ground.
"Huff, huff."
Eris felt her breath burning in her throat.
The successive spells and nonstop running were rapidly draining her stamina and mana.
If she hadn't occasionally exercised to shake off the 'bookworm mage' label, she'd probably be sprawled on the ground by now.
A cool, rational voice questioned from a corner of her mind.
Is this really the best course of action?
Will blindly burning through mana and stamina to reach the library actually improve things?
Wouldn't it be better to head to the raid barracks and seek help from the professors instead of following some mysterious librarian blindly?
It was a sharp, perfectly logical point.
'Who cares.'
But Eris neatly ignored it.
She was the type who lived more by emotion than reason anyway.
And finally, the long-awaited library appeared before their eyes.
The problem was that their pursuers had caught right up behind them.
-You're going? Don't go! You're going? Don't go! You're going? Don't go!
A pursuer's fingertips snagged Eris's hem.
Eris spun around hastily to shake them off, but lost her balance in the process.
The moment she sensed she was about to fall...
A pair of firm arms wrapped around her, pulling her into an embrace.
Ernst and Eris's bodies bounced like a ball, crashing straight into the library's front gate.
Thud! Rumble!
The doors shattered, and the two tumbled across the library floor, rolling until they slammed into a bookshelf and stopped.
"...Urk."
"A-Are you okay!?"
Had he taken the brunt of the impact while shielding her?
Eris's heart sank at the sight of Ernst grimacing in pain.
But there was no time to leisurely check on him.
The two men and women were charging through the open gate, eyes wild.
Snap.
Eris's patience finally broke.
"Enough already!!"
Water, ice, wind, fire.
The four elemental spells resonated together, obliterating the pursuers' upper bodies entirely.
The relentless chasers, who hadn't stopped even after falls and blows, finally collapsed and ceased moving once they'd lost half their bodies.
"Hoo, hoo."
Eris dropped to her knees on the floor.
That last spell had truly depleted her mana to zero.
Her legs, exhausted from the prolonged run, trembled uncontrollably, and dizziness swirled in her head.
"Hahaha! Nice show of rat-like struggling!"
As if timing it perfectly, Marik finally revealed himself.
A leisurely smile played on his lips, and he showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever.
Even though, in terms of pure mana expenditure, his should have been dozens of times worse than Eris's.
"But I'm a bit disappointed that after all that running, you ended up here. It's too empty—no people at all. If you'd gone to the raid barracks, you could've driven the professors mad and made them kill each other. If you'd sought help from Delphinarius, you could've turned everyone on the way into rampaging lunatics!"
Like a director lamenting that his play hadn't met expectations, Marik sighed.
Watching him, Eris finally gained certainty.
"What exactly are you?"
"What do you mean? Have you already forgotten my face or something?"
"The real Marik is even more of a small-timer than you. No matter how well you mimic his mannerisms, you can't fake that."
"......"
Marik froze.
After a brief silence, he burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Oh, that's a direct hit. Impressive—no one can easily touch that level of pathetic once it reaches a certain realm!"
The laughing Marik—no, whatever was imitating Marik—grinned at Eris with the same creepy smile.
"I'm Balzareus. The demon who lent power to this idiot contractor and is currently shopping around for a new one. So, miss, how about striking a deal with me?"
Demon.
The moment she heard that word, Eris's eyes narrowed sharply.
Her mentor's warning echoed in her mind: the kind of scum you shouldn't tangle with or even talk to.
"I refuse."
"Don't be so cold-hearted—hear me out. This guy was a total waste of space, nothing but a human trash heap who annoyed everyone just by breathing. But after contracting with me, he rocketed to success. And you know better than anyone just how much."
She knew.
How could she not?
That overwhelming mana. The genius ability to instantly learn spells just by seeing them.
If all that was granted purely through a contract, unrelated to any innate talent, it was terrifying.
Every book hammered home the dangers of demons, and shrine priests bared killing intent at the sight of them or their contractors, ready to smash them—yet people kept making pacts. Now she understood why.
"This fool couldn't even use my power properly because the original was such a dimwit, but you're different. Once you get the hang of it, you'd become a mage with few rivals."
The demon's voice was disarmingly friendly.
So much so that, without keeping her wits sharp, she might even forget this was the enemy who'd just been after her life.
Eris stared straight at the demon and declared firmly,
"I refuse. I have zero intention of contracting with something like you."
"Hey, don't decide so quickly—think it over a bit more? You could become a mage even greater than your mentor."
The demon continued coaxingly.
"It's not hard. Just fetch me any item I want from the Aerial Academy. After that, no interference, and the power stays yours. A sweet deal like this? No other demon would offer it. Only because it's me."
"I said I refuse!"
"Hmm."
The demon, Balzareus, shut his mouth.
Tilting his head this way and that in thought, he soon grinned wickedly again.
"Alright then. Can't be helped. Truly regrettable."
Eris swallowed hard.
She had braced for mortal danger, but Balzareus mocked her resolve with a jovial attitude.
"Relax, miss. I was going to push the contract your way like you imagined, but after watching you two scramble so desperately, I changed my mind."
Around Balzareus, dozens of flame-forged swords materialized at once.
Eris's eyes widened.
One reason: the mana dwarfing even Marik's.
The other: the swords weren't aimed at her, but at Ernst.
Balzareus said in a cheerful tone,
"Let's play a game, miss. From now on, every time you give any answer besides 'yes' to my contract proposal, one of these swords plunges into that guy over there. The terms are a bit harsher than before, but that's life. First chances are always the best, right?"
"You...!"
"Don't worry! I'll avoid the head and heart! Gyahaha!"
The demon laughed, and Eris trembled with rage at his cowardice and malice.
"Now then. Let's begin. Miss, from this moment on─"
Boom!
The moment Balzareus tried to declare the contract terms, the library doors suddenly slammed shut.
Firmly and solidly.
As if permitting no one's entry.
Or escape.
"Hmm. I see. I've grasped the situation."
A remarkably calm, emotionless voice emerged—one utterly mismatched to the dire tension.
Whoosh.
The blond man rose from the floor and fixed his gaze on the demon.
Balzareus tilted his head sideways.
With eyes like he'd spotted an extra barging into the stars' emotional climax, the demon spoke.
"Who the hell are you?"
The librarian didn't answer.
Ernst didn't even spare the demon a glance, instead quietly patting Eris's back.
"You can relax now."
─Dealing with troublesome patrons is one of a librarian's duties, after all.