The Boundary (2)
A library that nature had created on its own.
And the eerie-shaped trees that grew in strange forms.
At the tips of those trees hung the books.
The books were filled with symbols that no one could understand.
But when the stars came out and lit up the Elf's Bone Artifact, the arranged symbols revealed their pattern.
They had transformed into the language of the ancient Centaur race.
Nora began reading the letters.
We, who have read this book, are probably our brothers who inherited our blood.
Or perhaps a seeker wandering in search of the wisdom we left behind.
We were once the guardians of this land.
The stars will bear witness to how we fought, and how we fell.]
That was their history written here.
The history of the ancient Centaur race that was nowhere to be found in the Gilorian Empire.
Nora continued reading.
But we understood the essence of the power they possessed.
It is the power to control souls, and the power to return to beings positioned on the boundary line.
We gathered all our wisdom into this book at the final moment.
If you wish to obtain this knowledge, look within you for your light.
Find the truth within the grid of time we left, feeling the blue light in your heart.
And for those who stand on the boundary line, I greet you, Nora.
If you wish to return to the embrace of your mother, do not miss the moment when the sky opens.]
That was it.
Soon the letters became blurry again, replaced by a string of unknown symbols.
Because the positions of the stars had changed over time.
“This book can only be read one page at a time.
For the next page, ….”
I trailed off Nora’s words and looked up at the sky.
To decode the next page, I needed the position of a new constellation.
A time point that was too far away for me.
* * *
The sun rose again.
“I thought you were dead, but you’re alive.
I was about to leave if you didn’t show up by today.”
When we came out of the Hetia Library, Kyle, looking like he hadn’t slept in days, approached us.
He must have been staying here the whole time too.
But because of his Barbarian nature, his face looked refreshed, as if he had slept well.
“Let’s go.”
“No, what the hell did you do inside that made you look like this?”
I ignored his chattering and headed straight for Fredrick Castle.
The sun rose and set four times.
We stayed in the Hetia Library for nearly 200 hours, decoding every book we could reach.
It took four days.
Not every book required the constellation of the Elf’s Bone Artifact.
Most books simply listed sentences once you confirmed the constellation and time you were in.
Of course, it was impossible to read clearly at night, so the decoding speed was slow.
But because Nora had knowledge of celestial bodies, we could decode a few books even during the day.
Of course, what we could read was only one page per book, but we got enough information.
Right, the secret of the Elf’s Bone Artifact and soul detection.
While reading a book, Nora explained.
“The Elf’s Bone Artifact is made of the ribs of young female elves under 100 years old, and once their blood is infused, it activates the power to bind souls.”
On the night of the third moon, Nora found it.
“And the bound souls can be released by infusing the blood of male elves over 300 years old.”
A strange rule.
It divided binding and release by gender and age.
No reason or meaning, but we had a way to recover the souls of the elves who had been sacrificed to Jacob.
“Maybe we can find my husband’s soul.”
Nora’s eyes sparkled.
A spark of hope had ignited in her heart.
And when the moon tilted completely, and the new sun was about to rise.
“Inspector, this is something you should see for yourself.”
The book Nora showed was different from the others, with illustrations instead.
A single moon and sun floating above endless mountain ranges.
“What does this mean? One sun….”
The Gilorian Empire had two suns rising.
Two suns were as natural as air to them.
“He must have been a person with vivid imagination.”
I answered casually.
The illustration was an expression of imagination… so wasn’t that natural?
And as time passed and we found the next book, this time a majestic dragon stood over a city background.
In the middle of a city filled with ancient buildings, one dragon stood tall.
Folding its wings grandly, as if ruling over the city.
“Is this expressing a dragon ruling over a city in imagination?”
Nora tilted her head.
A city in imagination….
The buildings in the illustration city were medieval European style.
Gothic architecture with tall, pointed spires.
Buildings that showed an attempt to get a little closer to God.
But in the Gilorian Empire, spire-shaped buildings were considered blasphemous.
They were seen as arrogance for people who dared to challenge the gods with spires, and they feared the curse of the angry goddess Eris.
Spire-style architecture had appeared recently.
Of course, it was to build high-rises, but in any case, to break the wrong perception of spires in the Eris religion, they erected spires in their own temples.
So this picture was probably meant to punish arrogant humans who were challenging the gods with dragons.
Nothing more, nothing less.
But the thought that came to my mind was.
“They were Earthlings.”
In the subsequent eerie picture, traces of Earth were subtly revealed.
Stained glass that couldn’t be seen in the Gilorian Empire, and a Bible cross that could only be the property of Earthlings.
Clearly, the dragon was holding a Bible with a cross carved on it.
“……!!!”
The person who left this picture was definitely an Earthling.
And there was a message meant for us heretics, no, for Earthlings.
A book made in the language of the ancient Centaur race contained traces of Earth.
“The being standing on the boundary line.
The crack in the sky.”
All of this was directed at beings like me, the heretics.
Even in ancient times, there were heretics.
And.
“The power to return.”
My heart pounded violently.
Clearly, the book recorded that they understood the essence of the power to return.
Did they, after realizing the power, return to Earth?
Or did they die miserably at the hands of some unknown being?
The conclusion was unknown.
But my ancestors of the past left the direction I should go with their blood, with their souls.
Thump—
At that moment, Kyle’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Did you find anything in the library?”
He knew something too?
No, did the first prince, Prince Fredrick, also know about this fragment of the past?
A sticky light flowed from Kyle’s eyes.
“Yes.”
I answered shortly.
Kyle’s body straightened.
“What is it?”
Kyle’s pupils had dilated.
“Do you also know that horrible thing….”
Kyle’s lips twitched as if in spasm.
He was desperately holding back what he wanted to say.
No, he seemed to know something but didn’t want to reveal it.
I didn’t need to say the facts either.
“Are you calling the artifact of the goddess Eris horrible?”
“Artifact… is it?”
The muscles on Kyle’s face relaxed.
He had answered outside his expectations.
“Yes, the strange appearance of the trees and the aura spreading through the library can only be explained as the power of the goddess Eris.
Why is that horrible?”
“No… that’s….”
Kyle held the words in his mouth and rushed ahead.
“Hey! Another one came out.”
He swung the hammer toward a monster resembling a grasshopper and headed forward.
We walked toward Fredrick Castle, hiding our true feelings from each other.
Probably, different suspicions and speculations were swirling in each of our heads.
And I was sure.
The secret hidden in this castle was touching the truth I was looking for.
Prince Fredrick must know the hidden truth.
* * *
My dream was once to be a cartoonist.
I wasn’t very good at drawing, but I wanted to show the images in my head to others.
After my head got thick enough to understand the world, I realized it was hard to make a living as a cartoonist, and the dream naturally faded.
But I got a job that was just enough to cling to and not hurt my pride by complaining to others.
Well, looking back, most of my job was blackmailing criminals.
But that didn’t mean I completely erased the dream of being a cartoonist from my heart.
Because even when I was doing blackmail, my imagination was as dreamy as it could be.
But today, I realized how poor my imagination was, and that my dream was a vain fantasy.
If even the Creator who created this space gave that much imagination for monster designs…
Monster legions poured in from outside the walls again.
In the lead was a grasshopper-like monster equipped with electric saw blades at its feet, howling.
Chitinia.
“Third magic artillery unit.
Fire!”
As soon as Prince Fredrick’s command fell, the magic cannons on the walls fired.
Fire clung to the chitinous shells, and the pungent smell began to approach.
The soldiers immediately aimed their arrows at the scout’s cry.
With tentacles full of yellow mucus attached to the walls, the giant legs twitched as they climbed the walls.
At that moment, one one-eyed body connected to the torso popped up above the wall and.
Sprayed yellow mucus into the inside of the wall.
But before they could even prepare, the monster legions rushed toward the yellow mucus in an instant.
With yellow wings flapping like decaying corpses, they made a creepy sound in the sky.
Monsters like wasps and scorpions mixed together.
Sticky mucus flowed from their abdomens.
“Magic division, expand the third barrier!”
According to Prince Fredrick’s command, a golden arc was drawn above the walls.
Golden arrows flew toward the dirty monsters.
Whoosh—
The monsters pierced by arrows became fire in the air and disappeared.
The tentacle monsters climbing the walls became lumps of sticky mucus.
And there was no victorious shout shaking the city.
The soldiers were cleaning up the area like they had finished business at a restaurant.
They finished the situation without any special expressions.
The situation was quite different from the first day.
There was no soldier cheering for victory after the battle with the monster legion.
“No party today?”
I asked Kyle.
Then Kyle answered with a puzzled expression.
“In the capital, do you have parties every time you get off work?”
“…….”
To them, fighting monster legions was like going to work every day.
This level of monster legion wasn’t much different from customers coming to a restaurant.
Of course, not customers, but true monsters.
It was a business that balanced out somehow, as if throwing monster byproducts at customers who couldn’t be found even if they paid.
“Hey, over there, clean up and repaint the paint that got wiped off the walls.”
Kyle rolled up his sleeves and went down below.
I grabbed him quickly and asked.
“Where is the prince?
There’s something I need to discuss for a moment….”
“Quit time.”
“…….”
Leaving only two words, Kyle disappeared.
Well, it would be exhausting if you had to fight every day.
I descended the watchtower, engraving the things I needed to confirm with Prince Fredrick in my head.
There were things to confirm with him.
He definitely knew about the Hetia Library and the grotesque creatures.
He might know about the secret hidden here, the identity of the heretics, and perhaps the secret of the power to return to Earth.
But for some reason, Prince Fredrick was reluctant for me to approach that truth.
I needed to know why.
No, maybe he had the key to the secret I had searched for so hard.
This was the reason I stayed here and talked to him.