The Archivist's Insight
The Black Library was as dark as night even during the day. An underground space with almost no windows. Bookshelves crafted from black wood. Archives sealed by magic. Unfamiliar characters etched into the spines of books. Most students at Saint Ignis Academy didn't even know this place existed.
Noel Ignis liked it here. More precisely, there was no place that lied less than this one.
People dressed themselves up. Nobles with honor, priests with faith, royalty with authority, knights with oaths. But records were different. Records were sometimes distorted or omitted, yet they at least left behind traces of what someone had tried to hide.
The records in the Black Library were usually unkind. They told of who died and why, which rituals had failed, and what forbidden magic had produced what results. These records offered no comfort to the reader. Instead, they spoke coldly: Such things happened. And someone tried to conceal them.
Noel trusted those records. More than she trusted people.
Noel turned a page. Heterodox Records on the Laws of Narrative. The title alone sounded deranged. No sane scholar would have given a book such a name. But the problem lay in its contents.
— The world possesses a single, massive narrative structure.
— Major figures are assigned predetermined roles.
— Those who deviate from their roles are forced back into place by the Correction Force.
— If someone who was meant to die survives, the world generates events to erase them.
Noel tapped the sentence with her finger.
“Correction Force, huh.”
It was laughable. Yet she couldn't laugh.
Kyle Diaren's recent behavior had been strange.
First, he had immediately refuted the false accusation regarding the attack on the Saintess candidate in the Rose Garden.
Second, during combat training, he had anticipated an attack from a familiar rather than the practice mana beasts.
Third, he knew the name Black Moon.
Fourth, he had visibly reacted when he heard the word “original work.”
He knew things he shouldn't.
Yet calling him a spy for the Black Moon didn't fit his actions either. He kept getting hurt. He kept taking losses. And strangely enough, he saved others before himself.
Noel opened a new report.
Kyle Diaren.
Birth: Duke Diaren's household.
Characteristics: Damaged mana circuit. Solid swordsmanship fundamentals. Unstable mana control.
Reputation: Arrogant, impulsive, aggressive.
Recent changes: Extreme caution. Shifts in speech patterns. Changes in how he addresses others. Heightened danger prediction.
Below that, Noel had personally added several lines:
— Inconsistent with previous personality.
— Predictive ability resembles memory more than prophecy.
— Strong survival instinct, yet never chooses to abandon others.
— Self-sacrificing tendencies appear closer to reflexive action than deliberate virtue.
Noel brought the tip of her pen to her lips.
“Mind control wouldn't produce this level of consistency. If it were regression, he wouldn't be this unfamiliar with his own body. Prophecy would yield more fragmented information. Memory inheritance doesn't explain such a drastic shift in attitude either.”
Only a few hypotheses remained.
Possession. External memory implantation. Or something that existed outside the flow of this world.
Noel smiled.
“A normal researcher would stop here.”
But she wasn't the type to stop.
She pulled out another report. This time, three names were written on it.
Rhea Silverrian. Aria Elowen. Siella Bayern.
She couldn't yet determine what roles they might play in the flow called the original work. However, their recent changes were clear.
Rhea sought to keep Kyle within her sphere of influence under the pretext of protection.
Aria refused to leave Kyle's side under the pretext of healing.
Siella trained and guarded him under the name of guilt.
All three had different pretexts. But their direction was the same.
They were drawing closer to Kyle Diaren.
“This is difficult to dismiss as mere coincidence.”
Noel muttered quietly.
If the world truly had a flow, then the relationship lines that should have followed their original course were bending around the stone called Kyle. When a waterway was blocked, water would find another path. But whether the one who created the waterway would permit it was another matter entirely.
At that moment, the door to the Black Library opened.
“So this is where you were.”
Rhea Silverrian entered.
Without lifting her head, Noel spoke.
“For Your Highness the Princess to come all the way down to the underground library, it must be about Kyle.”
“Correct.”
“You don't even bother hiding it.”
“There's no reason to.”
Rhea sat across from Noel. Her posture remained impeccable, befitting a princess. Even in the dim library, her silver hair stood out vividly. The moment she sat, the surrounding temperature dropped slightly.
People who didn't show their emotions outwardly sometimes had mana that was more honest. Rhea's chill revealed that she was more sensitive than she appeared.
“How do you view Kyle Diaren?”
Noel smiled.
“Dangerous, suspicious, fascinating, and surprisingly kind.”
“Can all four coexist?”
“They do for Kyle.”
Rhea glanced at the documents on the desk.
“Do you think he's connected to the Black Moon?”
“He probably is. But it's unlikely he's on their side.”
“Your reasoning?”
“The Black Moon tried to kill him. Twice.”
“What about the possibility of a staged act?”
“Few people would stage a performance by getting their side pierced. Especially when that pained expression is difficult to fake.”
Rhea fell silent. Noel studied her expression.
“Worried?”
“He is under imperial protection.”
“Besides that.”
Rhea's eyes grew cold.
“Watch your words, Ignis.”
“Hit the mark, didn't I?”
“I merely wish to verify the information Kyle Diaren possesses.”
“Then why visit him in person?”
“To check on the condition of someone under my protection.”
“With your hand on his forehead?”
Rhea's expression stiffened ever so slightly. Noel suppressed a laugh.
“Your Highness, pretending to be cold is fine, but if you're too clumsy about it, you end up looking cute.”
The air above the desk froze over.
Noel quickly raised her hands.
“It was a joke. Half of it, anyway.”
Rhea spoke icily.
“If Kyle's secret poses a threat to the imperial family, I will monitor him.”
“And if it benefits the imperial family?”
“I will protect him.”
“Then what if you personally take a liking to him?”
The library's temperature dropped further. Noel finally closed her mouth this time.
After a moment, Rhea asked,
“What exactly does the word ‘original work’ mean?”
Noel turned the book toward her.
“Here, it refers to the world's narrative flow. In simple terms, it's like a fate someone has already written in advance.”
“Fatalism?”
“Similar, yet different. Fate is said to be determined by gods or stars, isn't it? This record claims the world is structured like a story.”
Rhea's eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Absurd.”
“It is. Yet the Black Moon knew that absurd word, and Kyle reacted to it.”
Rhea read the sentence in the book.
— If someone who was meant to die survives, the world generates events to erase them.
Her fingertip stopped over the line.
“Someone who was meant to die.”
Noel watched Rhea's expression.
“Do you think Kyle was originally supposed to die?”
Rhea didn't answer immediately. She recalled the night in the Rose Garden. Kyle soaked in blood. The sight of him collapsing while shielding Aria. The moment he pushed her aside and took the familiar's fangs in her place.
Him? Someone who was meant to die?
It was unpleasant. Strangely so.
“I don't like that phrasing.”
The corner of Noel's mouth lifted.
“I see.”
“Ignis.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Stop smiling.”
“I'm not smiling.”
She was clearly smiling.
Noel added one more judgment in her mind.
Rhea Silverrian did not see Kyle as a mere person under her protection. She simply hadn't admitted it to herself yet. The princess was accustomed to wrapping her emotions in words like duty and responsibility. But the thicker the wrapping, the longer the emotions inside would last.
Flipping through the pages, Rhea spoke.
“If this record is true, does it mean Kyle surviving itself will invite the next incident?”
“It's possible.”
“Then what if we isolate him?”
“His connections would be severed.”
“Wouldn't that be safer?”
Noel looked at Rhea.
“Do you truly think so?”
Rhea didn't answer. Noel continued quietly.
“That might be exactly what the Black Moon wants. Leaving Kyle alone. Making those around him distance themselves out of fear that others will be endangered. Isolating him that way makes him easier to kill.”
Rhea's hand stopped. She knew what isolation meant within the imperial palace. Standing alone might appear strong, but sometimes it was the easiest way to become a target.
Noel turned another page. Written there in an old hand were the words:
— The world does not directly punish those who disrupt its flow. Instead, it shakes the connections they have formed, forcing them to return to their original place.
Rhea read the sentence, her expression hardening.
“Forcing them to return on their own.”
“Yes. Through threats, guilt, distrust, and the like.”
“Meaning Kyle will distance himself from us of his own accord.”
“Probably.”
Rhea said nothing. But her gaze had already reached a conclusion.
She would not allow that to happen.
At that moment, one of the sealed sections in the library glowed blue. Noel's expression changed. She rose from her seat and approached the sealed bookshelf.
“This reaction…”
Inside the sealed shelf, an old book trembled. It wasn't someone requesting access. The book itself was reacting.
Rhea stood as well.
“What's happening?”
Noel carefully released the seal. The book opened by itself. Black letters rose upon the aged parchment.
— The first death has failed.
— The second correction has failed.
— The third correction will make use of connections.
The smile vanished from Noel's face.
Rhea asked in a low voice,
“Connections?”
In that instant, both of them thought of the same person.
Kyle Diaren.
And the three heroines surrounding him.
Aria's sense of responsibility. Siella's guilt. Rhea's own command of protection.
The Black Moon already had far too many threads it could pull.
Rhea turned at once.
“I'm going to Kyle.”
Noel gathered the book as well.
“I'm coming too.”
The world could not kill Kyle directly. Therefore, next it would use the people he sought to protect.
And for the first time, Noel admitted something to herself.
This was no longer a mere subject of observation.
He was already at the center of the incident.
The problem was that the person at the center still didn't know even half of how dangerous his position truly was.