novelraw Chapter 200: Book Viscount
Chapter 200: Book Viscount
The library before them was both spacious and filled with a profound charm. Fischer walked forward along the rows of bookshelves until he reached the very center of the library, directly beneath the massive crystal glass dome. Moonlight spilled down upon Fischer, illuminating a revised map of Naris that he noticed upon looking down.
"There are so many books here... The history our tribe has recorded over hundreds of years barely fills a few scrolls..."
Xi Yate stared at the dense array of books and categories on the surrounding shelves. The first floor of the library had the highest ceiling, roughly six or seven meters tall. The towering bookshelves around them were organized by subject, with the books neatly arranged. Further up on the second and third floors were books of other categories.
The books here were almost all original manuscripts. A large portion of the academic texts Fischer had read in the Royal Academy's library during his university days were actually printed copies of the books housed here. Visible repair marks could be seen on the covers of many books, as they had been treated roughly by Schwari invaders during the wartime chaos.
"The books here amount to less than a fifth of what the royal library held before the 'Shame of Gedrin.' Some were privately hoarded by people both domestically and abroad and have yet to be returned. An even larger portion was burned to ashes in the fires... For example, the 'Complete Book of Naris Magic' that Professor Helson has dedicated his life to revising—that book was actually already revised once during the reign of Gedrin II, but it was lost during that great turmoil."
"Is the Complete Book of Magic really that important? I see your Magic Association creating brand new magic every year. The number of spells created in recent years should have already caught up to the amount recorded in those magic compendiums, right?"
Anna crossed her arms and looked at the surrounding bookshelves as she followed Fischer, voicing her question.
Although she was from the Southern Continent, she had lived in Naris for a long time and understood many things here well enough—far better than the two bewildered demi-human ladies.
Fischer nodded, giving a noncommittal response, but still looked back at Jasmine as he said,
"Magic doesn't just appear out of thin air. Aside from those mighty figures who design brand-new Circle Heads and completely novel magical concepts, the vast majority of magicians are merely groping their way forward while standing on the shoulders of giants. To a large extent, the new spells we design today are either bizarre stitched-together products or improvements built upon the foundations of existing spells.""However, innovating a completely unfamiliar magical concept is a highly dangerous endeavor. The moment a spell's design goes wrong, half your body might instantly be blown off by the magic, you might be swallowed by the world into an unknown dimension, you might be drained into a dried corpse, or even more likely, you could just go completely mad."
Fischer's words made the ladies shiver with fear. They didn't have much understanding of the true nature of magic and had assumed these things were like the existences detailed in mythological stories—casting a spell with a mere wave of the hand—completely ignoring the fact that magic was fundamentally an academic structure built upon theories.
Once things were linked to theories, they would become dry and boring, much like mathematics.
Perhaps it was exactly because the people of the Western Continent had accepted the fundamental concepts of magic very early on that, when natural science concepts like physics and chemistry first emerged, scholars dived into exploring them with virtually zero resistance, achieving impressive results over the course of two centuries.
"This is also the reason why ancient magic masters are so revered. Most of them disregarded the costs, using their very lives to pile up the possibilities of spell designs. A single spell sloppily recorded in the Complete Book of Magic might have cost the lives of hundreds of magicians behind the scenes. Many engraving schools of magic have withered and died out one after another, leaving neither their engraving techniques nor their crests behind. This is a tremendous loss to Naris, and to the global magic academic community as well."
"Never mind, that was just a sudden surge of emotion. Right now, we should still focus on finding the entrance to the treasury."
Next to a bookshelf, Fischer spotted a small lamp meant for readers to use. He picked it up and lit it, finally bringing a sliver of light to the dark library. He swept the light over the "Magic Books" section on the shelf before him, then retracted his gaze after gaining nothing.
"It's already around two in the morning. Let's hurry up and split up to search the first floor for anything strange."
"Mhm."
Anna nodded and left in another direction. Xi Yate hesitated for a second before turning to follow Anna, leaving Jasmine to stay with Fischer.
Black had constructed these two buildings for the Gedrin royal family, and arrogantly buried his own treasury beneath them. According to Fischer's deduction, if the entrance to the treasury was indeed here, there were roughly two possible ways to enter.
The first was a pure physical mechanism—like in the Healing House, where pressing a certain button or inputting a password would open the passageway to the treasury.
But if that were the case, it would simply be way too obvious. Not to mention, Katerina often came over to retrieve equipment and Relics; she definitely had to come here frequently to access the treasury...
As for why Katerina could so easily enter the royal family's private land beside Lake Naris?
Firstly, it was because Black had permission to freely come and go from this place. But that wasn't the main reason... The most important factor was that the royal family harbored a traitor named Lensis, who had reached a cooperative agreement with Black and the others.
Or rather, could this not just have been Lensis's intention, but more than likely Gedrin IX's intention as well?
Then, the second possibility: there was a mechanism triggered by a Relic or magic here.
Magic required crests, which would emit magical fluctuations. Fischer was extremely knowledgeable about the structure of magic; just by looking at a spell, he could roughly figure out how it operated. Meanwhile, although Relics left no physical traces, as long as one could lay their naked eyes on a Relic, they would astutely sense that the item was no ordinary object. This was also why Fischer had asked Anna and the others to search for any strange items.
"Strange, there are no magical crest fluctuations here. Could Black be using a Relic as the switch?"
Scanning the vicinity of the first floor, Fischer didn't discover a single trace of any magic, inevitably turning his attention to the possibility of a Relic.
This was highly likely, especially after confirming the relationship between Black and Muxi, the Whale-kin who was capable of creating Relics.
Following closely behind Fischer, Jasmine looked around using the lamplight. However, aside from books, there were only reading tables here. After passing through row after row of bookshelves, they returned to the center. Over on the other side, Anna also returned to the center with Xi Yate.
"Did you guys find anything over there?"
Anna shook her head and replied,
"Aside from the switches that control the lights and the glass dome overhead, there are only books..."
The main body of this library had no windows, so from its initial design, the massive glass dome overhead was meant to serve as a giant window. At this moment, the glass was completely shut. Fischer looked up at the glass window, finding absolutely zero trace of magical fluctuations on it either.
"Could it be on the second floor?"
The moon in the sky had already begun to continuously tilt downwards. Dawn would break in less than four hours. Fischer didn't know if Black was aware of his escape yet, and he didn't dare to bet on it. Thus, he had no choice but to speed up, setting his sights on the second and third floors.
The first floor of the library consisted entirely of academic and historical books, while the second and third floors held other storybooks, fairy tales, picture books, and the like. Furthermore, the space on the second and third floors was noticeably smaller than the first, and the bookshelves were permanently fixed in place, let alone hiding any Relics or magical crests.
Refusing to believe in the supernatural, Fischer, Anna, and the rest searched the library for a full hour without finding anything. It was already late into the night, so a fatigued Anna and Xi Yate rested on the first floor for a while, leaving only Fischer and Jasmine still searching the second floor.
Finding absolutely nothing after searching an entire floor made even Fischer feel perplexed. Could it really just be a physical switch? But wouldn't that be way too obvious? This library had been built for so many years, and the subsequent repairs and maintenance had all been handled by the royal family. Were they really so stupid that they had never discovered it all this time?
That was way too illogical.
Toward the end, Jasmine and Fischer even started flipping randomly through the tomes on the shelves. Could there be a Relic hidden entirely within a book, like a bookmark?
But if that were the case, and they didn't know exactly which book it was in, finding that Relic would be immensely difficult. Did they really just have to wait for Black to arrive and fight him to the death?
Jasmine and Fischer were on the second floor. At this moment, they were holding a third edition of the "Heroic Tales of Naris," reading it with great relish. They had already been searching continuously for over an hour earlier, so Fischer allowed her to rest for a bit by herself, while he pondered the possibilities of entering the treasury once more.
This book recorded the biographies of many official and folk heroes of Naris from the era of Gedrin I to Gedrin V. The story Jasmine was currently reading was about Gedrin I's battles in the beginning, detailing how he couldn't bear to hurt the masses in the city and chose to abandon the use of massive siege engines, ultimately withdrawing his troops and leaving.
The Central Empire general defending the city was deeply moved by Gedrin I's benevolence and wisdom. He knew well that the Central Empire had been corrupted for too long and that its time was up, yet he could not betray his loyalty to it. Thus, he resolved to commit suicide to repay his nation, while ordering all his subordinates to follow Gedrin I.
"The empire's ship has carried me through half my life; I simply cannot abandon it now. You young folks have only just boarded, so of course, you have the right to choose a new ship. That ship is bigger and more spacious, and its captain is far wiser. Go now. After I die, leave and follow your new master."
Jasmine opened her small mouth slightly. A legendary story surfaced in her heart. The heroic, decisive, and wise image of Gedrin I leaped right off the page, charging straight into her mind...
"...Heh heh, this story is fake. The real reason Gedrin I decided to abandon the siege was that his rations ran out and they couldn't last until the next attack. Also, that general didn't voluntarily commit suicide to repay his nation. Seeing that defending the city was hopeless, his subordinates figured they might as well kill the defending general and defect to the enemy..."
"Waaaaaah! A ghost!"
Just as Jasmine was reading with immense relish, a raspy, duck-like male voice suddenly rang out right next to her. Jasmine was abruptly yanked out of the story's world, scaring her so much that she subconsciously threw a punch, squarely whacking a very thick, archaic book.
The book had originally been open. The punch sent the book flying out, doing several rapid spins in mid-air before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Panting heavily, Jasmine set down the book in her hands and looked around. Aside from that book, there was no one else around. Fischer had gone up to the third floor to search for clues earlier, meaning she was the only one currently on the second floor...
Which meant... that voice just now had come from this book?
Moreover, since she was a little scared earlier, she hadn't even noticed that this book seemed to be floating in mid-air?!
Jasmine pursed her lips, too afraid to go over. Thus, she had no choice but to toss the book in her hand over to test if that thing was alive. But just as she threw it out, Fischer, who was coming down the stairs, reached out and caught the book in mid-air.
He looked at Jasmine in confusion, not understanding why she was throwing books. He had also come downstairs after hearing her scream just now.
"What's wrong?"
"Fischer! There's a ghost in that book!"
"A ghost?"
Fischer turned his head to look at the thick, archaic book on the floor. Only upon getting closer did Fischer suddenly realize that this book on the floor had no title or text on its cover. He had just searched the second floor a moment ago, and he was quite confident in his memory—he definitely shouldn't have missed seeing this book.
Fischer crouched down. Just as he reached his hand out to pick up the book, an eye suddenly snapped open perfectly on the book's cover, staring straight at Fischer. This didn't scare Fischer in the slightest, because the Fluid Sword in his hand had already extended out, and its quicksilver-like blade looked as though it was about to swing down on the book.
"Don't! Good sir! Don't attack! I'm a good person... Ah, no, a good book!"
The eye on the book curved slightly, displaying an entirely human-like look of fear and panic. It suddenly floated out of thin air. At this moment, not only was there an eye on the book cover, but a small mouth baring large white teeth had appeared as well. The mouth opened, continuously shouting at Fischer.
That bizarre book ceaselessly fluttering in mid-air made Fischer subconsciously think it was some biological experiment created by Black, simply because it looked far too ugly and abstract.
"Listen to me, listen: I have absolutely no ill intentions... Or rather, even if I did have any ill intentions, I literally pose zero threat to any of you! I'm just a book! A completely harmless, super cute little book!"
Even though this book had a mouth on its 'face,' when it spoke, it wasn't just the mouth opening—the pages behind it were constantly opening and closing too, much like an accordion that needed to be pushed and pulled. Through the pages it fanned open, Fischer realized that the pages were completely packed with densely written text, though he couldn't tell exactly what had been recorded inside.
"Shut up."
His raspy, duck-like male voice was just too awful to listen to, acting like pure noise pollution whenever he spoke. Sporting a speechless expression, Fischer raised the Fluid Sword in his hand and pointed it at him, scaring the book into shutting his mouth immediately, though his eye still revealed an ingratiating smile.
"Alrighty, alrighty. Whatever you say! I won't speak..."
Very curious, Jasmine also ran over. Looking at the ancient-looking book floating in mid-air with only one eye, she opened her mouth in fright. She had no idea what this thing was either, or why it looked so bizarre.
"I'll ask, and you answer. Speak. What exactly are you, and why are you here?"
"What?! A thing?!"
The eye on the book suddenly widened, and the entire book fanned out considerably, looking exactly as if he were taking a deep breath to calm his mood. Stopping for a second, he then shouted at Fischer with utter disbelief,
"How dare you refer to me as a thing! Such blatant disrespect... Listen closely now: I am the esteemed 'Book Viscount,' Eimhart!"