novelraw Chapter 201: Sir Book
Chapter 201: Sir Book
The library before them was both spacious and full of charm. Fisher walked forward past row after row of bookshelves until he reached the very center of the library, right beneath that massive crystal glass dome. Moonlight shone upon Fisher's body, and as he looked down, he saw a revised map of Naris.
"There are too many books here. Our tribe has recorded hundreds of years of history, yet we only have a few scrolls..."
Xi Yate looked at the densely packed books and categories on the surrounding shelves. The first floor of the library was the highest, about six or seven meters tall. The tall bookshelves around were divided by category, and the books on them were neatly arranged. Moving up to the second and third floors, there were books of other categories.
The books here were basically all original manuscripts. Many of the academic books Fisher had read in the Royal Academy library during his university days were largely printed editions from here. The covers of many books still showed obvious signs of repair, as they had been roughly handled by Schwari invaders during the war.
"The books here are not even one-fifth of the collection in the royal library prior to the 'Shame of Godolin'. Some were privately hoarded by people at home and abroad and have never been returned to this day. A much larger portion was burned in the fire... For instance, the 'Complete Book of Naris Magic', which Teacher Helson dedicated his life to revising, was actually revised once during the reign of Godolin II and was also lost in that chaos."
"Is the Complete Book of Magic that important? I see that your Magic Association creates new magic every year. The number of magic spells created in recent years has already caught up with the amount recorded in those magic compendiums, right?"
Anna hugged her arms, following Fisher as she examined the surrounding bookshelves, and asked in question.
Although she was from the Southern Continent, she had lived in Naris for a long time and knew enough about many things here, much better than those two completely clueless demi-human ladies.
Fisher nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but he still looked at Jasmine behind him and said,
"Magic doesn't come out of nowhere. Except for those great masters who have designed new Head-Rings and entirely new magical concepts, most other magicians are merely groping their way upon the shoulders of giants. To a large extent, the new magic we design now is either grotesquely stitched-together creations or improvements based on existing magical concepts...""But inventing a completely unfamiliar magical concept is a highly dangerous endeavor. If error occurs in the magic's design, you might have half your body instantly blown off by the magic, or be swallowed by the world into an unknown space, or be drained into a mummy, or more likely, just go insane..."
Fisher's words made several of the ladies shiver with fear. They did not understand much about the essence of magic, thinking these things were like existences in myths and stories where a wave of a hand could operate magic, completely ignoring that magic was essentially an academic architecture built upon theory.
Once certain things were tied to theory, they became very dry and boring, just like mathematics.
Perhaps it was precisely because the people of the West Continent had accepted the conceptual essence of magic early on that when natural science concepts such as physics and chemistry emerged, scholars entered and explored them almost without any resistance, achieving good results over two hundred years.
"This is also why ancient magic masters are so highly revered. Most of them ruthlessly piled up the possibilities of magical designs with their lives regardless of the cost. Behind a magic spell casually recorded in the Complete Book of Magic, there might be the lives of over a hundred magicians. Many magic engraving schools have withered and died out sequentially today, and their engraving techniques and crests have not survived. This is a loss for Naris and the global magical academic community..."
"Forget it, I was just speaking from the heart. For now, let's focus on finding the entrance to the treasury."
Fisher saw small lamps for people to use beside the bookshelf. He picked up the lamp and lit it, officially giving the library in the darkness a bit of a light source. Fisher scanned the 'magic-category books' on the shelf in front of him with the light, and then withdrew his gaze after gaining nothing.
"It's already around two in the morning. Let's hurry up and separate to find if there are any strange spots on the first floor."
"Okay."
Anna nodded and left from another direction. Xi Yate hesitated for a second and also turned to follow Anna away, while Jasmine stayed with Fisher.
Black built these two buildings for the Godolin royal family, and very arrogantly buried his own treasury beneath them. According to Fisher's speculation, if there was an entrance to the treasury here, there were roughly two ways to enter.
One was a purely physical mechanism, like touching some button or inputting some password as in the Healing House, and then the passage into the treasury would open.
But if that were the case, it would be far too obvious. Moreover, Katerina used to come over frequently to fetch equipment and relics; she must have often come here to enter the treasury...
As for why Katerina could so easily enter the royal private grounds beside Lake Naris?
First of all, it was because Black had permission to freely come and go from here, but that wasn't the main reason... Most importantly, there was a traitor within the royal family, Lensis, who had reached an agreement with Black and the others.
Or rather, this wasn't just Lensis's intention... could it more likely be the intention of Godolin IX?
In that case, the second possibility was that there was an mechanism triggered by a relic or magic here.
Magic possessed crests that emitted magical fluctuations. Fisher was also extremely knowledgeable about the structure of magic; he only needed to see a magic spell to roughly know how it operated. While relics had no traces, as long as you could see a relic with your naked eye, you could acutely sense that it wasn't an ordinary object. This was also why Fisher asked Anna and the others to look around for any strange items.
'Strange, there are no magical crest fluctuations here. Could Black have used a relic as a switch?'
After scanning the vicinity of the first floor, Fisher didn't find any traces of magic, so he couldn't help but turn his gaze to the relic route.
This was very possible, especially after confirming the relationship between Black and Muxi, a Whale-kin capable of crafting relics.
Jasmine followed behind Fisher, using the light to inspect the surroundings. However, besides books, there were only reading tables here. After passing through one bookshelf after another, they returned to the central position. Over there, Anna had also brought Xi Yate back to the center.
"Did you find anything on your end?"
Anna shook her head and said,
"Aside from the switches controlling the lights and the glass dome overhead, there are only books..."
The main part of this library had no windows, so from its initial design, the large glass dome overhead was tasked with acting as a large window. At this moment, the glass panels were fully closed. Fisher looked up at the glass window, and there was absolutely no trace of magical fluctuations on it either.
"Could it be on the second floor?"
The moon in the sky had already begun to tilt, and it would be dawn in less than four hours. He didn't know if Black knew that he had escaped. Fisher didn't dare to gamble either, so he sped up and fixed his gaze on the second and third floors.
The first floor of the library contained all academic and historical books, whereas the second and third floors held some other storybooks, fairy tales, and paintings and such. Furthermore, the space on the second and third floors was clearly not as large as the first floor, and the bookshelves were non-removable, let alone harboring any relics or magical crests.
An unconvinced Fisher, Anna, and the group searched the library consecutively for an hour without any discoveries. It was already the latter half of the night, so Anna and Xi Yate, feeling somewhat exhausted, rested on the first floor for a while, leaving only Fisher and Jasmine still searching on the second floor.
Walking around and finding nothing made Fisher feel perplexed. Could it really be a physical switch? That would be far too obvious. This library had been built for so many years, and subsequent repairs and maintenance had all been handled by the royal family. Could they genuinely be so foolish as to have never discovered it?
That was way too illogical...
Later on, Jasmine and Fisher even started randomly flipping through the texts placed on the shelves. Could there be a relic hidden within a book, existing akin to a bookmark...
But if that were the case, without knowing exactly which book it was in, finding that relic would still be quite difficult. Did they really just have to wait for Black to come over and fight to the death?
Jasmine and Fisher were on the second floor. At this moment, holding the third edition of the 'Naris Hero Stories', they were reading it with great interest. Previously, they had been searching continuously for over an hour. Fisher had told her to rest for a while, while he himself thought further about the possibilities of entering the treasury.
This book recorded the biographies of many official or folk Naris heroes from the era of Godolin I to Godolin V. The story Jasmine was currently reading was the one at the beginning about Godolin I during a battle, recounting how he could not bear to harm the masses in the city and gave up on using massive siege engines, ultimately withdrawing his army.
The defending general from the Central Empire was moved by Godolin I's benevolence and wisdom. He profoundly knew the Central Empire had been corrupt for too long and its destined lifespan was exhausted, yet he could not betray his loyalty to it. Consequently, he decided to commit suicide to repay his nation, but let all his subordinates leave to follow Godolin I.
"The Empire's ship has carried me through half my life, and I cannot bring myself to abandon it; you young men have only just boarded the ship, so of course you have the right to choose a new one. That ship is larger and more spacious, and its captain is wiser. Go, after I die, leave and follow your new master."
Jasmine opened her small mouth slightly, as a legendary story filled her heart. That heroic, decisive, and wise image of Godolin I leapt vividly from the page directly into her mind...
"... Heh heh, this story is fake. The real reason Godolin I decided to abandon the siege was because the rations and fodder were insufficient, and they couldn't hold out until the next attack; and that general didn't voluntarily commit suicide for his country either. It was his subordinates who, seeing no hope in defending the city, decided they might as well kill the defending general and surrender to the enemy..."
"Waaah! A ghost!"
Just as Jasmine was reading with great relish, a drake-like male voice abruptly rang out nearby. Jasmine was suddenly yanked out of the story's world, and in her fright, she subconsciously threw a punch, ending up fiercely striking a very thick and quaint book.
The book had originally been open, but that strike sent the book flying out, spinning fiercely in midair several times before dropping to the ground.
Jasmine panted and put down the book in her hands, turning her head to check her surroundings. Aside from that book, there was no one else around. Fisher had gone to the third floor earlier to search for clues, so right now, she was alone on the second floor...
That meant the voice just now had come from this book?
Moreover, she had been a little scared just now and hadn't even noticed that this book seemed to be floating in midair?!
Jasmine bit her lip, too frightened to go over, so she could only toss the book she had in hand to test if that thing was alive. The result was that right after it was tossed out, the book was caught midair by Fisher, who was coming downstairs.
He looked at Jasmine in confusion, not understanding why she was throwing books. He had also heard her scream just now and came downstairs.
"What's wrong?"
"Fisher! There's a ghost in that book!"
"A ghost?"
Fisher turned to look at the thick, quaint book on the floor. Now that he was closer, Fisher abruptly realized that there was no title or any text on the cover of the book on the floor. He had searched the area on the second floor just now, and he was quite confident in his memory; he shouldn't have missed seeing this book.
Fisher crouched down and was just about to reach out to pick up that book when an eye abruptly opened on the book cover, staring straight at Fisher. This didn't scare Fisher, because the Fluid Sword in his hand had already extended, and the quicksilver-like blade looked as if it were about to slash toward that book.
"Wait! Sir! Don't make a move! I am a good person... ah no, a good book!"
The eye on that book curved slightly, revealing a terrified and flustered gaze in an anthropomorphic manner. It suddenly floated up out of thin air. At this moment, not only was there an eye on the book cover, but there was also a small mouth grinning with large white teeth. The mouth opened, continuously shouting at Fisher.
Such a bizarre book floating constantly in midair made Fisher subconsciously feel this thing was like a biological experimental product created by Black, because it looked just far too ugly and abstract.
"Listen to me, listen to me, I have no ill will... or rather, even if I had any ill will, it wouldn't pose any threat to you at all. I am just a book! A completely harmless, adorable little book!"
Even though this book had a mouth on its "face," when it spoke, not only did the mouth open, but the pages behind it also continuously opened and closed, much like an accordion that needed to be pushed and pulled. Through its spread pages, Fisher suddenly realized that everything between the pages was densely packed text. He didn't know exactly what was recorded inside.
"Shut up."
His drake-like male voice was simply too awful to listen to, sounding like noise pollution when he spoke. Fisher raised the Fluid Sword in his hand with a speechless look and aimed it at him, scaring him into immediately shutting his mouth, while a fawning smile leaked out from his eye.
"Alright, alright, I will listen to your every word, not saying a thing..."
Jasmine also ran over with great curiosity, staring at the quaint book that was floating in midair with only a single eye, and opened her mouth slightly in fear. She also had no idea what this thing was, to have grown to look so weird.
"I ask, you answer. Tell me, what kind of thing are you, and why did you appear here?"
"What do you mean by thing?!"
The eye on the book widened abruptly, and then the entire book unfolded quite a bit, as if taking a deep breath to calm its mood. After a one-second pause, only then did he shout at Fisher with some disbelief,
"How dare you call me a thing! How absolutely rebellious... Listen well, I am the esteemed Sir Book, Eimhart!"