novelraw Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Chapter 30
“Just, it was my secret place, and I didn’t want anyone to discover it. I was showing it only to you, specially. Because you were Artel’s friend, whom I liked.”
Banshi quickly regained her composure and explained, giving the most convincing reason.
Since she couldn’t explain her past to Kiena, who knew nothing, she improvised and came up with an excuse that fit the mind of a young student.
Saying that it was because she liked Artel’s friend was also for that reason.
“Really……?”
Just as Banshi expected, Kiena no longer seemed to harbor any doubts.
“Then, shall we go? It’s in the forest outside the city. It won’t take long.”
“Alright.”
When Banshi reached out her hand first, Kiena held it tightly and followed behind her.
And just like that, the two safely left the city and arrived at Banshi’s secret place.
“We’re here. This is it.”
“……There’s nothing here?”
Kiena looked around.
No matter how much she searched, there was nothing that could be called a ‘place’.
Just dense bushes and tall trees.
A typical forest scene.
Banshi paid it no mind and stood before two particularly tall trees.
Then she reached between them and implemented a very simple spell, revealing the mouth of a cave.
“A cave……?”
Seeing the cave within the forest, Kiena instinctively made a frightened expression and asked.
She had assumed that a secret ‘place’ would be some sort of building, which had been a mistake.
“Yeah, this is it, my secret place.”
Banshi was a 6th Circle Flewd Elementalist.
She had used the earth element to create a small cave and cloaked it in Flewd element so that it wouldn’t be visible to others.
“Let’s go in.”
When Banshi entered first, Kiena hesitated for a moment before barely managing to follow her.
Inside the cave, it was humid and warm.
There was only a single three-tiered bookshelf standing alone, and the bookshelf was filled with all kinds of magic books.
“Wow……”
Just from appearance alone, the books were so old that it seemed like the pages would tear if turned incorrectly.
But Kiena, being a student who had always been passionate about studying, lost all discomfort toward the cave the moment she saw the books.
《Summoning TomeⅠ》
《Summoning TomeⅡ》
《Summoning TomeⅢ》
One of the characteristics of ancient books was that their titles weren’t long like modern magic books and that they were written as a series like this.
Banshi took those three books from the shelf and handed them to Kiena.
“I heard there were originally five volumes. But I only have up to the third.”
Kiena immediately examined the cover.
“The author…… Astral? I’ve never heard of this mage.”
“Of course. I think he was a mage who lived about six hundred years ago. I don’t know exactly who he was, not even what Circle Summoner he was.”
“Six hundred years?”
It didn’t matter what Circle the author of this book had been.
Just having a reference book on a whole different level made her happy.
Naturally so—if it was written by a mage active six hundred years ago, it wasn’t just an ordinary magic book but something that should have been in a museum.
“But how do you have a book like this?”
“I used to like collecting antiques. While doing that, I eventually became interested in books and collected them too.”
In truth, the books had originally been in the Emmet Family’s library, but Banshi explained with a lie without hesitation.
Kiena was skimming over the titles on the bookshelf.
“A pharmacology book…… and there are elemental magic books for every element too?”
“Yeah, I just had a lot of interest.”
“Flewd element? Wow! I’ve never seen a Flewd elemental tome before!”
‘Of course you haven’t.’
In the era when Kiena was born and lived, Flewd Elementalists were effectively extinct.
Naturally, there weren’t any related books left either.
The book that drew Kiena’s gaze again was Alarize Petra’s 《The Beginner’s Guide》。
Kiena knew who Alarize Petra was because she had heard about him in class.
But at the very least, she didn’t think poorly of him.
He was the one who had helped her find her magic back when she feared being expelled alongside Artel and Hei from Class 0.
She had never even seen his face once, but Kiena thought that if she ever had a grandfather, he would feel like that, and she thought about the mage named Alarize Petra that way.
“What are you staring at so much?”
“N-no, nothing!”
When Banshi asked, she hurriedly tore her gaze away.
Because she knew that book was a forbidden text.
She was happy that Banshi also possessed that book, but she decided it was best not to show it.
Humming softly, Kiena opened the pages of 《Summoning TomeⅠ》with trembling hands.
Not much time passed as she focused on the book.
“Ooh~!”
She immediately realized that this book was special.
Which relic could be summoned at each Summoning Magic Circle, what types of unique divine beasts existed—everything was on a completely different level from the books she had seen at school.
Moreover, the depictions of the relics were not photographs but illustrations.
The roughly penciled drawings of the relics were more than enough to once again remind her that this was an ancient text.
“Is it interesting?”
“Yeah! I think I get how to summon these relics now!”
Kiena quickly grew confident.
“Really?”
At those words, Banshi looked at Kiena again.
‘Strange, there should be a lot of unfamiliar terms since it’s an ancient text.’
This book was originally meant for professional mages.
It wasn’t written for young students, so it should have been full of terminology she had never seen before.
Yet the fact that she found the book interesting—it was simply astonishing.
“But you can’t bring this book to school. You must read it here and leave it here.”
“If I knew that, I would’ve brought a notebook to take notes…… You should’ve told me beforehand.”
Kiena expressed deep regret.
“Then instead, you can stay here and keep reading until tomorrow.”
“You said you wanted to visit the orphanage earlier.”
“Mm…… I think I can stop by there for a moment tomorrow before going back to school. Right now, this is more important to me.”
Banshi thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright, do as you like.”
“Thank you!”
With her small body, Kiena leaned her back against the cave wall, placed the book on her knees, and focused all her attention.
Having nothing in particular to do, Banshi also took 《Elemental Tome (Flewd)Ⅰ》, a Flewd elemental tome, from the shelf and sat beside Kiena.
Wanting to reinforce her basics through the book, she, too, immersed herself in study.
“A circular…… library?”
That was the first thought that came to mind the moment I arrived at the secret room inside the library.
It was a circular room with a total of seven entrances.
Including the door I had come through, there were six more.
‘What could this mean?’
This school had Class 0 through Class 6.
If so, could this be a place connected to the libraries of all the classes?
Such a thought occurred to me.
I wanted to test it, but it felt far too reckless, so I stopped.
“Anyway……”
The size of the room was quite small—four adult men standing inside would fill it completely.
Every wall except for the entrances was blocked by bookshelves, and they were all filled with books.
On top of that, it seemed they didn’t organize things well and used the room only to grab whatever books they needed in a hurry. There were many empty spaces on the shelves, and numerous books lay open and overturned on the floor.
The messy appearance of the room also implied that it wasn’t a place often visited.
‘The more I look, the more curious I get—what was this secret room used for?’
Thunk.
As I approached the shelves, my foot hit a book that had fallen to the floor.
It was lying open-faced so the cover was visible.
《Types of Mana-Enhancing Drugs》
‘A pharmacology book?’
All the other books on the floor dealt with pharmacology as well.
‘Didn’t they say the only books missing from the Emmet Family library were related to pharmacology?’
Could it be that these books lying around here were the ones that disappeared from the Emmet Family’s library?
But even if I thought that, too many things didn’t add up.
These were books confiscated by turning an entire well-standing family into ashes for no reason—would they really leave them rolling here on the floor like scraps of paper?
Therefore, I was sure these were not books from the Emmet Family.
“Then what kind of room is this supposed to be?”
For a moment, I felt like a detective, but one thing was certain: since Edar was the master of this school, the secret room in the library must have been created by Edar or, at the very least, had a very close connection to him.
“Well, well? Even this book is here?”
My eyes caught the title of a very thick book shoved into a corner of the shelf.
《Ed Family Magic Tome》
“Wow…… suddenly brings back old memories.”
It was the day when my disciple, Ed Etar, received the qualification of family head back when I had been the Archmage.
A family-head qualification meant that the mage had reached a sufficient level and was permitted to establish a family of his own.
Perhaps because he had been the last among my disciples to receive it, the exhilarated Edar began writing a book.
He said that he wanted to pass on the knowledge he received from me to his descendants, and that doing so was the duty of a disciple who had learned from me—a fairly thoughtful answer.
“A book containing all the magic used by the Ed Family……”
As I brushed my hand over the cover, I became lost in thought.
‘I’m sure I gave Edar some advice when he wrote this book……’
What exactly did I tell him?
I tried to recall the words buried deep in my memory.
I remembered it soon.
It was this……
“The descendants who read this book will be novice beginner mages, so don’t use technical terms only used in higher Circles. Write everything as simply as possible. Like my master did.”
That was what I told him.
“Wait, if that’s the case, wouldn’t this be helpful for Hei too?”
The books Hei had chosen upstairs were, if judged honestly, garbage.
It seemed I had found some sort of breakthrough in a secret room I stumbled upon by chance.
But I worried that taking this book might get me caught by Edar right away.
“Hm…… although there are several copies……”
There wasn’t just one 《Ed Family Magic Tome》。
Just like a library preparing multiple copies for unspecified readers, there were several of the same type.
And, crucially, there were already many empty spots on other shelves.
Seeing that, I decided it would be fine to take one.
So I held the book to my chest and quietly slipped out of the secret room.
‘Seven entrances……. Could it really be connected to the libraries of all classes, just like I think?’
That thought came as I left the secret room.
I would probably learn the truth once I advanced to Class 2.
After climbing the stairs and returning to the library, the door disappeared automatically again.
Clatter.
And the wall slid sideways back into place, hiding the entrance completely.
I engraved the location firmly into my memory and went to Hei.
“Artel! Where were you! You suddenly disappeared and I searched everywhere for you.”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. But Hei. Look at this. I found something really amazing.”
“……Ed Family Magic Tome?”
Hei shouted the title aloud in surprise.
Then he hurriedly clamped a hand over his mouth and scanned the surroundings.
Just seeing the title made it obvious how incredible the book was, so he looked around to make sure no one else was near.
Fortunately, it was still just the two of us.
“The Ed Family…… that’s the Headmaster’s family, right? Where did you find this?”
“There’s a secret room in the library. I found it by coincidence, and I got it from there.”