Chapter 78
The story continues off the page
Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you
The 4th Floor of the Rajesta Continent, reached by the tower elevator.
“Ugh, I feel like I’ve been riding this a lot lately.”
I stretched out my stiff body.
At this point, just riding the elevator up had become something like a trip abroad.
For someone like me, if I had to put it into words, it was basically a business trip.
“Haa.”
Ms. Veloa already looked depressed. Her shoulders slumped because there wasn’t much time left before she had to go back into the library.
I imagine that was exactly how a soldier feels when leave is over and it’s time to return to base.
Agent Tellimon, who had been watching the entrance, lifted Veloa’s bag and prepared to move.
“We’ve prepared a car over there. Let’s go at once.”
“...A car?”
I remembered the drunken dwarf from last time.
Since the only ones who drove on the Rajesta Continent were dwarves, I’d have to once again entrust myself to another drunk-driving vehicle.
“Do we really have to take that? Don’t all dwarves drink and drive?”
I made eye contact with the dwarf smoking a pipe beside the vehicle, waved hello, and added,
“See? It already looks like his brain is full of alcohol.”
“You don’t need to worry. And shouldn’t we hurry to meet Mr. Aranchino?”
“Well... yes, that’s true.”
In the end, I once again had to ride in a drunk-driving vehicle. After loading Veloa’s big bag into the trunk, we sat in the back seat.
“Heh, let’s get going.”
The dwarf at the wheel hummed to himself and immediately started driving.
Agent Tellimon kept glancing at us in the rearview mirror over and over as we went.
“Ms. Veloa, do you really hate going into the library that much?”
“I hate it... but I have to.”
Veloa fiddled with her collar, looking troubled. She’d put all the light novels into her bag, and now she was only clutching the large old tome she always carried around.
“What will you do if Mr. Aranchino finds out the radio is fake, but still doesn’t give up?”
“Aranchino... will give up. Even if Aranchino has a temperament different from others, Aranchino was a kind child who wanted to help people.”
“I get that you trust Aranchino, but a kind child doesn’t become a necromancer or steal the deceased’s belongings at a funeral.”
When I subtly chided her, asking if this wasn’t all because she stole Gellerwind’s fountain pen, Veloa awkwardly scratched the book cover with her fingernail.
“That was... that child’s own way of paying respects. To never forget the dead.... That doesn’t mean I can defend it, though.”
To not forget the dead.
It didn’t sound like a mindset she had because she became a necromancer, but rather that she became a necromancer because she had that sort of mindset.
Before long, the vehicle entered a mountain road.
Even as the car jolted violently on the unpaved road, Veloa, seen through the window, gave a faint smile.
“Wow, it’s been ages since I’ve been here. During academy break, I once came here to hang out in this valley with the members of the Abyss Research Society.”
“You even did stuff like that?”
“It was the first and last time I ever went out to have fun with friends.”
“...”
“I’m kind of stupid, huh. I graduated from the academy too early for no reason... and never even made any friends. I wanted to go on a school trip like the ones I read about in books.”
While Veloa was grumbling, the car came to an abrupt stop.
Jolt!
The sound of the wheels rolling over stones cut off, and the engine quieted.
All that could be heard nearby was birdsong and the cool rush of river water.
Click.
And then the sound of a round being chambered.
A pistol was in Agent Tellimon’s hand as he twisted around from the passenger seat.
The muzzle was clearly pointed at Veloa’s forehead—
Bang!
There was no hesitation.
Blood splattered with the pull of the trigger.
Veloa’s upper body toppled forward limply.
“Even mages end up dying from bullets in the end.”
It was the dwarf who cackled.
He even pulled out the car key, preventing any possible trouble in advance.
Agent Tellimon’s gun was now pointed at me. Expressionless, he pressed the muzzle to my forehead. The heat from the shot that had punched through Veloa’s forehead still hadn’t faded, leaving a slight burn where the muzzle touched.
“You’re not making a surprised face.”
I answered Agent Tellimon’s question with a bitter smile.
“I was surprised by how quick you were. I didn’t expect you to shoot Veloa like that.”
“Veloa of the Infinite Library. It’s not well known, but we know she’s a genius who appears once every few centuries.”
“...”
“Still, when a bullet blows a hole through someone’s brain, they die. Isn’t that right?”
“I couldn’t tell where you were from, but hearing you talk, you’re from Cyber City, huh?”
The moment I heard you say pulling a trigger was superior to magic, I knew.
Apparently not liking my flippant tone, Tellimon pressed the gun harder against me.
As the heat faded, the gun’s own cold touch spread across my forehead.
“From now on, we’ll ask for only one thing. If you accept it, we’ll let you live. If not, you die here.”
“Go on. I want to live too.”
“Use the Law.”
“...”
When I gave no answer, he pushed the barrel harder again until the back of my head finally hit the headrest.
“That’s the only reason we’re keeping you alive. Conversely, if you use the Law, we’ll also lose any reason to kill you.”
“Because my usefulness is over?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I let out a sigh.
“I feel like having a cigarette.”
“Stop saying pointless things.”
“Hey, do you think the Law only has one or two clauses?”
“...”
“Article 1, Clause 1? Clause 2? Which one should I use?”
Shrugging, I asked, and Agent Tellimon’s grip on the muzzle loosened. Had he not expected to be asked that?
Or maybe he just didn’t know the Law that well.
“Ahem, wait a moment.”
The dwarf took a brick-sized receiver out of the glove box and plugged in an earpiece.
Then he stared into space for a moment, as if receiving orders from someone.
“Huh, I’m bored waiting. Mind if I smoke a little while we wait? On the way—”
“Shut up.”
Bastard.
I had wanted to try saying that famous line once.
In the meantime, having received his orders, the dwarf tapped his earpiece and said,
“Article 5, Clause 1. Existence Dispersion.”
“...Do you even know what that means when you say it?”
Click!
Once again, the muzzle pressed hard against me.
With the purpose made clear, Agent Tellimon regained his edge.
“Do it.”
“If I do that, it’ll reveal that I’m still alive. Then someone terrifying will come down.”
“That’s exactly why we’re asking, someone from the 7th Floor.”
“So you have no intention of hiding it? Only someone at the director level of the Tower Administration Bureau would know that.”
“Because there’s no need to hide it.”
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue briefly and met Tellimon’s eyes.
They were not the Yeoeum Society.
The Yeoeum Society was only their tool.
People who had wanted to start a floor war from the very beginning.
The Azure Dragon’s descent to the 3rd Floor, the assassination of Sangseoryeong’s son, the demon Arhelark’s unsealing, and so on.
In their eyes, crazed with the desire to start a floor war by any means necessary, lurked a madness too twisted to call conviction.
“Do you remember what you said earlier?”
“Enough with the pointless talk—”
“You said even mages die when a bullet blows through their brains.”
For an instant, it felt as if time had stopped.
The eyes of the two men, realizing the true meaning of my words, turned at the same time toward the slumped Veloa—
“I think you’ve got it wrong.”
The moment I said that with a smile, Veloa sprang up and shouted,
“Aaaagh! It hurts!”
Veloa’s old book flapped open as if caught by the wind, pages turning without pause.
From inside, golden runes began bursting out as if exploding from within, quickly flooding the interior.
These were not mere letters, but knowledge.
The pressure of that knowledge bore down on them.
Bang!
Tellimon reflexively pulled the trigger, but no bullet came out.
The already-visualized runes had packed so tightly inside the muzzle that it couldn’t fire.
“Ugh?!”
“Agh?!”
As the two of them were swept away by the wave of golden letters,
I myself was unaffected.
I’d heard the 6th Floor Cyber City had VR holograms, and this was exactly that kind of sight.
It was unfolding right before my eyes, yet it had no effect on me at all.
Only the faint smell of old paper unique to an ancient library drifted through the air.
“It huuuurts! It huuuurts! It hurts!”
Veloa kept rubbing her forehead with both hands and crying. By now, the bullet that had pierced her forehead had been pushed out by the regenerating flesh and had fallen onto the car seat.
Veloa of the Infinite Library.
A girl who paid the price of knowledge.
She was not someone who could die just because she wanted to.
At least, not as long as the library existed.
The reason I knew that was because I’d heard how strong she was when she was put on the Bimutakhon list.
“Blow on it! Blow on it!”
“How would that help at all?”
“I said blow on it!”
Suddenly, the weight of the golden inscriptions began to feel much heavier, so I hurriedly blew on her forehead.
As if she really were getting better, the tearful expression on her face gradually eased.
“I shouldn’t have come along.”
While she was still whining, the letters gradually sank and the two guys in the front seat began to come to.
It was a disaster caused by nothing more than opening a book, even though I hadn’t used any magic at all.
Agent Tellimon hurriedly aimed his gun back this way, but—
Jolt!
The door opened, and a thick hand snatched the agent and dragged him outside.
Then, immediately, a dull impact sounded.
Wham!
Thud!
A 200-kilogram giant’s fist slammed squarely into his face.
Looking out the window, I saw Kim Deokgu standing there, still wearing the black hoodie that was Prism merch.
“Mr. Deokgu!”
“Mr. Juseon! What is going on here?”
Since Deokgu, who had knocked Agent Tellimon out with a single blow, asked in confusion, I answered quickly,
“Those bastards are the ones who broke the demon seal!”
Wham!
Deokgu’s sledgehammer fist landed one more blow on the unconscious Tellimon.
“If that hits you, you’d die.”
Wasn’t he even stronger now than he had been in his paladin days?