Chapter 147
Monica watched Raul cheerfully waving from inside the barrier Sophocles had raised, let out a sigh of relief, and crouched down where she stood.
“I-I’m glad we made it in time...”
Monica could have dispelled the magic-battle barrier and immediately put up a sealing barrier herself, but a sealing barrier normally required considerable preparation and effort.
An incantationless sealing barrier would inevitably be somewhat simplified.
And Monica hadn’t been confident that even a simplified barrier could seal Raul away. That was how formidable his magical reserves were.
“Good work, my master.”
Isaac had returned to Monica. As he spoke, he wiped the plant sap from his dagger with a tattered blanket.
She’d been surprised when Isaac said, “I’ll go retrieve the 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉.” But when he pulled a dagger out of nowhere, she was even more surprised. Where on earth had he been hiding it?
“Good work, Aike. Um, are you hurt?”
“Thanks to you protecting me.”
Isaac had moved around the vine-rose dolls with ease, but Monica had been on edge the whole time, wondering when her apprentice might be in danger.
As far as she could tell, he really wasn’t hurt.
(I’m glad I managed to protect him...)
As Monica sighed in relief, Claudia emerged from behind a tree and murmured,
“...You’re amazing. A dagger, a pistol... and you’ve got something hidden in your boots, too. You’re more like an assassin than a mage’s apprentice.”
“Huh?!”
Monica whipped around to look at Isaac—and, to her surprise, the dagger had vanished without a trace.
It had happened in the few seconds Monica had looked away from Isaac.
Even for a dagger, the blade had been fairly long. And yet, it had disappeared as if by magic.
“The dagger’s gone... W-why? ...Aike’s magic?”
At Monica’s involuntary murmur, Isaac gave her a wink.
“That’s right. Incantationless storage magic.”
“...Could you... teach me the magic formula... later?”
Isaac chuckled at Monica’s serious expression, then looked toward Cyril and the others.
“Well, let’s bring things to a close over there, too.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Amid the ruins of ice and thorns, Cyril gave the 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 an order.
“...Sophocles, release Raul.”
‘Very well. In the name of the 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉, Sophocles, I release this person.’
The 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 flashed, and the barrier around Raul vanished without a sound.
Raul looked impressed as he opened and closed his hand.
“Oh, I can use magic again. Huh, so it’s a barrier that forcibly cuts off your connection to magic. I knew barriers like that existed, but it feels kind of strange to experience one firsthand.”
Raul chattered on, then glanced at Cyril. His expression seemed terribly awkward.
Raul wore a stiff smile on the face that usually beamed with such cheer, and spoke to Cyril.
“Uh, um... well...”
“I’m sorry.”
Cutting Raul off, Cyril bowed his head.
“I misjudged the power of one of the Seven Sages and arrogantly assumed I might be able to win on my own. I was foolish.”
The Seven Sages stood at the pinnacle of this country’s mages. They were beings far beyond his reach.
Even so, he’d arrogantly believed that if he devised a plan and took countermeasures, he might be able to win. He was ashamed of his own conceit.
Cyril looked back on his actions and was so mortified he wanted to disappear.
“And then I went and provoked you like that... I wasn’t in my right mind. I’m truly sorry.”
“...Hey.”
As Cyril apologized with a grave expression, Raul’s green eyes wandered as he quietly asked,
“...Aren’t you scared?”
“What are you talking about? I’m earnestly apologizing right now...”
“No, I mean... you know... what happened earlier...”
It was unusually hesitant for Raul.
Cyril furrowed his brow in irritation and asked again,
“What are you talking about?”
“Earlier... you know, after all that stuff happened... Aren’t you scared?”
“Scared? Do I look like the kind of person who’d be cowed so easily?”
Cyril shouted without thinking, then abruptly clamped a hand over his mouth.
He’d just made a huge mistake because he was so quick to lose his temper, and now he’d done it again.
“No, I’m sorry. That just now...”
As Cyril stammered out an excuse, Raul’s face inexplicably relaxed into a goofy grin.
“Heh, hehehe. I see... hehehehe.”
“...What’s with that slack-jawed expression?”
“Hee-hee.”
Raul grinned, looking several times goofier than usual, then looked toward Monica, who came hurrying over.
“Monica, thanks for stopping me, too!”
“Oh, yes. Um... if possible, next time, could you tell me a little sooner...?”
Monica said modestly, twisting her fingers. Raul’s long eyelashes fluttered.
His green eyes sparkled with anticipation, and his cheeks flushed rose-red.
“You’ll stop me next time, too?”
“Huh? Y-yes, of course...”
As if he couldn’t hold back any longer, Raul let out a “Hee-hee!” and draped his right arm around Cyril and his left around Monica.
“Hehehehe!”
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?! You’re heavy!”
“Um, Lord Raul? Lord Raul?”
Even as Cyril shouted and Monica called to him in confusion, Raul just kept grinning away.
Cyril couldn’t help looking at the ring on his right hand.
“Sophocles, could there have been a flaw in the barrier? Something that affected his mind or his ability to speak...”
‘It is not my fault.’
The 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 let out a weary, sigh-like sound.
＊ ＊ ＊
—To think he wasn’t afraid of that monster, the 〈Thorn Witch〉! My, my!
The 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 felt like laughing aloud.
As expected, its judgment had been right.
Once, in the Harvey family, a family of priests, there lived an eccentric woman.
She had magical talent worthy of a priestly family, but made no effort to study magic. Instead, she quietly read book after book, her eyes as cold as ice.
She had no interest in people. Books were all that interested her.
At a loss as to what to do with her, her family decided to make her the keeper of their archives.
Those archives were a special room containing books in which dangerous monsters had been sealed.
The room was filled with the presence and voices of monsters. Most people would faint from fear or flee within ten seconds.
But the woman stepped into the malice-filled archives, opened the mouth she rarely used, and shouted—
‘Quiet! I can’t read in peace with all that noise! Be quiet for a little while!’
At her forceful rebuke, the monsters fell silent.
Once they were quiet, the woman went back to reading as if nothing had happened.
She didn’t care that the malice of the monsters filled the room around her.
Before long, the monsters grew interested in the woman and began trying to get her attention. The monsters were terribly bored, too.
So the woman began reading to them, or talking with them whenever the subject was books.
Little by little, the monsters sealed inside the books grew attached to her, and the archives gradually became less eerie than they had been before.
But when the woman married into the Ashley family and someone else took over as keeper, the monsters in the archives all grew furious.
So the king ordered the Ashley family to manage the library, and the woman devoted her life to managing and optimizing the archives.
...Mainly so she could read in peace.
The qualities required of a keeper of the Forbidden Book Room might be the knack for winning monsters’ favor, the courage to face them without fear, or perhaps a cool head.
There was no single way to describe it, but what mattered was being able to get along with the monsters—or at least deal with them.
When Vincent Ashley went out among the people in search of a successor, the 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 took advantage of the opportunity.
And then it saw him.
A child named Cyril Wayne, with a defiant air about him, who kept his back straight even when the other children teased and mocked him.
As Cyril studied, the other children made a commotion nearby.
At their malicious words mocking Cyril and his father, Cyril lifted his face from his book and shouted.
‘Quiet! I can’t concentrate on my studies with all that noise! Be quiet for a little while!’
Then Cyril shrugged off the malice around him and quietly went back to studying.
The 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉 had to fight the urge to burst out laughing.
How like that woman he was—the one who had once silenced monsters with a shout!
‘Vincent, I’ve decided! That child! I want that child!’
‘It’s unusual for you to decide so quickly, Sophocles. But I was thinking he’d be a good choice, too.’
‘...He? Huh? Not a girl? Huh?’
When it learned that the child was a boy, not a girl, it felt like crying despite not having any eyes. Still, it thought his grit was worthy of recognition as the successor to this 〈Knowledge Keeper’s Key〉, Sophocles.