Chapter 82
#Chapter 82: Librarian Ernst (3) - Step by Step
Eris’s criteria for judging the value of a 'book' were clear.
The only thing that mattered was how practical the knowledge written in it was.
She valued knowledge related to magic above all else, but even if something wasn't about magic, she wouldn't shy away from it if it was useful.
On the other hand, books that were 'impractical' by her standards were something she loathed.
She couldn't understand noble young ladies with their heads full of flowers squealing over romance novels, and when she saw noble boys acting on instinct rather than reason, going on and on about knightly tales and heroic sagas and the like, she even felt disgusted.
And that was because those stories weren't reality.
Everything was fantasy and fiction, and reading such things wouldn't improve her magic skills or help her in real life.
If you were to look for any benefit at all, it would be having a topic of conversation with other students, but that was a value that was utterly useless to Eris.
The only reason she didn't bristle at the other students at the institute was to keep her reputation as a top student and meet the requirements for entering Sky Academy.
As long as she could maintain the bare minimum of personal relationships needed, the rest didn't matter, so there was no need to force herself to read books she didn't want to just to suit their tastes.
“That was how it was supposed to be, so how did I end up with something like this…!”
After returning to the dorm, Eris looked down at the book the librarian had handed her with an unhappy expression.
A 'ridiculous book' with a title so long she didn't even want to read it aloud, starting with something about being stranded or the like.
It was something a million light-years away from Eris's usual taste in reading, but that didn't mean she could skip it.
Because that librarian had said the next question would be based on the contents of this book.
Ordinarily, Eris would have scoffed at whatever a mere librarian said, but this time she couldn't.
‘The magic power she had felt on the library’s second floor back then wasn’t just one or two sources. If only she could get her hands on them….’
When it came to magic, Eris had a strong drive to improve.
You could even call it an obsession.
And besides, due to the recent relaxed days at the training institute, she could feel that her skills had reached a plateau.
Now that a clue to reaching an even higher realm had appeared right in front of her, there was no way she could ignore it.
It wasn't like she hadn't thought about simply taking it by force, but if her cherished disciple were to beat up the library's librarian and steal a book, her revered teacher would be saddened.
No, even before that, the mere fact that she'd tarnished her teacher's reputation would mean Eris herself could never forgive herself.
“Hoo.”
Right, this wasn't useless behavior.
Just as you have to walk a long road to reach your destination, this too was nothing more than a middle step toward obtaining a grimoire.
After finishing her self-justification—if some great demon had seen her, it would have wondered, ‘Why is she talking so much just to read a single book?’—Eris reached for the loathsome book.
Fortunately, simple memorization was her specialty.
If she read it with the feeling of just storing the text itself in her head, without bothering to understand the contents, it wouldn't take all that long.
“Thirty minutes should be enough.”
And about three hours passed.
***
“Hmm, everything's correct. Looks like you read it properly.”
“That much is nothing.”
In response to the blonde librarian's words, Eris answered with a haughty attitude.
“Compared to a high-level grimoire, this is child's play at best. I didn't time it precisely, but I think I finished it in under ten minutes.”
“I see. Ah, wait—looking again, the answer to this part seems a little off? The part where the protagonist rescues that companion, I mean.”
“What? No way! I've reread that part so many times….”
Eris's words trailed off sharply.
Leaving her to tremble as her green eyes quivered, the librarian flipped through the pages of the book Eris had returned, checked the relevant section, and then nodded.
“Indeed, just as you said. My apologies.”
Eris remained silent.
If the librarian had shown even a hint of ridicule or teasing, she would have preferred to get angry, but the librarian was so utterly expressionless, calmly doing nothing but their job, that even that was impossible.
Even after apologizing, Eris trembled with a strange sense of humiliation, as if she'd somehow lost, and the librarian casually took out another book and held it out to her.
Only this time, it was a set of two volumes.
[A Study on the Correlation Between Water-Attribute Magic and Ice-Attribute Magic]
[A Study on the Correlation Between Water-Attribute Magic and Ice-Attribute Magic — Annotated Edition —]
“…This still isn't a grimoire.”
Eris's face showed blatant dissatisfaction and disappointment.
Books about magic can be broadly divided into three categories.
One is a book called a 'spellbook,' containing the usage instructions for a specific spell.
It explains how to handle mana, when to apply how much, and what effect it produces, and if you simply follow the steps, you can use the spell.
Those commonly called 'wild mages' or 'self-taught mages' enter magic in exactly that way, and those who learn 'systematic' magic like Eris do not regard such people as proper mages.
If that's hard to understand, think of a cooking recipe.
Can you really call someone a proper 'cook' if all they can do is follow a specific recipe and make nothing else?
Mages who learn magic only from spellbooks usually don't properly understand even the structure of the spells they use, and because of that, they never reach higher realms.
The second is a book called a 'theory book,' containing analysis and contemplation of magic itself.
Compared to spellbooks, which simply require you to follow a set process as written, these contain far more theoretical and systematic content, and are therefore much harder to understand.
However, if you truly want to reach higher realms as a mage, studying such theory books is essential.
Among mages of Rank 5 or higher, the proportion of those who learned magic through theory books is overwhelmingly high, while those who reached the same level using spellbooks alone can be counted on one hand.
The third is a book called a 'grimoire'—a book that itself contains magical power.
Its contents are incredibly diverse, ranging from spellbooks and theory books protected by preservation spells so their contents won't be damaged, to books that let you learn a specific spell just by reading them, to books that strengthen the owner's mana like a kind of auxiliary device; among magic-related books, they are especially valuable.
Of these, what Eris had originally been after in this library belonged to the third category.
If there were a grimoire that strengthened a mage's abilities, it would be jackpot upon jackpot, and even if it were only a plain spellbook or theory book, if it had been preserved with protective magic, the value of what was written inside would likely be high.
By contrast, what the librarian had handed her now was a plain theory book.
Of course, this was still a useful and important book in its own right, but to Eris, who had learned that there was a grimoire on the second floor, it couldn't help but feel somehow lacking.
“You can't know a book's true worth until you've read it, can you?”
As though the librarian had seen through Eris's inner thoughts, they said.
At that attitude, which seemed to say she should at least read it before complaining, Eris turned the pages with a slightly sulky expression.
[A Study on the Correlation Between Water-Attribute Magic and Ice-Attribute Magic] was a typical theory book, one Eris had often encountered.
In other words, it was packed with damn complicated, hard-to-understand material.
‘...Well, it's not bad.’
It was a wall of text that showed no consideration for the reader, but the contents themselves were plenty useful.
It would take quite some time to fully interpret it and make it her own, but once that work was done, her magic skills would improve.
She was only dissatisfied because she had the grimoire on the brain; this book itself would have been something that made her eyes shine if she'd encountered it normally.
Deciding this wasn't something she could casually read here, Eris closed the book for now and reached for the other volume marked 'Annotated Edition.'
Compared to the original, which had a rather aged and timeworn atmosphere, this one looked remarkably new.
That said, Eris didn't have high expectations for this book either.
That was because when you tried to make a difficult original text easier to understand, the original meaning often got damaged or distorted in the process.
There were even some awful interpretations so bad you'd be better off not looking at them.
With the thought that she might as well see what was written, she turned the pages.
Flap.
She turned another page.
Flap.
She turned the page again.
Flap.
The more pages she turned, the more Eris's face gradually grew blank.
She unconsciously muttered aloud.
“What is this?”
What Eris knew as annotated editions were basically just supplements to the original text.
But this was different.
It didn't just make the original content easier to understand; it even filled in parts the original had glossed over or omitted entirely.
It was like a professor taking a student's shoddily written thesis and restructuring it with richer knowledge and language that was much easier to understand.
Eris hurriedly checked the book's author.
The original author was a fifth-rank mage who had made a name in their day centuries ago, while the annotated edition's author was left blank.
“What would you like to do? Should I switch the books for you?”
In a thoroughly businesslike and indifferent tone, the librarian spoke.
The librarian looked as if they didn't care at all, even after seeing the full range of expressions flicker across Eris's face right in front of them.
Eris frowned for a moment, then said irritably.
“No, this book is fine. But does the second floor have more things like this?”
“I wouldn't know unless I looked. Still, if you'd prefer the annotated version, I can get you those if possible.”
That said, the librarian added.
“That's under the assumption that you actually answer the quiz correctly, of course.”
“…The next quiz will come from these two books?”
“No, I'll make the quiz from this book.”
Saying that, the librarian held out yet another book.
This too was a novel with no practical value, far from Eris's taste.
Eris's face twisted.
“What possible benefit do you get from making me read such useless stories?”
“Don't you know? A fun book isn't something you read and enjoy by yourself—it carries a power that makes you want to recommend it to others. I've merely gotten drunk on that power.”
“Maybe it's fun for you, but it isn't fun for me at all. I don't know what's enjoyable about forcing something you hate on someone else.”
“Then you don't have to read it.”
At the librarian's attitude of having nothing to lose, Eris clenched her fist tightly.
It was frustrating—very frustrating—but right now she was the one at a disadvantage.
Glaring at the librarian as though she might devour them alive, Eris took the book they held out to her.
“If you don't give me a reward worth looking forward to, you'd better be ready. You nasty librarian.”
The librarian said nothing, only curling the corner of their mouth slightly.
It was far too artificial to call a smile, and at the same time something wicked.
Feeling her favorable impression of them plummet back to the bottom once more, Eris left the library.
***
“Miss Eris. You look a little tired. Are you okay?”
In response to a female student's question, Eris gave her an elegant smile as if to say she was fine.
“Thank you for worrying about me. I got a new book, and I got so absorbed in it that I lost track of time.”
“Ah, so it's another new theory book? I get a headache just looking at basic textbooks for class use, so that's amazing!”
“Yes, well.”
Behind the gentle, pure smile on her face, Eris suppressed a faint jolt of panic.
As she vowed never to let it be discovered that she'd stayed up all night reading a novel instead of a theory book.
She had only read it because she needed to, but if anyone else found out, they might misunderstand.
That was all there was to it.
Anyway, that was how it was.
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Here is Eris as seen by the students around her!
Drawn by Hwanbarim!