Chapter 96
#96 Librarian Ernst (17) - The Book of Farewell
“Miss Eris, did something good happen to you lately?”
One day.
When a female student at the training school asked her that, Eris blinked.
“Do I look like it?”
“Yes. Before, you felt as sharp as winter, but now you’re just like a spring breeze!”
…Do people normally just come right out and tell someone their face is like winter?
Eris thought that, but she didn’t bother saying it aloud.
If it had been her past self, she would have suspected this might be a roundabout insult and doubted it from every angle, but her present self knew.
The other person had no malice whatsoever.
She just had a flower garden for a brain.
…Well, she thought that might be proof that this country was peaceful in its own way, and Eris replied.
“Well, rather than there being one especially good thing, I suppose it’s more that various things have been going smoothly.”
In the past, Eris had spent her days almost as if being chased by something, but recently that had eased up a lot.
Steady study and self-discipline were still there, but in between she had come to enjoy hobbies.
「Human motivation and mental fortitude are closer to consumables. Focusing on one goal steadily isn’t impossible, but that’s basically the same as dragging an exhausted, sleep-deprived body through work and forcing it to keep going. It’s inefficient. And you might even come up with new inspiration while resting. So that doesn’t count as work.」
It was the result of accepting the words of some librarian who, for some reason, had gone on an excessively passionate tirade, but whether to call it funny or ridiculous, Eris’s skill was actually improving faster than before.
Even before, she had ranked among Delphinaris’s disciples near the top, but now she could probably beat anyone except her teacher.
However, the schoolgirl seemed to have taken Eris’s words in a slightly different sense.
“Aha. Well, you’ll be going to the Sky Academy you’ve been aiming for soon enough. They say it’s a terrifying yet romantic place—I’d love to visit it at least once!”
“Hmm.”
Eris hesitated for a moment.
Because she had been reminded again of a fact she had deliberately not been thinking about.
“…….”
“…? Miss Eris?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. I’ll have to leave before long.”
Eris was approaching graduation from the Aldridge Training School.
After that, as originally planned, she would enter the Sky Academy.
For the old Eris, who had regarded every day at the training school as a waste of time, this was a moment she had truly longed for.
But the Eris of now could not be so happy about graduating.
The Sky Academy was, in many ways, a special and bizarre place.
Once you became a student there, your chances to leave the academy grounds would be extremely limited, and you would spend most of your time inside the academy.
Naturally, a life of going back and forth to the library as she did now would be impossible.
Eris took a sip of tea from the table.
The taste that lingered in her mouth somehow felt more bitter than usual.
***
The library on the outskirts of Aldridge.
Ernst closed the book he had been reading.
Because he had realized a new customer had arrived.
He asked the woman who looked to be in her thirties or forties at most.
“Welcome, customer. Is there a book you’re looking for?”
A thoroughly businesslike expression with not even a speck of friendliness, and a flat voice lacking any rise or fall.
Looking at the blond librarian, who seemed completely unsuited to customer service, the middle-aged woman replied.
“Do you have any books that a young girl might like?”
“Hmm.”
Ernst looked thoughtful for a moment, then got to his feet and chose several books from the shelves.
The woman silently watched his back, as if trying to examine something, and soon wore a strange expression.
As if she had tried to interpret unfamiliar writing, then failed at the task.
Regardless, Ernst calmly laid several books out on the counter.
About half were about romance, while the rest were a mix of various genres.
The woman carefully examined the titles, then gave a wry smile.
“As I thought, the world is broad. You don’t look that old, yet I can’t quite gauge your true level at all.”
It was effectively an admission that the books were just an excuse and she had actually been sizing him up, but Ernst didn’t waver.
And to his attitude, the woman…
No, the archmage Delphinaris calmly continued.
“I have many disciples. But one of them suddenly disappeared recently.”
Marik Grimrun’s sudden disappearance.
Even his father, the count, had not properly tried to find Marik, but Delphinaris was different.
Even if Marik’s character and conduct were below expectations, and even if it had been proven that his ability was inferior to Eris’s, once she had taken him in as a disciple, Delphinaris’s nature was to do her utmost until the day she sent him on his way.
“I’d been using various means to find that child, and in the process I found a strange trace.”
To anyone other than a demon, sensing a demon was basically no different from a hidden-picture puzzle.
If you weren’t aware that something was hidden, you would simply perceive it as an ordinary picture and pass it by.
Someone might be told, ‘This is a hidden-picture puzzle,’ or happen to find something odd in the picture, or perhaps someone carefully searching here and there for something would look at the picture and realize it wasn’t just an ordinary picture.
Delphinaris was one of the latter.
While testing various detection spells in the room where Marik had last been seen, Delphinaris found demonic energy she normally would never have noticed, and when she discovered that its trace headed toward Aldridge, she was horrified.
Because she realized something terrible might have happened to Eris—or perhaps already had.
“And that energy led straight here.”
A library frequented by her prized disciple.
A building marked by demonic traces. A formidable expert inside it.
A situation far too suspicious.
Delphinaris looked at Ernst, hiding a sharp gaze within her dignified face.
“What are you?”
At the archmage’s question, Ernst answered.
“I am the librarian of this library. At least here.”
An answer without a tremor or a hint of hesitation.
A contradiction in which he calmly claimed to be nothing more than a librarian even in front of an archmage.
Objectively speaking, it wouldn’t have been strange to unleash a spell and call him suspicious right then and there, but Delphinaris continued with another question.
“Then what do you think of Eris?”
“She is a customer.”
That answer was equally swift.
As if there had been no need to think about it at all.
Before the archmage, who seemed somehow discouraged by that answer, could open her mouth again, Ernst added matter-of-factly.
“And also a reading companion with whom I read books and share my impressions.”
“…A reading companion.”
“Yes. She gives very satisfying reactions, so she’s quite an enjoyable companion.”
Apparently not an answer she had ever imagined, Delphinaris stared at Ernst with slightly blank eyes.
Then she let out a quiet laugh.
“Well, well. Is that so? Yes, magic isn’t everything, after all.”
The momentum flowing from Delphinaris’s body settled down once more.
She took several gold coins from her robe and placed them on the reception desk.
It was a somewhat excessive amount for a library fee.
“I’m sorry for acting as if I were testing you. I nearly acted like an old fool again. I think one should keep to the proper line, but it really isn’t easy.”
Beneath her polite words lay a faint bitterness.
It was self-mockery and discouragement directed at herself, at how she often failed to do her role properly or ended up being a step too late, contrary to what she believed.
Just then, Ernst spoke.
“It’s all right.”
The librarian said to the puzzled archmage,
“Your disciples will surely understand your kindness.”
“…Heh heh. Strange. When I hear that from you, it feels like I’ve somehow been repaid.”
Saying what a strange thing it was, the archmage left the library.
A little while later.
As if she had switched places with Delphinaris, Eris appeared in the library.
“The next volume, please.”
Unaware that her teacher had visited the place, she returned the book she had finished as usual and asked for the next one, and Ernst handed it over as if nothing had happened.
Flutter, flutter.
In the silence where only the soft sound of pages turning echoed,
it was around the time Eris was furtively glancing around, as if waiting for a chance to speak.
Ernst suddenly stood up from the counter and walked over to Eris.
Eris stiffened without even realizing it.
“Customer.”
“Yes? W-what is it?”
“Please take this.”
What Ernst held out was a single book.
Confused, Eris took the book and soon widened her eyes.
Because she realized it wasn’t an ordinary book.
“This is a grimoire.”
“Yes. I made one.”
“You made it? A grimoire isn’t some diary— No, never mind. If it’s a mage of your caliber, I suppose there isn’t much you can’t do.”
Eris looked at Ernst with a puzzled expression.
As if urging him to explain, Ernst continued in his blunt manner.
“The book has one function. It registers various kinds of books and lets you call up their contents whenever you want. In other words, the book itself could be called a portable library. I’ve registered every book here in it, so even if the originals disappear, the information in your book won’t. Would you like me to explain how to use it?”
“No, it’s fine. I can kind of figure it out.”
Eris placed a hand on the book cover and thought of the category ‘Literature.’
When she strongly focused on one of the hundreds of books visible beneath her eyelids, the cover, shape, and even the page count changed along with it.
What was even more incredible was that this worked the same way for grimoires, not just ordinary books.
Seeing a water-element grimoire casually in her hand, Eris made a face of utter disbelief.
“…This, could it be that if you register it, it copies the original’s mana as well?”
“The registration and reproduction of books are accomplished through the customer’s mana and that grimoire, 『Have You Gone Mad?』, so if the grimoire is lower in level than the combined total of the two, then yes. To register a grimoire of a higher level, your abilities would need to improve further.”
“Then at least change that damned name.”
“Didn’t you call it that last time?”
“I said change it.”
“Hmm, understood. Well, I’ll leave that part to the book’s owner.”
Eris let out a heavy sigh, then looked at Ernst.
“So, what is this? I’m not asking what the book is. I’m asking what you’re intending by giving me this.”
Ernst answered.
“It’s a farewell gift. A parting gift from me, the one leaving this place, to the customer who is leaving it.”