Chapter I: The Archives of Wisdom
Ever since Lestia joined the Western Alliance, the official name was changed to the East-West Alliance to reflect its new status.
And as of today, the Knight King Reinhard would be taking his seat at the council.
“I am honored to be here among you, though I hope my inexperience in these matters will not be too much of a burden.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. The whole point of this gathering is for us all to share our opinions as equals and help each other out, so just feel free to say whatever’s on your mind.” The Pope met the King of Knights’ courteous introduction with a gentle smile. This whole thing had turned into a sort of club before I realized it, but we were technically using it to discuss important matters, so I was just kind of rolling with it at this point.
“I’ve only recently succeeded the throne myself, you see. I hope we can get along.”
“As do I, Your Majesty.”
The newly appointed Kings of Lihnea and Lestia shared a firm handshake. There was surely plenty for them to learn from each other. I mean, I was technically royalty myself now, but I was pretty sure I’d make a terrible role model, so I figured it was in everyone’s best interests for them not to follow my examples too much.
“Seeing Lestia join us as allies is startling enough already, but I hear you’ve even recently won over the tribes of the Sea of Trees. You never fail to take me by surprise, Touya.” The Beast King of Mismede decided to join in on the young Kings’ conversation. Man, word on that really travelled fast, huh? Though I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised given the number of beastmen in Mismede. From what I’ve heard they’ve been keeping in touch with the tribes inhabiting the Sea of Trees for a while anyway, so he probably just heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
“I dunno if I’d say I ‘won them over’ or anything like that. I just kind of ended up helping them out and then they thanked me for it. I don’t really plan on sticking my nose into their business.” I didn’t really see any reason to hide it, so I followed this up by explaining what exactly had transpired.
Everything from the state of the refugees who had drifted in from Yulong, to a recent incident in which I loaned out a Frame Gear to help clear up the passage that’d gotten blocked off due to a landslide. Once that was all out of the way, everyone took Reinhard to the baseball stadium to go watch today’s main event: An exhibition match to welcome our newest member, the team matchup of the day being Refreese vs. Regulus.
As the guardsmen and soldiers all headed towards the arena, I suddenly remembered something I should probably mention to the Pope. I called out to her in a hushed voice so as not to attract too much attention from our surroundings.
“Your Holiness, I just felt I should mention this, but uh... Well, actually, there are two Gods here today, in human form, of course, but still... Would you like me to introduce you to them?”
“Eh, really!?” Unable to hide her surprise, she nodded vigorously at my proposal. I took her along to visit my older sisters, Karen and Moroha, who were drinking tea at a nearby table. I introduced one very nervous Pope to the two Gods, and in turn, the two Gods to one very nervous Pope.
“These girls are my older sisters... Or, well, that’s the story we’re rolling with. They’re actually the God of Love and the God of Swords, respectively.”
“Touya, it’s kinda creepy when you actually treat us like Gods for once, y’know?”
“Yeah, I really don’t know how to respond when you put me on the spot like this. Let’s just take it chill, alright? That goes for you too, little lady. Just seeing you get all worked up like that is hard to watch.” My sisters caught the Pope just as she was about to prostrate herself on the floor before them, and led her into a seat at the table instead. Following the introductions, the Pope began asking all sorts of questions about the Gods and the Divine Realm — tripping over her words every now and then, but still, seeing my sisters answering so lightheartedly while munching on sweets must’ve helped her calm down a little, because they at least seemed to be having a somewhat lively conversation amongst themselves. I couldn’t help but wonder if women were just quicker to adapt to groups of the same sex like this.
I briefly wondered if this fell under the category of interfering with matters of the human realm, but I figured it was probably fine since they weren’t exactly using their divine powers just to have some light conversation.
I mean I suppose this could technically be construed as her receiving some kind of Divine Revelations... But I’ve never heard of any such silly Revelations as ‘The God of Commerce is way too petty’ or ‘The God of Liquor needs to dial it back with the heavy drinking’ before in my life. It’s probably fine to just leave them to their conversation while I go watch the game.
Having judged it safe to leave the Pope with my sisters, I made my way to the stadium.
The whole place was already getting heated up for the first real match in a month.
I could spot people among the audience from not just our country, but people who seemed like they’d come all the way from Refreese and Regulus to see the match, as well. People selling popcorn and beer were running around turning a huge profit, as the audience swung between cheers of joy and cries of disappointment all in unison. I could never have predicted just how well this would go down with the people of this world when I first came up with the idea.
In the VIP seating area, Reinhard was already completely glued to the game. He reminded me of when Cloud saw his first match, too. Speaking of Cloud, Reinhard could occasionally be spotted asking him questions about the game as the two shared their opinions on the match unfolding like some kind of running commentary.
Maybe because they had both only succeeded their respective thrones relatively recently, but the two of them seemed to be getting along already. It’d be nice if they became good friends like the King of Belfast and the Emperor of Refreese.
Speaking of Refreese, I can already picture that princess getting a nosebleed and writing all sorts of indecent books if she were to catch even a glimpse of this scene. I mean, hell, they’re both the spitting image of storybook Prince Charmings (King Charmings in this case, the point stands)... Tch. Even with plenty of girls ready to become my wives, a man is still allowed to be jealous of handsome fellas like that. What? Don’t you judge me.
A loud, clear sound followed by a tremendous cheer snapped me back to my senses. The Regulus team’s batter had just hit a homerun. Players who could hit a homerun at the critical moment like that never failed to get the crowd going.
Reinhard even leaped out of his seat with excitement. On the other hand, the King of Belfast, being a good friend of the Emperor of Refreese, hung his head in dismay at the sight, almost as if the very ball soaring into the air had soared straight into his gut instead.
All friendly sports rivalry aside, I was glad to see everyone getting along with each other. I decided to make a full kit of baseball equipment to give to Reinhard once the match was over.
The next day, I woke up to a wave of biting cold and a real winter wonderland spreading outside of my window before my eyes.
Yup, that’s right. Snow. A whole lot of it, at that. Not enough to have blocked the doors shut, but it still had to be at least ten centimeters high.
The training grounds for the soldiers were virtually unusable in this condition, though, so the knights were shoveling the snow out of both the training grounds and barracks areas. I suggested just melting it all away with some fire magic, but I got told to think a little about how turning snow into water was going to help the problem at all. In retrospect that definitely wouldn’t have been my brightest moment.
I decided to go check on the state of the townsfolk as well, and just like the knights, the adults were busy shoveling the snow outside the front of their houses. Meanwhile, the children were having fun with snowball fights.
I got invited to play with them, and having no reason to refuse, I decided to teach them about other fun things you could do to play in the snow. First I took an empty wooden box and some planks of wood and built a simple little sled. Next I took all of the shoveled snow and made a little hill out of it for the kids to slide down. Once they learned about it, they were hooked on this new game straight away.
Leaving the kids to have fun with their new toy, I went out to check on the main roads. Just as I thought, the roads were snowed in to the point I could barely tell it was supposed to be a road. Guess this meant we wouldn’t be seeing any merchants passing through for a while. Well, assuming it didn’t snow anymore then the roads would probably be plenty usable again when the snow melted over the next two or three days.
It wasn’t every day we got snow like this, so I decided to head on over to the baseball stadium to see if there was anything fun I could make out of this.
3 simple steps to constructing your own makeshift ice-skating rink: First, level out the mounds of the baseball field buried underneath the snow. Next, lightly melt a thin layer of the snow until you get an even coating of water across the field. And finally, re-freeze the melted snow while keeping the surface as flat as possible. And just like that, you’re done!
“Yup, looking pretty good. Let’s see if it’s solid enough to st-AAAAND WAH!” I had barely taken a step onto the ice rink before completely losing my footing and sent tumbling onto my back. Is this some kind of karmic payback for all those people I’ve tormented with my [Slip] spell until now!? That really hurt!
“...What the blazes are you up to this time?” inquired Logan, who — judging by the shovels he and the knights behind him were carrying — had probably come to dig out the baseball stadium’s field. And what’s worse, it looked like they saw everything... I probably wasn’t gonna live this one down for a while, but oh well.
“Oh, y’know, just thought I’d make a simple ice skating rink.”
“Eyes Gating Ring? Some kind of new magic?”
“Eh? You seriously don’t have them over here? Y’know, where you slide about on top of the ice in boots with little blades attached to the bottom.”
“Oh, you mean the Gliding Arts. Come to think of it, they use that technique a lot in the northern kingdom of Elfrau. I hear that the waterways tend to freeze over in the winter up there, so they make the best of that by sliding around over the surface of them to get around faster.” In other words, this world had something similar, but they had only ever seen it as an alternative form of transport. It made sense since that was definitely a fast way of getting around, but they didn’t seem to have considered that it could be pretty fun to just enjoy the sensation of sliding around over the surface of it. Now I had to introduce this to them.
I started off by whipping up a simple pair of skating boots by fastening some makeshift blades to the bottom of my shoes, and then stepping onto the rink to demonstrate. Unlike before, I glided somewhat more gracefully over the icy surface this time.
I heard several voices of amazement at my skills, but all I was really doing was skating in a straight line... But it did make me want to show off a little, so I did a couple rounds of the outer circumference of the arena while doing simple little spins and stunts here and there. Don’t underestimate a kid raised in the north, wahaha! Well, I say that, but my hometown was on the side of Japan nearer to the Pacific Ocean, so I don’t have the crazy resistance to the cold that you find in people further up north...
I made a full set of blades for Logan and the others and handed them over. They were a sort of clip-on type that you attached to the bottom of your own shoes as opposed to the kind of skating boots that come with the blades permanently affixed. As the guys timidly stepped out onto the ice rink, they began tumbling all over the place like a scene straight out of an old cartoon. Ha ha ha! Bet you won’t be laughing at my little slip-up from earlier anymore, will you!?
But before I could fully enjoy the silly sight, everyone gradually grew more and more accustomed to it with just a little bit of practice.
The people of this world never failed to find new ways of surprising me with how quickly they grew accustomed to my new tricks and toys. Then again, they were all pretty athletic to begin with, so I really should’ve seen this coming. Before I knew it, even the townsfolk had begun to show up to watch our Knight Order gracefully gliding around my ice skating rink. I figured it’d be more fun to just let everyone participate at will, so I whipped up a large batch of attachable skating blades and just left them out for people to make free use of since it would’ve been a pain handing them all out one-by-one.
“Urgh... What have I done?” I groaned grumpily while sitting on one of the stadium benches. After only a short time had passed, my ice skating rink had slowly but surely began filling up with young couples and married couples. My fun playground had turned into a hot-spot for romantic couples right under my nose.
Singles despaired at the sight and gradually began leaving one after another, whose skating blades were then taken up by new couples who had arrived to join the others above the ice. It was a vicious, lonely cycle.
Amongst this, though, the heroes of the loner singles’ ranks saw this as a chance to invite girls out onto the rink and teach them how to skate.
The whole place was totally just one big date spot by now. Well, the younger kids seemed to be having plenty of innocent, childish fun with it, so it wasn’t all just a couples’ event.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed a disproportionate number of girls who didn’t seem to be able to skate, inevitably invited out onto the rink by guys who had already completely mastered the basics offering to teach them. Just like that, they’d be off hand-in-hand to go have a good time with each other... In other words, the guys saw it as the perfect chance to go around hitting on girls.
When I thought about it, though, it did sort of make sense. Under the guise of a noble act of kindness in teaching girls how to skate, the guys had the perfect excuse to join hands with cute girls without drawing any unwanted attention for it. It was pretty crafty when I thought of it like that.
Among the girls seemed to be those who had figured this out, too, and were quite clearly faking being unable to skate so that they could attract men like the others. Well, as long as both parties were okay with it, I figured this was one of those times where the correct course of action was to just avoid bringing it up since it’d just ruin everyone’s fun.
“I had a feeling I’d find you at the heart of all this commotion, Touya.”
“I don’t know how I feel about being your number one suspect whenever crowds start to gather for any reason, but well, yeah, can’t deny that this one was my handiwork.” When Yumina showed up out of nowhere to tease me yet again, I decided it was wisest to just roll with it at this point. I mean, I don’t think I’m the source of all of the commotion in this world, I thought to myself, but she’s right on the mark this time.
Now that I had a partner myself, I saw no real reason to skip out on the experience of an ice skating date myself. I gave Yumina a pair of skating blades and we headed right out onto the rink.
“Care to join me for a skate, My Princess?”
“...Do you think I’ll be able to do it? It looks rather difficult...” Yumina inquired nervously. I couldn’t really blame her, since this was her first time and all. For the time being, I led her out onto the rink by the hand and taught her the tricks behind it one small step at a time.
She seemed unsure how to keep her balance at first, but she gradually grew used to the new sensation and was gliding around beautifully before I knew it. I was ready to pin it on the naturally athletic nature of the people in this world, but thinking about it more critically, I started to wonder if maybe the reason this kept surprising me was because my old world had been such a convenient place that the people had just become more and more complacent over the years.
At this time, I had no way of knowing that ice skating dates would become one of the standard winter attractions of my very own Duchy of Brunhild.
“You found more of the Babylon ruins? Where?”
“I did. They are located in the middle of the Demon Kingdom Xenoahs, in a mountainous area.” Kougyoku reported this information to me, and I fell into deep thought.
The Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs... It was a secluded nation inhabited by Demonkin.
Under the overlord’s rule, they were a country that strongly avoided interacting with the outside world. Despite being a treacherous area with plenty of natural defenses due to its unique geography, it was said that all sorts of races lived there in peace. Not just Demonkin, but many subspecies of monsters and magical beasts are said to roam the area in great numbers. There were all sorts of dangerous rumors about the place.
I was hesitant to charge blindly into unknown territory, so I called out one of the Demonkin from my Knight Order to see if he could give me any useful information about the place.
“Xenoahs, you say?” The boy I called out was a young Vampire with red eyes, fair white skin, and pointed ears. His name was Lushade.
Despite being a Vampire, he was a bit of an eccentric who couldn’t really stand the sight of blood. According to him, blood was more like a luxury food for Vampires rather than being essential for their survival.
He was a guy who single-handedly destroyed the image of Vampires I’d always held inside my head. For one thing, the sun didn’t bother him at all. He thoroughly enjoyed meals prepared with garlic as some of his favorite dishes. He could handle crosses or crucifixes just fine, and silver weapons were about as effective on him as they would be on pretty much anyone else. He couldn’t transform into a bat, and to top it all off, he couldn’t even stand the sight of blood.
Apart from Lushade’s own eccentric distaste for blood, it seemed that all the Vampires in this world were pretty much the same as him. Heck, people who’d had their blood sucked by vampires wouldn’t even turn into vampires themselves in this world.
Apparently they were still blessed with many powerful abilities, such as incredible night-vision, superhuman strength, and tremendous self-recovery abilities to name a few... But looking at this young man, I found that pretty hard to picture in my head.
At any rate, I’d heard that Vampires tended to hold considerably high social status within Xenoahs, which was why I called Lushade out hoping I might be able to glean some useful information from him.
To this day, it remained a mystery to me why someone of such a high social standing would come all the way out here just to join my Knights Order. When we interviewed him for the position, I seemed to recall him saying something about wanting to gain his own independence in his life.
“So, like, are there no humans in Xenoahs at all?”
“No, there are a few. Even some Demi-Humans live there. Just because Xenoahs keeps itself from getting involved in other countries’ affairs doesn’t mean it totally isolates itself from the outside world altogether. It’s just that it’s an incredibly difficult place for just about any race to live in.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Well, first and not least of all the climate is somewhat extreme there. The temperature at midday gets scorching hot, meanwhile the nights can reach sub-zero temperatures easily. Not to mention the fact that magic beasts inhabit the land in droves. Just stepping outside of town means you’re almost guaranteed to be attacked by whole packs of them. Plus there’s the problem of the food supply. There isn’t exactly much that most humans would willingly eat unless they had no other choice. I mean, would you willingly eat Slime Jelly or Orc meat?” Orc meat? By Orcs, he means those orcs, right? The ones with pig heads and humanoid bodies? Can you actually eat those things!? I mean come on! You should at least be eating regular pork in that case! As for Slime Jelly... Yeah, no thanks. That just sounds outright disgusting. Like he said, I can see why their local cuisine would be pretty tough for ordinary humans to get used to...
“...Do Orcs not count as Demonkin?”
“Of course not. They can’t even communicate with words, remember? Demons refers to races with high enough intelligence to at least hold a coherent conversation. Everything else gets classified as either magic beasts or monsters.” His explanation made sense.
I asked Lushade if there were any slightly more... appetizing foods to choose from, at which point he brought up Mini-Wyrm Soup and Grilled Giant Bats and such. I could feel my stomach turning just hearing about it. There’s no way in hell I could bring myself to eat that stuff, not even if you paid me a hundred platinum as a dare. Heck, for all I knew they might be delicious, but the appearance alone would be guaranteed to kill my appetite altogether.
“That said, it actually took me a little while to get accustomed to the cuisine over here, too. It’s nice now that I’m used to it, but sometimes I do find myself longing for my home country’s cooking again,” said Lushade as he made a forced smile. Guess it’s true what they say about longing for the taste of your hometown, I thought to myself.
Pushing this disturbing talk of horrific foodstuffs out of my mind, I recalled my main objective. If there were humans living in the country already, then I supposed I might not stand out as much as I originally thought if I were to take a trip there. I figured I could maybe sneak my way into the country easily enough in order to go investigate those Ruins of Babylon.
If I got caught I could just come up with some excuse like being a penniless wandering noble. I wasn’t planning on stirring up any trouble, and it’s not like my outward appearance made me look like anyone of particular importance or anything.
With that, I decided to take a quick expedition to scout the place out. Unfortunately Lushade had never been directly to the ruins himself, so I’d have to just jump to Yulong and use my [Fly] spell to cover the rest of the distance.
Since I was travelling by flight this time, I had the rest of the party wait back at the castle. Just in case anything happened and I had to contact anyone for support I decided to take Kohaku or one of the others with me, but since I could only take one of them it came very close to breaking out into a fight between them. Breaking up their little spat was a pain in the ass.
Yumina drew up a lottery to help make the decision as fair as possible, which ended up with Kohaku being the one to accompany me this time. With that decided, I opened up a [Gate] to Yulong. The very same place we’d fought the Phrase once before.
Same old wasteland as usual, I thought to myself. With nothing to do here, we set out for our original goal without hesitation. After casting [Levitation] on Kohaku, I fired up my [Fly] spell and we headed straight for Xenoahs.
Just for added safety, so we didn’t get caught and/or restrained as suspicious individuals, I made sure to cast [Invisible] on us both. Could never be too careful in unknown territory.
The moment we entered Xenoahs airspace, something came flying straight in our direction. For a moment I feared we had been spotted already, but on closer inspection that didn’t seem to be the case. Just to avoid any unnecessary risks, I slowed down our flying speed and decided to observe from a distance for a while. It was then that I noticed that what had been heading our way was two Demonkin. The upper halves of their bodies were those of women, while their arms and legs were those of birds.
“Those are Harpies. The talons on their feet have enough force to rip bears apart, but they’re unlikely to attack us unless we were to provoke them first.” Just like Kohaku said, the Harpies flew right past us without so much as a glance in our direction. Come to think about it, they wouldn’t even have been able to track us down by spell due to the magic fields we had up to help conceal our presence completely.
From what I could tell, Harpies must’ve been a species of Demon. They certainly didn’t look like magical beasts to me, at least. I was still a little unclear on what separated Demons from magical beasts, but according to Lushade, anything humanoid that you could hold a coherent conversation with would be a Demon, whereas creatures like the Dullahan where communication with them was totally impossible were monsters. Meanwhile, non-humanoid creatures that you could still communicate with such as Unicorns still fell under the category of magical beasts. I still didn’t fully understand all the distinctions between them, but I felt like I had a least a basic grasp of the logic behind it by now.
“Let’s try to err on the side of caution, just in case. There’s no telling what sorts of strange magic beasts we might run into all the way out here, and I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of them that we’ve never had to deal with before.” Once the Harpies were out of view, we continued our flight toward our destination. Gazing upon the scenery below us revealed nothing but wastelands, treacherous mountains, and thick wooded areas for as far as the eye could see. I was beginning to understand why living in such a place would be such a challenge for the average person.
There were routes resembling paths dotted around here and there, but even those looked treacherous enough as though they were just there due to being well-tread over the years, as opposed to being deliberately made to make passage between two specific areas any easier or safer.
“This place looks plenty unforgiving enough for the uninitiated already. I mean, I expect the capital won’t look anything like these backwoods roads, but I can see where these lands get their intimidating reputation from.”
“The magical particles are thick in the air around these parts, which may be what’s attracting the magic beasts in such great numbers. It’s definitely the kind of place where humans would struggle even to survive a few days, from what I can see. Demon races with their unnatural resistance and physical resilience would be another story, but other races would likely not fare so well in these conditions...” In a way, that description made it sound to me like exactly the kind of ideal environment to establish a country of Demonkin in.
Still, isn’t it a bit too hot here? I could’ve sworn it was the middle of winter when we left Brunhild... I mean, the sun’s blasting on at full power and might even blind me if I’m not careful. Does it get some kind of status power-up in the skies of this area or something? Could it be due to the density of magical particles in the air around here, or does it maybe have something to do with the Earth Spirits in this part of the world?
It’s times like this I’m glad my jacket has resistance to the natural elements, I thought to myself, secretly paying thanks to my long-time partner.
Snapping myself out of my sightseeing tour, I noticed something else flying in our direction. More Harpies, I wondered? Looking closer, they were large blue birds resembling condors. Those must’ve been some of Kougyoku’s followers.
Upon dispelling my [Invisible] spell, the birds seemed to recognize us and changed direction to fly eastward as if to guide us to where we were going.
Eventually we reached a mountainous area, and the birds took us to a small valley.
“What’s this...” Nestled in a nook between mountains, there was a large structure that resembled the Arc de Triomphe.
I descended and checked out the structure’s composition. It was definitely made out of the same stuff as the others. It seemed we were right to assume.
It was about three meters tall, and when I passed under it I found myself in a small room with letters engraved on the wall. To my left hand side there were five different objects stacked up in a row.
The middle of the room had a small stone pillar that went up to my waist. There was a fire spellstone sitting atop it. It kind of resembled a hokora, a small Shinto shrine for offerings. It was made out of the same stuff as the rest of the structure, though.
“Hm... This is definitely new. What’s this all about...?” I channeled magic into the stone, but that didn’t work. I heard a loud buzzer sound, signifying I’d done something wrong. It felt just like the kind of sound you’d hear on a quiz show if someone made a wrong answer. I figured this was the ruin’s way of telling me I was doing it wrong. “Hm... Maybe those symbols are a clue. Oh... I should read the letters... [Reading]: Ancient Spirit Script.” Just like that, the letters became legible.
“Let’s see... ‘Line up the shapes to the right in the correct order, top to bottom. You do not need to physically move them. Simply imagining it as you channel your magic into the firestone is enough.’ What...” What’s going on...? A quiz? Are the shapes those weird things stacked up on the wall to the left?
There was a square, a semi-circle, a star, a full circle, and a triangle. All had dots on them, too. Five for the square, three for the semi-circle, one for the star, four for the circle, and two for the triangle.
“If these dots are the key to it... Could it really be that simple?” I pictured the shapes in my mind in the following order. Star, triangle, semi-circle, circle, square. Then I poured my magical power into the stone. Bzzt. I was wrong. Well, that would’ve been too easy.
“...Maybe it’s by number of straight sides?” The circle had no straight edges, the semi-circle had one, triangle had three, square had four... and star had five. There wasn’t a shape with two, though. It was kind of annoying. Man, I’m not really getting this at all... Regardless, I tried the order of circle, semi-circle, triangle, square, star.
Bzzt. Wrong again!
“Damn it... Is it really the dots, then?”
“Perhaps the shapes represent different meanings.”
“Uh... Meanings? The circle... Maybe that’s the sun...? Then the semi-circle is the moon... Then the star is... a star... Is it some kind of astrological thing? What about the triangle and square?!” Maybe if I’m arranging them top to bottom... It’s their distance from the planet? So the furthest is the stars, then the sun... Then the moon... If the triangle is a house...? And the square is the planet itself! I tried lining them up like that.
Bzzt.
“Ugh... Come on... The dots have to be the hints, but what does it mean?!”
After that, I spent some time glaring at the shapes. It became a tedious process of trial and error. But mostly error. A long while passed, until...
Ding ding ding!!
“WHAT?! GIMME A GODDAMN BREAK!”
“M-My liege... I understand your frustration, but please calm yourself.” A loud rumbling came as the wall of shapes moved to the side, opening for me. Frankly I wished I could’ve kicked it down. Kohaku’s imploring stopped me, though.
“That was such a stupid question! What the hell kind of answer was that supposed to be?!”
“I-I agree, but still...” Kohaku sighed in resignation. The answer to the puzzle infuriated me. It was simple enough... “There are no shapes to the right.” That was it. I felt like an idiot. But it was true. The shapes were to my left, and the question asked me to sort shapes to my right... It was just a stupid riddle! I calmed myself down and progressed inwards to the next room. I found myself facing a familiar sight. A wall with lettering carved into it, and a pillar with a blue spellstone in the middle of the room. NOT AGAIN!
“There are eight coins and a single scale. One of the coins is counterfeit. The counterfeit coin weighs a little bit less than a legitimate coin, thus it is easy to discover by weighing. The question, however, is what is the least number of attempts needed to determine the false coin? An incorrect answer will return you to the entrance.” This one’s a little trickier... Gonna need to think about this.
It shouldn’t take much brainpower though! That’s right, the answer is... Wait... Hold on, uh...
I channeled my magical power into the blue spellstone as I pictured the answer in my mind.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Just as I expected... It was trying to trick me. I narrowed my eyes slightly as the next wall opened up.
“My lord, what was the answer?”
Kohaku looked up at me, curious. Hm? You didn’t get it?
“Well, think about it. How many tries should it take?”
“Well, the first try should be spent weighing four coins on each side. Then you should spend the second try dividing the lighter four into piles of two, and weighing them. Third and final, you weigh the final two coins from the lighter side again. It will take three attempts total.”
“I see... That’s technically true, yes. But you could take six coins and measure them in two piles of three. If they were balanced, it would mean one of the two left over was the counterfeit. Then you’d only need a second try to confirm the answer. If they weren’t balanced, then it’d just be a matter of placing one coin from the lighter pile on either side. If those were balanced, then the remaining one would be the fake. If they were imbalanced, the fake would be the lighter one. Either way, it would take two measurements. That’s the generally accepted answer, I think.” Emphasis on generally...
“Then you mean to imply it could be done in less than two?”
“The answer is it takes one. You can randomly take two coins from the eight, and measure their weight. If you’re lucky enough you’ll be able to find it in one go.”
“What? Luck?”
“The question didn’t specify anything like having a guarantee of success, it just asked the least number of times the scale could be used.” Just the kind of nonsense I’d expect from a Babylon ruin. It’s unpleasant all the way through... It really reminds me of how the woman herself acts. I feel a little dirty, like I know how she ticks now... I’m a little uneasy about that, but... It feels like I know her well.
Some time later... “Please follow the rules of the current calculation. In this system, what does X equal?” 36 = 1, 108 = 3, 2160 = 2, 10800 = X. The question seemed fairly straightforward, and I was unsure about whether or not she’d hidden some kind of devious trick within it.
But in the end, there was no trick. The answer was merely 5.
It wasn’t really much of a puzzle, just a standard question. It wasn’t difficult or anything, either. I couldn’t afford to get them wrong and find myself back at the entrance, though. The wall opened up again, and I headed to my next problem. I wanted them to stop.
Ding ding ding... We have a winner!
I finally broke through the last room, one with a null spellstone, and found myself facing a familiar magic circle.
“Finally... That took way longer than it should have...” Even if it was just a stupid prank from the Doctor, it was a real pain in the ass. I grumbled quietly as I let magic flow from my body into the six stone pillars. Then, making sure Kohaku was with me in the middle of the circle, I let the Null magic spill out at my feet.
A flash of light engulfed us before gradually fading. I opened my eyes to find myself viewing the familiar sight of Babylon. The sky was calm and cloudy, and I could see trees swaying in the breeze.
I looked around, curious, and spotted a building far away. I wondered if I’d found the storehouse, the library, or maybe even the research laboratory.
I started walking towards the building and, gradually, I came to get a good look at it.
It was round, like a big can of tuna. But the most striking thing about it was that it was entirely made of glass. I could see everything inside. What I saw was bookshelves. Dozens of them, perhaps hundreds. The interior was so full of shelves packed with books that I could barely comprehend what I was looking at.
I’d found the Library, that much was clear.
I walked around the building, searching for a way inside. Eventually, I found a massive set of double doors.
I pushed them open, only to find another door on the inside. After I opened that and stepped through, I found myself in the Library proper.
“Whoa...”
“Goodness...” Kohaku and I were taken aback. There were books everywhere. Books as far as the eye could see.
The rows upon rows of bookshelves were all at least ten meters tall. The place almost felt like a maze of literature.
Plus, I couldn’t see any kind of ladder or stepping system, so I had no idea how I was supposed to even reach the highest shelves.
I walked around on the fancy red carpet, attempting to make my way to the center of the building. Naturally it wasn’t so easy as just walking there in a straight line, I had to navigate the awkward bookshelves. I wondered whether or not that was intentional.
Still, looking up at the ceiling helped me get an idea of where I was headed.
After a while of exploring past book after book, we came out in a clearing amongst the shelving. There was a single desk and chair. There was a huge pile of books on top of the desk, and buried amongst them was a girl.
She seemed to be quite engrossed in one of the tomes, refusing to look up for even a moment. Her hair was cut short, colored an icy blue, and she wore glasses on her face. Overall she looked similar in dress and stature to the others I’d encountered before, so I made the assumption she was the Library’s Terminal Gynoid.
“Uh...”
“I will be finished with this book in approximately thirty minutes. Until then, do not attempt discourse with me.”
“Uh, right...” She’s cold. Treating me like a pest, huh? I mean... Should I just wait?
I sat in the quiet room, the occasional sound of a turning page haunting my ears. I was bored, so I decided to pick up a book and look through it.
As I turned the page, the paper quality struck me as unusual. Hm... What’s with this? This is a seriously old book... Wait, what’s with the letters?
“I can’t read this at all...” Hm... What language is this? It doesn’t look like spirit script or the ancient magical tongue... Is it the language they spoke in Partheno? “[Reading]: Ancient Partheno Language.” Oh, got it. But... Oh. I can’t even understand what it’s talking about... Some kinda complicated report about magical beasts or something...?
Still, I’d cast the spell now, so I could freely browse the titles of the nearby books and finally have an idea of what they actually said. That meant that every book here was in Partheno’s ancient tongue.
“Mystical Fluid Manipulation For Dummies...”
“Secret Magic Herbs and Spices...”
“Sure-fire Naughty Night Tips, Beginners Manual...” Hm... The title had caught my eye, so I reached out to that one and gave it a look. It was, as it had first seemed, a simple how-to guide.
“The primary issue is alleviating tension. You can both indulge in one another if you’re more relaxed... Provided you’re of age, try drinking a little alcohol to loosen up. Not too much, though. Too much alcohol will cause a disaster, so practice intoxication in moderation. Step Two: How to touch their...” Hmhm... Hohoho... I... I see, yes... This is good... This is... Surprisingly... Informative, yes... Oh my... Wait, you can do that? That... That goes there? Hm... This is difficult, being casual seems to require a lot of prep...
“Enjoying your book, are you?”
“Gah!!” I jolted upwards at the sudden voice. Whoa, what?! Agh! H-Has it really been a whole half hour already?! The girl looked at me, clearly puzzled, as she tilted her head.
“Welcome to the Babylon Library. I am the Terminal Gynoid of this institution, Irisfam. You, however, may refer to me as Fam.”
“O-Oh, right... I’m Mochizuki Touya. Nice to meet you, Fam.” I put the book I had taken back on its shelf, desperately hoping the girl hadn’t seen what it was.
“Well, you’re here... That means you’ve solved all of the Doctor’s riddles. Thus, Airframe Number Twenty-Four, Irisfam, will have her ownership rights transferred to you. I look forward to working with you, Master.” Just as I’d thought, Doctor Babylon really was responsible for those stupid questions. Why would she even do that? It was just annoying... Still, it’s much better than all that dumb erotic stuff she made me do earlier... That was the w— hagh!! Before I could finish that thought, Fam’s lips were pressed up against mine. Our saliva mingled as she penetrated past my lips with her sticky tongue, swirling it around my own. Unlike Liora, however, she kept the union rather brief.
“Registration completed. Your genes are stored in my bank, Master. Thus, the Library is formally your property.” I should’ve expected this. Why didn’t I prepare for this? Well, it’s not like I had any choice in the matter... She’d have extracted my genetic sample one way or the other, so kissing was probably the best outcome for everyone.
“Well then, I’d like to know. How many Babylons have been assembled?”
“Hm? Oh, uh... I have the Garden, the Workshop, the Alchemy Lab, the Hangar, the Tower, the Rampart... Now I have the Library! That makes seven.”
“Oh. Come with me, then.” Fam typed something into the terminal at the central desk, and the Library suddenly came alive. It began moving, probably to dock with the others over Brunhild.
“Master. I’ve a request. The Library requires more books, you see.”
“More? Aren’t there enough here already?”
“The Library is currently stocked with twenty million books.” What?! Even the National Diet Library in Japan only has around ten million... Although if you include stuff like newspapers, magazines, and stuff like that, it’s probably over thirty million.
“I have read everything in the Library. That is why it is urgent that I have some fresh material.”
“Wait... You’ve read twenty million books?”
“On average it takes me two hours to read a single book. I have been doing so for the past five-thousand years.” That’s absolutely insane. Do you not sleep or something?! Cesca and Flora were sleeping or in stasis or whatever, and even Noel sleeps regularly... What are you made of?! “I do not move much at all, so I expend little in the way of energy. That being said, I have operated autonomously for five-thousand years. Once we have the research laboratory, I will require necessary maintenance.” Reading books for over five-thousand years... She’s pretty hardcore. Guess she must really love literature... Still, not exactly the kind of person I expected to meet here.
I decided to return home and report in that I’d found the Library. After all, Leen had been waiting for this for a very long time...
“I-It’s time!! It’s happening! It’s finally happening!!” A girl dressed in gothic lolita fashion was jumping around excitedly, waving her arms in the air. Naturally, it was Leen.
Standing next to her was a stuffed bear, equally excited and dancing around like a maniac.
“We will now dine upon the delicious fruit of forbidden knowledge! Ancient history once unknown! It’s all mine now, mine I tell you!”
“...I know you’re getting excited and all, but I need to tell you that I’m putting a temporary ban on reading books from the Library.”
“What in the blazes did you just say?!” Leen stared at me, fire blazing in her eyes.
We were currently in Brunhild castle. I hadn’t yet taken anyone to the Library. I had decided to bring Leen (and Paula, apparently) to my audience room. I broke the news about my discovery there and then.
“I need to think about this pragmatically. You’re an ambassador from Mismede. It’d be irresponsible for me to give you untold ancient knowledge. Plus, what exactly are you going to offer me?”
“Oh, so that’s how it is... Well, I can understand that reasoning, so... Let me make a proposition. I’d like to become the Court Magician of Brunhild.”
“Eh?” Wait, what? I mean I guess our country doesn’t have a court magician, but... Hm. I mean... she’s the Matriarch of the fairies, so her ability is definitely high...
But she’s an ambassador from Mismede, I feel like that’d complicate things. She’s a clan matriarch and an influential figure from a foreign nation.
“It won’t be an issue. It’s true I’m Clan Matriarch to the fairies, but that’s more an honorary title than anything else. Eris is the one who actually handles most of the work back in Mismede.”
“Eris?”
“Mismede’s court magician. I was thinking of handing clan matriarch status to her anyway, so this is fine. I’d like to retire and devote myself entirely to the pursuit of knowledge.” Hmph... If it’s an honorary title then I guess it’ll be fine... Not like I’m stealing state secrets or anything.
I doubted that the Beastking would care, either. He wanted Demi-Humans to be more respected the world over, so taking one as my court magician would do good for public relations. Honestly, there probably wouldn’t have been any issues.
“Hm... I shan’t be rude. This obviously isn’t enough to convince you. I promise to use any knowledge I find in the Library for the good of Brunhild. And, to sweeten the pot, I’ll become your wife as well.”
“Nope, no thanks. Actually, come to think of it... Are you not married yet, Leen?”
“Incredibly deft dodge of a rare confession, Touya... You won’t even consider it?” She was complaining, but I wasn’t going to entertain her nonsense. She’d been alive for six-hundred or so years, so I was sure she’d have been married at least once. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she had kids. “I’ve never been married, nor have I given birth. Like I said, the growth of a fairy body stops between late teens and early twenties. I was a bit of an early bloomer... As a result, I haven’t really been considered marriage material. I get unusual propositions from dubious men now and then, but I’ve my pride. I won’t bow to their fetishes.” That made sense enough. Leen would look the same until she died. Not to mention the Clan Matriarch would have to think carefully about choosing a partner.
There was an old saying about pursuing an older woman until your shoes wear out, but... I wasn’t quite so sure I was that keen on the idea.
“...Do you dislike older women?”
Leen looked up at me with a somewhat cute expression.
“Ah, well... No. Not in your case, I suppose, but, I mean... You don’t feel all that older to me. But as far as marriage goes, it’s a whole other ballgame. I do trust you, Leen, and I like you a lot, but... Well...”
“Hm? I find you quite satisfactory, though. I’d be more than happy to marry you. Didn’t you notice? I like you a lot, Touya...” Gah! D-Don’t say something like that...!
Leen jumped up and peered right into my eyes. There was chaos behind her gaze. Mischief. I couldn’t look away. I felt like a little frog, mesmerized by a predatory snake.
Just as I was about to comment on her closeness, I felt a little kiss.
“Gh!?”
“Hehe... You’ve gotten all scared, like a little baby... You have seven fiancees, don’t you? You should be used to little gestures like that.” Despite her youthful looks, she definitely had a kind of charm that could only come from years of experience...
This is dangerous. My face is getting red, this is really bad... If she was a stranger, I wouldn’t be feeling so conflicted, but... She’s Leen! I know her, this is really weird and awkward!
As I stood there, frozen, unable to think of any way to retort, Leen smiled. “You don’t have to give me an answer right away. If it suits you, I’ll be quite fine as your mistress or on-the-side lover... But I would like to get married at least once in my life. You’ll find I’m quite the devoted type, you know...” She drew back entirely, but not before pecking me on the cheek. Gh... That’s dangerously cute. I almost forgot you’re like six-hundred or something...
“So then, darling... I can use the Library at my discretion if I’m your wife, yes?”
“That was your goal all along, wasn’t it?!”
“Well, not entirely... I wasn’t lying about liking you, promise. Did you think I wasn’t telling the truth?”
“H-Hey now, that’s enough... You can look around the Library. But don’t share anything that you learn in there.”
“Thank you, darling... I love you.” Suspicious... Wait. Crap. Did she just trick me? Did I get seduced?! ... No, let’s just say that I successfully recruited a powerful ally. Even if I was totally just tricked right now, it’s better if I justify it like this.
As I sighed softly, mulling over complicated matters in my head, Paula slowly shook her head as if to say “Goodness me.” Hmph...
“Ooh...”
“Wow...” Leen and Hilde let out their surprise as they stepped into the Library. The others were amazed too, but not quite as much.
Leen was astounded by the Library and its shelves, but Hilde was more surprised by Babylon itself. It was her first trip up there, after all.
“How can this be?! I-It flies in the sky...?! Incredible! Amazing! Are there Frame Gears, too?!”
“Be silent. This is a Library. Silence in the Library, please.”
“Oh... Sorry.” Hilde spoke up loudly, only to be shut down immediately by Fam, who was relaxing on a nearby couch, nose heavily stuck into a book. She was currently reading books I’d had delivered from Moon Reader. Though I did make sure none of the more... unsavory titles arrived in this place.
“Oh, how am I supposed to get a book from the top shelf? Is there a step-ladder?”
“Oh, just touch the shelf and picture the shelf you need.” Leen touched the shelf as instructed, and one of the rows of books slowly sank down within reach.
“Amazing... So it can do that, eh? Wait, this book...!” Leen’s eyes went wide as she snatched one of the books up. I couldn’t read the title, and I assumed Leen couldn’t either. Regardless, she began furiously flipping through the pages.
“What kind of book is this?”
“It’s an encyclopedia of ancient magic! It’s written in ancient magical tongue, but I can read that... Sort of! Can’t you see how amazing this is?! It has entries not only on modern magic, but magic that was lost to time!”
“This is a Library. Shh.”
“Ah, sorry...” Fam gave out another warning. She didn’t even look up from her book. It was a little rude of her, but at least she was enjoying her literature.
“The number of books here is incredible, it is... Would it not be difficult to find a book here?”
“Nope, that’s fine, watch. Library... search for books about swords.” In response to my words, an arrow rose up to the surface of the red carpet. Now all we had to do was follow it and we’d reach the book we wanted.
Also, putting a book back on any shelf brought it back to its proper position. Basically, there was an automated sorting service. It was plenty convenient.
Yumina pulled out several books and started flipping through them before promptly discarding them. I wondered if she was trying to make Fam mad.
“These books are written in a language most of us can’t read... We’ll have to have Touya create reading glasses for us.”
“Making them isn’t an issue. I just need to know what languages to tune them to. Little help, Fam?” I called out to Fam and she rose her head. The girl toddled over to me. I was her master, after all, she couldn’t refuse my bidding.
Incidentally, I had given her a selection of clothing from Zanac, just like I had with Cesca and the others. I didn’t know why she ended up choosing a sailor-style school uniform, but it was simply a matter of taste. She looked like a very studious girl.
“What languages are available here?”
“We have books available in ancient magic tongue, ancient spirit script, Parthenese, Remilia’s hidden lettering, Divine Lastian, Godspeak, Deigarese Blabbermouth, Lorad frontsmanese, the gospel, Esteba hieroglyphics, Abanese, Karnar language, Markur, Salieri Tradespeak, Urdenian, Gazur lettering, the tongue of the Continental Fiends, and... I don’t recall any other books in any other languages. I’ve read everything here, after all.” That’s insane! But I guess compared to the languages back on Earth, we have more. This world’s a little more united than the world I come from.
If I recalled correctly, the Doctor was from Partheno, an ancient magical kingdom that ruled half of the continent. With that in mind, it was easy to see why most of the books were written in Parthenese.
It was a kingdom that flourished around five-thousand years ago. But it was ravaged by the Phrase. Oh, there’s an idea.
“Show me books related to the Phrase.” I tried searching as a test, and an arrow appeared on the carpet. That was easy.
The country was devastated, but the survivors surely must’ve written something.
I followed the arrow and made my way towards the designated shelf. I took out a book, which was slightly protruding from the row. Then I invoked [Reading] so I could understand the ancient tongue of the Partheno people. Thus, the book’s title was visible to me.
“The Magic Crystals.” I skimmed through the contents of the book. It mentioned how they hunted humans, discussed their weak points, talked about their ability to regenerate and absorb magic, but ultimately it was nothing Ende hadn’t already told me. There was no mention of the Sovereign Core or the fact that they came from another world, though.
It talked about villages, towns, and even cities ravaged by the Phrase, but the information was largely useless to me. It seemed that the Phrase had simply vanished from the world before a real solution could be found. All they left behind was carnage and destruction, so really that’s all that could be recorded.
The Phrase had annihilated mankind. Humans, Demi-Humans, and Demonkin alike... Many nations lost their capitals, and the great leaders of the world were all mostly killed as well.
There were a lot of recorded accounts about the last stands of great heroes, but none of it contained new information I could use to my advantage. The authors had simply regarded the Phrase as mysterious magical beings. It made sense, really.
“Oh my...” I reached the end of the book, and found several illustrations. Each known kind of Phrase was drawn, with a little black star next to it denoting its strength, size, and speed.
Just as I’d expected, they hadn’t sat around doing nothing. They really were working on ways to prevent the catastrophe.
The types that Ende had called Lesser Constructs were here. I could see a cricket, a snake, a beetle, a mantis, an ostrich, and various other little ones. There was a lot of variety in their forms, but they were certainly the easiest to slaughter.
I flipped a bit further and saw sketches of the Intermediate Constructs. The images were numerous too... there was a manta ray, spider, shark, dog, dragonfly, ladybird, and so on. I’d noticed a few sketches of types I’d never seen. I wondered if the ancient civilization had managed to counteract them efficiently.
They were more easily killed with powerful indirect spells. Though, they were still massive. A Frame Gear was necessary to kill them without collateral damage.
Next came the Upper Constructs. I saw a sketch of the crocodile-like one I’d fought, but also one that looked like a pterodactyl, a hedgehog, a boar, and a few others. If they were all as tough as the crocodile one, then these things were no small matter. Going up against these things with anything less than monstrous firepower would simply be suicide.
I turned over the page once more. The sketch I saw had me reeling in shock. I gasped in horror, and muttered slowly.
“What... Is this...?” Next to the sketch was a single annotation. “Humanoid Construct.” The sketched individuals looked just like normal people, with the exception of tiny crystal protrusions on various parts of their bodies. When I checked their statistics, they were listed as considerably stronger than Upper Constructs.
“...I had no idea...” I figured they should be called Human Phrase or something. According to the book, they appeared rarely and were recognized as the most powerful beings ever seen in the world.
I had no idea how many were out there. But I could smell the danger. I needed to improve our defenses, and fast.
Concerned, but determined, I closed the book.
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