Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「I hear that the situation is becoming a bit drastic…」
It didn"t even take five minutes for Sir Molt to appear in the library from when the librarian called him over. He must have really hurried over.
「Yeah, Haruna started saying that there was something exerting itself in the direction of the restricted section.」
「Is this true!?」
「She just wouldn"t shut up for the last few minutes about wanting you to head that way…」
Judging by Haruna"s exhausted expression, Sir Molt figured that she wasn"t lying. Besides, if Sir Molt were to accompany them, they could enter the restricted section whenever they pleased, so there was no point or merit of telling a lie like this.
「But to pierce through the seal and call out to you, it must be quite strong…」
「You don"t have to tell me that…」
As if bolstered by Sir Molt"s arrival, the calling became louder, and a groggy Haruna grumbled with a pale face and dry smile.
「Anyhow, at this rate, Haruna won"t last. Let"s hasten with investigating.」
「Indeed.」
When Sir Molt hurriedly went to temporarily unlock the seal to the restricted section, the presence that was targeting Haruna became a straight line.
「Which way?」
「…This way.」
Still pale-faced, she traced a line with indistinct steps. Enshrined in the bookshelf ahead of them was a grimoire that was emitting quite the immense amount of mana despite being sealed off. There were plenty of other grimoires gathered on the shelf, and it was honestly difficult to tell which grimoire it was based solely off of the book bindings, but by simply examining the mana it was clear which one Haruna was searching for.
「…So you want me to take you out from there?」
The book binding had no words on it, but was illuminated by a faint light as if answering Haruna"s call. The moment she saw the response and took it into her hands, Haruna"s eyes narrowed.
「Sing? What are you talking about?」
The book cover had no words on it either, but it blinked in order to answer Haruna"s question. She found herself sighing at how troublesome this was, but determined that nothing could progress unless she did as it had said, she opened the grimoire and came up with lyrics in her head and a rhythm to accompany it. Reacting to the song, light poured out from the grimoire.
「…These guests from the Unknown Continent are really all out of this world, aren"t they…」
「Sure, I admit that I"m different from the average person in Farlane, but please, it"s a little too much to lump me together with her or Hiroshi.」
Tatsuya couldn"t help but interject at Sir Molt as he muttered in awe. No matter what, he was reluctant to be compared to Haruna and her extra skills, Hiroshi and his extreme crafting specialization, or even to Makoto and her over Level 600 head-on battle prowess. Tatsuya could at most handle some different kinds of magic, but not to the point of making it into even the lower level of advanced players.
「But what is that anyway?」
「I do not know. The restricted books are dangerous in that they either choose the person or attempt to consume them, so I do not know the details either.」
「And you don"t have any sort of list of inventory?」
「That we do, but it is more than a thousand years old, so it is unclear which book pertains to which specific item on the list.」
As if testing the answer he had heard from Sir Molt, Tatsuya took out a comparatively mellow grimoire out. Just like the previous one, there was nothing written on the front cover or binding, and looking at it didn"t help with figuring out which book it was. He flipped through the pages, but they were all blank. Nevertheless, he could sense the strong mana.
「I see. Now it makes sense why a simple index wouldn"t be able to pinpoint these.」
「Precisely. And even amongst the grimoires, there are especially dangerous ones that have been quarantined, so I do not think the ones in this area will be especially problematic…」
「So they"ll either look like there"s nothing in them, or you won"t even be able to open the pages, essentially.」
「That is correct.」
Tatsuya was marveling in the corner of his head about how this was quite good for security purposes. At least for security, but as they were blocked off in this area, no matter how low the risk was, it was doubtless that none of them were anything but troublesome. At least judging from how Haruna was doing, he didn"t think these were harmless books in the slightest.
「…Finishing up anytime soon?」
「It…would seem so.」
At the same time that the third song"s climax had ended, light gradually began to illuminate their vision. Then, as the reverberation of the last phrase faded, the light all disappeared and the grimoire that had been drifting in front of Haruna closed by itself, returning to the bookshelf it was previously on.
「So what was that all about?」
「……Sorry……、……still……、……processing……」
Haruna crumpled onto the ground, her face pale and breathing raspy. She seemed to be troubled in some way.
「Okay. Can you stand?」
「……Can you……、……wait……、……a bit……。……Kind of……、……feels like……、……all my stamina……、……was taken……、from me……」
And Haruna certainly sounded sluggish. Making a sidelong glance at Sir Molt, who seemed to be unsure whether he should look at this strangely appealing version of Haruna, Tatsuya calmly took out a Level 5 stamina potion from his bag.
「Well, at least drink this.」
「……Mm……」
She took the stamina potion from Tatsuya, drinking it dry and taking a small breather. Despite her proportions, Haruna didn"t normally exude any kind of erotic appeal, so it was rather awkward to suddenly have her burst with glamor at a time like this. Tatsuya knew what the cause was, but the same could not be said for Sir Molt, who felt truly uncomfortable.
「Feeling a bit better?」
「Somehow, yeah. Sorry for making such a fuss.」
「Well, it"s basically an irresistible force, so no worries.」
Tatsuya said as he helped her up. Hiroshi wouldn"t be able to do considerate things like this due to his gynophobia. Even if he did think to do it, his body would definitely reject it first.
「So I"d like to ask again, what was that?」
「The main part was about special magic related to Alfeminsama, I guess? I learned various other things, but most of them were overlapping what I already use, and the ones that were new honestly felt like they were mostly useless.」
「Oho? Could you give a specific example?」
「I"ll talk about it when we meet back up with Hiroshi-kun and the others.」
「Alright.」
Responding to Haruna"s answer, they finally got to finishing up in order to head to lunch.
「Sir Molt, would it be all right if you were to keep this a secret from everyone other than His Majesty, Prince Layotte, the high priest, and Aearis-sama?」
「Understood. However, if His Majesty determines that it is necessary, I may end up leaking the information for his sake…」
「If it"s what His Majesty has decided, then we have no intention of complaining. However, so that we know how to conduct ourselves, we would greatly appreciate it if you were to at least inform us, even if it"s after the deed.」
「I will convey this to him.」
They then got to finishing up and going their separate ways for lunch. This was the moment when they had decided to walk the narrow path, but the people from j.a.pan wouldn"t recognize that fact until much later. At this point in time, all Haruna thought of this was that she had some strange magic forced on her.
「Wait right there, brat.」
Hiroshi had begun to head to where Haruna and Hiroshi were for lunch, but was suddenly stopped by one of the authorities who had been present at the audience with the king the previous day.
「Umm, how can I help you?」
He was a bit startled at the leader"s sour face, as it looked like he had shoved a lemon into his mouth and crushed it, but Hiroshi did his best to humor him for now. But the man spoke in a threatening tone with fierce eyes.
「Be quick about your investigation and then get out of here.」
「Well, you see, as long as we get good results, we were planning to do that…」
「I will acknowledge that you fiends have saved Elensama and Aearis-sama. His Majesty allowed you to investigate the library just for today, so I will overlook that too. And unlike the fools who attempted to harm Elensama and Aearis-sama, I have no current intention of opposing you fiends. Be as that may, I do not intend to let you fiends simply loiter around here.」
「Well, as I said, once we have the necessary information gathered or I hear that it has been, we will indeed set out as soon as possible…」
Hiroshi answered the truly hard-headed leader while seriously quivering.
「I am willing to compromise this much for you, and you intend to talk back to me?」
「Eheh…」
Hiroshi really didn"t know what to do at this point. The guy wasn"t listening to a thing he said. Not heeding Hiroshi"s clear dismay, the leader continued blurting things out.
「It is true that even a fiend such as yourself are a one of a kind potion master in this world, but if your mere presence rattles the palace and the country is ravaged by chaos, I would argue that your existence is unnecessary. In fact, your very presence here is unfathomably troublesome. So get the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l out of here.」
He said the last bit with enough malice to kill a man before walking off as if nothing had happened. It was quite impressive that this leader was so difficult to talk to, yet didn"t feel like he was gloomy in the slightest. Judging from the fact that he hadn"t been affected during Aearis"s purification in the temple infiltration, he probably was immune to miasma.
In other words, he was just a stubborn, but faithful old man. There was no way that this man could accept utter strangers like Hiroshi. As the man had declared, they were not currently doing anything problematic, and he would not oppose openly or secretly those who the royal family had chosen to protect, but it was a different issue when it came to not letting them stay too long. If it meant chasing them out as soon as possible, he would still complain about their presence so long as it wasn"t out of actual opposition.
「What a friggin" drag…」
It really was a drag. It made things even worse that the person wasn"t a bad person. Sighing to himself about having to report this as well, Hiroshi caught Makoto and Mio out of the corner of his eye and called out to them.