Forbidden Library
Satou here. The words forbidden library make me picture a fantasy-esque image of shelves upon shelves of forbidden, secret spellbooks. The collection would seem even more valuable if it were guarded by a large beast like a dragon or a cerberus.
“Good evening, Your Majesty.”
After the sun set, I came to the office of the king to report the strange monsters with the red-rope pattern that we’d run into that afternoon.
I don’t like to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, but we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our royal capital sightseeing in peace if it turned into a huge incident, which was why I thought it might be best to help them solve the case.
I was only helping, though; hopefully the king and the rest of the Shiga Kingdom law enforcement would take care of the heavy lifting.
“Why, if it isn’t the great ancest…that is, Lord Nanashi!”
“What an honor to have you visit us, King…I mean, Lord Nanashi.”
“I’m not the ancestral king,” I reminded them, since they were clearly confusing me with the ancestral king Yamato as usual. Sir Juleburg, the leader of the Shiga Eight Swordsmen, wasn’t guarding the king today—there were only two imperial knights at the door.
The red-rope monsters were going to take a while to explain, so I started with some simpler business first.
“I hate to mix business and private affairs, but there are two girls working at the Echigoya Company who became criminal slaves under false charges. Is there any chance you could issue a pardon?”
While it technically wasn’t a false charge, I decided that would be the easiest way to explain it since it was essentially just an excuse to punish them.
“Might I inquire as to the nature of the charge?”
“Disrespecting a ruler, I suppose?”
I gave a simple summary of the story, leaving out any names.
“I see. If that is the extent of their crimes, then I see no issue. I shall give them a pardon at once.”
The king agreed with me immediately and prepared letters of pardon on the spot. He offered to issue an official notice of exoneration as well, but I advised against it lest he worsen the royal family’s relationship with Lessau County.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
After I thanked him, I also told him about Cardinal Hozzunas’s recognition-inhibiting item and his real level and skills.
“To think he was hiding such a treasure…”
“Lord Nanashi, thank you for that valuable information.”
The cardinal had visited the Shiga Kingdom many times. Evidently, he had never done anything suspicious, but they said they would assign a few capable spies to keep an eye on him, just in case.
“Also, the underground vein in the royal capital was in a weird state, so I fixed it.”
I didn’t mention that the sakura dryad had asked me to do so, just in case it revealed my true identity.
“Your Majesty! Could it be that a disturbance in the earthen vein was the cause of the monsters appearing in the royal capital?!”
Oh hey, that’s a good segue. I jumped on the topic as well.
“Monsters appeared in the royal capital? Not just lesser undead or tamed monsters?”
I phrased it that way because of the skeletons and rock-bomb-throwing insect monsters that were involved in the attack on Vistall Duchy not long ago.
“Yes, from last night to this evening, insect, rat, and bat-like monsters appeared in five different locations in the royal capital. They injured people nearby, destroyed the surrounding buildings, then disappeared back underground.”
The prime minster described all the locations and the number of monsters at each.
We were at the fourth site, while the fifth was during the time we were having dinner.
“The only two locations where they were able to destroy all the monsters were the third, where Ryuona of the Shiga Eight made it in time, and the fourth, where the mithril explorer Sir Pendragon happened to be present.”
“The rest all got away?”
“Indeed.” The prime minister nodded.
It was possible that the monsters that escaped were the same ones that appeared near the fountain where we saw them, but none of them had appeared injured from prior battles as far as I could tell.
Besides, at that time, I’d destroyed all the monsters underground with Remote Arrow. The monsters at the fifth location must have snuck in after that or been brought in by someone.
When I searched the map, I didn’t see any monsters here. There were several monster corpses, presumably the ones that had escaped from the fifth site.
When I told the prime minister where I saw the monster corpses, he seemed thrilled.
“…So do you know how the monsters got in exactly?”
“No, not as of yet. Please forgive our incompetence.”
However, some guards investigating in the tunnels had found evidence of suspicious rituals.
“Suspicious rituals?”
“Indeed, they discovered traces of curse-related magic circles.”
They showed me a reproduction made by a royal researcher, but it was no magic circle I had ever seen. It didn’t appear to resemble the kinds I saw in the ruins of the labyrinth under the old capital or the plunderers’ torture chambers, either.
According to the attached report, the magic circles were drawn in charcoal, and dead insects and small animals were scattered nearby, along with what appeared to be curse stones. There was even one instance of the melted remains of a magic tool being found near a magic circle.
Curse stones… Come to think of it, I did see those at the Sahbe Company. He said a man from the Wind of Freedom occult club often bought them. It might be a bit too hasty to suspect them because of that, but I decided to file it away in the back of my mind.
Just in case, I wrote the locations from the report down in the memo tab of my menu.
“Did you investigate this magic tool?”
“Yes, we have documents on it from the royal research lab.”
The tool was completely melted down and broken. All they were able to see was the item description NE 3 4 CHI MAGIC TOOL and the name of its creator.
The creator in question was a ratfolk second-class magic tool craftsman; he had been fired from the royal capital magic tool workshop a few years ago and spent his time these days scraping by in the lower city, making and selling illicit magical tools.
According to the prime minister, they had already sent out an investigator to keep an eye on the craftsman, waiting for the person who requested the magic tool to make contact.
That was pretty impressive, considering it had only been about a day since the first incident.
Here I thought I would assist the investigation using my map search, but I guess they didn’t need my help after all.
“Do monsters appear in the royal capital often?”
“Certainly not. A monster of unknown origin showing up in the capital is a rare event that likely only happens once every few decades,” the prime minister responded. “Your Majesty, perhaps this is the ‘unprecedented danger’ the priestesses of the seven temples spoke of.”
“Perhaps we were too hasty to assume they were only attempting to garner more donations as usual.”
The king grimaced.
“I am glad we placed the Shiga Eight and the knights on patrol just to be safe.”
“Indeed. Even if nothing went wrong, it would still be good for public safety.”
I see, so they did take precautions based on the oracle, unlike those lesser nobles.
I showed the report to the pair and asked about the most important point.
“This report says that in battle, the monsters’ bodies were covered in red-rope-like magic circles. Is that different from the pattern that appears on people who have used too much demonic potion?”
“According to a knight who actually fought them, Sir Pendragon said something similar on the scene. Shall I invite him to the royal castle?”
Uh-oh, that’s the last thing I need.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go ask him myself. More importantly, Your Majesty, don’t you have any detailed documents about demonic potion?”
“Those would be stored in the forbidden library below the castle.”
I guess they treated this subject pretty seriously.
“I’d like to have a look. Could you give me permission to enter that forbidden library?”
“Goodness, why so formal? Our castle is your castle, King—that is, Lord Nanashi. You may come and go wherever and whenever you please.”
Okay, that seems way too lenient for a royal castle.
The king guided me to an elevator nestled within the royal family’s private area of the castle, leading me to the forbidden library deep underground.
It was adjacent to the treasure room, and the passage that led to both entrances was guarded by a heavy-looking magically enhanced gate.
There were several guards with levels in the mid to high 30s stationed outside the gate.
“Only those who have been granted permission can proceed past this—”
As I listened to the king, I moved closer to take a look at the magic circuits engraved into the gate.
As I did so, I felt myself passing through some kind of barrier.
“…Incredible, Lord Nanashi. No, I suppose it is only natural that you would already have permission.”
“Your Majesty, a word?”
The guards seemed alarmed to hear the king refer to me as “Lord,” so I quietly warned him to be careful about his tone with me in front of others.
According to the king, I had just passed through a powerful anti-intruder barrier that normally kept out anyone who didn’t have permission to enter. If someone tried to force their way through, an alarm would ring throughout the royal castle, and the guards would come running.
“This area is off-limits. If you wish to pass, you must state your business.”
The knight on duty was stoicism made flesh. He was so by-the-book that he even made the king state his business to enter.
“I am King Seterarik of Shiga. My companion here is Sir Nanashi the Hero. We are here to peruse some files in the forbidden library.”
The king gave a dignified response, unbothered by the knight’s by-the-book treatment.
I had a feeling these particular guidelines must have been written by the ancestral king.
“Sir Hero, please remove your mask so that I can verify your face, as stated in the rules.”
The king looked at me nervously, but I waved him off and said, “It’s fine,” removing the mask to show my face—at least, the face I was wearing with my magical Disguise mask—and get permission to enter.
“I, Imperial Knight Zan Kelten, grant thee permission to enter. … <Open Gate!>”
The knight held aloft an amulet that appeared to be a City Core device and recited a chant and a keyword, and the heavy gate swung open without anyone laying a finger on it.
“Please enter.”
“Indeed.”
The king nodded gravely and walked through, with me following close behind. The door swung shut behind us.
We continued down a corridor lit by magic lights. Before long, the path branched between the route to the forbidden library and the treasure room, and we proceeded toward the former.
It was a considerable distance, but the king didn’t seem the least bit tired. I mentioned this as we chatted, and he explained that he’d trained hard when he was young in hopes of becoming a Holy Knight.
We passed through seven more gates before we reached the forbidden library, though only the first and second had human gatekeepers; the rest were guarded by constructs like golems and living armor. The corridors also had carved statues at regular intervals, which spoke to the importance of the room we were approaching.
“This is the forbidden library.”
The king waved his scepter, and a bulkhead-like pair of double doors swung open.
As we entered the forbidden library, the scent of old paper tickled my nose. It was dimly lit, with the temperature and humidity levels optimized for book preservation.
The king raised his scepter again, and this time the room filled with light. The indirect lighting was probably to avoid damaging the books with strong direct light.
Past the entrance hall, there were rows of bookshelves that reached the ceiling.
Checking my map, I realized that we were now in a different area than the rest of the royal castle, so I used my “Search Entire Map” skill. There was only one person browsing the books, with no librarian in sight, and the only guards were twenty or so small golems and living dolls.
“Your Majesty! I was wondering who it might be at this hour.”
Along with the over-serious voice came a pair of trademark glasses: Princess Sistina.
“Indeed. How are you? I see you continue to be a bookworm instead of attending the evening parties.”
I was a little taken aback by the king’s words.
I did see her at the evening’s medal celebration party. Maybe she was just there looking for someone, not actually attending herself?
“Oh yes. Fortunately, my marriage to the next Count Lessau is no longer on the table, which means I can continue to read in the forbidden library as much as I like. If possible, I should like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life surrounded by books and never get married.”
As she chatted comfortably with the king, the princess noticed me hiding in his shadow.
Her steely blue eyes glared at me from behind her gold-rimmed glasses.
“And who is this suspicious-looking individual? A new guard?”
“Watch your tone. This is the great Sir Nanashi the Hero.”
“Nice to meetcha, Your Highness.”
Evidently, the misunderstanding that I was the ancestral king was a secret between the king and the prime minister. The princess gave me a somewhat annoyed look when I greeted her much too casually.
“A hero? He doesn’t even begin to compare to him…”
The princess muttered something so quietly that even my “Keen Hearing” skill barely picked it up, then turned her gaze back to the king.
“I am busy researching the Holy Sakura Tree, so if you’ll excuse me…”
With a curtsy to the king, the princess retreated to her research room within the forbidden library.
Come to think of it, she had been talking about the “Holy Sakura Tree not blooming” when I saw her this afternoon, too.
“Lord Nanashi, please pardon my daughter’s rudeness.”
“Nah, it’s fine.”
I wasn’t really bothered by her cold attitude, possibly because I’d seen her gushing like a fool earlier that day.
“Let’s just find those documents.”
“Very well. Let us go to the Librarian.”
The king led the way to an eight-armed golem stationed deeper in the library.
“Lord Nanashi, this is the Librarian of the forbidden library.”
“YOUR MAJESTY—WHAT CAN—I DO FOR YOU—TODAY?”
The golem spoke in stilted artificial speech.
It had a stern appearance, but for some reason its synthesized voice was so cutesy it would have sounded right at home in a moe anime.
“Librarian, by the power of the monarch of the Shiga Kingdom, I grant Lord Nanashi here access to any forbidden books up to the third floor.”
“YES—PROCESSING—NOW.”
There were four floors in the forbidden library.
So the bottom floor was still off-limits… Well, I could still find out the book titles from my map’s item search. If there was anything I really wanted to read, I could just use Magic Hand to read it through my Storage.
“Lord Nanashi, you may already be aware, but only the current king is permitted to enter the bottom floor of the forbidden library. The Librarian has a catalogue of its contents, so if there are any books you require, I can go and get them for you. My apologies.”
No, I don’t think I can use the king as a gofer… But since I couldn’t exactly say “It’s fine, I can read them anyway,” I just said, “Sure, thanks.”
Evidently, the king still had duties to attend to. I thanked him for guiding me and bade him farewell, then used the help of the Librarian and the living dolls to dig into my investigation of demonic potions.
I found several books containing information on demonic potion, including a general history and even the recipe.
I took care to avoid reading the recipe as I investigated. Unfortunately, there were no clear answers about the inherent skill “Monster Rope Wrap” that appeared in the recent monster incidents.
There were records of experiments in giving demonic potion to animals and monsters during the demi-human war about four hundred years ago; however, the phrase Monster Rope Wrap was nowhere to be found.
I even tried asking the Librarian directly, “Are there any materials pertaining to ‘Monster Rope Wrap’?” but was met with a flat-out “NO.”
“Anything else that might be relevant?”
“THESE ARE—ALL THE BOOKS—RELATED TO—DEMONIC POTION.” The Librarian’s eyes flashed alternatingly for a moment. “LOCATED—NEW ARRIVAL—RECORDS OF—ILLICIT MANUFACTURING —DEMONIC POTIONS—IN DATABASE.”
I had the golem send away for the materials, which turned out to be a record of the recent incident with Sokell producing demonic potion in Labyrinth City. There wasn’t really any new information there.
It appeared that they still hadn’t figured out where the demonic potion that was smuggled out from Tartumina had ended up. The operative in charge of the investigation suspected the smaller nations to the west of the continent, where demand was high.
The large amount of demonic potion that was discovered in one of Marquis Kelten’s army’s storehouses had apparently been secretly disposed of in the royal research lab.
I tried investigating curses and such as well, but I couldn’t find any with that same magic circle. The only similar-looking patterns were all silly-sounding ones like “stub-your-toe-on-a-bureau curse,” “itchy-back curse,” and “bed-wetting curse.”
They all seemed like curses that the casual occultism fan club Wind of Freedom would be thrilled about.
It might even be possible that the traces of the rituals were unrelated to the appearance of the monsters.
At any rate, it seemed highly unlikely that it was a dangerous magic circle; I could probably put that investigation on hold until the royal research lab gave its final verdict.
I researched a few other details more closely, pausing along the way to skim some spellbooks I found on the shelves.
True to its name, the forbidden library contained many advanced spells and taboo curses that I had never seen before. From Wind Magic that could asphyxiate living beings, to Space Magic with a nuclear explosion–like effect, and even Ghost Magic for reviving a dragon corpse as an undead dragon and enslaving it, there were all kinds of crazy, dangerous-sounding spells. There didn’t appear to be any anti-god magic, however.
The nuclear explosion spell was the only one that had important pieces of code deliberately removed so that it couldn’t be used.
I could probably complete it if I really tried, but I had no desire to turn it into a workable spell. The idea of unleashing radiation in this world was too terrifying, and from what I could make of the code, it sounded like a self-destructive spell that would be incredibly difficult to control. It would be too risky to even try it out.
However, I did pick up a few forbidden curses like White Inferno, Leviathan Breath, and Dimension Eater that seemed like they would be good for Arisa or Mia.
There were some spells that seemed like they should be forbidden, except they lacked the firepower or chant code complexity to match up to advanced magic, so were instead categorized as quasi-forbidden.
Later on, I had Arisa test them out and discovered that forbidden curses couldn’t be invoked without a chant, even if they were successful with one. This was spoken of in the legends of ancestral king Yamato, too, as it turned out.
That was a bit of a digression, but I still managed to loosely investigate what I needed to know for now. After placing a seal slate in a discreet place outside the forbidden library so I could return at any time, I decided to take my leave.
“…And that’s all we know. I’d appreciate it if you could gather more information.”
After I left the forbidden library, I transformed into my disguise as Kuro and paid a visit to the Echigoya Company, where I requested that the manager seek out eyewitness reports about the red-rope monsters.
“Understood. Tifaleeza, please begin the preparations at once.”
“Shall I mobilize the beggars’ guild as well?”
“Yes, please.”
Tifaleeza and the manager leaped into action in perfect harmony. I stopped Tifaleeza before she left the room to give an additional request.
“Any information about those bodies that were attacked by monsters would be good, too. Only within the realm of possibility, of course.”
“Very well.”
“Monsters with a red-rope magic circle… That sounds similar to the abilities of the top plunderers.”
Once Tifaleeza left the room, Manager Eluterina—who had once been a captive of the plunderers—made this remark.
“Yes, that’s what the Pendragon boy said after he ran into them. The red-rope monsters’ skill was called ‘Monster Rope Wrap,’ while the plunderers’ was called ‘Demonic Body,’ but he said their abilities were similar.”
It seemed best to relay this much information, and since the king had mentioned Satou’s name in front of Nanashi, it wouldn’t be that strange for Kuro to know about it.
With the red-rope monster discussion taken care of, the next step was…
“Releasin’ us from slavery?”
“But, Lord Kuro, we are criminal slaves. There is no way to release criminal slaves by any ordinary means.”
When Tifaleeza finished her paperwork and came back, I called in Neru as well and told them that I was getting their slavery contracts dissolved.
“Not to worry. My employer got a letter of pardon from the king himself for you two.”
As I explained, I handed the letters over to Neru and Tifaleeza.
“You givin’ us the boot?!” Neru exclaimed, misunderstanding this as a release from her employment as well.
“Do you want to quit?”
“’Course not, sir!” Neru responded at once.
“Then just keep working as you always have.”
That put a smile back on Neru’s face, but Tifaleeza’s expression remained darkened from the moment I first brought up the topic.
“What’s up, Tifa?”
Tifaleeza didn’t look up at Neru’s question.
“Did you not want to be released with a pardon?” I asked.
Maybe I should’ve let the king issue an official notice of exoneration like he’d offered?
“…contract… Lord Kuro…lose…connection…”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on halting murmurs from Tifaleeza. She was so quiet that even then, I couldn’t make out most of what she said.
“Tifaleeza…?”
When I said her name, Tifaleeza’s head whipped up, and she suddenly made a desperate plea.
“Please! Let me continue being your slave, Lord Kuro!”
For whatever reason, she seemed to want to remain a slave.
I can never quite figure out what girls her age are thinking.
“Well, if you do want to be released, just say so anytime.”
“…Thank you,” Tifaleeza responded in a near-whisper.
I handed her letter of pardon off to the manager. It wouldn’t do to give it to Tifaleeza herself only to have her rip it up or burn it on a sudden impulse.
With my other business concluded, I headed to the Ivy Manor in Labyrinth City.
I wanted to try making a magic communication device using the research equipment there. When we needed to communicate, Arisa’s Tactical Talk or my Telephone were more convenient, but those spells had the disadvantage of needing to come from one of us two.
Ever since Mukuro (a reincarnation who lived deep in the labyrinth) told me about how he’d incurred the gods’ wrath by trying to create radio towers and railroad networks, I’d hesitated to move forward with my plan.
But there were spells that had the same functions, not to mention communication between City Cores or the communication crystals made in the labyrinth. I decided that I could avoid making it taboo by limiting the functions and users of my invention.
“Now, what kind of circuits should I use…?”
My main goal for now was to ensure that I could alert my companions, the Echigoya Company staff, and so on in the event of an emergency like another red-rope monster attack.
The best kinds of magic for a communication device would be Practical Magic, Wind Magic, and Space Magic.
Ghost Magic and Summoning Magic weren’t very common, and Light Magic could only go directly from one connected point to another, making them ill-suited to individual communication. Water Magic, Earth Magic, Lightning Magic, and so on could communicate in theory, but they had almost as many restrictions as Light Magic, which was why I excluded them for now.
Weather could influence the effects of Wind Magic, so for the time being, I decided to focus on Practical Magic, which had simple circuits, and Space Magic, which had complex but highly effective circuits.
“Maybe something like this…?”
Before long, I had simple Space Magic–style communication devices for my friends and the Echigoya staff.
To reduce the amount of magic power required, the devices sent 6-bit live data signals, then converted the received information into 32-bit and displayed it on a panel. The reason I used 32-bit instead of 65536 data was because the remaining variables were used to identify the sender and receiver. Error correction and transmission data identifiers were not included in the live data.
The signals were broadcast over a wide range, with a built-in ability to determine whether a message was intended for that specific device or not.
To avoid confusion, I set up the magic devices for my group and the Echigoya Company so that they couldn’t communicate with each other and made them visibly distinct as well.
“Maybe it was a bit silly to make these look like pagers.”
The devices for the Echigoya Company top brass were made to look like amulets.
Both required a fair amount of magic power but, in exchange, could send a signal anywhere within the royal capital.
“I guess I’ll wait for the right circumstances to distribute them…”
The Practical Magic–style tools worked similarly to the Signal spell: They were simple devices that could only send a special message that read EMERGENCY.
These were designed to automatically charge with the required amount of magic power from the owner when carried around.
“Whoops, it’s already dawn…”
When I left the Ivy Manor, the sun was already starting to rise.
“Arisa’s going to yell at me again.”
I stretched once to shake off the stiffness before using the Return spell to head back to the royal capital mansion.
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