The gate of this old city where I stood was locked tight, as if determined to let no one in.
Aside from the gate Eosolrujeun had opened for me, every gate in this city was sealed shut.
So my current course of action was quite reasonable.
Taang!!
A flash of red light leapt up, and the locking mechanism was cut clean through.
Naturally, the door could no longer serve its purpose.
“Pardon the intrusion.”
I calmly opened the door and went inside.
Unlike the exterior, a strangely gentle fragrance rose from within.
How should I put it? A scent that carried a peaceful sort of joy?
It was a fragrance that seemed to hold some peculiar will.
What came into view along with that scent was an information desk.
Oddly enough, the information desk wasn’t made of stone like marble, nor of wood.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Oh… so they did use magic tools after all?
ㄴGrad School Is Serious: Wow, seeing as there’s more to research again, I’m thankf1ul.
The information desk flickered intermittently, as if it were made up of something like monitors.
As I looked around a bit more, I could tell this place was an ordinary residential facility.
Facilities available to residents and notices were gathered on one side of the wall.
However….
“It’s hard to read.”
Even those notices had their letters blacked out, as if censored.
The only thing I could make out was the residential area.
Thirty floors in total, fifteen of which were residential.
Because they were concentrated on the upper floors, it was an extremely unpleasant design that required climbing more than ten flights of stairs.
‘The elevator obviously isn’t working….’
After walking a little, I found the elevator, but it stood still without any light or sound, so I simply gave up on it.
Which meant taking the stairs would be best.
ㄴTruth Scholar: How about checking each floor one by one as you go up the stairs?
“Well, if it doesn’t seem dangerous, I plan to.”
Reading the intermittent comments that came up, I turned my steps.
Toward the emergency exit, shining with a clear light even in this dim place.
The emergency exit was easy to recognize thanks to its green light.
I pushed the handle and entered the stairwell. There was no basement; the structure led only upward.
Step… step… step….
The sound of my footsteps echoed within the stairwell.
To the point where it felt difficult to gauge where it ended.
And as I walked, the first floor finally appeared.
-2-
Clear black letters on a faint white background.
It looked as though no one had touched it since it was made.
“Phew. I’m going in.”
After a short, deep breath, I slowly opened the door.
The door was pushed open without resistance, and the second floor began to reveal itself.
First came the scent.
Different from the first floor, the scent of old knowledge.
The door was pushed open, the hallway appeared, and the place that followed was—
“What the….”
A library.
But its size was enormous.
A space about the size of three apartment floors was densely covered with books.
And that was only the left side, from the emergency exit where I stood.
The remaining half, on the right side, was packed full of things that looked digital, like some kind of computer.
It was a chilling sight, as though past and future were mingled together.
As though time itself had been tangled like a skein of thread.
I stared blankly at the sight for a moment, then came to my senses and checked whether there was anything that might be a threat.
Even when I focused on the library, I saw nothing.
Slowly, I moved my feet toward the library.
The closer I got, the more I felt its majesty.
Rows of books and light reached all the way to the ceiling. Standing in the center and looking at it, I could truly feel that this place was the heart of knowledge.
Without lowering my guard, I approached a bookshelf and pulled out a book.
Srrk.
The book slid out without the slightest resistance.
A peculiar book with no title.
And when I opened it—
“…What is this?”
The book was nothing but blank white pages.
Even when I quickly flipped all the way to the end to check, not a single letter remained.
‘No way… it must just be this book.’
I put the book back and pulled out another one.
It was clearly a different color, and its size was different as well.
Frrrrp.
There was nothing. Not a single letter.
No title, either.
A shiver crawled up my senses.
A place that looked as though it held vast knowledge, yet contained no knowledge at all.
I immediately turned toward the opposite side, where the magic tools were packed together.
This place looked closer to digital, so perhaps something remained.
Conveniently, among the magic tools was one that resembled a tablet.
I walked straight over and tapped the tablet.
Woooong.
With a small vibration, a faint light leaked out.
Something like a cluster of letters entered my vision.
Wel█ome to the Ci██ Lib█ary!
What ci█ would you like to bro██e?
-I-
The letters were erased here and there, making it difficult to understand.
But I could grasp the general idea.
‘It seems like it wants me to enter the information I want.’
When I pressed the long bar blinking at the bottom, an input panel appeared on the screen.
The letters were neither the alphabet nor Hangul, but I moved my hand as my senses directed.
What came to mind right now was….
-RulerI-
Information related to Jui.
Then, after a brief moment—
Sea█h res█lts: █ 0 ci█ were found.
-
-
-
“Nothing… came up?”
No, wait. It wasn’t nothing.
If there were no search results, why was there a marker separating one slot? If there was nothing, there should have been no marker at all.
Then I just had to be certain. I could search for something that absolutely could not exist in this world.
I placed my hand on the screen and searched for my homeland.
-South KoreaI-
Then—
Sea█h res█lts: █ █ ci█ found?
-
█ ci█ █ ci█ █ ci█ found? found? found? found? ci█ ci█ ci█ ci█ ci█ ci█████████████████
Bzzzt—!!
“…….”
Smoke was rising from the tablet-like magic tool.
It felt as though one piece of information had surfaced from the search results. Why had it broken when I entered my homeland? Why had nothing appeared?
My mind was a mess.
The information failed to tie itself into one knot and swam around inside my head.
Even so, I instinctively understood one thing.
Someday, this mass of information would be woven together into one.
I stood still, organizing the information that had flowed in so far, but the regulars continued leaving comments even in that moment.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Ah… it broke.
ㄴIai Sword Saint: This place looks exactly like a library.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: Where is this now? I had something to do and came back….
Seeing the regulars’ comments, they hadn’t understood the situation at all.
With the information concealment and the ancient language in the first place, it was only natural they couldn’t understand.
I wanted to pour out the unease in my heart, but… I didn’t feel that doing so would help me.
And so, I pushed my emotions deep down and moved my feet toward the next floor.
-3-
After walking for quite some time, I arrived on the third floor. I immediately tried to push the door open, but….
“Huuup!”
…It wouldn’t open. It looked as if something was blocking it.
ㄴIai Sword Saint: How about cutting through it with your sword and advancing?
“Ah… I did think about that, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
There were two main reasons.
First, the noise could draw in other creatures. Second, if I had to flee later and there were no intact doors, defending myself would become difficult.
When I said that, the Iai Sword Saint seemed to think it was reasonable as well and let it pass.
And so, the next floor.
-4-
“It won’t open.”
The next floor.
-5-
“…This one won’t open either.”
Next, next, and next.
“…How is it that every floor from the third to the fifteenth, except the second, won’t open?”
Whether something had collapsed inside or not, not a single floor up to the fifteenth would open.
And so, at last, I reached the sixteenth floor. The residential area.
“I’m opening it.”
With a strange mixture of tension and anticipation, the door opened.
First, the scent. The same scent I had smelled at the information desk, but stronger.
The door opened deeper and deeper, revealing the interior corridor.
And the sight was—
“…It’s all collapsed.”
In contrast to the previous information desk, everything on this floor had collapsed.
All the paint in the corridor had peeled away, and every structure that looked like iron had fallen, blocking the path.
ㄴTruth Scholar: …What happened here?
ㄴIai Sword Saint: There are no bodies. For an accident of this scale in a residential facility of this size, not a single corpse….
It was a strange scene.
What could have happened for a residential facility to be damaged like this? Why was there no sign at all of casualties from the accident?
Everything was suspicious, but one thing became clear.
“The scent… is joyful. A joy that brings a faint smile to your face.”
ㄴTruth Scholar: Gasp, perhaps you should get some psychiatric counseling….
ㄴHealing Is Violence: It was about time the symptoms started showing.
…The regulars seemed to think I had gone mad, but they were mistaken. My mind was clearer than anyone’s.
“That’s not what I mean… I’m saying that’s the will contained in the scent.”
The scent clearly contained a will.
Faint, but the most powerful will I had seen so far.
Well, even after realizing that, there was nothing I could do right now.
I gave up on lingering attachments and went up to the next floor.
But it was blocked again.
I immediately continued moving until I found a door that would open.
The place where the door opened was the twenty-sixth floor.
-26-
“This place… is intact.”
This floor had a neat corridor and neat interior design.
Everything was efficient, giving off the strong impression of a scholar. Of course, the fragrance was the same as in the previous residential area.
There, I entered the nearest room.
Of course, by using an extremely peaceful method.
Slice.
This time, with a clean draw using mana, I quickly cut through the locking mechanism.
And inside the room I entered—
“Ugh… the scent got stronger.”
The scent I had been smelling all this time now spread so thickly it stung my nose.
The room had not a single hobby item, only books and machines packed inside.
I slowly and carefully looked around.
No matter how I looked, there was nothing unrelated to scholarship.
ㄴTruth Scholar: How peculiar. Only daily necessities, and everything else is related to knowledge….
ㄴIai Sword Saint: A madman’s room, one who devotes himself to only one thing, usually looks like that.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: I really do see rooms like this from time to time.
Slowly, as I looked around the room—
One thing caught my eye.
It was a thin book placed on the desk.
This time, I could see the title.
[Research Log #2]
A research log. A book with a strong scholarly bent.
I opened the first page.
Nothing.
The second page, nothing.
I turned the page. Turned it. Turned it. Turned it.
How many times had I repeated that?
This time, I saw letters.
████/██/██
It█s strange. The academ██ res█lts are coming out, but it is im█ossible.
The next page.
████/██/██
Str█nge, str█nge, im█ossible im█ossible.
The next page.
████/██/██
What, ██ ██ing, every██ing is ██ and ██████
The next page.
████/██/██
██ing ██ing ██ing ██ing ██ing
It was the last page.
The letters were scrawled as if by a young child, or perhaps disordered as though something had broken.
████/██/██
An█ came.
What had happened?
Just what had come?
In that room full of questions—
Tap, tap.
I heard something.
I hurriedly turned my head toward the source of the sound.
A pair of black eyes was staring straight at me.