Episode 2. The Doubtful Boy
A boy who considered himself unfortunate, a boy of many doubts, crossed the library threshold.
When he blinked once, old books emitting an almond fragrance greeted him.
It was the place Binaeril loved.
This mysterious library guided its users to the place where they had stayed last.
The person who visited the library most often at the Magic Tower was not a professor. Nor was it an upperclassman burning with passion for magical training.
It was none other than Binaeril, the perpetual lowerclassman people pointed fingers at.
He had come into the deepest part of the Grand Library, to a place that even most professors could not reach.
“The necessary textbooks were… *History of Magic*, and *The Emergence and Ecology of Demons*, was it?”
There was no need to wander around the Grand Library one by one to find the necessary books. That was because a competent librarian was permanently stationed here.
“Eden, find them for me. *History of Magic*, *The Emergence and Ecology of Demons*.”
After waiting a moment, something suddenly sprouted from the floor near Binaeril.
The figure of an earthen-colored girl with her lower half buried in the ground handed over two books with a welcoming expression.
Binaeril stroked her head.
“Thank you, Eden.”
The little girl rubbed her face against his hand, as if the touch felt pleasant.
She was one of the new beings discovered alongside magic—a spirit.
‘Eden’ was the name given to her by the people of Elfenbein.
Eden, who was very shy and rarely showed herself, was exceptionally friendly to Binaeril alone.
Watching Eden's innocent figure, it felt as though the worries from just moments ago flew away.
In this vast Magic Tower, Eden was the only being that welcomed him.
Binaeril looked for a suitable place to sit.
The deep parts of the Grand Library were truly desolate. There were no furnishings like chairs or desks—only books and bookshelves.
He leaned his back against a creaking bookshelf and sat down. His folded knees served as a reading desk. When he opened the book, he could immerse himself immediately.
In truth, most of the knowledge was already in his head.
Unlike his magic ability, which never improved, three years of knowledge had steadily accumulated.
In the end, it took less than an hour to examine the two thick introductory books.
“Ngh….”
Binaeril rubbed his stiff neck and shoulders from concentrating and rose from his spot.
“Nothing special.”
Eden looked up at Binaeril with round, sparkling eyes.
“You haven't left yet.”
When the library wasn't busy, Eden would stay by Binaeril's side like this and watch him.
“Shall I tell you what I read today?”
The library spirit nodded her head.
He couldn't help but smile at that adorable sight.
“So, this book deals with the birth of magic and its background….”
People often called the new millennium the century of magic.
It was the era of righteous mages who defeated demons defined as evil.
In this era, magic was order and justice, salvation and power.
“Magic was humanity's only weapon to balance the scales against the weight of demons.”
Most physical force did not work against the demons that had appeared suddenly.
Only highly trained knights and armies could barely handle a small number of them.
Naturally, that strength was used to protect royalty, nobles, and the powerful.
“Grand Mage Dekiplio fought against demons in place of the nobles who had fled to their respective castles to avoid the threat.”
It didn't take long for the title ‘Savior’ to attach itself to Dekiplio’s name.
Before long, even the Emperor of the Albrecht Empire, said to be where the sun never sets, could not match Dekiplio’s fame.
“And Dekiplio built this place. The Tower of Magic, Elfenbein.”
“Elfenbein is an educational institution that teaches magic, and at the same time a training institution that cultivates warriors to fight demons. All students learn the knowledge to combat demons.”
“These demons appear in different regions depending on the ecological environment, so here….”
Binaeril stopped what he was about to say and closed his mouth.
Eden looked up at him with puzzled eyes.
“Eden, what did you just say?”
Eden could not speak. Binaeril knew that, but he questioned his own ears and asked.
He felt as though he had heard someone’s voice, very faintly, amidst the silence of the quiet library.
He strained his ears again in the stillness.
From beyond two closely placed bookshelves, a voice tickling his ears could be heard.
Binaeril rose from his spot.
Hearing someone’s voice in the library was not strange. It could be another student, or a faculty member.
But his experience told him that he hadn't seen anyone for the past few months.
He had to check the identity of that sound.
Squeezing between the bookshelves in the estimated direction, his vision opened up to the scenery on the other side.
“There was a place like this in the library?”
It was a corridor. A corridor of knowledge stretching out long, with dark brown bookshelves serving as columns.
Binaeril had never seen such a structure in the Grand Library before.
Like the scenery of some exotic palace, the corridor made of paper and wood led to a vast atrium.
The voice tickling his ears seemed to come from the center of the atrium.
Binaeril stepped on the tiered stairs and headed toward the center. Then, suddenly—literally suddenly—a reading desk appeared.
“What?”
There wasn't even a veil covering it, yet he hadn't noticed it at all.
A single book lay on top of the reading desk.
Binaeril approached it and brushed the title with his finger.
Sweeping away the dust, the old book's name was revealed.
*Book of Truth*.
The voice Binaeril had detected was coming from inside the book.
Binaeril turned the pages with a rustle and confirmed that the latter part of the book was completely empty. It was an unfinished book.
Closing the book and checking the cover, he could tell that it was bound in marten leather. Old books in his father's study often emitted this smell.
Flapping the pages, a musty leather smell and the scent of aged paper wafted together.
Returning to the first page, the following sub-title was written there:
‘Chapter of Wisdom.’
“Truth and wisdom? The owner of this book must have been quite a braggart.”
There are always books like this—ones with excessively grandiose titles and no real substance.
Turning another page, a sentence was written in an old-fashioned cursive hand.
‘Magic is the mirror of the true world.’
This was a famous sentence.
The First Axiom of Dekiplio, which any mage would know.
And before Binaeril realized it, the sound coming from the book had cut off abruptly.
Binaeril focused and began examining the remaining parts of the book. Most of it was empty. Around the time only the rustling sound of turning pages rang out,
“Interesting, isn't it?”
“Uwaaah!”
Startled by the voice speaking right against his ear, he fell hard on his rear.
“Ahahaha!”
The unidentified figure clutched his stomach and laughed.
From his seated position, Binaeril pushed himself back a few steps with his palms and sized him up.
“Who are you?”
The identity of the sudden visitor was a boy with an innocent appearance.
He looked to be about Binaeril's age. His jet-black, downy hair and crescent-shaped smiling eyes were striking.
At least, he wasn't someone Binaeril remembered.
“I am someone who knows you.”
The boy spun around and playfully moved away.
“Someone who knows me?”
“That's the only introduction I can give you right now. At least, someone who knows you. You wouldn't understand any other explanation yet.”
“What kind of bullshit is that….”
Had there been a face like this among the students taking the same classes…? No matter how much he searched his memory, he couldn't recall one.
Black hair was rare enough that he shouldn't have forgotten it.
“How do you know me?”
The boy didn't answer. He approached the reading desk Binaeril had been leaning on and picked up the book.
He closed the pages and brought them to his lips, blowing—*phew*. Dust that hadn't been brushed off scattered, sparkling in the light.
“So it was you.”
“Can you answer me?”
“What answer? Who I am? My name is Veritas. I am also called the Book of Truth. The Book of Truth, Veritas. Veritas, the Book of Truth. Both are my names.”
Binaeril realized that the boy before him was the type difficult to have a conversation with—the type who only gave information that danced around the point.
“The Book of Truth was that book's name.”
“Yes, that's right.”
The boy who introduced himself as sharing the same name as that bizarre book with terrible printing suddenly spread his palm wide open.
The old book was sucked into his palm like a soul.
“Uwah!”
It wasn't an illusion. Binaeril had definitely touched that book. It was a type of magic he had never seen or heard of.
‘Wait. If it's magic?’
Binaeril felt goosebumps prickle on his forearms.
“He didn't use any incantation at all?”
A mage who doesn't use incantations? It was a setup fit only for childish plays.
The boy answered with an expression asking what the big deal was.
“Don't be surprised. I'm not a mage.”
“What are you talking about, you just used magic.”
“I literally just introduced what I am.”
The boy pointed out Binaeril's memory in a roundabout tone.
What did that mean, ‘what I am’?
Looking down at Binaeril's confused expression, the self-proclaimed Book of Truth repeated his introduction in an excited tone.
He gave the impression that he couldn't stand how amusing Binaeril's reaction was.
“I am the chronicle of all histories and the grand encyclopedia (大百科) of all existing magic. I am the diary of all researchers who left records and the very sum of knowledge itself. I am none other than the Book of Truth!”
Around this point, Binaeril had an intuition.
This guy is crazy.
He must be a madman who went crazy trapped in this maze-like library, unable to find the exit.
Or am I seeing things? Is it me? Am I crazy?
“Hey, won't you at least applaud?”
With a blank expression, Binaeril clapped dryly.
Dryly, exactly twice. Clap. Clap.
That reaction didn't satisfy the boy. He approached Binaeril with quick steps.
A marten leather smell wafted from somewhere. It was the boy's body odor. Binaeril wondered if a human body could emit such a scent.
“Binaeril Dalhaim. A prodigal son who ran away from home because he hated his older brother too much. You resented your brother, a world-renowned knight, and entered Elfenbein to become a greater and more famous mage than him.”
Unless Binaeril had become an idiot, he had never introduced himself.
“You desperately pray to awaken magic. I can grant your wish.”
What kind of novel nonsense was this?
Was he from the church? Some new conversion method?
Unlike his confused mind, Binaeril's mouth reflexively presented a counterargument.
“It's a wasted effort. Do you know how long it's been since I enrolled? Three years, three years. For three years, I chased after every professor in Elfenbein seeking instruction. And now look at me.”
“Why is that?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Because none of them have ever experienced the same problem as you.”
“What is it? No, then how do you know and how can you teach me?”
“Do you want to know?”
Binaeril didn't answer. But his impatient heart was immediately revealed on his face.
“The method is very simple. You need to cast aside your terrible disease of doubt. That doubt that asks whether you can truly manifest magic—that absurd power—with your imagination and will, with your soul and body.”
It was easy in words. In words alone.
‘Wait, how does he know my problem?’
From one to ten, everything was unknown.
The only thing Binaeril realized was that this unidentified boy might be his last lifeline.
“But there is one condition.”
“What is it?”
Binaeril somewhat expected the following words. What condition would this unidentified boy, like a nightmare in broad daylight, present?
The boy held out the book from earlier. It was in his hand, though he had no idea where it had appeared from.
“Open it.”
Binaeril obediently received it and flipped through the pages.
It was no different from before. A book with empty contents. That was all.
“You must recover the lost parts of me. That is my condition.”
“You're telling me to write the remaining parts of the book?”
The boy grinned.
“That book is me. I am that book. The lost pages are scattered throughout the world. You will recover them and complete me. If you promise, I will teach you magic.”
It was a bizarre condition. So bizarre that he couldn't help but accept it.
Binaeril steadied his wavering gaze and answered with clear eyes.
And the mysterious boy, hearing that answer, smiled.