Deep inside the drawer.
In a pit of dust, my fingertips caught on an old leather cover.
[Grade: Transcendent]
[A mana circulation method recorded in the language of dragons.]
[Restriction: The seal will be released only when blood of the Estel family or divine power equivalent to it is detected.]
‘As expected.’
Just as I’d predicted.
The letters merely wriggled like living earthworms, and the contents could not be read.
Isha von Estel.
Without her, this book was nothing more than a high-performance pot stand.
‘She’ll be here soon, so that’ll be taken care of.’
I shoved the book into my coat and turned my head.
The problem wasn’t the book, but the person.
“Hmm…. Hmmm……”
Adel was glaring at the magical formula floating in midair with a slice of pizza in her mouth.
A conundrum that had the Empire’s greatest genius tearing her hair out.
To my eyes, which knew the theory already established before my regression, it was just an addition and subtraction problem full of holes.
I stepped up behind her.
I tapped one part of the formula with my finger.
“The mana conversion formula there. You have to reverse the order. The variables are colliding.”
“Huh?”
Adel looked up at me with a stupid expression.
As if possessed, she corrected the part I had pointed out.
—Wooong!
The formula that had been blinking red stabilized into blue light, then completed itself into a perfect sphere.
“Hurgh.”
The slice of pizza fell from Adel’s mouth.
Her violet eyes shook violently from side to side.
“This… I’ve been stuck on this for six months. What are you? You said you were a delivery guy.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m a very capable pizza delivery guy.”
“You said you were just a pizza delivery guy.”
Whether Adel complained or not, I perched on the desk and rested my chin in my hand.
“What do you think? Isn’t this enough to qualify me to work with you?”
“Getting all smug over solving one hard problem.”
“Do you really think that’s all?”
“.......”
“Let’s join hands, Adel.”
“No.”
Adel answered immediately without even one degree of hesitation.
With eyes full of wariness, she pushed against my chest.
“You’re suspicious. So, so suspicious. I acknowledge your skill, but you creep me out. So get out.”
“I’m afraid refusing won’t work. You’ll be getting in the same boat as me soon.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Get out before I call security!”
Adel shrieked.
I leisurely checked my wristwatch.
“5, 4, 3.”
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“2, 1.”
I looked at Adel with a grin.
“Checking the boarding time.”
—Kwaaaaaang!!
The steel door of the director’s office, made of magical alloy, crumpled like a sheet of paper and flew away.
Through the thick cloud of dust, a woman walked in wearing not a paladin’s armor, but silver-white holy raiment.
Holy raiment, huh.
Was that the bare minimum of courtesy toward this place?
Isha von Estel, who had appeared here, possessed a beautiful and noble appearance.
Her red eyes were blazing as if she might burn this place down with hellfire at any moment.
“……Adel?”
Isha’s gaze fixed on Adel, who was hugging the pizza box.
Then it naturally shifted to me, sitting comfortably beside her.
“N-no, Saintess? How could you be here……”
Adel gaped in panic.
I did not miss that opening and put on the vilest smile in the world.
“Wait a moment, Saintess.”
I raised a hand and pretended to stop her.
“Director Adel and I are in the middle of a very important strategy meeting right now. Even if you’re wearing holy raiment, barging in without knocking is a little rude, isn’t it?”
“…What?”
Isha’s brow twisted as if she could not endure it.
Adel went pale and waved her hands frantically.
“Wh-what are you talking about! I don’t know this person! He’s just a pizza delivery guy!”
“What capable pizza delivery guy fixes imperial magical formulas? If you deny it too much, I’ll be hurt, partner.”
I winked at Adel, and Isha’s gaze sank coldly.
She was already convinced.
That if Adel, the director of this place, had not opened the door, there was no way I could have gotten this far.
“Adel……”
—Shrrrng.
The holy sword cried out from its sheath.
Golden aura rose like a haze.
“To think even you, whom I trusted… were in league with that trash.”
“No! I’m not! I’m telling you it’s a misunderstanding!”
“I’ll hear your excuses later. First, I’m cutting off that man’s head.”
Isha kicked off the floor.
A sense of speed as if space itself had compressed, then exploded.
“Dodge!”
I snatched Adel by the waist as she stood there blankly and threw myself aside.
—Crack!
The spot where we had been standing just moments ago split in half.
The desk was sliced like tofu, and the pizza box disintegrated in midair.
“Aaaagh! Are you insane?! My laboratory!”
“No time to whine! Run!”
I tucked Adel under my arm like a sack of rice and ran.
Isha’s sword energy chased close behind my back.
“Stop right there!!”
“Crazy, crazy! Why is the Saintess here? Why is she trying to kill you?!”
Adel screamed, flailing under my arm.
As I sprinted down the corridor, I answered calmly.
“Ah. You haven’t heard yet?”
“Wh-what?”
“I killed her dragon.”
“What?”
Adel’s struggling stopped dead.
Her eyes went round like someone who had heard something unbelievable.
“Dragon? Dessore? That cute thing?”
“Yeah. Took its head. I ate the heart.”
“You crazy bastard!!!!”
Adel grabbed my hair and shook me.
“Get out! Get out right now! Are you trying to get me killed too? Let go! I’m going to beg and say I knew nothing!”
“It’s already too late. You’re my accomplice now.”
“Don’t talk bullshit!”
“You ate the pizza.”
“Pizza? What about it?”
“I bought it with a stolen card. You acquired stolen goods and consumed them, even destroying evidence. You’re an undeniable accomplice.”
“Ugh, uweeeek!”
Adel shoved her fingers down her throat and retched.
“I’ll throw it up! I’ll spit it out! If I throw it all up, that’s fine, right?!”
“That’s seriously disgusting. If you have time to puke, open the door.”
When we reached a dead end, I set Adel down.
“Adel, the shortcut to the restricted book section on the 13th floor. You know it, right?”
“I don’t! I won’t tell you! Go die by yourself!”
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll use you as a shield and run. That Saintess chasing us over there will smash the remaining half of your laboratory too, won’t she?”
With my eyes, I pointed toward the ruined director’s office.
From within the cloud of dust, a demon holding a holy sword was walking toward us.
“Demon! You really are a demon!”
On the verge of tears, Adel pulled a book hidden behind the bookshelf.
—Rumble
The wall rotated, revealing a secret elevator.
“Get in! Hurry up and get in!”
We jumped into the elevator.
The mechanism clattered upward.
—Kwaaaang!!
The corridor wall was torn away in its entirety.
With the hem of her white holy raiment fluttering, Isha reached out toward us.
“Stop right there, Ihan!!!”
Her gaze and mine met.
Just before the elevator doors closed.
I leisurely waved my hand.
“You’re too late, Saintess.”
—Whirrr
The doors closed, and the elevator shot upward.
“Haa, haa. We’re alive……”
Adel sank to the floor.
Contrary to her hopes.
Relief came too soon.
—Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dull explosions rang out one after another from beneath our feet.
The elevator floor trembled faintly.
“Crazy, crazy! She’s flying up here? That woman is flying up!”
Adel stared at the floor glass she had turned transparent and cried out in horror.
From the passage below, a streak of golden light was zigzagging upward, kicking off the walls.
At a speed faster than the high-speed elevator.
“She’s a monster. She’s not human!”
“Calm down. How many seconds until we reach the 13th floor?”
“Ten seconds! No, seven!”
“Enough.”
I took the book out of my subspace.
The ancient dragon-tongue grimoire, still sealed and writhing.
—Ding!
[13th Floor. Restricted Book Section.]
The moment the doors opened, cold air poured out.
A vast hall lined with grimoires that were thousands of years old.
And right behind us, close on our heels.
Isha burst up through the floor.
—Crash!!
Floor tiles and fragments of the structure scattered in all directions.
“Ihan!!”
Isha’s eyes were bloodshot.
Her killing intent was so thick.
It made my skin sting.
“Adel, buy me some time.”
“What? How am I supposed to stop that monster!”
“You’ve got those golems you made! Send them all out! I’ll fund your research!”
“Liar! You said you only had three thousand won!”
“I have more than that! Three thousand four hundred twenty won!”
With tears in her eyes, Adel pulled small beads from her pocket and threw them.
“Go! My entire fortune!”
—Pop, pop, pop!
Along with smoke, five mythril golems that filled the room were summoned.
They were the masterpiece of Adel, the archmage, layered with triple 6th Circle defensive magic.
“Block her! Buy time!”
The golems charged at Isha with heavy thuds.
Golems of absolute defense, said to be able to stop even tanks.
Their opponent was a Transcendent-grade paladin.
—Slice.
Isha passed through them without stopping.
All she did was swing her sword once.
A single slash.
The five golems were cut through the waist at the same time and collapsed.
—Crash!
“Wow… seriously.”
Adel murmured in a daze.
“Three years of my research budget in one second….”
Isha walked over the remains of the golems.
Her gaze was fixed on Adel.
“Adel von Kraiber. So you really did side with him. I am deeply disappointed. This matter will be brought before the imperial court.”
“Th-that’s not it!”
Adel stamped her feet in injustice.
Isha’s steps did not stop, and the distance between her and me was now shrinking in real time.
Death was right before my nose.
Instead, I raised the two books high.
“Wait. Saintess, you know what these are, don’t you?”
Isha’s steps faltered.
Her eyes touched the books I held.
The first and second volumes.
“Those are the sealed books from the archive?”
“That’s right. The books said not to open unless by your family.”
—Wooong
Was it because they had returned to the restricted book area?
Or had they reacted to Isha’s divine power as she approached?
The patterns on the book covers began to shine fiercely.
Like puppies meeting their master.
—Click, clatter.
The sound of hundreds of layers of magical locks being released in midair rang out.
“Thanks as always, Saintess.”
The books floated to my left and right, then opened.
The pages flipped rapidly, one by one.
Light seeped over the earthworm-like characters that had been so incomprehensible.
Before my eyes, they were translated and appeared as system messages.
[Purify and circulate the rampaging mana within the body.]
“You were aiming for that from the start!”
Isha’s face burned red with rage.
She had realized that he had not fled here, but had used her as a key.
“Block her until I absorb this, Adel.”
I spoke while rapidly engraving the book’s contents into my mind.
“If you want to live.”
“What? Hey! Hey!!”
Adel smacked my back, but I was already falling into a trance.
My heart pounded, and the dragon blood in my veins began to realign according to the contents of the grimoire.
“Move aside, Adel!”
Isha raised the holy sword.
Adel, in the heat of the moment, lifted her staff and spread a barrier, but her face had gone ashen.
“Wait, wait! Estel. No, Saintess! Look outside! Outside!”
At Adel’s shout, Isha flinched.
Beyond the window, dozens of helicopters and armed troops were surrounding the library in layers.
“Surrender, Ihan! You are surrounded!”
The sound from the loudspeaker rang out thunderously.
Isha smiled after confirming that reinforcements had arrived.
“Did you hear that, Ihan? The Estel elite knight order has just arrived, and a barrier has been placed over the entire library. There is nowhere to escape.”
Isha was certain of her victory.
I closed the last page and slowly opened my eyes.
Golden light poured from my eyes like frost.
The dragon’s breathing method had been added to my B+ grade body.
Now I was ready to become a true monster.
“How do you plan to get out of here? You won’t have a key, either.”
Isha asked mockingly.
This was the restricted book section.
You could enter as you pleased, but when leaving, it was a prison where even spatial movement was impossible without the administrator’s key.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
I took a brass-colored key from my pocket and twirled it around.
“?”
Isha and Adel’s gazes simultaneously fixed on my fingertips.
“The director here gave it to me.”
“What? Hey! When did I ever!”
Adel jumped up and down.
I shamelessly shrugged.
It was a replica I had gotten from an informant, but there was no way to tell from the outside.
—Click.
I inserted the key into empty air and turned it.
Space split open, and a cool breeze blew in.
“Well then, let’s have our next date in hell, Saintess.”
“Ihan!!!!”
Isha’s holy sword flew through space.
But I had already grabbed Adel by the scruff of the neck and thrown myself into the torn dimensional rift.