Chapter 8.2 - part 2

Part 2

An unprecedented heat wave was passing over Wokingham. Diana, who had grown up in the Jiles manor where it was chilly all year long, found it difficult to bear.

And so, she had braced herself and decided that she would pay a visit to the Magic Association. She had, surprisingly, gotten up at dawn and had left home early in the morning, but the scorching sun was high up in the sky by the time she finished her business and walked out of the building around noon. It was so unbearably hot that even Diana, whom Chesterty had called a miser so many times that the word was practically nailed to Diana’s ears, decided to take a carriage home.

She immediately made her way to the café on the first floor once she had climbed down from the carriage. She didn’t know how, but the café was always as cool as autumn inside. This was the biggest reason why she had decided to stick with it despite the chatty server.

“Coffee again today?”

It was lunchtime, and there was a crowd of customers inside the café. Even the server who normally liked to talk to Diana for ten whole minutes at a time was busily only taken orders. Diana was glad for it, as her mind had gone blank after being inside the steamer that was the carriage for over half an hour.

Diana had visited the Magic Association to take on some requests. Her sister was currently in the middle of a long-term contract with the Nobellium Observatory, and Diana had calculated that their income would stop coming in soon. Hester had received a sizeable sum up front for the request, of course, and it looked like she planned to take up some short-term requests if they ran out of money, but she would likely be busy all day and night while trying to fulfil the observatory’s headache of a request.

‘In that case, I can just work instead.’

Diana had sworn her oath to the king, and she could now officially accept requests from Ingram’s Magic Association. She would have to take up every request that she could so she could gain experience now that she was officially recognized as a witch, and Diana was quite motivated to fulfil her very first one.

The request was quite humble and cheap, however.

.

Trisha Knockbridge had neither children, disciples, nor even any relatives, so she had been left with no other choice but to turn over her treasures to the state. She had desperately tried to skirt her oath because she hadn’t wanted the state to rob her of her treasures, but her oath had been executed on Walpurgis Night, and she therefore had no way of renouncing it unilaterally. It had been an unfortunate outcome for Trisha Knockbridge as an individual, but it had worked out well for everyone else because poorer witches and wizards of Ingram now had easy access to magical texts.

Diana had heard that, nowadays, the Millennium Rose Hall expanded its collections by legally extorting more books from witches and wizards who had no heirs. To Diana, who did not have the money to obtain magical texts —much less have a household library she had access to—, the library was nothing short of a blessing.

She was excited as she made her way up to the information desk. She had intended to immediately ask the librarian where the books she was looking were located, but…

“Excuse me.”

“…….”

“Hello?”

The bowed head of curly brown hair did not budge despite her repeated calls. Diana scrutinized the librarian. She realized that he was asleep.

“Excuse me. Could you please wake up?”

She carefully poked at him with her finger. He didn’t stir the first few times she poked, but then he suddenly jumped up and cried,

“I-I’m so sorry, Director!”

Diana was startled and opened her eyes wide. The librarian was still half-asleep, and it took some time before his hazy eyes finally made their way down and spotted Diana’s crimson hair. Dumbfoundedly, he said,

“Oh, you’re not the director.”

“Hey. I’m just—”

“Lady Hester?”

What in the world?

Diana’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“Excuse me?”

“No, nothing. You’re not Lady Hester……. But you look a whole lot like her,”

the librarian said as his meek eyes opened wide. Diana knew that her sister frequented the library, so she figured that the librarian must know of Hester.

Astringently, Diana quipped back,

“I’m looking for some books.”

“What? Oh, books.”

“Um, you

are

the librarian here, right?”

“Of course. I even have my ID right here,”

the librarian said as he pointed at the ID hanging around his neck. Rupert Walsh. That was his name. He continued,

“Which books are you looking for?”

“Anything that has to do with Grieg Fromm. You have foreign books here too, right?”

Diana had been reading [The Legacy of Greig Fromm: The Wizard Who Dreamt of Living Forever, the Legacy of Eternal Life, and the Study of an Immortal Life that Cannot be Descended] and had come across a chapter she could not quite understand. She could analyze the language itself, but she could not translate its meaning properly without fully understanding its implicit meanings first.

“You’re looking for books from Banzè if you’re looking for Grieg Fromm’s books. Are there any books of his that you’re looking for in particular?”

“His storybooks. I’ve heard that he wrote a storybook in his twilight years…….”

“Oh, you’re looking for [Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp],”

the librarian, Rupert, replied clearly. Apparently, he wasn’t only a librarian for show. He continued,

“There are so many editions of that book that you might need to time to figure out which one you want. Let me show you where they are.”

Diana turned toward where Rupert was pointing. But then she startled as she found someone whom she hadn’t been expected to see here.

“Sir Cedric Jiles!”

She heard Rupert calling out in welcome behind her. Cedric was dressed as neatly as he always did as he gently nodded back. Then, he calmly turned around to look at Diana.

“Hey.”

All Diana could do was nod back, unable to hide her bewilderment.

Why’s

he

here, of all places?

Her head was filled with a question she could not answer.

“What brings you here today?”

Rupert was smiling brightly as he walked up to them. Cedric handed him a book. Rupert continued,

“Wow, you finished this already? It might

look

thin, but it’s a very difficult book —you’re remarkable. Are you here for another book?”

“I’m looking for a storybook called Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp.”

“That’s weirdly popular these days. Right?”

Rupert turned to Diana in hopes of getting her to agree. But Diana was in no state to reply at the moment. She was so bewildered that her mouth had been glued shut.

‘Why are

you

here?’

Cedric, of course, had no way of knowing what she was thinking and could only tilt his head to the side in confusion.

On a narrow stairway that could barely fit two people standing side-by-side.

The three of them descended steadily as their dissonant footsteps echoed around them. Diana thought they had been walking for quite some time now, but the candle on the wall in front of them illuminated with every step they took forward and the candle on the wall behind them extinguished, so there was no way for her to tell exactly how far they had come.

Diana kept her eyes glued on Rupert in front of her as she walked. Rupert had engaged them in pleasant conversation while he led them downstairs at first, but he began focusing on climbing after almost missing his step a few times. It was better to endure the silence than to watch a fully grown man trip and fall down a set of stone stairs, but Diana could not help but grow uncomfortable whenever she recalled the fact that Cedric was followingly quietly behind her.

‘It seemed like my father’s been researching Grieg Fromm lately.’

That was what Cedric had said when Diana had asked him why he was looking for the storybook. Diana hadn’t pried any further because she knew just how much Cedric respected his father, whom he had been separated from as a young child, but that didn’t change the fact that she was still uncomfortable to be with him. She wanted to retrieve the book as quickly as possible so she could get away from him even a second faster.

The problem was that Grieg Fromm’s storybooks slept deep down in the basement.

“Books that are borrowed often are kept in closer floors. Greig Fromm is not only a foreigner but is hardly ever the topic of anyone’s research, so it’s only natural that his books are kept deep down in the basement. The only reason why the Millennium Rose Hall even has copies of [Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp] is because it’s relatively popular. There are a lot of foreign books that we don’t have any copies of yet, but did you know that we have over ten different editions of that one?”

Diana had nothing to say so long as she could borrow the book for free. Who cared that it was kept deep underground or that Cedric was accompanying her there? The frugal Diana was powerless against anything that was free.

“Just five more floors to go! You’re both still okay, right……? M-Miss Diana, you mustn’t touch that!”

Rupert shouted in a hurry as he smiled and looked back. Diana, who had been about to grab the wall because she couldn’t see very well in the dim candlelight, startled and drew her hand back.

“Why not?”

“I told you earlier that you mustn’t touch anything carelessly. I haven’t been a librarian here for very long, so I don’t know what kind of magic traps were installed around the stairs. I’ve barely ever been this far down either……,”

Rupert mumbled in his distress. Diana felt her blood curl and quietly took a step away from the wall.

“Is this place really

that

dangerous?”

“Of course. It has to stop both invaders from the outside and the prisoners from the inside.”

“The prisoners from the inside?”

“The books —I’m referring to the books,”

Rupert replied as if it was only natural. He continued,

“There’d be big trouble if something went wrong and any dangerous books accidentally escaped the library.”

“Such as……?”

“Who could say? There are so many different types of books in here that I can’t really explain. Some books can suck blood out of living people, and some of them even eat people. There are a lot of scary stories about books, you know?”

The blood drained from Diana’s face. But Rupert had no idea as he innocently continued,

“To be honest, I’m only ever at the information desk because I’m not an expert librarian yet. I’m a bit nervous because it’s been a while since I last came this deep down inside the library.”

You

shouldn’t be nervous.

But Diana held herself from snapping back.

“Don’t worry too much. Sir Cedric’s here with us, so I doubt anything

too

bad will happen,”

Rupert added with a cheery smile. Diana was envious of his optimism but also started wanting to punch him in the face for some reason.

It didn’t take much longer before they finally reached the floor where Grieg Fromm’s books were kept. Diana felt a little satisfied as they finally left the tedious stairs behind them. But her satisfaction disappeared without a trace as soon as she stepped inside the shadowed library.

Rupert handed out some candles before he began searching for the books in earnest. The candles were hardly enough to stave away the darkness of the basement, and the feeble lights were the only things that declared their presence.

Quietly, Rupert whispered,

“There are a lot of dangerous books in the basement. So please stay right behind me without making any loud noises.”

Diana and Cedric quietly nodded back. Then, the three of them began walking through the bookshelves as one.

The library was filled with a musky scent, as befitting of a library deep underground. The bookshelves they walked past were filled with books not only in the Abado tongue and the central dialect but also the northern and southern dialects and even unfamiliar letters they could not read. Some of the books were so old and dangerous that they looked like they had never been touched ever since they had been first placed here. It felt like the centuries the books had lived were pressing down upon their shoulders.

Thankfully, Rupert did not roam about for long.

“The works of Josephine Fromm are on this bookshelf here……. So Greig Fromm’s books are the next shelf over.”

But Rupert, who had been just about to walk over to the next bookshelf, suddenly leaned over. It was fortunate that Diana and Cedric quickly grabbed hold of him, as something terrible could have happened had they been even a second slower.

“Hey. Be careful……!”

“Why is this here?”

Rupert abruptly began peering through the bookshelf to their left. His brown eyes were uncharacteristically sharp as he carefully combed through the bookshelf. He continued,

“Dorothy Fromm is a witch from the 700s —so why are these here? And, isn’t this Milfree Gwintir’s work?”

“Um, is something wrong?”

“Yes. Very. The entire bookshelf’s a right mess. Patricia was here with the librarians in training last week for practice, so they must have forgotten to clean up after themselves.”

It sounded like an unforgivable sin from a librarian’s point of view. No wonder the normally docile Rupert sounded so vexed. He continued,

“I’m sorry —could you please look for Grief Fromm’s books on the next bookshelf over? I’ll stay here and do what I can to reorganize this one,”

Rupert asked politely. Cedric nodded back at him without a word before he began walking ahead. Diana had no choice but to follow behind him on the verge of tears.

It was dark and quiet. Diana took one last look at the unfathomable darkness before she forced her feet to keep moving. Cedric arrived at the bookshelf first and brought his candle closer to the books as he scanned through them.

“Here’s Grieg Fromm’s books,”

he said with his eyes fixated on one corner of the bookshelf. Diana walked up to where he was looking and studied the books. Thankfully, most of the books were written in the Abado tongue, the language of magic, instead of the northern dialect, which she could not read.

The Third Law of Magical Epidemiology; Oil and Starlight; The Theory Behind Astrological Telescopes; The Weaknesses of the Galatrian Prayer……. Diana’s eyes passed persistently over a wide variety of loosely connected and diverse titles before she finally spotted a slender storybook.

[Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp]

Cedric, who had also spotted the storybook just then, pulled out one of its ten different editions and began flipping through it.

“We found it.”

Diana looked carefully at the different editions while Cedric skimmed through his copy. The titles varied slightly between each edition. Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp; Jallomo, the Hero, and the Wizard; Jallomo and the Wizard of Darkness. The only things they all had in common were ‘Jallomo’ and the ‘Wizard.’ She assumed that they were the main characters.

But it was still just a storybook. It was a short and simple story, so the different editions were unlikely to be too different. Besides, Diana wasn’t here to research Grieg Fromm in detail. It didn’t matter which edition she read.

She was just about to pick out one of the editions at random when a sudden strange feeling pulled at her fingers. Her visage stiffened as she lingered. Her fingers had stopped in front of the left-most edition before she knew it.

“What’s up?”

Cedric asked as he was perusing through Grieg Fromm’s other works. Diana quietly shook her head as she pulled out the book. She assumed that her nerves must be on edge from her nightmare last night, so she did her best to ignore the discomfort she felt.

But more strange things kept happening. Cedric, who had wandered a little away, walked back over to her. The blood drained from his face as soon as he looked at the book in Diana’s hands over her shoulder.

“Is that Jallomo and the Wizard of the Swamp?”

“Yeah.”

Diana carefully flipped through the pages. But they were all blank. There were neither any illustrations nor any words.

“This is weird.”

There were too many things that were suspicious about the book for it to be a simple misprint. She doubted that the Millennium Rose Hall would keep a book that was completely blank just because it had a proper cover, and more importantly, her sixth sense told her to be suspicious. It was foolish to ignore a witch’s senses.

Cedric, who stared at the unending blank pages for a bit longer, looked up and called for Rupert.

“Mr. Walsh?”

Rupert was still busy reorganizing the other bookshelf. His reply was a little delayed.

“Did you call for me?”

“There’s something strange about this book.”

“Something strange?”

“All the pages are blank.”

Rupert’s hands stopped moving in their tracks. A queer moment of silence passed before Rupert returned a reply.

“……The pages are blank?”

Then, they heard books falling down from afar. Diana and Cedric turned around instinctively. Rupert was as white as a sheet as he ran over to them.

“Mr. Librarian?”

Diana mumbled in her bewilderment. But just then, a magic circle appeared with Diana at its center.

“Close the book right now!”

Rupert shouted in a hurry. Diana tried to close the book in the confusion of the moment, but the book wouldn’t budge. It was almost like it had frozen stiff.

“W-why’s it like this?! Why won’t it close?!”

Even Cedric tried to help her close it, but to no avail. The faint magic circle had started glowing in the meanwhile. Words from archaic and dead languages danced into the air, and a black elk, which symbolized the renowned house from the north, appeared before them. The magic circle was already activated.

Someone urgently screamed,

“We have to interrupt the magic cir—”

A blinding light gushed out from the book. The bright light swallowed both Diana and Cedric, who were doing their best to close the book, and Rupert, who had come running over to them. Light had found its way to the darkness that had dominated the basement for centuries.

But it lasted for only a moment, and the flash of light coursed through the library like a wave before vanishing without a trace. All that it left behind were three candles, a snowball that connected to a dragon, and a storybook, all fallen on the floor. And the darkness rushed back in and put the commotion back to sleep as if nothing had ever happened.

Only silence prevailed in the basement devoid of human presences.