Chapter 16.2

Chapter 16.2

As I’d expect from the oldest library in the world. That is an impressive amount of books.」

「When there are this many, I don’t even know where to begin…」

The library in Wulls Castle was literally a sea of books. Haruna and Tatsuya, who had been assigned to search the library on this day, were at an utter loss for words as they stammered at the staggering collection of books. Incidentally, Makoto and Mio were acting as both Aearis’ guards and instructors, in the middle of instructing her on how to protect herself with a dagger.

「You mustn’t be so surprised by this much. The great library of Rufeus is what you should marvel at. It’s already the same size as this castle and yet is still filled to the brim with books.」

When Tatsuya and Haruna had made such bewildered comments, Sir Molt, the chief of the court magicians, laughed as he told them that. When they heard that, neither of them could conceal their aghast expressions.

「But uhh, leaving aside all the jokes, where do we start?」

「Right. Haruna, have you wanted to know anything since coming here?」

「There are a lot of things, but I’d say that the whole thing about guests from the unknown continent. Also, sort of felt like this was involved here and there, so I would also say data on Alfemina-sama, or if you prefer, this particular god.」

「Then, I guess I’ll hit the history books. We could very well find a hint there.」

The two of them decided to start their investigation from a fairly innocent point. For better or for worse, the two of them both had little trouble with reading books. It was just that they weren’t sure whether or not the books here would be easy or hard to understand, and even for them, it was difficult to read hard, long chapters that were like theses.

「Now then, please do allow me to excuse myself back to my workplace. If you have any questions, please do ask the librarian. And if you wish to enter the prohibited book storage, simply send someone my way and I shall deal with it quickly.」

「Okay. Thank you very much.」

After Sir Molt declared like a good-natured old man that he was back off to work, Haruna bowed in gratitude. Narrowing his eyes at that, he mentioned something to Tatsuya and the aforementioned librarian before bidding them farewell and walking off. After watching him leave, Haruna followed suit and asked the librarian where the bookshelf in question was, taking several books.

「…」

「…」

「…This is still the first volume and I know it’s too soon to judge, but there’s less information than I thought there would be.」

「…What a coincidence. It’s unexpectedly sketchy for me too.」

There was so little information that they didn’t even need to say “miss”. After all, nearly all of the contents involved fairy tale-like info. There should have been written mention of the people or historical facts, but to be bluntly honest, these articles didn’t remind them of anything remotely resembling that.

「This isn’t directly related to what we’re trying to investigate today, but…」

「What is it?」

「The legend of the founding king. I’d say it’s pretty darn difficult to judge whether it’s factual or fabricated as a myth…」

Intrigued by what Tatsuya had just said, Haruna borrowed a book and skimmed the book. As for the contents…

「Annihilating over a thousand wyverns with one strike?」

「Or things like stopping over ten thousand troops with one horse, or remaining unscathed even when they took the full brunt of the magic of an evil god’s retainers- just a lot of insane stuff.」

「Yeah, I really don’t know what to think of this.」

「Right?」

Tatsuya replied with a wry smile at Haruna’s remark. Honestly, in their former world, this would have been regarded as preposterous and that would be the end of it, but this world was in the style of Fairy Tale Chronicles. Leaving aside the magic of the retainers of an evil god, they couldn’t necessarily rule out the act of stopping a thousand wyverns. There was an event from the administration in which a player used only one extra sword skill to defeat about five hundred wyverns and monsters of equal level, nearly destroying them all. Judging from what happened that time, even if it were an exaggeration that the enemies had been defeated with one swing, the chances that someone had legitimately wiped out a thousand wyverns in the blink of an eye were fairly high.

As for halting a military force of over ten thousand, with Hiroshi being able to choose the terrain and charging right in, he would undoubtedly succeed. If he truly had the physique that he had in the game, it would essentially be impossible to kill Hiroshi with human firepower.

「Let’s leave the whole founding king thing aside for the moment. It isn’t like we care whether it’s a myth or the truth.」

「Well, that is true.」

「It currently feels like I can’t say much on this unless I read some more. Although I did find something that slightly contradicts what we were thinking in the first volume. Interested?」

「Contradicts? What do you mean?」

Tatsuya had nothing but a bad feeling when he saw Haruna’s subtly troubled expression.

「You see, it seems like not all the guests from the Unknown Continent absolutely have to be Japanese or players.」

「What?」

Tatsuya couldn’t help but let out a voice of astonishment at these unexpected words. He had managed to keep it in a low tone, but with just a bit more noise or more people around, it would have been dangerous.

「According to this, it seems that the first guests to come from the Unknown Continent were of African descent.」

「But if that were the case, couldn’t it just be that black people who came to Japan were playing the game and got mixed up in it?」

「Well, apparently, upon seeing Wulls at the time, they were shocked at the development of its civilization.」

「…」

At that, Tatsuya found himself quiet down as he felt an extremely bad premonition. If what Haruna had said was true, then that would mean these were tribes who had no connection whatsoever with developed nations. It was even possible that these people had wandered in here a hundred years ago in earth time.

「Upon further consideration, stories about being spirited away have been all over the world for ages and are too numerous to even count, so it doesn’t necessarily have to mean that people are sent here because of a game.」

「So are you saying you believe all that, Haruna?」

「Initially I was in half belief half doubt. But now I’m in that exact situation, so I don’t see why not.」

Haruna said with a straight face, and Tatsuya realized that what she said made sense. Though he did think that the majority of so-called spirited away incidents were abduction or the lack of a body, but considering their current position, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were some legitimate cases in which people did wander into a different world.

「Well, it’s still a bit too early for conclusions, so I’ll read the book a bit more.」

「Guess I’ll do the same. Doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy to find hints about how to return to our own world, but we might be able to learn about what’s happening in this country.」

「Exactly. In that case as well, we have to do something about that first or else we may find ourselves in a bad situation when we go to other countries.」

Thinking of their convoluted situation, even if they were to find a way to get back to their original world, it was dubious if they would just say “Okay, sure” and let them return just like that. They at least had to do something about Katrina and that mysterious lackey of hers, or else even minimal safety was shaky at best.

「Then do you have any sort of hint regarding that?」

「Didn’t the man who came into the temple call the pollution of the earth with miasma “purification”?」

「Yeah.」

「In other words, that way of thinking is the opposite of Alfemina’s temple, so I’d say one candidate is some sort of opposing religion. Seeing as how their methods are established, there seems to be an appropriate amount of history surrounding it, so even if the patterns are different, there should be similar incidents that they’re causing. Also, I can’t say that I don’t have any idea as to who the people are who summoned Cerberus, as old man Douga mentioned. Although this relates to the game and I only just remembered as I was reading through various documents.」

「True, I think those sorts of things would come up if you investigated the history, but aren’t all the particulars inside of the restricted section?」

He nodded at Haruna’s remark. However, it wouldn’t be productive to suddenly go into the restricted section. Before they did anything else, they needed to find out what incidents occurred in which time periods and what group caused them.

「Before we go into the restricted section, we’d best tie up loose ends here. It’s too risky to just read through a bunch of secretive history books all at once.」

「I see, got it. Then I’ll go sort out anything related to the guests from the unknown continent.」

「I’ll leave you to that then.」

Deciding where their next direction would be, they began opening any books that caught their eye according to the memo paper on hand. Occasionally they would exchange books and check each other’s data in order to fill up their memos with sufficient information.

「It will be afternoon shortly. What shall you be doing?」

「It’s already that time?」

「Okay, then how about we briefly clean up and report our findings while having some lunch?」

After the librarian had approached them, they both decided to take a breather. They certainly felt like they had maybe bit off more than they could chew in one day.

「Then, let’s go ahead and meet up with Hiroshi-kun…」

Half-rising to her feet, Haruna felt a strange sensation in the corner of her brain.

「…Hm?」

「What’s wrong, Haruna?」

「Well, how should I say this? It feels like something’s asserting itself…」

「Asserting itself? What do you mean?」

「I reeeally don’t know. Let me concentrate for a moment.」

She said to Tatsuya, focusing her attention on the strange sensation in the back of her mind. This was clearly some sort of outside interference. But this wasn’t one of ill intent. It was currently unclear as to whether it was dangerous or not. The line was…

「Coming from the restricted section, maybe?」

「Restricted section? But isn’t there a magical seal there?」

「Yes. It is sealed with enough power to where I cannot immediately unravel it.」

Tatsuya made a face at the librarian’s comment. Haruna had a slightly anxious expression on her face. Judging from experience, this would unmistakably lead to nothing good.

「Well, right now we shouldn’t think so much. How about some lunch…」

As Haruna was about to propose that they leave the problem for later, the unpleasant feeling of assertion violently halted her.

「Shut up already!」

「You really feel something?」

「The only people who would tell lies like that are attention whores…」

「True enough. Well, from the looks of it, we can’t do much of anything until we get into the restricted section.」

Tatsuya didn’t even bother to hide his bothered expression, whereas Haruna simply gave a weak nod. Seeing all this, the librarian made a mad dash to call over Sir Molt. Haruna felt gratitude for such quick action as she held her head at how brutal this presence was.