Chapter 124 - Utopia (3)

A cruel fate awaits those bewitched by stories.

I don't mean people who simply enjoy them. I mean those who have fallen under their spell. Gone mad for them. Those who sink deeper and deeper until, at last, they have devoted half their lives to stories.

To them, reality is merely the business of [a world that cannot become a story]. There are no dramatic twists. No shocking endings. People are only people; they can never be reborn as [characters].

Disappointment in reality.

Contempt for humanity.

And above all, worship of stories.

Disappointment, contempt, and worship define those bewitched by stories. That is precisely why they go wild when a story unfolds in reality, and cheer when a human being is reborn as a character.

Their hearts have not lost their warmth.

They are simply waiting for a moment worth going wild over, worth cheering for.

"..."

The ultimate reader now stood before my eyes.

"L-Lefanta Aegim and... a crossover with you."

This person loved stories so much that he had built a library himself.

"Certainly, that is, an enticing proposition, but..."

The library he built was so vast and magnificent that it covered an entire world. It was called the Great Library of Myriad Thoughts, for it held the thoughts of all things.

"But I can offer you only apocalypses. That is the inviolable rule I have set forth. Every story has the right to reach its own conclusion, and I must not rashly intervene..."

His lips were trembling now.

'He's wavering.'

I was certain. In the end, the Librarian would have no choice but to be persuaded. No practical argument could entice him.

But the words [Don't you want to see the story?]...

That single question could tempt the Librarian all the way into hell.

"Oh. If you don't want to see it, never mind."

It was an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I'm merely making you a generous offer. I'm offering to create a scene with your two favorite characters together. If you don't want it, forget it."

"..."

"But you really do want to see it, don't you?"

The Librarian's expression changed in real time. His emotions were laid bare. Anguish. Indecision. Desire for a sumptuous dessert—a crossover he would normally never be able to read.

"I..."

At last, the Librarian parted his lips.

"Made a contract with the Tower."

The breath flowing from his lips was hot.

"Not every constellation makes a contract with the Tower. Only those who have signed a contract may enter it. We are tenants of a sort. In exchange for renting a floor in the Tower, I took on various [restrictions]."

"What restrictions?"

"To provide humans with only 'apocalypses'..."

The Librarian waved his hand. With each gesture cutting through the air, the books circling him fell to the floor with dull thuds.

"And though apocalypse has various meanings, The Epic of Lefanta Aegim fits none of them."

Those books were practically the Librarian's bodyguards. When the hunters had attacked him in earnest earlier, it was the power of those very books he had used to subdue them.

"A contract is a contract... I cannot break it as I please. The Tower—the master of the Tower—would be most angry with me. I do not wish to anger the Tower Master. Hmm, tenants are always at the mercy of their landlords, are they not...?"

In other words, the Librarian was disarming himself.

"F-For your information..."

All the books, dozens of them, had fallen. Having neutralized every bit of power at his command, the Librarian looked at me.

"My own combat prowess is actually nothing remarkable..."

"..."

"It is true of many constellations, not just myself. We possess special powers, but surprisingly often, we are quite inept at fighting. Without my books, I am merely a frail reader. Hmm, so... Do you understand what I mean, Gongja...?"

Indeed, I understood perfectly.

"Yes. You mustn't break your contract."

I strode toward the Librarian, closing the distance. He held his hands together, his sleeves neatly meeting, and looked up at me nervously.

"Unless there are [unavoidable circumstances]."

I grabbed the Librarian by the collar and lifted him up.

It was easy. The [Shut-In Librarian] was light. His sleeves were exceedingly long and thick, but once I lifted him, I felt no resistance.

"Urgh...!"

The Librarian let out a breath.

"Hand over [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim] without a fuss."

"Ah..."

The trembling on the Librarian's lips grew more violent. Threats and coercion. Though a constellation who ruled an entire world was being threatened by a mere hunter, he offered no resistance.

"How insolent... I have shown you boundless goodwill all this time, and trusted you, yet you betray me like this...! Ah, how grievous. So this is why countless stories warn against trusting humans..."

This fellow was a terrible actor.

I chuckled and tightened my grip on his collar. The Librarian let out a startled squeak.

"Hand it over."

"..."

"Or I'll kill you, you perverted bastard."

A shadow slowly crept over the Librarian's face as he looked up at me. We were putting on an act. But he had heard sincerity in my voice.

Of course he had.

A threat convincing enough to fool the Tower had to contain some truth.

"P-Perverted? Gongja, aren't you being rather harsh...?"

"What else do you call someone who collects people's hair and fingernails? You said being murdered by Lefanta Aegim was your lifelong dream. Your wish. Is wanting to die at the hands of your favorite character supposed to be normal?"

The Librarian shut his mouth.

"Oh, right. Come to think of it, I'm a character you love too."

The corners of my mouth lifted.

"How about I grant your wish now, instead of making you wait?"

"Now...?"

"Want to die here, by my hand?"

The Librarian flinched, drawing in his shoulders. He convulsed as though struck by lightning. Admiration and desire flowed through the gaze he raised to me. With a trembling hand, slowly, little by little, he took something from inside his robes.

[The Epic of Lefanta Aegim].

An old, old book, stained by hands that had read it hundreds of times. Of all his innumerable books, this was the one the Librarian cherished most, carrying it against his chest.

"I shall give it to you..."

The Librarian offered me that treasure, more precious to him than his own life.

"Well done."

Still holding his collar, I snatched [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim] with one hand. "Ah," the Librarian breathed, his mouth falling open. His face was now a complete mess, melting into a mixture of ecstasy and self-loathing.

[The Epic of Lefanta Aegim]

Genre: Cannot be viewed at your current rank.

Difficulty: Cannot be viewed at your current rank.

Participant Limit: Cannot be viewed at your current rank.

※Currently ongoing.

Description: Cannot be viewed at your current rank.

"Oh?"

So I couldn't read a book at all unless the Librarian had authorized it? That was something new.

Intrigued, I looked down at him.

"I can't see it. Can't read it."

"W-Well, you can see the apocalypses because I authorized them... Every book housed here is, by nature, a forbidden book. They must not be read indiscriminately by humans..."

"Then explain it yourself. In your own words."

"..."

The Librarian could not refuse me. He found himself recounting the life of Lefanta Aegim, the person he had declared he loved most.

"Lefanta Aegim... the Heaven-Slaying Star comes from the same place as you."

"What?"

"He was born in the same world, the same region, and as the same species as you. In fact, you share not only a birthplace, but a surname as well."

And the words with which the Librarian began were something I had never anticipated. Lowering his eyes, he murmured,

"The Heaven-Slaying Star devised the surname Aegim himself. It is a simply assembled word. He used the language of England rather than that of the region where you were born."

England? English?

If it was 'I' and 'Kim'...

"... Don't tell me it means 'I am Kim'?"

"Precisely."

Good lord.

"Did I not tell you? Once may be coincidence. Twice is a connection. By the third time, it becomes inevitable. You and the Heaven-Slaying Star have already established so many points of contact that your bond can be called inevitable."

My eyes widened at the Heaven-Slaying Star's unexpected identity.

'He's from my hometown?'

Until now, the only person I knew from my hometown was a lunatic who looked damn good in a ponytail. And now the Heaven-Slaying Star was from there too.

'Doesn't that mean I'm the only sane person from my hometown?'

Just as doubts about my hometown were rising in me despite myself...

"The Heaven-Slaying Star was summoned to another world in his youth," the Librarian said.

"He was only a high school student then. Naturally, being summoned to another world caused him extreme confusion. But the summoning awakened a supernatural ability in him, allowing him to make his way through that harsh world quite well."

"... Hold on. Wait a minute."

A strange sense of déjà vu gripped me. Wasn't this a plot I had heard countless times before?

"A high school student summoned to another world? That's totally..."

"Indeed."

The Librarian gave a small nod.

"The genre of [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim] is [A High School Student Goes on a Rampage in Another World]. The abbreviated term for it is, so to speak, [High School Isekai Rampage]. Though the Heaven-Slaying Star is no longer of an age to be called a high school student..."

My mouth fell open. High School Isekai Rampage?

'I heard that term had already gone extinct with the dinosaurs when I was a kid.'

Was that it?

Was the Heaven-Slaying Star, Lefanta Aegim, a creature akin to a dinosaur?

"Of course, the Heaven-Slaying Star would feel wronged if you described him as someone who merely [goes on a rampage]. He endured truly countless trials and hardships before becoming the first Emperor of the Aegim Empire..."

As the Librarian recited the story of Lefanta Aegim, his voice became light and seeped into [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim].

The light that seeped in turned into legible words, taking its place within the epic.

-Long, long ago.

-There were people who lived upon the corpse left behind by the death of the primordial Dragon Emperor.

"The Heaven-Slaying Star... set foot on the twentieth floor, which you now own."

-They wished for a hero.

-For there was no hero among them.

"It was there that he began a journey that would pierce through the world."

-They made their wish to a god.

-The god granted their wish.

"It was a journey to found a nation..."

The Librarian gazed down at the book, which was gradually beginning to emit a pure white light like the other apocalypses, almost as though he feared it.

"And now, the Heaven-Slaying Star resides on the fiftieth floor."

The fiftieth floor.

The same location my attendant spirit had given for the Heaven-Slaying Star.

"Here... lies a problem. You have yet to clear your way to the fiftieth floor. You have not yet left the [beginner zone]. And higher floors might be another matter, but [the fiftieth floor] is truly a special place... Sending beginners to the fiftieth floor is strictly, most stringently forbidden."

Those words startled even the others, who had been listening in breathless silence.

"Everything at or below the fiftieth floor is the beginner zone?"

"After everything we went through to get this far..."

I wasn't surprised.

I had long known that the first ten floors were considered a tutorial. My attendant spirit had also told me that from the fiftieth floor onward, we would compete with hunters from other worlds.

'Put another way, not competing with otherworldly hunters before the fiftieth floor must be a measure to protect beginners.'

Having thought that far, I spoke.

"When you say it's forbidden, does that mean you can't send us up to the fiftieth floor under any circumstances?"

The Librarian's face crumpled again.

"That... is not so. If the one sending you... the administrator pays the price, it becomes possible."

"Then it doesn't matter. You're going to pay the price, aren't you?"

"A-At least..."

The Librarian was on the verge of tears.

"At least limit the number to one, Kim Gongja. You alone..."

"... All right."

Even without such a desperate plea from the Librarian, I had intended to face Lefanta Aegim alone.

"Send me to the fiftieth floor."

The Librarian squeezed his eyes shut.

"... Do not regret this."

"I'm going so I won't have regrets."

Hearing my firm answer, the Librarian gave up. With a trembling hand, he stroked the cover of [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim]. Then he whispered in a drained voice,

"Death King, I designate you a character in [The Epic of Lefanta Aegim]..."

At that moment.

[Warning!]

[Abnormal access has been detected.]

[A penalty will be imposed on the 'Shut-In Librarian'.]

A fierce voice slammed into my head. The Librarian flinched. Apparently, he had heard the voice as well. Yet, though his shoulders trembled, he did not stop speaking.

"I invoke my authority."

[This is another warning.]

[A penalty will be imposed on the 'Shut-In Librarian'.]

The Librarian drew a breath.

"It matters not. Go, Death King. ... And show me the sight of you together with the Heaven-Slaying Star."

A brilliant flash of white light enveloped my vision.

[Abnormal access has been detected.]

Even as everything before my eyes turned white, the warnings rang out without pause.

[Warning!]

[The Protection of the God of Beauty bestowed upon you is suspended.]

[You can no longer observe others' affinity!]

[The Protection of the Serpent God bestowed upon you is suspended.]