Library (163) (Patreon)

"No, not this one… " Ainz pulled out a book from the shelves, glancing through it as quickly as he could before setting it aside, finding nothing of interest inside it, or at best gibberish. "No… "

As the huge stacks of books beside him suggested, Ainz had been in the secret archives for hours. As the number of discarded books stacked, he had put them aside on the floor so as not to confuse them with those he had not yet looked through. A number that was rapidly dwindling by the minute. "No, not this one either… Why is it so hard to find books for beginners! They should’ve been as common as dirt!"

The secret archives of the Clock Tower held many books, stacked in bookshelves located in several halls. Dozens and hundreds of manuscripts, the rarity, and value of each, that even Medea or Da Vinci could not hide their interest if they should find one.

Though, it is unlikely that even Da Vinci would have even attempted something like Ainz was doing.

The most varied of treatise, the most powerful, and the most forbidden. Tens and hundreds of volumes, works that many mages had considered forever lost, grimoires that for many mages had become an object of fixation, or even an unattainable dream. All of them could be found in this archive. Works which Ainz, once he'd quickly run through the first pages, simply put aside like trash. "Not this one either… How long have I been under here?"

As an undead, Ainz had no physical sense of fatigue, and his ability to suppress strong emotions, had blunted any sense of frustration that might have stopped him in his quest. But, even with all that, his mental exhaustion nonetheless kept piling up. "Once again, a no-go…"

Ainz had already made his way around several such halls, browsing through the books one by one, and yet he could not find one book that he could use. Of course, among them, there were some that looked like textbooks that taught some magecraft or other, but they were still no good. Even if Ainz was somewhat interested in any of these books that described clearly why a particular spell could be used, and how exactly it caused an effect, they all used information that Ainz did not possess!

Is it so hard for any of the books to have a glossary or something!?

What the hell is a Magical Crest? Why do they keep popping up in the books and without any explanation to what they are? What even are Magic Circuits? And Magical Formulas? Books that told him from the beginning that he had to be at least of the rank of ‘Pride’ to even try to cast this spell? Was it really a condition for using the spell, was it a description of something, a boast? The Bartomeloi family, who were they?

Even though Ainz was undead, all the same, he could feel himself slowly continuing to sink into the abyss of depression with every book he read, in which he rarely understood anything beyond the first page, if that.

"Do all the people of this world know about this sort of thing?" Ainz sighed, "Well, I suppose that’s possible, I didn't even graduate high school in my world… "

Of course, in the distant future of his world, the information that could fit into four years of elementary education far exceeded both in volume and depth what was studied in the elementary school of the current world. So, it could not be said that Ainz was that much inferior to the common man of the current world who had not graduated from a specialized institution. And, even without higher education, through his interaction with his Guild friends and the life experience he has, Ainz actually has quite a good knowledge base.

Especially for his world and his position in that world.

But it was true, that regarding mages and magecraft, much less when compared to the people who might have visited the secret archives of the Clock Tower in search of any secret knowledge hidden here, Ainz really did not possess even the most basic knowledge that every mage of this world absorbed in their very early childhood.

Of course, he hadn't looked at all the books stored in these archives yet. But so far, checking hundreds of such books already, the closest thing he found that looked like something he could use was something that rather reminded Ainz of university textbooks that he had opened several times in his past life. And even then, Ainz would rather say that it didn't look like a full textbook, but rather more like someone would use to study some subject in depth. Certainly better than nothing, but understanding such a textbook without having basic information would be an exercise in frustration.

"It seems that lately I've been doing nothing but regretting my reputation as an all-knowing boss." Ainz exhaled.

Here, while Ainz was waffling about, stuck, Olga-Marie continued to learn. Well, or rather, she had, as she was learning under Medea, which is another strike against him. He shouldn’t have taken Medea to the Singularity with him. But even so, Ainz doesn’t think that Olga would be helpless without Medea, she probably found a way to continue her training anyway.

Olga was able to improve, because from the beginning, Olga-Marie wasn't ashamed to admit that she was weaker and understood less about local magic than the Servants.

Ainz, on the other hand…

Well, he wasn't weaker than the Servants, but he clearly knew less than them, especially in the subject of Magecraft. But, unfortunately, in his haste and when he was under the impression that he was surrounded by threats and needed to act, an image of unassailability seemed the most appropriate behavior for him.

I mean, it would be much better for him if his Servants had chosen to follow him on their own will, confident that he knew everything, wouldn't it? At least that's what it had seemed to him in the past.

Now, unfortunately, he couldn't even see a way out of the hole he had dug himself in. At least not in a way that wouldn’t destroy his standing with the Servants and the people of Chaldea. And so, he now found himself in a situation where he couldn’t even ask the most basic of questions because everyone already assumed that he knew such things already!

Come to think of it, what did he even know?

Well, there are Mages, Servants, and a serendipity where the people around him luckily spoke Japanese.

Ainz blinked, wait, something about that seemed out of place. When he first came to this world, how come everyone speaks Japanese? Chaldea was supposed to be an international organization, right? So why is everyone speaking Japanese?

Actually, now that he thinks about it, doesn’t it seem strange that he could communicate with anyone at all in the previous Singularities!?

French is the official language in France, isn't it? But he had communicated in Japanese in his time there without even noticing the difference! And the Servants? The Servants also all communicated in Japanese! But among them there were heroes that were Greeks, French, English, Irish, and even Romans.

Of course, Ainz knew some English, enough to express his thoughts at least, as in his world English was still an international language, quite useful when he’s trawling the internet. But, not everyone in the world knew English, and Ainz himself definitely did not know the language to the level where he might start speaking it without even noticing the fact.

And he certainly didn't know how to speak French, much less… What language did they use in ancient Rome? Latin? He absolutely did not know Latin!

Ainz slowly raised his hand to his forehead, just now realizing that a facet of reality was not what it previously seemed to be. Fortunately, his suppression of emotion prevents him from breaking out in panic.

What language was everyone around Ainz even speaking? Was it the effect of the Singularities and the nature of the Servants that he could understand them in the first place? Or maybe Ainz himself only thought he was communicating in Japanese, while he was in fact speaking some other language?

Now that he’s starting to question his memory, a lot of discrepancies keep popping up. All the so-called ‘basic’ information that Ainz was acting on at the moment, how did he know them? About the Servants, the fact that magic existed in this world, the fact that this world was inhabited exclusively by humans, or even the fact that he could do what he could do. That he possessed the powers of his Avatar, that he possessed three Noble Phantasm, what they could do, and how to invoke them, even when he had never heard of a ‘Noble Phantasm’… Where did such information come from? He was very sure of such information, and yet… How did he know that?

He just got it out of nowhere the very moment he was in this world, after all. Where did he get it from? Someone or something had happened, and suddenly, the moment he had regained consciousness lying in the Chaldea on the floor, he was already aware of such facts.

No, it was a moment later. He didn't open his eyes having such knowledge implanted in his head, it happened one moment after he regained consciousness. Did it mean anything?

The suppression of emotion calmed the panic rising in Ainz' soul, but it did not answer his questions.

In a normal situation… Well, normally, Ainz wouldn't consider rebirth in another world a normal situation in any sense. But Ainz could imagine that if he had found himself in such a situation, he should have taken an interest in his surroundings and condition first. To see to the condition of his body, or where he had found himself in. And, when he found that he had possessed the powers of his YGGDRASIL Avatar, to find the reason as to why. To find the reason why he has his powers and magic from the game, to find out about his Noble Phantasm, about some new ability that he got out of nowhere, but…

He hadn't.

He had received information about the world around him from nowhere and for some reason became completely at ease with it, taking such information as a given. All while Ainz himself was well aware that, the first thing he should have done after receiving a lot of information from an unknown source, a source that somehow managed to get into his head and access his memory, was to check the veracity of such information.

The suppression of emotion activated once more, causing Ainz to exhale and stop the ever-increasing spiral of panic.

Indeed, he had received information that was completely incompatible with his past knowledge, a feeling, even a worldview, that for some reason he had simply taken it on faith, but there was really nothing Ainz could do about it. He had no sources of information about such things and no way to compare it with what he knew, so out of his usual understanding of the world his circumstances are. But, it wasn't that important at the moment.

Of course, once he got his hands on an opportunity to investigate such matters, he would take it. After all, if something was able to transport him to another world and change his mind at will, what would stop it from doing it again?

Ainz was certainly no hardened atheist, but he had always thought that people were too small and insignificant for God, whatever he was, to personally interfere in their lives. But if anything could really combine the mind of Satoru Suzuki from twenty-second century Japan with his game avatar and transport them both to a new world entirely, in a different time, and where powerful magicians and even gods existed…  Then it was indeed proof that there was some powerful and paranormal force capable of doing so.

Whether Ainz's transference was some incredible coincidence or a real intelligent plan of an intelligent being remained a question.

Ainz sighed slowly, before rubbing his head. Although he was someone who enjoyed coming up with battle plans in various settings, no matter how complex or rare, it couldn’t be said that he liked puzzles. So, this unexpectedly far-reaching mental exercise about the reality of his situation took a significant portion of his mental stamina and severely thwarted his enthusiasm for finding the world's textbooks on magic.

Besides, no matter how hard Ainz had searched, he had failed to find anything even remotely resembling a simple textbook with the basic concepts of the mages of this world explained within it. Of course, there was the possibility that after five hundred books he had checked out, the five hundred and first would be what he was looking for, but Ainz himself was not so sure of that.

And while he was comfortable with grinding, completing some actions over and over again or the same quests hundreds of times, he was not actually as mentally dead as his actual physical shell suggested. He could still be assailed by boredom and disappointment.

After the short reflection, which coincidentally also dealt a pretty good blow to his mood, Ainz realized that it seemed that luck was not on his side today after all. And that he would not be able to find that one simple book for learning magic.

"One of the rare cases, where even in all of Nazarick's treasury, you probably won't find something. A very unwelcome surprise, since I’m pretty sure that we had collected almost every book under the YGGDRASIL’s sun." Ainz sighed.

Of course, the library of Nazarick had many, hundreds and thousands of different items in the form of books. Books that had become quite real and readable after his mysterious transfer into this world, ones that he could pluck out of the vast libraries of Nazarick with a thought. But still, most of them were not actually textbooks, but simply journals, or some tome detailing an obscure piece of lore. In the rare case where he found bona fide textbooks, they were written in such tooth-achingly purple prose or used such complex concepts that Ainz himself had no idea what they were talking about. Which made their usefulness as educational literature iffy at best.

Just in case, Ainz had checked even the lowest leveled such items in his inventory thoroughly. The Apprentice Record Pages, which was one of the bonus items given out after a failed gacha roll, was coincidentally in the form of a book. And seeing that its effect was lackluster, providing a small random buff for a minute, Ainz was quite sure that the book’s contents would be something he could understand. After all, who would put esoteric knowledge in such a low-leveled item?

But even in this pile of pages, Ainz saw nothing interesting, it was something like a personal journal-cum-notebook about some low level spells, which also told Ainz nothing about anything. Who was Io, anyway? There were no NPCs by that name in Yggdrasil. Maybe a Player, but Ainz himself didn't know of such a Player.

Anyway, Ainz wasn't sure, but as far as he remembered he'd never seen anything like a treatise on Basic Magics, Magic 101, or even Magic for Dummies in his inventory or in Nazarick's treasury. Perhaps, if he dug into the latter more, he might be able to find something like that, but just at the image of trying to root through the piles and piles of unsorted treasure, it gave him a headache.

Hmm, actually, wasn’t there that one quest? Some starter quest that the Noob Human Players wrote in the forum? A quest where they need to pick up some book for a village boy that wanted to become a mage? Maybe such a book might be usable for Ainz now… But never mind the fact that it was a quest item, the quest for it must only be possible for Human Race Players, so no one from Ainz Ooal Gown would probably ever be able to collect anything like that. If such a Quest actually exists, of course.

In other words, it was one of those rare cases where even Ainz's nature as a collector and curmudgeon couldn't help him get the item.

Anyway, after scouring the halls of the Clock Tower’s secret library, Ainz had come to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't find anything like that here either. A disappointing outcome. After all, he had spent many hours searching for information of interest to him, and now he would leave empty-handed.

Ainz thought about what he should do next for a second, then shrugged his shoulders. Well, he was here already, might as well take all the books with him. Of course, it was not that he wanted to spoil relations with the magical association of this world, but he could not leave the secret archives of the Clock Tower empty-handed. So, he looked at the books stacked around him, sighed and began to collect the books, shoving each and every one of them into his inventory.

At least, even if he didn't find anything interesting in them later, he could still give them to Olga-Marie, she obviously knew better than Ainz about all this. And besides, it was normal to give gifts to a girl with whom you were in a relationship with, wasn't it?

In the end, after collecting all the books he could find in the general archives, Ainz took a deep breath, disappointed at the things he was collecting. Dusty books that he doesn’t see the use for.

Of course, he'd be happier with some local artifacts that he could use. But magic books weren't a bad treasure to collect, either. After all, the people of the Clock Tower seem to think that they’re valuable, so maybe they might actually be worth something. Really, the feeling that he'd just snuck into someone else's personal library and stolen all the valuable stuff out of there didn't leave him.

It was great.

I mean, it wasn't that he was afraid to do such a thing. If he had to, Ainz was resolved to fight his way to the Archives, to the books waiting for him. Even killing some people along the way. But that was unnecessary, so he was then enveloped by a feeling of disappointment and frustration when he failed to find the books he wanted.

But now? Hmm, some strange feeling arose in Ainz's soul the moment he saw the rooms and all the shelves in the surrounding cabinets were now picked clean and completely empty.

I mean, Ainz wanted to take two or three books at a time, secretly and to leave no traces. But because he couldn't find anything suitable, and couldn't really appreciate at a glance the value of the books whose contents he could not read, he had to take everything. Once he’s done, and all the bookshelves were empty, he felt some sense of accomplishment and even guilt for some reason?

"Even though I realize it's not true, it still feels like I just took all the valuables from a well-to-do family, leaving them destitute… " Ainz exhaled, then shook his head. "Okay, if not for practical use, at least for my own peace of mind… I should leave something."

With that, Ainz slipped his hand into his inventory again.

He had many YGGDRASIL items that had been turned into books or records of some sort after he had been moved to the new world, perhaps even too many. Which was a problem in and of itself, since there was no way for Ainz to curate them in any appreciable amount of time.

Still, Ainz had at least managed to realize that his high-level items, in this world at least, were too powerful to be just given away to random people. But at the same time, he didn't want to part with a lot of low-level items either. After all, it was the low-level items in his inventory that were the least in numbers. Their use had long outgrown him, and therefore he didn’t really have a lot of opportunity to restock them…

Ainz didn't want to give away all the low-level items he had accumulated over the years. Besides, he definitely has no desire to personally arrange every item he has to see if he has a lot of them or not, even less the books he has on his inventory… Maybe in the future?

"Well, just by logical deduction alone, I think that the items that I have the most of, must be the mid-level items?" Ainz wondered. "Let's hope that a level sixty item won't be a problem."

After that, Ainz pulled out a book from his inventory, which, looking at it, absolutely anyone, even non-mages, could easily say, that ‘This is absolutely an ancient powerful Grimoire’. It looked ominous enough to appear so, at least?

It was a large, heavy book in thick, light leather binding. And it was better not to think where the leather used to create this binding was procured from. It was upholstered in a bright purple, almost sparkling and pulsating metal in the corners, curled in beautiful patterns depicting dragons, demons, angels, humans and a variety of other subjects. It was so ostentatious, that even if the archives was still full of books, it left no chance for even the casual observer to miss such a book.

Embossed with the same strange metal as the book itself, were the title of the book, folded into the words ‘The Great Atlas of World Magic’.

Ainz himself, of course, had glanced through the book. After all, it was called an ‘Atlas’, so there was some chance that it might serve him as a textbook. But to his dismay, the contents inside were written in such complicated language that Ainz closed the book before he could finish reading the second paragraph.

Besides, despite its pompous name, in the game itself it was only a level sixty item. Which, when used, gave the player a choice of several different spells from various schools of ninth-tier magic. After which the player could cast it with the effect that it would have as if a wizard of about level sixty had cast them, after which the book would disappear completely. In other words, it was something completely useless.

Never mind the fact that a rank nine spell cast by a level sixty Player, constitutes barely as a tickle to a Hundred-level player, the fact that the artifact had a strict one use capability, made it totally useless. Sure, the breadth of magic that could be cast using the item might give it, with a stretch, some tactical use, its low-leveled effect would not make any Player even the least bit more effective in combat.

Besides, even though it was a low-level artifact for Ainz, he kept at least ten copies of such a book simply because quality level one hundredth artifacts were very hard to find. And, usually, the most mass-produced equipment in Yggdrasil was something that ranged between level sixty and eightieth.

In other words, it was an artifact that Ainz found easiest to part with.

So after calming his mind, which was raging that he might need it someday in the future, Ainz placed the Atlas on a nearby shelf, and then proceeded to collect all the other books stored in the library.

***

Slowly, Mashu followed behind Medea, who seemed completely unconcerned about their current situation. “Caster…”

Medea, either not hearing or, equally likely, simply choosing to ignore Mashu, only continued to move forward, immersed in her thoughts, sometimes voicing out snippets. “Hmm, and yet, how did he do it…”

“Caster!" Mashu tried to get Medea's attention, shouting after her, paying heed to her strange surroundings.

Everything about the current situation was confusing to Mashu. The people around her, the environment, the sky above her head, the conditions of the Singularity, the fact that Cu Chulainn Alter had just revealed his secrets about his army to them, his passivity. But foremost of all, there was something else that was still confusing Mashu.

“Mashu,” Medea, who finally raised her gaze to the girl walking behind her, looked at her with some irritation. “Is there something so important that you need to shout?”

‘Well, actually, yes’ - Galahad sighed in Mashu's mind, with Mashu in full agreement with his sarcastic tone, though she did not dare to voice it to Medea. “We… Why are we still here? Shouldn’t we be joining the others now?”

To these words, Medea only blinked in surprise, wondering why Mashu was asking something so obvious. As if she was trying to comprehend or identify the secret meaning of Mashu’s question, before slowly answering. “Because something is still holding the Singularity together? That is our mission, no?”

“No, I'm not talking about the Singularity…” Mashu immediately tried to make her point, trying her best to ignore Medea’s sarcastic tone. “But about, well… Cu Chulainn Alter.”

Indeed, from Mashu and Galahad's point of view, what was troubling them was not in the specific Servants and conditions of the Singularity. But after Medea had given full information about Cu Chulainn's forces and received confirmation that Edison and his army had begun their advance, Medea and Mashu simply stayed in the city where Cu Chulainn Alter was. All without making any attempt to do anything else.

In other words, Mashu had two questions. First, why were they still in the camp of the enemy, whom apparently they were going to attack with the other Servants. And second, why are they doing nothing else in the camp of the enemy, even assuming they were supposed to be here.

Apparently aware of Mashu's musings, Medea blinked, looking at Mashu as if she was looking at something strange, then closed her eyes and exhaled

‘How can just exhaling her breath sound so caustic and mocking? How could she put so much emotion behind performing a basic human function!’  Mashu couldn't tell exactly what emotion was in Galahad's voice now. Was it anger, surprise, or admiration? Still, she couldn't disagree with whatever it is Galahad was feeling, as she felt the same way.

“Mashu, I have a certain pride in my ability of observation, but if I'm wrong, I hope you'll correct my mistake," Medea looked slowly from Mashu's face to her hands. "Do you have the ability to teleport?”

“No," Mashu answered back.

“As much as it galls me to say, I have to tell you that I don't either,” Medea sighed after these words, before continuing. “At least not at the moment.”

“But, as it were, Mashu, what distance separates this place from Edison's? More than two thousand miles, about two and a half  to be exact. And Mashu, even if we decide to exhaust all our strength and move at the fastest possible speed we could without pausing for sleep or rest, it would take us at least two days of uninterrupted running, to reach them. After which we would both need another day or two of rest. If we're to go about it in a more leisurely manner, it would take about a week. After which, reaching Edison’s camp, we'd have to go all the way back here to destroy what or whoever is causing this Singularity. Something which is at arm's length away from us at the moment.” Medea paused to see if Mashu was following, before continuing.

“It would take Edison himself… Maybe two days to get all his forces here? Given his power and training, and by the morning of the third, he'd then, potentially, probably, be ready to attack. In other words, before the attack begins, if we want to participate in the attack, all we have to do is go to Edison's side… Without having to run around the whole continent with unknown targets…”

Mashu lowered her gaze dejectedly.

‘That was a lot of derogatory words where it wasn't necessary…’ - Galahad sounded almost supportive in Mashu's head, causing her to sigh.

Medea, however, looked at Mashu, or rather the sadness with which she looked down, and thought about something for a second before she very slowly sucked in air, exhaled just as slowly, and yet continued to speak through sheer force. Doing something that was anathema to her entire being. Apologizing. "Okay… Maybe… I should have told you about this earlier…”

Mashu, feeling the tears of hurt almost evaporate in her eyes, slowly looked up, causing Medea only to look away. “Well, don't look at me like that. To hell with it, let's just go to the library.”

“What?" Mashu, not quite sure exactly what she'd heard, blinked in surprise before asking Medea what she meant. "Um… The library?”

I mean, sure, Medea was a mage, so she must have had some predilection for visiting libraries, but Mashu clearly hadn't expected such a strange decision, especially since…  “We're in a state now… that is ruled by a Celtic berserker king?”

“So what?" Medea glanced at Mashu again before sighing again. “We are also in the United States, where modern magi, at the dawn of their migration here, used the Library of Congress as a repository for local magical writings. Anything they brought from Europe or could get from the locals, really. Cu Chulainn would not have added anything to this library, but looking at his actions, or rather, his inaction - do you think he would have destroyed it?”

Mashu blinked, then slowly shook her head from side to side.

“Then I'd at least be interested in visiting this place,” Medea sighed. “I've even heard that the place was used to store textbooks for the basic study of some schools of magic. Though, there’s no use for such things in Chaldea. Why did they even bother gathering them in the first place? Who could possibly benefit from such basic writings…”

If Ainz had heard Medea's last words, not even the Akasha Chronicles could have answered the question of what his reaction would have been.

***

Report by a journalism student, subject "History of Journalism," page 7:

… The aforementioned Black King, even when being nothing more than a newspaper hoax created to build up the popularity of the newspapers themselves, nevertheless caught on with the public. With each telling becoming more detailed. Originally they were some silent figure in silver armor on which one could discern red patterns embossed on it, and on whose head were horns, resembling a beast whose appearance was heralded by red lightning from the sky. Such an image is certainly something memorable, something capable of settling firmly in the reader's mind that now wishes to buy each issue. Which betrays its real identity as a hoax, to drive readers into trying to find out exactly what happened to his favorite hero and where once again his trail could be found.

However, even with such a fantastic and brazen fiction, the newspaper of the time understood that for too long the same image could not excite the same readers. And so, very quickly the image of the ‘Black King’, which at this time was rather a red one, began to change rapidly. Soon, more and more fantastic details were added. That it was actually a beautiful young girl behind the black knight's armor. That she has a stern and cold gaze while wielding her anthracite-black blade fastened on her belt.

The memorable image superimposed with the mysterious fog attracted the readers' attention like nothing else. Even the destruction of several houses during the onset of a storm was attributed to this ‘legend’. It didn’t take long for supposed ‘witnesses’ to appear, each claiming to see such a figure during and after the incident. Each recounting that they saw a form similar to the canonically accepted ‘Black King’. Which is very ironic, given that in this case the title ‘King’ was used in relation to the girl, the audience ignored such discrepancy, as they were completely fascinated…