The Great Sage Maurva’s Library.
A library containing records of every kind of magic in the world.
I was one of its scribes.
My primary duty was transcribing magic.
Magic possessed power through the incantations themselves, so ordinary parchment would burst into flames the moment a spell was written upon it.
That was why special parchment made using water from a spirit spring was required. Its durability varied depending on its quality, but even the finest parchment would not last more than five years.
So before five years passed, the magic had to be transcribed onto fresh parchment.
And that was my job.
Transcribing magic from one sheet of parchment to another.
In this place, where even the passage of time itself seemed to have died, I endlessly transcribed magic onto parchment.
In the sense that I was preserving magic, it was an extremely important task.
But that was not the grand reason I was here.
- If you want to save your family, you must enter Maurva’s Library.
A promising Royal Mage hailed as a genius and said to be the incarnation of the Great Sage Maurva.
‘Selveus.’
Back when I was merely an ordinary aspiring mage, I happened across a book.
It was a strange grimoire, and I began studying it.
Only later did I discover that the book was a Black Mage’s training manual.
And the moment I realized that, Selveus appeared as though he had been waiting for me.
He told me that merely possessing a Black Mage’s grimoire was enough to have both me and my entire family executed.
As I sank into despair, Selveus made me an offer.
If I spent fifty years transcribing magic in the Mage Tower, he would spare us.
And so, in exchange for the lives of my family and me, I entered Maurva’s Library.
Advanced magic inflicted severe damage on the brain of anyone who was not a sufficiently experienced mage simply from looking at its formulas.
Moreover, because the scribes here recorded every kind of magic in existence, their Circles were destroyed so that they could no longer use magic themselves.
It was to prevent them from abusing any magic they might learn while transcribing it.
That was why runaway mages and mages guilty of serious crimes were imprisoned here forever.
All while clinging to the hope that they might someday leave.
‘But I’m different.’
Unlike them, I had made a deal with Selveus.
If I could endure for just fifty years, I would be allowed to leave.
So I endured like my life depended on it.
Desperately.
And along the way, I learned something.
The magic I was transcribing consisted of Elemental Magic.
And...
‘Black Magic, which is considered a crime even to behold.’
Nearly every form of Black Magic that had ever existed in the world was recorded here, and I had endlessly transcribed all of it.
But I did not care.
All I had to do was get out of this place.
I endured and endured.
Until, at last, today arrived.
Today, I would finally be able to leave this library.
The moment I had waited for finally came.
“What?”
I asked again, my voice blank with disbelief.
“Your execution has been ordered.”
What was he talking about?
Execution?
Mine?
Why...?
“You’ve worked hard all these years.”
A Mage Tower mage wearing a black hood pointed his staff at me.
I could not see his face.
But there was something strangely familiar about his voice.
I had no time to think about that, however.
“W-wait! That’s not what we agreed! Something has gone wrong! Tomorrow, I’m supposed to be released—!”
BOOM!
Before I could finish speaking, a brilliant light flashed from the tip of the mage’s staff.
“Cough!”
At the same moment, air escaped my lungs and a lump of blood burst from my mouth.
“…….”
I slowly lowered my head.
My chest.
There was a massive hole where my heart should have been.
“G-ghk....”
I tried to speak, but only a meaningless, hoarse sound escaped my throat.
“Heh.”
A warped chuckle reached my ears.
“Do you mean to tell me you actually believed it? For all those long years?”
“……?”
“Surely you did not think we would let you leave after you learned that Black Magic exists in this place.”
I stared up at him, my eyes nearly bursting from their sockets.
I could see the lips beneath the hood curling into a twisted smile.
He slowly removed his hood and spoke.
“Would you like to hear something amusing?”
“……?”
Only then did I see his face.
“That book was never a Black Mage’s grimoire.”
“Y-you...!”
It was Selveus.
The man who had imprisoned me here.
As I clutched my chest and stared up at him, he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“What a shame. Truly, such a shame. To possess such talent, only to die so miserably in a place like this.”
Selveus hummed thoughtfully and frowned as though he genuinely regretted it.
“When you get up there, give my regards to your family, who went ahead of you. Ah, although it has been so long that you might not even be able to find them. Your family died fifty years ago.”
Pat. Pat.
He patted me on the shoulder twice, then turned around and walked away without a trace of hesitation.
“You... you bast...”
I desperately reached out, but I could not touch him.
My eyes bulged as I stared at his retreating back.
“Why... Why did you do this to me...?!”
I had been dragged into Maurva’s Library against my will.
When I was told that the book I had happened to discover was a forbidden grimoire, I had been bewildered and furious at the injustice of it all, but I endured for the sake of my family.
The Circle inside my body had been destroyed, and for fifty years, I had endlessly copied magical formulas onto parchment.
Even so, I had been fine.
Because I had the hope that someday, I would be able to leave.
My little sister must be married by now.
I wondered whether Mother was doing well.
And Father, whose health had never been good....
Every night, I fell asleep immersed in such hopes.
I pictured my family’s faces every single day, afraid that I might forget what they looked like after all those years.
One day passed.
Then another.
And another....
Until at last, I believed that tomorrow, I would finally be able to return home.
I believed I would finally be able to see my family again.
“You... you bast...! Cough!”
Still reaching out, I collapsed face-first onto the floor.
My consciousness slowly sank into darkness.
“Wasn’t Scribe No. 582 supposed to leave today?”
A young mage asked his senior.
“Hmm?”
The senior mage gave an incredulous laugh.
“Ah, the ones imprisoned in the library are criminals. They never get out.”
“What? But that man was always muttering that today was the day he would be released.”
When the junior mage asked with a genuinely confused expression, the senior narrowed his eyes.
“You still don’t know how the library scribes are handled?”
At those words, the junior mage immediately straightened his back.
“I-I’m sorry!”
“Good grief.”
The senior sighed as though he had expected as much.
“I’ll explain it just this once. We’re on our way to clean up his room anyway.”
“Yes, understood!”
“None of the library scribes are ever released. Not a single one.”
The junior answered quietly.
“...But they all believe they’ll eventually get out.”
“That’s right. We make them believe it. We even give each of them a specific release date.”
“What does that...?”
While they spoke, they arrived in front of Scribe No. 582’s room.
The senior mage opened the thick iron door.
“...See for yourself what I mean.”
CREEEAK.
The heavy door swung open, revealing the inside.
“Gasp...!”
The junior mage’s face went deathly pale at the sight.
“This is....”
Even the senior mage, who had seemed completely unfazed until then, was startled by what he saw.
A gray-haired man lay collapsed inside the room.
A pool of blood had gathered beneath his feet, and a massive hole had been blasted through his chest.
The senior mage had expected that much.
What startled him was something else.
“A-a demon....”
The junior mage muttered without realizing it.
Was this what a malevolent demon looked like?
The man’s expression was so horribly twisted that it was difficult to believe it belonged to a human face.
It looked like rage and bitter resentment had been given physical form.
Merely looking at it made one’s chest tighten in discomfort.
That hideously distorted expression had frozen solid in death, facing directly toward the door.
The two mages could only stare at him for a long while.
SNAP—
My severed consciousness returned.
At the same time, a cry burst from my mouth without my consent.
“Waaah!”
Waaah?
What kind of sound was that?
Only then did my blurry vision clear.
“It’s a healthy baby boy!”
Nuns dressed in white were looking down at me with bright smiles.
“A son...!”
Behind them stood a man whose face was filled with emotion.
What?
A son?
What in the world was this?
Only then did I notice my body.
Short, chubby arms and legs were wriggling around regardless of my will.
‘What is this...?’
“Waaah!”
I tried to shout in shock, only for another baby’s wail to burst from my throat.
Short limbs.
A baby’s cries that kept coming out regardless of what I wanted.
Could it be...?
Had I been born again?
“Waaah!”
DONG. DONG. DONG.
The cathedral bell tolled three times.
FLAP-FLAP.
A flock of pigeons spread their wings and took to the sky.
As the deep sound of a massive pipe organ echoed through the cathedral, I clasped my hands together and prayed.
As for what I was praying for....
‘...Please allow me to kill Selveus with my own hands.’
It was probably the sort of wish that would have earned me divine punishment if a god heard it.
But I felt as though my mind would not survive unless I prayed for it, even if only like this.
‘Diark.’
That had been my name in my previous life.
But I had abandoned that name long ago.
My name now was ‘Kano Seikri.’
I had been born again.
I had reincarnated while retaining the memories of my previous life.
At first, I could not accept it, but the ten years I had spent living in this body had been more than enough time to come to terms with the truth.
‘How in the world did this happen...?’
I raised my head and looked at the statue of Goddess Mietal.
Black Magic.
The ultimate taboo, something whose practitioner had to be erased from existence merely for learning it.
For fifty years, I had copied Black Magic said to violate divine law.
‘Forgive me.’
I clasped my hands again and quietly offered another prayer.
My sins might deserve condemnation, but I had no intention of repenting in this life.
Black Magic would become my strength.
I was not yet capable of wielding it properly, but that was only a matter of time.
“Kano.”
Selveus.
I would make that bastard suffer something worse than death.
I would tear him limb from limb.
GRIND.
The sound of my teeth grinding echoed through my skull.
‘I’ll make him beg me to kill him....’
“Kano!”
A clear voice rang out, so refreshing that it seemed to spread vibrant energy through the air.
I snapped my head to the side.
The first thing I saw was hair like shimmering waves of gold.
Then I saw the face of a woman with strikingly large, luminous eyes.
She was....
Prel Seikri.
She stared at me with her elegantly arched eyebrows drawn into a deep frown, then poked me in the cheek.
“Your mother is calling you. What are you doing instead of answering?”
“…….”
...She was my mother.
Prel puffed out her cheeks and looked at me with a deliberately angry expression.
“Kano, I told you not to let your mind wander while you’re praying, didn’t I?”
She tried to look stern.
But the corners of her mouth soon twitched upward, and then she suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Ah, you’re so adorable! My Kano. Were you dozing off? You were, weren’t you? How can even the way you fall asleep be so adorable?”
“M-Mom. I-I can’t bweathe...!”
I patted her repeatedly, and only then did Prel loosen her arms.
“Oh my, what was I thinking? Are you all right, Kano?”
I nodded.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
I sighed.
Despite her graceful appearance, Prel had a strong mischievous streak, and she occasionally caught me completely off guard.
‘Well, I probably would have been startled no matter what kind of personality she had.’
My body belonged to a child, but inside it was an old man well past seventy.
Even though I had grown accustomed to it by now, being doted on by someone who had not even lived half as long as I had in my previous life was still uncomfortable.
“That’s good. Such a good boy.”
Prel lightly patted my head.
“Your father is coming home today for the first time in ages, so let’s hurry back.... Oh, honey!”
Prel had been holding my hand and leading me out of the cathedral when she suddenly stopped and blinked at something ahead.
A man stood there beneath the falling light, clad in gleaming white armor.
‘Paladin, Roat Chris.’
A man who had been granted the title of Paladin, a designation reserved for high-ranking Holy Knights.
He was also a monster among monsters who had inherited the surname Chris, which signified the twelfth and final seat among the titles borne by the Knights of the Round Table, said to stand at the pinnacle of both the kingdom and the empire.
That man was Roat.
The father of my current body.
And Roat....
“Your face...!”
Blood was currently running down his face.
The moment Prel saw him, she jumped in alarm and reached out to wipe the blood away.
“Hmm? Ah....”
Roat frowned slightly, then casually pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his face.
“I came straight here after the battle.”
His tone was as cold as ice.
After roughly wiping away the blood, Roat placed a hand on Prel’s shoulder and gave her a faint smile.
“Thank you for worrying about me. It’s nothing. It isn’t my blood.”
His voice had been warm, but his gaze suddenly turned cold.
“It’s the filthy blood of those loathsome Black Mages.”
...He hated Black Mages with every fiber of his being.