"Um, are you all right......?"
"......."
The girl was trembling, but even in her disheveled state she gave off an air no one could easily lay a hand on.
Sunlight slipping through the gap in the window glinted off her blond hair, and her eyes, wet with nerves, looked somehow mysterious.
"...I-I'm... fine."
She was far too young for a librarian.
She was a young lady with a sculpted look, standing somewhere on the border between girl and woman.
"Would you like some water or something?"
"Thank you......."
She took his grimy canteen without hesitation.
That's mine, though.
Aren't young ladies supposed to be sensitive about indirect kisses with the opposite sex?
Gulp, gulp.
Every time her throat moved, golden strands slid down her cheek.
No shampoo, and yet her hair is this silky and thick? Is she even the same species as me?
"Pwah."
"Did something happen between you and Aicolman?"
"......."
Even the way the water dripped from between her lips was noble.
They said the crime of kidnapping young ladies and selling them as slaves was rampant, but it seemed like this young lady couldn't be sold even if you kidnapped her.
She gave off such a distinct, noble air that making her a slave felt somehow like committing a sin.
But seeing even a lady that proper nearly faint at the Archmage's name, Aicolman seemed impressive all over again.
In a bad way.
"The Archmage, at the Imperial Palace......."
"By any chance, did Aicolman do something to you?"
"W-well, that's."
The girl's lips twitched, and she avoided his gaze.
"No matter how much of a psycho he is, hitting a woman—"
Adam hurriedly changed his words.
Thinking it over again, it wasn't entirely impossible.
"Well, sometimes he does hit people. Still, that kind of thing is probably rare. By any chance, did he turn all of your parents into trees, or kill them, or something?"
"I did go through something similar, but it has nothing to do with that."
Damn.
I was just joking, but she tells me she went through something similar.
What am I supposed to say now?
An awkward silence sank into the archive's dusty air.
He'd tried to bond over Aicolman, but instead he'd stepped on a record-breaking landmine.
"Hehe, it's a personal matter, so you don't need to worry about it."
"You're very considerate."
"More importantly, what's your relationship with the Archmage?"
She asked with a kindly smile.
In that brief silence, he ran the numbers in his head.
Telling a clumsy lie just because she seemed to have a bad history with Aicolman was an amateur's move.
"I'm Aicolman's slave."
The girl's pupils widened visibly.
"A-a slave?!"
There was something he'd learned from rolling around as a slave for 10 years.
The more shameful something is, the more you should say it seriously, without treating it as something to be ashamed of.
Then at least the other person would take you seriously too.
The problem was that once she realized she'd just drunk a slave's water, she might throw up.......
Fortunately, the young lady in front of him didn't seem to be the kind of noble who saw slaves as the same as livestock.
"A slave... How did a slave get into the Imperial Palace?"
"I showed them a letter of recommendation and they let me in."
"Then the Archmage's slave came all the way to the Imperial Palace on a recommendation?"
"That's how it turned out."
At Adam's answer, her eyes went wide.
"Are you surprised?"
"Y-yes, yes, honestly, really, really......."
She put her hand on her chest and let out a deep breath.
"My goodness... I see."
"I'm sorry."
Adam bowed his head.
Then she carefully lifted Adam's face with both hands.
His face filled her eyes, clear as sapphires.
"There's no need to apologize! The person in front of me turns out to be amazing!"
"Amazing? Me?"
"Of course. This is the first time in my life I've seen a case like this! That man's notoriety is famous even in the Imperial Palace. A slave, and on top of that recommended by that Archmage. It's an incredibly rare case."
She was like a teenage girl seeing a celebrity for the first time.
Not that she wasn't actually about that age.
"Could you tell me more?"
She pushed aside the book she'd been reading and pulled Adam over to the desk.
Chin in her hand, she stared straight at Adam, her eyes full of curiosity.
In the silent archive, there was only the sound of the two of them breathing.
"By the way, since you came on a recommendation, are you by any chance an exam applicant?"
"Yes."
"Really? That's wonderful!"
The young lady clapped her hands like a child.
"Actually, I came for this Recruitment Exam too!"
In that instant, Adam's brows drew together.
An applicant for the Palace exam meant a competitor of his.
"I was nervous being alone, so I'm glad I met another applicant for the same exam!"
"Glad? Even though the two of us have to compete?"
"Yes, what about it?"
Just how much of a flower field is in her head?
Is she a little slow?
Just as Adam was having that rude thought, the young lady looked Adam up and down.
"More importantly, you seem to have some business here?"
"That's......."
Adam thought for a moment.
He couldn't exactly answer honestly, 'I came to find a grimoire!'
You can't just tell a competitor your abilities outright.
"Ahh, you're an Arcanist."
"......!"
His heart dropped.
"How did you figure that out?"
When he snapped at her sharply, showing hostility, her slender finger pointed at the curse carved on the back of Adam's hand.
"Because of the magic circle on the back of your hand. Arcanists should keep their magic circles covered. It gives away your weapon."
"...Thank you for the advice."
He resolved to at least wear gloves from now on.
But if she's a competitor, she could just stay quiet.
Why is this woman being so kind?
"Then you must have come here to look for magic circle texts."
"You could say that."
No, if anything, that was closer to the heart of it.
To solve the curse with magic circles.
For now he'd adopted mana stones as a stopgap, but without mana stones, he'd start a new life as the worst kind of terrorist who could burn down a library in seconds.
Then it'd be life on the run again.
Insomnia.
Even living like a mountain hermit.
Adam absolutely did not want to go back to those days.
"Then shall I teach you a few?"
The girl said calmly.
"Are you an Arcanist too?"
"No. But I've learned a few things, and since we've met like this, I'd like to teach you what I know."
"What are you thinking?"
"It's lonely being alone."
She added with a bitter smile.
"Everyone says to go into the Recruitment Exam thinking of everyone as an enemy. But I'm the type who has a hard time adjusting to that kind of atmosphere. I thought I'd feel a little more at ease if I had someone I was close to......."
The young lady held her hand out to Adam.
In truth, Adam was the kind of person who felt more at ease with at least one person he knew, too.
"If I said I'm making a friend through knowledge, would you believe me?"
Adam looked at the hand blankly.
The other party was a noble, a young lady with a brain sharp enough to even teach magic circles.
At first he'd called her head a flower field, but in truth, it was Adam who'd been the idiot acting like he'd mastered all the world's affairs.
Realizing that in his second life he'd been dumber than a much younger girl, Adam took her hand with humility.
"...All right."
"Yay!"
The young lady's face brightened with a sweet smile.
But it's rougher than I expected.
Unlike her noble air, her hands were covered in calluses.
"Let's do our best together, Adam!"
In that instant, Adam tilted his head.
"Did I tell you my name?"
"Yes! You did. You said Adam Sanchez."
Did I?
Well, there's no way anyone in the Imperial Palace would know my name anyway.
"What's your name, my lady?"
At the question, she hesitated a little before telling him her name.
"I'm... Ether."
Ether.
Haven't I heard that somewhere a lot?
It's a pretty common name in this world, so I must have met someone with the same name.
"I'll be at the library every day until the exam. If you come to the archive in the meantime, I'll teach you all sorts of things."
After saying that, she smiled like an angel and bowed her head.
If it weren't for the nerve-racking situation where he might say something wrong to a noble, it was a smile anyone would fall in love with.
***
5 days remaining until the Imperial Palace Recruitment Exam.
Adam went to the archive without missing a single day, but Ether was always there, so he couldn't read the grimoire.
No matter what, he couldn't show her the grimoire.
But the knowledge he gained from Ether was greater than any grimoire.
"How about trying this one this time?"
"There are a crazy number of kinds of magic circles, huh?"
"Of course! That's both the strength and the weakness for an Arcanist. There are plenty of versatile magic circles, but only a limited number of them you can actually use!"
Every day, Ether gifted Adam a long lecture.
Thanks to that, he learned that there were many kinds of magic circles besides the 'Time Extension' magic circle.
For example, you could shrink the area of attack to concentrate power on a single point, or reduce a spell's power to the extreme to increase its versatility.
Magic circles were a zero-sum game.
What you sacrificed came back to you as returns.
If he used this structure well, he might be able to reduce the amount of mana stones the magic circle gobbled up.
"Ether, you seem to be deeply versed in magic."
"Not really. It's all just knowledge I've picked up here and there."
Amazingly, all this knowledge came not from books but from her head.
"That's far too detailed for knowledge you just picked up. Are you a mage by any chance?"
"Ehehe, it's hard to say. I'm neither a knight nor a mage, just a mongrel of sorts."
Why is her self-esteem so low?
Ether knew far more than those nobles who'd raised a fuss about becoming Aicolman's disciple.
"A mongrel? Thanks to you, I learned several times faster than when I studied alone. To me at least, Ether, you're a good person."
"...Then we're allies on exam day too, right?"
"Today's alliance was the best choice of my life!"
At Adam's over-the-top flattery, Ether was delighted like a child again.
She was quite an unusual person.
It was common sense that slaves were thought of as mere objects, yet she was a noble using polite speech with a slave.
'Is it that much of a problem not to know anyone at the exam hall?'
Adam didn't think too deeply about it.
Ether had taught Adam a lot.
Mindful of the debt between people, Adam accepted her too.
And so, until the promised day came, no one but the two of them came to the archive.
***
"Ch-Chairman!"
The day of the Recruitment Exam.
The vice-chairman of the Exam Management Committee roughly threw the door open and came in.
"What is it?"
The fierce-looking chairman glared toward the door.
"I have good news and bad news."
He glared at his subordinate with bulging eyes as if asking whether he was joking around, but the chairman played along.
"Haah, what's the good news?"
"With the news that the Archmage has come, interest in the Recruitment Exam has risen especially high!"
The chairman smiled with satisfaction.
Even as good news went, it was an absolute jackpot.
"Good. The Third Princess actually pulled off something big for once."
"Right. So after getting final confirmation from Her Highness, I went to her room to see if there was anything she needed."
"Mm-hm, yes."
"Here's the bad news."
"Hm?"
"10 minutes before the exam, the Third Princess disappeared."
"What? Are you kidding me right now?"
The chairman shot to his feet.
His head throbbed at the carelessness of a subordinate who reported a major incident like a princess going missing as mere 'bad news.'
"You bastard! If she's gone, you tell me right away! What the hell is all this good news, bad news crap!"
The chairman, who'd sprung up immediately, grabbed his subordinate by the collar.
"I just didn't want you to be too shocked......."
"Enough! Retrace the last places she usually was!"
"S-sorry, sir! But we don't keep watch on her all the time, so we don't know where she is either!"
The subordinate repeated his apologies until his voice went hoarse.
"Then where has Her Highness been going often lately? She's been training a lot lately, for once. Start searching there!"
"No, sir. The place the Third Princess has frequented lately is......."
The committee subordinate rolled his eyes around in thought and recalled the place she'd been coming and going from lately.
"The archive, I think?"
"The archive?"
The chairman frowned sharply.
That place was practically a storeroom, with nothing but dust flying around and no books worth reading.
"Why there?"
"Her Highness ordered that no one be allowed into the archive for a week."