CH 18

I pushed the bookshelf in front of us. "Is this possible?" Rie expressed her doubts, but it seemed plausible. "I flew over earlier and the bookshelf wasn't pushed away. I only pushed it slightly, and it moved. The protective magic blocks major impacts but allows it to move normally with ordinary force." "Haa... If the protective magic fails, won't all the books burn?" "We can cover that with our pocket money. And do you think the academy would care about a few books getting burned in a fire like this?" "I understand using your money, but why do I have to contribute mine too?" Rie glared at me as she spoke. I looked at her and replied. "How stingy." "It's reasonable." I chuckled and looked forward. "Let's finish the task first." "I'll block the flames from above, so you keep running forward." I nodded and began pushing the bookshelf. "Wind Blaster!" Rie cast her magic upwards. At that moment, I pushed the bookshelf forcefully and ran. Maintaining the bookshelf's balance, I continued pushing forward. As expected, the protective magic activated in front of the bookshelf, repelling the spells. Using the bookshelf as a shield, I kept advancing. One step. Another step. As I got closer, my speed slowed down, but the distance between Luna and me shortened. I looked up as I moved forward. An immense blaze was above my head. Rie was pushing back the flames with her wind magic. If those flames fell, I'd die instantly. However, I trusted Rie. Believing she could hold them back, I kept moving forward. "Rudy Astria! Almost there! Wind Blaster!" Rie cast her magic while talking to me. I pushed the bookshelf with all my might. Bang!! The bookshelf toppled over with a loud noise, pushing away the flames and wind in front of it. "Luna!!!" I stepped on the fallen bookshelf and leaped towards Luna. I wouldn't make a mistake this time. I clenched my fist as I got close to Luna. "Wake up!!!" I struck Luna's forehead with a powerful punch. Smack! "Eek!" Luna let out a strange sound as I hit her forehead hard. But she only opened her eyes for a moment before closing them again, as if falling back asleep. "Did... it work?" I muttered to myself and looked around. The surrounding magic seemed to freeze as if time had stopped. The flames remained, but the strong winds ceased to blow. Moreover, no new flames appeared around Luna's body. "Ugh…" "Luna!" Luna moaned and tossed in her sleep. And then. The fire and wind sustained by magic. They began to fade away. "Haah... Is it over...?" As the magic disappeared, Rie collapsed onto the floor. I checked on Luna's condition first. Though she seemed to be unconscious, I didn't see any serious injuries. "Thank goodness..." I let out a sigh of relief and looked at the book lying beside her. It appeared to be a valuable grimoire, with a soft leather cover. "As I thought... a grimoire." Luna's treasure. It was a grimoire given to her by the Royal Wizard Levian. I picked up the grimoire and opened it. On the displayed page, a square magical circle was drawn. It reminded me of the magical circle Luna had drawn. "It was because of this..." I knew about this grimoire. It was truly the ultimate grimoire for those who dealt with magical circles. The reason Luna became incredibly powerful in the game. This grimoire was a scroll in book form. Moreover, a scroll that could be used without tearing. The disadvantage of a mage who mainly used magical circles was that they couldn't respond to sudden events. It was impossible to carry all the scrolls for every magic, and even if they carried multiple scrolls, they were just one-time-use spells. However, this grimoire compensated for that disadvantage. If they wanted to use a certain magical circle engraved in the book, they could use it just by thinking about it. Of course, they had to pay the required mana themselves, but it was an incredibly overpowered item compared to one-time-use scrolls. Thanks to this grimoire, Luna would become one of the strongest magic users in the latter half of the game. This square magical circle drawn in the grimoire. She probably thought to try using it because it was similar to the magical circle she had drawn. This incident was my mistake. I thought Luna caused this incident because Professor Mcguire had given her a tight deadline. However, the likely cause of this incident was this square magical circle. It was such a trivial reason. "It's really confusing." I felt the same way last time. When I heard that Garwel had been the one behind the red-headed troublemaker. I thought I knew everything about this world because I had played the game dozens of times. However, I only knew the results of this world, not the causes. It was my arrogance to try to control this world with the scenes I saw in the game. I couldn't change all the game events without knowing that. "Let's think about this later." I sighed at my own mistake and carried Luna. I also held Luna's grimoire in my hand. "What's this?" Rie looked at me with a puzzled expression. "I'll escape through the window at the back." "What?" Rie stared at me, incredulous. "Luna can't be here, right?" "Then what about me?" "I have a favor to ask of you too." "You...I've already helped so much, and you still have more to ask?" "Use water attribute magic to flood this place." I wanted to ask her to extinguish the fire, but Rie had already used a significant amount of mana. I didn't want to burden her further. However, we needed to use magic here to erase Luna's mana traces. Although both my magic and Rie's had been used extensively, some traces might remain. Wind attribute magic had mixed our mana traces, but fire attribute magic only had Luna's mana traces left. To erase the traces, we had to either overlap them with the same attribute magic or cover them with opposing attributes. We couldn't enlarge the fire with fire attribute magic, so we needed to cover the traces with water attribute magic, minimizing them as much as possible. Rie glared at me, her face filled with anger. "Do you think I'm your servant? Just following your orders?" Carrying Luna, I bowed to Rie. "Please, I beg you. I'll do anything you ask later." Seeing me bowing sincerely, Rie sighed. "You better know that I'll make you work your bones off later." "Of course." I walked towards the back of the library. Then Rie called out to me. "Hey, if they ask where you are, what should I say?" "Just tell them I got scared and ran away." "Ran away?" With that, I escaped through the window at the back of the library. "Haah..." Rie sighed deeply as she watched me leave.

***

After Rudy left the library, Rie sat in a corner. "Sigh… Seriously." Rie let out a deep sigh as she pondered her situation. "I'm a princess… Damn it…" She looked at herself, wearing her wet uniform and covered in soot. She felt dirty and uncomfortable. She wanted to run to the bathroom and wash herself right away. She was also annoyed. Tell them he ran away? Did he not know what would happen to him if she said that? It would only add fuel to his already unfavorable reputation. Rie took a moment to collect her thoughts and then muttered to herself. "I'll do it like this." Rie stood up from her seat. "Locke! Come in!" She called out loudly for Locke, who entered the library. Locke looked around. "Where did Rudy Astria go?" "Forget it. You don't need to know. Just do what I ask." "What do you need me to do?" "Move all the books I mention from their locations to the window at the back of the library." "Understood." Rie spoke and cast a spell. "Water Ball!" "Which books should I move first?" "Mana Reconstitution in row T, number 12, and Orwell's Mana Theory in row Z, number 16." Following Rie's instructions, Locke continued to move the books, while Rie used magic to extinguish the flames. "Rudy!! Rie!! Where are you!!" Professor Mcguire shouted as he entered the library. He was the first professor to arrive at the academy. Fortunately, he hadn't been drinking, so he was able to come immediately. Of course, it took some time for him to get here from his house outside the academy. Calling out for Rudy and Rie, Professor Mcguire ventured further into the library. He looked around. "The fire seems to have mostly died down..." "It appears so." Astina followed behind Professor Mcguire and spoke up. "I heard it was a huge fire. Did those two put it out?" "We'll have to find them and hear the story first." "If the two students are seriously injured, you'll have to take responsibility, Astina Persia." "It should be fine." Astina confidently replied. Judging by the mostly extinguished fire, it seemed that they had succeeded in stopping Luna Railer. Astina and Professor Mcguire continued deeper into the library. -Splash. "Huh? What's with all this water...?" As Professor Mcguire went further in, he noticed the wet floor. It was strange, as this place had clearly been engulfed in a massive fire, yet the surroundings were soaked. "Huh?" Professor Mcguire looked around as he moved forward and spotted Rie. "Rie! Are you alright?!" Rie was sitting down, leaning against a bookshelf. Her hair was drenched, and her face was covered in soot. "Haah..." "Pfft..." Astina couldn't help but laugh at Rie's appearance. Nevertheless, looking around, it seemed like the situation had been resolved. "Rie! What happened?" "Ah... We just put out the fire." Rie casually replied without her usual pretense. Professor Mcguire was taken aback by her attitude and asked again. "Ah... Well, where's Rudy? Where did he go?" "Haah..." Rie let out an even deeper sigh. "Rudy Astria has returned to his room." "What? To his room?" Professor Mcguire asked with a puzzled expression. Rie didn't say anything further but led him towards the window. There were numerous books piled up there. "How...?" These were no ordinary books. They were all managed by the librarian personally. Though they weren't treasured items, they certainly had some value as collectibles. "Although there's protection magic on the books, Rudy Astria moved them all, fearing that the fire might damage them if it persisted. While he was doing that, I extinguished the fire." "Rudy did?" "Rudy Astria often comes to the library and knows the value and locations of the books, so he could move them." "Oh, I see..." Professor Mcguire couldn't help but express a hint of admiration. Rie continued speaking as she saw Professor Mcguire's reaction. "Then, he suffered a minor burn and returned to his room." "A burn? Is he seriously injured?" "No, he received proper first aid, and the situation was somewhat resolved, so we just sent him back." "But I didn't hear about him leaving the library separately?" With a slight hint of doubt, Professor Mcguire asked. "He went around the back because there were too many people in front of the library." "I see... It's fortunate that no one was seriously injured. Rie, you should go back to your room and rest as well." "Yes, thank you." As Rie tried to walk past Professor Mcguire and head outside, she made eye contact with Astina. Astina smiled and said to Rie, "That was impressive." "Are you mocking me?" Rie shot a brief glare at Astina and walked toward the exit. "Clean." Astina cast a spell on Rie as she walked away. Immediately, her clothes became tidy, and the soot and other marks on her face disappeared. Rie, surprised by the sudden cleanliness, turned around to look back. "I learned this spell just a while ago, and it seems to work well~." Astina smiled brightly as she spoke to Rie. Rie glanced at Astina for a moment before continuing her walk toward the exit.