Chapter 118. Hanging Around with Two Idiots
A cold silence settled over the modest office.
- “Are you…… a grimoire?”
It was incomprehensible bullshit.
‘So what are you calling me right now?’
A grimoire?
What is a grimoire? Literally, a grimoire (書). A book, in other words. Don’t ask me to explain the “grimoire” (魔道) part, either. I don’t know why a grimoire is a grimoire, myself.
Anyway, people say grimoires are transcendent relics and whatnot, but in the end, their essence is nothing more than an object.
So if you interpret the library director’s question, it boils down to this.
‘Are you a book?’
First of all, if we’re asking whether it’s a sentence that can exist or not—sure, it can. It did come out of his mouth, after all.
But whether its meaning can be interpreted is another matter entirely.
And then what?
- “How can a grimoire put on a human shell?”
It’s not even some variation of “a human face with a beast’s heart.” A grimoire wearing a human shell?
I was dumbfounded by the absurdity.
I guarantee you, if the one spouting this had been Shine or Raileigh, either I or the two of them wouldn’t have seen the morning sun.
As a rule, lines that are smart enough to make you chew on them one more time scratch at you deeper than blunt, primary-colored insults.
But.
I loosened the fist I’d been clenching tight and stared at the library director.
With only faint breathing blanketing the space, I put the shock aside and thought calmly.
‘……Why “grimoire,” of all things?’
It was a word that snagged, too much to dismiss as pure bullshit.
If the library director were just a doddering old man, or if he were a thug with a warped personality who threw personal attacks at someone he’d just met—
Why, out of all possible words, did he put “grimoire” in his mouth?
‘……Does he know something?’
Naturally, my thoughts went to the Fire Seal (火印).
The strange glyphs that had originally been one, then became two after catching Destrow—yet still showed no clear change, a mark whose meaning I couldn’t understand.
Just as my thoughts reached that point, the library director—who had been watching my reactions for a long while—opened his mouth.
“First…… sit. I don’t know what business you came here for, but I’d like it if we could resolve this through conversation as much as possible.”
“Yes, then…….”
At the library director’s suggestion, I moved over to the sofa.
Even then, the library director’s gaze tracked me as if he could see perfectly well.
Before the conversation, I needed to clear up the misunderstanding the library director was holding.
“First, I’m not a grimoire.”
“……Not a grimoire? Don’t try to fool my eyes. The letters that make you up are plain as day.”
What do you see?
It was a contradiction.
A sound that cannot coexist—like Shine, who had been a Death Knight, speaking about “life,” or Raileigh speaking about “loyalty.”
But my surprise only lasted a moment. I continued calmly.
“I don’t know what it is that you say you can see, but I’m not a grimoire. However, if you’re asking what my business is, then it isn’t unrelated to ‘grimoires.’”
“……Go on.”
As if I’d given up on persuading him, the library director also seemed to have given up on stopping my mouth.
At this point, I needed to organize my thoughts.
‘Let’s see…….’
From the look of it, he wasn’t simply a crazy old man.
Then he really was seeing something, which meant this was a good chance to dig up information about the Fire Seal, still shrouded in mystery.
But there was something that bothered me.
‘Is it right to reveal everything about the Fire Seal?’
That was my concern.
The Fire Seal (火印). In other words, whether it was right to open up to the library director about the grimoire.
To get any information out of him, I would inevitably need to talk about the Fire Seal’s existence.
Since he was someone sunbae had introduced, he was probably tight-lipped by nature, but……
‘It’s not the same certainty I had with Senior Riheim.’
And what is a grimoire? It was a transcendent relic that the noble houses would search for with their eyes blazing.
Asymmetric power that, depending on how it was used, could overturn the balance of authority.
In front of a relic that could elevate even a minor noble family into a great house, could a library director truly hide his greed?
Well. I was pessimistic on that front.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t about trusting a person—it was about not trusting the situation.
In a short span of time, I weighed things. The risk of speaking versus the advantage I could gain. Whether the benefit was worth accepting the loss.
And then, at that moment.
A word flashed through my mind—one I could use to pry out information without mentioning the Fire Seal.
That word was……
Yeokcheon (逆天).
The word Destrow had used to refer to the Fire Seal.
“Could it be…….”
I carefully put that word on my tongue. And right after that, what spilled from the library director’s mouth was the kind of thing that rendered all my 고민 pointless.
“……Do you know Yeokcheon (逆天)?”
“……Yeokcheon? Did you just say Yeokcheon?”
“……?”
The library director jolted in surprise. His eyes widened as far as they could.
“Yeokcheon, Yeokcheon? You definitely said ‘Yeokcheon’?”
“……? Yes. That’s right.”
“No, how could this be……. Wait, if it’s Yeokcheon…? Then did it happen? Yes, if it’s Yeokcheon, then maybe…….”
Muttering to himself, the library director suddenly snapped his head up at that very moment.
“Are you…… the owner of Yeokcheon?”
The library director held his breath and waited for my answer, as if he wouldn’t miss even a single word.
As his cloudy pupils wavered with confusion, I carefully nodded.
Then, just as I thought, oh— and was about to lower my voice, the library director reacted a step faster.
“Hah…… You really are Yeokcheon’s owner? I see. Those letters…… that is definitely Yeokcheon. It was Yeokcheon.”
Was he truly seeing something?
The library director examined me even more closely than before, and as if he’d already heard my answer, he sank back into thought again.
I watched him in silence.
‘Yeokcheon (逆天) was the answer?’
Honestly, it was unexpected.
After getting the clue called Yeokcheon (逆天) from Destrow, I had decided to come to Lapiter and look for leads on it, but I didn’t have much hope.
How many meanings can the word Yeokcheon (逆天) hold?
It’s an expression commonly used to refer to rebellion in a roundabout way, and it also broadly encompasses acts that go against the natural order.
Of course, if you connect grimoires and Yeokcheon (逆天), the scope narrows, but that was only a single assumption—Destrow might have been the only one using that name.
Even if, in that era, it was called “Yeokcheon,” names change with time.
So I didn’t have high expectations.
Yet the library director’s reaction stirred an unexpected sense of anticipation in me.
How could I not be curious?
Regression (回歸).
I turned back time and returned to the past.
This incomprehensible phenomenon—I didn’t express it, but the thirst to understand its true meaning had always remained, uncomfortably, in a corner of my heart.
And now, the clue was right in front of me.
Rarely, with a fluttering heart, I waited for the library director to open his mouth. How long did that slow time pass?
The library director scattered the silence with a deep breath he let out—“Hoo.”
“First, I’m sorry. I made a completely absurd misunderstanding. A grimoire wearing a human shell—what nonsense.”
“No, it’s fine. But more importantly…….”
“You’re asking what Yeokcheon (逆天) is?”
A single line that pierced my thoughts.
I answered the question.
But the library director’s response was slightly off from what I expected.
“Yes.”
“The question is wrong. Don’t you already know what Yeokcheon is?”
……True.
I didn’t not know what Yeokcheon was, either.
Yeokcheon was a grimoire. But since its method of use was unknown, it had been an old useless relic sleeping inside Deculan’s Bigo.
So what was it that I needed to ask?
For a moment, I chose my thoughts carefully.
‘What do I need to know?’
My head grew complicated.
When there had been no clue at all, I’d vaguely chased a single thread—but now that the board was set, everything was unclear.
A state where I knew so little that I couldn’t even tell what I didn’t know.
“Looks like your head is complicated. Then how about we start from the beginning and go over it.”
“The beginning, meaning…….”
“How Yeokcheon (逆天) is different from other grimoires.”
“……!”
Had I become an idiot too, from hanging around Shine and Raileigh—those two idiots?
How could I not have thought of this obvious question?
“How much do you know about grimoires?”
“Only the general facts.”
“A transcendent relic that forms the foundation of the magecraft noble houses. A source of power that grants the owner immense strength. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
In truth, not every family that calls itself a magecraft noble house possesses a grimoire.
At present, the number of grimoires known to exist on the Eastern Continent is only around ten.
But there was one thing that was certain.
Every magecraft family that called itself a great house—the start of every one of them involved a grimoire.
“It’s simple, but it hits the core. Then do you know why grimoires are called transcendent relics? Do you know the reason?”
“…….”
I shook my head.
I’d only heard of their renown—I’d never witnessed a grimoire’s true might.
In general, people say “it amplifies the owner’s power,” but even that wasn’t certain.
Only the actions and achievements of those who had held a grimoire were spoken of in abundance.
When my thoughts reached that point, the library director began explaining grimoires.
“A grimoire grants the caster the pinnacle of ‘law.’”
“The pinnacle, meaning…….”
“Why do you think different secret arts are ranked above or below each other?”
……Ah.
As soon as I heard that, I could immediately grasp what “law” the library director meant.
For example, like this.
Magic is the discipline of handling the laws of mana. Every secret art contains its own “law.”
The more advanced the law it contains, the higher the secret art is classified. This was why Scarlet Flame (赤火) was a lower secret art than Azure Flame (靑火).
— A flame that burns alone.
Compared to the independence contained within Scarlet Flame……
— A flame that burns forever.
The eternity contained within Azure Flame was higher.
At the same realm, Scarlet Flame’s fire could never stand against Azure Flame’s fire. Even if they were both flames, the law held inside was different.
It was the same logic as a sword made of scrap iron being unable to catch up to a sword made of steel.
“But if it grants the pinnacle of ‘law’…….”
“Do you understand now? Why a grimoire’s owner reigns above all other mages. How magecraft noble houses could be born.”
“……Yes.”
Magic that contains the pinnacle of law.
This is a spear that can pierce anything, and a shield that can block anything.
Magic cast through a grimoire’s authority would tear through any barrier with ease, and at the same time, that barrier could block any magic.
There was only one thing that could pierce it.
‘……Only another grimoire’s owner.’
“Of course, it isn’t ‘absolute.’ Magic has compatibilities, and in the face of an unfavorable compatibility, superiority by one or two steps of law becomes meaningless.”
Still, even so, it didn’t change how incredible it was.
It meant that without backing of an advantage greater than one or two steps—if the compatibility was unfavorable—you couldn’t withstand it.
But wait.
A sudden sense of dissonance surfaced, and I looked at the library director.
“Then does that mean Yeokcheon is different?”
“It is.”
The library director nodded.
“Why do you think Yeokcheon (逆天) is Yeokcheon? If other grimoires contain the pinnacle of law, then Yeokcheon is……”
The meaning was this.
“Outside of law. Cause and effect. The order and the flow. The universally valid natural course. It is free from all those shackles, and further still…… in the end, it shatters law.”
And thus, Yeokcheon (逆天).
A power that defies the heavens.
“…….”
In other words.
“It can be seen as the pinnacle of all grimoires.”
