WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 97: Old Records, the Ossuary of Letters. (2)
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<Grrk! Grrrrk-!>
<Scrrrrrk!>
Guardians rushed in from all directions.
Golems made of interlocking books and bookcases charged at us in a swarm.
They varied in size and appearance, but they all seemed to share one purpose: eliminating intruders.
“Hoo...!”
Dense mana weighed heavily on my shoulders.
These librarians had guarded this vast library, a space preserved since ancient times. They weren't foes to take lightly.
“Your Highness!”
“I know...!”
Bookcases rained down from above.
At my signal, Carmilla deployed her Bloodcraft.
-Blandir Style Bloodcraft, Seventh Form-
‘Scarlet Half-Heaven (赤血半天)’
“Bloom!”
Shwaaak-!
Following her short chant, a crimson barrier covered the two of us.
The hemispherical red shield blocked the falling bookcases.
At the same time, it ground up every golem that touched it.
Kwoooosh-!
<Grrk, grrk!>
<Rrrrkkkglglgl!>
They turned to powder with their dying cries.
Ink and pages, which had filled their bodies in place of organs, scattered across the floor.
Thud-!
“I’m going!”
“I’ll support you!”
Tap!
I kicked hard off the ground between the falling bookcases.
My body shot forward like an arrow, hurtling straight toward the golems.
A fierce wind whipped at the hem of my robe.
Shwaaaash-!
“Viktor!”
“Yes!”
Crimson tiles spread across the floor at just the right moment.
They were part of Carmilla’s Bloodcraft.
Boing!
The moment I stepped on them, my body launched high into the air.
As I rose wildly, I met the eyes of several especially massive golems.
I gripped my scythe and aimed it at them.
“Hup...!”
The scythe gleamed like a pitch-black crescent moon.
When I swung it in a deep arc, the upright bookcases were beheaded.
Shhk, shhk-!
The heavy sensation of cutting traveled up through my fingertips.
Then the towers of knowledge, high enough to touch the ceiling, began to collapse.
Boom, rumble...
“Urgh...”
I staggered in midair.
The body that had shot upward soon lost its momentum and began to fall.
As I plummeted helplessly, I spotted a golem below with its mouth wide open.
<Gwaaaaaaahhh!>
It had a rather large mouth.
I didn't turn down the invitation and dove straight into the guardian’s mouth.
Chomp.
It swallowed me in one bite.
Then, as I slid down its esophagus, I muttered, “Activate. Thorns.”
Pwaaaash-!
Thorns burst explosively from inside its throat.
The golem shuddered, then soon collapsed where it stood.
“Activate. Scissors.”
Riiip-!
I tore through its book-like hide and climbed out.
Maybe that had been a little rough. Black ink stained several spots on my shirt.
‘Good thing I wore this instead of my uniform.’
Ink stains were hard to wash out.
I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair.
It seemed the battle had continued outside as well. Guardian remains were scattered everywhere.
“Viktor.”
“...Ah, Your Highness.”
The princess stood among the bookcases.
Most of the smaller golems that had swarmed us had already been dealt with.
“It looks like we’ve mostly cleaned them up.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I do not have so much as a scratch.”
The field was Raziel’s Library.
As I’d seen earlier, it was a hidden space with an unusual gimmick.
Apparently, it was another dimension an ancient sage had created to preserve their knowledge.
Countless guardians protected it, but Carmilla and I could break through well enough.
‘Well... Carmilla and I are both strong enough to rank near the top of Class A.’
I lightly dusted off my hands.
My gaze remained fixed on the high ceiling beyond the bookcases.
‘It should be about time for it to appear.’
We’d cleared out most of the small fry.
It was time for the boss to show itself.
Rumble-!
Sure enough.
The moment I thought that, the entire library began to shake.
Before long, the remains of the destroyed guardians floated into the air.
Books and fragments whirled loudly, as if being drawn toward a single point.
Shrrrrk-!
“V-Viktor? What is this...?”
“Perfect timing.”
The paper scraps layered over one another.
Torn pages became wings, and bent book spines became a beak.
Fragments of broken bookcases became claws, while the covers of countless volumes formed feathers.
“A... bird?”
It took the shape of a bird.
It was grand enough to cover the entire ceiling.
With its wings spread, it looked as large as a small apartment building.
A rich scent of books wafted from it.
[Name: Sentinel of the Highest Knowledge]
-Race: Golem (Paper)
-Classification: Boss Monster
-Description: A librarian that has guarded these ancient books for a long time. It is a golem created by the ancient sage ‘Raziel’, modeled after the phoenix Raziel once raised. It can be killed, but it cannot be erased. Even if the sentinel dies, it will be reborn in the Ossuary of Letters.
-Passive: Raziel’s Blessing
It had a majestic appearance.
With only a few flaps of its wings, it seemed as though a storm had swept through the library.
Carmilla’s silver hair fluttered as she frowned.
“To think something like that is a golem. Just how exalted must its creator have been...?”
“Rest assured. Its creator isn’t in this world.”
“Even that one alone is intimidating enough.”
“Hehe, leave it to me.”
Grin.
The corners of my mask’s eyes curved into a thin smile.
I absentmindedly toyed with the scythe in my hand.
A few days before the school trip, I’d asked Javert to charge an attack for me in advance.
“Your Highness.”
“Hmm?”
“It could be dangerous. Would you come into my arms?”
“Very well.”
When I held out my hand, Carmilla transformed into bat form without hesitation.
She flew over and slipped into my shirt’s front pocket.
Only then did I grip my scythe and look up.
<Screeeech-!>
The enormous paper bird looked down at me.
It raised its beak and dove, as if trying to crush me.
‘Good.’
It was the perfect angle.
Its face closed in within an instant.
I raised my scythe and recited the activation word without hesitation.
“Release.”
Ding!
[Skill No. 2 of the exclusive weapon ‘Black Mist’ has been activated.]
[Skill Name: Devour]
-Stores all damage applied to the user.
-Can release the stored damage.
The messages flashed by for a moment.
Then a careless flash of light filled the ancient library.
-----!
Pure white erased every sight before me.
Bookcases were swept away without resistance, leaving wide fan-shaped scorch marks behind.
The sentinel, flapping its wings, was swallowed by the massive current and torn to pieces before it could resist.
The power really was absurd.
<......!>
A faint, single cry.
The flashes that erupted one after another erased even that.
Ding!
[The item 'Mask of the Evil God' has activated.]
-Remaining uses: 2/3
-Time until uses recharge: 49 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
The brutal recoil consumed one charge from the mask.
By the time the light subsided and my white-washed vision returned to its original colors...
“Hoo...”
I stood at the center of the devastated landscape.
Around thirty percent of the once-vast library had been completely erased.
The sentinel that had flown near the ceiling was nowhere to be seen either.
A light notification sounded.
Ding!
[You have defeated the boss monster ‘Sentinel of the Highest Knowledge’.]
One-shot.
As expected, Javert’s strike combined with the double-counting bug had an exceptional effect.
‘It really is good.’
Lua’s Unique Skill No. 2.
It was the most powerful card I had.
Its only flaw was its very long cooldown.
Ding!
[Unique Skill No. 2 ‘Devour’ has activated.]
-Time until reuse: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
After using it once, I had to wait nearly a week.
Its power also came with all sorts of restrictions.
Someone had to charge it for me, and even I, the caster, got caught in the recoil.
Its targeting range was wide too, so I couldn’t use it when there were many people nearby.
‘If there were even civilians nearby...’
It would be a complete disaster.
The stronger it was, the harder it was to handle.
As I sank into thought for a moment, the princess, who had already returned to human form, looked around.
“No matter how many times I see it, it is overwhelming. To destroy such a massive golem in one blow...”
“Let’s move. Even if it looks like it was erased, it’ll revive in a few hours.”
We needed to finish our business and leave before then.
We walked side by side through the stacks.
The echoing thunder had faded, and silence once again settled over the library.
Millions of books filled the rows of bookcases.
‘The problem is... how am I supposed to find the book I need in here?’
There was no time to search through them one by one.
At this scale, it seemed like it would take at least several decades.
Just as I groaned at the hopelessness of it all, a message arrived from my status window.
Ding!
[Tip. Follow the white thread.]
A white thread?
Before I could even wonder about that, something flickered in my vision.
A line giving off a soft glow.
It stretched long between the bookcases, as if guiding us onward.
“...Oho.”
Right, this was how it should be.
It couldn’t expect me to search this whole place, could it?
Carmilla, Lua, and I headed deeper into the library.
“...”
It was a long corridor.
Signs and writing had been placed throughout it, perhaps to indicate the books’ categories.
I deciphered some of the writing in the ancient language.
‘Theology...?’
Theology.
That was the category attached to the bookcase we were approaching.
To find information related to ■■■, I had to look through theological books out of nowhere.
‘Just what is it?’
My doubts only grew.
Before long, the thread stopped and pointed to a certain spot.
It was a bookcase at the very edge of the vast library.
As I approached, the thread shortened until it led to a book on the bottom shelf, where no one would notice it.
‘That one?’
I bent down and pulled it out.
Unlike the others, dust had piled thickly on this book.
Tap, tap.
I lightly brushed it off.
Its cover had no title, only black and white.
Unable to make sense of it, I flipped through it. Only one line was written on the first page.
[Can humans live again?]
And beneath that sentence was someone’s name.
[From Delkirn.]
Delkirn.
I blankly stared down at that name.
That part glowed like a white thread.
‘Three syllables.’
■■■.
It was probably what lay beyond the mosaic.
Even after learning the name, though, I couldn’t grasp who it was.
‘Who is Delkirn...?’
Thinking there might be an answer on the next page, I turned it over.
That thought was correct.
After reading the page, I had no choice but to freeze.
Only three sentences were written in rough ancient script.
[Delkirn.]
[A name established by the sages of old, used as a shortened form of the Evil God ‘Delkirnos’.]
[In the present age, all mention of it has been forbidden to erase the horror of that name.]
“...”
I blankly stared at those sentences.
Footnotes:
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