WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 19

“Still, telling her ‘We’ll help you find your friend, so join our society’ feels a bit too obvious,” Boen said. “There’s no reason for us, on the surface at least, to be that eager to have Maya join. She’ll be suspicious.”

“My father always said, ‘If you want something, don’t just ask for it, make them want to give it to you.’ ”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” Maya asked.

Ethan turned around and said, “If students sneak into the Great Library and get caught, it’ll be serious trouble, right?”

“…True.”

“But if even one professor is willing to take our side, it might not blow up into such a big deal, right?”

“…Maybe?”

“I’m on good terms with Professor Rivielton, and even if things go wrong, the two of us are in the Combat Magic Society, so we can just say we went in as part of our combat magic training. The Combat Magic Society does, on occasion, go down into the Great Library Labyrinth as part of its activities. But you’re not a member, Maya, so we were discussing whether we should go down to the labyrinth, just the two of us.”

At that, Maya hesitated for a moment, thinking. “Wait, doesn’t that mean that if I join the Combat Magic Society, I can also use that excuse?” she asked.

“Well, yes, technically,” Ethan replied. “But it’s a big commitment, joining a society just to go down there.”

“I’m not joining just to go to the Great Library Labyrinth, I’m joining to rescue my friend. Besides, I’ve been thinking about combat magic, and I figure it might not be a bad subject to study.”

Ethan glanced at Boen—who seemed impressed but was trying hard not to show it.

“Guess we’d better go find Senior Linav,” Ethan said.

“Understood. If it’s you, Miss Maya, I’m sure Senior Linav will gladly approve your membership.”

Ethan was slightly miffed by that, but Boen’s prediction was spot on.

∞

“This way.”

Maya led them to the underground level of the dormitory building. Even though it was underground, there wasn’t much difference from the above levels; there was just a large number of rooms all lined up.

Once, when Yurmus Magic Academy had received a large influx of students, they’d apparently had to use the dormitory basement as well. Now, though, there were so few students that each got their own room and there were still rooms left over, so the basement had turned into storage for unused items.

In the very last room in the basement, Maya approached a loosely hanging padlock, whereupon she held out her staff and began to chant a spell.

“→Four riddles, three answers. Forty-two. Seventeen. Four hundred four.”

Under Maya’s magic, the lock began trembling as if in pain.

“→I won’t answer the final question.”

Then, with a click, the lock gave up and opened. Ethan recognized it as the ‘unlocking spell’—although he had learned about it, he couldn’t actually cast it himself.

Inside, the room looked identical to every other dorm room except that it was completely empty. There was no furniture, nor belongings, nor anything at all.

When Ethan asked why the door had been locked if Koshe had supposedly used this room to access the Great Library Labyrinth, Maya replied that she’d locked it herself so the patrolling automatons wouldn’t notice anything amiss.

Maya walked to one side of the room, where there would normally be a wardrobe, and stopped.

“Someone from an older class must have decided they had to sneak into the Great Library.”

She reached out toward the wall, and her hand passed right through.

“Illusion magic,” said Boen.

“Exactly. The automatons moving things around must have never discovered the secret passage here. Follow me.”

The two of them went first, and Ethan followed after. He stuck his head in, then pulled it back to observe. The illusion shattered, leaving behind a large hole through which one person could pass through the room’s wall.

Meanwhile, Maya set up a short wooden stick she had brought and cast a light spell on its tip.

“→Beyond the everlasting silence, let there be a torrent of screams.”

A warm white light shot out from the tip of the stick. Cautiously, the three of them descended a roughly hewn stone staircase.

Yurmus Magic Academy contained a place called the Great Library. Beneath that lay what people called the “Great Library Labyrinth”—the two are distinctly separate.

Long ago, a certain mage had believed that to reach the ultimate truth, one had to possess all the knowledge in the world, so he’d gathered every book he could get his hands on, using any and all means necessary. Near the end of his life, that mage had realized he could never truly attain that ultimate truth, yet he’d felt no regret for his actions even so.

With so many books assembled, he’d believed that even if it wasn’t him, someone might someday reach the ultimate truth. Since then, countless mages had come to the library seeking the ultimate truth, but they had all reached similar conclusions. Eventually, so many books had accumulated that people had begun to call it the Great Library.

Many mages had resided in the Great Library, but none had found the ultimate truth. Some had come in admiration—and left in disappointment—while others had lost their purpose and fought among themselves, and others still had come desiring only the vast knowledge held within the Great Library. Those factions had quarreled and battled, and protective spells had been devised to safeguard the books from them. To make matters worse, the spells contained in the grimoires themselves had begun to interfere, cloaking the entire Great Library in layer upon layer of magic… and so the Great Library had become a labyrinth.

Typically, in Damarth Yumaha, a labyrinth was any extremely complex magical structure. The Great Library Labyrinth was ancient enough to be considered one of the earliest known labyrinths, whose origins remained obscure. Because the labyrinth was magical, it was extremely dangerous, capable of changing organically—some even speculated that it might have a will of its own. There were even rumors that the Mage Council had originally been formed to supervise and contain the Great Library Labyrinth.

Perhaps for these reasons, the Great Library Labyrinth wasn’t raided by adventurers as much as other labyrinths. Every so often, a mage or scholar might guess that a book they were seeking could be found only within the Great Library Labyrinth. They would offer a massive reward and hire adventurers to search for that book… but that was it, there were no legends about sacred artifacts or an ancient kingdom’s golden treasures sleeping within the Great Library Labyrinth.

Also, just entering the Great Library Labyrinth meant defying the Mage Council’s restrictions, which certainly deterred many people.

According to labyrinth scholars who studied the Great Library Labyrinth, the ancient spells to protect it were still active, so the shelves were full of monsters disguised as books, and countless volumes containing meaningless combinations of letters were laid out like flat paving stones. Meanwhile, “librarians” wandered around killing intruders, book vandals, and anyone who tried to borrow a book without permission. In these conditions, finding any useful book, let alone the one you wanted, was no easy task.

Even so, the rumor that “all the books in the world exist within the Great Library Labyrinth” persisted, and while the Great Library Labyrinth wasn’t exactly bustling, it continued to attract challengers’ ambitions and adventurous spirits, just like other labyrinths.

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As they walked, Maya glanced back at the other two.

“I know Boen’s good at magic,” Maya said, “but Ethan… are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“Huh?”

Maya cleared her throat and said, “I mean, thanks for agreeing to help, but the Great Library Labyrinth is dangerous, even more so for someone who can’t use magic. Are you not scared?”

Before Ethan could even respond, Boen interjected, “I think he’ll be fine.”

“Why? I heard he passed Basic Magic Practice with brute force,” Maya replied. She’d taken that class under a different professor, so she hadn’t witnessed it herself.

“He didn’t rely on brute force. He used body magic.”

“That’s what knights use. It’s not real magic.”

“Maybe so. Even I’m not completely sure what Ethan’s limits are—I’ve certainly never seen them. But Professor Rivielton, who rarely acknowledges students, recognizes him. If you don’t trust Ethan, you can at least trust Professor Rivielton’s judgment.”

“Oh, is that so? Impressive.”

Ethan felt an odd urge to defend himself. “Just because someone scores well on tests doesn’t mean they’ll perform well in every situation, you know,” he said. “Grades aren’t everything.”

They both fired back instantly:

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“Grades aren’t everything, but having low grades certainly doesn’t prove you’re good at anything, does it? It’s not exactly a point of pride.”

Admitting defeat, Ethan decided to change the subject.

“Anyway, never mind about me. What about your rabbit?”

Maya asked, “You mean Weibrae? Why do you ask?”

The brown rabbit, Weibrae, was calmly resting in Maya’s arms.

‘At some point, I stopped seeing Weibrae around.’

Among first-year students, there aren’t many who kept a familiar around, and not every one traveled with their familiar constantly. But Maya did. She was that kind of mage, which made her stand out.

Ethan had observed the students who used the Great Library, hoping it might be useful for his own research on demons, so he’d noticed Maya’s friend Koshe go missing.

However, Ethan’s observations hadn’t been especially thorough, so it had taken a while for him to realize that Maya’s brown rabbit, Weibrae, vanished at some point. Though it wasn’t unheard of for someone to give up on or banish their familiar, perhaps because of an accident or out of necessity, it was still a rare occurrence. And that had Ethan curious to know if there were any issues with Weibrae.

“No special reason. But… maintaining a familiar requires a constant supply of mana, right? Doesn’t that wear you out?” Ethan asked.

“Oh, are you worried about me? It does, but it’s also a form of training. And once you reach a certain level, a small creature like this isn’t that hard to keep around.”

Boen, cluelessly butting in, added, “Some mages say that having a small animal as a familiar can actually help a novice mage develop their skills.”

“…Right.”

“If you keep working at it, Ethan, maybe someday you’ll be able to summon something as astounding as your sister’s familiar.”

“Oh, that’s right. I heard that your sister, Arca, summoned it before she’d even enrolled, and then she got into the magic academy without even sitting for the admissions interview.”

“I heard the opposite, actually. According to what I was told, at her entrance interview, all the professors, and even the headmaster, queued up, waiting for a chance to speak with Arca.”

Ethan sighed as they continued talking about his sister, Arca Wiz Charasen, and her remarkable familiar.

He never quite got along with that familiar…

Before long, the staircase ended. They emerged into a small, cave-like space, where rotting wooden bookshelves had collapsed or toppled over. Beneath the bookshelves, an avalanche of books lay heaped like a burial mound. The volumes were so damp and moldy that fluorescent mushrooms were sprouting from them.

“A ‘book mound,’ ” said Boen.

“A book mound?” Maya repeated, prompting Boen to explain.

“I read about these in a book on the Great Library Labyrinth. The book mentioned that librarians, as well as intruders, sometimes discard worthless tomes before leaving, to lighten their loads. Sometimes book-obsessed people or adventurers who’ve given up on their quest gather the more valuable books from these piles. Over time, only the trashiest, most useless books remain, forming these so-called ‘book mounds.’ If I’m not mistaken, we’ll see a bunch more of these as we go. Any books around here have been checked countless times by people passing by, so there’s basically nothing of value.”

Sure enough, they found more shelves and even bigger book mounds spread out along both sides of what was barely a single narrow path. The book mounds were encroaching on their path, making it so cramped that they had little choice but to step on the books, an act that made them feel a subtle pang of guilt.

They were definitely inside the Great Library now, yet nothing peculiar had happened, so Maya visibly relaxed.

“I guess this initial area is safe enough?” she asked.

“Probably, but don’t let your guard down entirely. Now that we’re inside the labyrinth, we’re effectively within its sphere of influence. In a labyrinth, you shouldn’t be surprised no matter what misfortune occurs. And…”

“And?”

Suddenly, a portion of the book mound collapsed, pinning their feet, and Maya even fell over.

Ethan realized immediately that this wasn’t random chance, as Boen pointed to where the books had fallen from and shouted, “It’s a ‘book-worm’!”

Ethan knew about them too. Crab-like monsters the size of a human head that lurked in books. Visually, they were as flat as a torn page from an old, worn-out book, but they were strong enough to move under the high density of piled books. They liked to lie in wait until prey came near, then topple books or shelves to trap their victim before leaping out with their formidable jaws.

“→O, o forsaken ones, vanish if un—” Maya tried to chant, but she was stammering, too slow.

Ethan saw Boen’s crystal flicker to life, but it wouldn’t fire in time. He had felt the sting of that crystal before, and he knew its speed well.

The book-worm jumped straight at Maya’s face.

Ethan inhaled. The ambient magi in the air entered his lungs, coursed through his body, and gathered in his lower abdomen, converting into mana. That mana circulated along his meridians and blood vessels, empowering the muscles he needed to launch himself at the book-worm. But that alone wouldn’t be enough.

Ethan drew upon [Archive: Human Anatomy (C)], recalling the existence and position of the nervous system, how the peripheral nerves sent signals to the spinal cord’s central nerves, which then relayed commands from the brain to the extremities.

‘In other words, the nervous system transmits signals. If empowering the muscles with mana increases strength, then empowering the nervous system should…’

Ethan kicked aside the books tangling his feet and lunged.

‘…Make me faster.’

Ethan’s sword cleaved the book-worm in two.

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