Chapter 43: Whisper What Your Heart Desires

The mere thought of the system's quest filled Roland with a chilling sense of dread.

Finding Fram's "corpse" might be achievable by exploiting Kariya's intelligence bug.

Or rather, he had already succeeded.

The system's quest log already indicated that he had completed part of the first-stage objective.

It was the subsequent matter of the cause of death that truly troubled Roland.

How was one supposed to investigate a cause of death when the person was still very much alive?

Furthermore, if that judgment failed to trigger, wouldn't it mean his and Iluvia's deductions along the way were wrong?

Had the mastermind behind the scenes not used those traditional three axes to kill Fram, but rather employed some more direct method?

Or was it simply that his current line of reasoning regarding the cause of death was insufficient to be classified as the actual cause, and he needed to find specific evidence, or perhaps, like back in Riskan, learn the complete sequence of events for it to count?

"Damn it, aren't you the Destiny Savior System? Why are you making me do all the work of a detective?"

The system gave no response.

Roland had no intention of bringing this up with Fram either.

After all, if a catastrophe could be avoided merely through vigilance, Fram would not have met her end.

Until he managed to sort out the general situation himself, offering random warnings would only produce counterproductive results.

He might as well just play the role of the trusted, heavily-burdened statesman and the model student.

After thanking Fram, Roland mentioned that Kariya had already eaten and returned to her dormitory to rest, conveniently providing Kariya's dorm number to Fram.

Having finished all this, Roland took the pass given to him by Fram and headed toward the Grand Library of Truth within the academy.

As an institution of higher learning openly and fully supported by the Continental Historiographical Society, this library was also funded by them.

All the books and knowledge stored within it represented the entirety of the knowledge accumulated by the Continental Historiographical Society.

Sharing knowledge was also the teaching of the God of Truth.

Aside from forbidden topics, the remaining knowledge should not be monopolized, especially history.

However, a library storing such a vast amount of information and books could naturally not be a "library" in the conventional sense.

According to the information Roland gathered during his entrance examination, the library built by the Continental Historiographical Society inside the academy was at best a facade—an entrance leading to the true library.

The surface library was open to the public; as long as one was a student, books could be borrowed freely, provided they were returned on time.

Beyond that, there were no entry barriers whatsoever.

The true "library," however, was not open to outsiders. It was a vast secret realm created by the Continental Historiographical Society through spatial manipulation.

That treasure trove of knowledge, accessible only through the gates on the first underground floor of the grand library, was not something just anyone could enter.

Because of this, Roland believed he would find the answers he sought there.

If even this place lacked clues regarding the Primal Rune-stone, he might as well just give up.

Knowledge absent here was truly lost knowledge.

Although the night was growing late, it was not yet closing time for the library. Roland strode down to the first underground floor, stopping before a wooden double door that appeared dust-covered, though it was actually just shrouded in a faint, hazy halo of light.

No guards were posted here, making it look just like an ordinary basement.

It was not that the academy attached little importance to the place, but rather that its security required no sentinels.

Those without a pass, even if they managed to figure out a way to forcibly crack the protective runes, would not enter the true library; as for where they would end up... no one knew.

Standing before the doors, which were easily three times the height of a man, Roland took out the pass Fram had given him. It was a rectangular wooden plaque carved with a truth-cross and scales.

Judging by its condition, it was at least an object from several centuries ago.

"Is this thing still usable?"

With lingering doubts, Roland aimed the wooden plaque at the double doors and channeled his mana into it.

Instantly, the hazy halo of light on the wooden doors dissipated, and they slowly swung open.

Roland put away the plaque and stepped inside.

...

The moment his footsteps crossed the threshold, Roland felt a sensation of spatial displacement.

In the next instant, he found himself immersed in a realm of pure white.

There was no ceiling as one might imagine, nor any discernible floor.

The entire pristine, white space was packed with books and neatly arranged bookshelves, with nothing else in sight.

Roland had a strong sense of déjà vu. After a brief recollection, he finally matched the scene to something from his memories.

"Isn't this the Library of Earth?"

Yes, the Library of Earth.

The scene before his eyes was identical to the ability of a male protagonist in a tokusatsu series he had watched in his past life.

Would the method of use be the same as well?

Clearly, there were no librarians here. Relying solely on himself to search through such a vast number of books meant he might not find the correct one even after a whole year.

At that moment, a line of text materialized before Roland's eyes.

[Silently contemplate that which you seek, and the knowledge shall manifest of its own accord.]

He closed his eyes and recalled the knowledge he desired in his mind... the Primal Rune-stone.

As Roland began to ponder, countless bookshelves began to shift rapidly, sliding horizontally before vanishing into nothingness.

In the end, only a single bookshelf remained, bearing just a single thin volume.

The cover of the book was battered and worn, and the characters upon it were not the mainstream script of the current continent, but rather "runes," appearing to consist of only a dozen or so pages.

Yes, they were the very same runes applied in magitech.

Such script inherently carried power, though it usually remained in an inert state unless activated by mana.

Because these characters were difficult to comprehend, possessed strange pronunciations, were hard to learn, had complex writing structures, and carried different meanings and functions depending on how individual glyphs were stroked, they had never been adopted as a mainstream writing system.

Had Roland not conducted research in this field and personally learned the writing and meanings of runes, he would never have recognized the characters written on this ghost-script-like runic book.

Fortunately, the characters he had mastered were just enough for him to decipher the incomplete characters on the battered cover of the ancient book.

"Some kind of epic?"

"A poem? No wonder it's so thin."

"Too bad the preceding text is no longer legible. I wonder what kind of poem it describes."

Roland opened the book and found that most of the verses were disjointed.

Either the preceding line was missing, the following line was absent, or the text simply broke off in the middle.

The characters that should have been inscribed there had all transformed into blurred black dots.

If they were ordinary characters, Roland might have been able to deduce and restore them from their shapes, but encountering a highly complex script like runes left him completely helpless.

Roland had no choice but to search for relatively complete verses, slowly recall the meanings of the runes, and translate them into vocabulary he could understand.

After spending an hour, Roland finally managed to reconstruct a relatively complete poem.

Translated into the Common Continental Tongue, it read:

"Under the sky, the Elven Kings three,"
"In realms of death, the Demon Lords seven,"
"Upon the dust, mortal men doomed to die nine,"
"All laws of the world originate from the First,"
"The supreme gods hold dominion above..."

Roland recited the reconstructed poem aloud, though he had no idea what it ultimately referred to.

Yet, he subconsciously associated it with the Primal Rune-stone.

This library would hardly provide him with irrelevant information.

Since this was the only valid piece of information in this collection of poetry, the line "All laws of the world originate from the First" carried immense significance.

Roland glanced at the poetry collection a few more times, memorized the original runic text of that verse in his mind, and then left the realm.

Upon returning to the surface library, Roland hurried upstairs and, just before closing time, checked out a comprehensive volume on runic meanings.

He needed to go back and cross-reference everything carefully.

If his translation was accurate, he would have to fundamentally readjust his attitude toward the Primal Rune-stone.

In this world, anything connected to the gods and to origins was never simple.

The power of this Primal Rune-stone had definitely not been fully unleashed yet.