episode_0175

*

After leaving the throne room, I remembered the last conversation I had with her.

“A regular meeting will be held soon. We will adopt your agenda at that time, so it would be good if you could give us your opinion.”

“Is it really necessary to take that approach?”

“Isn’t there a need to quell the useless news that your opinion is being unilaterally and darkly listened to behind closed doors? Even here, I have no choice but to depend on you.”

Serpina said that and smiled at me.

Show me your abilities, Swen――.

‘I wonder if it can even be called an ability.’

It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand Serpina’s position.

Like Yuuri, unilaterally siding with the opinions of those close to you is literally possible because it’s Aceu-kun, and if you do that here, various troublesome things will happen.

At this regular meeting, many generals will seriously push for southward expansion. Do I need to convince them?

‘First of all, I need to plate my abilities in a believable way.’

Since most of his abilities were on the verge of being discovered by Serpina, he naturally had to pack them away.

As not only she but also Jinor had figured it out to some extent, I also needed to know on what basis they were able to infer my abilities.

So where am I headed –

*

The place we arrived at after receiving guidance from the maid was a fairly large building, about three stories high, located in the city center of Eingart Castle.

“This is the place.”

“Thank you.”

In response to my greeting, a maid neatly dressed in a white apron bowed and asked politely.

“When would be a good time to come see you again?”

“Are you going back? Well, since we know the location, we can go back ourselves, so it’s okay.”

“Is that so? If you say so… … .”

The maid greeted us with a graceful gesture.

“Ah, that… … Ah, goodbye… … !”

Reika, who was next to me, was nervous and gave a stupid greeting, saying goodbye to the maid who had seen us off.

This place is a library.

The day after my private meeting with Serpina, Reika, who seemed to have nothing special to do, followed me because I wanted to find out something personally.

Since Irene was out training, I thought she might be bored alone, so I brought her along without much hesitation.

“Wow… … It’s so big?”

“Sure.”

Eyngart Grand Library.

A three-story building filled with all kinds of old books, a space where the greatest intellectuals on the continent sleep.

The reason I learned of the existence of this place was because of the dialogue of the territory residents before I was possessed here.

When you click on the scrawny Young Ji-min wandering around on the screen, meaningless words like ‘Farming seems to be a matter of heaven’ or ‘I hope the turbulent times end quickly and a peaceful world comes’ would be shown in random encounters.

Having played this game for 10,000 hours, I had already memorized a few of the territory’s lines.

One of them is definitely-

‘They say that Eingart Castle has a great library with old books that provide all kinds of information.’

As it was Young Ji-min’s line, it didn’t say that the Great Library had any effect in the game, but it was clear that there was ‘such a setting’ anyway.

Then, it was a natural mechanism to predict that a library would also exist in this world where that world became a reality.

Therefore, as a result of asking the maid who takes care of various matters in the house –

‘It means we were able to get to this place.’

I spoke to Reika, who was overwhelmed by the size of the building.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes? Ah, four… … !”

As we entered the building with Reika, an old man at the counter wearing a stylish monocle greeted us.

“What brought you here?”

“I want to look around the books.”

“In order to use the Eingart Great Library, you must be a member of the Serpina Army… … .”

“It is called Swen.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The man looked at the documents filled with information in the drawer for a while, then looked at me a few times and said,

“Swen. welcome. However, the person next to me… … ?”

“Oh, I-”

“Just asking, is Young Jimin not allowed in?”

“Yes.”

I spoke with a sly expression to the man who spoke quite firmly.

“Even if it’s a family relationship?”

“?!”

“Do you mean family?”

“Yes. This is my wife. Today, I am accompanying you.”

“S… … !”

I held Reika’s hand and gave her a silent signal as she tried to say something.

Please speak quietly.

Did he understand it, or was he just embarrassed? He blushed, lowered his head, and didn’t say anything.

“Do I have to leave my wife outside and go in?”

“Hmm… … .”

The old man thought for a moment, then nodded and said.

“Okay. Please come in. Excuse me, ma’am.”

“Ah, yes, four… … !”

In that way, I was able to enter the Great Library with Reika without much difficulty.

*

“The book you are looking for is here.”

“Thank you.”

It was only then that I offered my sincere apology to Ms. Reika, who did not say a word until she said hello to the librarian at the library who showed us around.

“I’m sorry if you were offended, Reika. Still, I came with you, but I can’t go in alone.”

“Yes? Oh, no… … ! Well, that… … Well, I didn’t feel bad. which… … .”

Reika hesitated and spoke in a voice that was all calming down.

For the past few days, he seemed to have gotten used to me and Irene, and he spoke cheerfully and loudly in a loud voice, but now it felt like he was back to the ‘stupid mode’ he was in when we first met.

“Well, that… … That, t-t, is wrong… … Oh, that’s not true.”

“Yes?”

“That’s why! that… … We.”

Reika’s face became redder than blush.

“Marriage talk… … Because we are sharing… … Yo.”

“… … You are thinking about that seriously, right?”

“Yes? ah… … yes yes! Bird, I’m thinking about it!”

“If you are so serious, your voice will crack at the end.”

“Oh, that… … Ugh, woo.”

I smiled as I looked at her with her head down and looking embarrassed.

Now, even the way he hesitated like that looked quite cute.

“Please think about that problem carefully. I will follow Reika’s opinion.”

“Ah… … Yes, yes.”

If she says she will marry me… … I should talk to Irene first.

It was okay if I didn’t get married. Reika wants to be free, so she may not want to be tied down to one man… … At least I wanted to respect Reika’s choice, regardless of her abilities.

Anyway, it wasn’t a matter to decide right now.

‘Let me see.’

anyway.

I said the book I was looking for was here.

After picking out a few and checking them out, they definitely seemed to be the books I was looking for.

‘… … ‘A great sage with the mind’s eye.’

The only reason I came to this great library, and the information I must know in order to enhance my abilities.

That’s what the ‘mind’s eye’ was about.

When Jinor vaguely deduced my abilities.

And, when Serpina guessed close to 99% of my abilities.

What the two had in common was that they mentioned the word ‘mind’s eye’ while looking at me.

Jinor interpreted it as the ability to see the future, and Serpina interpreted it as my ability to judge, but in any case, since the word ‘mind’s eye’ came out of both people’s mouths, they inferred my ability at least similarly. It was not difficult to infer that this word had a fairly deep connection with the fact that it was possible to do so.

But I didn’t know the detailed information about the word, so I had to go to a place where I could check it to find out the information –

The choice was the Eyngart Library.

After selecting a few books and condensing only the important parts, I was able to come up with a reasonable number of propositions.

[A few hundred years ago, among those who served Kalthus von Eingart, the third emperor of the Eingart Empire, there was a man called the ‘Sage of the Mind’. He was excellent at military strategy and smart at politics, so he rose to the position of national strategist and achieved numerous achievements, earning the respect of many people.]

Certainly, the book contained various information about the ‘Sage of the Mind’.

However, it is only stated that he is an ‘extremely excellent national strategist’ and there are no clues that can be used to infer the existence of me.

at that time.

“Swen, is there something you are looking for? … ?”

While I was concentrating on the book, Reika came up to me and asked.

“Oh, that’s it.”

I obediently told the story about my mind’s eye.

So, she slightly tilted her head and-

“Are you looking for the legend of the ‘Sage of the Mind’?”

“… … uh? Reika, do you know?”

“I’ve seen all the books at home before… … I remember seeing it there.”

… … ah.

Come to think of it, I often forgot Reika’s last name – Reika Nighthart.

She is the adopted daughter of Jinor Nighthard, who was eating away at the empire, so wouldn’t it be strange if she knew about it too?

This historical story is about the royal family of the empire, and anyone related to the empire has probably heard it at least once, and the basis for the inference was that the two people who mentioned the ‘mind’s eye’ to me were people related to the old empire. .

In reality, Jinor was someone who originally worked for the empire, and Serpina was, needless to say, a member of the empire.

“Can I hear your story?”

“So, to put it simply-”

Thanks to Mr. Reika’s kind explanation in a quiet voice, I was able to learn more about the ‘Sage of the Heart’.

To summarize, it was as follows.

[Because the advice he had given so far was ultimately correct, his ability was recognized by the emperor and he was given the title ‘Mind’s Eye.’]

‘This is the part.’

Only then did I feel like I knew why Jinor and Serpina were looking at me with their mind’s eye or something.

Unlike me, the man in this book seemed to be a person with many talents in addition to always saying the right things, but in any case, the reason he was given the very plausible title of ‘Mind’s Eye’ was because everything he said was correct when you look back on it.

If they had this information in their heads, they could naturally claim that I had the ability of the mind’s eye, which ‘seemed to be absolutely true.’

“However, since there is no physical evidence left that such an outstanding person actually existed, the opinion that he is now a legendary or mythical figure seems to be the common opinion of those currently writing history books.”

“Is that so?”

Reika nodded at what I said.

“Yes. Considering that only the title ‘Sage of the Mind’ remained in the first place, and that the name of the man who played a very active role as the empire’s national strategist was not even mentioned… … I also think that he was just a character created to serve as a kind of empire founding myth. It’s not very realistic that everything you say is true in the first place… … .”

“I see… … .”

I thought, nodding my head in agreement.

Nevertheless, the reason these two people were able to add such a mythical story to me was probably because the wizard, who was also thought to be only a mythical being, stood out.

If wizards exist, there is no reason why wise men of the mind’s eye cannot also exist – and in fact, as they reasoned, I did have something similar to the ‘mind’s eye’ ability.

I don’t know if 100 intelligence is actually the mind’s eye or not.

To what extent does Serpina assume that it is a meteorite that I scattered, and Jinor assumes that it is her adopted daughter?

‘… … good.’

The reason I even bothered to investigate was because there was a big difference between responding without knowing anything and responding with knowledge.

Serpina’s words were correct. I just knew what the outcome would be. I didn’t know the process or what kind of logic led to such a result.

In such a situation, when you are interrogated a few more times, it makes a huge difference whether or not you can tell a plausible story.

The next time I was faced with a similar interrogation, I needed to somehow use this keyword to get out.

By giving my abilities a decent gilding, I was given freedom of choice.

If that happens, I will be able to gain almost certain trust from Serpina and-

You will be able to return to Lunarien County without difficulty in the future.

… … but.

‘then… … Should I lie to Serpina?’

My mind became complicated again because of Serpina glimmering before my eyes, but I shook my head lightly.

It wasn’t a problem to worry about now… … So far, anyway.

“Then.”

This is all I can do.

What you need to pay attention to next is… … Are you Reika?

“Is there a book you would like to read?”

“Yes? ah… … That’s it.”

“Aren’t you interested in books? Considering that you read everything in the house even when you were at the mansion, it seems like you like reading.”

“No, that… … I like it, but right now I’m here to take care of Swen’s business… … .”

“I did everything I had to do. And since Reika is out for the first time in a while, it would be nice to have some fun, right? It looks like you can’t come alone again. I can read any book next to you.”

“… … then… … Is that so?”

Reika asked, looking up at me slightly as if shy.

As expected, it seemed like the answer was that I was worried about books.

It seemed like he was quite excited as he was explaining things to me and the tension was strangely high.

Certainly, this space was a place where you could lose your mind and soul if you loved books.

“Good.”

So, I spent time with Reika at the Great Library.

What surprised me again was that she, who was sure she would read books about wizards and folk tales, picked up chivalric literature for ladies – that is, ordinary romantic fantasy.

Spending a leisurely afternoon reading a book with Reika… … It was a pretty good experience.

* * *

A few days later.

Finally, the morning of the regular meeting day dawned.