Chap 103-Starlight Library

 

Hundreds of magical beasts surged towards the abandoned dormitory like a single black wave.

The sound of claws scraping against the ground, the cracking of hard carapaces colliding, and unsettling howls mixed together, becoming one massive cacophony.

A terrifying sight that would have sent ordinary people fleeing in terror.

However, there was a single knight standing like a breakwater before that black wave.

Bella Staren.

The eldest daughter of the Staren baronet family, a knight who had protected humanity on the front lines for years.

And now, a professor at the academy who would be responsible for the future of Terra.

Snicker

A faint smile played on Bella’s lips.

None of it mattered to her now anyway.

Rustle

She took a step forward, beheading the magical beast charging at the very front with a single stroke.

Black blood scattered in the air, but her gaze did not waver.

‘Sorry, Yeon.’

Unlike what she had said to her.

In truth… she didn’t care at all about the safety of the academy students.

There might have been a time when those things mattered.

Honor as a knight, responsibility as a professor, things like that.

But.

‘After all, those things… they all hurt you.’

Rustle

Once again, the neck of a charging magical beast was severed.

The air filled with the stench of blood and a pungent energy.

Nevertheless, the reason she was standing here now, trying to save the students.

If even one of them were to be sacrificed here…

That foolish girl would blame herself again and cry.

Bella tightened her grip on the sword.

Until now, she had been of no help to her.

She couldn’t do anything while watching her being despised and bullied by others.

When they encountered a Calamity-Class Monster, she collapsed without even putting up a proper resistance, becoming her weakness instead.

This couldn’t go on.

She had said she would become stronger in front of her and protect her…

Pathetically, this couldn’t go on.

The battle had continued since dawn.

And due to the aftermath of being directly hit by the Calamity-Class Monster’s divine power, Bella was already at her limit.

Her arms hung heavy, her legs trembled, and even standing was a struggle.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, and her fingertips began to lose sensation.

Clearly, it was a very dangerous situation.

But.

Strangely, Bella didn’t feel like she would lose.

As a mere level 6, she should have been struggling against even one or two High-ranking Monsters.

And yet.

Bang!

With the earth shaking beneath her feet, she swung her sword.

Crack—

The High-ranking Monster’s hard carapace cracked, and fissures spread out like lightning in all directions.

Thud—

Its heart burst, and black blood exploded outwards.

Hot fluids surged up her fingertips, and the unpleasant sensation of crushed bone and flesh was transmitted through her palm.

As she pulled out her sword, hot, black blood poured out.

The stench of blood stung her nose, but Bella didn’t even flinch.

Her mind was focused on only one thing.

That foolish girl, who was undoubtedly throwing herself recklessly for others inside the dormitory even now.

Once more.

Again.

Each time the sword slashed through the air, a magical beast fell, spraying blood.

Her breath grew ragged, and her heart pounded as if it would explode.

The air filling her lungs burned hotly, but Bella didn’t retreat a single step.

Fatigue and pain coursed through her body like waves.

Her body, pushed to its limit, screamed, but she didn’t stop.

The desire to protect someone forcibly roused her tattered body.

She swung her sword as if trying to break through that boundary.

Just a little more.

Just one more time.

This much pain was nothing compared to what she had been through so far.

With each swing, her body gradually adapted, and her muscles and nerves remembered new speed and strength.

And… when she finally crossed that limit.

[SYSTEM]

LEVEL UP!

[LV.6] → [LV.7]

She finally grasped the power she had desired.

The corpses of the magical beasts, fallen after the long battle, covered the surroundings.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, but a strange sense of fulfillment filled her chest.

For the first time, she felt certain that she could protect her.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

The warm vibrations remaining on her fingertips and the sensation of wielding the sword were still vivid.

The afterglow of the level up flowed through her body.

But that sensation didn’t last long.

Along with the feeling of empty Mana, fatigue washed over her all at once.

Thump—

Bella collapsed to the ground as if her knees had given way.

At that moment.

An alien flow of magical power brushed against her skin.

“…What is this?”

Gathering what strength she had left, she raised her body, and a sight she absolutely didn’t want to see in her current state came into view.

In the pile of magical beast corpses, one was twitching and writhing slightly.

A mutation that occurred extremely rarely among magical beasts.

Death itself became a final struggle, causing its corpse to explode and devastate the surroundings—the worst kind of special individual.

Bad luck.

Unfortunately, one of them was mixed in here.

Bella had neither the strength to stop it nor the strength to escape.

A situation of certain death that no one could avoid.

Even so, she couldn’t give up.

The only person who would surely be saddened if something happened to her.

For that person’s sake, absolutely…

Bella gritted her teeth and lay flat on the ground.

To reduce the damage from the explosion even a little and increase the chances of survival.

KWAANG—!

The earth shook with an ear-splitting roar.

She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.

…But the pain she had been waiting for didn’t come.

In the suffocating silence, she slowly opened her eyes.

“What… what is this…”

She groped her intact body, muttering in disbelief.

Sharp fragments were everywhere, with traces of them deeply scratching the walls and floor.

There had definitely been an explosion.

A fatal explosion at that.

Everything around her had been destroyed, but only the space where she was lying was miraculously intact.

As if something invisible had protected her.

[SYSTEM]

Congratulations!

You have awakened the Unique Ability ‘Luck’.

“This is… Lina’s…?”

…

‘Senior, you have to be safe.’

Leaving behind her senior, who was fighting the magical beasts alone, Yeon entered the dormitory.

Unlike the chaotic outside, the inside of the dormitory was unbelievably quiet.

That quiet felt so unfamiliar that it was suffocating.

Yeon took a breath and slowly headed to her room.

There, the familiar energy of the Evil God was clearly emanating.

However, as she got closer, she felt another energy thinly spread out.

An eerily clean and pure Mana, with no mixing or impurities.

It was faintly leaking from inside the room.

Creak—

She carefully opened the old door.

“…Rift?”

In the middle of the room, the air was distorted, and a huge hole had opened up.

From its appearance alone, it might have resembled a gate leading to another dimension, but it was definitely different.

Instead of the tangled Mana flow or spatial pressure unique to gates, an excessively orderly energy was swirling.

And beyond that rift, endless rainbow-colored bookshelves were spread out in layers.

A place she had never seen directly even in the game, but only knew as a setting.

“Could it be… the Starlight Library?”

The heart of all records, where the Akashic Records were stored.

And what was in front of her now was a passage leading to that place.

“How…?”

Only the highest-ranking Librarian can open this door.

But, does that mean such an existence is helping the Evil God?

What on earth is the Evil God trying to do by taking Lina here?

An ominous feeling swept over her body.

Is it okay to go in?

The information I know about that space is only a small part.

I don’t know what’s waiting for me, or if I’ll be able to come out again if I go in.

I was a little uneasy, but… nothing will change by standing in front of this.

Yeon swallowed her breath and carefully took a step forward.

And…

Before she could resist, she was instantly sucked inside.

…

“Ugh… my head…”

Yeon muttered and opened her eyes.

She felt a faint pleasure along with a throbbing pain, probably from falling headfirst.

“This is… the Starlight Library?”

She slowly looked around.

Beneath her feet was an endlessly stretching marble floor, and above her head was a darkness with no end instead of the sky.

And in that darkness, rainbow-colored bookshelves were lined up.

Infinitely, so much that she couldn’t even guess where the end was.

“Sniff… sob…”

A sobbing sound pulled Yeon, who had been momentarily overwhelmed by the magnificent scenery of the Starlight Library, back to reality.

‘A sob…?’

“Wh-what is it…”

No way… is there a ghost or something?

With uneasy feelings, she turned her head and scanned her surroundings again, and a familiar face came into view in the distance.

‘Thank goodness, she seems to be safe.’

It was Lea, a girl with neat impressions and brown hair.

In front of her, a book was floating in the air, and Lea was looking at it and crying sadly.

Yeon had confirmed that Bella had sent her to a safe place, but she didn’t know what had happened after that.

Seeing her so intact made her feel somewhat relieved.

“Sniff… sob… hic…”

‘Sh-she’s safe, right…?’

Author’s words

It’s a little late… but anyway, it’s Thursday update!