Chapter 213: Restricted Library
August 31
Year 717 of the 50th General Calendar
Planet Aeturn
Royal Castle Library
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Arthur strolled through the royal library with three books in hand, walking beside him was the daughter of Grand Duke Eryrth of the Devildom, the person who could be considered to be Arthur’s best friend, Layla.
The green-eyed girl studied a book on ’magic eyes’ as she walked beside Arthur who was leading her to the restricted section of the royal castle library.
Upon arriving in front of the giant chained door, the two guards beside it bowed to Arthur before opening the door for him and Layla.
"This is quite conspicuous..."
"Yeah, I don’t think I should tell you this but the restricted section isn’t on Aeturn, it’s not even in Dorcaster."
"Huh?!"
As Layla exclaimed in surprise, the door behind them closed as the light of teleportation wrapped around them and warped them off to another realm.
◇ ◇ ◇
Unknown Realm
Galaxy B-67
Burning Realms Supercluster
The two sixteen-year-olds reappeared at the top of a small hill in an unknown realm just as the sun was going down.
The next moment, Layla felt a chill down her spine and looked up despite all her instincts warning her not to.
|GGGGGRRRRROOOOOOWWWLLLLL!!!!!!|
She was met with three pairs of glowing red eyes staring at her from beyond the clouds. The size of these glowing eyes was as large as the sun in the sky, further increasing the fear Layla felt.
This excluded the pain she felt from hearing the owner of those eyes growl in their true voice. Arthur sighed and used cosmic energy to cover her ears as he looked up and shouted.
|¬Stop it!¬|
The moment he spoke, the eyes in the clouds disappeared and the ground a few feet away from them cracked open to reveal a black three-headed hell dog, panting with all three tongues out of its mouth.
"Sorry about that, but this thing is Grandpa’s pet. He gets very aggressive around those who don’t have his blood."
Arthur apologized to Layla before glaring at the dog once more, he then abruptly picked her up princess carry style and kicked off the ground before she could even react properly.
Arthur ran down the hill while carrying the surprised Layla before suddenly stopping and stomping his foot on the ground.
**HUMMMM
With a low humming sound, a teleportation gate revealed itself from under the sand, and the light of teleportation wrapped around the two once more, carrying them to the underground library.
Arthur put Layla down before explaining why he carried her in the first place.
"There’s some sort of restriction here that prevents all forms of flight, explaining was a hassle as Grandpa’s pet would have most likely jumped on you while I was doing so."
He then proceeded to walk into the giant hall filled with multiple hundred-meter-tall shelves containing books from various times and universes as he waved his hands in the air.
"Who are you waving to?"
"The librarian. They’re a self-sustenant hermit bookworm."
He then proceeded to explain how the Library worked and how one could request for books to be read.
"Just call out the category of books you want to read and they’d all come flying towards you. Like this;
Seven Deadly Sins Magic."
As Arthur spoke, about thirty books flew off the nearby shelves and flew towards him. Upon reaching him, they floated around him in silence.
"See..."
Layla nodded as she proceeded to call out the category she was looking for.
"Um...Magic eyes?"
About two dozen books flew off the shelves and floated around her. She picked on and flipped through it, her eyes widening in surprise as she saw the information in it was leaps and bounds above what she had seen before.
’I think Dad probably has some of these but he says I’m not qualified to use the full library yet.’
Layla sighed as she looked up from the book, only to realize that Arthur was now seated atop one of the shelves as he read the magic grimoire in his hands with a smile on his face.
Seeing as he was not paying attention to her, she called out in a small voice.
"Mystic eyes..."
Books flew off the shelves and floated around her and she hurriedly picked them up and went behind another shelf to look through them.
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Meanwhile, Arthur was having a hard time understanding a part of the book he was reading. His attention was fully focused on it, as such, he failed to notice Layla’s second set of actions.
"The true essence of this is pretty much you using magic power to cloud your eyes in madness, yet keeping a bit of your rationality left so you can always come back to normal."
He heard a voice come from behind him but didn’t turn around to see who it was as he replied.
"Hmm... but the magic essentially cuts off all signals the brain sends to certain parts of one’s body."
"Not all of your brain, just the signals that the rational part sends and they are dulled, not cut off completely."
"I see..."
The owner of the voice, was none other than the royal castle’s restricted area librarian, a hermit whose true appearance was unknown to many.
"Why are you dabbling in something as dangerous as Wrath magic?"
"I wanted to get ready for my realm expedition that’s in one month. Grandma Inglis suggested that I learn some of the seven deadly sins magic if I wanted to power up quickly in a short time.
Besides, there’s not much I can do in the way of law comprehension in such a short time. I have only just regained the knowledge of the laws I lost after all."
The hermit, whose current appearance was that of a short green-haired male dwarf, nodded as their face changed into that of a red-haired female elf.
"Okay, I can help you out with testing."
"Thanks."
Arthur thanked the hermit as he went back to reading through the grimoire. The hermit then warped towards Layla’s position before peeking at what she was reading.
’She’s known to have paralyzing magic eyes but she’s reading up on mystic eyes. I’d like to call it mere curiosity but her hiding the fact she’s looking into it is plenty suspicious.’
The hermit arrived at a conclusion as they shook their head while sighing in exasperation.
’None of my business, now time to get back to reading Akasha’s chronicles volume 439 for the 6391st time.’
With that thought, the hermit vanished from their position behind Layla, with her none the wiser about the appearance of the being behind her.
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"Hey Layla, I’m gonna go test something out now, wanna come to see?"
Arthur shouted out loud as he dropped the grimoire in his hands to the ground, however, before the book touched the ground, it suddenly lost all momentum and stopped falling before flying into the shelf it originally came from.
He then jumped down from the top of the shelf as Layla returned the books she was reading before replying.
"Sure, I could use a break anyway."
"Okay. We’re going out!"
With Arthur’s shout, the hermit who was on the other end of the library flicked their fingers and the two youngsters were sent out of the area.
Reappearing on the same hill they first arrived on, Arthur was about to tell the hermit who followed them to calm the hell dog but he held his words back as he saw the dog in a more docile state than he had ever seen it in all his over ten years of coming here.
"Alright boy, leave."
A voice rang out as the dog got off the ground and blitzed out of the area faster than Arthur’s eye could catch. Turning around, he was met with the figure of a silver-haired and black-eyed woman who was laying on a couch that came from heaven knows where with a tab in hand.
"Oh, mum."
The woman, Cattleya, gave a light wave as she continued what she was doing on her tab. Arthur saw this and sighed in exasperation before pulling both Layla and the hermit down the hill.
"Ar-."
"Don’t ask."
Arthur cut Layla off before she could even ask for an explanation, as he began to think about the fact that he had worried his mother a bit too much with his reckless actions.
’I won’t be taking any similar actions soon, so she has nothing to worry about for now.’
Unfortunately, those thoughts would be rendered null and void within a mere six weeks but the current Arthur had no way of knowing that as of now.
He only ran down the hill and stared at the vast expanse of land before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
**HUMMM
There was a humming sound as silver waves of energy poured out of his body. Opening his eyes, he channelled his vast reserves of energy.
’This is the first time I’m using magic since casting ’Existence Acceleration." I have to be careful.
His aura flared up and Layla who was watching, couldn’t help but sigh in exasperation.
"Half-step Epic realm already? I’m not even surprised anymore."
