Chapter 20: The Lord of Flames and the Book

“You may leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kaplan left the room at Cordell’s words. Cordell also left his room not long after Kaplan.

Cordell started walking after he left the room. His destination was the Flame Pagoda’s master, Spire Lord Berenice’s room. When Cordell arrived in front of the Spire Lord Berenice’s room, beads of sweat covered his face.

Cordell was sweating so much not because he was physically weak, but because of the amount of heat coming from Berenice’s room.

Heat hotter than the hottest desert was always wrapped around the greatest resident of Flame Pagoda, the ‘Lord of Flames’ Berenice’s room.

“How does she even sleep here?”,

Cordell thought as he wiped his sweat. Even the outside of the room was this hot so he could not understand how she managed to live inside the room where it was even hotter.

“But how else could she have gotten this powerful.”

“Miss Berenice!”

Cordell shouted as he was knocking.

“Come in.”

Berenice’s voice came not long after. Cordell held his breath as the door opened.

Hot.

Cordell covered his face as hot winds escaped Berenice’s room. If an ordinary person had been in his place, their eyebrows would have been singed off.

“Hoo……”

Cordell slowly breathed out as he entered the room.

“They’ve increased again.”

8 balls of fire circled around Berenice’s slender body. The last time Cordell had seen her, there were only 7 balls of fire. She had grown stronger again.

“As expected of her. She’s a complete monster.”

She wasn’t the Flame Spire Lord for nothing.

“What is it?”

Berenice asked.

“It seems that there’s going to be gathering at the Spire again.”

“What? A gathering? Did a demon lord appear or something?”

Cordell shook his head. It could be said that the current situation was more unusual than a demon lord appearing.

“A person with immeasurable talent has appeared.”

“……!”

“And it was measured with the Wisdom Balls as well.”

“The Wisdom Balls that Kako designed? It couldn’t be measured with them?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Berenice was struck speechless.

“Their talent couldn’t be measured with Kaiko’s Wisdom Balls?”

Berenice knew very well how ingenious the Wisdom Balls designed by the Earth Spire Lord, Kako were. The Kako, that was known to have immeasurable talent 30 years ago.

Kako had mentioned that if her talent was measured again with his improved Wisdom Balls, it wouldn’t immeasurable anymore.

Her new Wisdom Balls were that effective. But other people with immeasurable talents? Berenice had believed that she wouldn’t get to see one again in her lifetime.

“When is it?”,

Berenice asked Cordell. She was curious about the gathering.

“It hasn’t been decided yet.”

It was a gathering of whimsical people more influential than kings. Of course they couldn’t choose recklessly. They had to carefully adjust according to the other Lords’ schedule.

“When would be the most convenient for you?”

“I would like to have it arranged as soon as possible.”

Berenice wanted to have the gathering as soon as possible. No, she just wanted to meet the person responsible for all this.

“I’ll try to have it as soon as possible.”,

Cordell replied to Berenice. Of course, he couldn’t guarantee it. After all, the date had to be convenient to other Spire Lords as well since there were nine other Lords apart from Berenice.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

Cordell said to Berenice as he turned back to leave.

“……Wait!”

Cordell faced Berenice again after hearing her shout. Berenice asked Cordell when she saw him face her.

“How old is this person?”

“I heard that they’re 20 years old.”

“……!”

Berenice’s eyes widened at his answer.

“It is a he? Or a she?”

Berenice asked him again in an expectant voice.

“……It’s a he.”

“Oh, i-is that right?”

Berenice’s expression changed again at his answer.

“T-then I’ll take my leave now.

Cordell hurriedly left with a flustered voice after her questioning. He thought as he left,

“Did she take an interest in someone again?”

Rated as SSS 31 years ago when she was 5, the Flame Spire Lord Berenice. Was it her original personality? Or was it the influence of her teacher, the former Flame Lord, Serene? For whatever reason, Berenice eagerly sought a partner. Of course, she wouldn’t take action in ways unbefitting of her status(TL: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) even if she found a decent man. Unlike her master. (TL: ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ ))

The problem was, a lot of incidents happened because of that strange tendency even if she didn’t flirt. Cleaning after her mess all day was the Vice Spire Lord, Cordell.

“I’m worried after seeing her reaction.”

Cordell was overcome with a headache when he thought about what she would do. From her 36 year-old perspective, a 20 year-old man with unlimited potential was a chance that would come once in a lifetime. There was a high possibility that Berenice would fall in love and do something stupid again.

“No.”

Cordell suddenly realised,

“If it’s a man with immeasurable talent……”

Then it was probably okay.

* * *

“Wow……”

Soo Hyuk let out a sigh of amazement as he stood in front of the massive building.

“Oren can’t even begin to compare to this.”

The building, which dwarfed the library at Oren, was the Library of Matab.

“There’s got to be a lot of books in there.”

Just from the size of the building, Matab probably possessed significantly more books than the Oren Library. Filled with expectation, Soo Hyuk approached the library entrance. Just like Oren, there was a guard guarding the entrance.

Soo Hyuk walked up to the young man guarding the entrance. The young man, who was reading a book, saw Soo Hyuk walk up and nodded to him.

“I’m here to use the library.”,

The man closed his book at Soo Hyuk’s words and stood up with a smile.

“Can you show me your token?”

“Here it is.”

Soo Hyuk opened his inventory and pulled out his ‘Magician’s Token’. When the young man was handed the token, he checked it for a moment and then spoke the Soo Hyuk,

“Mister Soo Hyuk, you can collect it on your way out.

“Thank you, have a nice day.”

Soo Hyuk passed the man and entered the library. But Soo Hyuk halted when he entered the library.

“……?”

Soo Hyuk looked around the library.

“Huh? Why is it so empty?”

The library had a large area with polished marble at the front which contained desks for reading, and bookshelves on grand mezzanines rising to the ceiling high above. But it was too empty. The library was big, so he had thought that it would be full of people. But it was void of people. Soo Hyuk could only see one or two people and numerous seats were empty.

“Well, it’s a good thing for me.”

If there were too many people, the library might be too noisy or he might not be able to read some books for a long time. Soo Hyuk turned away from the desk and looked at the bookshelves.

“……?”

Soo Hyuk tilted his head in confusion. It was because of the books themselves. In Oren, the library was full of sparkling books except for the one ‘Guidebook’, but in the Matab Library, he could see a lot of books that didn’t sparkle.

“The books probably overlap with Oren’s Library a lot.”

The books didn’t sparkle for the ones Soo Hyuk had already read. Of course, he wasn’t sure if there was another reason. So, Soo Hyuk approached one of the bookshelves on the ground floor and picked a random book that wasn’t sparkling.

“As expected……”

When he checked, the book was one he had already read in Oren’s Library.

“Now that I think about it, why wouldn’t two libraries have the same book?”

Now that he had checked, Soo Hyuk went over to a sparkling book and pulled it out of the shelf.

After all, Soo Hyuk didn’t want to read the books he had already read if there were other books that haven’t been read yet.

“……Hmm?”

Soo Hyuk froze as he pulled out a fifth sparkling book and squinted at a place while frowning.

“What’s that?”

Soo Hyuk was staring down the aisle of bookshelves. More precisely, at a book at the end of a bookshelf.

“Blue?”

The book in his line of sight was glowing with a blue light. Soo Hyuk then stared at the books in his hands with a confused expression.

“But this is white.”

The books in his hands were glowing with a faint white light. And it wasn’t just these books. The books in Oren’s Library were glowing with a white light as well. Even more confused, Soo Hyuk stared at the blue book again.

“Why is that book glowing blue?”