Chapter 20: 20

The strategy that Mac and Cynthia came up with was quite rough.

The building where the official documents were stored was located further inside the building that housed the Magic Agency. Since the entire building was used as a storage facility for the old official documents of the royal palace, there were usually few people around.

The latest official documents were kept in each department, but the outdated ones are brought into the vault like this.

That’s why no one ever comes by this wing except when they need to browse through old documents.

According to Cynthia’s research, the collection of ancient magic we were looking for was located in a tall circular tower that extended from the top floor of the building.

“…Of all places, it’s in the highest level. It’s too much of a hurdle.” Mac complained, but Cynthia soothed him.

I climbed the stairs to the fifth floor and found myself on a small rooftop.

There were broken jars and old bookshelves left in a haphazard manner, a messy place even for a royal palace.

This is generally the case in areas where no nobleman visits.

The floor of the rooftop was covered with ceramic tiles, but weeds were growing through the gaps in the tiles. If left unchecked, it would eventually start leaking.

I crossed the rooftop fearfully and headed for the tower at the back.

A damp night breeze blew and played with our robes.

I looked at the uncomfortable railing, which was only lower than my waist, and suddenly remembered.

“Hey, isn’t this the tower of Benjamin? It’s famous for being haunted.”

When I called out to them, Mac and Cynthia turned their heads.

“Well, I’ve never heard of such a tower.”

“Who’s Benjamin?”

“Oh, right. Benjamin isn’t dead yet. A nobleman fell to his death in an accident from the tower of the royal palace a few months after I got my job last time. Since then, it’s been rumored that Benjamin’s ghost has been haunting the palace.”

“And this is the tower?”

Mac pushed Cynthia from behind as she stopped with a stiff face.

“And now that Ben isn’t dead yet, there are no ghosts. Let’s just focus on this.”

We somehow managed to get close to the tower while keeping an eye on our surroundings in various ways. Cynthia fumbled for the key, opened and unlocked the door, and we entered the building together. Mac stayed outside to keep watch.

The inside was dark and cool, and just to the right of where we entered, there was a door that led to the small tower.

The entrance to the circular tower, which was three stories high, had only a single, narrow door.

Wait here, I’ll unlock the door with wind magic.”

Cynthia surprised me by kneeling down in front of the keyhole and peering through it.

“Don’t you have a key here? … is it okay to do this?”

“I don’t want to keep a record of borrowing the key. I don’t want to get in trouble later. Borrowing the key to this tower is a bit of a strict procedure.

I felt more and more like I was doing something wrong and got nervous.

“So we’ll sneak in quickly, find the book, read it and leave immediately.”

Cynthia used her magic to thread the wind needle through the small keyhole and after a few minutes, a click! A small eerie sound came from inside the hole.

Cynthia looked up at me with pride on her face.

“Well what do you know? Wind magic is pretty useful.”

“Yes. It’s a novel way of using it and it’s a real eye-opener…”

Cynthia stood up, giggling, and turned the knob to open the door.

It was pitch black inside.

“Little bird of fire, light up the darkness.”

I chanted a small spell, and a red fire the size of a sparrow popped up, dimly illuminating the inside of the tower.

I could see the stone walls, and all that was left on the floor was a cleaning kit, a desk, and a narrow iron spiral staircase leading upward.

“Let’s go up!”

The two of us began to ascend the stone stairs.

The fire sparrow flew a little ahead of us.

The upper floor had windows, and thanks to the moonlight, it wasn’t completely dark. The ceiling was filled with shelves, and in the center was a display stand.

It was dusty and made me cough. I wondered when the cleaning tools downstairs had last been used.

I involuntarily covered my nose with the edge of my robe.

“According to the list, the Book of Ancient Magic should be on the second shelf, number thirty-one.”

Cynthia said and moved to check the number written on the top of the shelf. The fire sparrow moves with her, to the side. When we reached the shelf labeled “2,” we both reached for the number 31 at almost the same time.

I would like to borrow it, but that’s not going to happen.

I move to the window, open the book, and stare at it in the moonlight.

I was a little impatient when I saw the worm-like handwriting.

It’s an old style of writing. It was hard to read. In addition, it was smudged.

Somehow, the two of us managed to find the page of “The Three Sages’ Begging for Time”.

The book was yellowish and the paper looked fragile, but we didn’t have time to worry about it and hurriedly turned the pages.

“There it is!”

We both exclaimed almost simultaneously.

With trembling hands, we held the page and continued reading. Not only was the font old-fashioned, but the words themselves were difficult to understand.

It reminded me of the classics class at the academy. There were so many words and phrases that made no sense without a dictionary.

“Without a dictionary, it’s hard to get the exact meaning.”

“Leave it to me. I’m good at the classics.”

It’s embarrassing, but it would be safer to leave the deciphering to Cynthia.

Cynthia read aloud to me, translating slowly.

“‘The Three Sages’ begging for time’ is…”

–In order to perform this magic, three great magicians had to join forces.

The first acts as the “initiator,” the second as the “invoker,” and the third as the “detonator.”

It’s the first “initiator” who controls and presides over this art.

First, the “initiator” gives all of his magic power to the second “invoker”. After receiving all the magic power, the “invoker” kills the third “detonator” with a single shot to the heart of the sorcerer, and uses the power of his life to turn back time.

It’s said that the time which is turned back is proportional to the magical power of the three, with the shortest time being one year and the longest being the age of the “initiator,” but how much time can be turned back cannot be adjusted by the three. That was one of the major flaws of this magic and one of the reasons why it was forgotten as a useless magic.

Cynthia’s eyes widened strangely and she looked at me.

“Hey, isn’t that something I’ve heard somewhere? I don’t know who the first initiator was, but – you were… stabbed in the chest by the Crown Prince with a sword before time rewound, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but …”

It’s not that cold, but I get goosebumps all over my body.

The last moment of Liesel’s life comes back to my mind.

Cynthia grabbed my arm tightly. It was quite a force, but we were both so excited that we didn’t know how to control it.

“Didn’t the Crown Prince use this magic? And it turned back time. So in this case, the ‘invoker’ was the crown prince.”

“So you’re saying that the crown prince used my life to perform a time-reversal spell with another magician?”

Cynthia shook her head and said with glaring eyes.

“Read this, Liesel. –The ‘detonator’ can’t be just anyone. There is a condition for the life that the ‘trigger’ will use. The ‘trigger’ must take [the life of the person he loves most in this world]. Well, that’s terrible magic. It’s no wonder it hasn’t been passed down to future generations.

I couldn’t understand what Cynthia was trying to say. She folded her fingertips, tracing the faintly inked letters.

“Seeing the most beloved person die in front of their eyes breaks the heart of the ‘invoker’. That power is also essential to the activation of this technique.”

The one you love the most?

Did the crown prince’s heart break when he saw me die?

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I followed the letters, keeping my face close to Cynthia’s.

“The technique is not yet complete. The ‘activator’ who breaks his heart also takes his own life in the end. Then, the time-reversal will be activated. –So, …… maybe Liesel, right after you died, the crown prince also pierced his own heart.”

I was horrified. I remember that scene.

At that time, the crown prince lastly raised the sword that he took back from the officer over me when I died.

I thought I was going to be stabbed again. But instead, did he stab himself with the sword afterwards?

And then the magic of turning back time was completed?

“Time doesn’t go back by chance for no reason, much less by God’s mischief. It was deliberately turned back eleven years ago by a lost magic trick.”

“Lies, lies…”

“This means, Liesel, you weren’t abandoned the last time.”

Cynthia grabs my shoulders with both hands and rocks me back and forth. My eyes heat up as she shakes me.

That’s what I wanted to know the most at that time.

Was I really loved? I had thought that the Crown Prince had chosen the saint and I had been abandoned.

But was I wrong?

Really?

“The Crown Prince rewound time in order to save you, Liesel!　He had just rushed back from the battlefield, and it must have been impossible for him to stop the execution because it was too last minute.”

As I opened the lid of my closed memory, the shouts of the people resurfaced in my ears.

They were eager to drag out the “culprit” and punish her. In everyone’s mind, the saint was the poor victim. Every one of their mindless abuses was a madness that drove me to the place of execution.

“I don’t understand…”

“For the Crown Prince at the time, it was the only way to save you.”

I covered my face with my hands.

“Even if I know that now, his…. highness is a completely different person and has already forgotten me.”

This reminds me of the person I am guarding, the Crown Prince, who is a different person than he once was.

Cynthia turned the page.

She put her face close to the book again and continued reading.

There’s more to come. –Even if time rewinds, only the ‘initiator’ and ‘invoker’ who manage this series of magic will retain their memories.”

It doesn’t look like the Crown Prince remembers anything at all. He looks like a different person in the first place, even before that problem. And–

“So you’re saying that the procedure was supposed to leave me with no memory? Just a rewind?”

So why do I have a memory of it? Is it because old magic is broken?

What had happened then? Desperately trying to remember, I clutched my chest.

The sword had first pierced my pendant when it stabbed me in the chest. It was a talisman stone that my grandfather had given me. Perhaps the scattered memories had followed my soul.

“Maybe my grandfather protected me.”

But Cynthia didn’t answer that, instead she was twisting her neck and groaning about something.

She pushed the pages of the open book and peered desperately at the binding of the string.

“… That’s weird. At first glance, it looks like the sentence ends here but It just doesn’t seem to be coherent enough and look! There’s a slight gap in the entire binding. –I think a page has been torn out here.”

I take a look at it as well, but I’m not sure.

“Is it? The page numbers didn’t jump.”

“That’s why you can’t tell at first glance, but ancient magic books often have addenda.”

An addendum is a page that is inserted later. Usually, the total number of pages is not changed. For example, if the number of pages is added after page 35, only the additional pages are added to the end of the page, such as 35-1, 35-2, and so on.

“Does this mean that someone took away the addendum so that it wouldn’t be discovered?”

Apparently, there was still something written in the ancient document.

There was more to the original “The Three Sages’ Time Reversal”.　

Someone had taken the entire page so that no one could see it.

In other words, there may have been something important written in the missing pages.

“Who could have done this and when?”

“Given the circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that it was either the initiator or the invoker. That person once entered the archives here at the palace and learned about the magic of time travel. I think he went in again and tore up the pages he didn’t want to be seen.”

The light of the fire sparrow I produced fades a little. The inside of the tower becomes dark.

“We should get back. Either way, we’ve got what we needed to read.”

Cynthia put the old magic book back on the shelf and we started down the stairs.

As we descended, my mind was a mess of confusion.

I wondered what was written in the parts that was torn out.

Did the crown prince use magic to turn back time for me?

Moreover, with the help of some other magician.

Where is this someone who remembered everything and was involved in turning back time?

When I opened the door and returned to the rooftop on the fifth floor, Mac was not there.

He was supposed to be on guard duty.

“Why isn’t he here?!”

Cynthia and I crossed the rooftop, scared to death, wondering if something had happened. As we walked near the exterior stairs leading down the building, Mac came up from below.

“Where have you been?! I thought my heart would stop.”

“Sorry! A drunken man came staggering up to the roof. He seemed to have come to commit suicide. I panicked.”

“Eh, Who’s that?”

“A guy named Benjamin Trevor.”

A strange silence fell.

I couldn’t help muttering.

“Benjamin?”

“He was so sad when his lover broke up with him that he decided to jump off the roof. He’s a real pain in the ass, that Benjamin.”

Cynthia muttered with a strange expression on her face.

“Benjamin?”

“I’ve heard that he abandoned his childhood fiancée and broke off their engagement in order to be with her. Well, Benjamin, you got what you deserved. He chose this place because it’s within sight of the home of the lover who dumped him. Committing suicide by throwing yourself in the palace tower is a scary thing to do.”

We unconsciously looked over the railing at the streets of the royal capital.

Cynthia, who was staring into the darkness of the night, casually muttered.

“Even though it’s so dark, the only thing we can see clearly from here are the big mansions around there. –Isn’t that the biggest mansion, the Lancaster mansion, Gideon’s house? Everyone in the class said it was almost like a castle in some other country. If that’s the case, then the large mansion next door is the Zepharm mansion, right?”

“It’s too dark for me to see which house has their lights on.”

I couldn’t find any person who looked like Benjamin around the tower. Curious, I asked Mac for more information.

“So, what happened to that guy, Mac?”

Mac swirled his eyes around and then shrugged his shoulders.

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“I scolded him to stop being silly, and he started crying. He’s pretty good-looking, but he’s a real pain in the ass. I had no choice but to listen to him and calm him down while I lent him my shoulder and hurried him to the guards’ quarters. I’m sorry I scared you.”

After we had talked that much, we all burst into laughter.

What had happened was strangely funny.

“What did I just do, save a life?”

There would be no more ghosts in Benjamin’s tower.

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