Chapter 691: Soul Books

I looked all around in Harloys’ Soul World, and saw an endless sea of books.

There were various styles of bookshelves everywhere in this endless spiral tower. Magical puppets were constantly patrolling, and everything was quite organized. This was the largest library that I had ever seen.

However, the books here were obviously quite different from books in regular libraries. There were bookshelves that even giants would find too large to use, reaching higher than the clouds. There were also bookshelves so tiny that even Ratmen would be unable to use them as these bookshelves were only the size of my fingernail.

Every single book had a faint magical glow around it, for every single book here was actually a book of magic.

“…This is my world, the Library of Secrets.”

Harloys sat upon a floating disc amidst all the bookshelves, and had a serious expression as she introduced her personal world to me. However, I could only do my best to prevent myself from laughing out loud.

The reason for this? Her baby red face still had tiny dimples, her neat and short blonde hair had a tiny golden princess crown on top, and she was also wearing red high heels for children, a white lace children’s dress, and strawberry and bunny imprint panties that she accidentally revealed… Excellent, I had no reaction, which meant that I was definitely no lolicon!

Harloys now appeared to be even younger than her regular Gold Elf form. Right now, she appeared to be no older than seven or eight. Yet, this was her reality.

A Soul World would be the projection of a powerful individual’s personal reality in the real world, changing how reality worked. It would be impossible to distort any person’s recognition of oneself. Just as how I had died in “Diffindor” at the age of 14, the current Harloys was probably a reflection of the age at which she had died as well.

She was doing her very best to appear serious. However, a young girl’s seriousness was having her round cheeks bulging. Not only did this seem harmless instead of being a threat, it was even quite cute… Ahem, ahem, the silly cat was grinding her teeth, so I should probably get back on topic.

“…Not only does this library contain all of the magical books I have gathered over the countless years, it even contains every magical book and all magical information from the ancient Elven Empire’s generation. When I died, my last thought actually wasn’t about revenge, but rather about how to continue spreading our Gold Elf culture and magic…”

I became serious—when an undead started talking about their own personal regrets and death wish, it was something that should be respected.

If this library was the accumulation of more than 10,000 years of magical knowledge, including the inheritance of the entire former Elven Empire, then it seemed to be somewhat reasonable that Harloys had so much knowledge. But, I thought about it for a moment, and then shook my head.

“…This shouldn’t be all there is to it. This doesn’t adhere to the most basic laws of magic.”

A Soul World would also be a part of the elemental power system. A Soul World would represent the host’s innermost desire and obsession. I had never doubted before that Harloys possessed a soul world, because her obsession and accumulation were the strongest out of those of any Undead Lord I had ever met before. One’s personal desire for strength would also act as a catalyst to create one’s personal Soul World.

Yet, I had never heard anything regarding her Soul World before. Originally, I had believed that this was because Harloys had killed off anyone who knew it, but now, it seemed more like it was because her Soul World was one of the rarest types, a Soul World that was the full support type. That was why her enemies had never discovered it.

However, I still felt like there was something off because Soul Worlds were also a type of elemental power. The basic elemental laws would still need to be followed. A powerful fire element individual’s Soul World would typically be a sea of fire or magma, being filled with fire element. Meanwhile, an undead mage’s Soul World would usually be something about reversing life and death, having the living die, or making the dead come back to life, and so on. My personal Soul World was the latter type.

Harloys’ personal Soul World seemed far too peaceful, unlike her usual style. It was also completely unlike undead mages’ Soul Worlds, which typically had extreme and evil elements to them. If Harloys had been a pure scholar or hermit, I could have understood why she might have such a Soul World, but it was quite evident that her personality wasn’t anywhere nearly so peaceful. When considering how Harloys desired power and revenge more than anything, her Soul World should be something that directly gave her power.

I directly asked Harloys regarding my doubts. She hesitated for a moment, and then casually pointed at something, causing a thick green magical book to land in my hand.

“…Open this book.”

My expression changed the moment that I touched the book. My countless times of having dissected humans told me that this book was made from human skin. Only the most evil of devils and Evil Gods would use scrolls and magic books made from human skin.

I kept feeling like things were even stranger now. The magical green light coming from this book should have been the green of wind magic. However, my questions were all answered the moment that I opened the book.

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“…My name is Joey Stellan. I am a Legend-ranked wind mage. My personal research specialty is wind elementalization. With my personal research as the foundation, I invented three personal wind element magic spells, Wind Blood Needles, Double Tornado, and Shining Windwheel. I experienced 372 battles in my lifetime…”

Right when I opened the green wind magic book, I could feel myself being dragged into the book as Joey Stellan’s magical knowledge, magical experience, and combat experience were all given to me. I understood and learned everything as if I had personally studied his wind magic and been there for his fights. Apart from the fact that the book didn’t contain anything about Joey’s personal and daily life, the book was a complete version of his entire life.

“…My ‘Library of Secrets’ is also known as the ‘Storehouse of Soul Books’. Every single soul book here was once an outstanding mage. One-third of my personal disciples are also in here. This is the source of my nickname as the ‘All-knowing’…”

Harloys did her best to speak calmly, but the trembling in her young-sounding voice along with an equal trembling in her soul wavelength indicated to me that she wasn’t calm at all.

What was she afraid of? Was she afraid that her greatest secret would be known by others? Then why would she show this place to me? As long as she never exposed her greatest secret, wouldn’t it be impossible for anyone else to know about this weakness of hers?

What was she afraid of? Was she afraid that I would loathe her? Wasn’t she already accustomed to being loathed and feared by others?

What was she afraid of? Was she afraid that I wouldn’t be able to accept her past? Then why didn’t she simply hide her past from me…?

“Perhaps I’m rather special to her…”

I felt rather helpless as various memories passed through my mind. I was probably getting rather off track as I was thinking ‘She really knows how to harvest the seeds she planted. If it wasn’t for the fact that I ran off so early back in the day, perhaps I would have become a book in here as well.’ Meanwhile, Harloys was standing silently in front of me as if she was waiting for me to pass final judgement upon her.

[…Don’t you intend to say anything? As the male lead of this novel, shouldn’t you at least console her? For example, say some pretty words such as ‘I don’t mind your past’ or so on.]

“Ha, I never minded such things to begin with, so they wouldn’t be pretty words. How many thousands or tens of thousands of mages have died to create these books? Every time I cast Ice Aeon, I’ve probably killed more than 10 times the number of dead mages here.”

This was the truth, for it was impossible to lie through a soul connection. I truly didn’t mind what Harloys had done at all. Harloys was no good person. I had known that from the very beginning. I was also no good person. Both of us were terrible bastards who deserved to go to the Hell that I had created. However, I also refused to believe that we had done anything wrong. Fate had given us such a terrible ending of despair. Were we supposed to just sit around, crying helplessly like powerless victims, accepting the scripted end for this game world?

“…As long as we can turn around this despairing fate, we’re willing to use any means. As long as we can obtain power, is there anything that we shouldn’t use? Were we wrong? Were we supposed to obediently die while still weak and powerless? Are we not allowed to seek the power needed to obtain revenge when both of us have an entire kingdom to take revenge for?”

Then, if we weren’t in the wrong, were Harloys’ innocent victims for her soul book library in the wrong? That seemed even more ludicrous, didn’t it?

Then if those victims weren’t in the wrong, who was? Was the God of Fate in the wrong for arranging such a terrible fate for everyone? (Catio suddenly getting blamed!) Were the Goddesses of Order and Chaos in the wrong for having created life to begin with? (System suddenly getting blamed!) Nobody was able to give an answer. If there had to be an answer, the only one was probably that something was wrong with the entire world.

“Nobody is in the wrong. Everyone simply wants to do their best to survive. That’s why I desire to create a world with fewer difficulties, a world where the great majority of people doesn’t need to kill each other in order to survive.”

That was why I invented the Concept of Law in this world. That was why I created Hell, an entirely new dimension that would judge all evil. For the sake of an even slightly better world, all wicked villains would eventually meet their judgement.

I laughed as I looked at Harloys. Words weren’t needed between us. She understood me quite clearly through our soul connection. When everything was finished, I would go to Hell myself, and I would reserve a place next to me in Hell for the silly cat… But when considering the current situation, it was probably still meaningless for me to think about things which were still so far off.

I admitted that I was a wicked villain who had committed many evil deeds, but before I was punished for my crimes in the Hell that I had created, I felt like there were still more things that I could do for the world. At the very least, I could make it so that there were fewer pitiful protagonists like ourselves.

Meanwhile, the silly cat suddenly smiled beautifully, with tears in her eyes, as if she was quite satisfied with my judgement that both of us deserved to spend an eternity in Hell together.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t come over here, your tears are so dirty… Don’t think that I won’t beat you up just because you’re in the form of a little girl! Don’t wipe your snot on my shirt! Hey, hey, hey, don’t drool on me!”

Once we stopped messing around, Harloys piled a large amount of blue ice magic books before me. This was the main reason why Harloys had brought me here.

“With your talent for magic, I estimate that it will take a minimum of another 300 years before you can acquire enough magical theory knowledge to reach Level 4 power. The Holy War will probably have ended long before then. That’s why we’ll have to use some abnormal methods just for you.”