Academy’s Genius Swordmaster - Chapter 92

[ 92. Shoot at Dawn (5) ]

#92

I couldn’t figure out why the person who was said to have disappeared was wandering around here. But Ronan instinctively realized what he had to do. Sabaksabak. Footsteps, soft as if treading on dust, followed her.

‘I have no talent for tailing.’

It was an unusual night walk. Irregular column-shaped bookshelves reminded me of a giant tree in a primeval forest. A chill inappropriate for summer was wandering around the bookshelves.

‘…It looks like a haunted forest.’

Ronan twitched his lips. Today’s library was somehow eerie. It was as if I could hear the cries of the trees that were killed to make the book. Even the moonlight took on a twilight blue color like a rotting corpse. He kept a certain distance and followed the woman, frowning.

‘Damn, how far are you going?’

It seemed that they had walked for more than twenty minutes, but they showed no signs of stopping. Ronan’s body was wet with sweat. It was because I was paying all my attention to walking quietly. Then the woman stopped in place.

‘at las.’

Ronan held his breath and slowly backed away. Crunchy! Suddenly, her torso was thrown back, revealing a pale face. Seeing that the back of his head was touching his waist, Ronan sighed.

‘…!’

It was a structurally impossible position for a human being. The woman’s eyes were all black. A grotesque voice escaped from the gaping mouth.

“Ah ah ah ah ah.”

Ronan quickly hid behind a pillar. My heart was beating like it would tear my chest apart. Swallowing the curse words that rose up to my throat was not an easy task.

‘Shit, what did I see?’

It was not a human, but a monster-like appearance. After a while, the grotesque voice cut off. Ronan took a deep breath and quietly shook his head. The woman’s figure disappeared without a trace.

‘…Where did you go?’

The sound of footsteps was no longer heard. Ronan walked over to where she was standing with his hand on the hilt.

I looked around carefully, but couldn’t find a trace of her anywhere. Only dust remained, floating in the dreary moonlight.

‘It can’t be like this?’

Ronan observed all directions with his full attention. A column-shaped bookshelf filled with books The floor made of unknown white stone A very small amount of mana came into view, which disproved the fact that a woman existed here.

‘Come to think of it…’

Suddenly, he remembered the incident of entering the secret room with Aire a few days ago. She had opened a secret door by pulling out a book.

Are you here too? Ronan groped the bookshelf once again. His gaze stopped in one place. The woman’s mana remained like a fingerprint on the spine of a book with the title [Stepping Back] written on it.

‘found.’

Ronan carefully pulled out the book. Contrary to expectations, the bookshelf was not pushed back or the floor sank.

is it another book? It was the moment when he felt a sense of wonder and put his hand on the bookshelf. My hand went right through the bookshelf and went in.

“her?”

Ronan’s eyes widened. I wiggled my arms around, but I couldn’t feel anything. The reality of the bookshelf had disappeared and a shell illusion had taken its place.

‘You’ve put a lot of effort into it.’

It was a very high-level magic. After confirming that the inside was empty, he walked into the bookshelf. A narrow, long stairway leading down hung in front of me.

‘…I’m going to have to die.’

Ronan slowly descended the stairs. It was unbelievably deep for a space between the 4th and 3rd floors. Surprisingly, there were no boundaries or defensive magic. After going down for a while, he frowned.

‘It’s dark.’

Not even a single light could be found in the aisles that were not even illuminated by moonlight. It wasn’t a level of darkness that I could adapt to over time.

Suddenly, an ingenious idea came to Ronan, and he pulled out La Mancha. Soon after concentrating, a red light came up through the sword body.

‘This is it.’

It wasn’t enough to replace a torch, but it was still far better than nothing. Soon the stairs disappeared and a long hallway appeared.

The width was narrow enough for two people to pass through, but the height was almost 4m, and it was a strange structure. He held up La Mancha and moved on. Tboob. Tboob. Tboob. The woman’s face was not yet visible.

‘By the way…what the hell are you doing here?’

There were a lot of hypotheses that came to mind, but I couldn’t be sure. Because the building of wizards had so many secrets. While walking while thinking about this and that, two paths appeared in front of Ronan’s eyes.

‘Damn it’s a maze type.’

Ronan clicked his tongue. It was the most troublesome type of structure. It was a car that I was thinking about which way to go. Suddenly, a dreary whisper rang in Ronan’s ears.

[You’ve been cursed.]

“Fuck!”

I couldn’t stand it this time. Ronan swung his sword in the direction of the sound. Wedge! The horizontal sword strike left a red afterimage in the darkness.

Unable to feel the cut, Ronan aimed his sword again. There was no one. The voice rang out again.

[Hey. Don’t you want to break the curse that binds you?]

“What?”

It was a neutral voice indistinguishable from gender. When I listened closely, the voice was echoing in my head, not in my ears. Hearing the word curse, Ronan frowned.

“Where are you talking?”

[Come find me. Whatever it is, I’ll give you what you want. Right.]

The voice cut off. The shock and fear I felt for a moment quickly turned into anger.

“…that’s fucking real.”

Ronan spat on the floor and moved to the right path. I did enough to do stuffy things. I don’t know who the hell is playing this prank, but I thought I’d take care of it properly.

[Left.]

[Center.]

[Yes, a little closer…Left.]

Every time there was a fork in the road, I heard the voice from before. Ronan turned as he told him to. The interior is quite complex, so it would not be easy to find if the woman was hiding here. Then a dead end appeared.

Where are you going now? It was the car that Ronan was annoyed to ask. Something erected in front of the wall caught my eye. It was a wooden platform that reached waist height, and a book was placed on it.

“Is that…?”

It was thick enough to be used as a pillow. Unusual energy was exuding from the cover, which was made by intertwining unknown leather. Ronan’s face hardened. The heartache that had been cherished all along turned into certainty.

‘Forbidden book.’

This was the forbidden book zone Aire had warned about. The forbidden realm where evil books are sealed. Ronan, who was looking at the book, twitched his lips.

‘…I see why he told me to be so careful.’

It was intense and seductive just by its presence. The moment I read the book, I had an intuition that I would be able to find the answer. Ronan walked as if possessed and stood in front of the book. The most important thing to him now was to lift the curse.

‘good.’

Eventually, Ronan made up his mind and turned over the cover. The text that appeared to be the title was scrawled. It was written in characters I had never seen before, so I couldn’t read it.

‘Is it a character from another country?’

Ronan turned the next chapter. The same letters as before were written densely. In the meantime, five or six magic circles of bizarre shapes were drawn.

“This…?”

It was the moment when he brought his face closer. All of a sudden, the writing and the magic circle glowed brightly, and black tentacles protruded from the book.

“Ugh?!”

[Hahahaha you got caught!]

Chow! In an instant, the tentacles wrapped around Ronan’s body, leaving only his head. An eerie laugh rang out. It was the same voice that guided the way a moment ago.

Only then did Ronan realize that this book had been the one he had been talking to. It didn’t take long to figure out the situation. This is what the forbidden book meant to eat people.

[It’s already late. Resisting is useless, so obediently become this Langzium-sama’s puppet!]

“Fuck.”

Ronan, entangled in the tentacles, spat out a curse. His judgment, clouded by his obsession with the curse, was quickly returning. he asked with a sigh.

“The fact that you can break the curse…was it a lie from the beginning?”

[Stupidly, there is no such thing as a curse written on me.]

“Yes…that’s right.”

I wanted to ask, but it was as expected. At that moment, dozens of red lines were drawn on the tentacles. Chow! A fountain of purple blood gushed along the line. The severed tentacles fell. A panicked cry rang out.

[How?]

“You tricked me about scraps of paper?”

Ronan growled. In his free hand, he held a flashing red La Mancha. In the first place, the tentacles had already been cut off before wrapping around the body.

Ronan thrust his sword straight into the book. Fu-wook! As the tip of the sword dug deep into the blade, a scream resounded through the hair.

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!]

“You seem to feel the pain in the form, too.”

[Get rid of it!]

“What?”

It was at this moment that he drew his sword to finish. Suddenly, the book made an incomprehensible sound.

All of a sudden, the surroundings became brighter and the back of my head became hot. Ronan hurriedly turned his head. Waves of flame were rushing in, filling the hallways.

“What is this again…!”

It was a considerable level of magic. But there was nothing I couldn’t deal with. Ronan straightened his posture and raised his sword vertically. Chow ah! Waves of fire split in half and flowed on both sides of him at the same time. A torrent of rejoining flames ran down the wall and hit the book.

[Keah! Aaaagh!]

The book engulfed in flames let out another scream. When blocking the fireball flying towards the airship, he was careful to prevent this from happening.

The screams slowly died away, and then silence came. At that moment, the fire stopped. Seeing the woman standing on the other side of the hallway, Ronan lowered his sword.

“That’s how it happened.”

“Ah…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

of her hand of her outstretched of Ronan of the flames of the afterimage was rising Her eyes, which had been dyed black, were regaining their original color.

“Ah…”

The woman groaned and fell to the floor. Ronan, who hurriedly ran, supported her.

‘I was being manipulated by the book.’

Judging by what the doll was doing, it was clear that the body had been taken in a similar vein. It was probably the other missing people who disappeared this way. When I turned my head, I saw the remains of a forbidden book that had been completely burned down.

“Sick.”

It was a really stupid ending. There were a lot of things he wanted to know, but saving people was the priority. Ronan picked up the fallen woman.

“Damn it, wake up.”

“Ah… ah…”

It didn’t look good. I felt like I needed to get treatment right away. I had memorized the route in advance, so going back wasn’t too difficult. It was the moment when he was just coming out of the stairs. A light so bright that it hurt my eyes poured over my head.

“What the fuck?”

Ronan frowned. It wasn’t opening time yet, judging from how dark it was outside the window. People’s voices could be heard from afar.

“Is there a fire…?”

The size of the uproar was insignificant. The car was about to start moving in the direction of the sound. A voice low as hell echoed throughout the library.

【That’s interesting.】

Ronan stopped in place. An indescribable goose bump ran through his body. Something evil and mighty beyond measure was behind him.

‘what…!’

I was afraid to turn my head. There was a chance of winning only by cutting it at once. After drawing La Mancha, Ronan turned around. Perseok! The blade flew diagonally and was deeply embedded in the bookshelf.

“Heh heh heh…!”

Books that had been cut fluttered and fell. Ronan let out the breath he had been holding in. The entrance to the Forbidden Library had returned to its original bookshelf.

‘what?’

The evil energy had disappeared without a trace. He was still in the middle of the shock. The woman on her back groaned again.

“Ahhhhhh.”

“Oh shit. sorry.”

Ronan, who came to his senses belatedly, ran in the direction of the sound. Before long, Aire’s appearance came into sight. She was floating in the air with a puzzled look on her face. cried Ronan.

“Ayre!”

“Ronan-sama! Where have you been? Who is he?”

“I am a missing person. One in six.”

“yes?!”

“Come on, take me. I think you need to seek treatment.”

Her eyes widened. Ronan handed over the woman to Aire. Aire, unable to keep up with the situation, stammered.

“Sir, I need an explanation…!”

“I’ll tell you later. Aire. Didn’t you hear that strange voice?”

“A voice?”

“yes. Fuckin’… no super low and split. It’s a terrible voice anyway.”

“I haven’t heard of that…?”

Aire shook her head. Even though it was so loud that I couldn’t hear it, it seemed that only I could hear it this time, as in the Langgeum.

First, we had to understand the current situation. Ronan, who took a deep breath to control his emotions, opened his mouth again.

“Whoa…whatever happened? Leave all the lights on in the middle of the night.”

“The culprit of the airship case has been caught.”

“Aha, I still wanted to see your face, but it worked out. What are you doing?”

Ronan shrugged his eyebrows. Aire, who hesitated for a moment, opened his mouth heavily.

“…the third daughter of the Grancia family.”

“yes?”