Warlock of Sin. Arc 3: Linking the Past and The Present
Chapter 26: Library of the dead
"Oi! Shaula! Don't run off like that! Wait for us!"
She dashed straight pass the room and into the staircase, everyone ran to catch up with her as they descended the stairs"..." Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she rushed over to the center of the room, suddenly silent, they all caught up and looked over to her, she was suspicious, what could have happened to get her this worked up, "Shaula…?"
"..."
It seems like she was expecting something, no, more like she's aware of something, "If somethin's wrong, then spit it, we don't have all day, ya know?" Anastasia said, Shaula didn't give a reply, not even bothering to turn her head towards the group, "My, how rude…" She didn't even react to the insult, it seems she was dead serious about this.
Subaru walks up to her and puts his hand on her shoulder, "Shaula, if it's that serious, then tell us already would you?" giving her a few moments of thought, she suddenly jerked her neck towards Subaru, "Sensei… why are you so tensed, hehe, you looked soo worked up, is something wrong?" With a smile brimming on her face, the seriousness from just a moment ago, vanished.
"Haah… should've expected nothing less from you. No, tell us, is something wrong with the tower? Was there like, a malfunction, or a thing that didn't turn out as it was supposed to?"
"Nope, not at all~"
Every single one of them let out an audible sigh, the extent to which this woman can disappoint them, it seems to be boundless, "It seems we won't be going anywhere near our goal if we are to rely on-" "Ah, Sensei was wondering why I ran out like that, right?" Cutting off Julius's words like a knife through butter, she has no sense of respect whatsoever, to think that she was the sage's apprentice, it was rather nerve-racking.
"Uh, yeah, we were wondering why you ran off like that, and right after we completed the trail too"
"I just felt like someone was loitering around in the tower, but it turns out it was just my imagination, haha"
Hearing the that there could have been a possible breach into the tower, it caught everyone's attention, "Uh, Shaula, I just want to ask, is there anyone else, uh… living, in this tower besides you?" Emilia questioned the woman, and surprisingly, she replied, with words, "As far as I know, I'm the only one! The one and only Shaula, hehe"
"Is it unusual to get visitors?"
"Hmm? I don't let visitors in though"
A slight chill ran through Subaru's back, this line can't really be interpreted any way other than 'I kill anyone who gets close', she's like a guard dog in the shape of a mature woman but kicked up to the extreme, "Okay… well moving on, we've done the first trial, we should be able to go over to the first library right?" With Subaru steering the conversation back on track, everyone stayed silent, waiting for a reply.
"Yes, you can now go over to the library next!"
"Great! Now… which way do we go?"
"I don't know at all!"
"..."
"As I was saying, at this rate, we aren't going anywhere if we're going to continue to rely on her"
"That's clear as day Julius, stop stating the obvious!"
With Shaula's help proving to be rather unhelpful, the others searched for a way to get to this 'library', they went back up to the green room, and even investigated the trial room again and again, yet, there really doesn't seem to be any way that leads upwards, that was until they all happened to stumble upon an undiscovered room, "Uh… this room wasn't here the last time we checked right?"
Subaru asked as he opened up a door that they had mysteriously found alone in one of the corners of the room, there was also a staircase going upwards inside said room, "It seems like it had appeared when we've completed the first trial… well, that should be as expected" With everyone nodding along to Julius's remark, they continued on with their journey.
"Onwards and upwards, as they say"
Subaru takes the first step, the staircase seemed rather large, it was a spiraling one with no railings, one deep drop here and it's most likely over for any of them, better be careful, "Man there really should be a better way to traverse heights…" "You do know you have the power to do such, I suppose?" Beatrice peeked from beside his shoulder.
"Beatrice, that's just being ignorant. What if this place is trapped? It's not like I can't take an arrowhead on but it's going to hurt nonetheless, or what if the room was filled with poisonous gas, or if a giant boulder rolls over and turns us into mashed potatoes"
"Haha, Sensei is funny, there aren't any booby traps in the tower, the only booby trap here is Shaula! If you do something bad, I'll squish you into mashed potatoes, hahaha"
"This woman... is seriously creeping me out, Emilia-tan, please bless me with a lap pillow after we're done climbing these stairs!"
"I would love to Subaru, but we're in a rush right now, so I won't let you indulge in a lap pillow just yet"
"Hmm, not yet? So then if we finish things up quickly, I can get a lap pillow!"
"You are acting rather brazen Subaru, is that really how a knight is supposed to act?"
"Now you shut it, Julius, your just jealous since you don't have the capacity to love someone like I do"
"Even I can get hurt by words too, Subaru…"
"Really now? I didn't think you had a heart to begin with..."
As the two continue throwing insults at each other, time passed by and they had reached the top of the staircase, a hallway with a single lone door stood in their way, "So, through there should be the first library right?" "Yes, it should be" Shaula replied, with how much she's emphasizing 'should be', they fear she has no idea what she's talking about, but once Subaru opened up the door, all their worries were dispelled.
"So it really is a library…"
They all stared inside, it was a rather large library, much larger than the Beatrice's own, it was unlike any they've ever seen, "Okay… with all these books here, I'm kinda curious to find out what's inside…" They all walked in, nothing out of the ordinary happened, no librarian popped in to greet them, no alarm was set off, it just seemed like an ordinary library.
"Noah Libertas… I think that's a guys name… or a girl, either way, it's definitely a name..."
The first book Subaru dragged out, that was the title of that book, the title of the book didn't ring a bell, but it had this ominous feeling to it, he couldn't tell what it was though, "Okay, let's see…" He opened up the book and stared into its contents, "Oh god… it's complete and utter gibberish!" Scanning through the book quickly, he can conclude confidently that he can't read anything from it.
"Well, that was a waste of time…"
Putting the book back into the bookshelf, Subaru turns over to everyone else, who have each taken a book to read, it doesn't seem like it's going good though, "Libre Fermi" "Cathedra" "Essie" "Eligius" All of them were names, no doubt about it, you'd expect something like that to be some sort of biography of the person, but all they say was gibberish, "Just like a gospel…"
Subaru uttered those words but the possibility of such a thing was low, this could just be an ancient forgotten text of sorts, no, these texts were in the alphabet, he knows how to pronounce them, it's more like they've all been jumbled up and scrambled, the only other possibility is encrypted message, could a person have done that for all these books though, "Shaula, you've been here for a while right? Can you read anything in these books?"
"Nope, they all look like garbish to me, like a little baby has written them, it really doesn't look good"
Took the words right out of everyone's mouth, "Well, it doesn't seem like this library holds that much significance, we might as well look around and see if we can find something useful…" Everyone agreed with Subaru's idea, and so they went on to search around the library.
The library was extremely large, it was large enough that it could encompass a whole market area if you removed all the bookshelves, it was not something one person can clear by themselves, luckily, there were a lot of them and although they won't be able to even dream of checking all the books in the library, they can at least look around for clues on how to advance to the next level.
"Huh…?"
A book dropped beside Subaru, it was rather small compared to some of the others, though it was still plenty large. He picked it up and the moment his eyes met the title, he gasped, "Typhon!?" Indeed, there was no mistake about it, the title of the book indeed spelled out 'Typhon', in other words, the Witch of Pride, the one that he had met in Echidna's tomb, the one that died centuries ago, "What is her book doing here…"
Now that you think about it, it would be weird if this place didn't have information about the happenings in the past, this is a monument widely known for its historical background, "So inside this… has something to do with Typhon…" This piqued his curiosity, he had to know, he wanted to know, and so, he opened up the book…
–A child, there existed a single child.
She was still young, no doubt about it, she was indeed a child. Coarse clothes on a thin body, green hair with a dark skin burnt by the sun, a child of that age, it felt right to call her a child, but her heart was dominated by unending unrest.
"..."
It continued to bother her, she was anxious about it, perpetual, looping, never-ending… it was that thought, good and evil, what are they? Correct, wrong, righteous, sinful, justice, malice, honesty, hostility, they plagued her mind, day in, day out.
–There are an innumerable amount of actions being done around the world, and at the end of the day, they'd have to be categorized into one of those two.
For the child who couldn't find the answer she was seeking for, there was a reason to continue worrying about it. It was inevitable, indeed it was. The one who divides the woman's world into white and black, good and evil, good cause and evil cause, these two, was the woman's own father.
The woman's father beheaded the heads of the sinners, and his work was to give appropriate punishments for their crimes. To give appropriate punishment, to the sinner who committed the crime, to decide whether their actions were indeed evil, to give an end to those lives was her father's work.
"Executioner"
That was what the woman said after seeing her father executing and the execution facility, since a young age. A brutal act, cruel deeds acted upon the living attendants, the execution place was dominated by blood and death.
— the fact that the woman continued to see "death", was not her own will but her father's instead.
There will be a punishment for the crime committed, evil is rewarded with a bad fruit. The father tried to tell the child about the existence of good and evil in the world, and to believe in himself as an executioner. The father's intention was of good will and must have had been backed by a noble thought.
However, considering she was a child, it was solitary and it was too early to expect ideals from her. The child saw several deaths, smelled the scent of blood, and the burnt ashes of the sinner that had to be punished.
As a result of that, the woman studied the significance of life and appropriate punishment for sins before learning about the theory of death.
Good causes produce good deeds, evil causes cause evil, the sinner's' souls are defiled in accordance with their punishment.
Understanding her father's teachings, the woman wanted a way to "punish sins". She asked for what could be a guide on as to what balanced as good and what defined unfavorable evil.
"..."
However, the balance the woman was looking for did not exist in the area she was looking for it. There is no simple answer as to what is good or evil, what is right or wrong, sins and punishments depended upon several factors.
"Good and evil?"
One day, the child met a woman, the woman was kind, she was pretty, she had a beautiful voice, her skin was soft and silky, she didn't seem like a bad person, so the child asked her the question that has been plaguing her mind.
"It's easy, isn't it? What's good is good, what's evil is evil, ah, but doing something bad, doesn't exactly make it evil you know?"
What the woman said, it was contradictory to what she had learned from when she was with her father, how can evil and bad not be the same thing? Evil is bad, whenever you do something bad, it's evil, there's no way around it, it's just impossible-
"Like see, if you accidentally broke something your parents really loved, they'd be angry wouldn't they?"
Of course, they would, if something precious were to be taken away from you, of course, you'd be angry at them, why wouldn't you, they've done something bad, they should be punished, they're evil, they-
"But you see, if you break it accidentally, then it doesn't mean you were evil"
-Something shook in the child's heart.
"If you apologize to them, then they'll most definitely forgive you. Even if they are mad at you, if you apologize, they won't think of you as a criminal, they'll understand that it was an accident and forgive you…"
-Something snapped in her heart.
"Doing something evil… it all depends on your heart, wanting to do something bad, intentionally doing something that hurts others… I think that's evil. Something bad done purely because you wanted it to happen... "
-I see
"Evil is something that your heart decides…"
-It makes sense
-So much sense
-Sense
-Heart
-Feelings
-Judgment
"I see… thanks, Ella Nee-chan, Typhon understands a bunch~ of things now!"
.
"SUBARU!"
A strong smack to the face, that was what he felt, before his body fell straight to the ground, "Uhw… w-what?" Looking around, Subaru could see that he was in the library, his eyes were quivering, the feeling, an ominous feeling, he felt weirdly weak, just what had happened, what did he see?
"Subaru! Are you okay, talk to me!"
"I… Her… ah… yeah, yeah I'm okay, It's alright-"
Getting back on his feet with the help of Emilia, Subaru collects his thoughts, "Typhon…" The name echoes in his mind, back and forth, that was undoubtedly Typhon's memories, her life, that was definitely what he saw, that was definitely what they were, memories, memories of another person. It's starting to make sense now, this is a place that houses records of memories.
"It makes sense…"
"Subaru?"
"Emilia, let's find the others, I think I got something…"
A/N
1 Year! It's been a whole year since me and Red had started writing Warlock! We've had 7 productive months, and 5 months where I was at a complete standstill, note to self, and a tip for any writers out there, new or old, when you look back at your work and say "Oh god, I need to rewrite this, it's so cringy" Don't do that, it's only going to end up worse than your current situation, it's bad for both you, and your readers…
Okay, so sadly, I haven't anything special planned except for artwork I guess. If the site works with me, I'll have an imgur link in my bio for it, if not, then I'll try post it on my Illustration page, either way, the cover's going to change to said illustration, I've made two, one I made a month ago, and a new recent one (the new cover) hope you guys will check it out!
Yuki Megi
Welp, I've returned to the Re:Zero fandom, after spending like 2 weeks no only getting around to watching MHA, but also being trapped in the MHA fandom. Dear god, I'm still stuck on MinaDeku.
Onto the actual review, I liked this chap. While we didn't seem to learn much more about Shaula, we did get some progression and more interaction between the characters. And I'm missing Satella, like she instantly became best girl when I started reading this fic. Really hoping they get her back in gear.
Other then that I don't have much to say. I really need to get back into the flow of reviewing Re:Zero. Seeya!
MHA is indeed a rather nice series, though I can't say I am really invested enough to ship characters… Shaula is an interesting character indeed, but writing that character down is so damn hard, I don't if I just don't like her or if I don't understand her personality, but she's not easy to write, don't expect to learn too much on Shaula, you won't get any till say next arc when Ella is hopefully back… I say hopefully because of reasons...
MNR-AMR
Well Ello there! As for the story, I do agree with Spooky, it's more it's own than anything else... Much like Roger's magnificent works in the DC universe!
It's been a while since I proper logged in... Expect the rewrites to be done in about a week, maybe two. Ciao!
In order to avoid pulling a Ringo, I'm gonna take that compliment to heart, thanks a lot! I feel like Red's not really getting much credit though, he kinda made up like 75% of the whole plot (except for this arc, which is why it's such a pain in the ass!)
