Chapter 12

It was a calm afternoon in Nordeux. Kade enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere, sitting in one of the chairs in the university's library. The library was massive, its size rivaling his high school building. That should be expected, considering just how important this place was.

In his hand was a book discussing magical engineering. Once humans discovered a way to integrate magic into machines, their progress advanced fast. Last time, they managed to integrate a machine called the ‘engine’ into a carriage, allowing it to go without horses or manual magic power. It hadn't gone into mass production, however. Only certain people had it.

As someone from Earth, Kade had seen technology more advanced. He felt that if he learnt magical engineering, he could bring some of those advancements into this world. While he read, he noticed Meline approaching.

“You found what you're looking for?” he said in a hushed tone. While he did find interesting books, they came here because Meline wanted to look for something else.

Meline shook her head. “We'll need to move.”

This library was so large that Meline couldn't go to its far end without feeling the effects.

“It's not here?”

“I asked the staff. Apparently, it's considered fiction.”

The book she was looking for was called ‘The Book About Lost Magic’, which sounded more like a novel than a non-fiction book. Since its contents couldn't be verified, it was moved to the fiction section instead, under the label 'unverified sources’.

All this information came from Linda. She wanted to read it as well, but had been busy. Apparently, it was a thick book, and would take a while for her to read through it.

Hence why Meline decided to investigate it.

“Alright, let's move.” Kade used his hand as a bookmark and carried it all the way to the fiction section. There weren't too many students in the library, so many of the seats remained empty. He chose a spot to set up camp while Meline continued going around, looking for the book.

After a while, she returned.

“You found it?”

“In a stack of romance nobles, for some reason.”

The book had a pink cover, larger than her hand, and was thick.

“Maybe someone mistook it for a novel?” Kade didn't actually believe his own words. It was simply too thick.

Meline shrugged. She sat across from Kade and began reading. As the demon lord, she often has to deal with large stacks of documents. Sometimes, she teleported into Demon Lands to pick them up and work on them in Nordeux. Other times, she would work in the castle.

Thus, she trained her eyes and mind to read fast. Kade was entranced by how fast her eyes darted across the pages. Before he knew it, she was already a quarter way across.

“... Phew… this is exhausting…” she held her forehead.

“Is it heavy stuff?”

“Yes, that and the fact that it's written in Heria, which means I need to translate it while reading, with all the advanced stuff mentioned.”

“Oh… do you get anything important?”

“Apparently, there's a not-so-common way of applying magic to items that allows it to last way longer. It involved planting the will of someone into an item.”

This way, the will could act in accordance with the creator's will. It's like an artificial intelligence program that continued to operate long after its creator left.

“And that technique was lost?”

Meline nodded. “The ones that could do it were involved in the war. None of them made it. The book was written right after the war ended, so it's an effort to preserve the technique. But, considering how things were, I'm not surprised that it never ended up popular… I mean, it's a book about demons.”

Considering the political climate of the time, demons were considered enemies of humankind. Even the mention of them could create a ruckus. This technique, made and used by demons, was naturally not used by humans.

The writer, though, was apparently a human, and his efforts to preserve the technique through writing ended in vain.

“This most likely has something to do with the hero’s sword. Anyway, I shall ask for permission to duplicate the book.”

“Sure.”

The two went to the library staff.

•••

Duplication magic isn't an easy thing to do, but it was one of the magic spells in Meline's arsenal. It still took a while, though. About five hours just for one hundred of the four hundred pages book.

“So you're going to spend quite some time in the library, huh?”

The three of them were having dinner together. It was late, as Meline and Kade ended up going home after the skies turned dark. Kade offered to buy dinner instead, but Meline said she wanted to ‘let off steam’ and thus cooked a simple yet incredibly delicious fried rice.

“Oh, what did you tell the library staff?” Linda asked. Duplication magic wasn't something an average university student could do.

“That I've been studying magic since I was a child? What did you expect?”

“I thought you'd brazenly say that you are the demon lord.”

“I was about to,” Meline said, glancing at Kade.

“Good job.” Linda gave Kade the thumbs up. Totally opposite reactions for the exact same action.

Once they had finished eating, Kade went to wash the dishes while Linda and Meline remained in the dining room. Meline brought out the portion of the book she copied.

They began discussing the specifics of what Meline had learned.

“So even the hero's sword is made by a demon?”

“I am not sure. There are many techniques for engraving a will into an item. Maybe the hero’s sword had a different technique.”

“That makes a lot of sense, actually.”

Meline tilted her head. “Which part? The made by demons part?”

Linda shook her head. “The will part.”

“How so?”

“You've known how it was discovered, yes?”

Meline nodded. “I heard it from my grandmother. Two hundred years after the war, in a cave with seemingly other very dangerous human-made weapons, designed to kill demons. And yes, I know it's different from the human version.”

Like her grandmother's version of the story, the sword was found in a sealed cave, but instead of dangerous weapons, it was a magic workshop, filled with a large number of magical items of unclear origins.

It's understandable that the demon saw it as dangerous weapons, but the humans never used those things as weapons. Outside the sword, they never used any of the items inside, either.

“It's unfortunate that the other things had been lost. Had they not, we should be able to investigate them. Truly unfortunate.”

Linda nodded in agreement.

“Still… the sword itself is peculiar, you think not?”

“Hmm? It's peculiar in more ways than one.”

“The humans had never used it in demon land.”

The hero wasn’t a position that was constantly filled, but the sword would ‘seek’ its master during times of difficulty. There were times when the hero was available during small-scale skirmishes with the demons. But every time this happened, the hero would refuse to participate. Even if the hero existed in that particular time period, people wouldn't see them fight the demons.

“Grandmother claimed it's because of… actually, I forgot what grandma said.”

“Is it alright for you to forget that?”

“Yes. Grandmother is always biased against humans. Even if I didn't know her for long, I knew that much.”

Meline's grandmother was alive for her first ten years. During those ten years, she tried to instill a lot of her beliefs in young Meline. Young Meline was too young to understand, and even the parts that she did understand seemed incredibly biased. Even her own parents didn't share her grandmother's understanding.

“Is it not time for you to share what you know? I have been an ally for ten years now,” Meline said.

Kade finished the dishes and rejoined them at the table.

“Urgh, fine,” Linda groaned. “To put it simply, there are two things. One, the sword is preventing the hero from clashing with you. Two, the sword always aimed for peace.”

“Wait, wait, wait, it's the sword?”

“Yep. It's the one preventing him.”

“Why? Is it because the will was instilled into it?”

“That's what he's currently investigating.”

“Does the sword have its own consciousness?” Kade asked, only following a portion of the discussion.

Linda shook her head. “Supposedly not, but the magic that surrounds it does. It's not a will in a traditional sense, though, more like a pre-planted thing. The sword believes that if it clashed with you, then something bad would happen.”

“It is not impossible that it had its own consciousness, however. The book stated that there were ways of planting souls in items in the past.”

The technique was much more difficult compared to just planting a will, however.

“... So the fated fight?”

“There’s a high likelihood it's a trap, for both you and us.”

“I see…” Meline calmly nodded.

“You're taking this better than I expected.”

“I have an inkling. I'm pretty pissed it took you ten whole years to say it to my face.” Meline glared.

Linda smiled wryly and waved her hands. “Sorry, sorry. I need to see if you're trustworthy or not.”

“Sigh… well, whatever. Ten years isn't too long for me.” Meline glanced at Kade. “And I guess it was quite interesting.”

“We'll keep you updated. I have that promise, after all.”

“You'd better be, otherwise it's sleeping on the streets for you.”

Kade could only let out a wry laugh at Meline's seemingly scary threat.