Chapter 95: The Grimoire's Questioning!
"Cheers!" ×N
"Bete, drink less. Don't get drunk again and let that foul mouth of yours start attacking other adventurers."
"I know already."
"Lefiya, could you pass me the meat over there?"
"But... this is already your fifth plate..."
"What does it matter? You're drinking happily too, aren't you? When it's time to celebrate, you have to celebrate properly."
Inside the Hostess of Fertility, the Loki Familia was holding its usual banquet.
Strangely, Mama Mia had not appeared for several days.
When they asked the waitresses, they only said Mama Mia had been busy with other matters recently and would return in a few days.
The food these past two days had also been prepared by the other waitresses.
But that did not affect the lively atmosphere at the drinking table.
Bete and the others reaching Level 6 had greatly raised morale inside the Familia.
And besides Bete, Tiona, and Tione leveling up, even Lefiya had reached Level 4 during this expedition.
She had also awakened a new skill—
[Double Canon].
After finishing the chant for one spell, she could put it on standby and store it as a magic circle, then begin chanting a second spell.
Not only could the first completed spell be stored, it could also be activated while she was chanting the second spell.
This skill gave Lefiya an extremely high degree of tactical freedom.
Riveria even evaluated that she alone was enough to serve as the mage in the rear guard for an entire team.
No wonder Lefiya, who was usually rather shy, was drinking heavily at this banquet too.
Likewise, after the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, news that a new faction had reached the 59th Floor had spread through every street and alley in Orario.
Every corner of the city was discussing the Loki Familia.
Bards sang poems praising the First-Class Adventurers, and the people seemed to see a new legend slowly rising.
"Shiro-sama, is there some strange smell on you?"
Liliruca had buried herself beside Shiro in order to avoid Finn's gaze.
Because she was pressed so close to him, the faint strange scent on Shiro kept drifting into her nose.
How should she put it?
It felt like the scent of dew in a morning forest, but also a little salty.
It was a complicated scent made of faint sweetness and saltiness.
A drop of cold sweat slid down Shiro's forehead.
Looking at Liliruca's clear gaze, he pulled up the corners of his mouth and said, "Ahaha... Some alcohol accidentally spilled on me earlier. And I was running around before, so I got sweaty. That's why it smells so strange. It'll be fine after I go back and take a bath."
"With Shiro-sama's physique, even if you ran for a day and night, you wouldn't sweat, would you?"
Liliruca looked at him suspiciously.
"And this doesn't smell like sweat. It's more like..."
She tried hard to find a suitable word in her mind.
Unfortunately, she had never left Orario since she was young.
Otherwise, she would definitely understand that it was a scent similar to the sea.
"Hah? What are you talking about? Let me smell."
At that moment, Bete, who had the sharpest nose, heard Liliruca's words and leaned over.
Bang—
In the next instant, Bete's head plunged into the table.
His limbs twitched nonstop.
"Oh no! Bete got knocked unconscious!"
"Hurry and pull him out of the table!"
"He's actually foaming at the mouth. Shiro, just how much force did you use?!"
The tavern fell into chaos once again.
...
The banquet ended amid noise and commotion.
Fortunately, after seeing Bete's miserable state, Liliruca, who knew how to read the room, tactfully stopped asking about the source of the strange smell.
After throwing the werewolf he had knocked out with one punch onto his bed, Shiro returned to his own room.
This time, he did not choose to collapse into sleep like usual.
Instead, he came to the desk in his room and sat down, taking the grimoire out from his Gift Card.
In the next two days, he would fight the Freya Familia.
Before that, he still wanted to make some preparations.
He placed the book, which gave off the scent of ancient paper, on the table.
Then he straightened his posture and slowly opened its pages.
[Magic can be divided into two types: innate and acquired. Innate magic refers to magic born from the subject's talent, racial foundation, and early desires.]
As soon as he opened the book, an introduction written in Orario's common language entered his eyes.
Between the lines were tiny formulas.
Or perhaps they were some kind of special symbols.
Shiro continued reading.
[Acquired magic is a possibility awakened through the medium of "Falna." In other words, it is self-realization. It follows no fixed laws. There are only infinite branches.]
As Shiro read, the words in the book pulled his consciousness inward.
He felt himself sinking into a black ocean formed from text.
[Magic is interest. For acquired magic, this element is especially important. What one holds interest in, what one accepts, hates, admires, grieves for, worships, swears to, and desires. The triggering factor often lies within oneself. Under the Falna, one's heart is laid bare.]
The black sea moved without pattern.
Before Shiro's eyes, it slowly formed a [painting].
As the words jumped, the image gradually became clear.
It was a human face outlined entirely in black strokes.
The instant Shiro saw that face, he understood.
That was [me].
[If you seek, then ask. If you ask, then answer. If you desire, then open your eyes and watch. Here stands the ugly mirror that permits no falsehood.]
It was not a fake.
It was the truth buried deep in his heart.
[Now, let us begin.]
It was the voice of [me], coming from the lips formed by [my] short passage of text.
[What is magic to me?]
Something that only existed in legends.
Something unobtainable.
A dream from his previous life.
A miracle.
At this moment, Shiro faced the thoughts within his own heart directly.
[What is magic to me?]
A method to become stronger.
Something needed to fulfill wishes.
The road under his feet on the path toward his dream.
[What should magic be to me?]
Clouds.
Clouds that would never be bound by external forces and would forever act according to their own will.
It did not need to be powerful.
It did not need to be omnipotent.
Only one thing was absolute.
It must never be bound by another person's will.
[What do you demand of magic?]
Let me do what I absolutely could not do before.
Let me see scenery I would never have had the chance to see.
[Is that all?]
After a moment of silence, the corners of Shiro's mouth split open, and he let out a wild laugh.
Of course that was not all.
How could that be all?
Because I understand that this book can only go so far at most.
This magic is only a stepping stone.
I will obtain the rest myself!
[How arrogant.]
So what?
Because—
"[That is who I am]!"
The [me] inside the book smiled.
And at that moment, Shiro's consciousness slowly drifted away.
…
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