The Old School Building’s library is a structure separate from the main building.
Though located within the same zone, it isn’t connected by hallways or other structures.
Similar to how university libraries often stand as distinct buildings, this library is a short walk from the Old School Building’s main hall.
Why, then, has this library remained unopened until now?
To understand, we need to analyze why the Old School Building itself was closed and left unused for so long.
“A murder case occurred here.”
Instructor Kadisha, the instructor who entered the Old School Library with me, began to explain as she operated some mechanisms within the library.
“They say students from the Academy came in here, went mad, and killed each other.”
“Such a thing actually happened?”
“Officially, it’s been erased—classified as something that ‘never happened.’ It’s one of the Academy’s buried scandals.”
Click.
Kadisha pressed a button, and lights illuminated the library, revealing its interior.
“A disgrace the Academy can’t even mention. When the Old School Building was abandoned and everything moved to the current Academy main building, all records of this place were expunged. After all, this library is where students killed each other en masse.”
“Are you saying it was a mass murder?
I know.
I’m aware of the gruesome crimes that occurred in this library.
“Well, do you want to know more?”
“I can guess. The traces are still scattered everywhere.”
I pointed to the library, now a ruin—or rather, a crime scene frozen in time.
“The preservation magic keeping this place intact—it’s to serve as a perpetual reminder of the horrors that took place here, right?”
“Exactly. Every instructor must come here initially to reflect on their responsibility toward the students.”
Kadisha walked to the library’s center and pointed at a large, intricate magic circle carved into the floor.
“The instructors of the Old School didn’t care much for the students back then. Or rather, they only showed interest in select students.”
“Students with talent, the next Emperor, or individuals with enough power to secure them positions after their tenure as instructors?”
“Right. It’s the same now, but back then, it was even more blatant. Instructors openly discriminated among the students.”
Kadisha gestured toward the ceiling, where several suspicious ropes dangled. Their ends were tied into loops.
“What do you think of those?”
“…Should I answer directly?”
“It seems you’ve caught on. Let me phrase the question differently.”
Standing at the center of the magic circle, Kadisha pointed to herself.
“When I became an instructor, what do you think my initial response to those ropes was?”
“That some noble students bullied weaker, commoner students by using magic to hoist them up, and several students ended up dead?”
“…That’s right. Back when I knew nothing, that’s what I thought. Instructor Esta thought the same. But the truth?”
“Some students may have been bullied and hung from those ropes, but the ones who died weren’t always the victims of bullying.”
I opened a blood-stained book.
“It was revenge. A student who had suffered bullying lured their tormentors here and slaughtered them all.”
“Correct. That’s the hidden truth, and it led to major changes in the Academy’s rules.”
Instructors are forbidden from discriminating against students.
Students are forbidden from verbal abuse, violence, or unjust actions toward one another.
There is a reason why they say ‘rules written in blood’.
“Did the founders foresee this? That the books they gathered from across the continent for future generations would one day be soaked in blood because of such cruel events?”
“Are all the books here originals?”
“Most, yes. Of course, there are copies elsewhere, but these volumes remain as they are—preserved as part of the Academy headmaster’s will, a lesson for all future instructors.”
“The headmaster at the time?”
I scanned the blood-stained tomes protected by preservation magic.
Though not revealed in-game, I have a suspicion about the person who cast this magic.
‘Yunia might figure it out once she reaches S-rank.’
The Grey Witch.
She roamed outside the Academy in search of talent, but when this tragedy unfolded within its walls, she became more reclusive.
However, even she couldn’t uncover everything.
Back then, people likely couldn’t fully grasp what had happened.
“It was a shocking event. The student who suffered bullying had E-rank abilities, while the nobles tormenting them were mostly A-rank. By today’s standards, anyway.”
“…”
“But that E-rank student took down seven A-rank students. I won’t describe the condition of the bodies, but they were killed far more brutally than anyone could imagine.”
Kadisha pushed aside a bookshelf, revealing more gruesome evidence.
“Even the library’s administrator and some instructors at the time…”
The scene contained not only books torn apart but also traces resembling people ripped to shreds, as if by a razor-sharp storm.
“It was something too horrific to be caused by a single student. Until that point, no one could have believed an E-rank student capable of causing such devastation. It remains a mystery—how that student managed to carry out such a catastrophe.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes… And now, I have a suspicion—more of an uncertain certainty.”
Instructor Kadisha stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the rows of preserved tomes I had been scanning.
“You, you know something, don’t you?”
“…”
“You’re talking like this because you’re aware of the secrets tied to this place, aren’t you?”
“Seems that way, doesn’t it?”
I know.
“Just to clarify, I’m not some reincarnation of the student who caused that disaster, or anything like that.”
“Then one of the victims?”
“Not at all. I have no connection to them—none whatsoever.”
If there is a connection, it’s only in a “motif” sense.
“Let’s discuss what we’re seeing here under the preservation magic. The student in question likely mastered brainwashing magic.”
“…”
“They were probably adept at illusion magic as well and skilled in hypnotism.”
Brainwashing, illusions, hypnotism.
Yes.
These are the specialties of Regif Habsderk, the body I’ve possessed.
“Using those skills, they must have lured their tormentors here, orchestrated a scene where they turned on each other, and in the end, they all hanged themselves.”
“You’d make a good detective, Student Phoenix.”
“I’m only piecing things together from the evidence. And your lingering question—”
Everyone must have wondered.
“How could someone known as an E-rank possibly learn and master such advanced brainwashing, hypnotism, and illusion magic to the extent of annihilating A-rank students?”
“Exactly. No one ever found the answer. Some speculate that there’s a hidden repository of such magic somewhere in this library…”
Instructor Kadisha leaned closer, her voice dropping conspiratorially.
“Does it exist?”
“It does.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. Or rather, there’s a place where such knowledge can be obtained.”
I stopped my hand on a particular book amidst the rows of tomes.
“Even the founders probably didn’t realize that the measures they put in place for future generations would result in such a tragedy.”
“…A storybook?”
“Yes.”
A storybook collection, seemingly out of place in an institution meant to educate students nearing their twenties.
It was meant for children, but how many children would have even stepped into this library to read them?
The storybook section. Among them, I picked the least-touched book.
“Instructor Kadisha, don’t you find this storybook… peculiar?”
“…It would be stranger if I didn’t, considering you’re the one picking it out.”
“It’s not strange at all. It’s like spotting a gap in a patterned wallpaper—once you recognize it, you can’t unsee it.”
I brushed my hand across the cover of the old storybook, created centuries ago.
“All the books here are soaked in blood and discolored. This book’s cover is the same. But there’s one major difference.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think?”
“…Student Phoenix.”
Instructor Kadisha puffed her cheeks slightly, tapping her empty left wrist.
“I’m being very cooperative, so why don’t you just tell me?”
“This book has a double layer of preservation magic.”
“…”
“Anyone with heightened sensitivity to mana or the skill to spot the precise patterns would notice it.”
“…You can see it?”
“Yes.”
Through my current magical perception, I can observe it clearly. This book is also something that, in-game, players would notice during an animated scene.
It’s tied to a significant moment: when Regif Habsderk, a mid-boss who kidnaps a heroine, dies while fleeing disgracefully.
As he lay dying, bloodied hands rummaging through the library shelves, he reached out and grasped this book.
From that moment, players would suspect.
There’s something about this book.
And there is.
“The preservation magic was cast twice: once when the library was sealed, and another from 500 years ago when the library was first built.”
I opened the storybook.
“The story of the Hero, the Sage, the Emperor, and the Saintess.”
The tale of the Four Saints’ adventure.
Players can [connect] to this book.
And upon reaching its ending, a path opens—a passage leading to a vast underground cavern, to the seal of the Four Saints.
