*
Librarian Laplace.
He was born as the son of a peasant. Originally, he had no connection to something like magic.
As the sun set each day, he spent his life in a routine like a wheel, harvesting crops and planting again.
But he had a small power since birth.
“Laplace bro! Show me that thing!! That thing!!”
“This time, let’s put out our fireplace!”
Using his ‘ability to extinguish fire without touching it’, he brought excitement to the village.
Snap! When Laplace snapped his fingers, a distant bonfire that was burning went out in an instant.
“Waaah!! He’s really a mage!! So cool!”
“Ah, have I been found out?”
At first, this playful country boy used his powers to put out the village torches or easily light up damp firewood.
He became the envy of his peers and even sparked the misunderstanding that he was a mage.
What changed his ordinary life was largely due to a girl.
“..Miss Claire. The wind is chilly.”
“I’ll just read this book and head in.”
The noble girl who came down to the village for recuperation. A girl with gloves and an impressive wooden wheelchair.
Claire von Maxel. She was suffering from an incurable disease that slowly turned her body into wood.
‘..Is she a real mage? I can hardly feel any mana.’
Occasionally, she had a habit of reading books in the shade of trees, curiously watching Laplace when he used his powers.
A playful green-haired country boy and a noble lady. A meeting that shouldn’t have been possible.
One particularly chilly autumn night, while Claire was out for a walk, a strange occurrence took place.
“..Let there be light.”
She came across Laplace lying in the grass. He was snapping his fingers and turning off the stars in the night sky one by one.
“Wow, that was awesome! I’m so cool, right?”
Repeating the act of turning on and off the starlight, Laplace felt proud of his ability. A smirk was glued to his face.
“Hey kid, what are you doing lying in the grass?”
Startled by the sound of Claire’s wheelchair rolling over the grass, he jumped up, embarrassed to be caught saying something silly.
“Um, uh?! Did you see that?”
“..Of course I did.”
Laplace was afraid she might have heard his self-important rambling. How embarrassing.
That day just happened to be a sleepless night, and he was just using his powers out of boredom. He didn’t expect anyone to be on that seldom-visited hill.
“Are you really a mage? How did you do that just now..?”
But the words that came back were a misunderstanding. Fearing that if he said he wasn’t a mage, she would spread rumors about his embarrassing antics, Laplace came up with a clever answer.
“..Yes. My lady.”
In truth, he was just a country boy who hardly knew magic, but Laplace lied and said he was a mage.
“What? That’s cheesy. Even if you try to sound older, you don’t look any older, you know?”
“You’re just a kid too! As long as your head doesn’t look like a croissant, you’re all grown up…”
A relationship that began from a minor misunderstanding. The meeting between Laplace and Claire started from there. They quickly became close.
As time passed, they grew gradually closer.
“Today, are you not going to make the fireflies dim too? Amazing!”
“My lady. It is but a simple task for the great mage, Sir Laplace…”
“What are you saying? You’re just a commoner.”
Different statuses. Despite being at opposite ends, the playful boy couldn’t just watch the sickly girl.
“..You have talent. Laplace.”
“What talent? Claire?”
“The talent of a great mage. Since I’m the daughter of a count’s family, I know a bit.”
Even though Laplace noticed Claire’s illness, he kept her company, and she helped him develop a yearning for stories outside the village.
“You can even turn off the stars in the sky! That must be an ultimate move or something..!”
“..I can do a bit.”
Claire pulled her hat down. Already, branches had begun to grow from her head.
“It’s a shame that you can’t cure my illness.”
“..Y-Yeah.”
Watching the girl turn into wood, Laplace dreamed of becoming not just a fake, but a real mage.
He harbored a small wish to truly become a mage and heal Claire’s illness.
“I found this. Lady Maxel.”
“What is this? A mana crystal?”
One day, Laplace, who had taken pictures of landscapes from all over the world for Claire, who had difficulty moving, bluntly said,
“They were selling it cheaply. You wanted to see the ocean, right?”
“You’re lying. This is expensive. There’s no way you found it.”
“….”
Looking at the images of the watery land Laplace had captured, Claire smiled for the first time in a while. Though her cough grew worse and her complexion was fading,
“Thank you, Laplace. I’ve always wanted to visit there someday.”
Her smile always seemed to shine. The expression tightened Laplace’s heart.
“..I didn’t do it to get thanks.”
Was it from that moment? The bond they had that was like friends sprouted into something more.
“Once I go train at the wizard tower, they say I can become a great mage. Laplace.”
“The wizard tower is…. where the sages live?”
One day, while fixing his roll-bun head, Claire mentioned,
“Not just a mage, but if it’s a great mage.. then you might be able to easily cure my illness.”
In reality, to be a great mage wasn’t a level anyone could reach, and she, with half her body turned to wood, was in a state of despair.
Claire, now unable to move an inch on her bed.
Laplace had already missed the chance to tell her he wasn’t a mage. Speaking the truth would only shatter her last hope. A snowy lie was necessary.
“I’ll give it a try.”
He bravely headed to the wizard tower but returned after colliding with the wall of reality that said he had no talent. He had tried to learn magic on his own since childhood.
He simply had too little innate magical power. Magic is greatly influenced by one’s bloodline.
It wasn’t like he received abilities like Dennis nor was he just human like Ariel.
Just because dragons were born in the countryside didn’t mean they referred to Laplace.
Searching for ways while doing chores around the village, he realized there was no way to cure her disease, which was turning her body into a plant.
Unknown cause. An incurable disease without a cure. Rejected coldly even at the wizard tower, Laplace trudged back to the village.
“….”
While he was away, Claire’s illness had progressed severely. When he finally reached Claire’s house, he was shocked.
“A failure.. huh? It’s okay…”
In just a few months, Claire gasped for breath, her thin breaths wheezing. A horrifying scene where wooden branches covered her body was in his sight.
“I’m sorry, Claire.. I’m actually.. not a mage..”
Laplace immediately ran to her and confessed. Words that came too late.
He hated being powerless. No matter how much he searched through books and tried hard, there were things he couldn’t reach. What kind of mage can’t even cure one girl right in front of him?
“..No, Laplace.”
Claire soothed Laplace who was in despair. On her remaining arm, like bamboo, flowers bloomed, showing that life was fading.
“That can’t be true. Claire. I’m a fake….”
“You were a real mage to me.”
Wiping the tears of the green-haired boy, Claire smiled. Half her face was already turned into wood, but that light was still vibrant.
“I knew that from the beginning. It’s okay if you’re a fake.”
The green-haired boy’s eyes widened. The girl looked like she had known from the start.
“The time we spent together was magical for me.”
Even knowing he was lying about being a mage, Claire played along. Hearing her words, Laplace steeled his resolve.
Days passed. Her life was flickering close to extinguishing.
‘There must be something I can definitely do with my ability.’
Laplace thought of one secret plan.
He stood on the hill where he first met Claire, snapped his fingers multiple times, and quietly waited for someone to come.
A little while later, a small clump draped in a black cloak found him.
“Which idiot keeps flickering the magic lights in the Library of Truth? It’s you?!”
The identity was the Grim Reaper with a skull face. The reaper pointed a bony finger at him.
“If it is, then what will you do about it?”
A place that could change all circumstances.
Laplace believed there must be such a space somewhere. That’s why he had broken the Akashic Records to create a connection.
“Those high-ups are really angry!”
The power to turn off even the stars in the night sky. An ultimate move that touches concepts.
“Because of a mere human like you!! How did you break a library that even Demon Kings cannot touch?! Fix it immediately!”
“If you make me a great mage, I’ll fix it.”
He proposed that he wouldn’t fix it until he became a great mage.
“You can do that, right? I heard it from Claire.”
An ability to extinguish fire without using his hands. Some might consider it a trivial power, but
Laplace worked hard for the sake of his beloved.
He painstakingly read every magical book in the library, dedicating himself to training for decades.
“Long time no see, Claire.”
“Laplace..?”
The fake mage had finally become a real great mage.
In the end, he honed his powers to cure Claire’s incurable disease.
*
As Laplace entered the library, starlight poured down. It felt as if he were walking on a transparent aurora.
“Laplace!! You brought an outsider with you?! What kind of librarian are you?!”
As he took a step forward, a tiny skeleton yelled at them. The Reaper in a black cloak looked adorable.
He understood that he had taken on the role of a librarian while temporarily stopping Claire’s symptoms.
“Shut up, you skull pot! I brought a benefactor who stopped the library’s blanking out.”
“What? So, it’s true that the reaper from another world died!”
The librarian overseeing the Library of Truth deep in the Shrine of the deity of wisdom, Akasha.
That was Laplace’s true identity. Someone who could do anything for the one he loved.
In this way, Laplace and I were of the same kind.
I guess Claire’s influence made him agreeable since he was concerned about not being a great mage because it’s a prequel.
However, seeing him become a chancellor who could turn off the sun left no room for doubt.
“Would it be possible for me to get some book recommendations, Administrator?”
I asked, looking at the skull’s face. Since the librarian of this library was Laplace, and that reaper was the head administrator. It made sense to ask that person for recommendations.
“You brat, wanting book recommendations from someone crazier than Laplace?!”
The sound of clattering teeth was clear and transparent. The chuckle was grating to the ears.
If time can only rewind, it would be a place like a hub where information flows from different routes.
Presumably, past flags can be checked here as well.
I needed to extract as much information as possible. I wanted to know about the other two Demon Kings, the location of the Magic Sword Horizon, and much more.
“Don’t insult Licht.”
In that moment, a glass sword emerged around the skeleton, threatening the administrator. Pina, no! She might get expelled…
“I’m sorry.. guest.. Please wait a moment..”
Despite my concerns, the Grim Reaper, intimidated by Pina, maintained a polite demeanor.
What the heck is going on? That character shouldn’t normally be like this. Is something up?
