Demon's Virtue

Chapter 602: Access Granted

Eiro looked at the half-spirit standing in front of him with an annoyed expression, “What did you just do?”

“If you can not understand, then that is the end of the trial.” They replied bluntly, before Eiro let out a loud groan, “No, I understood, I meant ‘what did you do to make that happen’.”

The half-spirit looked Eiro up and down, before practically scoffing at him, “You understood what I said?”

“Obviously not instantly, but yes, I’m pretty sure I got it.” He pointed out, as the half-spirit approached the Demon, “Is that so? If you understood, then please recite the contents of my words to me. Of course, just the rough meaning, you do not…” They started saying, before seeing Eiro suddenly hold a book. Of course, a book of this elemental plane. Eiro had bought a few empty ones just so that he could properly play around with them, since they were clearly created in a rather unique way. If possible, he wanted to be able to create them himself. But for now, they were just stored in the special elemental space within Eiro’s treasury. And with a wave of his hand, a desk appeared in front of him. It was the desk that the original Eiro was currently sitting at in his study, doing some paperwork in regard to the academy in his study. He had simply duplicated the desk, fusing it with fire magic in the process. It was the same thing he did to create the carriage that Eiro, Sarius, Jyoti and the piglet traveled here in.

The Demon quickly sat down at the desk, flipping the book open. He carefully manipulated the concentrated magic that the pages were made of to make them split from the book’s spine, laying the single papers down onto the table, before he got out a pen that he… ‘bought’ from a shop in one of the towns he passed by. Quickly, these pens were duplicated by the original Eiro at a distance, letting him have four pens instead.

The fire elemental Eiro then also got a pot of ink from this plane out of his bag. He took a deep breath, and then started to write down the exact contents of the book that had been recited to him in a single word. The half-spirit watched Eiro work, surprised at the speed at which he worked. But more than that, they were stunned at the fact that he was able to perfectly write down the content of the book. For about an hour, Eiro continued writing the contents of the actually rather thick book onto the pages. Once he was done, he quickly picked them up, finally bringing them in order, before pressing the pages back into the empty book covering.

He let out a deep sigh now that he was done, handing the book to the half-spirit. Silently, they grabbed the book from him, and flipped through it. With every single page, sentence, word, and letter, it became more and more clear that Eiro had noted everything down perfectly. Of course, in his mind, a handful of versions of himself spent the equivalent of a few days decyphering that ‘book in a single word’ while that word continued being repeated to them.

Soon, the half-spirit closed the book, utterly perplexed. They placed it down on the desk that Eiro had seemingly created out of nothing, and closed their eyes, “You… have passed both the second and third trial.”

Raising his brow, Eiro looked at the half-spirit, “What do you mean? I figured so for the second, but what was the third trial about, that I passed it already?”

“…The first trial was one of memory. Only those that can read and remember the content of an entire library can hope to even attempt the second. Of course, it also served to show one’s determination, and love for the written word. The second trial was one of understanding, comprehension, and once more, determination. Usually, after you repeated the rough contents to me, I would bring you to some temporary living-quarters, where you would continue trying to decypher what I said.” The half-spirit explained, and Eiro scoffed, “How long does it normally take, then?”

“That… Maybe months. Years, possibly.” They replied.

“Hm, fair enough. Then, what was the third that I passed somehow?”

The half-spirit placed their hands together, and quickly explained. They somehow seemed a lot more formal and held-back all of a sudden, in regard to their general demeanor at least, “After passing the first and second, one already has shown all that they need in regard to ability, showing their worth as one that tries to enter the library. As such, the third is one to show the care one has for books themselves, rather than just the messages and stories they convey. For that, we would observe them while they read certain books, or have them learn the techniques of repairing books, to see how filled with love and care they are for books. After seeing the way you treated the book, the way you led your pens, and the careful way you removed and reattached those pages, it is clear that you would not be one to mistreat that which can be found in this tower. However, we will keep quite close attention to you either way, and should you happen to purposefully damage one of the library’s belongings, you will be removed immediately.”

Eiro looked at the half-spirit with a light smile. If he already passed all the tests connected to entering the library, then this was perfect, “Why do you only let people with the special abilities to decode that whole book enter this place? That doesn’t seem directly related. You could probably figure out a better, and most certainly faster, way of doing this.”

The half-spirit shook their head immediately, “I do not know, I am not the one that created the tests. I am only here to oversee all the tests coming after the first.”

Something about the way that the half-spirit worded that explanation seemed a bit weird to Eiro, “Does that mean there are more tests? Before, it sounded like I’m allowed to enter the tower now.”

“Of course, but you will not immediately receive access to every floor of the tower of books.” The half-spirit explained, “Each floor possesses its own test, of which some, but not all, are based on the knowledge you are able to acquire within the tower itself.”

Eiro raised a brow curiously, “In that case, could you explain to me how things are ordered in the tower? What sort of books can be found on each floor, for example?”

After thinking for a moment, the half-spirit seemed to have settled on a good answer, “The librarian had written a book describing the way things are sorted in each tower. You can find it on the bottom floor, which you will soon be able to enter. But to explain it in a simple manner… the importance of the books increases as you rise a floor. Whether it is because they are grimoires holding spells at different levels of power, tomes holding rare techniques, or simply collections of old and important matters that have been noted down within this realm.” They explained, “Of course, that means that each floor will hold less and less books. Technically, the first few floors are split up into their own separate floors, you will see what I mean later. You will be able to find the kinds of books found in regular libaries around the realm, such as general research, encyclopediae of various sorts, or simple novels.”

Eiro smiled lightly, extremely excited to finally be able to read everything in the famous tower of books. But before then, he had to figure something out, “So, outside, there are two people waiting for me. One of them is one of the people of this plane, the other is a spirit that I formed a contract with. Can either of them come with me?”

“Since the contract between a spirit and their contractor links them forever, it would be impossible to properly keep them out anyway, so they are permitted entry in a limited manner. We have ways to limit their ability to access the physical aspects of this plane, so while they will be able to sense everything to an extent, they will be unable to interact with anything in the library.” The half-spirit explained, “But as for that other child, and that magic beast, you brought with you, they will not be able to follow. I apologize.”

“In that case, I’ll head outside for a few hours to figure something out. I hope that won’t be an issue.” The Demon said, and the half-spirit quickly nodded, “Do as you wish, you now have free access to the first floor of the tower. Simply come back whenever you are ready, and I will show you around.”

Without much further ado, Eiro turned around and walked over toward the entrance. He probably needed to figure out a way for Jyoti to wait outside the tower while Eiro was busy in the tower. Or, preferably, he could figure out how to prepare the boy so that he could be safely turned into a servant. And just in that moment, Eiro had an idea.

“Oh… you know, since I passed the second and third test so quickly, do you think that maybe you could do me a favor?” He asked with a grin on his face, and the half-spirit looked at him surprised, “Is entering the tower not enough for you?”

“Well, it is, but… what if you teach that kid out there how to comprehend… well, whatever the hell you did before?”

The half-spirit looked at Eiro curiously, clearly intrigued. Eiro had been able to tell that the spirit was more than just bored, so they most likely didn’t have all too much to do here. The spirit placed their hand onto their chin curiously, “Did that boy also pass the first test?”

“Does it really matter if he did?” Eiro asked, and the spirit couldn’t help but form a slight grin on their face, “When you say it like that… no, no it does not matter.”