No Time to Rest

After the finished meeting with the Crown Prince, along with the deal of them not bothering for the next coming years, let Viv feel as though 100 pounds of pressure was lifted off him, and now he could finally breathe again.

The months passed by, as Viv studied magic development at Ms. Emily's class. While doing this, he also made sure to start searching the library for any books that may have something related to his strange magical condition.

One day, Vivillian finally found a bookmark in one of the old stories in the shelves and let out a small smile.

With this, he could finally rank up to a higher library rank, from member to certified member. They would also give a certificate, but that's not the main reason he did all that hard work.

 Depending on how high your library rank was, you could get access to certain books the lowest ranks couldn't see, like guests, at the Einsvul Library.

 He had already become a member, and now as a certified member, more sensitive information will be available, as long as one free daily drink and a closed off area in the library to read with other certified members and above.

Just as Viv was about to go to the counter of the librarian, he suddenly collided with someone as he rounded the corner.

The other person seemed to be holding a bunch of books, and all of which toppled onto Viv, tackling him onto the floor.

"Agh..." He winced in pain as he felt a book strike him particularly hard against his temple.

"Oh my gosh!"

A familiar teacher's voice pierced his ears.

"V-Vivillian..?! U-Uh, apologies, let me get you aide right away...!"Ms Lilia yelped in shock as she saw the damage that had been done.

"I'm fine..." Viv tried not to let too much annoyance show, as he tried to get up, before wincing again, clutching his head.

"T-There's blood, don't move." Ms Lilia commanded as she hurriedly grabbed a handkerchief from her dimensional space and held it to his head, at a spot fresh with red. "I'll send you to this nurse right this instant!"

"..It's not that bad, I can just-."

Before Vivillian could continue however, he felt his surroundings blur as soon, a white sanitized room was before him.

What made the experience awkward however was the eye contact he made with the shocked nurse in the middle of eating her lunch.

"Uhm, apologies..."

...

 As Viv lay on one of the nurse's beds, head slightly woozy from the painkillers she gave, he wondered where his final bookmark had went.

 However, he also could hear the nurse discussing with someone that seemed to have come in while he was being treated.

 Thinking it was Ms Lilia explaining how he got hurt, he paid no attention to it, but that was when he peaked through the privacy curtain and saw a somewhat familiar professor.

Mr Strong stood there, arms crossed as he talked in a hushed and solemn voice with the school nurse.

 Suddenly, his eyes snapped towards Viv and looked at him through the privacy partisan.

 "...It seems you have a student here, we can discuss this later with Emile."

 "Isn't the Director of Magic busy as of late?"

 "She can make time for things like this." Mr Strong turned away from Viv, and bid farewell to the nurse.

 Observing the interaction, Viv hummed to himself as he wondered what they were talking about so seriously.

 "..."

 ...What was the date again?

 An ominous premonition struck him.

 "Ms Nurse, can you tell me what's the date today?"

"Ah, feeling better? It's the second month of the Slachal Calendar." The nurse checked the calendar, it was essentially the same 12 month a year that Earth had, but the months were only addressed as their corresponding number.

 If it's the second month, then it should be around February.

 Viv scratched his face as he sighed.

 There was a slight mention of it during of flashback from Lizzy's perspective, but not much information could be gathered from the short 5 second memory.

It was during a nostalgia event, and Lizzy reminisced of her first years at the academy before meeting the capture targets formally.

{It was during my first year into Einsvul did my first wake up call happen to me. I had been slightly oblivious to the world due to my special patrons, but the bombing that happened a week after spring showed just how truly the unrest among the commoners were.}

This was the extent of the event that was to come, apparently due to the raising of taxes and other policies that discriminated against commoners, they decided to plant bombs in key historical sites in Einsvul to protest.

There's too little information.

Viv thought nervously, as he fidgeted with his hands.

Some students died because of the incident, and if you took William Slachal's route, he would confess to the beginning of problems all starting from the bombs, and how he had dealt with the guilt of how someone sacrificed themself to save himself and others.

The bombs were to be planted in one of the main buildings, the old clock tower, the stadium, and the library.

So now remembering this, Viv had an outline of where the bombs would be planted, but even if he knew the location, then what?

 I can't even report where the bombs will be planted because I don't know when, and I can't even disable or take them away myself because I have no knowledge in disabling magic bombs...

 He'll be suspicious too if it is traced that he started learning about bombs just a few weeks before the soon to come attack.

 Top student outed for borrowing books about magical bombs at the library...

 Vivillian could already see the headline on the next newspaper.

 "..." He needed to desperately find out how to disable at least one bomb.

 The Einsvul Library would be the place most damaged from the bombs, because the books caught fire and spread hungrily, many of the old records burning away to ash.

Though the most important books and records would be saved due to the preservation magic casted onto them, not all books had that luxury.

 There was actually a certain book that Vivillian had wanted to read, and one of the reasons why he began to collect bookmarks and increase his library ranking.

 Celtine's Knowledge and Record of all Discovered Magic Types.

 Viv felt excitement by just thinking of the title.

 It was the only book in its existence, too many pages that it would be too troublesome to copy it. And even if they wanted to, they simply couldn't because the author Celtine made the book with various nullifying magic, forcing Einsvul scholars to manually maintain the book by hand.

 Inside the book, it was as exactly the title had described. Even though the book had been written several hundred years ago by a prominent Witch by the name of Celtine, almost all known magic aptitudes and powers were listed within, hidden magic elements no longer available to the public like dark arts were also included.

 The nullification casted on the book was a double edged sword, it would make the book incapable of being harmed by magic, but could be damaged from normal causes like water and fire.

 "..." This book could possibly hold an answer to why his condition is so suspicious, and maybe if he were lucky...there would be some magic that could explain why he was reincarnated here.

However, all of this knowledge would burn away and be lost to time in the bombing, William Slachal had tried to save the book during the library fire, and that was when another student had sacrificed themself to save him and other from the building.

Vivillian couldn't even read the book before it burnt away too, because it was only reserved for the highest ranking achievable for a library ranking, a Scholar.

—

Going back into his room that night, Viv grabbed his journal and began to write the problem he had to deal with.

[Main buildings, the old clock tower, the stadium, and the library.]

Commoners would plant them, so the most likely suspects would be the campus workers in charge of cleaning the place, or doing small errands.

It was still the beginning of the second month, and it was still chilly from the winter. Spring wouldn't come until at-least a month from now, so he still had time to time to plan and prepare.

 The faint thought of going to William for help crossed his mind very briefly, but it was simply too risky to tell him of the bombings.

 Worse case scenario, he gets locked up after the incident and interrogated for collaborating with the commoners.

 His family background, although noble, was still very weak and could even be associated with commoners, only he himself could represent his status.

 Should I...ask Elva for help?

 Frowning, Viv wrote in his journal. Elva was relatively trustworthy, he wouldn't spill a secret, but the circumstances might change and cause him to falter.

 "..." Sighing, Viv leaned back onto his chair and looked out the window.

 Almost a full moon, huh.

—-

 A few days later and with no other leads, Vivillian found himself waiting after class to talk to Ms Lilia.

 After wrapping up talking with a few other students, Lilia noticed Vivillian hanging out near the doorway, and looked somewhat excited.

 "Do you need anything, Vivillian?" Ms Lilia turned her head, as she beckoned him to come closer.

 "Uh, I have a few questions on magical contraptions..." Viv muttered slowly, as he took a seat at her desk.

 "Hm? Like how they are made or how they work?"

 "How they're made. Also, I have questions have magical contraptions that are set to automatically go off."

 "Ah, like alarm clocks?" Ms Lilia seemed to understand.

 "...Sure." Viv felt slightly relieved, his teacher provided the excuses for him.

 "Hm."

 Ms Lilia shuffled through the books at her desk, before grabbing a red one and putting it on the table.

 "Making a magical contraption that is able to set off automatically at a certain time needs high level craftsmanship and skill with mana. Most commoners wouldn't ever be able to make a contraption like this, because of innate low mana. However, that's why they use mana stones dropped from monsters to create simpler contraptions."

 She flipped through the pages, eventually finding a page with a diagram and putting it in front of Viv.

 As she began to prattle more about how to make magic infused contraptions, Viv looked at the picture in the book.

 It showed a rather complicated diagram of where and when you should start enchanting a spell on an object, along with how much you should enchant before assembling another piece and repeating the process.

 Viv had no idea what types of bombs the terrorists were going to use, from automatic magic systems, manual, or even normal fuses to set fire to.

 Looks like he would be studying for a while...

 "Hm, is it perhaps too much if I explain everything at once?" Ms Lilia saw the spaced out look on Viv's face.

 "Ah, sorry."

 "It's okay, it's my job to make learning interesting and easier, after all." Ms Lilia hummed. "You want to see a cool magic contraption, a luxury kept by Einsvul?"

 "...?" Viv tilted his head.

 Inwardly, Ms Lilia held back a scream after seeing the cute scene before her, and her face remained normal as she drew onto the board.

 Soon, a small replica of Vivillian's face appeared, but he was made of white lines and dark green shade.

 "...You're certainly the artist." Viv commented.

 "Thanks, this board had some pretty strict criteria, so only I'm able to use it at Einsvul." Ms Lilia looked somewhat proud.

 Pressing a button, the board began to quiver, as soon the drawing came to life, looking alive as it blinked and stared at the both of them.

 "?!" Surprised, Viv stumbled back after meeting eyes with his suspicious 2d doppelgänger.

 "Haha, it's shocking, isn't it?" Ms Lilia looked at the masterpiece. "This was an experimental contraption made by a previous Einsvul graduate, as long as you thought of the person while drawing accurately, as well as carefully imbuing mana into each stroke, the 2d version of the person you thought of will appear."

 "..How interesting." Viv kept his somewhat disturbed look to himself, as he looked at the drawing. "Does it talk?"

 "Because this was an experimental item, it seems the drawings only want to talk to the person whose face it belongs to." Ms Lilia looked somewhat disappointed. "If the drawing is good enough, memories will manifest within it too, and it could be its own memories of existence or your own. Though since I'm the best artist at Einsvul, it should be of satisfactory quality..."

 "So since you're here, it won't talk?"

 "Correct."

 How interesting...

 Viv reached out, and tried to touch one of the lines that made up his 2d version, but it quickly avoided the finger.

 I wonder just how good your memories are...

 Just as he thought this, a professor appeared at the doorway.

 "Ms Lilia, can you spare some of your time real quick?" Professor Strong looked tired, black eyebags under breath his eyes as he peered into the room, scanning Viv briefly before returning his gaze away.

 "Ah, is it important?" Ms Lilia turned her head.

 "Very much so, it should be quick though."

 "Hmm..." Ms Lilia looked at Viv quickly. "Vivillian, just stay here for a moment and have fun with the drawing, okay?"

 "Alright."

 Viv turned his head disinterestedly from the two teachers, and looked at the board who seemed to stare intently back.

 As their footsteps disappeared down the hallway, the drawing seemed to flutter its eyes as he finally spoke.

 {"You're wasting your time."} Viv 2 spoke bluntly, his voice sounding mechanical but similar to Viv's.

 "What are you talking about?" Viv frowned.

 {"You won't find what you're looking for at Ms Lilia's."}

 "How do you know?"

 {"Because I am you."}

 "If you really were me, you wouldn't give such a short answer with no elaboration."

 {"Are you sure?"}

 "..." Viv scowled. "Fine, just spit it out your great idea."

 The drawing seemed to scoff at his original owner's stupidity.

 {"You should know by now, Asher Xern. You have played this stupid game for many a time."}

"And it seems next time, I'll ask Ms Lilia to make you not as annoying." Feeling slightly uncomfortable at the mention of his old name, Viv's mood darkened.

The drawing laughed, but the laughing was screechy and unbearable to hear, like nails on a chalkboard.

{"Tell me, Asher, or should I now say Vivillian? Who are the true antagonists in this game..."} Viv 2 spoke harshly. {"What commoners get ahold of such powerful magic bombs?"}

"...They got help."

{"Yes...now you're finally piecing it. But from who? Who would help them..?"}

Vivillian gritted his teeth, no wonder why the replica of himself was making fun of him. Such an obvious solution that he had overlooked because the culprits weren't mentioned until endgame.

"The Black Market Society."