The moment they opened the door and stepped inside, a light that was neither too bright nor too dark greeted the party.

The smell of paper and ink floating in the dry air.

Wooden bookshelves that were clearly well-maintained at a glance.

Dorothea summed up the scene before her eyes in one word, “A library?”

It wasn’t a place that was visibly special, like having an enormous scale or ominous magic flowing out from inside.

Compared to the title of Tower of Foresight, which seemed like it would collect books just by looking at it, its appearance was even modest at first glance.

With the sound of hooves, the silver horse moved towards the inner part of the library.

Dorothea unconsciously tried to follow it, but at that moment, the Tin Knight’s hand reached out from behind and grabbed her shoulder.

Although startled for a moment by the cold touch of metal on her skin, Dorothea asked for the reason instead of getting irritated, “Why?”

The Tin Knight silently pointed forward, and Dorothea also directed her gaze accordingly.

Clop, clop.

The silver horse was moving forward as if there was no problem.

Moving and moving, the horse’s four legs disappeared as if they had been cut off.

“…!”

Dorothea blinked.

The horse’s legs, which had clearly seemed to be cut off, were somehow back to normal.

Instead, this time the part above the horse’s neck was gone.

Like the Dullahan from legends, the silver horse moved through the library interior as if nothing was wrong, despite being headless.

“Hup!”

Adelaide, who was nearby, swallowed her breath.

The little lion in disguise turned pale upon discovering the missing horse head floating in the air.

Clop.

The horse’s body elongated.

Clop.

The sight of the horse walking with its body upside down while maintaining its height was seen.

Clop.

The horse’s form completely disappeared.

A deep silence fell.

At this truly bizarre sight, Dorothea unconsciously lost her words.

The first word that came to her mind was one.

Trap.

No, that’s not it.

However, Dorothea immediately denied this speculation herself.

She checked her surroundings.

Medir was observing them with an air of interest in how the party would react, and other mages were also watching the situation with somewhat uncertain looks.

If this had been a trap, they should have shown signs of panic or anxiety upon seeing Dorothea’s party avoid it, but there was no such appearance.

Above all, the Tin Knight’s calmness was decisive.

The fact that he didn’t cheerfully enter a combat stance and instead calmly restrained Dorothea was sufficient evidence.

After considering several possibilities, Dorothea concluded, “The space inside the library is distorted.”

“Correct answer.”

In a tone like praising a student who gave the right answer, Medir said, “What floor do you think you’re on right now?”

“It’s the 9th floor, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. But when the tower was first built, it was the 4th floor.”

“…?”

Question marks appeared on the faces of Dorothea and her companions.

Medir continued his explanation, “When the tower was first constructed, several great masters participated. Among them, the one in charge of the 4th floor was the Witch of the North, Lady Orin. However, she didn’t interfere much with the tower’s design or structure, and just created a library in her temporary workshop to organize books.”

There were mages who tried to dissuade her, saying that even if she organized them carefully, they would all have to be moved into the tower again, but the Witch of the North said it was fine and didn’t stop creating the library.

Other mages didn’t think it was that strange either, perhaps considering it as a practice before creating the real library on the 4th floor.

However, what the Witch of the North did after the tower was completed far exceeded their imagination.

“‘This library exists on the second highest floor of the tower.’ That was the rule she bestowed upon the library. And it came to be according to that rule.”

Sophia asked with interest, “What does it mean specifically that it came to be according to the rule?”

“Exactly as it sounds. The library she created suddenly ‘appeared’ on the 4th floor, which was the second highest floor at the time.”

“…You mean she teleported the entire library or something? That’s certainly impressive,” Dorothea said, but Medir shook his head. “That’s not the end of it. I told you, ‘This library exists on the second highest floor of the tower.’ Don’t you understand what it means?”

Dorothea narrowed her eyes as if to say, “What nonsense is this?” but soon opened her eyelids wide as if realizing its meaning.

“Don’t tell me, even if you add more floors, it still applies? Not by using additional spatial transfers each time?”

“Correct answer. When a new floor is added to the tower, the library moves from its original location to a new place.”

If the tower had 5 floors, the library’s location was on the 4th floor.

If the tower was expanded to 6 floors, the library’s location was on the 5th floor.

Sophia raised a question, “It seems like there would be various spatial problems? Not only would the place where the library was originally become empty, but if space isn’t prepared in advance on the floor where the library ‘appears’, there wouldn’t be room for it.”

“Logically, that’s true. But this library ignores such things. Existing facilities don’t become cramped or disappear, yet it naturally occupies a space as if it had been included in the original blueprint.”

“Indeed, that’s certainly worthy of being called a miracle.”

Sophia was nodding as if she understood, but that was just because she was special.

Most people listening to the story were reacting as if they couldn’t understand what on earth this nonsense was about. Moreover, it wasn’t just Dorothea’s party or Rapunzel; even the tower’s mages seemed to be accepting it as “just the way it is” without attempting logical understanding.

Medir directed his gaze towards the inner part of the library, “There are many outstanding talents in the tower, but even those talents don’t know the exact structure of this library. What’s certain is that as the tower’s height increases and the library repeats its ‘moves’, its structure becomes increasingly complex. If it’s about twenty steps from the entrance, you can somehow return to the entrance by walking backwards or whatever, but if you go further in than that, you become completely lost. There are several missing persons too.”

Dorothea said incredulously, “If it’s such a place, shouldn’t it be sealed? I didn’t see any signs of it being blocked off when we came in.”

“A mage who is permitted to enter this level should be able to manage risks on their own. While it’s the guardian’s responsibility if a child is left unattended near water, if a grown man dies from falling in while fishing on a rainy day, isn’t that his own responsibility?”

It was a cold statement in a way, but the other mages didn’t seem to feel particularly resentful towards the tower head’s words.

No, there was even a hint of agreement.

Dorothea snorted, thinking they were strange fellows anyway.

Of course, she wasn’t in a position to call others strange when she was thinking of diving in without hesitation after hearing this story.

“By the way, do I still have to give something every hundred steps inside here?”

“That’s fine. We couldn’t verify it anyway. If there are mages who volunteer to go along, I won’t stop them… but it doesn’t look like there are any. If I weren’t in the position of tower head, I’d go myself. It’s a shame.”

“If I obtain something in here, the ownership…”

“If you can return safely, I’ll overlook it to some extent. However, the condition is that you tell us what you saw inside. Take this with you.”

What Medir handed over with these words was a contract written on parchment.

It wasn’t comparable to a “Blood Oath”, but it was a contract with quite strong binding power.

Dorothea carefully checked the contents of the contract and whether there were any hidden traps, then wrote her name.

In fact, if they had tried to let her in without this level of precaution and without attaching any observers, that would have been suspicious.

Vague goodwill without reason usually had ulterior motives, so a contractual relationship where both parties got what they needed was clean and good.

The entry members were four: Dorothea, the Tin Knight, Adelaide, and Sophia.

Dorothea thought for a moment, then took out a golden rope through the Gloves of Haider.

She wanted to refrain from showing off the effects of the sacred treasures in front of them if possible, but it was better than entering without any precautions.

After all, she was someone who didn’t think the other side would naively believe forever that the Chalice of Tuberose was “magic that knows the past”.

Seeing the party tying the rope to a building pillar, Medir said, “The interior space is so arbitrary that even if you try to leave traces of your path with thread, it soon breaks. I recommend leaving marks every step instead. Someone made it to forty-nine steps and returned using that method.”

“We have our own ideas, so don’t worry. More importantly, if they went that far, couldn’t they have tried to challenge further using the same method?”

“They haven’t returned since saying they would go over fifty steps.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yes. It’s a sad thing. Although she didn’t join our tower, losing the Witch of the North’s youngest mentee could be called a significant loss to the history of magic.”

Dorothea’s movement paused for a moment.

Perhaps interpreting this reaction, Medir added, “Gale Elilaz. That girl also challenged this place just like you are now, and didn’t return.”

A moment of silence fell.

Adelaide, recalling the events in Tik-Tok, clearly showed a bewildered expression, and Sophia also let out a thoughtful hum.

Dorothea frowned and was about to say something, but then closed her mouth after hearing the message resonating in her head.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ rejoices that he can have a proper confrontation this time!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ claims that rival battles always heat up!]

It was a statement that seemed to be confident in the safety of Gale and the White Knight accompanying her.

After staring blankly at the Tin Knight, Dorothea smiled slightly.

Well, even she didn’t think that eccentric mage would have fallen so ridiculously in a place like this.

Holding the golden rope in her hand, the party walked into the inner part of the library.

One step. There was no big change.

Three steps. The lighting in the library darkened.

Five steps. The bookshelves that were close by were suddenly seen far away.

Eight steps. Though it was clearly indoors, the sky was suddenly visible.

Ten steps. The distance between the Tin Knight at the very front and Dorothea right behind him suddenly increased tenfold. The golden rope became taut as if it would tear, but when Dorothea infused it with mana, it rapidly extended its length and withstood the sudden change.

It was a rope that Dorothea had created using Rapunzel’s hair as material.

A magic tool that was tough enough to resist being cut by ordinary swords, and could self-repair and grow as long as mana was continuously infused.

Relying on this, the party continued to move forward.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken