Chapter 113 – Along the Alley.

“Do you think this is the right place?”

How far did they walk after entering the alley? Usher looked at the door he found in the back of the alley and asked Medea.

“Yes, because that grandfather said it was a magic bookstore.”

There was a nameplate on the door that said Devalin’s Magic Bookstore.

“But will it be a business even if I set up a shop in a place like this?”

It was surprising that there was a place like this in the back of the alley, but I didn’t understand that they were doing business in a place like this that you wouldn’t notice unless you entered. At least it was in a corner of the alley, although the sunlight came in because it was adjacent to a low building.

“Maybe the owner of this shop didn’t want to open a shop in a place like this.”
“Then why?”
“Did I mention it earlier? Even in the territory, this place is very old.”
“It was.”

I wondered what that had to do with this store.

“This place has been overhauled a long time ago.”

However, it is said that Aeolus hadn’t even dared to touch it until now because it was overhauled too complicatedly.

“That’s why even now, they say that there are many buildings that don’t fit in this alley.”
“In that sense, you should be more careful in the alleys here. Rumors spread that if you do something wrong, you will get lost and can’t leave.”

Lyudmilla added as if to Mediah’s words. Still, this place was at the beginning of the alley, so things were good. If there was a place like this further back, wouldn’t it have gone bankrupt a long time ago?

“Then go in?”

No one answered his words, but the hands holding his collar seemed to agree. As I opened the door and entered, the old door creaked and scraped the floor. In the quiet alley, even the sound was loud.

“Ugh, dust.”

As soon as I entered the place, the musty smell of dust stung my nose.

“Isn’t it too dark in here?”
“There’s so much dust, isn’t it already ruined?”
“Let’s find someone first.”

They searched every nook and cranny to find the person running the place, only to find that no one was there and covered in dust. There was no light, so I had to light the candles left in the lamp myself.

“Is it really ruined when there’s no one there?”
“Maybe so. It can’t be helped since it’s in a place like this.”

In the end, she didn’t know what to say to comfort Mediah, who seemed to think it was empty. She would have thought that she would barely be able to find more traces of her mother. Lyudmila, too, was restless at the sight of her, and suddenly she realized that Belka was nowhere to be seen.

“Wait a minute, what about Belka?”

When they looked around for the missing girl, they found Belka standing in front of a bookshelf with an open book.

“Belka? Did you find something?”

As they approached her, the girl held out her book to them, which she had been looking at.

“Here’s something. I think most of these books are like this.”
“This…!”

On the page she held out to her, there were strange letters that had been first engraved on the map that Medea’s mother had left behind. And underneath it, I saw an article that seemed to explain the letter, so I read it.

“This is a character found all over the world.”

Opinions are divided on this text. The sorcerers who discovered this character, which could not be interpreted in any language of any region or country, thought that it was an ancient language. This was because most of these characters were found in the remains and holy places of the Tsushima era. Many people have dedicated their lives to the interpretation of this text. With the hope that maybe, if you can interpret this text, you might be able to become a wizard.

“A sorcerer?”
“That’s what people who study magic are called.”
“That’s what they call each other. People say I’m an idiot who can’t give up on my childhood dreams even after becoming an adult.”

Usher knew Lyudmilla didn’t mean to him, but she hid her pang. First of all, he was strengthening himself by training himself, but magic was still attractive. It was true that if you could use it, you would want to use it.

“Stop talking about it and read on. I’m short so I can’t see you.”

At Lyudmila’s urging, Usher read the book again.

“But word has begun to circulate among scholars that this may not be an ancient language.”

A scholar who was researching this character found a newly inscribed character of the same type in a place where the character was not engraved. As similar cases followed one after another, they thought that there must be people who use this letter. Some scholars have argued that there are only those who use these characters, not ancient languages.

Opinions are divided in this way, but there is only one name for those who use this character. They are called Kabbalists.

“Then Meane’s mother…”
“Mother…?”

Medea muttered as if she didn’t think her own mother would be such a person.

“A Kabbalist.”

It was the first time that Usher, who passionately memorized magic, had learned it. It’s hard to say he’s using magic just by writing those letters, but he remembered them. The light that was transformed and moved around the map just by the girl placing her hand over the letter and sweeping it. If you don’t call it magic, what can you call magic? Thinking that maybe it was some kind of wizard he didn’t know, Usher continued reading.

Not much is known about the Kabbalists. There is no eyewitness report that anyone has seen them, and mysterious beings that disappear after leaving only characters whose meaning is unknown. However, many magisters think they know about the secrets of magic. Their letters are also found in relics and magic tools from the Great Magic Age. In other words, it is highly likely that they will inherit the magic that was lost during the Tsushima era.

However, in a sense, they are more secretive than witches because they leave only traces in words and do not reveal anything. There were other things, but that was all he had read. How little was known about the Kabbalists because they were included in the book in the form of a small appendix. After he had finished reading, there was a moment of silence between them.

I knew her mother was a Kabbalist, but she had no clue whatsoever. Belka was the first to speak in silence.

“If you look for a book here, wouldn’t you know something about Mea’s mother?”
“Maybe?”
“Eh, let’s look all over here? There are so many books?”

Medea seemed interested in her words. Lyudmila looked through the bookshelves like she was tired, but unlike her complaint, she had already taken out a book. Usher had no complaints. Adults who treat magic books as children’s books or children’s books, but it was an important book for Usher. But the fact that he cares now is.

“By the way, since when did you decide to call Belka by nickname?”
“Oh, are you jealous?”
“What is jealousy?”

His name or the girl’s name was so simple that I didn’t even need to call her a nickname, but Belka was the name he gave her in the first place. So he didn’t even have to complain.

“It’s just me and Lyuda call each other by nicknames, but isn’t it strange for Belka to do that by herself? That’s why I asked her to call her by her nickname.”

So, they decided to split up and take charge of one area inside the bookstore to find clues related to Mediah’s mother. Because I had plenty of time. But were my expectations a little too high? Usher found going through the book increasingly boring.

“I’ve only seen a few of them.”

Is it because, after all, everyone in the know knows what magic is? The more I read each one, the more I found that the contents were similar or even the same. If there are any differences, they are interpretations of their own. It was also a problem that I couldn’t tell if the interpretations were real. Sometimes there were studies on how to use magic or why magic could not be used just by memorizing and learning it normally, but the conclusion was that magic could not be used.

“It’s no different from what I’ve seen.”

Are there any clues in this place? Except for the Kabbalist the girl was looking for in the first place, nothing special could be seen. In the end, he took out a book from among the dusty bookshelves, looked through it, and put it back in. After a while, he found a book that felt different from other books.

“Why are there so many articles about this?”

Unlike other magic books where various explanations are written along with pictures, it was just written tightly, and if you look at the introduction, it says ‘Ally and the Wizard’s Night’. Apparently, it wasn’t a magic book, but a story about wizards. Usher peered quietly over the bookshelf. On one side I could see Lyudmila whimpering as she put the book back where it belonged, and on the other side I saw Medea taking it out and putting it back with a sigh.

Usher read the contents slowly, thinking that it wouldn’t matter if he read it anyway. As expected, the book was not about magic, but about a girl named Allie who lived in the country and a strange wizard who came to the country. Wizards were people who made war a living. However, tired of the long war, he came to a quiet countryside after the war. The villagers feared him after learning he was a wizard, but he only found a place to rest.

He built a hut in a secluded place in a secluded countryside and lived alone. He went to the village from time to time to buy necessities, but no one came to the village and he spent a lonely night. Then one day a girl came to his cabin. Even in the village, Ally was known as a bad boy because of her curiosity and playfulness. Even knowing he was a wizard, she wasn’t afraid. Allie visited him every day and waited for her without even knowing her wizard.

One day Allie came to his house drunk, and the wizard forced her to sleep in his house, and she knew that she had become an adult. Her nice breasts and slim waist. Even her dark hair that draped over her bed, the sorcerer involuntarily reached out and touched her breasts…

“…”

It wasn’t until that point that Usher realized something was off. He had been reading it all at once, not expecting something like this to come out. Feeling that he really had to stop reading, he tried to put the book back in its original place, but he kept wondering what was next. He looked through the cracks in the bookshelf once again to see what Lyudmilla and Medea were doing. Mediah had moved to the side as if she had checked all the bookshelves on one side, and Ludmilla was in a similar state.

Belka was on the other side of Medea, so she couldn’t be seen from his position, but she thought she might be looking for her too, and it was the moment she was trying to focus on the book.

“Usher, did you find a book you like?”

I didn’t expect to hear the girl’s voice right next to me.

“Belka? Have you looked over there?”
“Yeah, I didn’t see anything special.”

I was surprised when Belka said she had already looked through her bookshelves, but the sight of her approaching as if to look at the book she was holding sent chills down her spine. She wondered if Belka wouldn’t mind if she was found out, but she didn’t want the girl to find out that she was looking at this anyway, so she hastily closed her book. Damn how quickly it closed! And the sound of wind escaping from the paper echoed through the bookstore.

“What are you talking about? Sounds like something exploding?”
“Usher? Has something happened?”

Although that brought in Medea and Ludmilla, who were looking for books elsewhere.

“No, I just couldn’t find anything useful no matter how much I searched.”
“I see. No matter how much I search, I can’t find anything related to my mother.”
“Me too. Ugh, my hands are full of dust.”

It was when she was relieved to see the girls submissive to his evasions.

“Who’s there?”

The voice of an unknown old man was heard in their ears. Soon, with the sound of footsteps coming this way, they came across a green-skinned, stooped dwarf. I was momentarily surprised by that strange appearance. The dwarf’s eyes turned to Belka.

“Sasha…?”

The words that came out of his mouth made Medea widen her eyes.