The night deepened. Juliana and Elexia had fallen asleep in the next room. Through the optical lens of Observer Unit 2, I watched their peaceful faces. Aunt Martha quietly entered my room with a magic stone lamp, tucking my blanket, checking if my arms were covered, then pressing a finger to my forehead. Only after confirming I was fine did she slip out.

Once the hallway footsteps faded, I opened my eyes. Silently, I opened the Item Vault, pulled a massive copper key from the spatial rift, clutched it to my chest, and channeled a faint pulse of mana. When I blinked open my eyes again, stars glittered beyond the glass dome. The Eternal Night Library had opened its doors. Only here could I don the jet-black robe and become a cute, clever mage apprentice.

"Victoria, congratulations—you're now the Duke's adopted daughter."

My ancestor and mentor, Aleister, popped up out of nowhere. I’d thought he was just a ghost haunting the Lud castle, gone forever once I left. Yet he’d followed me all the way to the Duke’s estate in Golden Lion City.

"Not happy to see me? Have you outgrown your teacher?" He pressed a hand to his chest, striking a theatrical opera pose. "Oh, Victoria… such a fickle woman. New love, forgotten old flame."

What is he even talking about? This ghost has a screw loose!

"Victoria." Two golden eyes glowed in the dark. "This unreliable spirit is bound to the Library’s key. Toss it in holy water—he’ll ascend to nirvana in seconds. Never bother you again."

"Demon! How despicable! We agreed to keep that secret!"

"Hmph. You trusted a demon? How naive."

As the ghost and demon nearly came to blows, I left them be. I picked up the lantern, stepped forward, and cautiously moved deeper between the shelves.

"Ara~ Young Librarian, good evening."

A rasping of scales. From behind pitch-black shelves emerged Sharafi—the colossal half-serpent deity. Her scaled lower body vanished into shadow; only her vaguely human upper half edged carefully into the lantern’s glow. Even this mighty eldritch deity feared the light. In this star-draped, darkness-swallowed library, only this lantern protected me.

"Good evening, Lady Sharafi."

"What a polite child. Pity you feel no fear. Without terror or despair as seasoning… you’d taste like bland wax." She shifted to the light’s opposite edge. "Young Chief Librarian—what knowledge do you seek today?"

"Metallurgy references," I mused. "Should I ask Thoth?"

"Hehehe. That tentacled one guards only the most esoteric secrets. Common knowledge like this? Not worth troubling him. Disturb him for shallow trivia, and he’ll be furious."

True. Thoth’s Sanctum of Knowledge held dangerously forbidden lore—truths meant buried, never revealed.

But this library was too vast. I had no idea where to start.

"Victoria," Sharafi pondered, "take the Librarian Certification Exam. Pass it, and you’ll receive the *Catalogue of Volumes*."

"Catalogue?"

"Precisely," she said. "It maps every book’s location—even secret manuscripts in Thoth’s Sanctum. *If* you pass."

Such a convenient thing existed? I was stunned.

"Lady Sharafi… um… is the exam hard?"

"No idea."

"Huh?"

"Too troublesome. I never took it."

…Speechless.

Following Sharafi down narrow aisles, the lantern’s glow barely lit our path. Towering shelves melted into darkness; strange shadows flickered. Hostile gazes prickled my skin. One wrong turn in this labyrinth meant being lost forever. Drop the lantern? Monsters in the dark would shred you. And the guide ahead? An eldritch deity—history’s bringer of calamities. Never lower your guard.

"We’re here."

Where she pointed, shelves parted into a space lit by blue-flamed lamps. Polished study desks stood beneath ornate chandeliers, each holding a golden quill and inkwell, gleaming spotlessly. Before them loomed a complex brass-adorned machine, the Library’s emblem engraved proudly.

"Hey! Igram, come out—!"

Sharafi’s shout rattled the desks. Blue-flamed chandeliers swayed. The machine clanked—metal segments slid, reshaped—into a robed female figure. No face. Only a smooth mirror where features should be. A skeletal frame tethered her mid-air like a marionette.

"Sharafi. Ignorant, barbaric deity. What wind blew you here?" A flat, synthesized voice issued from her metallic throat—cold, mechanical.

"Hey! That tone invites misunderstanding! The new Librarian wants the exam. I’m just guiding her."

"Oh? How cute. *You*, who swallows children whole… didn’t eat her? I mean… *physically*."

"Hah. Too boring. No fear. She’d taste bland."

"Logical. Very you."

"Enough, Igram," Sharafi circled behind me. "She’s here for the Librarian Certification Exam."

"Understood. That is my purpose."

Hydraulics whirred as she glided closer. I looked up—my golden eyes reflected in her mirror face.

"Good evening, young Librarian. I am Igram, examiner of all Librarians. A pleasure."

"Good evening, ma’am." I curtsied. "Victoria Flamel von Lud. The pleasure is mine."

A pixelated smile flickered across her face.

"Which rank do you seek?"

"The highest." I chose boldness. "Might sound arrogant… but I’ll try."

"Application accepted. Begin." She extended a gleaming hand. "Please sit… anywhere. You’re the only candidate."

I sat. An exam sheet materialized. A glance revealed impossibly broad topics—only deep knowledge could pass.

For one hour, I answered meticulously. As Igram signaled time’s end, I finished my final check.

"Let’s see…" She lifted the paper. "86 points. Congratulations. You passed."

I clenched my small fists. In my past life, paralyzed from the waist down, I’d read endlessly. My knowledge ran deep.

"No Librarian has scored above 70 in ages. Congratulations again." Her tone softened. "Certification complete. You are now Acting Head Librarian of the Eternal Night Library. My respects."

*Acting Head Librarian?* Genuine shock surged through me. I really did it in one step!

Igram bowed, activated a mechanism in her abdomen. Amid crackling crimson sparks, a beautiful bracelet formed. *Ancient Alchemy!* This strange golem truly wielded ancestral tech.

Sharafi—the southern swamps’ primordial deity, once a fertility goddess who consumed stillborns, later twisted into a child-scaring myth. Thoth—the desert’s knowledge god, whose tentacled form once had grand temples, now faithless under the Triune Church’s shadow. And Igram? Less a god, more a crafted relic. An ancient legacy?

This Library held too many secrets. Sometimes… I wondered if it was all a hallucination. Every child has imaginary friends. Were these book-born figures and eldritch beings just figments?

I could take nothing from here.

No proof they truly existed.

"Travel safely, Your Excellency," Igram fastened the bracelet to my left wrist. "If you venture deeper—*never* release the lantern."

"Thank you."

I bowed to the ancient-crafted machine and channeled mana into the bracelet. Once clumsy with mana, Aleister’s "devilish training" had sharpened me—though *he* always used magitek to slack off. Lazybones. Right now, he and Chris were probably bickering—either debating magic or gossiping about me.

Enough. Focus.

"Open Catalogue."

The central blue gem glowed. A semi-transparent interface bloomed before me—endless titles swirling, then neatly sorted into subdirectories.

"Search," I commanded. "Magisteel."

The system responded instantly. Seconds later, a glowing path lit the floor ahead—a brilliantly convenient guide. Strangely… this system felt familiar. Not just usable. *Nostalgic.*

How… utterly strange.