Chapter 27 – No Eternal Friend, No Eternal Enemy (2)

The Temple of Knowledge, a library called the specialty or pride of the Immortal Embers.

On this day, when the qualification exam had just ended, the Temple of Knowledge was crowded with numerous candidates. This was because, immediately after the exam concluded, a large-scale debate was held in the library where candidates argued over the exam questions of that year.

And among the crowd gathering to participate in the debate, the Wayne brothers from the nameless Ember were also present.

“Sigh… let’s head in as well, Willas. It’s about to start soon. We need to secure our seats quickly.”

The older twin, Thomas, spoke as he stared at his yellow armband with disapproval. In response, his younger brother, Willas, pulled on Thomas’s sleeve with a guilt-ridden expression.

“Brother, is it really okay to do this? This is… a betrayal.”

It was merely participating in a debate, so what did he mean by betrayal?

However, Willas’s words were not wrong. The debate was a kind of stage where candidates showed off their skills, offering an opportunity to catch the eyes of recruiters who visited the Ember to scout outstanding magic engineers.

Simply put, it meant they could immigrate to another Ember.

Thus, participating in the debate could be seen as a shameless act, no different from turning one’s back on the Ember that had supported and backed them in every way so they could become magic engineers.

However, Thomas’s eyes rolled at the word ‘betrayal’, and he instead lost his temper.

“What, betrayal? What did that pathetic Ember, which isn’t even a small town, ever do for us?”

“Brother…!”

“Tell me. Aside from tossing us a few public magic engineering books, what support did we actually receive? We achieve everything through our own talent. How long are we going to rot in that cramped Ember? Please wake up, Willas!”

Thomas’s anger was, in a way, reasonable.

In fact, Demian Vale and the nine magic engineers could not pay attention to the Wayne brothers, who were promising talents, due to the high intensity of their work and their conflict with the leadership. At best, Demian Vale would occasionally visit them, drop a few words of guidance, and leave in a hurry.

Other than that.

-My sons, you must become magic engineers. Otherwise, you will become useless human beings. If you do not want to be abandoned, you must remember your father’s words.

-The leadership’s expectations of you are high. That is why we support you with these precious vegetables and magic engineering books for free. Prove your usefulness in this exam. Understood?

There were only threats and urgings to prove their usefulness from their father, Merel Wayne, and the leader, Yan Casellos.

They had only self-studied magic engineering to death, relying on each other simply to survive and avoid being abandoned.

Thomas bit his lip.

“I will use this opportunity to leave that godforsaken Ember. Even if we go back, nothing awaits us but a future of being exploited.”

“What about Father and Mother? Brother, are you saying you’re going to abandon our family now?”

Willas shouted. Although he had inwardly expected something like this to happen, facing it directly brought a different level of shock.

That was why he held on. However, even though the unbreakable shackle of ‘family’ was mentioned, Thomas’s eyes glistened with anger.

No, now he even seemed to look down on his younger brother, who was bound by mere blood ties, with pity.

“Family? Can those things even be called family? Are those monsters really parents? Or did monster and parent become synonyms without my knowledge?”

“Of course they were strict, but they never laid a hand on us, and that was all because they loved us—”

“Fuck. Don’t delude yourself, Willas! Abuse isn’t only when you get beaten. They locked us in that small room 365 days a year for 19 years and 3 months. Simply out of the greed that we must become magic engineers. Love my ass… there was no such thing!”

Perhaps finding his own situation pitiful as well, Thomas bowed his head and muttered.

“Yes, looking at it now, our parents seem to be monsters indeed. Seeing that I have become such a monster…”

“…”

A heavy silence descended between the two. Before long, Thomas stood straight and faced his younger brother, Willas.

“You choose too. Whether to live as a monster, or live as a human.”

“I…”

“I decided. A long time ago.”

Thomas Wayne, who turned his back in that manner, walked with heavy yet light steps toward the Temple of Knowledge. Willas, who was staring blankly at his brother’s back, also seemed to have finally made up his mind.

“Brother, wait for me!”

He ran over in an instant and fell into step beside him.

“Let’s go, Willas.”

“Okay, Brother.”

The Wayne brothers took their steps more confidently than ever, making their yellow armbands look insignificant.

Perhaps they were heading not toward the library, but toward a new future.

* * *

“I left your luggage in front of the bookstore, so take it. Let’s never see each other again!”

Slam!

Evicted along with Namiya’s kind(?) consideration, I headed straight to the library. Since the bookstore was on the way, there was no need to change my route.

“Sigh… at least it was a good thing I brought plenty of jerky.”

After my trump card of clinging to Namiya failed, I had to secure lodging. Food would not be an issue since I could easily last eight days by eating jerky, and drinking water was provided for free at the water stations, so out of food, clothing, and shelter, only shelter remained.

In that sense, the library was a very good option.

‘No cost, plenty of books, warm, quiet…’

Wasn’t it truly the optimal environment for sleeping rough? Furthermore, the library of the Immortal Embers was called the ‘Temple of Knowledge’ and was said to be a landmark one must visit.

Needless to say, it was a given that its scale and facilities would be excellent.

My only concern was whether there would be any seats.

‘I heard there were about seventeen thousand candidates.’

Since there were a hundred people in each testing room and room 170, where I was assigned, was the last, that was probably the case.

But the Immortal Embers was a place with many visitors to begin with. Especially during the exam week, which was practically the largest annual event, the influx of visitors such as businessmen and merchants with various purposes never ceased.

That was also the reason why the inspections had been tightened.

In fact, even now as I headed to the library, the streets were packed with crowds.

‘This place is practically a marketplace.’

I wondered if I had entered an actual market, or if outside merchants had set up stalls on the street.

“Here, a portable heater, the specialty of the Fifteenth Ember! Offering it for just one silver coin!”

“We have mana guns made from the Blacksmith’s Ember, which was recently promoted to the Hundredth Ember! We don’t know when we’ll be back, so hunters, hurry up!”

The shouting of the merchants occupying the streets was almost deafening.

‘Seeing that they are selling products from other Embers, they must be outside merchants.’

The sound of residents of the First Ember haggling over the ridiculous prices was heard. However, most bought them at full price; after all, these merchants had crossed the snowfield just to sell those items.

Since the price of their lives was included in the goods, it was a situation where one could not simply call it expensive.

Unlike when I arrived, I took my time looking around the streets and soon arrived at the library.

“Is this… really the size?”

A sacred and grand appearance, as if modeled after the Parthenon. I was overwhelmed by its majesty.

I had no choice but to understand why this was the city’s landmark and why it was called a temple.

Marveling at the economic and technological power of the Immortal Embers that allowed them to build such a structure in this barren era, I stepped inside.

I showed my armband and examinee slip to the librarian to verify my identity and looked around the interior.

The library was divided into a total of five floors.

‘Was it designed in accordance with the characteristics of magic engineering?’

It seemed to directly reflect the levels of magic engineering, which were divided into five stages: Beginner, Intermediate, Mid-High, Advanced, and Supreme.

Indeed, as one went up, the area per floor and the number of bookshelves decreased exponentially, resembling a pyramid.

The 4th floor for the Advanced level, which was the current realm of Herman Melville, said to be a grand magic engineer, and the 5th floor for the Supreme level, which was considered unreachable even after a lifetime of study, made me wonder if their existence even had any meaning.

‘But the 3rd floor is quite large. There must be something worth seeing.’

Fortunately, the 3rd floor, which was the Mid-High level, was wider than the 4th and 5th floors. In other words, there must have been quite a few magic engineers with the talent to reach the Mid-High level in the First Ember.

However, considering this was an era where even an Intermediate level engineer received treatment akin to a leader of an ordinary Ember, that size was almost incomprehensible.

It was a more reasonable judgment to view it as a means for the Immortal Embers to show off their magic engineering power.

Whatever the reason, needing the thesis knowledge of the Mid-High level, I forgot my fatigue and headed straight to the 3rd floor.

However, quite regrettably, my steps were blocked before I could even reach the 2nd floor, the Intermediate level.

“Those without qualifications can only access up to the Beginner level.”

“Pardon? What do you mean…”

“You must hold a certificate corresponding to the floor to access the upper levels. Or you must be a magic engineer belonging to our Ember.”

The librarian explained that while the 1st floor, which had beginner public books and papers, could be explored without a certificate, going to the floors above required a corresponding level of mastery.

Although it was a regulation that did not align with the library’s purpose of sharing knowledge and promoting improvement,

‘Is it due to technology leakage… I suppose even the Immortal Embers cannot help it.’

I understood immediately.

After all, magic engineering was a cutting-edge industry and technology, just like semiconductors or AI technology in the 21st century. In a world where magic engineering power meant the competitiveness of an Ember, the reading conditions had to be strict.

However, that was not entirely the case either…

“But why are there so many people on the 2nd floor? I doubt all of them are Intermediate level.”

There were quite a few people on the 2nd floor, which was littered with Intermediate papers. Considering the number and average age, the majority of the people there could absolutely not be of the Intermediate level. When I asked about this, the librarian replied kindly once again.

“Ah, those people belong to Embers that have research agreements with our Ember. Although their mastery is not of the Intermediate level, they are allowed access.”

“A research agreement?”

“Yes. Information access is allowed only for individuals who have entered into contracts with private magic engineers who are notarized by our magic engineering department or leadership.”

In other words, even if one did not qualify, information would be shared if they were bound by a contractual relationship called a research agreement and maintained a symbiotic relationship.

Certainly, an Ember that could establish a research agreement with the Immortal Embers had to be a high-class city, and since the list of visitors would be strictly managed, the issue of technology leakage would be prevented to some extent.

This meant that the condition of a research agreement was something completely unimaginable for our nameless Ember.

“Is there no other way?”

When I asked just in case, the librarian spoke firmly.

“Regrettably, there is none.”

“I see. Thank you.”

Although I could read Mid-High papers to my heart’s content if I just went up two floors, there was nothing I could do, so I licked my lips and turned around.

“Still, it’s something that I can sleep rough here. I should just get some sleep…”

Since it was meaningless to me no matter how many papers were on the 1st floor, I was walking around to find a spot out of others’ sight to sleep when,

“You pathetic yellow-band bastards dare to call yourselves magic engineers? And do you even know what kind of place this debate is that you dare to attend?”

I could see public criticism… no, character assassination occurring amidst the crowd gathered densely around a huge round table set up in the center of the 1st floor.

“Are those… the Wayne brothers?”

I could see that the target of that character assassination was the Wayne brothers whom I knew well.

However, contrary to my thoughts…

“Yes, I am from a nameless Ember. So what about it? Is there a law saying yellow-bands can’t become magic engineers?”

“These punks…!”

“The famous Lord Demian Vale also belongs to a nameless Ember. Are you planning to insult him by saying he isn’t a magic engineer either?”

It was the first time I learned that they were not just losers who bullied the weak.

Somehow, the situation was turning out to be interesting.