691 Soul Books (1/2)

I looked all around in Harloys' Soul World, and saw an endless sea of books.

There were various styles of bookshelves everywhere in this endless spiral tower. Magical puppets were constantly patrolling, and everything was quite organized. This was the largest library that I had ever seen.

However, the books here were obviously quite different from books in regular libraries. There were bookshelves that even giants would find too large to use, reaching higher than the clouds. There were also bookshelves so tiny that even Ratmen would be unable to use them as these bookshelves were only the size of my fingernail.

Every single book had a faint magical glow around it, for every single book here was actually a book of magic.

”…This is my world, the Library of Secrets.”

Harloys sat upon a floating disc amidst all the bookshelves, and had a serious expression as she introduced her personal world to me. However, I could only do my best to prevent myself from laughing out loud.

The reason for this? Her baby red face still had tiny dimples, her neat and short blonde hair had a tiny golden princess crown on top, and she was also wearing red high heels for children, a white lace children's dress, and strawberry and bunny imprint panties that she accidentally revealed… Excellent, I had no reaction, which meant that I was definitely no lolicon!

Harloys now appeared to be even younger than her regular Gold Elf form. Right now, she appeared to be no older than seven or eight. Yet, this was her reality.

A Soul World would be the projection of a powerful individual's personal reality in the real world, changing how reality worked. It would be impossible to distort any person's recognition of oneself. Just as how I had died in ”Diffindor” at the age of 14, the current Harloys was probably a reflection of the age at which she had died as well.

She was doing her very best to appear serious. However, a young girl's seriousness was having her round cheeks bulging. Not only did this seem harmless instead of being a threat, it was even quite cute… Ahem, ahem, the silly cat was grinding her teeth, so I should probably get back on topic.

”…Not only does this library contain all of the magical books I have gathered over the countless years, it even contains every magical book and all magical information from the ancient Elven Empire's generation. When I died, my last thought actually wasn't about revenge, but rather about how to continue spreading our Gold Elf culture and magic…”

I became serious—when an undead started talking about their own personal regrets and death wish, it was something that should be respected.

If this library was the accumulation of more than 10,000 years of magical knowledge, including the inheritance of the entire former Elven Empire, then it seemed to be somewhat reasonable that Harloys had so much knowledge. But, I thought about it for a moment, and then shook my head.

”…This shouldn't be all there is to it. This doesn't adhere to the most basic laws of magic.”

A Soul World would also be a part of the elemental power system. A Soul World would represent the host's innermost desire and obsession. I had never doubted before that Harloys possessed a soul world, because her obsession and accumulation were the strongest out of those of any Undead Lord I had ever met before. One's personal desire for strength would also act as a catalyst to create one's personal Soul World.

Yet, I had never heard anything regarding her Soul World before. Originally, I had believed that this was because Harloys had killed off anyone who knew it, but now, it seemed more like it was because her Soul World was one of the rarest types, a Soul World that was the full support type. That was why her enemies had never discovered it.

However, I still felt like there was something off because Soul Worlds were also a type of elemental power. The basic elemental laws would still need to be followed. A powerful fire element individual's Soul World would typically be a sea of fire or magma, being filled with fire element. Meanwhile, an undead mage's Soul World would usually be something about reversing life and death, having the living die, or making the dead come back to life, and so on. My personal Soul World was the latter type.

Harloys' personal Soul World seemed far too peaceful, unlike her usual style. It was also completely unlike undead mages' Soul Worlds, which typically had extreme and evil elements to them. If Harloys had been a pure scholar or hermit, I could have understood why she might have such a Soul World, but it was quite evident that her personality wasn't anywhere nearly so peaceful. When considering how Harloys desired power and revenge more than anything, her Soul World should be something that directly gave her power.

I directly asked Harloys regarding my doubts. She hesitated for a moment, and then casually pointed at something, causing a thick green magical book to land in my hand.

”...Open this book.”

My expression changed the moment that I touched the book. My countless times of having dissected humans told me that this book was made from human skin. Only the most evil of devils and Evil Gods would use scrolls and magic books made from human skin.

I kept feeling like things were even stranger now. The magical green light coming from this book should have been the green of wind magic. However, my questions were all answered the moment that I opened the book.

”…My name is Joey Stellan. I am a Legend-ranked wind mage. My personal research specialty is wind elementalization. With my personal research as the foundation, I invented three personal wind element magic spells, Wind Blood Needles, Double Tornado, and Shining Windwheel. I experienced 372 battles in my lifetime…”