Chapter 815: Faith and the great library of time
\'It was filled with books of all kinds. All the knowledge that was available in the world was gathered in this place and though many places weren\'t available to the students in their first years, there was no restriction on the books available there.\'
As long as one found these books, they could read them and explore them more deeply as their understanding about them increased.
It was a magical place filled with secrets and mysteries.
And, apparently, the great library of time was based on a certain library that was dreamt about by the helper that aided the Masters that created this academy— my master.
\'I didn\'t know about this when I came to the academy but through the encounter with the Keeper in the outskirts of the academy, I got to know more about Her and Them.\'
They had a special relationship.
She considered all of them cute children that she liked playing with.
She not only taught them when she felt like it, she also showed them how the world was an important place, a real place that they, as the divine beasts, should look after.
\'And they learned from her like little students learning from a wise elder.\'
Still though, since they weren\'t actually her students, she didn\'t really teach them-teach them.
"Oh? Who do we have here~? The one that doesn\'t forget~."
"Hello Miss Faith."
She was like a neighbourhood grandma to them whose great wisdom had taught them various things throughout the time she had been around.
And since the academy was created in a time when the humans weren\'t the primary race ruling this world, the divine beasts or the [{( Masters )}] that are the highest authority of this island even to this day, the original founders weren\'t all humans either.
\'Those times were different from what I\'ve seen in the fragments of her memories until now.\'
And though I don\'t know everything about them, and how things had been here back then, I know for certain that the young divinities that found a piece of floating land fascinating had always looked up to my master… at least until the academy was built and she moved away from these lands.
"Hello hello~. I know you aren\'t here empty handed like every time so, quick quick. Give the boxes. Give, give."
The sole librarian of the great academy of time that was based on the library we have back in our tower home, was a being that had been present ever since foundation of this building… which was essentially thousands of years ago.
Though, not everyone knew this fact.
Not even the three of them who had come here with me today.
"Here. Don\'t eat all of it at once, okay? It\'s quite difficult to make these things."
"I know~. I know the best~. Hehe, that\'s why I\'ll store them and eat them one every day~."
By looks, she seemed just like any other human being that spoke, ate, breathed, and lived.
She had a lavender coloured hair that looked pretty fresh like the real lavenders itself whenever one saw her and her deep gray eyes that were so pretty that one couldn\'t help themselves keep looking right at them were something that made her famous among the other students.
\'They didn\'t know she was a thousands of years old automation, a highly advanced artificial intelligence that\'s pretty similar to the keeper that\'s present in the outskirts or the helpers like mister Rive or Doro that I\'ve made until now.\'
Though, she was a little different from those pure automations in the sense that she was partially a mortal being with flesh and blood.
\'A perfect homunculus.\'
She was immortal, but just like a phoenix, she changed her physical body every few centuries.
She had all her memories intact from the time she was created, but every time she recreated herself, a part of her memories form the olden times was sealed off.
She was the librarian of this place and the only being that had complete access to every single thing present here, and, without her permission, I wasn\'t even allowed to go to the door from where I could move to the secret space where the section only available to those holding the special key of the highest rank could enter.
"Haha, enjoy the food Miss Faith. And, I believe you know why we are here like this already?"
"Of course~."
Her origin and her past aside, she was a fun person to be around whenever one is in the great library of time.
"Those rascals have been causing quite a ruckus since yesterday and if you hadn\'t come today, I was going to kick all of them out. Good thing you came when it hadn\'t been too late~."
She knew all the books that were present in this place, all the things that one could find here, and answers to the question even I did not know of.
Getting to know her and understand her took a while, but the relationship we built up after spending my hours in this library were all worth it.
\'I knew what she liked and what she hated more than anything else. I knew about the kind of knowledge she possessed and the things that she was allowed to say and things that she knew about herself as well.\'
She found me very fascinating since just like her, I also could not forget anything. Anything at all.
It was a rare condition and only a handful had ever been to this academy and especially to a place filled with so many books, and so many elements that would give a stroke to anybody like us.
\'Those who could not forget and were normal unlike the two of us mostly avoided going to places filled with a lot of information.\'
Libraries being on top of that list since books that had ever passed through their eyes or other senses were permanently stored in their minds.
They couldn\'t forget how a book looked, how it smelled like, what was the effect of it on their fingers, how the covers might have tasted like had they ever licked it… the kind of sensory bombardment that they would have to face in such a place.
\'Not being able to forget was one bad thing, but having good senses above that was even worse since it naturally restricted people like us from being into fun places like these.\'
Everything was torture after one point and handling oneself was a more difficult task than doing anything at all.
That\'s why those who could not forget either killed themselves after one point or were short lived naturally.
Thankfully… we were different from those common people.
"I knew you would already know about them having fallen into a vivid story book and some of them having found your basement with ghost flames. Thanks for not punishing-."
"Say what now?"
"Hun?"
"What did you just say?"
"You didn\'t know about this? Really?"
She was the librarian that could remember things, was great enough to possess powers equal to an elder or magic or a knight King, or was pretty much like a witch that could interfere with the reality, but… she wasn\'t omniscient or had anywhere like the text accurate Angels.
But still, she was a librarian and this was a Sunday morning so not many students were present around right now.
She should have noticed if the commotion causing group that was passing time here had suddenly gone quiet but, no?
Her expression said she genuinely wasn\'t aware of any of it so, this was certainly a little concerning for us.
[{ "Where exactly are they right now, Celes?" }]
[{ On the northern end, master~. }]
"Oh, that\'s why…"
The northern end was pretty far from here, so it was possible that she had not noticed them.
And it shouldn\'t have been that long since they went in that book or found the basement so, it wasn\'t that bad.
"I knew it was weird how they suddenly stopped their murmurs and screaming. So they were successful in finding some magical book and secret passage hun?"
She puffed her cheeks as if she found this annoying. And it was pretty cute actually.
\'She had a sweet tooth and loved special pastries that I made for her, so she certainly wasn\'t a bad person.\'
And even though she was harsh with the students that were only here to play around, she was pretty gentle and helpful to the students that actually wanted to read.
\'Alf and Bell knew her well as well since we often come here to read together.\'
But then again, the two of them spend most of their time reading together so they don\'t know when the two of us are talking about them behind their backs.
Like, literally behind them.
"Hump. I didn\'t know they were doing something like that or else I would have gone and stopped them already."
She took the big box of cake and placed it under her desk with still puffed up cheeks.
"Go and get them. And get out of here.
I\'ve had to clean up a lot of things because of them. I didn\'t even notice they had gone into those places.
Hump. Bad children."
She shooed us from her sight, and… it was fun seeing this side of her after I\'ve seen how complex she actually was.
"They are on the northern end. Let\'s go, everyone."
But she was a nice and fun person that was also very busy so we didn\'t waste much of her time and walked towards where the great little friends of ours had been…