Chatper 13: Poking the archive
Besides our little weapon manufacturing, I also continued with Marianne’s successful crash course into brewing dyes. She had actually completed all the steps on her first try, which was quite impressive for a novice.
The only hiccup in our way was kind of my own fault. When I had previously gathered ingredients for making my own dyes and magic ink, I had kind of stripped certain locations in our gathering spot bare. In my defense, at the time no one else had been gathering those for their classes.
“Um,” I uttered as Marianne and I stared at a thicket, completely devoid of any fruits or flowers.
There was always the option of using various sets of ingredients in an altered arrangement, or even substituting elements in different ingredients to fit the current recipe, but I didn’t want to overwhelm a first-year who hadn’t brewed until a week ago.
As such, I merely conducted a few healing rituals with my ring over plants that we needed to gather. Such a small mana infusion wasn’t going to fully activate the magic circle underneath the gathering spot, so no need to worry about any green columns. Though, I cautiously did that at sunrise, when the sky was changing colors anyway.
With that hurdle out of the way, Marianne actually finished the dye the very next day after her gathering. The combination of her liquid mana and the dye’s ingredients turned the final product into a pale orange bag.
I will look like a ghost who accidentally put an orange sock with her white sheets in the washing machine. “Congratulations on managing everything on the very first try,” I praised Marianne without hinting at my thoughts.
“I only followed your instructions,” she complained. Though, her lips curved into a small smile.
“Supplying mana consistently for so long is quite a feat,” Gretia added. “I only tried the basic rejuvenation potion, and it felt straining towards the end.”
That’s because you did it just once. I had the exact same feeling during my very first brew. It had suddenly felt like the process had taken too long. The wait for the end, which seemed like it would never come, had been just grueling.
However, the fear of approaching failure had disappeared on the very first repetition, as I had gotten used to the timing.
Though, I said nothing in response. Marianne seemed really happy about such a remark from someone who wasn’t her teacher.
The very next morning, Marianne, Natalie and I settled in front of the door before the stairs leading to the underground archive. One could almost forget that even that entryway was an archive in itself, restricted to the visiting students. Solange was really accommodating in this whole undertaking.
She had even lent me the third key, as if it had been for certain that I would have been successful.
Me? I was second-guessing the whole undertaking. The memory of my wrist cracking was still fresh and uncomfortable.
I mean, it was better than the barrier just cutting my hand away. That thought didn’t exactly help my nerves; rather, it made me even more paranoid.
I kept smiling in fake confidence as Marianne and Natalie put the mana-blocking bag on me.
Caroline had done my hair in a tight-knitted style so that it would not get messy with a bag rubbing over my head. Personally, I found it unnecessary since I was supposed to take only like two steps in this attire, but hey, she hadn’t complained about me walking around the library in a bag, so she had already gotten quite used to my whims.
Once the second bag—dyed with Marianne’s mana—was put on top of me, it felt kind of claustrophobic. Mostly because of my doubts about the barrier, which were getting worse by the moment.
My mana was tucked in my vessel, so my body was a bit cold. My breath became heavier.
I am young, so my mana can’t be even sensed yet, I tried to console myself with whatever justification I could think of.
Though, naturally, the fact I couldn’t be sensed by other nobles didn’t mean my body wasn’t radiating some kind of mana. During my quick stay in Ehrenfest, I had asked Mother whether there was some way to stop radiating my mana so others couldn’t sense me, but she merely giggled and said “no.”
Someone grabbed my hand through the double layer of cloth.
“We look ridiculous,” Marianne complained.
You aren’t the one cosplaying as an orange ghost! I pouted.
“We are in a restricted area; only Lady Natalie can witness this.”
As I was saying that, my imagination was already in full swing, showing me dozens of nobles sneaking upon me as I couldn’t see anything. Neither with my eyes, nor with my mana.
“Let’s move forward,” I declared, waiting for Marianne to make the first step.
This should be fine. She is allowed. The barrier must register that. And even if some of my mana gets detected, it’s not a big deal. Nobles get dyed all the time, right? If someone has a mistress with lower status, I doubt they will get refused by the barrier just because of some residual foreign mana… I kept working on my courage.
Though, it wasn’t working at all. My head was full of images of me getting sliced or crushed.
Marianne moved ahead. I followed, and suddenly we were a few steps forward. I could feel the edge of the first tread under my foot. It was just that easy.
I sighed heavily.
“Are you alright?” Marianne wondered.
“Yes. I’m unharmed,” I replied with a big smile she couldn’t see. “We should return.”
“We just crossed. Didn’t you want to see the underground archive?” She was taken aback.
“I just want to make sure that I can get back.”
Being in a bag wasn’t really helping with this whole feeling of being stuck.
“Are you a bit nervous that I would leave you in here?” Marianne asked with a teasing voice.
“Yes.”
“I was just joking.” Her voice became flustered.
“I have a phobia of being trapped somewhere without any escape.”
I was genuinely surprised that I said it out loud. Telling someone my weakness in this society was really asking for someone to spread it and use it against me. Though, it was out. There was nothing to do about it.
Marianne squeezed my hand and turned around.
“Alright, I can cross both ways.” I smiled after taking four steps without encountering any sudden wall. “We can go all downstairs.”
We crossed the barrier once again, and then I finally got out of the bags. It pretty much confirmed that the barrier was only at the door as I hadn’t been instantly tossed outside with a crushing force. Nice.
The hall downstairs looked surprisingly well-maintained for a place that no one had visited in years. Maybe it was my attendant practice, but I was mostly taken aback by the fact that when I ran my fingers on a nearby table, they weren’t completely smeared in dust.
Good, there is furniture even outside the archive. I nodded to myself.
We continued towards the archive’s entrance and inserted the keys. The wall opened up for us, and I could finally see the hidden location with my own two eyes. A grin crept onto my face.
“Do you really think you can get inside?” Natalie asked. “Your cloak should be completely useless against this barrier.”
“It looks really promising, especially the fact that most of those materials inside look like stone tablets. It will make the whole process easier.” I nodded, before scratching my chin. “Although, the pillars are kind of in the way.”
Their presence wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle, but it would complicate my execution a little bit.
“How?” Natalie raised her eyebrow.
A green tentacle shot out of my belt towards the archive, but it was deflected by an invisible wall.
It would have been funny if it were this easy. I smirked and retracted my highbeast.
I had made enough tests with barriers during weapon development to expect this outcome, but it was always good to try this stuff anyway, just to be sure.
“Yep, a highbeast doesn’t come through,” I muttered, pulling out my knife.
“Why do you have a knife in your sleeve?” Both Natalie and Marianne were staring at me weirdly.
“Well, for situations like when one needs to stab a barrier.” I shrugged and pushed the knife forward.
The blade got through without any problem. “See? Tools can get through.”
“But those shelves are quite far away; there is no way for you to reach them with any pole.” Marianne furrowed her brows.
“Yeah, the distance is a bit of a problem.” I tapped with my finger on the hilt of the knife.
I could maybe try to adjust the tools which we used in our shells and make something that would have retrieved the tablets for me?
But the complexity of such a task might be too much for the hypothetical tool to handle. There were obstructions in the way, like pillars and furniture. The tablets also weren’t placed uniformly—some were packed tightly, some were leaning on other tablets. The challenge just didn’t look like a case of something that could be automated.
I definitely don’t want to brew a new tool for each tablet, thank you very much.
If only I had had access to those shelves once. All it would have taken was placing a magic circle on each tablet, and manipulating the whole archive would have been child’s play.
Still, I didn’t want to advertise that I could operate magic tools remotely behind barriers. That could give people ideas and expose our whole operation with the magic shells.
So, I guess a long pole it is.
I took my highbeast feystone and tied it to my knife with my handkerchief. Once again, I pushed the blade through the barrier. “Alright, brewed tools can get through as well,” I declared with a contented smile.
“I hope your idea isn’t just brewing a long pole.” Marianne chuckled.
“It is.” I shrugged. “Well, a bit more complex, but the principle is the same.”
“Sneaking in inside a bag and poking the tablets with a stick…” She grimaced. “It sounds quite silly.”
Hey, as long as it works.
We wrapped up everything for today, and I returned to my hidden room for some designing work. Brewing a long stick would be highly impractical, especially since I literally didn’t have enough space above my cauldron, with the ceiling in the way. And even if I did it outside, we would have still have to bring the whole thing to the library, which would have looked completely suspicious to any bystander.
As such, I was planning to make a bunch of light tubes and stick them together.
Hmm… I should probably think about actual manipulation down there. After a bit of thinking, my initial idea sounded impractical, even if we had assembled the design inside the underground hall. Anything long enough to reach the shelves was also long enough to pose a problem during retrieval.
After some more brainstorming, I came up with a tube that had an attachment on one side and a curved hook on the other side. I brewed four identical copies to test the feasibility.
The material was fairly light, just like I had wanted. Hopefully, it was also durable like I had wanted. Though, with Vulcanift’s divine protection, I felt pretty optimistic about my skills in forging random metallic parts. So far, he had been quite accommodating.
I hooked all four tubes together, and they held pretty well. It felt kind of like holding parts of aluminum scaffolding, though way lighter. The hook on each tube was shaped in such a way that it held the next tube firmly, creating one long “pole.” The pole held together even when I was waving with it, which was great.
However, if one rotated the tubes ninety degrees, the hooks would no longer push against their supports. I rotated my wrist to test it out, and the three attached tubes immediately fell down, hanging on their hooks like really long nunchuks.
“This should work nicely.” I smiled. “Now, for the grabbing part.”
That one was actually challenging. I definitely didn’t want to damage an ancient tablet with valuable knowledge just because it slipped down from my makeshift crane. As such, I spent hours scribbling designs on various pieces of treated paper.
The tablet needs support from below, right… but what about the ones that are leaning to the side… rotating the grabbing tool on the other side of the room might be challenging… well, at least the shelves are embedded in the wall…
It would have been a way bigger challenge if the shelves had been installed in the middle of the room with no bookends nor wall behind the farther end, and I had to worry about accidentally pushing the tablets out. Thankfully, since I could secure them against the wall, it allowed me some flexibility, and I didn’t have to fear toppling them behind the shelf.
Nah, no rotating, let’s make this as simple as possible. I will put two thin sticks ahead of everything, and with them, I can adjust each tablet into a standing position, then I just pick it… but I should still secure…
“Pfffff!” I puffed out loudly after getting my final schematics. “Maybe this will work?”
I wasn’t certain at all, but that’s what testing was for. I modeled the exact design with my highbeast, attached it to one of the tubes, and then placed a few wooden boards in various positions.
It wasn’t too hard to move each wooden “tablet” into a standing position and insert it into my “grabbing tool.” There was also one thread coming out of the tool. Pulling on it closed the “jaws” on both sides, making any wooden board more secure during its retrieval.
Technically, it worked, and I managed to readjust all the boards and pick them up. Though, there were still kinks to work out. Thankfully, highbeast. I smirked since I could just correct it instantly.
Working on improvements in real time, no matter how stupid the mistakes I had made in the original design process, was truly liberating.
Within two days, I was picking boards on the other side of my hidden room like an expert. On the third day, I brewed the final version of the design, together with more tubes for longer reach. After I felt confident enough, I moved the testing outside of our dormitory. The wooden boards got placed behind trees simulating obstacles so I could grab things at weird angles. Two more days of trying, and I was pretty much ready.