Mad Book

He felt as though he had turned bad, as if he were bullying a Sealed Artifact.

Xie Yu reflected on it.

But Sealed Artifact 3-0771 had done it entirely of its own free will. It might even have enjoyed it.

He had no reason to feel guilty.

He had tried all sorts of approaches and shown his gentle, kind side too, but none of it had worked. The method that ultimately worked was the one Sealed Artifact 3-0771 had chosen for itself.

He was still trying to win it over, showing it the side it "liked best."

[I, I can't turn the pages.]

[If the pages aren't turned, my mental probe can't see the words on them. The paper is too flat...]

Sealed Artifact 3-0771 lay motionless on the table.

Permanent Animation did not include turning it into an animal.

In front of it was the book it had chosen for itself, "Everything You Need to Know About Wind Element Magic, from Apprentice to Sage." After all, Xie Yu had told it to fly back on its own, and flying was obviously the simplest action in the field of wind element magic.

Xie Yu had opened the book for it, and it had finished reading this page. It was time for the next one.

"You should know how to put what you learn into practice. Practice a basic spell and use the wind element to help you turn the pages," Xie Yu instructed.

[But, but there aren't any spells on this page. They don't appear until a few pages later... Xie Yu, help me.]

Its tone seemed to have softened considerably in an instant. Compared with its previous narcissistic, arrogant attitude, it hardly sounded like the same Sealed Artifact.

"Still calling me Xie Yu? Isn't it time you called me something else?" Xie Yu picked it up and tapped it against the table as punishment.

[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 (Faith 40) seemed to have guessed, but it could hardly believe it and didn't dare say it aloud. It played dumb:]

[Call you... what?]

"What do you think?"

It had guessed but was still playing dumb. How naughty.

[Master...]

Xie Yu reached out and turned the page for it. Past the prologue, they finally reached the section on actual practice, which contained a spell called Breeze.

After that, Xie Yu left it alone and placed it in a corner of the table. His gaze returned to the neatly arranged row of book spines on the table, and he browsed them.

The books in this set were classified by the elemental fields of magic they covered, which also caused an inconvenience-

Xie Yu wasn't quite sure which one to start with.

He already had a goal: to enter an academy related to Sealed Artifacts and become an expert on them.

But he didn't know which field of magic was better, or which magic element went best with Sealed Artifacts.

Or did it not really matter which element he chose, since he would be studying Sealed Artifacts anyway?

Perhaps he could pick a book at random and start browsing, then follow the clues once he found content on the relevant field?

He could ask Yize directly... no, that didn't seem possible.

At that thought, Xie Yu suddenly realized how inconvenient his current "identities" were. With Sealed Artifact 3-0771, his forceful attitude was at odds with the identity of an ordinary person ignorant of magic.

And as a "perfect-score genius in magic" in Yize's eyes, he couldn't possibly ask such a stupid question either.

Neither identity allowed him to ask this simple question.

Every identity came with a price for its outward appearance.

With no other choice, Xie Yu thought as hard as he could, trying to recall The Petulant Test Paper's lessons and whether it had happened to mention anything about Sealed Artifacts that could answer his current question.

He didn't seem able to remember... but Xie Yu recalled something else.

"Knowledge. Isn't knowledge also a field of magic? I think I remember that memory, knowledge, and dreams are all illusory elements, each with its own field of magic."

He had read that while studying in Kaiming's cabin.

Intuitively, the knowledge element seemed well suited to the Sealed Artifact system. Every Sealed Artifact had its own Abnormal State element, and information about Sealed Artifacts came in all kinds. Knowledge encompassed it all.

Before long, Xie Yu found "Everything You Need to Know About Knowledge Magic, from Apprentice to Sage-No Sage Has Yet Emerged in This Field" among the more than a hundred books.

There was some additional small print after the title.

Unless he picked it up and saw the title on the front, the small print on the spine was extremely inconspicuous, like decorative markings that were easy to overlook.

"Quite a few fields seem to say 'no Sage has yet emerged'... no, some are different. Their small print says 'no Sage currently living.'"

"Sages die too, huh..."

Of the 132 book spines, about forty said no Sage had emerged, and more than ten said no Sage was currently living.

Xie Yu swept his gaze over them but didn't pay the matter much attention. It didn't seem to have much to do with him. He opened the book to its first page.

[A lonely book (Affection 0) was startled awake and looked at you and your room:]

[Holy shit, where the hell have I ended up?]

[Holy shit, someone's actually flipping through me! Oh my god, someone's finally flipping through me! That damned collector! He bought us and never opened us once! Someone's finally flipping through me! (Affection shot up to 40)]

[Keep flipping, flip harder! Really flip through me, okay? Why aren't you flipping? (Affection fell to 25)]

The book urged him on.

"I'm still reading the first page." Before Xie Yu could react, he saw its Affection bouncing up and down.

[AAAAAAH! That damned collector, did you kill him? (Affection rose to 40 again) Did you snatch me away? Oh my god, I feel like my corners are about to grow cobwebs. I thought I'd never be opened in my life. Forty years, a whole forty years, squeezed together with the others. Can you imagine? You can't imagine it at all! (Affection fell to 20)]

Is this book crazy...?

Xie Yu was very worried about the book's mental state.

So he quickly flipped a few pages.

[Oh, yes, that's it, just like that. Feels good, just like that, a few more times. (Affection rose to 45)]

[Having a little boy like you flip through me feels so good. Flip through the back too. I'll teach you: bend my pages with your hand, then use your thumb to release the paper's spring... yes, just like that. Hoo~ feels good, a few more times.]

Xie Yu frowned slightly. For some reason, he had a peculiar feeling that made him want to wash his hands.

"Who's the collector?" Xie Yu asked.

So Fry hadn't gotten these books from a public library or an academy or school, but through a personal connection.

Fry had incurred a small debt of favor on his behalf by finding the books.

[A bastard named Weile. He lives at 68 Cedar Road in Black Pine City's west district. His wife lives apart from him, and it's just him and his butler at home. The old butler at least dusts me, but he never touches us. Whenever he comes in, he takes a newspaper from the rack beside the bookshelf and reads it. Being bought by him was sheer misery. Forty years!...]

"No wonder you still look so new."

Seeing that the book was about to go crazy again, Xie Yu patted it and changed the subject:

"You've shown me your most beautiful side. I'm lucky."

[Really? Do you like it? Good, good, good, as long as you like it. Even if your little hands flip me to pieces, I never want to go back to that guy's big, luxurious bookshelf. (Affection rose to 60)]

Seeing that the book had finally settled down, Xie Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

He opened the table of contents and searched for something that interested him, wanting to see whether the book mentioned Sealed Artifacts.

Sure enough, the term Sealed Artifact appeared among the lines of entries.

[Chapter 3, section 17: things to note when a knowledge scholar changes class to Sealed Artifact researcher-page 147]

Just as he was about to turn the pages, countless words suddenly burst forth in the room.

[One hundred and thirty lonely books (Affection 0) were startled awake and looked at you, your room, and their fellow book in your hands...]

P.S. Sorry, today's update is a little late. I'll start building up a backlog this weekend, and updates will be on time after that.