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Levi stood up, wincing slightly from the lingering headache, and walked toward the window. He pulled back one tattered curtain and peered into the alley. No sign of Velgrin yet.
Behind him, the girl hadn't moved.
Levi sighed.
"You hungry?" he asked, voice low and tired.
Celine blinked, caught off guard. "What?"
"I've got snacks in my coat. Emergency cookies."
Celine said nothing.
Levi leaned against the windowframe and stared out.
He was tired. Not just from the fight. From the truths clawing inside his mind. From the weight of being a guide in a place even he didn't fully understand.
He was just a man. A broken man. A former therapist. A novel writer. And now? He was the gatekeeper of a Library full of novels.
And this girl? This earnest, wide eyed princess with bruises and bleeding knuckles and dreams of protecting the world?
She was his next responsibility.
Levi closed his eyes. Let the weight of it all settle.
Alright then. Let's see what kind of story you need, Celine von Revola.
.
.
.
The air outside the ruined Victorian mansion shimmered as a golden ring of magic flared open in the sky above the alley.
FWOOOM.
A single step echoed as Velgrin descended from the portal, boots landing with deliberate precision.
His robes were immaculate, embroidered with crimson and silver glyphs that pulsed faintly as he walked. His expression, however, was anything but calm. His brows furrowed in confusion the moment his boots touched the alley stone.
"Victorian mansion, west of Central Market," he muttered, glancing up at the ominous three story structure.
"This can't be right."
the portal behind him vanished, and the signature of Levi's aura was unmistakable.
Velgrin approached the front door. It hung open, ajar like the mouth of a dead man. Smoke drifted out slowly. The scent of charred blood and ozone still lingered when Velgrin stepped through the door.
His boots clicked across the bloodstained tiles, then stopped.
He stared.
Shattered bodies. Crushed weapons. Walls painted in red and bone. A chandelier still swung slightly overhead like it had witnessed the entire slaughter and hadn't yet stopped trembling.
And in the center of it all stood Levi.
His black coat flowed around him, his hands tucked calmly into his pockets, as if the carnage was a matter of routine.
Velgrin blinked.
"You did this?"
Levi nodded once, casual. "They were very insistent."
Velgrin inhaled sharply.
Then he spotted her.
Celine.
Princess Celine von Revola, second child of King William III, sword prodigy of the Henderson Academy.
She stood beside Levi, untied, her uniform torn and bruises blooming across her face. Her violet eyes lit with emotion when she saw Velgrin.
"Master Velgrin!"
"Princess?"
Velgrin stepped forward in alarm, checking her injuries with a quick scan of mana.
"You're—"
"Fine," she said softly, then turned to Levi with wide eyes.
Levi, in turn, shifted slightly and adopted that unreadable tone he had used so often when pretending to be someone far more mysterious than he felt.
"So," he said smoothly,
"You two are acquainted?"
They both answered at once.
"Yes."
"Yes"
Velgrin gave a quick nod.
"She's a royal student. I've given lectures at the academy. Celine's quite the gifted warrior."
The princess turned fully toward Velgrin. "Master Velgrin, this man, he—" Her voice trembled.
"He saved me. He defeated them all."
Levi raised a hand, eyes half-lidded.
"Let's not make it dramatic. They were loud, I was tired. That's enough reason to remove a few heads."
Celine looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or kneel again.
Velgrin chuckled. "You saved the princess of an empire. That's dramatic enough, Mr. Levi."
Levi tilted his head. "Don't use that tone."
"What tone?"
"The tone that makes it sound like I volunteered."
Velgrin chuckle. "Regardless, thank you."
Then he paused. Wait.
"You're friends?" Celine asked quietly, glancing between them.
Velgrin blinked. "Yes?"
Levi gave a lazy nod.
"Velgrin's a bad tea brewer, annoying conversationalist, and the only person I trust with my back."
Velgrin lit up like a torch. "You consider me a friend?"
Levi squinted. "Don't ruin it."
Celine's jaw dropped slightly.
Friend?
The Archmage of Fire, Velgrin Embercrown, Sixth Circle Mage, Grandmaster of Elemental Theory, the walking disaster who had once stopped a volcanic eruption with his bare hands, was friends with Levi?
Levi, who had just turned five warriors into red paste without breaking a sweat?
Her thoughts raced. If those two ever decided to rebel, not even the King could stop them.
Her eyes flicked from one man to the other. This wasn't a meeting. This was an alliance between titans.
Meanwhile, Levi turned to Velgrin with that same cool, businesslike grace he used when feigning aloof genius.
"There's a minor matter."
Velgrin nodded like he expected that. "The bodies?"
Levi gestured around casually with one bloody glove. "I don't want them here."
"Shall I burn everything down?"
Just before Levi could say yes, the System flickered into his ear with an inconveniently timed message.
SYSTEM NOTICE:
This location is ideal for a front store.
If host removes all corpses, the System will initiate Anchor Protocol and convert it into a branch of the Library of Noctis.
Levi sighed and smiled faintly, eyes still sharp. "No need to burn the building. Just handle the bodies."
Velgrin blinked. "Ah. I understand. You want it clean."
He looked at the remains. Then at Levi. Then smiled slightly. "Yes. That makes sense."
The bloodstained coat. The serene posture. The glint of gore in his hair. Levi looked like a demon playing housekeeper.
Celine didn't dare breathe too loudly.
Velgrin snapped his fingers, a small circle forming in the air. Flames ignited beneath the corpses, not wild fire, but the tightly bound cleansing fire of a Sixth Circle Archmage. Controlled. Silent. Each body vanished in seconds, reduced to ash without even so much as smoke.
Velgrin opened a nearby window and whispered a short wind incantation. A gentle gust carried the remains away into the night, out of sight, out of history.
Levi exhaled once and muttered, "System."
SYSTEM:
Ready.
"Clean me. I look like a trash can after a demonic autopsy."
SYSTEM:
Correction: Host looks like a biohazard from an abandoned soul hospital.
"Fuck your sass Shut up and just do it."
SYSTEM:
Processing.
A soft glow passed over his body. The blood vanished from his coat. His boots gleamed again. His gloves looked freshly pressed. Even his hair fell back into perfect shape. In three seconds, Levi looked like he'd just stepped out of a high-class banquet.
Velgrin tilted his head. "I'll never get used to that."
Celine's jaw dropped again.
"Velgrin," Levi said, adjusting his collar,
"Can you buy this mansion under your name? Preferably today."
Velgrin nodded immediately. "Of course, Mr. Levi. I'll arrange the deed this hour."
Celine's eyebrows twitched. Buy a mansion, just like that? And Velgrin, the Archmage, responded like a secretary?
Levi pulled out three Royal Gold coins from his coat pocket and handed them over.
"For the paperwork."
Velgrin looked down at the coins, then immediately held them back out.
"No. This building is worth maybe 180 gold coins on a good day. Take it as a gift. A token of our friendship."
Levi paused. Then accepted. "Thank you, Velgrin."
His voice was quiet. Measured. But Celine felt her pulse spike at the sound.
This man accepted gifts from Archmages like tea samples. Was there anything he wasn't capable of?
Levi turned toward her slowly, now perfectly clean, composed, and unreadable. His voice dropped just slightly, the way nobles did when unveiling a monument.
"Princess."
She straightened instantly. "Yes!"
"I'm going to show you something now. Something very few in this world will ever see."
She blinked. "What?"
"Watch closely."
Then, without turning away, Levi murmured into the air, "System."
SYSTEM:
Ready.
"Anchor the front store."
The room trembled.
Not violently. Just a soft vibration that traveled up through the floorboards and into the walls. Dust particles hung suspended in the air like they'd forgotten how to fall.
Celine stumbled slightly, catching herself on the nearest wall. Velgrin's eyes widened. "What is—"
The chandelier stopped swinging.
The broken furniture began to shift. Slowly at first, then faster. Splinters of wood crawled back together like living things. Shattered glass reassembled itself mid-air. Blood stains on the walls darkened, then vanished completely as if scrubbed away by invisible hands.
The walls themselves straightened. Cracks sealed. Paint refreshed. The ceiling knitted itself back together until it looked brand new.
Within thirty seconds, the entire first floor had transformed. The ruined Victorian mansion was now pristine.
Dark wood panels lined the walls. Crystal lamps flickered to life with soft golden light. A long counter materialized near the far wall. Behind it, shelves began to grow from the floor itself, rising like trees made of dark wood and brass.
Books appeared on the shelves. Not all at once. One by one, as if being placed by careful, invisible hands. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
Spines of every color. Titles in languages Celine didn't recognize. Some glowed faintly. Others sat perfectly still, ordinary and unassuming.
The air smelled different now. Like old paper and candle wax and something faintly electric.
Celine's legs gave out. She dropped to her knees, staring.
"What... what is this?"
Levi stood in the center of the room, hands still in his pockets, watching the transformation with mild interest.
"This," he said quietly, "is the Library of Noctis."
Velgrin had gone completely silent. His mouth hung open slightly, eyes wide.
"A pocket dimension," he breathed.
"You anchored a pocket dimension. Here. In the middle of the city."
Celine glanced at him. "Is that impressive?"
"Impressive?" Velgrin laughed, but it came out strangled.
"Mr. Levi, creating a stable dimensional anchor requires at least Eighth Circle Magic. Even then, most attempts collapse within hours." He gestured at the room around them.
"This is permanent. Perfect. I can feel the stability in the air itself. This is..." He trailed off, shaking his head.
"This is impossible."
Levi shrugged. and thought System does the heavy lifting. I just give the order.
Celine finally found her voice. "The Library of Noctis?"
Levi turned to her, expression unreadable.
"Yes. This is where I work. This is where patrons come when they need something they can't find anywhere else."
She stared at him. "You're really a librarian?"
"I really am."
Her mind spun. A Grandmaster Warrior who ran a library that existed outside of normal space. A man who commanded Archmages and reshaped reality with a word. What kind of being was he?
Levi walked toward the counter and ran his hand along the smooth surface.
Levi turned back to Celine. She was still on her knees, staring up at the shelves that stretched impossibly high.
"Princess," Levi said. She looked at him. "You wanted to be my disciple, right?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"Then your first lesson starts now." He gestured to the books around them.
"Knowledge is the most dangerous weapon in the world. More dangerous than swords. More dangerous than magic. Because knowledge changes people. It rewrites them from the inside out." He paused.
"Every book in this Library has the power to do that. Some will make you stronger. Some will break you. And some..." His expression darkened slightly.
"Some will kill you if you're not ready."
Celine swallowed hard. "Then how do I know which ones are safe?"
Levi's lips twitched into the faintest smile. "You don't. That's why you have me."
He walked past her toward the door.