The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 112
Chapter 112 – Outdated Hero Kristine
“There is indeed no book called Psychokinesis Transcendence here.”
Following Kristine’s words, Alice searched for the book Kristine mentioned using the library’s management system. However, the result she got was that such a book did not exist.
Although there were many books on psychokinesis, with most of them being gathered on the 13th floor, none had the title of “Psychokinesis Transcendence.”
“I told you, right? This book is hidden very deeply in this library. When I attended classes here, the library’s book catalog didn’t have it recorded, either,” Kristine said with a hint of smugness. “Listen to me. You are free to learn about other taboos, but you must first learn about Psychokinesis Transcendence. I promise it’ll save you a lot of effort down the line.”
“Does this magic have some special function?”
Although Alice didn’t know what purpose Psychokinesis Transcendence served, seeing as Kristine, the previous generation’s Hero, strongly recommended it, she couldn’t help but grow interested in it.
In the meantime, Luna wore an expressionless face as she watched Alice mumbling to herself in front of the computer. She was naturally aware that Alice was talking with the stone tablet and that the stone tablet was home to the previous generation’s Hero’s soul.
However, to avoid attracting too much attention, Alice had stored the stone tablet in a weapon storage box she had acquired from Zauna. This, in turn, created the current scene where Alice looked like she was muttering to herself, which then resulted in her attracting strange gazes from the people around her.
Seeing this, Luna couldn’t help but sigh. Then, she helplessly walked up to Alice and leaned her ear close to Alice. This way, it would at least look like the princess was talking to her maid.
Sure enough, when the surrounding people saw this scene, they quickly stopped paying attention to Alice. Luna also got to hear the question Alice posed previously—Does this magic have some special function?
“The magic recorded in this book is also a taboo. However, its origins are somewhat special, with its inventor being a Demon King,” Kristine said in a voice that only Alice could hear. Thus, Luna could only wait for Alice to paraphrase Kristine’s words afterward to learn the answer. “The Third Demon King, Clyde Vapula, invented Psychokinesis Transcendence and wrote the book for it. After the Hero of that time acquired the book, he stored it in a hidden location in this library.”
“The Third Demon King… If I recall correctly, he’s the only Demon King who has ever managed to occupy the human realm?”
Out of the many Demon Kings that had existed, only one Demon King had ever succeeded in taking over the human realm. Moreover, he was also the Demon King with the best reputation in the human realm. Hence, Alice remembered him well.
“He’s the creator of this taboo?”
“Indeed. Clyde is the only Demon King to have ever occupied the human realm. The Hero of that time was no match for Clyde. Even so, the Hero still managed to acquire some things from Clyde, of which includes this taboo,” Kristine said, sighing. “Although Clyde is a Demon King and bears hatred toward the human race, he isn’t evil by nature. He is merely someone who has suffered severe psychological trauma. If you set aside his hatred for humanity, you can consider him a good guy. In fact, after taking over the human realm and exacting his revenge, he didn’t commit any meaningless massacres. Even the Hero of that era has referred to Clyde as a knight who has gone astray.”
“The Third Hero and the Third Demon King… Their era dates back to thousands of years ago, right? Did this library already exist back then?” Alice asked. The more she listened to Kristine’s tale, the more she found it to be unbelievable. “From what I found on Wikipedia, this library should have only been built around 500 years ago.”
“Wikipedia? Is that something like an encyclopedia? There is such information recorded there?” Kristine muttered in confusion. She had never come in touch with the internet, so she couldn’t understand why the thing known as Wikipedia would record the construction date of the March Royal Library. Even so, she was still able to answer Alice’s question as she said, “That’s right. This library didn’t exist during the Third Hero and the Third Demon King’s era. However, the space underneath the library used to be the magic workshop of one of the Third Hero’s companions.”
“…You mean that this taboo is hidden underneath the library?”
Realization dawned upon Alice. It made sense if this library was coincidentally built on top of the Hero’s companion’s magic workshop. Meanwhile, Kristine must’ve discovered the magic workshop by chance, which then led to her discovering the book on Psychokinesis Transcendence. As to why the book was in the magic workshop, the Third Hero must’ve entrusted it to his companion for research purposes.
“But the elevator doesn’t have a button for the basement floor. It seems we’ll have to find some other way to go down there,” Alice said after giving the matter some thought. Then, she asked, “What makes that book so special that you are commending it so strongly?”
“Psychokinesis Transcendence isn’t your average taboo. It involves principles beyond that of ordinary taboo,” Kristine said with a light smile. Then, she earnestly asked, “Have you ever heard of the ‘Law’ concept?”
“I have.”
“You’ve never heard of it, right? After all, this thing is… Huh?”
Just when Kristine was about to show off her knowledge to her junior, she suddenly realized that Alice’s answer was seemingly different from what she expected.
“I said I have heard of it before,” Alice said in amusement. “All the elements that make up the world, all the theorems, and everything that we take for granted are the laws of this world. Things such as all life will die one day, apples will fall to the ground, and one plus one equals two are further examples.”
Alice recited the examples she previously brought up in her conversation with the Loli Goddess. Of course, since Alice knew that the Loli Goddess could bring things over from Earth, she knew that the Loli Goddess had stolen this line from a novel titled A Certain Magical Index. However, Kristine evidently didn’t know about this.
“You really do know about it… That’s right. The examples you spoke of can be considered laws.”
“Seeing as you are bringing up laws all of a sudden, does this mean Psychokinesis Transcendence has already touched upon the world’s laws?”
Alice didn’t place too much focus on describing laws. She was more interested in the words Kristine previously said. Currently, the existences she knew of that were directly related to the world’s laws were the Demon King, the Hero, the Demon King’s Power, and God’s blessings. Even the Law-grade panties she had come across thus far could only exist because they had either been tainted by the Demon King or blessed by God.
If Psychokinesis Transcendence turned out to be a taboo that had already reached the Law grade, this would be an amazing discovery.
“That’s right. The contents written in that book are extremely profound. Even with the Hero’s talent, I only managed to scratch at the surface of that book,” Kristine said. Although she was caught off guard by Alice’s knowledge of world laws, she quickly snapped out of her daze after hearing Alice’s question. “Apart from the taboo’s operating principles, the book also records some notes written by the Demon King Clyde and the Hero Anthony. The general gist of the notes is that Clyde has already seen through the world’s laws and realized the true identity of the Demon King’s Power.”
After pausing for a moment, Kristine continued in a somewhat frustrated tone, “Unfortunately, the notes only state that the Demon King’s Power is a threat to this world. It did not elaborate further on the topic.”
Alice was a little flabbergasted after hearing Kristine’s words. Originally, she thought that the various Heroes and Demon Kings would forever assume that they were only fighting for the sake of the human and demon realms. She thought they would never realize that the Hero was a countermeasure that God had come up with to resist the Demon King’s Power.
However, looking at things now, it would seem that she had underestimated these Heroes and Demon Kings. At the very least, she had underestimated the Third Demon King, Clyde Vapula. In reality, Clyde Vapula had already realized the Demon King’s Power’s threat to this world. Meanwhile, the book titled Psychokinesis Transcendence might very well possess the means the Third Demon King had developed to deal with the Demon King’s Power.