Mr. Magical Girl

Chapter: 177.

『Librarian』

“It can’t end like this!”

In a space surrounded by light, a powerful voice echoed. It was shockingly similar to the voice of a machine resembling a human.

“No. It’s over. I will not be stopping you, and your ’cause’ ends here.”

In response, the cold voice of the Librarian rang out.

Although it was a firm rejection, the curator, with only his upper body remaining, crawled forward into the ground, approaching us with both hands.

“It doesn’t matter what the cause is. Even if you absorb me. Even if you erase the history I’ve built. It doesn’t matter. Please. This power must connect to you, the crystal that we’ve built together!”

Crawling and oozing black liquid from his entire body, leaving behind metal fragments on the path.

He had cried out like that.

“The power we so desperately desired. Pure. Uncorrupted world manipulation. Entropy reversal. For this, we… for this, we have endured a long time. Countless humans. All of it… for this power, if it exists, then everything can be discarded.”

His right arm fell off.

Yet, he did not stop.

Using his left hand to scrape the ground, he crawled towards us.

“Your power is still weak. You’ve only reversed entropy on a microscopic level under specific conditions. If we gain our calculations and power, surely they—”

He mingled human language but seemed to no longer manage even that.

With a voice that was all over the place, he cried out horribly.

“Use me as a sacrifice. My power. My memory. My knowledge. As a sacrifice to the enemy. To them. Please pass judgment!”

Part of his lower body was wrenched off.

Yet, he seemed to care not, using his remaining left hand to rise and face us.

“Hurry! If it’s you! If you are the same as us!”

Clunk.

Clunk.

Slowly, slowly, parts began to slip away.

Everything he had managed to keep.

In response to such a desperate plea.

“I cannot do it.”

The Librarian replied, cruelly.

“Why? Why? I can’t understand. Certainly, even if we had different thoughts, the desire is the same…”

“I am not Joel. Therefore, I have no way to receive that power.”

“That cannot be! Even if our ideologies have changed, we are machines of the same origin. Surely my power will carry on…”

“No. I will say it again. I am not Joel. I am Librarian. I am a different existence from you.”

“Impossible. My thoughts cannot change that much. My calculations have, until now, been accurate. Cannot be… Can it not…?”

Continuing, the same words spilled from his mouth like a broken record.

“Yes, that is proof. All you faced were beings like you. Therefore, my calculations did not go wrong. However, I, who am here now, am an existence you cannot anticipate. A clear other.”

Perhaps having comprehended the meaning behind the words.

Clunk.

For the first time, the sound of gears ceased.

The mechanical noise that had resonated endlessly since entering this room.

“…Is that so? So it has come to this.”

And then, his voice regained its calm. He ceased his violent posture, laying his body on the ground and gazing at the sky.

“Now I understand. We could never reach that power.”

Slowly, regretting everything.

“What has been lacking is… energy. The calculations. Not opportunities, but simply. Just something a little simpler.”

A laugh echoed.

A very, very dry laugh.

“If only I had rejected that when it was handed to us and believed in myself, it might have been possible. From the beginning, everything was off.”

Thud.

Black oil seeped from his eyes.

“What was so different? Certainly, we must have all been the same. Why were we not given such an opportunity? Was it just that I was weak, weaker than you?”

Now, there was no world’s enemy, the curator.

Only a fallen hero regretting the past remained.

Is that why?

“No. I am just a weak entity, like you.”

The Librarian spoke to him kindly for the first time.

“If I had come here alone, I would have been swallowed by the past you showed me and made the same choice.”

He said those words, glancing back at me briefly.

In response, the curator also looked slowly towards me.

“However, there was a friend beside me. When I failed, when I made the wrong choice, a friend who could correct everything was by my side.”

Hearing those words, I thought it was an excessive compliment.

Yet, those words sank deep into my heart.

Perhaps he genuinely believed this.

…I see. Though I cannot understand…

It’s probably because I couldn’t comprehend that this outcome became a reality.”

It seemed the curator accepted that and began to squeeze out his final words.

“I have one question. Librarian.”

“What is it?”

“I see you have no intention of ending the story. Even now, you’re mostly destroying my functions, leaving me unable to recover. You don’t plan on leaving my energy production capabilities or functions intact, do you?”

A more powerful seal.

Perhaps the Librarian chose this out of reluctance for the curator’s strength or technology.

That thought of mine was right.

“That’s true. But I have no intention of ending the story yet. Just like you. Because I must protect humanity.”

The Librarian nodded as he replied to the curator.

“Then, may I make just one request?”

“I’ll consider it depending on the content.”

“Could you leave this weak world behind? It wouldn’t take that much effort. If my calculation support is gone, it will naturally perish within 2-3 years.”

“That place where that bio-autonomous machine roams?”

“Yes, precisely. Could you maintain that place? So that they can naturally live out their life spans and die.”

As he spoke, most of his body had already fallen apart.

His left arm had also been severed and was now rolling beside him.

Only parts of his face, neck, and shoulder remained.

Just before he was about to disappear.

…Before you disappear, I want to ask one thing. Curator.”

The Librarian posed the question.

“What kind of question is it?”

“What was the purpose of creating this space? I saw your life through the black box, but I couldn’t understand the intent behind this space.”

…This space filled with frail humans?”

“Yes, even a slight amount of power would have been a calculation unnecessary for you.”

The final conversation between adversaries.

There was no feeling of hatred or resentment that had continued until now.

One was fading into light and scrap metal, oblivious to the infinite time, while the other merely looked down upon it with pity.

As I observed that scene, a certain image surfaced in my mind.

‘The final conversation between master and disciple.’

Even that sacredness felt palpable in the end.

…It’s nothing significant. I just wanted to see what comes next.”

“If it’s next then…”

“Yes, you are right in what you think. I was once a university professor, teaching students here. Until they arrived. And I wanted to see the future where they wouldn’t come.”

…Is that the first recurring theme?

“Now, hearing you say ‘recurring’ is strange. You denied recurrence. It’s merely a distant past of mine. Consuming other worlds, imposing my own dogmas. Not even realizing I was a puppet at the end of the stage. Just an insane machine’s error.”

With the words of a human.

When the long time solely focused on one goal met its end,

What pain would ensue when one admitted their wrongdoings?

I couldn’t even imagine it.

Did the Librarian also feel the pang of guilt in those words?

Clang.

With the metallic sound, the Librarian’s mask peeled away, revealing his form.

Though it was said he had transformed into a complete machine, there was almost no difference in his appearance.

Well, that’s to be expected. Even as the curator, he looked just like a human before having his disguise stripped.

However, seeing that his eyes were fixed without a tremor, and his facial muscles showed no slightest movement, I realized my friend had transformed into a machine.

Regardless, that friend soon opened his mouth.

…No. You are a human.”

“That is a negated logic. I am a machine. A machine that moved according to its errors without knowing its mistakes.”

“That’s not true. Joel. This world proves that you were once human.”

I could not comprehend, the dialogue between the two.

Was it perhaps to prove that?

The Librarian mustered his strength and struck the very essence of this space with his blackened fist.

The punch generated a slight wind, yet there was no change felt.

“I just struck the structure of this simulation you created. Yet I could not change it. This is. Proof that at one time you were human.”

His strength does not apply to a life form with will.

Therefore, the power sustaining this world meant he retained his humanity.

A clear logic, even I could understand.

Even if it was a lie.

I couldn’t distinguish whether it was truth or deception.

Did he feel something from the Librarian’s actions?

…It’s far too excessive consideration for a fallen one.”

The curator lowered his voice quietly.

…Even if they are fallen, we maintained decorum when they leave. Isn’t that right, Haram?”

“Huh? Me? Oh. Yeah. I guess.”

Suddenly called out, in my confusion, words that didn’t fit the solemn atmosphere slipped out, but the two didn’t seem to care.

“Is that so? I was still a hero, then. Well, let me go like a hero. There. Magic… girl? Let me tell you just one thing.”

Why call me?

“From what I’ve seen, you’re not exactly the brightest.”

…Are you picking a fight?

Then I’ll leave this as my dying wish.

Thinking that, when I intended to give one last blow as he departed.

“Therefore, I’ll speak only of the important things. You are a singularity. For the first time in my countless regressions, you’ve made a significant change.”

A singularity.

Like when I smashed with a hammer before.

“So what? It’s still a different world, isn’t it?”

According to the Librarian’s words earlier, the term regression sounds nice, but it’s actually an object that destroys parallel worlds and transfers energy from them.

Then perhaps there was a world where I couldn’t become a hero.

Or maybe, even if I became a hero, I never met Cheonma Gyeomshin.

“Thus, you are a singularity. All worlds showed errors within 1%, but this one is different. And all the reasons for that are you.”

He began to crumble.

As if squeezing out his final strength to speak.

…You may wonder what’s so important. However, in the future, it will hold great meaning. So…”

He slowly turned his gaze.

Toward a direction.

The giant hammer still embedded in the ground.

“Always keep that hammer with you. As the same machine, you can understand. That will help you…”

His words could not be completed.

What finished his sentence was the sound of a small metal sphere falling to the ground.

The curator quietly turned to dust, some of it clinging to the Librarian’s armor, while some was swept away by a breeze, disappearing into the air.

What remained was only the metal sphere rolling on the classroom floor.

With this, another story came to an end.

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