Fool's Library

This is a once-in-a-millennium achievement.

Two years ago, when Hiltina unleashed the power of the Holy Sword over the capital... all the citizens of the empire who knew the meaning of the Holy Sword had already begun to eagerly anticipate Hiltina's ascension to the throne.

In the public's perception, as the Holy Sword Wielder who has reappeared after a thousand years, Hiltina will surely lead the Granville Empire to a new revival, just like the founding emperor who wielded the Holy Sword to expand the territory a thousand years ago.

And now, this expectation is finally about to become a reality.

However, Hiltina simply smiled slightly at Tucker's sincere praise.

"The identity of the Empress is not only about glory and power, but also an incredibly heavy responsibility."

"I hope that from now on I will not let everyone down."

"Your Majesty need not belittle yourself. Now that you have gained the Holy Sword's approval..."

Tucker replied respectfully, "Then, with just the power of the Holy Sword, it should be enough to deter those petty villains on the Western Continent."

The two stopped talking and walked silently through the passageways of the palace complex.

The surrounding world fell silent, with only the afterglow of the setting sun filtering through the clouds, adding a twilight veil to the quiet palace.

Suddenly, at a certain moment, Hiltina stopped in her tracks.

"The passageway from the throne room to the inner city is about two kilometers long."

"At my pace, it would normally take me only fifteen minutes to walk through this passageway."

"However, we walked for a full twenty minutes, but still couldn't see the end of the tunnel."

Hiltina's voice echoed through the silent palace complex.

"If I'm not mistaken..."

"Professor Tucker, you must have used some kind of extremely high-ranking relic to silently bring us to another sub-plane or secondary dimension, right?"

She looked at the silent palace complex shrouded in the afterglow of the sunset: "Although the surrounding scenery looks exactly the same as palaces in the real world."

"But in fact, this is another dimension, another world... What happens here will not affect the present world, and similarly, people in the present world will not know what happens in this sub-dimension."

Hiltina calmly looked up and gazed at the white-haired old man not far away.

He is both the guardian of the imperial family and Hiltina's childhood swordsmanship mentor.

Long before Hiltina's mother passed away and her father inherited the throne, when the family was still living harmoniously in Autumn Leaf Territory... Hiltina had already met this old man.

Hiltina had always held this elder in high esteem... He was one of the few elders she was close to in the Imperial Family, besides her father, stepmother Carol, and sister Ophelia.

But at this moment, looking at her teacher from her youth, Hiltina felt that the other person was completely unfamiliar.

"Although your name was on the list of guesses that Ophelia gave me earlier."

"However, please allow me to ask one more question..."

"Teacher Tucker, why did you do this?"

……

"It was clearly a divine relic bestowed by the tomb guardian... capable of silently eroding reality and quietly banishing its target to a secondary dimension."

"But you found out so quickly...?"

“Hiltina, it seems your intuition is even more acute than I thought.”

In the deathly silent palace shrouded in twilight, the white-haired Tucker slowly spoke.

"As for the reason..."

He looked down at Hiltina and shook his head slightly: "That is naturally for immortality, for eternity... for leaving his soul imprint on the Tomb Keeper's Eternal Night Stone, to be completely immortal."

"Hiltina, you are still too young, too naive, and too inexperienced..."

"Your understanding is too shallow, which is why you regard the ideals left behind by a dead man and the love between you and the shorekeeper as the entirety of your life."

"But little did they know that in the face of relentless time and eternity, all of this was nothing but a meaningless dream."

"When ten thousand years have passed, this era ends and the next era begins... your love, the ideals of the forest ranger, no one will remember all of this buried in the dust of history."

"But by then, those tomb keepers will still stand on the river of history, looking down upon the world."

Listening to the old man's words, Hiltina slowly closed her eyes.

"Teacher Tucker, you chose to abandon your past life and betrayed your centuries-long vigil as a guardian of the empire..."

"So, that's all the reason?"

"What do you mean by 'just for this reason'?!"

The white-haired old man suddenly became angry: "Hiltina, how could you possibly understand my feelings?"

"You are a true chosen one, a person favored by fate and destined by destiny... and you have won the favor of the Holy Sword so easily."

"For you, with the second royal power sequence brought by the Holy Sword and the double blessing of the imperial throne—whether it's a legend or an angel, these are things that can be overcome with just a little effort."

"You can easily become an angel, a being that reigns over time, without any obstacles."

“But I’m different.”

Tucker's tone turned slightly somber: "I am not like you, not like that shorekeeper named Rust, who was born with the favor of fate."

"Not only do you possess the Nightblade, as powerful as the 'Infinity Blade,' but you have also been recognized as the master of a holy sword, making you a born candidate for king."

"And that shorekeeper named Rast possesses the 'Library of Fools,' having received the legacy of that fool from the Age of Gods... perhaps a supreme being who transcends the angelic ranks, who surpasses even the gods."

"But I have never had these golden fingers that you take for granted, like eating and drinking."

What you can achieve with ease... requires me a lifetime of effort to explore and pursue.

"And that boundary called angels is an insurmountable chasm for me, one that I cannot cross even if I exhaust my entire life or hundreds of years."

He looked down at Hiltina: "I have lived for over five hundred years... and as a legendary lifespan, I am nearing the end."

"My only obsession in my five hundred years of life is the desire for immortality."

"The angels of the tomb guardians promised that if I assisted them, I would become one of the tomb guardians after the deed was done, and I would be able to leave my mark on the Eternal Night Stone, and even in death I would be able to return from the river of history."

"I don't know if this ancient, secretive organization will keep its promise."

"But now... Your Majesty, I have no other choice."

As if in response to Tucker's words.

In the distance, a huge rift suddenly appeared in the sky shrouded in twilight.

Immediately afterwards, a brilliant and dazzling figure, with outstanding talent and ability, quietly emerged.

That was the majestic form unique to mythical creatures; only true angels could embody such a completely mythical form.

Even within the Tomb Keepers, a secret organization passed down from the Age of Gods, true angels are extremely rare, numbering at most only four or five.

However, at this very moment, a true guardian angel of the tomb descended—

They came solely for Hiltina, who had only broken through to the Legendary level two years prior.

And that's not all.

Behind that majestic angelic figure, two more magnificent figures appeared in the crack of the twilight sky.

Compared to the former, the two figures that appeared later had slightly less imposing auras, but they still displayed a majestic presence like those divine beings.

Like the gravedigger that Rast shot two years ago, they were beings who had touched the boundaries of angels. Although they could never truly take the final step to become angels because their souls were engraved on the Eternal Night Stone... in terms of combat power alone, they were no different from angels.

One angel, and two quasi-angels.

This is the trap set by the secret organization that has been passed down from the Age of Gods to the present day, for Hiltina, the Star Sword Wielder.

First, a supreme relic was used to transfer the battlefield from the present world to another completely independent sub-dimension, thereby severing all possibility of external interference.

Then, they used absolute violence to completely crush and kill the Holy Sword Wielder.

This is a deadly trap with no chance of survival.

Putting aside the fact that Hiltina is currently only an ordinary legend and has not yet been promoted to angel... even if she were to successfully be promoted to angel, she would only face defeat and death in the face of such a force.

"Hiltina, I've watched you grow up, bit by bit—"

“I know that your growth experience, from your initial entry into the extraordinary to your ascension to the legendary level... has been accompanied by life-or-death struggles.”

“I also know that many times you broke through in life-or-death situations and turned the tables on powerful enemies.”

“We are even more aware of the power of the Holy Sword; it is a weapon forged from the planet, enough to give a legend the combat power comparable to an angel.”

"Even the Gravekeepers speculate that the shot Last used to kill the quasi-angel two years ago was a copy of your Nightblade 'Infinite Blade: Fantasy Collapse', created using 'The Fool's Library'."

"Therefore, even though we have already deployed three angel-level combatants... I have still made more preparations to ensure victory in this battle."

"Hiltina, you must have figured it out by now."

Tucker's figure slowly rose into the sky, standing shoulder to shoulder with the three tomb guardian angels, looking down at the palace below.

"This is a completely independent dimension, a place isolated from the real world."

"In other words, even if you are the master of the Holy Sword, the Holy Sword cannot respond to your call and manifest in this world."

"And the second sequence of high-ranking power you obtained from the Holy Sword, 'Royal Authority,' as well as the royal authority you received as Empress in the capital, will all lose their effect."

"That's not all..."

"In this world, which has been completely cut off from the Night World and exists independently of the River of Time, you will also lose your identity as a Night Traveler—and you will no longer be able to use the Night Blade."

His words carried an inexplicable chill: "Even someone as strong as Hiltina."

"Having lost the protection of the Holy Sword, and also the forbidden Nightblade 'Infinite Sword'... there's no chance of victory left."

Tucker looked down at Hiltina, trying to detect the girl's panic in her eyes.

In the battle between legends and angels, even the slightest advantage is precious and could very well determine the final outcome.

If one can break down the opponent's psychological defenses with words before the battle breaks out, that would be ideal.

However, Tucker ultimately gained nothing.

He didn't detect the slightest hint of panic on the face of the girl with long, flowing chestnut hair.

Despite losing the protection of the Holy Sword and her most powerful weapon, the Nightblade "Infinite Sword" that she had always relied on to defeat powerful enemies, Hiltina's expression remained calm and undisturbed.

"So, was the death of my mother... and the twilight disaster that suddenly broke out in Qiuye Territory twenty years ago, also related to you, teacher?"

Hiltina's calm voice echoed in the air.

"Yes."

Tucker nodded.

"Twenty years ago, during the king selection ceremony that your father participated in, those secret forces that colluded with the tomb keepers wanted to put their secretly supported puppets on the throne and turn the Granville Empire into a puppet state that they secretly controlled."

"Therefore, they contacted me and used the tomb guardians on the Eternal Night Stone, which is the back door of the Night World's origin... to have me deliberately create a twilight disaster in Autumn Leaf Territory."

“Originally, I didn’t intend to kill your mother directly… but only thought of using the twilight disaster that broke out in Qiuye Territory to slow down your father’s pace and prevent him from paying attention to the border war at that time.”

"In that case, your father Aaron will naturally lose the royal election, and the throne will be inherited by the puppet prince chosen by the secret forces."

"But I never expected that Aaron would be even more cold-blooded than I imagined."

As he said this, a chill flashed in Tucker's eyes: "He actually chose to watch his wife die in order to win the royal selection and inherit the throne, while he went to the front lines alone."

"Despite such cold-blooded ruthlessness, he actually won the royal selection, causing the tomb keeper's original plan to support a puppet to fail."

"In this respect, your father was indeed a perfect emperor, single-handedly carrying the empire forward for twenty years. During those twenty years, neither the cult nor the tomb keepers could truly influence the empire's core decisions."

"Unfortunately, he ultimately succumbed to his feelings for his deceased wife... He abdicated hastily after only twenty years on the throne, entrusting the empire to an idealist like you, whose mind is full of naive ideas."

“Hiltina, if you could possess the ruthless skills of your father, maneuvering alliances and betrayals across the continent, then perhaps the empire could truly continue to be so powerful.”

"However, you openly declared your intention to become an enemy of the gravedigger because of your love for that shorekeeper, Raste."

"And thus, the entire nation was led into an abyss of no return..."

"And you will follow in your mother's footsteps, dying for that naive ideal called 'The Ranger.'"

Tucker scrutinized Hiltina's light brown eyes: "Hiltina, you don't seem surprised?"

"Nothing to be surprised about."

Hiltina spoke softly.

"These were things I had already guessed, but I was still a little unwilling to believe them and wanted to confirm them again."

She raised her head slightly, gazing at the mythical creatures that blotted out the sky above the dim, yellowish heavens: "Teacher Tucker."