Shirone's mind, Level 5
The door to the fifth level creaked open with an old, rusty sound.
A feeling of sharp warning hit them before they even saw anyone.
Arius, his face flushed with excitement, and Zion, who was protected by his shiny diamond armor, stepped across the doorway.
"This is… … Shirone's unconscious mind?" Zion asked, completely confused.
The fifth level wasn't a place of wild emotions. Instead, it was a gigantic library that seemed to have no end, with bookshelves stretching on forever.
Arius realized what this place was. Just by looking at a few shelves, he saw that all the history books were arranged in perfect order by date.
'This is incredible… … it's beyond human,' Arius thought to himself.
He had explored the minds of wizards much more powerful than Shirone before. But even their minds were messy and disorganized. For a person's mind to be this perfectly ordered was very, very strange.
Zion's voice was full of disappointment. "What is this? You said I would see everything about Shirone, completely naked and exposed!"
"This is the Spine of Knowledge," Arius explained.
"The Spine of Knowledge?" Zion asked, not understanding.
"It means all of history is arranged here in perfect order. It is incredibly difficult to build something like this in your mind. Shirone's unique way of learning and growing must have made it possible."
Zion let out a mean snort. He knew Shirone had grown up as the son of a poor mountaineer, the lowest of the low. No matter how talented he was, Zion thought he could never be better than himself, the son of an emperor who had been given the best lessons since birth.
"What an ignorant way to learn," Zion said mockingly. "So, you're saying he just memorized everything without even understanding it? He just stuffed facts into his head like a backpack."
"Is that really what you think?" Arius asked, a small, happy smile on his face.
He was truly impressed. It was amazing enough that the Spine of Knowledge existed, but the fact that it was here, deep in the unconscious mind, was shocking.
"You cannot build a Spine of Knowledge in your mind by just memorizing things," Arius explained. "You have to understand everything completely. This is a very efficient way to learn. Any new knowledge he gets can be sorted and understood perfectly."
Zion's mood grew dark and sour underneath his armored helmet. Arius could feel the anger rising from him.
Zion was deeply offended. He had been given everything he ever wanted since he was a baby. He was sure no one in the world had a better education than the son of an emperor.
But ever since Shirone appeared, that confidence had been cracked again and again. How could the son of a lowly citizen be better than the son of an emperor?
Zion's breathing became rough and angry. He stared at the thousands of books packed tightly on the shelves. There was no way Shirone had actually read all of them, but it showed that all the knowledge he understood was perfectly organized.
"You damn son of a bitch!" Zion screamed.
He pulled out a sharp blade from his gauntlet and started slashing the bookshelves! Pieces of paper flew everywhere like goose feathers, and the shelves were cut as smoothly as cheese. He moved to the next section, swinging the blades in both hands, destroying all of Shirone's hard-earned knowledge.
"There! How do you like that? Huh? I'll mess up everything in your head!" Zion's voice trembled, not with sadness, but with a twisted joy. "Haha! This is actually fun! It would have been easier to just do this from the start! More! I'll break more!"
"Stop it," Arius said, his voice as cold as ice.
Zion usually never listened to anyone, but this time, he was forced to stop. He slowly turned his head and saw Arius giving him a look so cold it could freeze fire.
"What? Did you just tell me to stop?" Zion's stomach churned with anger, but he stood his ground. He was the one paying Arius, and an employee shouldn't go against their employer. He believed the power of money ruled everything.
But inside, Arius was boiling with rage. 'You damn kid… …'
He honestly almost killed Zion right there. The Spine of Knowledge that Shirone had built was a beautiful sight to Arius. Even though he was known as one of the evil Seven Magicians, he was also incredibly smart and appreciated intelligence. He understood better than anyone the amazing effort it took for Shirone to create this. If they had met under different circumstances, he would have gladly taken Shirone as his student.
Arius forced his anger down and became calm again. He was a professional, and his beliefs wouldn't let him betray his employer.
"From now on, this is the true realm of the unconscious," Arius explained calmly. "If you carelessly break things, it could cause errors and damage the Ataraxia we are trying to find. So, stop destroying things and let's go down."
In truth, the Ataraxia was probably safe. But Arius didn't want to see the beautiful Spine of Knowledge destroyed any further. It satisfied his love for perfect, organized intelligence.
Hearing the word "Ataraxia," Zion finally stopped. He had paid a whopping 4 billion gold for it, and he didn't want it damaged.
"Fine. He's going to die anyway, so I'll leave it like this," Zion grumbled.
Arius smiled in satisfaction. "Then, shall we go down now?"
Even though Zion's foolish behavior was annoying, it gave Arius important information. The fact that the Egoist—the mind's guardian—didn't appear to punish them for damaging the library meant that Shirone's mind was collapsing. His body in the real world was dying.
'The Egoist is not showing itself. The mind is running out of time,' Arius thought.
This was exactly what he had been hoping for. No matter how fast they moved through the mind, a lot of time had passed in the real world. Shirone must have received a fatal wound.
'Can I finally see the Ataraxia?' Arius thought, his eyes shining with a brighter, greedier light than ever before.
Back with our heroes, Armin opened the door and entered the fifth level. Amy came in right after him, helping a gasping Shirone, who could barely walk. His face was even paler than before.
"Shirone! Are you okay? Please, stay with us!" Amy cried, gently stroking his cheeks.
But Shirone just pushed her hand away roughly. His voice was as cold as ever. "Get out of my way."
Amy backed away, her heart feeling very sad. Even though his whole mind was falling apart, Shirone's frozen heart showed no sign of warming up towards her.
Shirone glared at Amy, his lips trembling as if he wanted to say something as he felt himself fading away. But when Amy looked back at him, he closed his mouth tightly.
Amy looked around, her heart pounding. She promised herself she wouldn't judge Shirone, no matter what she saw. Even if she saw bad feelings he had towards her.
"What is this place… …?" she asked.
But she didn't see any raw emotions. Instead, she saw the amazing flow of history, all organized into categories. It was the Spine of Knowledge that Shirone had once told her about. When she had heard about it, she had imagined a simple chart, but seeing it for real, she thought it was a magnificent and wonderful creation.
Armin understood what this place was right away. The categories on the bookshelves were so perfect that you could understand any topic just by looking at it.
'What in the world is this kid… …' Armin thought, amazed.
While walking through the library, Armin found a section that was completely destroyed. Books were torn to shreds, and the shelves were smashed to pieces.
"It looks like they were here and have already moved on," Armin said.
Amy was very upset when she saw the horribly smashed bookcase. She knew how hard Shirone had worked to build this knowledge, and she felt a deep resentment toward the people who had broken it.
"They are such bad people. How could they do this… …" Amy said, tears falling from her eyes as she picked up the scattered papers from the floor.
She couldn't forgive Zion. She promised herself he would pay for this.
"Wait a moment," Armin said suddenly.
They watched in surprise as the broken bookshelf began to fix itself, like a wound healing on living skin.
"How is this possible?" Amy asked, amazed.
"Normally, it's not," Armin explained. "But Shirone's knowledge is connected like a strong net. Even if one part is broken, it immediately finds a new way to connect and fixes itself. Sooner or later, the Spine of Knowledge will be completely restored to how it was."
Reina, who was also there, asked a question. "Then why did they break it? Arius is an expert. He would have known it would fix itself."
"It's precisely because he is an expert," Armin replied.
Reina tilted her head, confused, but Armin didn't explain further. He didn't want to praise the enemy when they would have to fight them soon.
He guessed what had happened: Zion had started breaking things, and Arius had stopped him. Arius, for all his evil deeds, was a man with great pride in knowledge. He must have been very impressed by Shirone's mind and didn't want to see it destroyed, just like a explorer wouldn't want to damage a beautiful artifact in a foreign land.