Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 206:

Chapter 206 Something Suspicious

In front of a study room at the School of Magic.

Trixie tilted her head with Becky right in front of her.

“Someone is using our study room?”

“Yes.”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed as she conversed with Becky. Both girls’ faces showed a clear sign of bewilderment.

Trixie stood on tiptoe to see inside the study room through the window.

There was an alluring woman inside.

Her luxurious navy-blue bob fell diagonally across her forehead, revealing one sharp eye. This person was diligently writing something down all day.

“I don’t know.”

“What is she doing?”

“I don’t know that either. I didn’t ask.”

“…What do you even know?”

“You’re asking me because you don’t know either.”

While the two were bickering, the woman inside the study room was deeply absorbed in her work. Her concentration seemed so intense that it felt awkward to interrupt her.

Even if they asked for a reason, it was hard to justify kicking her out. Even if she moved, they couldn’t bring themselves to clear out all the papers that filled the study room.

‘Nothing is worse than breaking concentration.’

Trixie always tried her best to focus, so she knew the value of concentration and how annoying it was when it was disturbed.

In the end, Trixie shrugged.

“Let’s just change locations. We’re not going to stay in the study room for long anyway; we’ll be heading to the training ground soon.”

Just as the two were about to leave.

Bang─!

A crashing sound echoed from the study room.

“…!”

Trixie and Becky’s eyes simultaneously turned towards it.

“How could I do this? This kind of thing. This kind of thing….”

The mysterious woman was tearing the papers to shreds, repeating the same words. It was the kind of action one would take out of anger, but her tone was eerily emotionless.

“….”

The two girls silently looked at each other.

“Trixie, let’s just move.”

“Yeah.”

◈

Two days later.

“Sigh.”

Secretary 187 stared blankly at the ceiling. A sigh escaped her lips, and when she closed her eyes tightly, a stinging sensation from fatigue washed over her.

She looked quite disheveled. The tissue stuffed in her nose was proof enough. It wasn’t because she was overworked, but because she was forcing herself to do something she didn’t want to, causing a nosebleed.

But it wasn’t just the amount of work that made the secretary weary.

“My memory….”

She couldn’t remember.

She had always revised her annotations, considering them correct, so she hadn’t bothered to remember or keep the original content.

“…I’ll have to erase everything and think it over.”

Even if she couldn’t recall the original content, she could still identify which parts she had revised. So, she planned to erase all of that first.

“It’s frustrating. Especially since it’s an ancient book.”

Understanding the grand flow of humanity is one thing. But naturally, one cannot know the specific thoughts of each individual writer of the time.

It’s like knowing the shape of a forest but not the trees.

The problem was that the old book was filled with the author’s personal views. To preserve the original content, the secretary had to recall what those ‘views’ were.

“Sigh…”

The secretary had discarded these inferior thoughts into the trash bin of her mind, and now she had to retrieve them. Could there be anything more cruel?

But it wasn’t something she could avoid.

Flan had threatened her using Ancient Runes as leverage, leaving her no choice. Repeating the same task over and over again, discarded papers piled up in the study room.

One hour.

Two hours.

Yet, the secretary was not incompetent. By tracing back her memories, they gradually began to resurface.

Manipulation, summoning, elements… Views that had been popular in various fields, theories that had once been in vogue. She erased her annotations and filled the blanks with these ideas again.

“…”

Seeing the restored content brought back memories.

She had always believed she was guiding human history towards the right answers, yet humans had developed such diverse ideas on their own.

What if she hadn’t intervened? How would humans have studied and developed magic on their own? This thought piqued her curiosity.

It was at that moment.

“How does it feel to rewrite? The magic humans developed on their own, and the opinions you added yourself.”

A man’s voice suddenly reached her ears, and she turned her head reflexively. Flan had entered the study room unnoticed.

“Well.”

Secretary 187 gave a vague reply.

She had no choice. Admitting that it was interesting would be akin to acknowledging that the path she had taken was wrong.

The secretary waved her hand dismissively.

“Flan, if you’re here to mock or supervise, just leave. I’m meticulous with my work regardless.”

“Neither. I’m here to guide the direction of your revisions.”

However, Flan’s response was unexpected. He casually placed a book down as evidence.

The secretary looked at Flan incredulously.

“What is this?”

“I’ve highlighted some key points for revision.”

“You’re saying you’ve added content. So, it’s your personal view, Flan?”

“Correct.”

“…”

The secretary silently stroked the book cover for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hahaha─!”

She looked at Flan with contempt.

“I was always curious about what you were up to… Flan, so you intend to fill the library’s books with your personal views, is that it?”

“Exactly.”

“This is ridiculous. Didn’t you criticize me for making arbitrary annotations? This isn’t much different from what I did.”

“Why don’t you read it first?”

The secretary scoffed.

“Fine, I’ll read it. But just one book? Even if you add this content, it might not make much difference.”

She picked up Flan’s book and skimmed through it.

It didn’t take long for her to retract her statement about ‘just one book.’

“What is this?”

Seeing that the content was densely packed, equivalent to hundreds of books, she quickly realized that the importance wasn’t in the thickness.

“Annotations for whom… No, for the reader?”

There are two main types of writing.

### Writing for the Writer, Writing for the Reader

Compromised writing at the midpoint becomes ordinary, while writing that doesn’t compromise tends to lean heavily to one side.

Flan’s book, if categorized, was written for the reader. No, it went beyond that; it was entirely for the reader, without any trace of the author.

There wasn’t even a hint of scholarly pretense to show off; it was simply an easy text that solely pursued the reader’s learning.

‘Writing something easy is the hardest thing….’

Anyone can write complex content in a complex way. But how difficult is it to simplify it so anyone can understand?

Flan had managed to achieve that.

“Flan, this is fascinating. I can’t comprehend it.”

“My perspective is the advancement of magic.”

That was all Flan said.

It could be dismissed as absurd or seen as arrogant bravado, but after checking the content Flan provided, none of those thoughts came to mind.

Flan did not reveal who he was in his writing. There was no insistence on a strong personal viewpoint; this was the closest to the “orthodox” way of organizing thoughts.

His perspective being the advancement of magic now seemed quite reasonable.

“It’s fascinating. Truly fascinating. To be able to focus solely on the advancement of the magical world….”

“I like magic. That’s all there is to it.”

These words had a significant impact on the secretary.

It wasn’t about leaving his mark by riding on the coattails of magic. Rather, it felt like integrating himself into magic and leaving magic itself.

This was not something someone with an ordinary mindset living in this era could achieve. Therefore, he had already transcended something.

What that something was, she would have to think about gradually.

In any case, the conclusion was simple. Interacting with such an existence would continue to be highly intriguing.

She finally steeled her resolve.

“Understood.”

After erasing her previous annotations, the secretary began meticulously applying the content Flan had provided.

“I’ve become more curious about the future you envision.”

The reluctance of performing a distasteful task was no longer present.

One hour.

Two hours.

Time began to flow quickly again. Even after Flan left, the secretary’s revisions did not stop.

And finally, after 23 hours.

“Hmm.”

There was progress. She hadn’t managed to revise the entire library, but she had completed revisions for all the primary texts.

“But…”

Thinking about it, how would she place these revised texts back into the library? The sheer volume made it impossible to do openly.

The time promised with Flan was only one hour.

She wanted to seek his advice, but Flan had already left.

…Therefore, there were few choices left.

◈

“Yawn….”

On the way to the dormitory, Maiev yawned languidly.

In her hands were shopping bags filled with various tea ingredients. Recently, brewing different kinds of tea had become her hobby and pleasure.

‘I wonder if they’ll like this one.’

At first, it was hard to believe, and I felt bewildered, but as time passed, all I felt was gratitude towards Flan.

Being able to have this freedom, to reclaim my life day by day, it was all thanks to him.

“So, today I’ll make some delicious tea…. Hmm?”

Maiev’s face slightly hardened. As a vampire, she instinctively sensed a particular aura.

Someone was loitering suspiciously in front of the old library. It wasn’t just one person, but they were levitating a bundle filled with something using telekinesis.

‘A terrorist?’

In any case, she couldn’t think of it as something good.

If they were here to help the library, they wouldn’t be sneaking around suspiciously; they would enter confidently through the front door, wouldn’t they?

“…This is definitely suspicious.”

After setting her shopping bag down on the ground, Maiev stepped forward to check the identity of the person.