Mira followed the origami spirit deeper into the library. Her gaze remained fixed on the creature in front of her.
A freshly made paper creation, imbued with a powerful magic.
She began to wonder—before she entered the tower, aside from the dragon, were there others here? Other powerful spellcasters?
But this thought only lingered briefly in Mira’s mind. It was too vast. Strictly speaking, the spellcasters who had entered the tower before her—Lance could be considered one of them.
But the origami spirit had said “the master’s study.”
It didn’t specify who the master was—was it the one who created him, the one he referred to as “master,” or was it the tower’s owner?
Mira knew that the tower belonged to the dragon. Before the dragon, it had belonged to a powerful, unnamed spellcaster.
No, there must have been more than just these two. Lance had mentioned that the tower’s previous owner was his mother’s partner.
That was strange. His mother’s partner, but not his father?
Maybe Lance’s mother had several partners—this could make sense. Such a personal question, however, she couldn’t directly ask Lance.
Her curiosity was overwhelming.
Mira squeezed her fingers together. She was really very curious.
Spellcasters were always curious, and that curiosity was what allowed them to solve all kinds of strange problems.
Thinking about it, Mira realized her personality really did seem to be suited to becoming a mage.
She gave herself a mental pat on the back, her mood brightening.
“This is it,” the origami spirit said, looking at the closed door of a room. “This is where the scrolls are kept.”
Mira stepped past the spirit, standing before the closed door. She reached out, trying to push the large door open.
But just as she had expected, there was a magical seal on the door. It would take special means to open it.
Mira frowned. Lance knew there were scrolls here, but he hadn’t told her about the magical barrier on the door.
She turned to the origami spirit. “Can you open it?”
The little figure, with its lifeless eyes, surveyed Mira.
“No,” it said bluntly. It was merely a product of the master’s boredom. Being able to float and speak a few words was already impressive.
Though imbued with magic, it was still fundamentally just a piece of paper. It could at most manipulate a tiny amount of the energy it had been given to perform simple tricks, like floating.
Mira wasn’t surprised. She took a medium crystal out of her pocket.
The magic crystal lay quietly in her palm. As her gaze fell on it, she recalled Lance’s words.
The core technology of the medium crystal came from the goblin tribe, which had been wiped out by the Human Magic Hub.
She held her breath for a moment, hesitating, before putting the crystal away.
This action clearly meant that she had abandoned the idea of opening the door.
The origami spirit watched her, not understanding her actions. Unfortunately, as a paper creation, it couldn’t express confusion.
With a stiff face, the little figure, the only expression it could maintain, continued to stare at Mira.
Mira didn’t rush to open the door. Instead, she quietly studied the magic on it. This spell was different from the one she had seen in the tower’s storage room—it was new and powerful. She could open the door with a simple opening spell, but the energy consumption from the medium crystal would be too much.
A freshly empowered little paper man. And a powerful spell.
It was clear that the same person who had created the origami spirit had also cast this spell. Was this the master who had imbued the spirit with life?
In the brief time she had spent in the library, questions piled up one after another. Mira wanted answers, and all of them pointed toward Lance, who had entered the tower before her.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A mage full of secrets.
Mira didn’t need to ask. She knew the disappearance of the dragon was related to him.
She felt a twinge of worry. Though her intuition told her that Lance wasn’t a bad person, just today, she had confirmed that her kind mentor also had a side to him that she didn’t know about.
She had too many questions. The curiosity that once explained them to herself no longer seemed enough.
Where had the dragon gone? Was it still alive, or had it died?
Who was the current master of the tower?
Lance might be able to provide answers, but how should she ask? Should she just ask directly?
Mira lowered her gaze, holding the medium crystal in her hand. It was the only thing that gave her a sense of security in that moment.
But even magic wasn’t certain.
Mira exhaled, realizing her anxiety.
It was the questions, the uncertainty, the fear that magic could disappear at any moment.
She knew she had changed, but she couldn’t relieve that feeling in such a short time. She needed to leave here first.
“How do I get back to the bottom of the tower?” Mira turned and asked the floating paper spirit. “Should I go back the same way?”
The spirit didn’t understand her strange behavior and couldn’t keep up with the rapid shifts in her thoughts. It studied Mira quietly for a while.
She was just an ordinary, unremarkable human girl—wearing a beige long dress, with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and black hair tied into braids.
The origami spirit didn’t have a sense of aesthetics. It was merely a paper being, its consciousness attached to the soul the master had given it.
Complex thinking was too difficult for it.
It didn’t understand Mira, so it simply followed her lead and asked, “You came up the spiral staircase, right?”
“Yes,” Mira nodded.
“Then follow me,” the origami spirit floated ahead. “Only visitors need the stairs.” It said, leading Mira toward the center of the library.
Only visitors needed to use the stairs. Since she reached the library through the stairs, it must have been the master who guided her there, otherwise, Mira would have gotten lost in the tower’s complex spatial folds.
The origami spirit thought back to Mira’s earlier words.
She said she was the dragon’s bride.
There was only one dragon in this tower.
Its creator. Its master. The current Blue Dragon King, Lance.
The dragon’s bride. Though the origami spirit didn’t understand when its master had acquired a bride, it had already spoken. So it understood that she was not a visitor, but would become the master of the tower. Therefore, telling her the tower’s secrets was acceptable.
Mira, holding the book in her arms, followed the floating paper spirit.
It moved quickly, light as a feather, floating easily under the influence of magic.
As the guardian of the library, the origami spirit was very familiar with its layout. It guided Mira through the aisles between bookshelves, and soon, they reached an open space.
Mira stepped out of the corridor and looked up. This seemed to be the center of the library.
Surrounding it were corridors leading to different sections containing various books. She had entered through one such corridor, which was labeled “Practical Magic.”
The origami spirit stopped by a pool of sky-blue water. It turned and asked Mira, who was inspecting everything around her, “Are you afraid of heights?”
“What?” Mira reacted, following its gaze to the pool.
“Jump down from here,” the origami spirit said, staring at the sky-blue pool.
In reality, it wasn’t water, but a magical creation derived from a spatial spell, something called spatial essence.
The origami spirit couldn’t remember many complex magical terms.
The master had said it worked like a portal, connecting all the folded spaces within the tower.
“This is a Moon Gate. If you jump in, you’ll reach the bottom of the tower.”
“Jump in?” Mira looked at the pool, feeling the energy fluctuation. It was different from the chaotic turbulence she usually sensed with magic. The blue water exuded a calm, soothing aura.
The origami spirit floated above the Moon Gate.
“Aren’t you scared?”
Mira turned toward it. “I’m just curious.”
The origami spirit didn’t understand her curiosity. It continued, “If you’re scared, you can still return the same way and see the spiral staircase.”
“I’ll give it a try.” Mira stepped onto the high platform, with the sky-blue pool beneath her.
The origami spirit floated up and reminded her, “I know you can use magic, but whatever happens, don’t use magic to resist. The master said using magic against it would destabilize the tower and might harm you.”
Mira noted the reminder, then turned her head and asked, “Do you have a name?”
The origami spirit stiffened, raising its arm made of folded paper, and truthfully answered, “No.”
“Then how should I call you?” Mira looked at it. “Didn’t your master give you a name?”
“No,” the origami spirit replied, puzzled.
“Next time you see your master, make sure to ask them to give you a name.”
“It’s ‘he,’” the origami spirit corrected Mira, “he.”
Mira raised an eyebrow. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
Mira thought to herself, It’s a man.
“Alright,” Mira said, her gaze returning to the “water.” “I’m ready.”
With that, the girl jumped into the air.
She fell, as if plunging into a cold, refreshing spring. There was no sensation of drowning, but the sound of the wind rushing by as she plummeted at high speed.
Mira had kept her eyes closed at first, listening to the wind scream in her ears, but then she tried opening them, hoping to observe her surroundings.
It was nothing like the darkness she had imagined. Instead, she plunged into a vast expanse of blue, as if she were leaping from thousands of meters in the air. The wind whipped her skirt around, and her hair flew wildly.
Mira watched as she fell rapidly, heading toward a dim area.
She knew that was the bottom of the tower.
The anxiety she had felt earlier was swept away by the wind. The exhilarating experience was impossible to imagine. She and the pure energy merged as one, and in the embrace of energy, she landed smoothly.
Lance looked at Mira, who had suddenly appeared, and immediately realized she had used the magical passage in the tower to return.
The lightning pool had once been a Moon Gate, but due to some magical anomaly, it had changed.
He looked at Mira, but didn’t see the scroll she had retrieved.
“Didn’t find the scroll?” If she had come back through the Moon Gate, it meant she must have seen the magical creation.
“No,” Mira said, walking closer and answering Lance’s question.
“That’s strange. The door was sealed with very strong energy. Was that done by the tower’s master?”
Lance was about to respond, but before he could speak, he realized the trap in Mira’s words.
He raised his gaze to Mira, whose eyes were smiling, waiting for him to speak.
Lance realized that the human girl in front of him was very shrewd.