Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 23===

After the witches were defeated, the king didn’t have it in him to fight on his own.

The portly king wasn’t worth fighting anyway.

Dancer Shokuhou rummaged through her diagonally-worn handbag, pulled out a TV remote, and held it against the side of his head.

“Okay, give me a big smile ability and then announce that you’re freeing the slaves☆”

“Gwohhhh!? M-my body...my throat...I-I can’t fight it!!!”

“You’ll be the very first kingdom in this world to officially abolish slavery. Going down in history as the civilized and humane man behind it is an honor really.”

They could have written letters for him and sent them out without his involvement since Mikoto had the short sword with the stamp used to prove the king’s identity, but it would be better for the letter to be in his handwriting. Especially in a Western-style signature society.

Valhalla wasn’t big enough to take in all the former slaves, but the vast capital was a different story.

Everyone had fled after the fulgurite crash, so the city had become the kingdom’s greatest ghost town. The freed elves would breathe new life into the city. And this time it wouldn’t be built on the backs of someone else’s labor.

And it wasn’t just elves.

Before too long, a fleet of large airships rode in on the wind.

“That’s a sylph, that’s a scylla, a tengu, a dwarf, and what’s she?”

“She says she’s a spriggan. And that snakelike girl is an echidna.”

“By the way, Misaka-san, why are there humans among them?”

“They all have their circumstances. Some were pursued by debt collectors, some were forced to work in the arenas, some lost their homes and were stuck sleeping in the alleys, and some didn’t want to fight but had arrows aimed at their backs. The monsters weren’t the only ones being oppressed, so as long as they’re working toward abolishing slavery, we don’t need to see the other lords and people as our enemy. So why not rescue the lives that are actually at risk? If that starts new rumors, it can establish a beneficial cycle.”

When taking in people so indiscriminately, it wouldn’t be surprising for some of them to be enemy spies.

But those could be detected and kicked out with perfect accuracy using Mental Out.

“Lady Shokuhou, Lady Shokuhou!”

Patissiet ran over on her little legs.

“This castle is incredible. I found the library and it’s so big!”

“Oh, right.”

They weren’t just here for self-defense. They were searching for the elf elder’s grimoire.

Mikoto and Shokuhou needed to defeat the three Demon Lords to return to Earth, so they needed information on those mysterious targets.

Patissiet led them through the vast castle to a pair of double doors that led to a room filled with a dizzying number of bookcases. The room was three-stories tall and large enough to fit an entire school building. The bookcases were also three-stories tall, so Mikoto really did feel a little dizzy as soon as they came into view. Her ordinary sense of perspective broke down and she was caught by weird optical illusions. 

Dancer Shokuhou spoke up in exasperation as she watched the treetop-dwelling (and miniskirt-wearing) elf climb to the top of the towering bookcases.

“It looks like each bookshelf has about 50 books, so would the entire library have approximately ''103,000'' books? Finding a specific book here is going to be a lot of work.”

But they couldn’t let this overwhelm them.

The book in question had been stolen, not officially purchased or donated, so it might not be listed in the library’s catalog. After getting little Patissiet and Elder Bakerian to tell them the color of the grimoire’s cover and other visual details, they split up and searched the shelves. The lithe elder did not climb to the top. She looked like it was taking a conscious effort to resist the temptation, however.

They occasionally heard the sounds of some kind of commotion outside the library.

They were so immersed in the task they lost track of time, but by the time an aproned succubus and dryad told them dinner was ready, they hadn’t even finished searching 1% of the library.

“Are we sure the grimoire is even in here?” asked Shokuhou.

“One of the lords might have it, I guess. Shokuhou, you’re controlling the king, aren’t you? If he demanded whoever has the grimoire to hand it over, they would have to, right?”

“Before his defeat, maybe.”

They were exhausted from their fruitless search.

But Mikoto did find something unusual.

“Bakerian, you told us the color and such, but do you know how many pages it is? Or how thick it is, I guess is what I mean.”

“Hm? I think it is about 5 or 6cm. Why?”

“Look.”

Bikini armor Mikoto pointed at one of the shelves.

There was an unnatural 5cm gap between two books. A single book had been removed.

“Goddamn that king.”