TWOD 03
Chapter 3: The Magic Book
Su Ye walked toward the colonnade ahead—a common architectural feature in both Eastern and Western cultures, consisting of a covered walkway lined with columns.
After a few steps, he glanced down helplessly at his bare feet.
Ancient Greece had a typical Mediterranean climate, with no extreme cold. Greeks rarely wore shoes, usually only when going out. Slaves, however, were forbidden from wearing shoes under any circumstances.
Even when they did wear shoes, most people simply wrapped their feet in linen.
Su Ye had adapted to local customs and didn’t bother putting on shoes. He slowly entered the colonnade, righted a dark brown wooden stool—called a diphros in Greek—and sat down. The Greeks loved giving unique names to everyday objects.
Lost in thought, he instinctively reached out as if to jot down his ideas, but his hand froze midair before dropping back down.
There was no keyboard. No paper. No pen.
Su Ye immediately stood and entered the living quarters.
In the center of the room stood a short black marble pillar supporting a half-meter-tall white statue of Zeus. On a table against the opposite wall were two smaller statues: one of Vulcan, the God of Craftsmen and Fire, and the other of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and patron deity of Athens.
Greece had no glass at this time, and most rooms lacked windows. The living quarters were dim and shadowy.
Su Ye paused, eyeing the eerie statues.
This was a world of magic, divine power, heroes, giants, monsters… and gods.
The room had been thoroughly ransacked, with everything in disarray—except for the three statues and a single notebook, which remained untouched.
Taking a deep breath, Su Ye walked to the table, picked up the black notebook, and quickly returned to the bright colonnade.
His fingers traced the smooth, supple cover—made from magically treated demon ox hide—embossed with the Greek words for Spellbook in gilded letters.
In the lower right corner, Su Ye’s Greek name was stamped.
His pupils dilated slightly as he carefully opened the book.
The spellbook had no additional pages. The only two “pages” were the inner surfaces of the front and back covers, which, when fully opened, formed a single seamless sheet.
The inner page shimmered as an image of Plato’s Academy appeared, its colors deepening, the static image gradually coming to life.
Soon, a vivid, animated depiction of the Academy’s facade filled the page.
Su Ye exhaled in relief. Spellbooks shared a mystical bond with their owners. Unless the owner granted permission, no one else could open them.
“Is this… the magical equivalent of a tablet? And a foldable one at that?” Su Ye hadn’t expected spellbooks to be so advanced.
He touched the page—it felt unmistakably like parchment, with no trace of technology.
Boom!
The animated image of Plato’s Academy exploded, light bursting from the page as a 30-centimeter-tall marble archway rapidly rose from the parchment.
Squeak—
A grating wooden creak echoed as ripples formed in the archway’s opening. A 15-centimeter-long chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt pulled by four horses shot out, rainbow trails forming beneath its wheels.
Before Su Ye could react, the chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt slammed straight into his chest.
Crackle—
Su Ye remained unharmed.
The chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt toppled onto the spellbook, its four rainbow-maned white horses flailing on their backs, whinnying and rolling their eyes.
“Oof!” A thumb-sized old man with dragonfly wings tumbled out of the chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt.
Dressed in green, the tiny man grumbled as he dusted himself off—then froze. His head swiveled nervously until he spotted his pointed black hat nearby. He scurried over, plopped it onto his shiny bald head, and sighed in relief. With a flick of his hand, a whip materialized midair, poised to strike the horses.
“Stop lazing around!” he screeched, his bushy white beard trembling like an agitated groundhog.
The horses’ eyes darted mischievously, but when the whip threatened to descend, they hastily scrambled upright.
The little man panted, his dragonfly wings drooping limply behind him.
“You are…?”
Su Ye recognized him—one of Plato’s assistants, if he remembered correctly.
“Every student at Plato’s Academy has received their term notice. Why did you only open your spellbook now?” The old man stood on the book, glowering up at Su Ye, his pupils glowing an eerie green.
“Family troubles,” Su Ye said wearily.
With an impatient wave, the old man conjured a tiny white envelope. “You failed last year’s exams. Fail again, and you’ll be expelled—permanently! Term starts tomorrow. Don’t forget!”
He tossed the envelope into the page, leaped into the chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt, and cracked the whip with a sharp snap.
The horses reared, whinnied, and charged back through the archway, vanishing into the ripples and leaving a trail of miniature rainbows.
The chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt stayed behind.
Su Ye stared blankly at it.
A roar erupted from inside: “These imbeciles are dumber than goblins! The fourth through seventh stupidest beings in Plato’s Academy!”
A faint memory flickered in Su Ye’s mind.
Still cursing, the old man jumped out, single-handedly dragged the chahttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgt (which was as large as a house to him), and darted back through the archway.
The sound of whipping, yelling, and distressed horse noises echoed from within before the archway flattened back into the page, disappearing.
One by one, letters flew out of the page, lining up in midair above the spellbook.
Su Ye skimmed them—a term notice from the Academy, a greeting from his linguistics teacher Niedern, casual messages from classmates. Nothing urgent.
He waved his hand, and the letters dropped back into the page like stones into water, vanishing.
The spellbook’s surface returned to blank parchment.
Su Ye’s fingers twitched as his thoughts raced. Horizontal lines appeared on the page at one-centimeter intervals, followed by vertical lines, forming a grid.
Focusing on the central square, he willed the Greek word for “Me” to appear.
Next to it, his linguistics teacher Niedern’s name materialized.
Niedern taught language and oversaw the class—essentially the homeroom teacher.
Su Ye recalled past interactions and shook his head. Even if Lavens didn’t block him from seeking help at the Academy, Niedern was unlikely to intervene.
A hundred golden eagles could buy two houses in the slums—a fortune to anyone, let alone a notohttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgus academic failure like Su Ye.
He was certain Lavens had targeted him precisely because he held no standing at Plato’s Academy.
Another name appeared: “Figo”—a kind-hearted Bronze Warhttps://orangenuna.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/woman-traveling-in-france-2023-11-27-05-16-47-utc_Easy-Resize.com_.jpgr Su Ye had known since childhood.
Another headshake. Figo’s influence paled next to Lavens’.
Name after name filled the grid, the empty squares dwindling.
This was the Starry Grid Method Su Ye had once learned. The instructor had said: “99% of people’s problems can be solved with exhaustive listing and trial-and-error.”
After listing every possible contact, Su Ye circled three names:
- Teacher Niedern
- A priest from Vulcan’s temple
- Kairton
After a long pause, he crossed out the first two, leaving only Kairton.
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