In a world where magic decides everything, the prestigious floating magic academy of Celestia is a battleground for gifted nobles and geniuses.
Lyra, 17, is a quiet girl who loves books more than people. She spends every day unnoticed in a corner of the library, reading. But Lyra hides an earth-shattering secret: she possesses a staggering magical talent no one at the academy knows about.
One day, Aiden, the academy's biggest troublemaker, accidentally witnesses Lyra's true power in the librar
The Invisible Throne of a Quiet Mage - In the library at night, the girl lights a flame for the first time.
The night air was cold enough to pierce the skin.
Lyra walked through the dormitory corridor wearing only a thin nightgown with an old haori draped over it. Her short, clipped breaths turned white and slowly rose upward. In her hands, she clutched a single old tome. Her mother's keepsake grimoire. Silver letters floated on its cover, seeming to glimmer faintly in the moonlight.
*(I haven't slept properly for the past three days.)*
Her head felt hazy. The corners of her eyes burned. Her eyelids were heavy. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to sleep.
Ever since that day, she had spent her nights staring at the ceiling of her room. When she closed her eyes, bright red hair and green eyes surfaced. The image of that person, laughing while waving his shackled wrists flippantly. His voice repeated over and over in the depths of her ears.
*"I'll be waiting."*
Lyra bit her lip. She bit too hard, and a faint taste of blood spread in her mouth.
Her soft indoor slippers, worn over bare feet, moved soundlessly across the cold stone corridor. The magic lamps placed along the edges of the hallway automatically dimmed after midnight. The west dormitory of Celestia Academy, which had an almost luxurious atmosphere during the day, now lay sunken in faint darkness.
She turned two corners and crossed a connecting corridor. Her destination was the library, Biblio Arcana. The largest building in the academy, with three floors above ground and two below, housing approximately 120,000 volumes. It was the one place in this academy where Lyra could truly feel at ease.
The library's face was completely different between day and night.
The library at night was too quiet, and a little frightening.
The shadows of the bookshelves stretched long, and in the high-ceilinged space, only Lyra's own footsteps and breathing echoed. The great front doors were shut, but Lyra headed without hesitation toward the emergency exit on the west side. She had discovered by chance a week ago that this small door remained unlocked at night.
With a faint creak, she opened the door.
The scent of old paper, dust, and a faintly sweet woody fragrance. The library's air enveloped Lyra. To her eyes, swollen from crying, that stillness was comforting.
Third floor, east wing. Her usual spot by the window.
Lyra sat down in her usual chair.
Moonlight streamed through the skylight, tracing a pale path across the desk. Outside the window, there was only the sky and the stars. The academy floated 1,200 meters above the ground, and at night, the entire world felt impossibly distant.
*(It's as if I alone have been cut off from the world.)*
Something cold and heavy lay deep in her chest. It had been there ever since that day.
Lyra placed two things on the desk.
The first was a letter. A rough, hastily scrawled message. *"Don't come until you're stronger. Not until you can use magic like what I showed you, with your own power."*
The second was a book. Her mother's keepsake grimoire.
She picked up the letter and pressed it to her chest. The paper rustled softly. She wiped her tear-blurred vision with her sleeve. She had thought her tears were already spent, yet they still came—she thought this as if observing someone else.
Then, with trembling fingers, she opened the cover of the grimoire.
The first page should have contained magical theory formulas.
Lyra had been raised hearing from her mother that this was an old grimoire. That it contained secret magic passed down through a lineage of powerful mages. As a child, Lyra had wanted to open this book as soon as she learned to read. But her mother had never allowed it.
*"I'll give this to you when you're older."*
With those words, her mother had hidden the grimoire on the highest shelf of the bookcase.
She opened the page.
There were no magical theory formulas anywhere.
"...Huh?"
The voice escaped her before she could stop it.
What lay there was not magical equations, but a long personal journal written in a woman's neat handwriting. Numbers that appeared to be dates, and short titles. The ink had discolored, and the paper was yellowed. It had likely been at least twenty years since anyone had opened it.
Lyra swallowed hard and lowered her eyes to the first page.
"—Today I fled to the library at night again. I always think that this is the only place where I belong."
Lyra felt her heart leap violently.
It was as if the words had been written by her current self.
She continued reading.
"I'm afraid to use magic in front of people. When my magical power is measured, it seems the machine breaks. Books were always far kinder than friends. The library at night quietly hides me, like magic that hurts no one."
Lyra's fingers stopped turning the pages.
*(This... Mother wrote this?)*
Her mother's journal. A personal record her mother had kept in her youth. And its contents were far too similar to the loneliness Lyra had carried within herself.
"Books were my only friends. Because books never feared me."
Her fingertips trembled on the paper.
The feelings Lyra had held inside, unable to tell anyone, were there—written as her mother's words from over twenty years ago.
"I met him. A reckless person who's always laughing. Meeting him at the library tomorrow has become my greatest joy."
A sharp pain pricked Lyra's chest.
*(Mother had someone like that too.)*
As she turned the pages, her mother's journal from that point onward read almost like a diary, briefly recording the events of each day. Impressions of books read in the library. Eating delicious sweets. The beautiful color of the sky. And over and over again, stories about that person.
"Today, he called my name and smiled. The world became brighter."
Lyra thought of Aiden.
"He was in danger. I wanted to save him. But when I thought that my power might drag others in, my legs froze."
Lyra's breath stopped for a moment.
Her mother had been the same.
"But I thought, if I'm going to lose him anyway, I'd rather lose everything. If I can protect him with my power, then there's nothing to be afraid of."
Lyra gripped the journal with both hands.
Then she read aloud.
"When the one I love fell into danger, my body moved before fear did."
"When the one I love fell into danger,"
"my body moved before fear did."
Her own voice melted into the night library.
*(What I was afraid of...)*
Lyra hugged the journal to her chest and closed her eyes.
These past few days, Lyra hadn't understood her own heart. Was she sad, angry, or in pain? But now she understood.
"What I feared wasn't my power."
Behind her closed eyelids, Aiden was smiling. In the library, inside the tornado, in the arena.
"It was being alone because of my power."
The moment she spoke the words aloud, something burst deep within her body.
—That was when it happened.
At Lyra's feet, the library floor suddenly began to glow with a pale blue light.
"...Huh?"
She opened her eyes.
A magic circle was rising on the floor.
Layer upon layer of overlapping circles. Geometric patterns. Ancient script.
As if summoned by Lyra's magical power, it slowly but surely sharpened its outline into vivid clarity.
"This is... a sealed magic circle..."
She forgot to breathe.
The magic circle began to rotate quietly.
At the same moment, the entire library began to sing.
The pages of 120,000 books opened all at once, with a sound.
*Zaaaaaaaah...*
The sound of wind. No—the sound of paper rustling. The small sounds of book pages turning filled the world. The sounds overlapped, became like waves, and shook the entire library like one enormous breath.
Thousands of books on the shelves began to emit a pale blue light.
One by one.
The books glowed.
As if stars were lighting up, one after another.
"No way... it's beautiful..."
Lyra stood up and clasped her trembling hands in front of her chest.
The light reached the ceiling, quietly illuminating the entire vast domed space in pale blue. The shadows of the bookshelves vanished, and even Lyra's own body was wrapped in light.
*(Mother. I...)*
A single tear traced down her cheek.
But it was not a tear of sadness.
"—Hah."
Suddenly, a voice came from behind her.
Lyra thought her heart would flip over.
She spun around.
Standing there was a tall man with long platinum-blond hair loosely tied back in a single tail. Half-lidded, drooping eyes. Sleepy violet pupils. His white lecturer's robe was wrinkled all over, and the silver earring in his left ear glimmered faintly in the pale light.
He tapped his shoulder lightly with the teaching cane in his hand.
"Who uses magic in someone else's library without permission? And in the middle of the night, no less."
His voice sounded sleepy, yet carried clearly.
"Ah... um, I'm sorry... um, Professor, why are you here..."
"Night patrol is one of my small pleasures. And today I got to see something wonderful. All the books in the library glowing—that's a once-in-a-millennium sight."
He gave an exaggerated yawn, then turned his sleepy eyes toward the grimoire Lyra held against her chest.
"That book—is it your mother's? It seems an astonishingly old seal was broken in response to your magical power. With a light show that flashy, even I couldn't help but notice. I don't think it reached the dormitories, but well, it won't stay hidden for long."
"Um, this wasn't intentional... I was just reading the book..."
"No need for excuses. I'm not angry. More importantly, listen. What you're reading there is probably far older than the books of any mage lying around here. But the truly important things are stored much deeper within."
He lazily raised his teaching cane and pointed at the floor.
"Second basement level. The forbidden archive. Its entrance is waiting, far more quietly than usual."
"The forbidden archive... But you can't even enter without permission from the council..."
"I don't know anything about such troublesome procedures. I have a reputation as a professor who does nothing but sleep."
He yawned again, a long "fuwah."
"But if you want to borrow power next time, the forbidden archive is the shortcut. Something interesting is waiting. If you want to know, you'll have to touch it yourself."
Having said only that, Professor Vane waved one hand flippantly and turned his back.
"Um, please wait. You—about me—"
He did not turn around.
"I told you earlier. Night patrol is my pleasure. That's all. Now, what were we talking about?"
"No, um... thank you very much."
Lyra bowed her head.
Professor Vane waved back over his shoulder and disappeared into the shadows of the nighttime bookshelves.
Silence returned.
Lyra stared at the floor that had lost its light. The magic circle had vanished. The books too had sunk back into their original stillness.
*(It wasn't... a dream.)*
Lyra placed the grimoire on the desk and opened the final page.
There, her mother's last words were written.
*"By the time you open this book, you surely are no longer lost. Do not fear the power of this book. If you ever lose your way, touch the door of the forbidden archive. If you wish for it, the path will open. To my beloved little mage."*
Lyra read those words over and over again.
Then she picked up Aiden's letter from the desk.
*"Don't come until you're stronger."*
She placed the crumpled letter and the yellowed page of last words side by side.
*(Mother gave me a path to become stronger.)*
*(Aiden gave me a reason to become stronger.)*
Lyra's heart pulsed with a heat that was almost painful.
"I will definitely go to save him."
A small voice. But it no longer trembled.
Edith stood in the shadow of a pillar near the library's main entrance.
Her short ash-brown hair was neatly trimmed, with the left side of her bangs pinned back. Her amber eyes gazed quietly at the library even in the darkness of night.
Edith had noticed Lyra's absence from the dining hall during the day.
Lyra had barely eaten since
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