Lichtens Castle.
The hands of the sanctuary's great clock had just passed nine-thirty.
This morning, the challengers had returned from the cliff edge to the mansion and proceeded to the second-floor library.
Despite various magical sweeps confirming there were no particularly secretive compartments or mechanisms to decipher in this ancient castle, and even though the Detective had previously skipped past every place that might harbor a clue, there might still be at least some useful historical background information in the estate master's quarters and this library-sized repository of books.
For instance, records concerning this mysterious era that baffled everyone, the relationship between the Blood Clan and humanity, and the Horning Empire.
Even if it offered no help in solving the mystery of this Shadow World, recording it would still allow the Southern Continent Shadow World Association to share it with various research academies to analyze this pivotal era of history.
Apart from Lanqi and Hyperion, who stayed together, the other challengers remained in three-person groups, maintaining a relatively safe distance between one another.
Lanqi, strolling leisurely over to the window, drew back the red velvet curtains. Natural light fell across the grain of the dark brown bookshelves, far clearer than it had been in the early morning.
Under the illumination, the faded gold-embossed lettering across the covers of ancient tomes regained their luster.
With the pervasive sunlight, the library air grew fresher, blending ink and candle wax into an aroma where one could almost hear the whisper of the books, recounting the long-forgotten stories of history they held.
"Since everyone agreed to investigate some intelligence before the Detective returns, why don't we first search together for any books regarding the Blood Clan?" Lanqi said to the group, standing by the window bathed in sunlight from behind.
Although there was no longer an absolute authority like the Detective to preside over them, between the two most trustworthy figures remaining, the young merchant master—the Geographer—was hardly dependable. That left only the Detective's companion, the Lawyer, who seemed comparatively steady and composed.
Yet it was precisely this unflappable composure that instinctively made people feel he was a bit dangerous.
A faint, relaxed smile lingered perpetually on his face. Rather than someone arriving in a castle fraught with murderous peril, he gave the impression of truly being on a luxury vacation at an aristocratic manor.
"I have a suggestion: burn all of these books."
Just then, a woman's voice rang out from behind. Turning toward the sound, the others saw that the speaker was the aristocratic girl from the Creti Empire, who had barely offered an opinion until now.
In this warrior-mage-priest party, the female knight beside the aristocratic girl simply looked at her, while the young priestess shrank even more timidly under everyone's gaze.
"Since the Detective bypassed every intended mechanic to find the answer, these original mechanics offer us very little benefit. Destroying them all might even deprive the traitors of far more critical intelligence," the Creti aristocratic girl added with firm conviction.
Silence fell over the room. On second thought, her reasoning genuinely made sense.
"However, it is also possible that these books contain intelligence useful only to our side—especially regarding the other quest objective. I believe it would be wiser for all of us to quickly sift through the books related to the Blood Clan together," the leading priest from the Church of the Goddess of Fate of the Northern Continent spoke up with some hesitation, seemingly leaning toward Lanqi's proposal.
After another stretch of silence in the library, it came down to a simple matter of gambling or not.
If they gambled and destroyed the books, they might also wipe out intelligence vital to the traitors' quest objective.
"Personally, I am quite opposed to burning books... but why don't we put it to a vote?" Lanqi spread his hands like an amicable peacemaker, looking as if either outcome suited him just fine so long as everyone resolved the issue peacefully and calmly.
Soon, the three clerics from the Northern Continent voted against burning the books, placing immense value on ancient lore concerning the Blood Clan.
Hyperion naturally supported Lanqi unconditionally, voting with him to preserve the books.
Only the three from the Creti Empire voted in favor of burning them.
The merchant scion glanced back and forth. He had initially wanted to do something dramatic and burn the books, but after mulling it over, he felt Lanqi and the clerics' stance was safer and voted to keep them. The sibling bodyguards said nothing, effectively abstaining—or rather, whatever they voted would no longer change the outcome anyway.
Ultimately, the conservative camp held the majority. With no complaints following the vote, everyone began searching for books together, moving between the shelves in clusters of five or six while never letting one another out of sight.
They looked down to scan pages, then glanced up to sweep across the shelves. The rustle of turning pages, accompanied by the occasional murmur, made time fly by.
Lanqi said nothing, his fingertips brushing gently across spine after spine as if engaging in a silent dialogue with the accumulated knowledge.
He would open a tome, skimming through its leaves one by one with deep, focused eyes.
Hyperion discreetly observed Lanqi's expression.
She felt that Lanqi had become even more certain of something after that vote, though she could not divine what exact scheme he was cooking up.
...
And so, throughout the entire morning, everyone searched for books in the library.
Every suspected key volume had to pass through the hands of at least two different challenger groups to ensure no one concealed any intelligence.
It was nearing noon when someone opened a book, causing everyone's [Quest Objective 2: Investigate the Secrets and Crises Hidden in the Castle] to change simultaneously.
An additional note appeared: [Collected a core piece of intelligence, pending decipherment].
Looking around at one another, the challengers found the young merchant master holding an ancient tome bound in leather etched with demonic script, staring back at them in total bewilderment.
"On this... there's a record of an ancient sealing art. By gathering the power of the sun, moon, and stars, one can produce a mighty, everlasting sealing force. Likewise, breaking this seal requires fresh blood embodying the powers of both the moon and the stars as a catalyst, and the seal can only be reversed while shielded from the sun."
The merchant scion flipped the pages rapidly, reading the essential points to the crowd with a confused expression.
"This is a grimoire. I can't read the specific magical script here. Does anyone among you understand sealing arts?"
The twin bodyguards behind him remained silent. Clearly, both held assassin-type vocations and knew only a handful of spells, to say nothing of sealing arts, a specialized branch of magic that even few dedicated mages ever mastered.
Everyone's eyes naturally turned to the young mage from the Creti Empire and the priest from the Northern Continent.
These two were virtually the only ones with any chance of understanding it.
"I am not adept in sealing magic," the priest said, shaking his head apologetically.
Very few priests in the modern era were proficient in sealing arts.
Moreover, in the Northern Continent, sealing magic had a notorious reputation—all due to the atrocious, widespread civilian slaughters committed by the Bishop of Annihilation, Askesan.
"I know a little. Let me take a look."
The young mage leading the Creti Empire party nodded, walked up to the merchant scion, and took the book from his hands.
Yet as she flipped quickly through the book all the way to the final page, she could only shake her head in defeat.
"Much of this book is compiled using Demon Magic Script—or rather, a transitional script from back before it had fully evolved into humanity's own magical language," the imperial mage explained.
According to legend, humans initially had no magic until demons imparted it to them, granting humankind magical power.
However, excessive use of Demon Magic Script causes humans to mutate, go mad, and ultimately turn into monsters—a theory corroborated even in the modern era.
Only through long ages of evolution did ancient human mages gradually refine and produce the earliest human magical script, allowing mankind to wield magic normally without paying a devastating price.
The script in this ancient tome, however, remained in a transitional phase between Demon Magic Script and human magic script.
Not only was it illegible to humans, but even the demon race might not be able to read it.
Chapter 128