The next few days are spent in the underground archives. I’m looking for information that might strengthen my experiments and hypotheses from the other day, as well as information related to the Ancient Kingdom, but so far I haven’t made any progress.
I can’t hide my suspicion that there must have been some kind of a cover-up, given how little information we have.
Things are progressing on the ground. It seems that the cause of death of Priest Kempel was drowning. The Great Reservoir isn’t a facility to store drinking water, but if there was a body floating in it, they had to drain it and examine the bottom. They’re making us do unnecessary things even though we’re running out of water…
Whether it was a suicide or not is still unknown at this point. Because the day before, he had been making a lot of statements regretting his actions. Maybe he was trying to take advantage of Mazel’s trial. That got out and the temple itself was blamed for it.
But it’s hard to say. It’s not impossible that the mastermind got rid of him, but there’s also the possibility that he took his own life. Either way, the dead have no say in the matter, and I have a feeling that some doomsday group is going to make a big story out of it, since it would affect the reputation of the temple.
The day after I saw Mazel the other day, there was a complaint against me. They said I’d done some bad things around town. It’s not a rumor, it’s a fact. It’s more like a murder case, which makes me giggle.
However, I had reported the matter earlier that day and the weapons the other side had with them the next day. Mazel had also informed Laura that they had returned to King’s Landing via her grandfather, the Duke of Gründing. I don’t have much to say to them.
The eldest son of the Marquis of Cortlezis is still missing. I don’t know if that’s true. Criminal investigations aren’t my department… and they’re supposed to be kept secret in this world and in a past life.
I’m aware that I’ve been over-extending my reach, so I’m going to concentrate on the research of the stacks for now. However, my eyes are getting tired from looking at the fine print all the time. Glass is expensive in this world, and we don’t have lenses or anything like that, so I’d better be careful not to damage my eyes.
Mr. Werner… This book…
“Hmm.”
I was flipping through some books on magic when Lily brought out a rather thick book. It looks like a complete works. She seems to be having trouble explaining it.
“I think this is a map, but it’s not.”
Let’s see.
What the hell is this? I’m looking at Lily’s open page, thinking maybe I’m using the wrong diagram… What the hell is this? Half of the diagrams there look familiar to me. Now I understand what Lily’s confusion means.
Is this Finoy?
“I guess…”
Yes, the map of the continent I know is just the “lower” part of this map. I think the mountain with the temple of Finoi is in the middle of this continent. And to the north of the mountain, which is the sea according to my knowledge, there is a vast expanse of land. It’s larger than both Triots and Delitzdamer combined.
I’ll say it again. What the fuck?
Check the title. Zelmbeck’s Chronicle of the Rise of … Zelmbeck? I don’t know any country by that name. A chill ran down my spine.
“You know the Ancient Kingdom.”
What? Yes. It’s a country with amazing technology that was once destroyed by the Demon Lord.
Do you know the name of that country?
“Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
I couldn’t help but ask Lily, and I think she’s right. I don’t know. I don’t remember learning it from my tutor or at school. In fact, I don’t remember ever hearing about it. I’ve always just thought of it as the Ancient Kingdom.
I wonder if it’s because of the evil influence of the original magic as old Uwe said that I didn’t try to know the name of the country… But is it a coincidence that I didn’t care about the name of the country? If the evil influence of the Primeval Magic comes from the Demon King… then there might be something about the ancient kingdom that would make it difficult for us to find out more about it.
If that’s the case… then there’s a good chance that this Zermunbek that’s never been mentioned before is either an ancient kingdom itself or its predecessor. Since we can’t even be sure that it’s an ancient kingdom at this stage, let’s call it the prehistory of the ancient kingdom.
Where’d you get this?
It’s on the back shelf over here.
The area I pointed to on Lily’s library map is a shelf that’s not hidden, but it’s tucked away from the entrance and in the shadows. It is a place where you would not see it unless you were looking for it very carefully. It seems that this book is one of the books in the stacks that I can’t discard, but I don’t want it to be seen too much.
“Lily, you’re free to read your book now. I’m gonna read this book.”
“Very well. I’ll put this book on magic away.”
Please.
I open the book from the beginning with a blank stare. The first part of the book is a typical foundation myth. The first part of the book is a typical founding myth: a charismatic first king who was favored by the god of beauty and founded a country with his followers, or a neighboring country, maybe a settlement, but anyway, he expanded his territory while fighting against them. Skip over that part.
There have been civil wars and wars with neighboring countries for generations, and as I read on, thinking that it is no different in any other world, I realize that just before the unification of the whole country, the country was literally in a state of North and South Dynasty. It seems that the north and south countries had been running side by side since around Finoi.
Was there ever a river big enough to be marked on a map here? I don’t remember any. Let’s leave the question as a question and move on.
And Zermunbeck is in the north of the continent, and in this book written from that point of view, the king of Walbach in the south is a false king. He is written as a cruel, lustful, and evil king, but that’s only half of the story. At any rate, it is a land of men, and it is certainly not written as a demon king.
That means that most of the area where the country of Zermunbek used to be is now under the sea. I’m sure this will cause a great deal of trouble for the treasure hunter type adventurers… If we can find a way to explore underwater…
And that means that the present continent as I know it was the territory of the Southern Valbachs. Of course, I’m not sure that only the southern territories are still in existence, but what does this mean?
I’ll leave that aside for now. What I was wondering about is that there is no description of magic in the book.
If magic is an invention, I’m not sure if it should be called invention or not, but anyway, if humans have acquired a technology called magic, it should be mentioned with the inventor’s name. This book doesn’t have it.
So either the humans of this world had magic from the beginning and didn’t have to pay special attention to it, or there was no magic in the time of the unification process that seems to have been before this ancient kingdom. This leads us to the question of what magic is, after all.
The other is that there are some descriptions like a disaster here and there. However, the scale of the disaster is not clear and the reasons are not described in detail.
This is a common thing, but records of wars are written in the records until the unification of the dynasties, but records of disasters are not written unless they are of great scale. It would be too obvious to say that the page would be filled up with the description of the wars, so we can’t write anything unnecessary.
But in extreme cases, there might be crop failure or famine because of the war, so I don’t know if this is a natural disaster or not. If there is a book that describes this period in more detail, we might be able to find it. Or maybe there are some diaries of noblemen in this period.
What I’m curious about is the description of “Fortress of Finoi”. Was Finoi a fortress at that time? If so, there must be a reason why it was called the Great Temple. I need to look into this matter a little more, but I guess that’s all for this book.
I said I would read this, but it doesn’t seem like there is more information in this book that I want. I wonder if there will be a second volume.
When I looked up, the books on my desk were clean off and Lily was gone. She seems to have put them all away while I was concentrating. I decide to go look for the rest of the book and head for the shelves in the back. It’s dark in here, probably because the light doesn’t reach the shelves.
I mean, it’s one thing to have Lily on the shelves, but…
“Lily.”
Oh, yes. Is there something wrong?
“No, uh, this book is for that space up there. I’ll get a stepladder.”
Yeah, don’t sit on the stepladder and read. It’s dark and dangerous.
Lily comes down, blushing, with a book in her hand and says she’s sorry. I’m not a screw-up, so no lucky break. No, it doesn’t matter.
What were you reading?
“Well, it’s a book of fairy tales with beautiful pictures. The village priest told me stories I’d never heard before.”
“Heh.”
I thought it was more of a picture book but there aren’t usually any picture books in villages. The fact that he said it’s from the village priest makes me think it’s a religious book. I’ve had him look for religious books too.
I don’t mean to sound like this, but priests who are assigned to a village may be a mixture of the best and the worst, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they are only giving a general talk. It is the same in the past life, but the same textbook is influenced by the ability of the teacher.
I’m not sure I remember anything about religion because I wasn’t interested in it. I’m not sure what kind of a good story I remember from the temple. I move the stepladder and open my mouth as a splicing of the story.
“What did it say?”
“I was just reading a story about a time when there was a flower god who used to teach herbs to hunters…”
Wait a minute. The flower god?
“Yes.”
I’ve never heard of such a god. I mean, this world is supposed to be monotheistic.
