Flip!
Lyla turned to the next page. It was a tattered-looking page that seemed like it would crumble at the slightest touch and displayed the many years it had endured. If she placed even a little more pressure on these pages, it looked like they would crumble and ruin all the countless letters that had laid there for ages. Thus, she turned the pages very carefully.
She was in an area where light softly seeped in. It was an area where sunlight didn’t reach and needed to be lit by an artificial light even in broad daylight. Thus, several candles shone in the area on top of a long desk.
Thump! She closed the book. Dust flew out, and Lyla waved the cloud of dust away with her hands. Then, she glanced at the book’s cover. She could feel its rough, worn-out leather cover that had lasted for centuries.
“Did you find anything?” She heard a voice from behind, and Lyla turned her head away from the book she was reading. Zich was walking towards her.
“You came?”
“I heard that you’ve been here since the early morning and came to check. I guess you really are a mage who can’t control her curiosity.”
“Is that something you should be saying?”
Although it was true that Lyla had been in the library since the morning, it was still pretty early in the day. Zich shrugged and sat in front of her.
“How’s your injury?”
Zich had been severely wounded in the last battle. His injuries weren’t at a level where they threatened his life or gave him long-lasting symptoms, but he couldn’t let them be either.
“I’m fine. If I wasn’t fine after gulping down so many potions, I would’ve gone to the Karuwimans to complain.”
“If it’s you, I am afraid that you might really do that.”
Even against the Karuwimans, Zich seemed like he would brazenly nitpick about a product he bought and argue about it like a common thug. However, Zich shook his head. “It’s a joke, a joke. I don’t really plan to do that and have no intention of acting rashly against those guys.”
When the Tasnia’s Killing Machine and the Saint were keeping their place with their eyes wide open, Zich didn’t want to oppose the Karuwimans.
At Zich’s half-joking and half-serious response, Lyla chuckled before saying, “By the way, I didn’t think that you would be so injured after your one-sided battle against the fire giant. It was really surprising.”
“Like I said before, I wasn’t injured because of Renu.”
The reason for Zich’s injury was his own mana. Although he was aware of it to a certain degree, he became drunk by the power that he had missed for so long that he forgot to look after his own body. The immense mana that his body wasn’t used to had become an explosion that ravaged his opponent but bared its fangs at its owner too.
“It was thrilling though. Every time I let out a burst of mana, I felt like each and every vein in my body was bursting. The result was spectacular too.”
“I thought so too, but do you have a masochist side?” Lyla looked taken aback and pushed her chair slightly back.
Zich waved his hand and replied, “I’m just saying that’s how much I enjoyed using my original mana. I don’t enjoy pain or getting tormented. It’s the opposite really.”
“Well, that’s true…” At Zich’s extremely convincing words, Lyla didn’t retort and dragged her chair forward again.
Then, Zich glanced at the books in front of Lyla and asked, “Did you find out anything?”
“No, nothing yet.”
“What do you mean nothing yet?” Zich looked around the surroundings and said, “Would you ever be able to find anything anyway?” Zich asked this question because the place they were in was the library inside Mentis called Kalpunar.
The library was one of the main reasons why they decided to participate in this war. This building was a place where they could gain information relating to Lyla’s memories, the ancient empire, Windur, and so on. They also had already gotten permission to enter the library since there was no king who would refuse an easy request from the Great Adrowon Forest’s savior.
When Zich and his companions first came to this library, it was clear that they would have to stay there for a while. They had expected it since it was a library where elves with long lives stored books for a long time.
‘This is beyond my imagination.’
When they went inside Kalpunar and personally saw the collection of books, they realized their past expectations had been too light. Usually, the thought of a library invoked an image of a wall connected by shelves, filled with books from corner to corner. Kalpunar was different. When Dronian said that Kalpunar was ‘nothing more than a place where they stored their ancestor’s books,’ he hadn’t been exaggerating.
The books weren’t even categorized or placed on shelves. Piles of books, irregularly stacked on top of another with no order, took up huge areas of space. Besides a narrow path for people to walk around on, all areas were filled with books piled up to the ceiling. The most alarming part of this was that there were four more areas like this leading to the basement. In short, Zich and his companions had to find the book they were looking for among five floors of randomly stacked piles of books. In addition to this, there was no guarantee that Kalpunar would have the book they were looking for.
“I have to look for a method.” Lyla also didn’t have a special measure for searching. She simply thought she should skim through one more book until she thought of a measure. She pushed aside the book she just checked and took out a new book from her personal pile. Then, she flipped through the book’s pages.
Zich peeked into the book she was reading and saw that he didn’t recognize the letters.
“Do you know how to read them?”
“No, even with my knowledge, I don’t know everything. We are looking for something that is probably related to the ancient empire, so I am just looking for something similar to that.”
Lyla took out a piece of paper from her magic box. It was a copy she made of the letters from the tomb in Violuwin.
“This is not it.” Lyla pushed away the book she was holding and picked out another book.
Her gaze moved towards the back of the library, and she let out a sigh. At the overwhelming number of books, even Lyla felt unsure that she would find the information she needed.
Zich picked up a book and said, “There’s no need for you to hurry? It’s not like there’s something going on.”
However, Lyla countered his statement. “We can’t stay here forever. Most of all, you might get bored.”
“You’re concerned for me? Wow, I’m really touched. I think tears are about to come out.” Zich pressed down his eyelids. Of course, there was no trace of a tear.
“It’s because you gave it up.”
“Huh?”
Lyla did not move her eyes away from the book she was holding. “You followed my suggestion to not become a Demon Lord, at least temporarily. So I should match you as much as possible.”
Zich had no idea that Lyla was thinking this way.
“What? Why do you keep staring?”
“No, it’s because I’m a bit surprised.”
“What are you so surprised about? Since you’re listening to my request right now, I should give something to you as well so that it’ll be balanced. If you ever need something in the future, tell me. I’ll do my best to help you. Well, about that…” Lyla made a slightly uncomfortable expression and added, “Weird hobby you have. I can also help you with that, so feel free to ask me for help.”
The only hobby that Lyla might find distasteful popped up in Zich’s mind. Zich smiled mischievously. “What, you also want to torture people like me? Well, if you’re interested, how can I just ignore it? I will first tell you about the ways you can find what your subjects hate—"
“I’m not interested in that, you idiot!” Lyla was about to throw the book in her hand, but she flinched. It was not her book, and it was also a very old book. If she carelessly threw it, the book might get damaged. She carefully put down the book and kicked Zich’s shin while he was cackling by himself.
* * *
Zich and Lyla left Kalpunar at around lunch time. Zich had to force Lyla, who wanted to continue searching through books, out of the library to eat lunch. Underneath the bright sun, Mentis was full of life. A large number of soldiers wandered all over the island. However, the atmosphere surrounding the soldiers was not very good—this was usually the case when dealing with the aftermath of a war.
The horrifying corpses of their recent comrades were sprawled all over the ground. Their fellow soldiers closed the corpses’ eyes—their eyes were wide open as if they were cursing the world. This same sight could be seen all over the island. Zich and Lyla quietly walked past them.
“Where are we going?”
“To the castle. I mean, the atmosphere here is too heavy to have a meal.”
“What? You had a sensitive side like this after all?”
“Even if I’m not sensitive to other people’s moods, this is common sense.”
“…I can’t believe the word ‘common sense’ just came out of your mouth.” Lyla closed her mouth and looked at Zich with trembling eyes. Her eyes looked more surprised than when she first saw the fire giant.
Zich did not say anything. It was Lyla’s win this time. “What about Hans and Snoc?”
“They said they wanted to help clean up, so I gave them permission to do so.”
“They are really kind kids.”
“If they want to be heroes in the future, they have to be at least that level.”
“Then what about you?”
“Other people are going to help clean up. Why do I have such a troublesome job?” As expected, Zich was Zich.
They both arrived at the castle. The guards protecting the castle saw them and opened the door. All the elves knew who Zich and Lyla were, especially Zich; and the elves looked at him with both admiration and fear. The sight of him defeating the fire giant left a deep and shocking impression on them.
Zich and Lyla went inside the castle and finished a simple meal. The castle was currently being used as a commanding base, but the Plain Tribe King and the other officers were outside the castle cleaning up the aftermath of the war.
However, not every important figure was outside the castle.
“Ah, the two of you were here.”
Zich was taking a bite of his bread, and Lyla was taking a spoonful from her soup as they both looked towards the direction of the sound at the same time. Romanne, the Lake Tribe’s shaman, was standing there.
“Can I eat with the two of you?”
“Of course.” Zich got up and moved a chair for Romanne to sit on. Romanne thanked him and ordered food from the kitchen.
“Was everything all right in Kalpunar?”
At her question, Zich and Lyla looked at each other, and then shook their heads at the same time.
Romanne made a bitter smile—she understood their struggles. “We also gave up on finding specific information from that place. Just wait a little bit. I don’t know how much we can help, but if we clean up the aftermath of the war somewhat, we’ll be able to send elves to help you two.”
“Ah, thank you.” There was no need for them to refuse politely. Lyla desperately needed the support, so she easily accepted Romanne’s kind offer.
“Yeah, it’s no problem at all. We should at least do this much to people who helped the elves in the Great Adrowon Forest. But Ms. Lyla, would I be able to get a bit more help from you?”
“What kind of help?”
“We’ve decided to move the Lake’s Tear back to Mentis again.”
Zich added, “It must be because of the fire tree.”
Romanne agreed with Zich’s words. “Yes. The Plain Tribe King made the official suggestion. By moving the Lake’s Tear to Mentis, we can suppress the fire tree in case it goes berserk.”
The King of the Plain Tribe, who was the commander of the allied forces, stated that the fire tree was at the highest danger level. Therefore, he made the suggestion to the other kings to move the Lake’s Tear to Mentis, and the kings agreed.