A Brief Rest
Lois looked around the room. It was spacious.
The bookshelves were filled to the brim, yet everything was neatly arranged.
Indeed, it was a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
After a long time away, returning to the house that had been properly cleaned made him feel a bit irritated.
“So, what’s here?”
“This.”
On the desk lay a note that read, ‘I hope you find this properly.’ It was a simple phrase, yet it carried profound meaning.
Upon reading the words, Lois furrowed his brow and took the paper from Olivia, reading its contents once more.
“I hope you find this properly.”
Was she hoping for someone to find something?
“You know, this is probably something Lois wrote.”
“How do you know that?”
“This is probably some kind of riddle. She wants you to find it with a hint. I can’t do that delicate work. But Rayna knows you’re here with me.”
“So, you think that if Lois is here, he might find it?”
She didn’t realize how highly she thought of him.
There was no trust between him and Rayna that could be called such; they were merely remnants of the chaotic Olivia Reinhardt at the time.
There was no inner closeness, but they weren’t in an awkward relationship where they didn’t speak at all. But if asked if they were close, it was a subtle one.
“Is this note on this desk?”
“Yes.”
His hand naturally moved toward the drawer, and upon opening it, he found a note hastily scribbled with characters. It must have been urgent or perhaps he lacked mental space.
Slowly picking up the note, he saw an arrangement.
“What is this? 4-1, 4-24, 4-32…… What is it?”
“A cipher?”
“No, while it is technically a cipher, it’s not that difficult.”
“You already know the answer?”
Olivia said with a slight start, but this was a riddle, and anyone who entered this room and found this note could easily solve it.
He pointed to the book with his finger.
“The bookshelf? Ah, I see.”
“The bookshelves are numbered too?”
Probably classified by genre.
How thorough it was; series were organized, and colors were even matched. It seemed like it was on the verge of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but at this level, it was probably just that.
He slowly approached and pulled out the first book of the 4th shelf, the 24th, and the 32nd.
Then, a whooshing sound echoed.
“Magic?”
The bookshelf slowly came forward and opened like a door.
“A secret door.”
“I used to dream of it in my childhood. A secret room of my own.”
“Did Lois dream of it too?”
“Who doesn’t have childhood dreams?”
“Lois, what should I say? He was probably Lois from the moment he was born.”
Praise?
Or an insult?
It was subtle.
“Let’s go in.”
Inside, it was a secret room, yet it was clean.
Normally, a secret room would be dimly lit with dust, but that wasn’t the case here.
No romance.
Anyway.
Another note was placed there.
“Is this a letter this time?”
“No, like before, it’s a number arrangement. But one more has been added.”
“Where…… 1-14-3-24, 4-23-988-33…… Suddenly the numbers jump up, 988?”
“……Perhaps it’s page numbers.”
“Ah, 988 pages?”
“I think so. It’s quite long. Let’s bring the books with the numbers written on them.”
“Understood.”
We scattered and gathered the books with the written numbers.
If they hid it this way, there was a high possibility that information was concealed.
But what the information was, no one knew.
Let’s try it anyway.
“I found it.”
“Shall I turn the page?”
“If the third is the page, what is the fourth?”
“Probably from the first sentence, which sentence…… I think.”
“I see.”
“From now on, please read them in order? I’ll write them down.”
“Understood.”
Lois and Sylphy took turns reading the characters on the books in order, and the sentences were completed.
Since they had to find them one by one, it was inevitable that it would take some time.
“Yes, that’s the last one from what I said just now.”
“If I connect all these sentences.”
A.l.e.x. is in E.r.k.i.a.
“Alex is in Erkia?”
Erkia was the City of Water, the place where the Human Alliance conference would be held in a few months.
She had heard the story from Titania, but since there was no conclusive evidence yet, she was wondering if they should set it as the destination.
“Does that mean Alex has come to Erkia?”
“If Rayna didn’t lie.”
“She wouldn’t have…….”
Olivia said with a slightly sad tone.
“But even if Rayna didn’t know, would Alex have honestly said it? The possibility of false information…….”
“No, it’s low.”
“Want to hear the reason?”
“If the previous attack was really Alex’s doing, Alex would have wanted to kill Olivia. There was even a curse, and he sent two Demon King Army Cadres after the Wyvern army.”
They even used some unknown power called the Power of the Evil God to suddenly gain immense strength.
“Most importantly, Rayna has a Geas. It’s possible he said it fully.”
“Hmm, it would have been better if he wrote more detailed information.”
“Because he was under the Geas…… In fact, even such indirect actions must have hurt his throat a lot. He could barely hold on, but the pain would have continued. Moreover, it doesn’t end there.”
“It doesn’t end with that?”
“A Geas is like a rule of the world…… Moreover, when we checked Rayna’s corpse, it was a Geas that wasn’t used even on slaves. It’s inhumane.”
At the very least, slaves had to be guaranteed consciousness, and the slavery system required that they not be treated properly in front of people.
Yet, placing a powerful Geas on her neck that wasn’t even placed on slaves allowed us to understand how Alex treated Rayna.
“Therefore.”
“Therefore?”
“Leaving such indirect evidence would have been painful, and if someone found that indirect evidence and reached the truth.”
“No way.”
“The Geas on Rayna killed Rayna. So, the Geas is a thing that even the gods’ restraints can’t hear. Moreover, this is the highest intensity Geas. As I said, even this intensity of Geas isn’t used on slaves.”
At this point, even if Alex wanted to break the conditions he set, the absurd pain would prevent him from speaking, and even writing would be impossible.
It was also possible that Alex managed to take a way to barely avoid the conditions he set.
“In other words, this information was made by Rayna in preparation for when she would die.”
“When she dies?”
“Because a Geas doesn’t work on the dead.”
Or perhaps she was prepared to die and tried to convey the information somehow.
For example, inviting us to her house and deliberately showing it.
Through such a method, even if she didn’t die, she could show the information somehow, but if this leads to the truth, she must die.
Rayna did her best to die with some justice.
Her hands, already tainted by evil, couldn’t completely lose the blood no matter how hard she tried, but her final act must have had a great impact on Lois’s heart.
Olivia recalled the complex expression on her face as she cursed Rayna.
“She released the information on the line that didn’t cross the line in her view.”
“Even with such a complicated and inefficient way, the Geas can’t be avoided…… Is it that I can’t write things like ‘Alex Reynolds is a Death God Cult’ or ‘Alex Reynolds is allied with monsters’?”
“He must have been aware of it.”
Originally, it was questionable if he knew that much detail.
Even if he knew, he might not have realized it after creating this information.
“……”
Olivia made a subtle expression and sighed.
“The next destination is decided.”
“The City of Water, Erkia.”
“After the forest, it’s water, not a trip to enjoy nature……”
Ideally, they wanted to find the Elixir before that and heal Olivia’s body, but it wasn’t easy to obtain.
Moreover, the number of people who could make it was very limited.
Erkia could be reached in three months if rushed. The problem was whether to take Olivia there as is.
It felt like they had to obtain the Elixir no matter what.
But instead of trusting this intuition, it might be important to quickly arrive and assess the situation and atmosphere.
“Since we’ve found it, let’s organize and go rest a bit. Lois especially needs to rest.”
“Thanks to the Spirit Summoner’s regeneration ability, there’s no big problem…… Well, since there’s nothing to do, I’ll follow that.”
“Shall I nurse you?”
“Looking at your current condition, you need nursing.”
“I’ve always been nursed by Lois, and I shouldn’t think like this.”
“What?”
“I feel a bit uneasy thinking that if I recover, you won’t nurse me.”
“You’re having thoughts that shouldn’t be done.”
“I wish you had told me more honestly.”
“Hmm?”
“Why? Sylphy?”
“No, someone has entered the forest.”
“……”
“……”
Lois and Olivia both widened their eyes at the same time.
“How did you know that?”
“Huh? Now that I think about it, how did you know? Somehow……”
It seemed that the King of the Elves, who had become the ruler of the forest, had heightened senses because he could receive the protection of the forest.
Unless they tried to hide it blatantly or the World Tree’s state was bad like recently, they could generally detect it.
In other words.
“Ah, um……”
Sylphy also grabbed Olivia’s shoulder around the time he felt the sensation.
“As expected, Titania…… No, it should be Oberon.”
“No! No! I haven’t inherited it yet, and awakening such abilities is troublesome!”
The King of the Elves had the Meteor Bow made from the World Tree.
Hmm.
It seemed that the World Tree had already marked him as ‘you are the next king’.