By Zephyria Leonardo approached the grandfather clock as if possessed. The main castle itself was shaped like an overturned bell, so the low and heavy sound spread widely along the curved walls and ceiling.
The bell stopped ringing only after it had rung exactly four times. Nevertheless, the lingering vibrations and aftershocks remained for quite some time, tingling from his legs all the way to his scalp.
Because of that, Leonardo couldn’t open the glass case for a while, not until the world inside the clock, swaying with the force of the pendulum, had completely stopped.
Belatedly, he grabbed the canary figurine that was trying to hide behind the clock parts and carefully removed the note tied to its beak. As he unfolded the vertically folded paper, he felt a sense of familiarity in the texture that brushed against his fingertips.
The material was similar to the note in the glass bottle that Kenneth had given him, saying he had received it from the scholar.
As expected, this note also had plenty of blank space, but the content was completely invisible.
‘He never gives anything easily.’
Clicking his tongue, Leonardo began to meticulously apply heat to the paper with his fingertips, just like before. He was almost grateful that the same method of concealment had been used.
Holding the edge of the paper, he slowly swept the surface horizontally. The white letters within the yellowish paper gradually began to appear.
The first word he had anticipated was not so welcome.
Too late.
Leonardo’s brow furrowed deeply. It wasn’t as if he had set a specific date or left a detailed address. He was at a loss for words at the audacity of someone who would tell a person who had gone through so much trouble to find him that he was late.
On the other hand, he was also anxious that the guy might have left only this and disappeared. It wasn’t as if there was no way to find him, but the guy’s intentions were so inscrutable that he didn’t know how he might cut off the connection and run away.
But the next sentence immediately corrected his scattering focus.
But since you’ve gone through so much trouble to get here, I’ll tell you about a gift.
“A gift?”
It felt like he had seen and heard the word ‘gift’ a lot in the past few days. Since it was a gift from that guy, he couldn’t help but suspect it might be dangerous.
It won’t harm you, so don’t be wary.
As if reading his thoughts in real-time, the guy smirked through the letters in the note. The veins stood out on the back of his clenched hand, but he had been played around with so much that he didn’t even feel annoyed anymore. Leonardo diligently scanned the next part.
‘But usually, you say you’re going to “give” a gift, so what’s with “tell you about”?’
Could it be that there was another gift besides this Romance, nature, and earth that someone was giving to the Sun King?
With that question in mind, he placed his palm on the entire note and applied heat, making the remaining letters clearer. Contrary to his expectation that the tiny letters would be densely packed, this content was quite simple.
Open the box. It will be very interesting.
Let’s meet in the clock room next time, pretty boy.
“What the hell is this nonsense?”
Perhaps anticipating that he would be late, he had already chosen another destination. There were no further sentences. He reflexively distorted his expression, but his gaze shifted to the unidentified object that had fallen under the glass case earlier.
Perched precariously among the decorative wooden pieces was a luxurious, rectangular box. If you didn’t look closely, it could easily be mistaken for a part of the grandfather clock. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was the object that had cursed the innkeeper in the rumors, before readily reaching out to touch it.
But didn’t the note say it wouldn’t harm him? There was nothing more foolish than trusting the scholar, but having come this far, his desire to shake off the frustration was stronger. After hesitating, Leonardo reached out again and took out the small, elongated box. Before he could even figure out how to open it, the lid clicked open.
What spilled out from inside was an old scroll.
“Uh—.”
There wasn’t even time to gather it up. The scroll that had fallen to the floor rolled out on its own, leaving a long, winding trail in the space.
Lest it fall into the water’s edge, Leonardo hurriedly grabbed the end and pulled it. Even though most of the surface had already unfolded, it caught on the columns of the Romance model, thankfully avoiding getting wet.
On the trail that had barely stopped, strange records were revealed. Geometric characters and bizarre drawings filled the parchment covered with silk. It looked to be at least 4 to 5 meters long.
Next to the shapes of the Magic Circles scattered here and there were mathematically calculated angle slashes and their corresponding proofs.
Leonardo’s eyes narrowed. It was the first time he had seen it, but it was familiar in many ways.
The characters in the scroll were a mixture of Ancient Language that he had deciphered so far, and even hieroglyphs that could only be seen by going back even further in time. In some of the content that decorated the beginning, stimulating words that could be used to infer its identity caught his eye.
Leonardo instinctively moved his Adam’s apple. Goosebumps gradually rose like needles along his arms and spine. Then, his gaze stopped at a drawing that meticulously depicted a human heart.
Beneath it, red letters were inscribed.
“Resurrection, Equivalent Exchange….”
There was no doubt. It was ‘Forbidden magic’.
In addition to the magic he often used to change his appearance, there was still magic in this world that had been outwardly discarded under the pretext of causing social chaos. The golden ring that Alec Siles and he had used when making their contract was also one of them.
The restraint that Nero had engraved on Felix Montero of the Central Branch’s 3rd Division’s tongue to control his speech, or the magic that forcibly impregnated ‘life’ that could not be born by the laws of nature, was also the same.
And this one in his hand was probably resurrection magic. In other words, it seemed to be related to the method of reviving the dead. It was one of the most vicious of the Forbidden magic.
So… someone in the past had tried to revive Theodore? Or, if this belonged to Theodore, was he looking for a way to revive someone?
He couldn’t completely understand the contents of the scroll right away, but he could guess that it would cause a great ripple if it became known to the world. Before that, his heart was pounding with an indescribable sense of anticipation.
The faces of those he had wanted to save, the faces he missed, quickly passed through his mind.
But forbidden things stimulate intense curiosity and possessiveness, and at the same time, they always carry risks as a source of unverified power. Even the magic to change one’s appearance was often regarded as a convenient means to hide one’s identity, but in reality, it also had a great risk: if the caster forgot their original appearance, they could no longer return to their own face.
In other words, to save someone, you might have to pay a corresponding price. Moreover, to revive the dead. It was uncertain whether that magic, which was everyone’s dream and curse, was truly feasible. Not all theories are actually implemented.
When his thoughts reached that point, his head, which had been about to heat up, quickly regained its reason. On the other hand, he wondered how Alec Siles knew about this, why he had dragged him to such a place to show him this, and what the guy wanted to gain by doing so. Unresolved questions tangled like a skein of thread.
Among them, the most fundamental question arose.
‘Am I allowed to see this?’
Leonardo knelt down on one knee and scanned the contents of the faded parchment, holding his breath. If this was truly a ‘gift’ for Theodore, it was something he shouldn’t touch carelessly. He didn’t want to intercept a gift that clearly had an owner and incur the resentment of the Sun King, who was said to be the most powerful in Laina’s history.
The reason why Alec Siles had dragged him in might also be a trick to experiment with what would happen if someone else tried to steal the relics in the castle.
Even so, if that scroll continued to haunt his eyes, he would surely decipher the contents and learn how to use it. He would try to compare the price of resurrection with the value of the life to be revived.
He had no confidence that he would be whole at the end of it.
After hesitating, Leonardo stirred up the wind from his fingertips. He floated the entire scroll in the air, wrapped the drooping silk around it, and returned it to its original form.
The scroll, once again carefully placed in the box, was gently placed on the pedestal of the grandfather clock with its ornate patterns. His sunken Gold Eyes stared intently at it.
His twitching fingertips fueled his desire, but his desire not to be swayed by the scholar anymore also coexisted. And… he felt strangely afraid. Was it because he had received too much information in a short period of time? His head had been hurting since earlier, and he felt a strange sense of incongruity from everything in the space.
Leonardo swept back his fallen hair and reached out to the Divine Beast.
“Let’s go.”
At that moment, the Divine Beasts he had sent with Signe returned to the Magic Power inside his body.