Enoch calmly told Rosenta everything he knew.
And her suspicions were confirmed.
"Then what I saw...….”
It was certain that she’d seen Hiorin.
But that didn't answer all her questions.
Emma, Anna, and Hiorin.
This created a more complicated question.
About their former master, for example.
"No way."
She couldn’t believe it could be true.
‘Yeah. He can't be alive...….’
"There's a possibility."
Enoch shattered her denial in one fell swoop.
He even blocked every possibility of escape so that she could no longer deny it.
"He's very loyal. How could such a person, who somehow managed to survive alone, live without any worries? Without even appearing before you?"
Enoch was right.
There was nothing else to be said. Her head was spinning.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
To be honest, she didn't have any plausible alternative hypotheses or explanations.
There was no way around it.
If you connect these different points, there's only one vertex.
Caligo Estella, her father.
***
When she closed her eyes without saying anything, Enoch pushed her into the bathroom and told her to wash up.
She didn’t know if she’d managed to wash up properly but, somehow, she managed to get out safely.
Then, Enoch semi-forced her to lie down on the bed.
"What about...….”
"So, think about it later, but first, let’s relieve today's fatigue."
Enoch was trying to put her to sleep as though he were dealing with a whining child.
For a moment, she was dumbfounded.
A hollow laugh escaped her lips, but she closed her eyes as he told her to.
Of course, she didn't really intend to sleep.
She was going to close her eyes for a moment and organize the thoughts she hadn’t been able to earlier.
A big hand covered her forehead as though he’d noticed her plan.
Soon she heard Enoch's voice.
"Trust me and sleep."
He didn't cast a spell on her.
But her thoughts suddenly stopped and, strangely, a tired sleep came over her.
She tried to resist at first, but...….
Finally, she couldn't overcome the tiredness and fell asleep.
‘How much time has passed?’
"Magic Tower Lord, I've been contacted."
For some reason, Rosa’s bedside was noisy.
Obviously, her eyes were closed, but she could hear their conversation.
There were two familiar voices.
"You found the granddaughter?"
"Yes. We missed the old woman, but we found the granddaughter in the mansion."
‘Old woman? Granddaughter?’
It felt like something was going to come to mind.
But she was so sleepy that she couldn’t think of anything. She was sure she wouldn’t remember anything when she woke up.
That's just how dreams were.
"Did she talk?"
Rosa felt a hand running through her hair along with a languid voice.
It was a pleasant touch.
The touch was gentle so as not to wake her up.
"No. Rather, she tried to take poison and commit suicide...….”
"Tsk."
He firmly cut off his words and clicked his tongue. Then he removed the hand that was touching her head.
The mattress shifted for a moment.
Someone must have moved their body because the area near where she was lying had fluctuated greatly.
The conversation sounded more muted.
"Still, she is being held, unhurt, in the tower’s jail. Also, we will expand our search based on what we found in the mansion this time. Don't worry, the search is getting narrower."
“……It'll be over soon."
"Yes, I think it will be over soon."
The more she listened, the fewer thoughts she had.
The voices were like a lullaby.
Especially when she heard their voices quietly whispering, she continued to fall deeper into sleep.
"Magic Tower Lord, I know it will be hard for you to leave again, but you have to go now...….”
"Yes, I should leave."
‘Leave? Where?’
She didn’t have the presence of mind to ask the question. Rosa was gradually losing consciousness.
Even her hearing was fading.
The bed shifted slightly, and she felt a hand stroking the hair on her forehead.
She heard his voice in her ear along with his warm breath.
"I'll be back, Rosa."
Her mind suddenly went blank.
New Chapter
When she opened her eyes, Enoch was nowhere to be found.
He had already disappeared like a puff of smoke, without leaving a trace.
‘Oh, come to think of it, I vaguely remember hearing Enoch last night..…. Was it a dream?
"I guess it was a dream."
‘I was so tired that I slept restlessly and had a dream.’
‘Well, after what I heard yesterday, there's no way I could sleep comfortably.’
Yesterday's conversation came to mind again.
For a moment, she felt a huge pressure, as if the air surrounding her was pressing all over her body.
“……I need to sort this out first."
She headed straight to the basement.
She intended to review everything she knew from the original story.
She was looking for details that felt unnatural or sudden.
As a result, a few words were circled dozens of times.
The appearance of the saint, the sudden appearance of disasters, etc.
In particular, the words that touched a nerve the most were the words "Successive Deaths of the Emperor and Father."
"You wouldn't have done something this bad. You're not a person who goes that far...….”
She couldn’t bring herself to say anything bad about him.
Actually, she knew very well how cold Caligo was. Because he was her father.
Even to her, his only child, he had never given affection, and he had always kept a certain distance from her.
‘Especially towards me...….’
"There were a lot of things that you didn't tell me."
As soon as she said that her eyes drifted to the bookshelf.
He kept his innumerable knowledge hidden. He only taught her the basics of ‘speech’.
"If, just if...….”
She stopped talking, bit her lip, and closed her eyes.
She clenched her fists on the table. Her nails dug into her flesh, but she couldn’t even think about opening her fists.
This was because a terrible thought was constantly playing in her head.
‘Father Killing the Emperor...….’
"Shit!"
Eventually, she jumped out of her seat while cursing.
She couldn't just sit there blindly speculating while waiting for Enoch.
She had to do something.
"Magic space."
The reason why she suddenly summoned her magic space was to take out a book.
A book wrapped in a chain.
The only book, out of all the books, she couldn't open.
"I'll have to open it no matter what."
She’d read the other books so much that she was at her limit.
However, even in those books, there was no description of how to open the chained book or any related content.
But she couldn't give up. She’d have to do something.
She tried to break the chains, and she tried to slip her hands between the pages as if she were going to tear it.
It was all useless.
The only thing that came out of these efforts was her being out of breath.
"Whew."
She banged the book against the corner of the table, determined to destroy it.
With a stubborn and determined mindset, she had decided that the chain would be broken, even if it was by force.
"Ugh!"
She ended up with the corner the pages stuck under her thumb nail. It was painful as it dug in.
She quickly put the book on the table and checked the injured thumb.
She saw red blood under her nails. Then, blood began to flow through a crack in the nail.
She roughly wiped the blood off onto a piece of paper.
"Oh, here too...….”
Then, she found some blood near the chain.
She lifted the paper she had just used to wipe the blood.
Outside the hidden basement at that time.
Someone began to call her anxiously. The voice sounded distant, but she immediately noticed.
"Duke!"
It was Edmund.
He kept calling her, while out of breath, as if he had run.
"Duke! Whew, are you inside? You should see this!"
Bang, bang.
There was also a sound that sounded more like a bang than a knock.
"Duke?"
She couldn't answer anything because she was in the cellar.
So, Edmund seemed to think there was no one in the bedroom. Soon all the sound stopped.
Instead, she soon heard the sound of running and powerful footsteps.
‘What's going on?’
It wasn’t like Edmund, who valued rules and etiquette.
She looked down at the book for a moment.
This matter was also urgent, but there was no immediate solution.
“……Let's go on with life as usual."
She murmured as if she were determined.
‘If you cling to one detail, you won't be able to see your surroundings.’
If one carried on working hard, information would be found in unexpected places.
"This book...… I guess I can leave it be."
She was considering putting the book in the drawer, but she ended up just leaving it on the table.
‘It doesn't matter.’
‘I'll just try opening this book again when I come back to the basement.’
***
The cellar where Rosenta left.
The lanterns that lit up the space were all extinguished, so there was nothing that could be seen.
Darkness's own cellar, where there was no sound.
But then a strange sound like metal clashing range out.
Clang, clang.
The sound persisted for quite some time.
Then, after the final sound, no noise was heard.
No, the sound was just faint.
This time, it was just a lighter and smaller sound than before.
Rustleeee.
It was the sound of pages turning.
Starting with the sound, a subtle light began to leak out of a book on the desk.
A book bound with a chain...….
No, it was an unchained book. On top of that, the pages were turning by themselves.
The book turned to the last page, and the cover snapped shut.
Snap.
Even the faint light disappeared. Darkness returned to the cellar.