Chapter 35
“Young Lady, where have you been? You disappeared and gave me such a fright.”
“Over dere. Picked flowers! Pwetty flowers!”
On a day just before I turned four, I pointed toward the flower bed with my little finger.
“You have to hold my hand tightly at all times, alright?”
I could understand why Maya was making such a fuss.
If something happened to me, her life would be in danger. Thinking that made me feel sorry for her.
“Mm-hm.”
The truth was, the “went to the flower bed” story was a lie.
A special zone alert had appeared again, and after hesitating for a bit, I went in briefly.
From Maya’s perspective, it must have looked like I vanished the moment I let go of her hand.
Anyway, inside that room, I found a threatening letter in the notebook I’d seen last time.
Come again and they’ll find me no matter what? Judging from that threatening tone, the owner of the room was clearly a cranky person who didn’t know the meaning of leisure.
The handwriting was harsh too—looked like they had a rotten temper.
Well, I hate boring rooms like that too.
Especially ones without a single toy!
As a reply, I just left a single vowel mark and left the room.
From now on, even if a special zone alert pops up, I have no intention of going in.
“Chirp! Chirp!”
“Alright, we’re almost there now. Winchester Library, at last.”
Because of the detour for the special zone, I had taken a slightly longer route, but now I stood staring in awe at a different world spread out before me.
A vast space filled with towering bookshelves, each crammed with thousands upon thousands of volumes.
Today, Maya and I had come to the library located on the eastern side of the estate.
I’d wanted to visit sooner, but things kept coming up. Still—now that I’m here, I’m going to read to my heart’s content!
“Young Lady, the picture books are over there…”
“That one!”
“Eh? But that book is… Imperial history…”
“That one! And that one too!”
I eagerly pointed at the books I wanted to read.
In my previous life, I had enjoyed reading quite a bit—literary fiction, essays, genre novels, you name it.
“Are you sure about this? They won’t be fun at all…”
Looking unconvinced, Maya fetched the books I had pointed to.
When I indicated I wanted to sit, she adjusted the height by placing a cushion on the library chair, and I began reading.
“Is the chair comfortable enough?”
“Mm-hm!”
Even if it wasn’t exactly like the House of Taylors book I saw in the special zone, I could still gather information from other books like these.
As I turned the cover of a thick volume and began to read, I could feel Maya and the other maids exchanging glances, probably assuming I was just enjoying the illustrations.
Thanks to the item I’d used before, I could read all the characters—and even understand ancient languages and foreign scripts.
“The Past and Present of the Yanute Empire.”
The Empire’s history was exactly as I remembered from my previous life—
A ruling structure of four great houses, each descended from those with special abilities and the chosen direct bloodline that inherited immense power.
It even included the myth about how the four great houses came to be.
In the beginning, there was the great dragon Mekius, protector of the world. The colossal embodiment of evil, Persetos, sought to swallow the world whole and bring about its destruction.
After a fierce battle, Mekius sealed the evil away and saved the world, then split his immense power into four parts and bestowed them upon four dragons.
The water dragon Halo, the earth dragon Arkada, the white dragon Taylors, and the black dragon Winchester. These became the four great houses, whose mission was to preserve the power granted to them by the great dragon, generation after generation.
Of course, over a thousand years had passed since their founding, so all of this remained merely as an ancient legend.
But no matter how many books I searched, I couldn’t find anything about the “Key of Mekius” I wanted to know about.
Then maybe I should try looking up information on the Elixir.
“Quite an interesting read, isn’t it?”
While I was absorbed in the book, an unfamiliar voice made me look up.
Standing before me was an elderly man I’d seen somewhere before.
I recalled his face from that sudden summons to Affinize.
Ricardo’s grandfather, and the previous head of the house—known as the “Great Head.”
The man possessing the oppressive Black Flame ability: Hector Winchester.
“Hello, Gwandpa!”
I greeted him brightly, my pronunciation still clumsy.
“Grandpa, is it?”
Strictly speaking, he was my great-grandfather, but to a child, grandpa and great-grandpa were the same thing, so I went with the simpler title.
Hector raised an eyebrow, then smiled.
“Not a bad greeting.”
Twelve years ago, Hector Winchester had declared he would pass the position of head to his successor.
Ricardo had become the head after that, while Hector claimed he would enjoy his later years traveling the country. From time to time, he would reappear at the Winchester estate like this.
“So, how’s the book? Seems a little difficult for you to read.”
“It’s fun.”
From my judgment, Hector was not a dangerous figure. He stood in the middle ground between Ricardo, the current head, and the rest of the family who regarded each other with mutual wariness and fear.
The reason Affinize had grown so weak, and why Ricardo could so easily dismantle it, was because Hector Winchester no longer involved himself in family affairs.
“But there are some parts I don’t know.”
A hundred years ago, a terrible curse called “Kaisa” began in Taylors, plunging the Empire into peril.
It was after that crisis that the Winchesters, who were on the verge of ruin, began to recover.
Hector had been the head who led the duchy’s revival.
He would likely know many things not written in any record.
“Our book says we were once close with Taylors, so… when did we start hating them?”
At my question, Hector closed his mouth and studied me in silence.
“When the great dragon Mekius gave power to the four dragons, everyone got along, right?”
His expression seemed to tighten slightly, and I wondered if I’d said something wrong.
After several long seconds, Hector finally spoke.
“You… were really reading that book, weren’t you?”
From his words, I realized he hadn’t believed I was actually reading.
Well, to be fair—what child reads an imperial history book crammed with tiny text?
Even if they could read the letters, to understand them and ask questions would be unusual indeed.
“Yes.”
After a pause, Hector pulled out a chair and sat down across from me.
“I suppose this is similar to something that happened with Perry… Seems that incident left me with a bias. Ho ho.”
Frowning slightly as if recalling some old memory, Hector continued,
“…If you’re curious, I suppose I should tell you now.”
Meanwhile
“There was a raid on Lady Jestia’s slave market. The guards protecting the market were subdued, and three hundred slaves were set free.”
In the corridor of the estate, Lowen was reporting last night’s events as he followed Ricardo.
Baron Bashron and his daughter Jestia ran the Empire’s largest underground slave market.
Slavery had long been banned by the agreement of the four great houses, but people crushed under unpayable debt or defeated foreign soldiers were still secretly sold into slavery.
“A business without its owner is bound to be hit eventually.”
“And Jestia’s body?”
The sound of the two men’s footsteps echoed in the empty hall.
Through the windows, the early autumn garden was slowly taking on color like a painting.
“Lord Bashron will be holding the funeral.”
They had issued a wanted notice for Jestia, but she had already been found as a cold corpse—someone had gotten to her first.
That person was likely the mastermind behind this incident.
The prime suspect was Bashron’s personal healer, but he had vanished, and Bashron’s testimony yielded no results.
“Buy the summer estate from the bank that seized Jestia’s assets.”
The land near the Pashreet Mountains had enough resources to be worth acquiring.
“Understood.”
Ricardo, walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
“Oh, and regarding the Ortenian we received from Baron Bashron in exchange for sparing Miss Permetis, the acquisition procedure—”
Lowen stopped mid-report when he saw what Ricardo was looking at.
Through the slightly open library doors, the sound of a warm conversation drifted out.
Peeking inside, Lowen inhaled sharply.
If you named the two strongest living Winchesters, they would be the current head, Ricardo Winchester, and the great head, Hector Winchester.
Black Flames of inhuman, awe-inspiring power.
If Ricardo was the lion seated on the throne, then Hector was the lion who had withdrawn from the front lines to nap in the sun.
A man beyond the world’s concerns, possessing unreachable strength and vast experience.
Even to his own blood, he applied the law of the jungle with ruthless strictness.
“Ah-ha. So Halo was the one who helped us! Now I get it!”
And yet—Hector Winchester was now looking at the child before him with an unusually delighted expression.
