I still couldn’t start my job in the exclusive library even the next day because apparently the investigation was still not finished. The investigation was taking longer than I expected. I wonder if the investigation team faced some trouble.
Since LiIy told me she wanted to study history and I also wanted to do some research on the kingdom’s noble houses, I asked the Prime Minister for permission to go to the normal library with her. I got the permission without any issue.
Neurath and Schunzel, who were actually in the middle of their holiday, ended up accompanying me as an assistant. I actually also wanted Annete to come with us, but she wasn’t my subordinate, so I couldn’t exactly order her to come.
“By the way, have you two been to the library before?” (Welner)
“I’m…no good with the library.” (Neurath)
“I’ve been there a few times before, but I haven’t been there for a long time now.” (Schunzel)
Hey, Neurath, what did you mean by you’re no good with the library!?
Did the books in the library bite you or something!? It seemed like Neurath almost never went to the library before.
I guess knights spent most of their time training their body rather than reading books in the library, huh. Well, that made sense. In any case, it seemed like they wouldn’t be able to help me in my research. Let’s just ask them to be Lily’s bodyguard.
“You two protect Lily if something happens.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood.”
Well, I doubt anyone would make a scene in the library of all places, but better safe than sorry.
After we decided to meet up at one of the desks in the library, we split up. I went to the Noble Registry’s section, while Lily went to the history section. I picked up some publicly available material from the shelves, then went to the desk we had decided as a meeting point.
Damn it. These books were heavier than the books in my previous life.
Here, if you wanted to find classified information, you needed to pay a lot of money and even risk your life. Yes, risk your life. It was just that dangerous.
However, depending on how you use it, even the normal publicly available information could become much more dangerous than classified information.
Lily was already reading a book on the desk when I arrived. I also started to look through the material in my hands. I searched for information regarding the noble houses that have a close ties with the church. As I was reading the material, I felt someone’s gaze on me. Sigh… how troublesome.
“I’ll look for more books.” (Welner)
“Ah, yes.” (Lily)
After saying that to Lily, I left the desk and went to the row of shelves. I felt that a person was observing us. It seemed like his target was me, not Lily. When I was putting the material in my hand back to the shelves, that person approached me. Let’s see what he got to say.
“My, Viscount Welner! What a coincidence!”
“Hmm? I believe this is the first time we have met. May I ask who you are?”
I responded to his clearly deliberate surprised greeting with a sarcastic voice. Well, I actually know who he was though. He was Viscount Vogel.
“My apologies for a late introduction. I am Wotan Swen Vogel.”
“Ah, so you’re Viscount Vogel. I am Welner Von Zeavert.”
As I deliberately responded to his introduction with an uninterested tone, Viscount’s face turned sour.
The Viscount was probably in his mid-twenties. Viscount, even if you surrounded me with your two followers, you were not scary at all, you know. I mean, their presence was like an ant if I compared it to the pressure I faced when fighting the demon general head on.
“I have heard of your various achievements as the governor of Anheim. I have also heard you are now a chamberlain. You have it rough, Viscount Welner.” (Vogel)
He said with a sarcastic tone.
“I do not think it was rough, Your Excellency. After all, I got fame out of my job.” (Welner)
At least I am famous now, different from a nobody like you.
The Viscount’s expression turned red in anger after I said that. Huh, serve him right.
“I also heard that you are close to Her Highness.”
“For such a rumor to be spread, it’s my honor.”
I replied with a mocking expression which said: I am in a speaking term with Her Highness, while your position is so low that you will never have a chance to even talk to her.
“It seems like Her Highness has even stayed at your mansion.”
“I wasn’t there at the time, as such Her Highness came to the mansion as the guest of my mother, the Countess.”
What? Are you going to pick a fight with the Zeavert Count House?
Well then, I think it was about time.
“If you are interested, I will extend an invitation to the mansion later. I still have things to do, Your Excellency, so please excuse me.”
“Wh…Wait, Viscount, I still have…”
“Well, I believe that you don’t want to be called incompetent for being unable to do simple things such as buying some time, but I am busy, so please excuse me.”
After I finally said that bluntly, I left the stunned Viscount and his two followers immediately. I quickly walked to the desk where Lily was reading. I ignored Neurath who was clearly cautious about the man who approached Lily, then just before the unknown man was going to speak, I called Lily.
“Lily. Sorry but can you come here for a bit?”
“Ah, yes.”
Lily stood up and approached me, while the unknown man looked at me with his mouth agape. He was clearly surprised. Mr Whoever, you should choose your subordinates more carefully.
“Welner-sama, what is it?”
“Ah, you see, this..”
I led Lily to the shelves filled with maps while I gave a quick glance to Neurath and Schunzel, silently giving them an order to block the unknown man from approaching us, and the man glared at me. Well, even if you look at me like that, I wouldn’t suddenly recognize you, you know. Let’s investigate who the man was later.
“Did something happen?” (Lily)
“Well, I just extinguished a small spark. I don’t want you to get hurt after all.”
“…Thank you.”
For a moment, I thought that maybe I was being overprotective. However, Lily seemed to have noticed that she was still powerless about this kind of thing, so she just gave me a smile. I guess…this was enough for today.
After that day, Lily and I spent the next few days in the exclusive library, but I still didn’t hear anything about the mystery of the passage. It seemed like the investigation was still going on, but I couldn’t see the investigator.
Maybe the royal family didn’t want too many people to know that Lily and I were working in the exclusive library, that’s why they deliberately restarted the investigation when we were not here.
Even the atmosphere of the room was quite different from before, probably because there were many people who came and went to the basement recently.
Since it was useless to keep thinking about this, I just continued investigating the underground library with Lily. We finished mapping the entire library after spending a day. It was quite tiring, but our work would get easier if we had a map of the entire library, so I guess a day of hardwork was a fair price to pay.
For now, I asked Lily to search for books that have maps in it. Most history books would have maps, although whether the maps were accurate or not was a different matter. It would be easier to find some information from a map, rather than reading the books one by one.
As for me, I was skimming through the books about magic. I was really interested in magic, so I decided to just skim through the books, since if I read them carefully, I might just forget time and spend my entire day just reading a few books.
I muttered after seeing the map of the place while I was taking a break, “The arrangement of this place is really strange.”
Lily, who was writing a note, raised her head and replied to me, “Really…?”
I glanced at her note. It seemed like she was keeping a list about which shelves she had checked. I would ask her to show me the note later.
The width of the passages inside this library was mostly all different, the rows of the shelves were also not aligned. This place barely qualified as a warehouse for books, rather than library.
“The carpet is also strange.” (Welner)
“You are right. The carpet in the mansion is more magnificent.” (Lily)
Actually, it looked more like a floor mat rather than carpet. It might be thanks to the floor mat that the humidity in this place was kept constant. This place seemed to be built with practicality in mind, rather than a place for the royal family to come.
“After seeing how strange this library is, I’m now curious about the inside of the treasury. I wonder if it is also as strange as this library.”
“I am also curious but… It is probably impossible for us to take a look into the treasury…right?”
Lily replied to my muttering with a wry smile. I also didn’t think it was possible for us to enter the treasury, but I got a feeling that if we knew whether the treasury was originally a treasury or a different room that was being converted to the treasury, we would get closer to the answer we wanted.
For now, my theory was that this room was a book storeroom. This place was used to store the excess books, while the actual library was located somewhere else.
If my theory was right, then it was possible that there was another room full of books from the ancient kingdom era somewhere in the palace, a room that even the royal family may know nothing about. After all, if the royal family knew the existence of this particular room, I doubt they would hide it after ordering me to do research about the ancient kingdom era.
Well, let’s not dwell into it too deeply. I didn’t want to get into any troublesome stuff.
After we spent several hours in the library together, we finally decided it was time to return. But as we were about to leave the palace, a messenger stopped me and asked me to go to the meeting room.
I thought His Highness would finally share some information of the passage in the basement, but when I entered the room I was surprised to find not only His Highness but also His Excellency the Prime Minister, the Grand Duke, and even a man who wore a High Priest’s uniform. Everyone in the room seems to have a grim expression.
Then, the High Priest lowered his head with a gloomy expression, and started to speak.
“My apologies. Due to my lack of power, Mazel Hearthing-kun is now being put on a trial.”
…what?
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