Chapter 179

When I went to the place Maya pointed out, there was a bookshelf that exudes a profound atmosphere.

Looking at the title of the book, it seemed that it was really related to curses and witchcraft.

‘At least, there must be much more helpful content than the books I’ve seen before.’

But I’m sure others have already scoured it once.

Just because I tried the failed method again, there was no way I could come up with a clever solution.

Previously, I had been following Maya for a moment, but thinking about it, it seemed like a futile effort.

‘But should I read it first…… right?’

Contemplating, I turned my attention to the books on other shelves.

‘Uh, these books?’

There was a book on the history of the duchy that I had not been able to find in the large library earlier.

My eyes widened when I discovered it.

‘Why am I more interested in this than the curse?’

For now, I decided to follow my intuition.

I sat on the floor right in front of the bookshelf and opened the history of the duchy.

I skipped difficult words because I didn’t know them, and read only the words I could read slowly one by one.

‘Ugh, I should have studied the Kingdom language a little earlier…….’

I regret it a little, but what can I do now?

When I go back to the Marquisate, I decided to study from then on.

After a while, as I was reading the book, I fixed my gaze on one passage.

‘Wait, this castle…… It was someone else’s castle before becoming the Duke’s territory?’

Somehow, it looked like it had a lot of history.

It was a castle with a lot of history.

“Excuse me, Young Duke. Does this castle used to belong to a family other than the duke?”

Out of curiosity, I asked Maya.

Then Maya nodded his head.

“Oh, were you reading the history book? Right. It was only used as the Duke’s castle for about a hundred years.”

According to Maya, other noble families lived before that.

It was a noble family that had long since collapsed, although it cannot be found now.

“This bookshelf is very old too. It’s probably been several hundred years. There is a lot of furniture like this in this castle.”

Maya pointed to the bookshelf and shrugged.

Hearing that, I felt strange.

‘I think it’s a heritage item that has been with this castle since the beginning.’

I concentrated on reading the book again.

Before becoming the duchy, the contents were only brief.

A little bit of a story was written.

It was about the mysterious stone that protects this land.

‘Wait, stone?’

When something just comes to mind.

Just then, I heard Maya burst out laughing next to me.

‘Huh? Why are you laughing?’

At the same time, our eyes met.

Maya seemed to have been watching me the whole time opening the book he hadn’t even read.

He covered his mouth with both hands and smiled, then captured his expression when I looked at him.

‘…… I wonder if it was funny because the way I read the book was so serious?’

I tilted my head.

Then Maya opened his mouth.

“Actually, this is my second time coming here.”

“What?”

“My father also gave me the keys, but I’m not really interested in books or anything like that. I thought I had no use for this place until I became the Duke, but thanks to you, Emir, I came here.”

Well, this was a bit surprising.

Not as much as Nicholas, but I thought Maya would be interested in books.

I can’t believe that wasn’t the case.

‘I thought you liked reading because the library also gave good guidance.’

Somehow, I thought that Maya was not reading the book and was staring at me.

‘Maya must be bored alone.’

I’m sorry that I kept reading books by myself.

I thought that I had to finish the project and leave, so I sped up my reading.

Flip, flip.

Even after the pages went by, nothing particularly interesting came out.

Now that I want to take out another book, I sat down, turned my back, and stretched out my arms to the bookshelf.

It was then.

‘Huh?’

As I looked up at the bookshelf from below, I noticed that something was recessed in the dark inner corner.

‘…… what?’

Seeing a glimpse of it from this angle, I thought that there must be some hidden secret.

I approached and pressed my fingertips into the recesses on the corners.

Then.

“…… !”

Suddenly, there was a rattling sound, and a hidden space between the bookshelves was revealed!

“What, what, Emir? What’s going on?”

Hearing the sound, Maya, who was sitting on the floor, jumped up as well.

We stood in front of the bookshelf, blankly for a moment.

Then I came to my senses and answered.

“Uh, there was a gap inside the bookshelf, so I pressed it…… This is how the secret space came out.”

“…… It’s true. It must have been hidden.”

We opened the secret room and checked the items inside.

It had been there for more than several decades, so there was a lot of dust.

“Cough! The dust…….”

After coughing for a while, we were once again startled by the various documents in front of us.

‘Maybe this?’