Chapter 948: Insufficient Data
Chapter 948 – Insufficient Data
Sira’s voice turned quieter. "He just needed to claim repayment."
"Exactly."
Yue’s gaze darkened.
The floating symbols around the room tightened again, as if the book itself disliked the conclusion.
Lux looked at the shadow’s sigil. His eyes narrowed.
"System."
[Awaiting Command.]
"Scan that sigil. Compare with known royal bloodline archives. Deep search. Include pre-royal house records, abandoned family marks, old contracts, and forbidden genealogical fragments."
[Command Accepted.]
[Scanning...]
[Warning: Insufficient Data]
[Partial Match Detected]
[Bloodline Association: Proto-Royal Infernal Line]
[Modern Descendant Probability: Kaelmor Lineage 81.7%]
Sira swore softly.
Lux smiled without humor. "There it is."
Yue’s hands curled at her sides.
The vision showed the surviving elves kneeling now, not to the shadow, but to the tree they had saved. The first elf remained standing. She did not understand the weight of what she had said. Not yet.
Lux understood.
And that made him furious in the quietest, most expensive way possible.
Because he knew contracts.
He knew debt.
He knew how old monsters smiled while helping someone stand, already calculating the interest.
The shadow had not just saved them.
It had invested.
And Kaelmor’s bloodline had collected.
That thought settled in Lux’s mind like a coin dropping into a bottomless vault.
Then...The floating symbols trembled.
The melody stuttered.
Yue’s eyes narrowed.
Sira straightened.
Lux felt it too.
Something inside the book resisted.
The soft ancient song cracked like glass under pressure, its rhythm collapsing into sharp, broken tones. The glowing symbols that had floated like little fireflies suddenly rearranged themselves into angular formations.
No.
Not formations.
Encryption.
Lux’s expression sharpened instantly. "Oh."
Sira looked around. "Oh? That’s never good."
The symbols snapped into lines, spirals, loops, repeating sequences that looked almost mathematical but not quite. Some rotated clockwise. Others countered. A few folded into themselves, then vanished, leaving behind afterimages like burned marks in the air.
Lux’s Greed brain went very still.
That was not random.
That was protection.
An archive lock.
Ancient. Irritating. Dramatic.
The song cut off completely.
Silence slammed into the room.
Then the book closed.
Hard.
-Thunk!
The book fell from its floating position and landed on the floor with the terrible finality of an ancient artifact deciding conversation time was over.
The pages still looked slightly open at first, caught in the middle like there was more to show.
Lux stared.
The room’s crystals dimmed one by one, their light fading back into quiet pulses.
Lux slowly raised one hand. "Not finished."
His Telekinesis wrapped around the book again.
The cover trembled.
The pages resisted.
Lux narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"
He increased pressure.
Not enough to damage it.
Just enough to remind the object whose mansion it was in.
The pages did not move.
Instead, they seemed to glue themselves together. The half-open gap sealed shut with a dry whisper, the entire book pulling itself closed like a stubborn old man refusing to answer after saying something suspicious at dinner.
Lux’s eye twitched.
Sira saw it and immediately looked entertained despite the danger. "Oh, it offended you."
"It is being uncooperative."
"It’s a book."
"It is a hostile witness."
The book gave no response, which was somehow even more offensive.
Lux used a little more force.
The book did not open.
It sank heavier against the floor, as if gaining weight out of sheer pettiness.
[Warning: Archive Seal Active]
[Forced Access Not Recommended]
Lux lowered his hand.
Not because he accepted defeat.
Because destroying the only clue because it annoyed him would be stupid.
Yue stepped closer, looking down at the closed book. "That part," she said quietly, "they don’t want to show."
Lux looked at her. "They?"
"The memory. The keepers. The ones who sealed this record." Yue’s voice remained calm, but her gaze was deep, pulled toward something older than the room. "It showed enough to identify the beginning. But not what came after."
Sira crossed her arms. "Why?"
Yue’s fingers hovered over the book. She did not touch it. "It had to be a secret."
Lux’s smile disappeared. "Secrets have reasons."
Sira sighed dramatically. "Oh dear."
Lux looked at the book.
The pages had shown the rescue. The debt. The promise. The shadow with Kaelmor’s bloodline mark. Then stopped before showing the collection.
That was not an accident.
That was deliberate.
Which meant the next part mattered more.
Lux rubbed his chin slowly.
Yue spoke again. "Maybe it needs something to open it."
"A key? A bloodline? A song?"
Sira looked at her. "You have a lot of possibly."
Yue glanced at Sira. "It is an ancient sealed book older than most civilizations. Would you prefer I lie confidently?"
Sira paused.
Then nodded once.
"Fair."
Lux did not smile. His mind had moved somewhere else.
The silence around him changed.
Lux’s eyes were still on the book, but his expression had gone very still. Then he blurted out, "This is bad."
Sira blinked. "What?"
Yue turned fully toward him. "What did you see?"
Lux slowly exhaled. "This case." He pointed at the book. "It might be the same kind of trap as what happened to Yue."
Yue’s expression tightened slightly.
Lux continued, voice becoming more analytical, more controlled, which was always how he sounded when the conclusion irritated him. "But harder."
Sira frowned. "Harder how?"
Lux looked at Yue first. Because this was about her too. "Yue was under a curse. Anchored. Parasitized. Bound by force."
Yue nodded once.
Her face was calm, but Lux knew calm did not mean painless. He had learned that today from too many ancient women pretending not to feel things.
Lux looked back at the book. "If this first elf made a promise because of debt, gratitude, and repayment..." His jaw shifted. "Then she may have accepted the binding willingly."
Sira’s expression changed.
Yue became very still.
Lux continued, "Maybe not understanding the full consequence. Maybe not understanding the demon side of a promise. But willingly."
Sira whispered, "Oh."
"Exactly."
Lux lifted one hand, fingers moving slightly as if arranging invisible contract clauses in the air.
"If we find her, and she believes she is still repaying a debt, freeing her won’t be as simple as breaking a curse. She might refuse."
Sira grimaced.
Lux’s eyes narrowed.
"Worse. She might resist fiercely."
Yue said nothing for a few breaths. Then, quietly, "That makes sense."
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