"W-world's beginning? Who came up with that trash name?" I spat out. It was clearly something that destroyed things. Even if one wanted to be ironic or funny, world's beginning sounded lame as hell! World's End was much better!
The Marquis slowly pushed his chair back.
"You seem to more than recognize this," Titania said. "Why would you frown like that?"
Apparently, he was frowning like a bitch. Even if I could see faces, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell since bitches looked like bitches whether they were trying to or not.
"I do…" the Marquis answered. "It was the name Charlotte Fonias used to use. I've seen her fight more times than I wanted to in my life, this is the same kind of thing, though the composition seems different."
Composition again.
I trusted the Marquis' words here since Kai had said something similar.
"Instead of different… should I say incomplete?"
Despite his visible unwillingness, the Marquis still divulged information. He waved his hands at me in desperation.
"Please take it back."
"Can't, it'll fuck up my hand."
"Hah!? You can't even control this thing?"
"Nope. That's why I am here." I leaned closer to the Marquis while bringing my hand ahead. He reeled back, trying to stay as distant from the blob of energy as he could. "I hear you have something."
"Something? Wait, first. Let's get rid of that. It's very dangerous."
"Sure," I nodded. The Marquis picked up his quill and swung it in the air. A strongly condensed mass of Ki emerged from the tip of his quill and floated in the air. At the same time, I shot the energy out of my hand and at the blob.
A sizzling sound spread through as the energy melted through all the Ki, 'ending' its existence.
The Marquis whistled in surprise. "Crazy…" he muttered.
It was a law of nature for energy and mass to neither be created nor destroyed. Seeing something go against it was bound to bring uneasiness.
The Marquis sighed as the last of his Ki disappeared along with the energy. He shook his head and glared at me.
"Don't pull that again, please."
"Oh? Recognize this?"
"Hey! I mean it, don't!"
"Haha, loser!"
"Quit it, you rat!"
The Marquis and I stopped for a few seconds. The two of us picked up the cups of tea and took a sip as if we were two old friends drinking alone in a bar. It was the Marquis who broke the silence.
"I have something you need?"
I nodded.
"Charlotte Fonias made the students of the academy scour the entire library for books, right? Those books were about this, weren't they?"
The Marquis crossed his arms.
"I don't know what they were about, she only mentioned black energy. But, yes, she did hand me one of those."
"I want it. I want to understand what this energy is."
The Marquis, arms still crossed, nodded slightly.
"Wait here for a bit," the Marquis said.
"You're handing it over?" I asked, making sure not to reveal my excitement. I was eager to get my hands on it at last, now I just had to make sure I didn't receive any damage.
"Yes. It was hers, so now it's yours." The Marquis stood up again and dusted his clothes. He looked down at me and continued. "Honestly, I have already burned almost everything that she even touched in this mansion. Even the piano in that room I gave you is a different one."
I didn't see that coming. But at the same time, I wasn't surprised. In my opinion, it was a normal thing for people in his position to do.
"There were some things that I couldn't burn, either because I was forced to keep them or because they were too valuable to burn. Like that ring or that book."
"The book is valuable?"
"You'll understand when you see it."
I understood it anyway. I could feel my mind itching to uncover the secret of things.
Leaving those words, the Marquis turned away from me and left the room.
I waited in silence for a few seconds before standing up and peeking into his documents. If this bastard made big dough, it would be good to steal some.
That and well, the wait was killing me. I was growing impatient by the second to grow stronger, and a key was almost in my hands.
While distracting myself by scouring through the files and reports about the war, I also managed to get a clearer glimpse of things. The most important being that this other kingdom had also purchased large quantities of brimstone and charcoal. They were making the bombs in the exact way I had thought of.
It wasn't anything surprising, but it was interesting to see how science wasn't something that could be ruled out in this world. If those bombs met with a strong alchemist then achieving even greater firepower would be possible.
"What do you think, Titania?" I asked.
"About?"
"That World's Creation thing."
Those words were curious. Were there different facets to this energy that my mother knew of? Or was she just trash at naming? It did seem possible considering how she was called 'Godslayer' of all things.
"It's already strange that two people recognize something I don't," Titania said. "I've been imprisoned for eight millennia, yes, but these things are not what change so frequently. Your mother must have been someone who could have shaken all planes of existence if she was the first to discover something like this."
"But she wasn't…"
The existence of books proved that.
It could just be theory, or maybe something completely unrelated to the finished product.
But there was a much deeper mystery behind this power I had discovered.
Not long after, the door opened again and the Marquis stepped back in. In his hands was a thin, worn-out book with black coverings. An old smell exclusive to books emanated from it as its yellowed pages fluttered each time he moved the book.
"Here," he said, tossing the book to me.
I caught it as carefully as I could and glared at him.
The Marquis shrugged and took a seat again as I turned in my chair and slowly opened the book.
Characters I had never seen before in my life filled the first page.
Runes, texts that didn't make sense. An illegible language was scrawled over the pages filling the book from end to end. I flipped through the pages to look for anything I could recognize, but no stroke seemed familiar.
On top of multiple languages from the continent, I also knew English, Korean, German, and Mandarin, yet none of that knowledge helped here.
A sigh escaped me as my heart started trembling rapidly.
It seemed the path to getting stronger wasn't easy.
"How can I decipher this?" I asked.
"Join the academy," the Marquis leaned in his chair and said. "You're bound to find all kinds of geniuses in the kingdom of sages. Even if not, there's no better place to find clues than the greatest library in the world."
I bit my lips.
I didn't want to initially, but now it seemed there was an incentive to.
But there was another greater problem. I wouldn't be able to focus solely on deciphering this book if I joined. There was also an equally large if not a larger chance of finding more clues outside the academy. Not everything was recorded in books after all.
I quickly weighed my choices.
"Can I not access the library anyhow?" I asked.
The Marquis shook his head. "It's a place only open to students and alumni. And even the Alumni have great restrictions."
What to do…
"Oh, well if it's any help," the Marquis suddenly tapped the desk. He gestured at the book and I placed it in front of him.
"I did hear one sentence which that woman translated."
"What? Any help? Dude, that's huge help! What was it?"
The Marquis stuck his tongue out and flipped the book to the first page. The runic characters had been written with a bold and large style, giving it the vibe of a title page. He pointed his finger right below the big text and grazed it gently over a small line.
"This. It says…"
"Says…?"
"Part 3."
"…"
"…"
"ASSHOLE!"
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