Chapter 101 - 28: The Lord’s Manuscript

Chapter 101: Chapter 28: The Lord’s Manuscript

Hearing his accusation against Chris, Lilia seemed completely unconcerned. "Is that so?"

"I’ve seen some of his records."

Victor elaborated, "The servants attending to him are replaced every few months. Hardly anyone manages to stay in his service for a full year."

"Most people think it’s because the Queen dotes on him, but even if the Queen wanted to replace them, it couldn’t be done so smoothly without his tacit approval."

Lilia nodded.

On that point, she agreed with Victor.

That was also why, when they first met and Chris made a friendly overture, Lilia had kept her guard up and hadn’t eaten the cookies he offered her.

"So..."

Lilia rested her chin in her palm. "You’re saying that while he appears quiet and well-behaved, he’s actually awful?"

The moment she said that, Victor was about to agree when Lilia continued, "But I think he’s been quite nice to me. I doubt he has any bad intentions."

Lilia was telling the absolute truth.

After all...

After what happened last time, Chris was so desperate to prove his sincerity that whenever he was around her, he looked ready to tear his own heart out and present it to her.

’How could he possibly try to harm me like he did before?’

But to Victor, who was completely in the dark, her words sounded like those of a naive monarch, utterly deceived by a treacherous courtier and deaf to the warnings of a loyal advisor.

At that moment, Victor felt a little powerless.

He couldn’t just come right out and tell Lilia that Chris was definitely not a good person, that he didn’t trust the sincerity of his feelings for her.

Besides, even if Chris’s feelings for her were genuine, he still didn’t want her getting any closer to the boy, did he?

Saying that would sound like he was jealous.

Or some kind of over-the-top, possessive statement.

Victor shut his mouth, lowered his head, and fell into an uncharacteristic silence.

Of course, Lilia couldn’t fail to notice. "Are you angry?"

"No."

Victor’s tone was calm.

Of course, he couldn’t possibly be angry; he had no standing to be.

At most... he was just a little unhappy.

"Oh."

Lilia nodded thoughtfully.

Victor was taken aback by her ill-timed "obtuseness." "...Why did you stop asking?"

"Ask what? Why you won’t tell me you’re angry when it’s so obvious?"

Lilia’s lips curled into a smile. "Why would I ask about something that’s plain as day?"

"Besides..."

The girl drew out her words. "I’m more curious... why did you warn me to stay away from Chris?"

"Is it because you don’t want to see me get hurt, or... do you just not want to see us together all the time?"

"..."

Victor didn’t speak.

"Well?"

Lilia was still looking at him, her eyes sparkling. "Is it that hard of a question?"

Victor: "...Both."

He seemed to have finally been defeated by her persistence. His gaze fell to the book, but he knew he couldn’t read a single word. "I don’t want to see you get hurt because of him."

"And..."

He paused for a moment. "I also... don’t want to see him clinging to you all the time."

"Hmm."

Lilia didn’t comment on his statement. Instead, she picked up her chair and moved it next to him.

They had originally been two or three meters apart, but with this maneuver, the distance between them instantly closed until they were mere inches apart.

"Clinging to you like this?"

It was the same casual pose as before—elbow on the armrest, chin in her palm—but as the distance closed, the girl’s slightly forward-leaning body was almost touching his arm.

And yet she seemed completely oblivious, tilting her head up and smiling like a sly little fox.

Victor’s gaze fell on her delicate features, then slowly moved down, tracing the high bridge of her nose before resting on her slightly upturned, cherry-colored lips.

"...I’m being serious."

"I’m not trying to change the subject, either."

Lilia immediately understood what he was thinking. "Besides, I don’t think I’m that close to him. He’s my half-brother, and just like Veronica and the others, he has a chance of becoming the Crown Prince."

Lilia explained, "In order for me to be able to leave this place safely in the future, isn’t it necessary to be on good terms with them?"

"If we’re talking about being close..."

The girl looked up into his eyes. "I don’t think anyone is closer than we are."

"You wouldn’t use me to help organize these old texts and then just toss me aside, would you?"

Victor: "...What on earth goes through your head every day?"

"I can’t help it."

Lilia laughed. "An unfavored, overlooked princess like me can only move forward cautiously, one step at a time."

The shadows cast on the wall by the firelight flickered with the passing drafts, stirring the atmosphere in the room, making it warmer and more intimate.

Lilia didn’t move away from Victor’s side. The two of them sat together like that, immersing themselves in the study of the remaining texts.

[You and Victor spent a full fifteen days and finally gathered all the important information.]

[You learned the name of that Demon Lord, and also that he was once the king of the entire Spirit Realm, the Dominator of all Demons. However, for some unknown reason, he fell from his high position and vanished without a trace, his figure no longer seen even in legends.]

[Finally, after gaining a sufficient understanding of him, you opened the Demon Lord’s manuscript for the first time.]

[The manuscript was written in the demonic tongue, and after being transcribed by humans, many of the characters have become blurred and difficult to decipher.]

[Even Victor only had a rudimentary understanding of the demonic tongue. He could tell that most of what was recorded in the manuscript were special forms of Magic, with only a small portion being about the Demon Lord’s own deeds.]

[By cross-referencing the information you gathered, you deciphered the meaning of several hundred words and translated the entire manuscript through a process of deduction and guesswork.]

[But even so, it remained a useless manuscript. Neither the biographical sections nor the Magic Spells at the beginning were of any help to Victor’s research.]

[Just as you were at a loss, you boldly proposed a hypothesis.]

[Perhaps the secret was hidden within those Magic Spells...]

Having spent so much time with Victor, Lilia had come to know a thing or two about the unwritten rules of research.

It was common knowledge among Mages that unknown Spells should never be tested lightly, as no one knew what consequences chanting them might bring.

Perhaps the caster would die from the backlash, or perhaps the entire Royal Court would be destroyed by their attempt.

According to standard research procedure, for Victor to verify Lilia’s hypothesis, he would have to deconstruct these Spells piece by piece. Only after understanding their principles and effects could he then find some fearless volunteers to test them.

But that would drag the process out indefinitely.

After all, they had translated all the Spells by cross-referencing gathered information with the biography in the manuscript. There were simply too many points where errors could have been made. For Victor to try and deconstruct the Spells based on the universal properties of Magic was a near-impossible task.

If Victor had reached this point alone, he might have had no choice but to use this clumsy method of trial and error.

However, now Lilia was here.

There was no need for all that trouble.