Chapter 882 — Fragments of an Ancient Book

"A rather central member, in fact—highly proficient in heraldry, and entitled to use the family arms freely. Moreover, we detected faint magical imprints in the pages—this parchment is six hundred years old, yet the magic in it has not fully dissipated, which means whoever left them may have been one of the earliest Northern Dukes!"

Sevin Terry could not suppress a low cry of astonishment: "Six hundred years?!"

"Yes, the alchemical reaction test surprised us as well—that they survived intact to this day under such poor storage conditions is a miracle in itself, though I imagine it has to do with the magic that still has not fully dispersed from the pages," the scholar nodded. "But although the pages are largely intact, the writing in them is badly worn and stained. We are trying to restore that."

"...Perhaps we should report this matter upward. Duchess Victoria would be interested in it," Sevin Terry let out a soft breath and nodded. "Also, can you trace where this book came from? I'm curious why it ended up here."

"Only in part. The collection records here show the book was presented by a small chapel in the southeast—it nearly fell victim to theft there, and afterward the local pastors decided it should no longer be kept in a small chapel and presented it to the Holy Frostbalance Church. Clearly, the book did not receive much attention after it was presented."

Listening to the report from the man beside him, Sevin Terry's brow furrowed slightly once more.

……

Wind rushed past her ears; the summer sky stretched high and wide. A dim black shadow leaped from rooftop to rooftop, and at last came to rest on a bell tower in the mages' quarter, where a figure slowly emerged from the shadows: Amber.

The "half-elf" girl sat on the outer ledge of the bell tower in a posture that looked perilous to outsiders, enjoying the pleasant breeze, gazing down over Xuanque City with a smile.

She loved this feeling of leaping between rooftops, though the reason was not the "occupational hazard that cannot be cured" that Gaoyang liked to tease her about. What she truly loved was the openness and freedom she felt in the act of leaping—an endless sky overhead, the wind rushing past her ears. That feeling might make many people's hearts clench with fear, yet for some inexplicable reason it put Amber at ease, and she savored it.

She had never before wondered whether there was some reason behind this preference, but now, thinking it over carefully, she thought it was perhaps because for a long time she had lived in a dark, sealed place that never saw the light of day...

Compared with the monotonous Shadow Realm, this color-rich "present world" was far more interesting.

Amber opened her little satchel and took out the assorted snacks she habitually hoarded, spreading them out on the narrow ledge outside the bell tower, and began to enjoy this rare moment of leisure (and slacking off).

The avenue leading to the Imperial Academy stretched out below and to the side of her; all manner of passersby could be seen along the road.

There were locals in summer dress, mostly shirts and trousers or simple dresses; foreign visitors in every sort of attire; ordinary citizens busy with their lives; and students in Imperial Academy uniforms—and amid that bustling crowd, Amber even spotted gray elves with childlike statures and gray-white hair, and heavily built orcs. They spoke all manner of outlandish dialects and even foreign tongues, coming and going in this foreign land's flourishing imperial capital—for study, for wealth, or merely to broaden their horizons a little.

Ever since a series of diplomatic initiatives had borne fruit last year, and against the backdrop of ever more economic and cultural exchange, the once isolated and rigid nations of the continent had finally begun to loosen up. Every day more visitors came to this first cosmopolitan city of the new age, or to the Empire's other thriving cities. These visitors brought profits beyond anything the merchants of the old era could have imagined—and profit... made ever more people flock to the new age.

And so the whole thing cycled onward.

The Empire's Minister of Intelligence and its Supreme Commissioner for Internal Security sat on the high tower, cracking melon seeds while gazing down over it all.

"The city's getting more crowded by the day, I must say, and there are plenty of strange land races about," a voice suddenly came from behind Amber. "You land folk really do have a shocking variety of intelligent species..."

Amber jumped at the voice that had appeared out of nowhere, and nearly toppled off the tower, snacks and all. "Mother of—!"

She barely managed to steady herself and turned to look, and there was Tier's face peering out from the shadows of the bell loft behind her—and beyond him the upper body of the siren lady and a great coiled heap of serpent tail.

"You scared me to death!" Amber stared wide-eyed at this deep-sea salted fish, still shaken. This was one of the rare occasions when she, a shadow master, had been startled by someone popping up out of nowhere—and worse, she had not even noticed Tier behind her until now. "What are you doing there!"

"Looking for a place to sleep," Tyr said around a yawn. "Betty's got people scrubbing out that pool in my room and changing the water, so I came out here to find somewhere to sleep..."

"I nearly fell," Amber shot Tyr another glare. "I'm telling you, there ought to be a law against occupying public facilities just to sleep..."

"I refuse to believe a drop that small could kill you. Last time I saw you jump off the mana broadcast tower in the city center and shadow-step your way to the ground sixty times in a row, not a hair out of place. That height would've killed me three times over. Messily. Bits everywhere." Tyr announced this with enormous pride, then, ignoring the subtle expression on Amber's face entirely, he wriggled forward and poked his head out past the clock tower's edge to peer at the view below while muttering to himself, "Now this is lively... In Antavien, it's been a very, very long time since we've seen a sight this lively."

"Antavien... I remember that's your Siren capital, isn't it?" Amber adapted to the rhythm of Tyr's conversation with surprising speed. "Actually, I've always been curious. What kind of society do you Sirens really have?"

Tyr glanced at her. "As sharp as ever, Intelligence Minister. Is this you gathering intelligence?"

"Just chatting," Amber said, rolling her eyes. "You're overthinking it."

"Doesn't really matter either way," Tyr said offhandedly. "If you want to hear it, I can tell you a little."