Wednesday, October 10, Helikon district.
Inside the oldest and largest library in the world, among the bookshelves that were bigger than a house, a small group of three was sitting at a secluded table on the second floor. Two adults and a girl who couldn't have been more than 13 years old.
Telepathist Jerry, or Tammy as was her current identity, was quietly completing her homework in the Lenburg language, occasionally using a dictionary at her side to look up a word she didn't understand or wasn't sure how to write.
Clown Nathan and Pugilist Sasha, meanwhile, were reading various history books. They all had the same characteristic that no matter how different the coverage was, it never changed.
They all dealt with the history of Intis as well as that of its nobility.
Lowering her pencil and holding the bridge of her nose, the large, orange-blonde-haired woman let out a slight grunt and closed the book she was reading.
It only spoke of the early life of Emperor Roselle Gustav, and even then it was only the first 40 pages, the other 260 spoke of his achievements and exploits...
This was the sixth with the same problem!
Sinking her head into the table, she mumbled wearily, "Urgh. This one is empty too..."
The unfortunate thing about someone being so famous is that they tend to completely overshadow other people at the same time, which makes it harder to research them.
ESPECIALLY with Emperor Roselle!
It was easier to find information about what he ate on a random Tuesday afternoon than about the lesser families!
Nathan didn't even look up from his book as he completed a few short notes, "Got it, go start on the next one then. We still have another fifteen to go through."
"Urgh..." Sasha grunted pathetically and, raising her head slightly, green eyes looked wearily at the clown, "Have a little mercy, yeah? Not all of us have experience in office work."
Nathan paused his writing, without moving his head, his eyes lifted a little, "We already had a break 15 minutes ago, grab the next book or no dinner tonight."
In the blink of an eye, a new book was in the hands of a suddenly straightened Sasha, who was already reading.
In an almost inaudible voice, a small, funky voice complained, "...not with food...where's your soul..."
'Lucky we picked a secluded spot...' Young Jerry only gave a few seconds of her time to watch this interaction before returning her attention to her book.
'Wait, it has to be an r?! What is this?!' Frowning slightly, she silently clicked her tongue as she grabbed her eraser and corrected her mistake.
Why did lenburg have to be so strange?!
...
Reaching again halfway through the new book, she had chosen to research. Sasha looked up at the clown who was already on the third book.
Her emerald orbs flicked around, and noticing that no one was paying attention to them and no one was passing by, she leaned forward a bit.
Placing one her palm beside her mouth to keep her lips from being read, she whispered with genuine interest.
"Nathan, tell me again why we're doing this the hard way?"
Being a beyonder from a pathway specializing in divination, as the Seer Pathway was, it didn't make sense that they had to take the complicated approach when a short divination was all they needed.
At her words, Nathan sighed and, for the first time since they arrived in the morning, he lowered his pencil and looked up.
"Boss said this would help me later as I progress through the sequences."
Sasha looked even more lost at that response, "What does the history of Intis nobility from 200 years ago have to do with your pathway?"
Beside her, Jerry nodded in agreement.
"I also asked the same question," empathizing a bit, Nathan replied after a short pause.
"It's not about Intis' history, but history itself."
"History?" Jerry repeated silently, eyes narrowing slightly, not understanding what he was talking about.
The corners of Nathan's mouth curved imperturbably, and he nodded, "That's right."
Sasha and Jerry waited for the clown to explain himself further, but they could only watch as the man looked down at his book and continued writing.
"..." Jerry pursed her lips, and her cheeks puffed out.
The pugilist blinked slowly, her brow furrowing slightly as she grabbed her book back and grumbled.
"...I hate it when you do that."
At those words, Nathan's expression didn't change at all, but his blue eyes sparkled a little brighter.
Turning to the next page of the book in his hands, his eyes paused on a short line in the middle of the page.
On November 31, 1195, there was a fire in the house of one of the numerous minor noble families of the time, the Armagnacs. It took the lives of the entire family as well as 29 servants and maids, the origin of which was a candle that was very close to the south curtain of the first floor...
'Armagnac...' Nathan narrowed his eyes a little, not recognizing the name or finding it familiar.
Lowering his pencil for a moment, he focused a little more attention on reading.
But as he turned the pages, he soon realized that it was a waste of time.
There was no mention of this family for the rest of the book.
'The glory of the Emperor blinds the historians once again. Tch.' Groaning a little, he closed the book with a slight sigh.
Not letting this discourage him, the clown jotted down the family name and closed the book he was reading.
"Did you find anything on this one?" Nathan dragged his notepad over to Sasha and pointed to the name he had just written down.
"Mmm?" Looking up and staring at what her boyfriend was showing her, the large woman squinted slightly as she read the name.
In a moment, she grabbed her notebook and, after flipping back several pages, coming to the list with a big 'A' on it, she gave a quick skim through the various names there.
After a few seconds, she looked up and, with trembling eyes, slowly shook her head.
"No... there's nothing on them."
In the more than 20 books she read, at no time was there any mention of this Armagnac family.
Nathan sighed internally and nodded.
"Not surprising. Hardly any minor noble family is mentioned, so it's not that rare.
"No minor family of Roselle's time excelled at anything, being overshadowed not only by the fall of the Saurons but the Emperor's own rise...'
His expression didn't change; he just dragged back his notebook. "Looks like we have our first suspect, then."
Underlining the name and marking it several times, the clown grabbed another book from the stack and began to read with deep attention. Something, Sasha quickly joined him.
All the books they had on the table were the few that remained on minor noble families of the Emperor's time, so if there was any information on this Armagnac family, it had to be among them.
And yet...
Pursing her lips a little, Sasha looked at the pile at her side with complicated eyes.
"These are the last books about the nobles of that time..." She murmured, puckering her face.
Across from her, Nathan sighed but nodded in agreement.
While that was going on, a pair of crystalline gray eyes looked deeply into everything that was going on. Her presence was suddenly being ignored.
Observing the deep stress and exhaustion that overwhelmed his elders as he could practically hear the howls of pain in the giantess' mind, Jerry blinked and, with his eyes losing that glare, returned his attention to his task.
'I'm just a kid, I don't have to worry about that' Monotonically, the little telepath continued to write.
After all, adult problems were too complicated.
...
Loen Kingdom, Backlund. Train station.
Ikanser stood in front of the carriage entrance, his impossibly curly brown hair was more groomed than usual, and that, coupled with a finer suit and heavy jacket, gave the usually relaxed man a more serious air.
Looking next to him, at his neater man, Ikanser asked, "How's the transfer going, Skiper? Nothing missing?"
The tall, somewhat thin man nodded and, looking at the tablet in his hands, he calmly informed, "We have finished loading the Emperor's various books as well as all the parts and prototypes such as the first toilet have been secured in wagons six and seven, which already have several guards..."
Looking up, he added, "We can leave as soon as you give the order."
Hearing the words he most expected as he feared, Ikanser pursed his lips for a moment and sighed, "Tell the rest that we leave in 15 minutes."
"Understood." The slender man nodded and, turning around, went to carry out his order.
Listening as the man's footsteps trailed off, Ikanser took a moment to look at the train.
Sighing, Ikanser turned around and he too set off on his own toward a corner of the station, where a group of three were surrounding a lone box draped with a mirror on top.
After a few short words, he took the mirror in his hands and walked back to the train, accompanied by the group of three...
Taking a seat in one of the several cabins with the mirror carefully placed beside him, Ikanser sighed lightly.
His brown eyes moved to the object beside him, to the reflection next to him. After deep consideration and remembering the Archbishop's words a few days before, the man smiled subtly and looked away.
'Another day. I want this trip to be a quiet one...'
Chu chu!
With dusk accompanying the train on its long journey to Lenburg, the Machinery Hivemind began its routine guard rotation to ensure safe and proper transportation of the museum.
In the distance and watching the train emotionlessly, an invisible, illusory floating eye watched the passing of the steel giant.
Several kilometers parallel to the train, hidden by a strange and seemingly unearthly fog, a carriage was moving along.
This carriage was not pulled by horses or donkeys; there was nothing where they should be, only air.
A scene that would be terrifying if it were not for the fantasy of the carriage itself, which looked like something out of a fairy tale.
It was a giant pumpkin, with windows and doors as if it were a normal carriage. The wheels were not made of wood, but of the pumpkin's own pods.
Inside this dream come true of every little girl, only one member occupied the surprisingly elegant interior.
It was a brown-haired woman, wearing a brown leather jacket and strange black leather boots. A strange attire, to say the least, and not fitting with the current era.
Calmly, this woman continued to drink her chamomile tea. Her carriage followed noiselessly behind the train as she watched for anything strange to happen along the way through her floating eye in the sky.