Nairn's mind began to race at high speed.
He immediately recalled that misunderstanding from the first Tarot Club meeting.
Damn it—
No, I must immediately draw a clear line between myself and that old fogey Roselle!
In a flash, Nairn found a way to remedy the situation.
He looked at the shocked Audrey, intentionally letting a hint of perfectly measured disgust and disdain show on his face, as if he were remembering something unsavory he'd rather forget.
He coughed lightly and added an evaluation in a critical tone: "Well, I have seen them. But... to be honest."
"Emperor Roselle was not a decent man in his private life."
This sentence was phrased very cleverly.
The subtext was crystal clear:
I, Nairn, have seen those things, but only because I needed to understand the truth of history.
As for Roselle himself, especially his messy private life, I hold him in very low regard.
I am not at all the same kind of person as him.
At this moment, the brilliant utility of the information gap was on full display.
Audrey didn't know specifically what was written in the diary; she only knew it was a precious legacy left by Emperor Roselle, containing countless secrets.
Nairn's words instantly shifted her attention from the technical question of 'How could Mr. Nairn see all the diaries?' to the gossipy question of 'What scandalous content was in the diary that made Mr. Nairn so disdainful?'
Sure enough, upon hearing Nairn's evaluation, Audrey's focus immediately veered off course.
"Not... not decent?"
In her mind, the romantic scandals of Emperor Roselle that circulated in aristocratic circles immediately surfaced.
It was said that this great emperor, inventor, and Beyonder had countless lovers, ranging from the Northern Continent to the Southern Continent, from royalty and nobles to commoner girls, and had even had ambiguous relationships with some non-human races.
The various versions of unofficial history and street rumors could practically fill a thick book.
Previously, Audrey had only treated these as slanders from Roselle's political enemies or the idle imaginations of the public.
After all, how could such a great monarch be that kind of person?
But now, even the mysterious Mr. Nairn had given such an evaluation—
Could it be that those rumors were actually true?
And that the diary recorded even more... detailed specifics?
At this thought, Audrey suddenly felt her interest in Roselle's diary drop significantly.
She had originally thought it recorded lofty things like the secrets of the gods, the truth of history, and the mysteries of Beyonder Pathways.
But if it was also mixed with a large amount of Roselle's private 'romantic diaries,' it would indeed be... a bit disgusting to read.
She imagined herself opening the diary with great anticipation, only to see details of Roselle boasting about which lady he had spent the night with—
Audrey's cheeks couldn't help but flush slightly, and a sense of physical discomfort rose in her heart.
"So that's how it is..." She smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Then... then it's indeed... not very interesting."
Her voice lowered, and her enthusiasm for sharing the diary instantly dropped by more than half.
She thought with some disappointment.
Perhaps only a great existence like Mr. Fool, who sits high upon a divine throne and has long ceased to care about mundane perspectives, could view it with a purely investigative mindset and finish reading those things without changing expression.
When Mr. Fool reads the diary, he is examining a period of history and excavating useful information.
But if I were to read it... it feels like reading a gossip tabloid; the classiness just drops instantly.
Better forget it.
It's a pity for the major events and Beyonder knowledge that might be recorded inside.
By this point, Audrey had indeed lost most of her interest in Roselle's diary.
She was an aristocratic girl with a certain mental fastidiousness.
Although her status as a 'Spectator' allowed her to understand and analyze the complexity and Darkness of human nature, it didn't mean she liked to proactively come into contact with things she considered 'filthy.'
In her heart, Roselle Gustav had always been a symbolic figure.
He was a great monarch, the pioneer of the era of steam and machinery, a hero who dared to challenge the gods, and a tragic figure who left behind countless enigmas.
This image was glorious, worthy of the respect and exploration of later generations.
But Mr. Nairn's comment about being 'not decent' was like throwing a bucket of indelible ink onto this glorious statue.
Audrey once again associated it with those romantic scandals about Emperor Roselle in history, with the details of those different versions of stories.
Things like 'The Sigh of the Feysac Rose,' 'The Lover Under the Intis Moonlight,' 'The Mysterious Offspring in the Southern Continent Jungle'—
All sorts of tabloid news emerged one after another.
Before, she had only treated them as folk tales, but now it seemed they were likely all true, and there might even be more explicit self-accounts in the diary.
At the thought of this great emperor potentially recording his interactions with different women with great relish in his private diary every day after handling national affairs, Audrey felt a wave of disillusionment.
She felt that this behavior lowered the great emperor's class.
"Perhaps this is just the other side of a genius... being unconventional?"
Audrey silently found an excuse for her former idol in her heart, but it was clearly not very convincing.
"It's alright." Nairn waved his hand with a tolerant look of 'I understand you.' "The truth of history is often not as beautiful as imagined. We only need to extract useful knowledge from it and discard the dross."
This was also something Nairn had expressed at the Tarot Club before: the truth of history is far more complex than legends."
Knowing some things is of no benefit to you.
Now, Audrey understood this deeply.
Just like with Emperor Roselle, before today, she had never thought the truth within would be so... well, 'real'?
Was it true that her filters for these illustrious historical figures were too heavy before?
This led Audrey to wonder if there truly existed a perfect being in this world.
Were the gods?
As soon as this thought surfaced, it was like a bolt of lightning striking her mind, causing her body to tense up instantly.
One must not question the gods!
This was an iron rule branded into the depths of every believer's soul since childhood.
In the world of Mysteries, the majesty of the gods was even more deeply ingrained than in the Papal States of the Middle Ages, because they were real and true.
Audrey quickly dismissed this blasphemous suspicion, firmly suppressing that newly sprouted seed.
But today, this revelation about Roselle had undoubtedly planted an imperceptible seed in the deepest part of her heart.
Perhaps in the future, it would grow with the wind, blotting out the sky and bringing infinite vitality?
And Nairn's words, now heard in her ears, felt like a different experience altogether.
The words were spoken with such dignity that Audrey's favorable impression of Nairn rose even further.
Look, how rational, how principled!
He was a world apart from that Emperor Roselle who only knew how to indulge in romantic affairs!
She completely abandoned the idea of asking Nairn about the specific contents of the diary, and even felt a small flicker of'sympathy' for Mr. Fool.
Poor Mr. Fool, in order to find clues from the secrets potentially hidden in those filthy words, he had to patiently read through a philandering emperor's mundane diary.
How tedious and boring that must be, and what a test of willpower.
At the thought of Mr. Fool sitting upright on his divine throne above that gray-white fog, expressionlessly flipping through the various erotic scenes described by Emperor Roselle—
Audrey's cheeks burned slightly, and she quickly shook her head to toss this highly impactful image out of her mind.
It's truly too hard on you, Mr. Fool.
She couldn't help but think sympathetically that in the future, she should work harder to find some 'clean' and valuable Roselle diaries.