The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

Holy Scripture.

The divine magical scripture bestowed by God to humans.

Grimoire.

The divine magical scripture forbidden by God to humans.

No need for elaborate explanations, each can be defined in a single sentence.

See?

Though there’s only a difference of a single word, that alone is enough to clearly distinguish human perceptions of the two books.

To get straight to the point, I am not a magician.

Nor am I a magic knight who specializes in combat through magic, nor a scholar who studies magic.

Thanks to my absurd attribute values, I may have reached the pinnacle in the domain of darkness attribute, but fundamentally, I have not lived my life researching magic.

Let alone having an interest in divine magical scriptures like the Holy Scripture or Grimoire.

I had never even heard such stories, to the extent that this was the first time in my entire current life.

Divine magical scriptures.

Certainly, they are desirable items, but I am doubtful if they are necessary for an assassin like me.

Aer didn’t go into much detail, but since he mentioned it directly, it would be difficult to just ignore it.

So, I guess I have to look into it a bit…

[Seriously, I don’t know! If that idiot god doesn’t know, how am I supposed to know?]

Kaeram exclaimed in frustration, almost jumping up.

[I’ve been asleep for a whopping 300 years! And since then, I haven’t left your side for a second! How would I know what that guy has been up to?!]

Well, she does have a point.

But judging by her reaction, it seems she isn’t completely unaware of it,

Seeing her face plastered with injustice unlike before, it felt awkward to press any further.

“What’s its name?”

[What?]

“You must know its name, right? Being another divine scripture like the Holy Scripture, it should have a name.”

Kaeram pouted, unwilling to answer, and looked away.

But, it seemed it wasn’t something she couldn’t say, for not long after, she opened her mouth.

[Lemiharam….]

“Lemiharam?”

I tried to sift through my memories to see if it rang any bells, but as expected, nothing came up.

Well, names aside, what’s crucial is where this Grimoire might be located.

There was one speculation I had.

If this Grimoire, like Kaeram, has not awakened and is somewhere asleep or sealed, then it’s likely to be near where the Holy Scripture was located.

Wasn’t the place where I found Kaeram the same as where the holy sword was, in the temple of light?

Assuming the same principle applies, it’s conceivable that the Grimoire might be hidden somewhere in the vicinity of where the Holy Scripture was located.

Therefore, the first step should be to locate where the Holy Scripture was, and to do that, it’s essential to find the person who possesses the Holy Scripture.

One way or another, it remains urgent to find Boris as soon as possible.

As my mind buzzed with these complex thoughts for a moment, my body soon arrived at a particular place.

It’s called the most information-rich place within this academy.

The library.

Here I am, visiting a library again in my life.

As someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy reading, it’s a place I seldom visit.

Still, I came here wondering if there might be information on the Holy Scripture or the Grimoire.

Looking at these rows of books, it seems it will take ages just to find the book I need.

I don’t really feel like it, but should I ask a librarian?

Just as I was thinking this and pulled out a book at random,

“……?”

Between the empty bookshelves, a familiar pair of eyes appeared.

A gaze so dark and sinister it could make someone uncomfortable.

In this academy, there’s only one person with such eyes.

Luna Rainriver.

Without showing any surprise, I asked with a flat expression.

“What are you doing?”

It’s quite uncomfortable being watched like this, as if she were some kind of voyeur.

Unperturbed, she sniffed around like a puppy and said.

“I was reading a book when I caught your scent and came to find you. My nose is as accurate as ever.”

Somehow, this makes me feel quite unpleasant.

It seems I might really need to start wearing perfume to avoid this.

I should tell Brian to buy one later.

“Did you come here looking for a book?”

“Well, something like that.”

“That’s unexpected. I thought you weren’t the type to like books.”

“I’m not particularly fond of them.”

If it weren’t for Aer, I wouldn’t have set foot here until graduation.

“What book are you looking for? Just tell me. I’ll get it for you.”

I tilted my head in confusion at her words.

“Have you changed your profession to a librarian?”

“No, not exactly. It’s just that I’ve read all the books here, so I generally know where things are. If you don’t know the title of the book, you can at least tell me about the content.”

What? If that’s true, she’s almost like a walking library.

Given what I know about her, I didn’t think it was an empty boast.

Might as well see if I’m being duped by asking?

“I’m looking for something about cursed books…”

She seemed to take offense at the word ‘cursed books’, frowning immediately upon hearing it.

And then, she stared at me intently for about three seconds.

Suddenly, she turned around and left, only to reappear in front of me a short while later with nearly ten volumes in hand.

Most of the books had nothing to do with magic, let alone cursed books.

“How are these related to cursed books?”

“Wait and see. Things aren’t always as they appear.”

She then picked up the top book and started flipping through it with flourish, as if performing a trick.

After a brief moment, she seemed to find what she was looking for and presented a page to me as if to show off.

It was a part of the chronicles of Knight Fenelon, a knight who had made a name for himself in the Ushif Empire a hundred years ago.

It was something Fenelon had heard from an old man while gathering information on a wyvern subjugation quest from the adventurers’ guild.

Although it wasn’t much help, it seemed like a thread of information that could be useful.

The other books were similar in nature.

Whether a line or a page, the information was sparse, but collectively, it could amount to something quite substantial.

“There aren’t any books directly written about holy or cursed texts like the Holy Scripture here. I’ve never even heard of such books existing in the first place. That’s all you can find here.”

But isn’t this something?

To compile information that would take months to find overnight in less than 10 minutes,

It was truly an impressive feat.

“But why are you looking for information on cursed books? Are you planning to find them yourself?”

“It’s not that, I just suddenly got interested…”

While I was reading the part she found, her doubtful gaze was shooting straight at me.

“I’m not sure why you’re asking, but it won’t be easy. Our society has been searching for divine scriptures like the Holy Scripture or cursed books for a long time, but so far, we haven’t found anything significant.”

“Is it okay for you to tell me this?”

“It’s fine since you’re Senior Cyan . You won’t talk about it elsewhere, right?”

Perhaps it’s better not to talk to her.

“If you ever find it, please show me. There are two books I’ve always wanted to read in my life, and one of them is a cursed book.”

“What’s the other one?”

“The Holy Scripture.”

Somehow, I expected that.

After all, with her knowledge, it’s believable that the only books she hasn’t read in this world are those two.

Most of the content I read was often compared with the Holy Scripture.

In the case of the Holy Scripture, the name ‘Hiskrea’ was properly noted, but that wasn’t the case for the cursed books.

Without proper naming or mention, they were just briefly referred to as cursed books…

Continuing my search, I couldn’t find any instance where ‘Lemiharam’ was correctly written.

“But unlike the Holy Scripture, the cursed book doesn’t have its name written down? Is there a special reason for that?”

“Well… do you know the name of the cursed book?”

I mentioned it casually.

“Lemiharam.”

At that, her face suddenly turned ice cold.

“Oh, is that not it?”

I asked hastily, feeling slightly flustered.

“That’s correct. You know well.”

As if nothing had happened, her sinister expression returned to normal.

What’s this uneasy feeling?

“Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“I’ve heard some interesting stories about you recently…”

“Well? There are plenty of stories about me.”

Of course, most of them were closer to insults or baseless rumors.

I’ve been indifferent to such talks for a while.

But,

“Are you engaged?”

-Thud!

The book I was holding fell to the ground with an indifferent sound.

Just to clarify, that wasn’t me making the noise.

Exactly five steps away from where Luna and I stood, a princess from some country, trembling as if she had seen a ghost, made that sound.

“Lu- Lu…”

She was so startled she couldn’t even say my name.

It seems it would be awkward for us to run into each other for a while, so it might be best for me to leave now.

“Thanks for your help. I’ll be going.”

“Se- see you next time, senior.”

Luna, glancing around, awkwardly waved her hand in response.

I thought I should at least say goodbye, so I looked at Princess Arin as I passed,

“……”

She seemed too troubled to even lift her head.

I then left the library.

* * *

Cyan was a student so disconnected from academic pursuits at the academy that everyone knew him for his lack of engagement with studies.

Although Arin had often seen him exercising at the training ground, she had never once thought him the type to be found dead-studying or buried in books at the library.

But what a surprise it was?

Of all places, she never dreamt she would run into him in the library.

Caught off guard by this unexpected encounter, Arin was left speechless and confused. By the time she gathered her wits, Cyan had already left.

“Are you okay, Senior Arin?”

Luna, still lingering, asked with concern.

“Ye- yes! Of course!”

Arin took several deep breaths to calm herself down.

“Why are you so surprised to see Senior Cyan? It’s not the first time.”

“Wha-? Oh, no! It’s not that I was surprised, just a bit… startled.”

Luna tilted her head at Arin’s unusual demeanor.

“What were you and Cyan talking about?”

“He was just looking for some information, so I was helping him find it.”

“I see…”

It seemed she had forgotten what she came here for.

Arin just stared blankly at Luna, who stood silently.

“Ca- can we talk for a moment, Luna?”

She nodded in agreement.

(To be continued)