TEB Ch 77

After finishing their meal, the group decided to wait in the reception room. Rather than resting in each room and then rushing out one by one at the shout of a ghost appearing, it would be better for them to gather in a place where they could immediately run to different parts of the castle. While they were passing time together without any particular purpose, Rowena suddenly shook her head.  

“Since it’s such an old castle, there were many unique devices scattered around. If we were to inspect everything, it would never end, so we left them alone. But there were many traps everywhere, although most of them were no longer functional. I searched the flow of magic to see if there were any points where the magic was still present, but there were too many devices like the ones I just mentioned, so it was meaningless.”  

If there were only a few points where the flow of magic could be felt, they could just focus on those areas. But because various devices were hidden within the castle itself, it was difficult to search through them one by one. It seemed like Rowena was telling them to share what they had seen as she turned to Renard. Renard responded bluntly.  

“There was nothing special.”  

If there was something worth mentioning… Liev thought about what he could say instead of Renard and remembered a mirror that had made him feel uncomfortable. It was a huge full-body mirror that could fit Renard’s entire body, placed at the end of a strange hallway. Underneath it was an inscription in an ancient language that probably read,  

[Foolishness will last forever.]  

It was a strange and incomprehensible message. It could simply be a quote from the person who commissioned it or the creator, so there was no need to assign it any meaning. Liev approached the inscription to examine it closely. As he did, the sunlight shining behind him reflected off the mirror, revealing eerie green eyes.

“…?” 

He felt like he had seen something strange, so he looked closely at the mirror again. The only things reflected in the mirror were Renard, who was yawning, with a bored expression on his face, and himself.  

He definitely thought he had seen the unique pattern of a reptile’s iris. Could he have been mistaken for an iris because the light was too bright? Liev couldn’t leave in front of the mirror, so Renard looked at him with a puzzled expression and took a deep breath.  

“What are you doing, Liev?”  

“Hmm? No, I just have a bad feeling about something.”  

When Liev turned his gaze away and headed towards Renard, Renard felt a strange sense of discomfort. It was a familiar gaze, as if someone were watching him like a sneaky mouse.  

It didn’t seem like it would come rushing over here anytime soon. It was like he was sitting in a safe spot where he could look around and watch like a lion in an ambush. If it was this distance, it seemed like the ghost commotion wasn’t caused by “it”.  

Of course, it was natural for Renard to be uncomfortable since this was “its” territory. Renard didn’t think much of it and stuck his tongue out at the mirror. Liev probably didn’t know anything about what just happened.  

As Renard recalled what had happened a moment ago and shrugged his shoulders, Liev conveyed the situation instead.  

“We couldn’t find anything related to the ghost either. But there was something that caught our attention in the hallway that leads to the third tower. There was a mirror with strange writing on it that we had never seen before.”  

He didn’t mention the fact that he had felt as if his green eyes had met with the eyes in the mirror, in case he had mistaken it for something else. Instead, he showed everyone the ancient writing in the mirror that he had copied down.  

“If this is a mirror with these letters engraved on it, we’ve also seen it while investigating. Do you know what it means?”  

Just as Liev was about to answer, Rowena opened her mouth first.  

“If you interpret it, it means “Foolishness will last forever”.“ 

The expressions on everyone’s faces seemed to say, ‘What on earth does that mean?’.  

“Is it some kind of spell?”  

Albert asked, his face filled with confusion, and Rowena shook her head.  

“No, it’s not like that. As far as I remember, there were no ancient spells with such trigger words. It could be something that the craftsman who made the object engraved without any particular meaning.”  

If it was Rowena’s words, who had all the contents of the royal library and the central society’s collection of books in her head like an encyclopedia, it was most likely correct. There was no such content in the original work. Was it just a phrase engraved for decoration? It was the answer he couldn’t find at this time.  

“The ghost has appeared at the top of the tower!”  

Thud! Someone suddenly, across the hallway, burst open the door to the reception room, and Margret’s face was filled with surprise as she shouted. At the sudden news, the group, who were leaning against the sofa, suddenly got up from their seats one by one.  

“Go to the garden right now! Hurry!”  

She said that and began grabbing each of the companions one by one, in an exaggerated and fussy manner.

“What is it?” Liev felt confused. The scent of flowers, which wasn’t present during the day, suddenly filled the air around Margret. As Liev continued to look at her with a puzzled expression, Margret flinched and avoided his gaze, pushing the companions towards the garden.

“Hurry, it might disappear if we’re too late!”  

“Uh…”  

Despite this, Liev continued to glance at Renard’s expression, but no matter how he looked at it, it was clear he was hiding something. Before they knew it, all of them had rushed out of the reception room, and Liev also hurriedly followed after them. For now, they had to go out and confirm whether it was a ghost or something else. Questioning Margret could come later. That’s how everyone rushed towards the garden, and Margret pointed to the top floor of the tower, which seemed to reach the sky.  

“Look! Can you see it!?”  

Indeed. At the window, in a position that was too high to see well, there was a figure wearing vague clothes looking down from above. And as everyone’s gaze turned towards the window, the person-like figure quickly disappeared inside.  

“Ah!”  

“It’s gone…!”  

As if they had been waiting for the companions to arrive and see them, everyone’s gaze turned back to Renard as the figure disappeared. At that moment, the only one who could fly up to that height in an instant was Renard.

“Ugh, how troublesome.”  

Renard, who was clearly showing his reluctance to do this, sighed and jumped up towards the window. Sigrid laughed and spoke.  

“Come see it quickly and I will treat you well.  

Are you some kind of kindergarten teacher? Just as Liev was thinking about that, Renard successfully landed on the windowsill with a thud and then disappeared inside.  

As everyone held their breath and stared at the window, Liev looked at Margret instead of the window. The girl, who had been quite energic just a moment ago, seemed anxious for some reason. As if she had a secret that must not be revealed.  

Just as Liev was about to stop Margret, who seemed to have a habit of biting her nails without realizing it, Renard appeared outside the window.  

“Oh…!”  

At that moment, Margret’s expression was filled with a confusing mix of despair and anticipation. What was she planning? When Liev tried to hold onto Margret, Renard casually jumped out of the window with an indifferent expression.  

“Oh…!”  

And what followed was, of course, a light and graceful landing, like a feather. Renard addressed everyone’s attention as he spoke.  

“There was nothing there.”  

“Huh…?”  

“Was it really a ghost?”  

Instead of revealing his identity as everyone expected, Renard’s attitude was disappointingly nonchalant and hopeless.  

“It was just an empty space with nothing in it.”  

The clues from her expression and intuition seemed to be telling him that Margret was hiding something. And Renard too. The way Renard blinked his eyelids, as if rolling his eyes, after speaking was a habit of his when he was saying something he didn’t really mean.

Could it be that the whole ghost incident was something Margret orchestrated on her own?

Just as he was about to grab her and ask what she was hiding and why, Renard grabbed Liev’s wrist first.