For quite some time now, Grisella eyed the book by his side. It was an archaic book with an almost entirely black cover. Faded white text dotted the cover.

A peculiar glint flashed through her eyes.

She had noticed the book a long time ago, but never really had the opportunity to ask about it. Ellis constantly carried it around with him. It was even there during their first meeting. For a man with no clothes, a single black book as his only possession was certainly quite eye-catching.

She couldn’t help but wonder: What was it? Was it important? And if so, why?

Her curiosity was almost at its tipping point, but unfortunately, whether it was potion-making or cooking for a pack of ungrateful wolves, she was always busy. The shock from almost being poisoned to death re-ignited her slumbering curiosities.

A rare moment of peace had graced her. Now was as good as a time as any for her to breach the topic.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Those words echoed through the air.

Ellis paused. For a moment, he hesitated. If it was a question like before, then the answer would obviously be no. He stared long and hard at the woman in front of him. After a while, he breathed out an almost silent sigh.

“Sure, take your shot.”

“That,” she pointed to the book by his feet. “that book, what is it?”

“Eh? This thing?” Ellis looked down and lifted the book up. He brushed aside all the dust that had accumulated on its cover and briefly inspected it. This was the same book that Ena had retrieved from beneath the lagoon. In his eyes, it was nothing more than a useless accessory that came with Ena’s infinitely more useful spatial pouch.

“It’s something that we picked up along the way.” He answered simply.

Grisella’s face slightly twitched. “Y-you… you picked a book up in the middle of a forest?”

Ellis scratched the back of his head. “Well, technically it was from a lagoon, but basically, yeah.” In the face of her disbelief, he nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. “Towards this book, I’ve also been quite curious, but unfortunately, I can’t really read it.”

He then tossed the book towards her.

“Ah—” Grisella scrambled to catch it. After a few fumbling attempts, it landed in her lap.

Upon seeing the cover, she immediately widened her eyes. “This language…”

“Do you recognize it?”

She slightly nodded her head. “Yes, I think I do. It’s an ancient script, Sarelic, I think it was called. It used to be quite popular a few millennia ago, but now, not so much. As far as I know, only scholars and architects know how to read it.”

“So, you don’t know?”

“I said only scholars and architects.” Grisella snapped at him with a rather snippy tone. “For your information, I happen to be a scholar.”

“Eh? Really?”

She ignored his irritating display of disbelief. She turned back towards the book. Grisella traced a finger along the letters on the cover. “This says… Com-compendium… The Compendium of Space?”

The name itself was rather simple. It was the sort of title commonly used for introduction books regarding a certain field. In fact, her first alchemy book was titled the Grand Compendium of Herbology. Despite its name, it wasn’t really all that amazing.

She opened the book. There was an insignia located on the bottom right of the inner cover. It was slightly smudged, but after a few seconds, Grisella recognized the insignia.

At this point, her eyes narrowed. “This is…”

“What is it this time?” Ellis asked. He did not forget to stuff a piece of now cold hydra meat into his mouth.

“This insignia here, look.” She showed him the page.

“…” Ellis slightly widened his eyes. He was completely unaware of the insignia’s existence. He had overlooked it during his first round of investigations. It was an error on his part

… Well, in truth, he didn’t really do much in terms of investigating.

“It’s faint, but this insignia is definitely from Nephemeer.” She spoke with slight excitement in her voice.

“Nephemeer? What is that? Is that some sort of place?”

“No, it’s a person. A rather famous person.” She paused for a moment. “Well, famous in my field anyway.

“Nephemeer was a person from the Meraphim era. She was the youngest person to achieve the status of Archmagi. On the same year she achieved such a feat, she also became the owner of the Dreadknot Magus Tower. With her status as both Dreadknot Master and Archmagi, she was given the right to participate in the Bellflower Garden Conference.”

Ellis’s eyes swirled. Suddenly, he was bombarded with a bunch of words and titles that were completely foreign to him. He was more than just a little overwhelmed.

“Basically, she was an extremely important person revered by her followers and feared by her enemies.” Grisella succinctly summarized. “Nephemeer not only had an amazing talent for several different magic disciplines, but she also climbed her way up to the highest pinnacle of Space magic. At her peak, she was feared as the Magus who swallowed reality. Not a single person has ever managed to replicate the feats that she created.”

“Also…” Grisella’s gaze suddenly shifted towards Ena. The little fox was currently busy playing around with the wolves, so she did not even notice. Grisella slightly frowned. “She was a nine-tailed fox.”

Ellis’s eyes widened. “A nine-tailed fox… but from how you describe it, this Nephy person sounds like someone who was heavily involved in the human world. As a fox, that shouldn’t be the case, right?”

“No, didn’t I mention it before? Nine-tailed foxes can attain human form. In fact, some people go so far as to consider them demi-humans. This viewpoint is further supported by the fact that nine-tailed foxes are capable of giving birth with human mates. Besides, back then, there wasn’t as much stigma towards the monster race as there is now. Nephemeer, despite being a fox, did not hide her identity.”

“I see…” Now that she mentioned it, ever since he got to this world, he harbored this pre-conceived notion that monsters and humans were at ends with one another. This was counter to the fact that he had never seen any evidence of that sort of thing happening. Maybe I should rethink my biases…

Well, in retrospect, some things began to make sense.

For instance, why did Ena’s mother die in a cave by the lagoon? At first, he believed it was just pure coincidence that Ena was born so close to such treasures (the pouch and the book), but in light of the new information, that didn’t seem like the case anymore.

There was a very strong possibility that Nephemeer’s artifacts and the seven-tailed fox’s final resting place were connected.

“And this book, what sort of artifact is it?” Ellis asked.

“If I’m not wrong, then it’s probably a magic book,” Grisella answered. “I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a Grimoire, but it should be filled with the teachings of Nephemeer.”

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Her eyes sparkled with delight. “This is definitely a treasure. It’s the sort of thing that nations would greedily go to war over. Even the Orthodox Church would go wild at the mere sight of this book.”

“Then, I guess it’s something for magicians, huh?” He breathed out a sigh. “It’s unfortunate, but I can’t use magic…” He paused for a second. A thought flashed through his mind. “Grisella, you… do you think you can teach me?”

“Teach you? Like, magic?”

He nodded. Ellis had been meaning to ask about this for a while now, but with everything that had happened, he never really found a time to do so.

Grisella hesitated for a moment. In truth, even for her, it was difficult to judge whether or not Ellis could actually use magic.

As a witch, Grisella was quite sensitive. The bare minimum requirement for someone to be able to use magic was mana. After all, a potential mage’s body needed to be able to support the heavy strain and expenditure of mana usage. For this, a body that naturally produces mana was needed.

Of course, in this world, everything produced mana. Whether it was a small rock on the side of the road or the birds that soared through the skies, they all exuded out mana, just some more than others. A potential mage needs to have at least 1.5 times more mana than the normal person.

Take Ena for example. Her tiny body generated so much mana that the parts that couldn’t be contained simply leaked out of her like a broken dam.

Ellis, on the other hand, was weird. Grisella could not sense any outward flow of mana coming from his body. This sort of thing only happened on two occasions. Ellis was either someone with absolutely zero mana or he was someone with so little of it that it was almost negligible.

The former was impossible and the latter would cut off all his dreams of ever using magic.

In short, his chances were slim.

She thought about it for a moment, before she reached over and grabbed his hand. Ellis’s skin was smooth, although not as smooth as her own. It felt like a man’s hand. A slight flush crept up onto her cheeks.

“What are you doing?” Ellis asked as he stared down at her pale fingers.

“Inspecting.” She succinctly answered.

After a few seconds, Grisella knitted her brow. “…”

“So, how is it?”

“I… I don’t know.” She stated. “You have mana, but it’s weird. It’s all just… sitting there, accumulating. Your body absorbs mana and basically uses it as nutrients.”

In truth, this sort of constitution wasn’t all that unique. Some monsters possessed similar body types. They would absorb mana into their body and use it to strengthen themselves. Ellis was the same, but there was something else too.

“Your body absorbs mana, but not everything gets used up. Under normal circumstances, the excess mana would be expelled out of you. After all, there’s a cycle to these things. All living things in this world are in a state of constant absorption. A portion of the mana that they absorb gets stored up in the body, usually in something like a mana core.

“Mages are individuals who developed a control over that natural process. Their bodies can store more mana than normal, and they can also consciously increase the rate of absorption. Still, even for mages, it is impossible to just continually store and never expel. Everything has a limit. We absorb, and then we expel out. It’s a cycle, get it?”

Ellis nodded his head. It was something similar to the rain cycle that he had learned of as a kid.

“For some reason, you're different.” She poked his chest. “It’s all just sitting there, accumulating inside your body. You absorb mana, but you don’t expel it out.”

He tilted his head. He could understand that his constitution was different from most normal people, but he couldn’t quite tell why it was preventing him from using magic.

“Is that such a bad thing?”

She shook her head. “No, on the contrary, it’s a good thing… At least, theoretically. If you were a regular human, then you would be someone with a very enviable constitution. A body like yours would propel anyone to the status of a genius magus, but…” She looked at Ellis with a complicated gaze.

“For people with special constitutions, they should instinctively be able to feel mana and use it as naturally as moving their arms. Ellis, you can’t do any of that, can you?”

“Feel mana? Use magic?” Ellis furrowed his brow. He did not feel anything. Nothing at all.

He was completely stumped. It was like asking him to move his seventh limb. He did not have a seventh limb.

After a short pause, Grisella sighed. “I don’t know how to help you.”

“Are you sure? Isn’t there some other way?”

She shook her head. “In truth, your case is similar to an apprentice magician with low mana sensitivity. Usually, the first step would be to inject foreign mana into the apprentice’s body. Doing so will allow them to consciously feel the flow of mana for the first time.”

“So, why don’t we do that?” he asked.

“The thing is, I’ve already been doing that.” She answered. “Since the moment I held your hand, I’ve been constantly injecting my mana into you, but…” She shook her head again. “Did you feel anything?”

“… No.”

“It’s as I thought. Your body absorbs everything I put into it. It’s to the point where nothing I do changes anything.” She thought for a second. “It’s comparable to adding a drop of water into a raging whirlpool. Such a minuscule change would naturally go unnoticed.”

For the third time in under a minute, she shook her head again. “I really don’t know how to fix you.”

“I see…” Ellis’s shoulders drooped. He was naturally downtrodden. From her words, he understood one thing: he had a good body, but a terrible mind.

Since he was stuck at a dead end, for now, he decided to temporarily give up on magic. Somewhere in this wide world, there was probably someone out there who could help him, but he had a feeling that he would not find that someone anytime soon.

Well, moping around won’t do me any good.

After a few seconds of silence, he raised his head and pointed towards the book in her hands. “Since that thing won’t do me any good, you can use it.”

Grisella’s eyes immediately widened. “Eh, you’re giving this to me?”

“Did I say that?” He retorted. “Lending! I’m lending it to you. While you still have it, learn as much of it as you can. You can even write down copies of it too or something.

“That’s…” She would be lying if she were to say she was not tempted, but… was this really okay?

Seeing the conflict in her expression, Ellis breathed out a sigh. Grisella was sometimes weird like this. The same thing had happened when he gave her the Troll. This girl was not someone who knew how to accept gifts.

He reassured her, “It’s fine. Don’t think about it too much.”

Besides, the fact that he had to constantly lug that useless thing around with him everywhere he went greatly annoyed him. He felt nothing but relief after he transferred the burden over to someone else.

“You, you’re really lending this to me?” Her shoulders trembled. Ellis might not understand, but she knew full well the significance of this legendary compendium. It was an absolutely precious artifact whose worth eclipsed even that of her broomstick. For her to suddenly get something like this…

Tears welled up in her eyes.

Ellis felt somewhat weird. The book was a treasure that the little fox happened to find a few minutes after she was born. Was it really something so amazing?

On the other hand, Grisella felt overwhelmed with gratitude. She couldn’t just accept it. No, it was impossible for her to accept it like this. In the first place, why would Ellis give her such a valuable treasure? He must have some sort of underlying motive to his actions.

… Still, no matter what those motives may be, she had to accept. The temptation of Nephemeer’s Compendium was too strong to resist.

She deliberated for a long time. Eventually, she said, “My master always spoke of repaying gratitude with gratitude. I can’t just accept this favor.”

In response, Ellis just shrugged his shoulders. He had already offered. If she was this stubborn about it, then there was nothing else he could really do.

Grisella bit her bottom lip. It was a somewhat sensual gesture, but there were beads of sweat trickling down the sides of her cheek. A full minute passed. At some point, her face suddenly started to flush. In fact, it had turned as red as a tomato.

“Ah…” Ellis was vaguely familiar with her expression.

She suddenly looked up. Embarrassment and resolve, such emotions were clearly reflected within her fiery gaze. “Let me serve you.”

“…” He couldn’t quite comprehend the words that she had just uttered. He blinked once. “What was that?”

“Yes, that’s it!” Grisella exclaimed. “In order to repay this favor, let me be your retainer. Or maybe a m-mistress. T-that works too. I have never given up my body for anyone, but I am fully aware of the effect that it has on men.” She paused for a moment. “I, I probably can’t serve you forever, but if it’s for fifty, no, even one hundred years or so, then I’m willing to—”

“Wait! W-wait a damn minute!” He hurriedly shouted. “You’re going way too fast. A girl shouldn’t give up her body so easily. Especially, not for a scrap of old papers.”

Grisella tilted her head. Slight confusion colored her face. “You weren’t giving this to me in hopes of ‘tasting’ my body?” Her face was still bright red, but she was strangely articulate.

He let out a strained cough. Ellis awkwardly shook his head.

Ellis was a man with old-fashioned values. He strongly believed that relationships needed to be fostered and cared for… Well, old fashioned may not be very accurate. After all, if given the chance, he was also the type of man to happily accept a harem.

Still, he valued love above all else. Earning a girl’s affections through material gifts simply did not sit well with him. If it was a girl like that, what’s to say that she won’t leave him for another guy with even bigger wallets?

No, love was important. Everything could be traced back to the heart.

“You wanted it, right? So, just take it.” He firmly stated. “We’re going on the same journey. Technically, we’re a team, so it’s only right to help out my fellow teammates. After all, we can’t have you dragging the entire group down. Besides, I can’t use it, but you can.”

“But…” She was still hesitant.

“It’s not like I’m giving it to you.” Ellis quickly countered. “Borrowing. It’ll be just borrowing. If you can find some other way of repaying me that doesn’t involve giving out your body, then that’s fine too.”

“Well, if you’re really certain…”

Grisella breathed out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. Of course, Ellis had noticed.

Her blush slowly subsided. She looked up at him with slightly watery eyes. “Then… thank you.”

He silently nodded.

With that out of the way, Ellis looked up at the endless canopy of trees above him.

He felt that a wind was blowing, but not a single leaf rustled.