The report she had just found…

There was no room for doubt. It implied that the librarian and the baker had been involved with the death of Layla by trapping her underground.

Moreover, they had destroyed the mural in the main hall and the rest of the chambers, so that no one could have acess to them anymore. If I can’t have it, no one can get it, huh?

What a selfish point of view.

To think that they would destry everything rather than letting someone else see what was left in the ruins. Was the secret too big to be seen by human eye, or were their actions led by another reason?

The granny closed her eyes, deep in thought. If the secret was really such a big deal, then wouldn’t it have been better if they had destroyed a long time ago? Why wait for someone to stumble upon it before hurrying and cover everything up?

Could it be that they were interested in the ruins themselves? If that were the case, then things would make more sense.

It wasn’t just a matter of keeping other people from seeing the ruins, but it was also because they wanted the secret for themselves.

But what kind of secret was worth that much? All she found was a gate to a dangerous place. There were no riches nor treasures.

And the White Order… The librarian didn’t seem to have any good opinion on them. And they seemed the first suspect for everything strange that happened around the village.

It seemed as if they were sworn enemies of some sort.

Tacha frowned. She had the feeling that she had heard the name of the cult somewhere before. The name White Order was familiar to her.

Then, she remembered. She first heard of them while she was in the underground chamber; right after she had defeated the boss.

It was all inside the notebook left behind by Layla herself.

However her view on the White Order was the complete opposite from the librarian’s. She had mentioned the sacred city of Kash’ri Lah and how the ruins didn’t seem to be from the same civilization as the White Order, even though she suspected so at the start.

Was she a member of the Order or just an unfortunate adventurer? She seemed to know about the inner workings of the Order, so she might have been a member.

She had described the mural too in the notebook, so it was a final confermation of her suspicions. Layla had seen the mural and later on the librarian and the baker noticed human activity near the ruins. And so they decided to cover everything up by destroying the ruins and laying a trap for the uninvited guest.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Did all of this happen only because they hated the White Order so much? She was inclined to say yes, however that didn’t explain why they would destroy the ruins too.

Didn’t they guard them all of this time to keep its legacy alive? Why destroy everything in a heartbeat at the first sight of a member of the Order snooping around?

She couldn’t come up with a reason. Not with what she could see here.

And despite all of this, she was still unsure if they were responsible for trapping her and Frӧst in the same place. However she was sure of one thing: the culprit would have the sword she received from the young shopkeeper, Kirio.

If she could find the sword, she would be able to find the one that caused her to cross that cursed place that gave her that damned Mark.

It wasn’t fair that she was the only one that got it. Or at least she thought it was so? The young Frӧst didn’t act like he received some nightmare difficulty mode Mark.

The granny searched through the documents some more, but she couldn’t find anything else. With that, she decided that it was time to get out of there.

Putting the documents where she found them, Tacha walked through the narrow tunnel and climbed back up.

Carefully, she opened the hatch making as little noise as possible. Looking through the thing gap, she confirmed that no one was around. The granny sneaked out, closed the lid and covered it all up with the books around her. Just like she found it.

Tacha exhaled a sigh of relief. She was quite lucky that the librarian didn’t come and check all the way to the hidden hatch. If this was some kind of horror game, he would have certainly done so already.

She patted her hands, a satisfied smile on a job well done. Checking the pile one last time, making sure that it looked natural enough, granny Tacha headed towards the main aisle.

As soon as she turned the corner, the granny collided with a shadow. Tacha Macha staggered a few steps back. After a moment to recollect herself, she looked at what had hit her. And just with one look, her heart jumped up to her throat.

The librarian stood steadfast in place, looking straight at her.

Tacha stopped her face from making a panicked expression. She hoped that with the natural darkness of the last few rows of the library, the hadn’t noticed her surprise. She couldn’t let him suspect that she knew some of his secrets.

Not with those 3 Hp of hers warning her constantly from picking any fights.

The librarian spoke with a tone as calm as that of a surface of a lake “Need any help?” his words were curt, and the granny could see him glancing in the direction of the secret hatch.

Without losing her composure, the granny reached for the first book she could grab from behind her, and showed it to the man”No need. I found the book I was looking for”

The librarian raised an eyebrow “’You must be tired, let’s go to sleep’?” he glanced at the cover of the book. A black cat was sitting on top of its owner, directing him towards the bed.

He knew the book. It was a story about a highscool boy finding a cat in a castle, and later on when he brought it home, the cat would dictate his sleeping schedule until the end of the school year. Unlike what most thought, the protagonist was the cat, not the boy.

“Yes, that’s the one” she responded with a straight face.

The man glanced a few times between her and the hatch. Tacha felt as if she was being intimidated from that simple action. Worried that she might give away something with her behaviour, the granny took a deep breath and repeated in her mind a few times It’s alright, it’s alright. He’s not going to attack.

With the book in hand, the librarian turned around and walked towards the reception “I’ll record the book down” Tacha was startled for a moment before she snapped out of it and followed him quickly “I’ll need your name, affiliation and the Central Affictionado Association Card, if you have one”

“Err… Sure” Tacha blinked her eyes a few times. Those were all new words for her. She had no idea what an Affictionado Card was!