The day had changed, the birds were already chirping before I even woke up, accompanied by the sun that always provided its warm rays. The only thing that looked messy was me—my dark circles were as dark as a panda’s eyes. I couldn’t sleep well, thinking about what would happen next after what Eva and I had discovered.

I was eager to start researching this strange book right away. I quickly cleaned up my room and myself so I could contact Madam Eva, the deputy detective, to solve the puzzle we had.

But before I could even call her, she had already barged into my house without permission, slamming the door hard against the wall.

“Zoe, get down here now, or do you want me to drag you down?” she shouted from the first floor, disturbing the peaceful morning.

“What the heck, yelling so early in the morning? I’m still getting dressed,” I shouted back, not wanting to be outdone.

“Jeez, what’s taking you so long to get dressed? Are you putting on a gown or something?”

I hurried down the stairs to confront the source of the noise that had shattered my peace.

“Hey, can’t you greet people nicely in the morning like a normal person?” I grumbled, probably pouting so much that my lips had grown an extra five centimeters.

“And you, what’s with you? You’re a guy, but you take forever just to get dressed, and you’re only wearing boxers!” Eva retorted, pouting as well.

“It’s my choice, as long as I’m wearing something. Anyway, let’s skip the small talk—what did you find yesterday? Tell me now,” I said, pushing her to sit down and open up her findings on the table.

Maybe I pushed her shoulders too hard because she almost fell over. “You idiot,” Eva muttered as she punched me on the nose without warning.

“Ow, come on, that hurt! Do you always have to hit me?” I winced, rubbing my nose.

“You’re such a wimp. Anyway, here are all the books that might be useful. There’s no exact information, but some of them might be good references. Check out this one; it has some ancient beliefs about reincarnation.”

I loved watching her when she got serious like this.

“In this book, there are rituals about how to guide the dead so they can reincarnate peacefully,” she explained, pointing to the information with her usual habit of biting her nails when she was focused.

“These other books I brought also talk about reincarnation in different contexts, and there’s even one about sigils. When I looked through it, I noticed some symbols that match those in your old book.”

I listened carefully to what Eva was explaining. Based on what she described, some of the books she used might actually be very useful—at least, I hope so.

“Okay, I’ll start reading through these books and focus on finding matching symbols. You take the rest and dig deeper into the reincarnation concepts or whatever else you can find,” I said, getting caught up in the seriousness of the situation.

After that, the atmosphere became truly silent, with only the sound of pages turning and the occasional deep breaths from me and Eva. There were many things I couldn’t understand—lots of words I was reading for the first time, adding to the confusion in my head.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I found several symbols that looked similar, some almost identical, and I redrew them on a paper I had prepared. Eva was also copying down some important notes she had found. We couldn’t make any marks or scribbles in these books since Eva had borrowed them from the city library yesterday.

From what I saw, there were actually many kinds of symbols and sigils, each with different functions. There were sigils for luck, protection, and so on. Some symbols depicted specific objects with distinct characteristics.

Some were drawn with sharp, pointed edges, while others seemed to be drawn with a light touch, and some were smooth and flowing. Perhaps the characteristics of these symbols could be categorized into different types, and that’s what I had been working on—sorting out which symbols might have the same characteristics and which sigils matched those in my reincarnation book.

Eva and I stayed focused on what we were doing. Every now and then, we would exchange thoughts about things we didn’t quite understand.

Suddenly, Eva stopped writing and collapsed halfway onto the table, whining at me, “Zoe, I’m starving,” with a dramatic sad expression as if she was about to cry.

I had been so focused that I didn’t realize morning had turned into afternoon. I completely forgot to prepare any food or drinks.

“Hehe, sorry, I totally forgot you needed to eat too,” I teased, laughing a little at Eva.

I quickly headed to the kitchen, leaving the starving Eva at the table, and prepared some food, soda, and snacks to keep us from getting bored while we researched the books.

When I returned with the food, Eva was cheerful again, her energy restored. She no longer looked like a fish out of water like she had earlier.

After we finished the main meal, we resumed our search with full concentration. The books Eva brought were spread out on the table, pages open wide. The symbols and sigils I found were carefully arranged as we tried to find patterns that might be hidden among the scattered papers.

Eva picked up a thick book titled “Mythology and Ancient Symbols: A Comprehensive Guide.” She flipped to a page filled with illustrations of symbols, matching them with those in our notes. I carefully wrote down my observations, comparing the listed symbols with the images I had found in the old book.

We both immersed ourselves in reading, identifying symbols that resembled those in our book. Each symbol we found began to form a clearer picture of a forced reincarnation ritual. Some symbols were connected to concepts like mind, soul, life, and death, while others seemed related to controlling the spirit world.

We were really struggling to match the information we had, but fortunately, the symbols had characteristics that were easy to recognize. However, with so many symbols possibly related, we weren’t entirely sure if the ones we picked were correct.

Meanwhile, time passed without us noticing. Finally, Eva closed her book with a long sigh. “Zoe, I think we’re starting to see a pattern here. The symbols we found might be related to a specific way of controlling reincarnation. There could be certain elements we need to prepare.”

I nodded in agreement. “We need to understand the details of these symbols more thoroughly. If there’s a pattern or technique, we could try it to gain a deeper understanding of what’s going on.”

I continued the search with even more precision. Every page I read shed more light on the rituals and their symbols. I began to understand how the symbols might be connected to the old book and the possible mysteries it held.

“I think we’re getting close to the core of the issue,” Eva said. “With all this information, we could start designing an experiment or a trial to understand more about this ritual.”

I nodded enthusiastically. “We should proceed with caution. This could get really dangerous if we don’t handle it right.”

As I was flipping through one of my old books, a sheet of paper suddenly fell out from between the pages. I picked it up and saw handwriting that was almost illegible. Eva quickly moved closer to read the writing on the paper.

“Go to the temple northeast, deep within a vast forest,” Eva read out loud carefully.

I looked at Eva intently. “This might be an important clue. A temple in a vast forest… but we don’t have any information about this temple.”

Eva nodded. “Yeah, the only vast forest I know of to the northeast from here is probably the Faevenor Eldoria Forest. If this temple really exists in that forest, we need to find its location.”

“Wow, we’re actually on the same page. We need to figure out if this temple really exists.”

With renewed determination, we began preparing for a journey to the Misty Forest. The newly discovered paper gave us a clear direction to continue our search, but we had to be ready for anything we might encounter in the mysterious forest ahead.