Chapter 56 — In which night visits continue

Very late at night, when dawn was just a few hours away.

Vern opened the magic pocket crystal and took out his gains.

24 hours passed since he made the last transaction.

Now was the time to check them more closely.

Vern could do that much earlier, the curse that Crimo put on the crystal wouldn’t activate if he touched it, but following Crimo and Sangria’s persistent recommendations, he took a break and rested for a day.

It was kind of nice to just lie down and read, without thinking about anything in particular, but whenever he lost his concentration, his thoughts would drift to his family, his true family that wasn’t here.

In the end, he was the most relaxed when he worked.

After sorting research papers into categories and piling them up accordingly to their assumed value, Vern perched himself on the edge of the table and started to flip through them.

The quiet sound of rustling paper continued for a while.

First it was slow, measured.

But then it started to speed up, going up and down, as Vern started to flip through them haphazardly, with a growing frown on his face.

After quickly looking over all of the research papers, he put them down and crossed his arms.

His fingers tapped his elbow as he fell into thoughts.

“I can’t tell if I’m just paranoid or…”

If he wanted to confirm his hypothesis, he would need to do some statistical graph, or at least he would need to organize all the materials he had.

But there were a few tons of research papers here.

He stood up.

It was time to get some help.

Vern quickly put the papers into the pocket crystal and then, taking the pot of tea he was brewing for the last few hours, he left the room.

He was keenly aware that he wasn’t supposed to do that. No one was supposed to know that Vern recovered from the curse just yet. Not when he was still weakened.

Of course, Vern was miserable at hiding that fact, as four new people knew about his recovery, but in his defense, at least one of them was Crimo’s fault.

Vern would rather not inform Scarlen about any of his secrets.

But he also couldn’t tell Crimo about it, so he was at an impasse.

Thankfully for Vern, there was a secret passage in the corridor to his room, which led to Sangria’s room.

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Sangria told him about it in case of an emergency.

Vern briefly wondered why the passage was connected to Sangria’s room and not his, but he soon remembered what Am once told him:

— If you surround yourself with secrets, you will be killed in secret.

Though he said that in reference to something else than secret passages, Am hated secret passages, because of how easily one could exploit them for their schemes.

Probably that’s why every building under Am’s supervision turned into a labyrinth.

There is no need for secret passages to hide from your opponents or secretly sneak out when no one knows where the hell they are.

Entertained by such thoughts, Vern reached the end of the passage and activated the opening magic circle with the sequence provided by Sangria.

The wall before him opened and…

What greeted him was an utter chaos.

“Big brother, can I really take all those flasks? They won’t explode? All flasks I had before exploded after I used them just a few times…”

“Oooh! Are those colored eye conta—“

Sangria snatched a small box from Durio’s hands, while still facing Rambeta, who was holding what seemed to be an entire bag of experiment glass.

Sangria spoke with a smile that seemed to be plastered to his lips for the last few hours.

“Those flasks won’t usually break, unless you disproportionately put them under a high pressure or heat. Just keep that in mind and it should be fine.”

The twin sisters seemed to be going through Sangria’s things.

All kinds of books, experiment tools, pigments, alchemical ingredients and so on were scattered on the floor around them.

Sangria had full arms of stuff that apparently was too private to be touched.

In a bit further corner of the room sat Cuprit, engrossed into what seemed to be a magic study book.

Several of similar books were piled up around him.

But the thing that caught Vern’s eye was on his head.

A small kitten was proudly occupying the top of Cuprit’s head.

The kitten was the only one who noticed Vern enter.

It blinked its green eyes at him in a gesture of a greeting.

Vern, out of politeness, avoided everyone and quietly approached Cuprit from behind and then stroked the kitten.

After a few seconds, when he and the kitten enthusiastically and silently exchanged greetings, he looked down at what Cuprit was reading.

“Are you interested in body reinforcement?”

Cuprit jumped, almost throwing the kitten off of his head.

There was also a heavy thump as something fell on the floor.

Looking up, Vern saw the sisters and Sangria staring at him with their eyes wide open.

It seemed that Rambeta dropped her glass bag out of shock

He could only hope he didn’t cause anything to break.

Sangria suddenly flinched, roughly threw everything he had into his own storage crystal and ran towards Vern.

Then he looked him up and down.

“Young Master! Did something happen? Do you feel unwell? Did you get any sleep?”

His voice was quiet, but full of anxiety.

Vern decided to quickly reassure him.

“Nothing happened. I’m fine. I came to you, because I need help with some research.”

“Young Master, you didn’t answer my last question…”

Vern cut Sangria off as he pointed at the tea pot he brought with him.

“I also brewed some tea for Master Sangria.”

Sangria looked at the tea pot as if it was some kind of nightmarish monster.

“It’s fine, Master Sangria. It’s a brew that is good for stomach issues. I also infused and filtered it for a few hours, to reach maximum efficiency while maintaining exquisite taste.”

Hearing his words, Sangria slowly lifted the lid and sniffed the tea.

He blinked when a delicate and sweet aroma reached his nostrils.

Then he looked at Vern with doubt.

“Where did Young Master learn to brew tea?”

“… Talking book.”

“Of course.”

Sangria then took out the tea cups without questioning Vern about tea any further.

He had other questions though.

“Did Young Master say that he needs help with research?”

“Yes.”

Vern took out the papers he gained during the Magic Exchange.

“Something is bothering me, but to confirm it, I need to catalog them.”

“So boring data recording, huh?”

Sangria said as he poured five cups of tea.

He also looked at the cat questionably, but the cat turned its head away, so it probably meant that it wasn’t interested in tea.

Therefore, Sangria just turned towards Vern again, talking as he brought the tea to his lips.

“So what are we searching for, Young Master?”

“Anything related to mental fields.”

“Mental fields?”

Sangria frowned, but mumbled ‘If Young Master says so…’.

He stretched out the hand, which wasn’t holding a tea cup, towards the papers.

Vern was about to do the same, but halted and looked at the three people, who were oddly quiet.

The three exchange siblings were staring at him with wide eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

There was a momentary pause and then Cuprit slowly asked:

“I’m sorry, Sir, but who are you?”

“I’m Vern.”

The siblings made even more flabbergasted faces.

Did he say something strange?

*~*~*