Chapter 36

**Noch**


After having explained the situation to Sirus, he thought for a bit and looked down at the new materials he had brought in recently.

“I have recently acquired these from a friend that had gone to excavate some newfound ruins. The moment he laid eyes on the books and parchments he knew that they didn’t belong in a mortal museum nor in the hands of any normal person. After he called me out to have a look at them myself, I fully agreed with him and told him that I would bring them here.” He explained as he pointed to the trolly of parchments and books behind him.

“Are you having trouble sorting them?” I asked curiously.

“You could say that…” He sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “More like I can’t even translate the titles to know what they contain in the first place. The thought that these might be from the previous cycle has come to mind, but I think these are in too good of a condition for that to be the case.”

Now that was surprising. In this entire library, there wasn’t a single book or language that Sirus couldn’t read or speak. He had the title of being the library’s encyclopedia for a reason.

“Hmmm, let’s have a look see.” I snatched up the first leather bound book that was on the top of the trolly and flicked open the stiff black cover. He was right, judging by the feel of the leather and the first page, it really didn’t look like it was something that belonged to the first cycle. It was much too fresh.

I squinted at the slightly faded words scribbled on the first page and had a slight moment of surprise. ‘*Aueriumn Vila Koupi*’ was written in looping script. It was Tilatarian, and that was most definitely a language that existed in the previous cycle, but was lost the moment the new cycle started.

But that realization just made me frown more. How could a book with Tilatarian script be in such good condition? Even the books in the Council’s vaults were more ragged and worn by age than this.

Quickly closing the cover I flipped the book over and opened the back cover. Something that I remembered wasn’t too widely used back then was preservation inscriptions. If this book had something like that attached to it, it would explain the good condition it’s still in…

I could see a splash of ink peeking out from under the leather cover. This told me that my hunch might just be correct. Slowly I sent a sliver of my energy into the book, and noticed almost immediately how the slightly cracked leather seemed to suddenly renew itself. I was impressed to say the least.

“What on earth did you just do?!” Sirus asked in surprise as he also saw the drastic change the book went through.

“Something that was not too widely used back in those days is luckily found in this book here. It also explains why it is in such good condition to start off with. Do you know if there were other artifacts found in the ruins as well?” I asked curiously.

“Back in what days? And well, yes there were. There were many energy storage crystals found on the surrounding shelves, although they were all drained of whatever energy they might have held, as well as other odds and ends.”

“Ha, that would definitely explain it. I bet the inscription on these books and parchments were kept energized by those very crystals. It’s called a preservation inscription. Obviously the name is self explanatory. And ‘back in those days’ is referring to the previous cycle. These are genuine unless someone from back then wrote Tilatarian after the world went belly up.” I remarked as I started flipping through the pages.

“Remarkable. I’d like for you to teach the inscription to me later, it would be a great help for the archive section.” Sirus looked excited at the prospect. The archive section had many documents in there that were beyond the hope of touching, let alone reading, even for him.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but the preservation inscription only helps retain a document’s integrity from the time that it was first placed. In other words, it’s impossible to use that inscription on something that is already ruined unless it’s already been there from the start.” I explained.

Sirus sighed dejectedly. “Oh well, there goes my one ray of hope for those documents.”

“Just burn them already like I said.”

“No! They’re valuable documents!” He protested in horror.

I pouted. “You never did like my suggestions whenever you bring up the archive section worries.”

“Because your suggestions always lead to destruction!”

“It’s not like you can really handle or read them anyway, so why keep them?”

“They might hold extremely valuable information!”

“Nonsense, they’re outdated anyway.”

Sirus glared at me with all the stubbornness he possessed. “They will never be destroyed, so stop bringing that suggestion up every time.”

“Fine, fine.” I muttered as I kept flipping. Only to snap the book shut shortly afterwards. It was definitely something from before the cataclysm, but it wasn’t really relevant to the information that I was actually looking for.

“How many more of these do you have?” I asked while handing the book over to him.

“More than you would expect to come out of a ruin like that.” He said while waving his hand to indicate the five other trollies close by as well as some piles of books stacked next to them.

“Oh joy.” I deadpanned.

“Indeed. Sadly since you confirmed that these are all from the previous cycle, and we both know that you never bothered to teach anyone else, including me, the languages from back then, you’ll have to check all of these over all by yourself for the information you’re looking for. Especially since we don’t really have anything else from the previous cycle here, so any information relating to Orbus or what he might be up to could only be found within these piles. If your search scope is only pinpointed at the Order’s Library of course.”

I squinted disdainfully at the piles of literature. Then an idea suddenly popped into my head. “Well, there is now one more person in this castle that would be able to read these piles of paper besides me.”

Sirus’s expression said that he clearly didn’t trust whatever was probably going on inside my head. “I don’t like the evil grin that you’re sporting. Who might this person be?”

I grinned widely, already looking forward to the interaction that awaited. “Her name starts with an M and her nickname is Demon Spawn.”