“I was just thinking about reading a book in the library.”
The butler breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that I was going to spend the day reading. Well, it was going to be a while.
“Hmm? I have never seen this book before.”
“Oh, I bought it when I went out.”
It was a book with a green leather cover; the butler narrowed his eyes. I quickly hugged the book close to my chest. Just in case he saw the crude illustration and tried to confiscate it.
Luckily, he didn’t.
“It’s a book about witches. I didn’t see it in the library since I heard my husband got rid of…”
“Ah yes, he told me to burn everything…” Alan’s expression was heartbreaking.
At that moment, a certain thought came into my head. “Did you really burn everything?”
“Well…”
As I expected! I was happy seeing the butler mumble to himself, being unable to answer.
“There are some… My lord told me to take care of everything, but it was an enormous number of books. The fire would be too big if we burned everything all at once. The books were burned in small piles.”
“So some have yet to be burned.”
“Well, yes.” However, since his lord told him to dispose of all those books, the butler asked me not to tell anyone else.
I nodded quickly. I’ll keep it a secret, but…
“May I look at them?”
“Are you referring to the books?”
“Yes.”
“My apologies, but they’re all books my lord designated as prohibited. It won’t be easy to get them.”
“I’m just curious.” I tried to persuade him, but he responded with a resounding no.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I replaced Mr. Avery in the infirmary.”
“I have. Congratulations, my lady.”
“Thank you. You know…”
Let’s start here. With a wide smile, I vented out my gloom. Alan was trying to comfort me, and then he paused.
Soon, his eyes were filled with anxiety. It was exactly as I anticipated.
“There’s a huge gap between witches and humans, right? I’m worried. Will people see me as competent when it comes to treating them?”
“Oh, I see.”
“It kept bothering me. I figured it was better to see how humans truly think of witches.”
“What you’re trying to say is…”
Good. It was over. Perhaps my persuasion worked, and the butler, who kept shaking his head, was now nodding.
“I will show you then.”
Alan, who was wary of me a while ago, smiled brightly and turned around. He gestured for me to follow him since he would personally escort me.
Wonderful.
Quickly wiping the grin off my face, I followed after him. Was it because I won against Evan and Alan, the two right-hand men of the duke? I felt like I was adapting to life here because I couldn’t truly fit in. Of course, I didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing.
***
“…You said this was all that’s left.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why are there so many?”
Oh my.
Looking at the piles upon piles of books before me, I was stunned. I thought it’d just be a small box in the corner or something.
“There are around 500 books.”
The whole room was filled with them.
“Didn’t you say most were burned?”
“Only a tenth of the original amount is here.”
I couldn’t believe it. What a pity. The duke’s collection of books was a shell of its former glory. We were in a secluded room in the corner of the library. Did this really have all the books that hadn’t been burned yet? I was surprised it wasn’t in some faraway place in Havel.
More importantly.
“I’m curious. My husband didn’t seem interested in witches. Why does he have all these books related to them?”
What the hell was he going to use them for?
“Books related to witches are expensive. Prices range from anywhere to five and twenty times the normal price of a book.”
And the older they were, the more expensive they got.
“Among the nobility, a book about witches was used to measure one’s wealth. Nothing to do with research or reading for pleasure.”
“Basically, they’re just for decoration?”
“Yes, it’s like a hobby.”
Nodding, I slowly looked around the room. Judging by the butler’s words, all of these books must be very expensive.
“Wait, but he wants to burn all of them?”
Huh?
“Indeed, it’s a waste of money, but he gave the order.”
The butler appeared truly disheartened. He told his lord they shouldn’t burn them and even cried; however, it was to no avail.
“When Marquis Phineas visited, he took two boxes. Don’t tell my lord that. It’s better to give them to someone who needs them.”
“All right.” My husband would say something if he found out.
However, for some reason, the thought that he might already know came to mind, but I didn’t say anything. Why did he tell Alan to burn them? If he didn’t want anyone to see them, he could have just put them in a place no one knew about.
I was puzzled. He was trying to throw away something that showed off his wealth because he didn’t need it.
“I have work to do, so I shall take my leave. You can read any book here as long as you return them to its original location. Remember, don’t take them out of the library.”
“Yes, yes. Thank you.”
After seeing the butler off, I began to search through the room in earnest. I didn’t know what to read first, so I picked up one of the thicker, oldest-looking books.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” Smiling, I sat down in the corner and put down a basket beside me.
Inside it was a box of snacks. It was thanks to the chef who thought I’d get hungry while studying. My husband was busy with work today, and Avery was far away from doing any medical examinations. Lady Duncan said she was going on vacation and return at a later date.
What did this mean? At least until my husband finished his work and started looking for me, I was free. Thinking about how to use my time well, I decided to satiate my curiosity.
I flipped to the first page.
[They are called witches, but really, they are monsters.]
“I don’t like where this is going.”
[Some call them gods, but this is far from the truth. It would be more accurate to say they are the descendants of demons.]
I nodded to myself and read each word slowly. I didn’t enjoy the content of it.
Yet it was interesting.
“Even before I came here, they really liked to use the word ‘monster.’” It was awkward to hear a life’s worth of name-calling in just a few weeks.
[In the beginning, there were only humans. But then there were some with special powers who separated themselves from their kin. This was the very beginning of witches. They killed good men with evil acts and called themselves gods. At one point they took the land…]
Before telling the history of witches, the book told the story of the entire continent. Of course, it was different from what I learned in Kartelle.
[They took the blood and flesh of innocent men, and to those who didn’t obey them, a spell was cast so they could be controlled. Thus, our forefathers were forced to worship them because of their magic. It was a disgraceful time in our history.]
In other words, they admitted to worshipping witches in the past, but because they were controlled by magic, it was against their will.
“History belongs to the victor.” The fabricated truth almost made me laugh. “It’s like they wrote a novel. It’s not an exaggeration to say they reinvited history. Those historians must’ve had a hard time.”
I wonder if there was anyone who fell for this nonsense. But then I remembered what happened in town.
“Oh, right.” People of this era learned history through such books and believed it was the truth. “Despite being a witch, I feel bad for them.”
I turned to the next page. The content didn’t change much. Basically, humans lived happily until the “devil” appeared and took everything away from them. Therefore, they believed it was a good thing they drove the witches out.
Losing interest, I skimmed through the rest of the book. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed.
“What’s this?” I found an illustration.
It was of a woman tied to a wooden stake, which was an image found in every other book about witches. The demon-like figure seemed to be struggling with the fire surrounding her.
What a terrible picture. I carefully turned to the next page. It had the following sections about experiments:
1. The Anatomy of a Witch
2. How to Torture a Witch
3. How to Properly Kill a Witch
For a moment, my hand stopped without me realizing it. It even trembled. Calming down my racing heart, I turned the page again. The book went into great detail about how to get the truth out of witches who lied.
[Shove them into a bath of boiling water. Next, take a part of their body and with a leather…”
Simply put, it was a guide on how to torture witches. I was holding my breath, unable to take my eyes off the page.
“What you’re reading there must be fascinating, hmm?”
