Episode 40

“‘Let’s meet at the Hundredth Sanctuary.’”

I quietly muttered, pretending to recall.

“The two of them said that and then left. It’s a place they would meet discreetly within the Grand Duke’s residence. Maybe what you’re looking for is there, Ludwig.”

“Do you remember who the council member was by any chance?”

“Uh, um… Was it Count Deicher? Yes, I think it was him.”

In fact, I had never met Count Deicher throughout the banquet.

I only confirmed from afar that he attended.

It didn’t really matter which council member I named.

I hadn’t actually heard about the ‘Hundredth Sanctuary.’

Ludwig pondered my words for a moment before speaking.

“Considering they referred to it as a sanctuary, the only place that comes to mind is the prayer room.”

He was correct.

In the original story, the ‘Hundredth Sanctuary’ was mentioned on a day Ludwig was desperately searching the council members’ residences.

Ludwig found suspicious jargon in one of the council members’ notebooks, which troubled him greatly as he tried to decipher it.
At that time, Jenna helped him solve the problem.

‘Could the sanctuary be referring to the Founding Grand Duke’s prayer room?’

‘I thought so too, but no matter how thoroughly I searched the prayer room, I couldn’t find any evidence.’

‘Then how about I try to help! I have pretty good luck, so I might find something.’

Jenna actually wandered around the Founding Grand Duke’s prayer room and eventually found a secret passage.

‘See, I told you! I have good luck.’

Despite employing numerous people, they could never find what Jenna discovered by chance.

The prayer room housed tens of thousands of old books, and when Jenna opened one of them, she found a key to the secret passage.

Picking the correct book out of tens of thousands was a feat that seemed possible only if blessed by the goddess of fortune.

In the original story, it was vaguely described as, ‘I picked up a book and found a key inside.’

Thus, all I knew was that the Founding Grand Duke’s prayer room and a key hidden among the tens of thousands of books were involved.

I hoped to have as much luck as Jenna, but I first needed to rely on deciphering the council members’ jargon.

I had some thoughts about it before coming to the Grand Duke’s residence, but to fully uncover the secret, I needed to see the prayer room’s interior first.

Noticing that I wanted to visit the prayer room, Ludwig extended his hand to me.

“Shall we go to the prayer room together? If it’s a secret conversation among the council members, it might be a crucial piece of evidence.”

“Alright. I hope I can be of help.”

* * *

Desar followed behind us as we headed to the prayer room

Ludwig, with a smiling face, said,

“Oh dear, am I also a subject of his vigilance?”

“I’m sorry. It seems my grandfather has ordered him to provide close protection…”

“Close protection, huh…”

Ludwig’s golden eyes momentarily darkened.

He seemed visibly displeased.

“To what extent is this close protection?”

“What?”

Ludwig stopped walking and stepped closer to me.

Just like in the carriage last time, he suddenly closed the distance between us.

He chuckled softly and said,

“Has he gotten this close?”

“I think there’s some misunderstanding, the close protection isn’t literally that close…!”

My heart suddenly started beating faster.

At that moment, a sharp voice came from behind.

“Can I consider this a threat?”

Desar, who had been following us from a distance, was suddenly right behind Ludwig, ready to subdue him.

He was asking me, not anyone else.

“No! It was just a joke, so don’t worry.”

I said as I pushed Ludwig away with my hands.

Ludwig retreated easily at my push.

“As you say, maintain your distance.”

He smiled and spoke to Desar before leading me down the corridor again.

“….”

Desar, who had been standing there, resumed following us once a proper distance was restored.

‘His eyes seem even sharper now…’

It wasn’t my imagination; I could genuinely feel his gaze on the back of my head.

I barely managed to ignore it and arrived at the prayer room.
Desar stopped at the door.

The Founding Grand Duke’s prayer room was a place not just anyone could enter.

Only those from families that significantly influenced the founding mythology were allowed inside.

Technically, Desar wasn’t an ordinary person but the lost son of the Tower Lord, yet he still couldn’t enter confidently.

Without even glancing at Ludwig, he said to me,

“If anything happens inside, call for me.”

“What trouble could arise when it’s just the two of us? You’re quite the worrier.”

“The danger might be closer than you think, miss.”

“It sounds like you’re talking about me.”

He didn’t deny it.

Desar was strangely wary of Ludwig, and Ludwig was the same towards him.

‘Seems like the original antagonists didn’t get along from the start.’

I assured Desar that we would be quick and entered the prayer room with Ludwig.

The Founding Grand Duke of Karsian was a devout believer.

He spent half his life in the prayer room.

Since it was a place the Grand Duke frequently stayed, the interior of the prayer room was incredibly ornate.

It was as vast as any grand library, with an extensive collection of old books.

I had heard about it, but the sheer scale was overwhelming.

It was vast, with a massive collection of old books.

Even though I had heard about it, the sheer scale was overwhelming.

“This is truly incredible.”

The scent of old books filled the air.

If I were a scholar, I would have described this place as heaven.
Nevertheless, impressive as it was…

‘There are too many!’

Seeing it like this, there were an uncountable number of books!
Even if there were clues, the search area was too vast.

The book with the key was just one out of all these.

Jenna’s ability to pick out the book with the key at once was truly astonishing.

‘But I have a clue.’

I walked over to the bookshelf filled with numerous books.

“It’s much larger than I expected. It must have been difficult to search.”

“Indeed. The area is so extensive that there could have been gaps in our search.”

“Have you searched through these old books as well?”

If they had, it would have caused a significant problem.

If they had moved books in and out while searching, the arrangement could have been mixed up, rendering the only clue useless.

“We didn’t touch the old books. We allocated more search teams to the outside, which seemed more suspicious than the interior of the Grand Duke’s residence. We lacked the manpower to search the bookshelves in the prayer room.”

I breathed a sigh of relief at those words. Fortunately, the clue seemed to be valid.

“If this place is the sanctuary they mentioned, what could the ‘hundredth’ mean?”

I said to Ludwig.

“When I hear ‘hundred,’ it makes me think of the Hundred Years of Darkness.”

The Hundred Years of Darkness was a mysterious period not recorded in history.

No historical book recorded that era, and no personal diaries from that time were found.

It was as if the world had temporarily vanished for those hundred years, with no traces left behind, leading later generations to call it the Hundred Years of Darkness.

In the original story, Jenna had picked up a book and said:
‘There’s a book about this period?’

As if she was implying there shouldn’t be a book about that time.
So, could it be a book about an era with no records?

Also, ‘sanctuary’ could have a dual meaning.

One is this place, the prayer room, and the other might refer to an unknown era that humans could hardly reach.

Although not certain, the conclusion I reached by piecing together the puzzle was the Hundred Years of Darkness.

I had thought of this solution before coming to the Grand Duke’s residence. If it’s wrong, I’ll have to start from scratch again.

‘Please, let it be the right answer.’

The old books were well-organized according to their era.
Even after the death of the Founding Grand Duke, the Grand Duchy continued to store old books here, creating an amazing repository of history.

I worked my way back from ancient times and finally stood in front of a particular bookshelf.

The gap between the era of the tyrant Estero and the virtuous king Daimond.

Naturally, there wasn’t a separate bookshelf for books about the Hundred Years of Darkness.

But I found it.

On the very last shelf, among the books densely packed from the era of the tyrant Estero, there was a book.

A small book, uniquely smaller than the others.

On the black hardcover, the title “The Lost Century” was embossed in gold.

I opened the worn-out book.

And finally found it.

The key hidden inside the book.