The tutoring was done faster than they predicted.

It was because Sezh’s ability was totally beyond Raytan’s expectations. Without pretence, Sezh herself didn’t know that she had such a talent, she was also quite astonished inside. It’s not that she didn’t realize it even a little but she really was not aware she can do this much!

“Brother, I don’t know that I had such a good brain.”

Flushed red on her cheeks, Sezh randomly boasted herself to him.

“Luna is often mentioning that. Honestly, I don’t believe it back then. I thought she just tried to console me because I keep heard people calling me stupid and talentless every d-”

“I told you.”

Raytan spoke while looking at her.

“You’re quite a lot of use.”

Sezh just smiled sheepishly on the unexpected compliment she got. She knew it can’t be called as a real compliment but now she understands. ‘You’re quite a lot of use’ is the way Raytan shows his appreciation.

“However, today’s lesson was over. It’s better if you go home.”

Raytan stood up from his chair. Looking at that, her face made an uneasy expression. There’s still so much time left, she was kind of lazy to go back to her palace at this hour. Sezh finally braced herself and carefully spoke.

“Um, Brother … Can I stay at the library for a little longer?”

“Why.”

“I just want to read a book… The book that I borrowed from you yesterday.”

Sezh lifted the book up to the high air, Raytan read the title, ‘The Wizards of Delhender’.

“I know I can instead read this at my palace, but I just want to stay here a little more.”

Of course if it’s just reading a book, she can do it in her own palace. However, it was like what she stated before. She wanted to stay a little longer here. The feelings of reading in her room and the library is just plainly different.

In spite of that, does Raytan feel burdened because of her? No, he must be inarguably so.

Sezh exclaimed in a hurry.

“Ah! It’s okay if Brother wants to come out first! I will just read here and go home when I finish already. I will leave the table clean too, of course!”

“…”

“I … can’t do that?”

Sezh swiped her sight to him, waiting for an answer. Raytan was standing still and kept his eyes feasting on her. Then he replied simply.

“If that’s what you want.”

Raytan soon took his seat back in front of Sezh again.

“Brother isn’t going to go?”

Sezh’s eyes widened.

“I never said I wanna go.”

“Ah, I-I see.”

“Why, so you like it better if I’m not here?”

“No! I never said that.”

“Then just read that book silently.”

He clearly looked like a person who was ready to depart from the library earlier, Sezh really couldn’t understand his sudden change of action. While she was occupied by those thoughts, Raytan who already sat down snapped.

“You said you want to read, you aren’t now.”

“I-I will read it now.”

Sezh rushed to pull the book.

I don’t know. Maybe Brother is also bored when he is alone in the palace. Sezh made her conclusion and decided to stop thinking about that.

She leisurely opened the book and first looked at the table of contents. The table of contents briefly summarized the timeline of the Denhelder Empire since its founding period. Sezh flipped the page to find the most recent timeline. It was structured more meticulously than she thought. All of the ancient mages and also their descendants that had belonged to the imperial family for nearly 100 years were all well organized.

Sezh carefully scanned the name of the wizards without letting any distractions interrupt her, she was so focused and didn’t even know that Raytan was also watching her.

“Hm….”

Sezh knitted her brows. Even after back and forth searching through a few pages, she couldn’t find the name that she was looking for. There was no even a similar name. The things which were kept displayed were oodles of drawn portraits. In addition, they were only uncles with thick beards. There was also no one to rescue in the list of descendants.

On the other hand, if she moves further… The page would be introducing mages from almost decades ago. Moving further from here, it was at least 200 years ago. If there was really Eton’s name and the portrait appeared, that’s also a problem. Because it was gonna be more scary.

Eton is not a sort of ghost. It didn’t make any sense to the reality that she already experienced.

Obviously there was still something that she still doesn’t know. What is it. Sezh eventually searched the entire book, but again, there was nothing to harvest.

Bloody hell. This is so upsetting.

Sezh pursed her lips, looking sulky. She just took up her time for nothing. It was a moment when she thought about flipping all the existing bookshelves in the library. She saw the last page of the book under her eyes, an unexpected paragraph caught her.

– Since the founding of the country, all the mages who have passed through the imperial family of The Great Delhender Empire have been recorded as much as possible…

Sezh’s eyes narrowed.

…. We have not been able to record anything or anyone that happened about a thousand years before Herace I, The First Ruler of The Delhender, was enthroned.

Herace I. The first emperor of the Denhelder Empire. He was the one who made the history of this eternal blonde legacy. The old ancestors of Sezh.

Relics were excavated from the ruins of an ancient temple, but they were only carved in ancient scripts that had long disappeared, so they could not be interpreted.

Well, if you are Herace I, you are already a thousand years old in bygone days. So it was impossible for people in the present time to interpret ancient scripts.

There were fragments of tombstones, remains of ashes and skeleton, and a broken dagger, presumed to be his, were discovered near one of the temple sites. Looking at the daggers and ashes with spells written in ancient languages and also the objects that were buried together, this is probably the first priest of all the mages of the great Delhender Empire in the days of Herace I….

“…”

The handle of the dagger and the excavated object all had the same ancient words written on it, and it is presumed that this is probably his name.

The book ended with a name.

At the end of the text, there were words in ancient languages. Sezh couldn’t read it. It was the language that already vanquished a long time ago.

But it was like that book kept seducing her to know about it. After she went all willy-nilly, she still couldn’t understand it. When she gave up and lifted her head …

“You looked so interested in that book.”

As soon as she raised his head, she saw Raytan with his frowning face. Felt embarrassed, Sezh laughed it off.

“Is there any difficult part in that book?”

Raytan asked.

“Ah, it’s not that… This, I’m just curious whose name is written here.”

Sezh pointed at the ancient language written name, Raytan pulled his head closer to take a look at the content of the book.

“They say it’s probably the name of the first priest in the empire. But it’s written in ancient language, so I can’t really know.”

“…”

“What. I know I can’t ever read it …. I’m just curious. That’s all.”

“Syarhwina.”

“Huh?”

“Syarhwina, the name is Syarhwina.”

Sezh eyes were bulged roundly in no time. But it’s an ancient language? The language that was already extinct from a long time ago? There was even no one who know exactly who wrote this book. And then Raytan just simply comprehended it?

“Brother, you can speak ancient language? But how?”

He didn’t answer her question. He just looked at her once again with an expression that she couldn’t identify. On a dime, he really got up from his seat.

“It’s already late. You really have to go home.”

“No, wait… “

“Your maid will be worried, get up quickly. It’s dinner hour.”

Raytan just responded with irrelevant things and started to walk. However, he wasn’t lying. When she paid her attention to the outside of the window. The sky was getting dark. It seemed like a complete night will be started in a minute.

“Together! Let’s go together, Brother!”

Sezh crucially got up from her seat too and ran toward Raytan without even taking a breath. Raytan also stopped for a second in order to wait for her. After she finally could join his step, they walked slowly in rhythm.

“Brother, are you really able to speak the ancient language?”

Sezh with her puzzled face was stubborly repeated her question.

“Is it true? Hm? Please answer me.”

He glanced at her but still gave no answer in return. Raytan just kept walking while setting his nonchalant face as usual.

“How did you know it?”

Is he lying and just spouting some random words to her?

“Brotheeer.”

“You’re noisy.”

“But I’m so curious.”

“You really have a lot of useless curiosity.”

“Yeah, that’s me. So will you answer those curiosity…”

“I’m not saying it to compliment you.”

“But… “

“Think whatever you w-“

Raytan, who was walking out of the palace together with Sezh, stopped his talks. He arched his brow sharply while looking at someone. Who is here? Is it Brother Bern? Sezh peering her gaze following him, trying to get the same vision with Raytan.

However, it was not Bern.

“Oh?”

Sezh tilted her head. She talked, actually half whispered, to Raytan.

“I just saw him in the book.”

The person in front of them is listed in the book that she read before as one of the great mages of all time. Also to be precise, he is currently sitting in the position of The Archmage. This was the first time Sezh saw him. She had never participated in events held at the temple and she hadn’t been to the temple too.

In any case, why is he here?

“I greet The Prince and Princess of the empire.”

The archmage was giving his greetings in a polite manner. However, Raytan didn’t seem to intend a reply, he was only glaring at him. It was just Sezh who answered the archmage with such template words. The archmage spoke again.

“Good Evening.”

“Ah, yes… good evening.”

Rather than answer it sufficiently, Sezh in the meantime also chose to stare at the coarse face of the archmage. It was true that the person that was given the greeting is Sezh. But the archmage’s stare instead was plucked strongly toward Raytan.

“What are you doing here?”

Raytan asked.

“I accidentally paved the way here.”

“Accidentally paved the way here you said?”

Raytan spoke with his cold repetition.

“You really have the nerve to talk like that. Mother’s Palace is not that close with the temple.”

This time, it was Raytan’s sleety leers that were daggered to the archmage. The archmage was serene for a split second before he bowed his head down while saying.

“I apologize. I’m truly passed this way unintentionally. I was on my way back from visiting The Emperor’s call.”

That was a logical reasoning. Lady Lize’s Palace is the place that is the nearest to the emperor’s territory.

Raytan didn’t say anything in reply, he just kept staring at the archmage. The atmosphere was a bit uncomfortable and Sezh could’t really grab the situation. The clear thing was she knew that Raytan didn’t desire this situation.

Let’s just get out of this situation immediately. Sezh sprightly parted her lips.

“Brother, let’s just go quickly. It’s chilly here… I think I nearly caught a cold.”

“… That’s why you have to make sure you wear your clothes tightly.”

His tone sounded like he was scolding someone but Raytan then nodded, hinting that he understood. He walked out of the scene without even looking at the archmage.

“Sezh, come quickly.”

“Ah, yes!”

Sezh tightening her grips on her bag to catch up with Raytan’s steps, before that, she gave her farewell to the archmage first.

“Um… N-Nice to meet you.”

“Certainly I feel honored to meet you, Princess Sezh.”

“Me too… Then I’ll go off first… “

Sezh soon ran in a hurry to follow Raytan.

“… “

Left just by himself, The Archmage was still standing at his place without moving and only fixed his eyes on Raytan who was starting to get far.

‘There is nothing … nothing different from usual.’

He himself honestly didn’t know what he was actually looking for. But still, he couldn’t earn any clue or information possible today.

All of his life, The archmage always thought that he was just a mage that was a little bit stronger than others in the Imperial Palace. Obviously it meant that he couldn’t reach the level of the mages that existed in the legend. If he wanted to be honest, he admittedly hoped if he actually could.

He thought he could maybe witness it.

He has never seen any mage who can deal with fire magic before. It was right that the mages that can hold power to manifest elements had been a long time vanished. But it was also because dealing with fire itself was a very high magic.

So, whether Raytan could really use magic and can manifest a fire or not, he wanted to make sure about it himself. Because there was no even himself as the archmage reached that level of ability.

“What the hell has happened….”

His wrinkled face was distorted anxiously while still shooting his eyeballs at the back of Raytan, who was getting farther away.

The archmage couldn’t figure out the answer.

***

It was a frail of the dawn.

“…”

Lize’s eyelids gradually opened from their resting time. The emerald-colored eyes staring emptily at the ornate chandelier on the ceiling. It was always like this. When she dozed off she would wake up at the dawn. She had a deep sleep but when she drew herself from it, she knew she was always having a nightmare.

The poison slowly but surely destroyed Lize’s body and mind. Sometimes she had consciousness with her body, but she lost it longer and longer as the time passed by.

At times, she even couldn’t distinguish between a dream or the reality one… When she sleeps she never feels like she is, when she is awake she doesn’t feel like she belongs in reality.

Moreover, she couldn’t do anything with that, all of these things are her own choice.

Lize tried to set her body to sit down, it was freezing here in her room. Her long silk-like silver hair brushed her face delicately. Lize turned her face to the wide opened window. The curtains were unstintingly fluttering blown by the night breeze.

She saw someone was sitting at the window frame, hidden by the fluttering curtains.

“Oh my… “

Lize slowly parted her lips.

“What is it this time … “

Her faint voice rang up the silence of the room. The glassy emerald and bloody red irises were shoving to one another.