Seeing Brownie’s name in the Forbidden Library inevitably made Lita feel a bit nervous.
It was very unusual for a manuscript authored by a princess’s personal knight to be stored in the Forbidden Library. But there existed forbidden knowledge that absolutely must not be spread, even if most of what Lita had seen before was indecent.
Lita tried to turn her head back as inconspicuously as possible to look at Brownie behind her. Noticing that he indeed wasn’t paying attention to her—at least not to what she was holding—she slowly opened the first page and began flipping through quickly.
[My younger sister leaned against me. I could feel the tickle of her hair brushing against my cheek. Her princess-like dress fluttered in the breeze, stirring my restless heart. I couldn’t help but reach out and hold her in my arms…]
Smack.
Lita forcefully closed the book in her hands.
‘Good, it seemed there was one more reason why Promi disliked her older sister.’ ‘If it were me, I’d also be afraid of an older sister who secretly writes incest stories. This stuff is no good—once written, the whole book would be taken down—although it seems it was never put on the shelves in the first place. No, wait, it seems it has been taken down, since it’s now lying in the Forbidden Library.’ ‘So even though Brownie didn’t want Promi to become a Holy Knight, he also enjoyed indulging in the idea of his sister becoming a female colleague, right?’
Lita’s movements caught Brownie’s attention. Seeing Brownie cast a puzzled look at her, Lita quickly closed the book on the table.
Brownie frowned and lowered his voice. “Princess Rosalia, that notebook looks very much like one of my work notebooks.”
“Silver Fang, how could your work notebook be in the Forbidden Library? You must be mistaken. You can buy such a notebook at any store.”
“Your Highness, are you certain you have never seen my notebook?”
“Of course, I haven’t urgently delivered it to the Forbidden Library with my own hands.”
‘Whatever, I didn’t come to the Forbidden Library today to look at lesbian stuff.’
Lita continued searching, spending quite a while without finding any suitable content, but that didn’t mean she came up empty-handed.
Setting aside the books that were of no help to her, Lita also saw some books that recorded forbidden magic. The content, regardless of the strength of the effects, was mostly morally problematic.
The simplest was Enslavement Magic. This kind of thing, common in novels and games, did exist but was absolutely taboo.
Actually, it wasn’t hard to understand. Unconditional obedience might seem vulgar, but if similar magic were used elsewhere, one could easily build an army of suicide soldiers.
Also included were magics like Soul Torture and Memory Tampering. This was something Lita didn’t know—that the magic she already mastered and excelled at would become taboo the moment she used it.
‘So, was the magic the Mother Superior used on me back then also forbidden magic?’
Besides these, Lita noticed there were also things like Flesh Magic and Necromancy, and a considerable portion related to curses. Seeing this, Lita finally felt that this place really looked like a Forbidden Library.
Until one book caught Lita’s eye.
The book had no title or author name—just an ordinary manuscript, like most books in the Forbidden Library.
But its contents made Lita pay attention.
It described a curse with a very simple effect: to bring misfortune upon the target. But whether it was effective and how strong it was, Lita couldn’t verify unless she tried it herself.
But if nothing unexpected happened, this was what she was looking for. At least it was related to what she wanted.
Lita closed the book and walked slowly to Cecilia.
“Lady Cecilia, this one.”
Cecilia took the manuscript, flipped through it a few times, then nodded, and cautiously looked at the three people behind her who were always watching her.
“Unfortunately, I know nothing about magic. Go take a look.”
Lita had heard Cecilia talk about magic before.
Magic was actually a matter of talent. Everyone had the ability to use magic. Although later education was very important, talent determined the upper and lower limits.
For example, Doris. Although Lita wasn’t satisfied with her, Doris was unquestionably the best magic user Lita had ever seen. Even Qiaoni, also an Archmage, probably couldn’t compare to Doris at that age.
However, magic was certainly wondrous, but that was only from the perspective of a world without magic. In this fantasy world, magic was just one of many skills, similar to martial arts, prayers, and the like.
In fact, the effect of wondrous fire magic was about the same as a one-yuan lighter bought at a roadside convenience store.
Everyone has their own specialty. In modern society, everyone can use a phone, but few people study how phones are made or their principles. Without compulsory education, many people would learn nothing beyond literacy and arithmetic. It’s the same here, of course.
But that didn’t mean Cecilia had never studied magic. After her mother died, she had tried to use magic, but the result was that she couldn’t communicate with mana at all. All mana entering her body was like a stone sinking into the sea.
Since Cecilia couldn’t, Lita had to do it.
Lita found a chair and sat down, while Cecilia continued searching for books that seemed to depict strange incantations. Actually, Lita could draw those incantations herself, but her drawings were crooked and had no mana in them, so she didn’t need to worry that what she drew would have any real effect. Now Cecilia was looking for those things.
After a while, Cecilia called Lita again.
Lita closed her book and walked slowly to Cecilia’s side, looking at what Cecilia was holding.
Another manuscript, but this one had many notes and corrections on it, and it detailed how to control and create Corpse Ghosts and the like.
Lita was puzzled. Why did Cecilia want to show her this?
“The key point is not the content, but its provenance.”
Lita suddenly remembered. This notebook was what she had been looking for originally—it was from the home of that Corpse Ghost girl!
“Shouldn’t it be in the Church? I remember that house was sealed by the Church, right?”
“Exactly, it should have been, but it appeared here.”
Cecilia’s implication was clear. This was the Forbidden Library owned by the royal family. For something that shouldn’t be here to appear, either it was related to the royal family, or the Church and the royal family had reached some agreement.
It was suspicious, but from this clue alone, Lita couldn’t see anything, so she could only reread the notebook.
The content of the notebook was quite complete—it could be said to be its own system, and it had not been modified by anyone. But at the very end, it abruptly and abnormally stopped.
In fact, as long as one had seen the previous content, the final step could easily be deduced, but it deliberately lacked that part, like a draft sheet full of calculation steps.
“Lady Cecilia, I understand.” Lita nodded solemnly.
“What do you understand?” Cecilia asked back.
“Someone deliberately left this notebook, wanting to plant seeds of unrest. This must be Glen’s doing.”
“Not everything has to be related to Glen. What are you thinking? Look at the date—this notebook has been here for at least ten years. Don’t blame everything on them just because we’re investigating Glen now.”
‘That’s true. My thinking is like saying all bad things are done by Hanna floating in, or that everything is the fault of the time.’
“Then what do you mean, Lady Cecilia?”
“Take another look at this.”
Cecilia picked up another notebook from her side. This one was obviously much newer.
“Doris’s? How is she still involved after being dead for so long?”
“Doris’s belongings. After her death, the Holy Knights confiscated them. With the unanimous agreement of several Archmages, the useful parts of her research were kept, and the parts that could not be shown were sealed here.”
Lita flipped through it. Blood Magic, Monster Transplants—most of it was similar to surgery, very fitting for Doris, the spiritual Blood Demon.
“And her reference material is this.” Cecilia handed over another one.
Familiar handwriting came into view, almost identical to the notebook found in the Corpse Ghost girl’s home.
“And this one.”
Cecilia handed over another one, also Doris’s. Another familiar manuscript from over a decade ago, but the content was different.
It involved Lita’s original field, so Lita had to look carefully. She wouldn’t have known until she saw it; after reading it, Lita got goosebumps all over.
“Soul Magic?”
Extracting the souls of animals or humans, preserving and dividing them, and injecting them into an object.
“It can work. It absolutely can work, and this technique is definitely no less than the Dream Demon’s own soul technique.”
Completely different from the Dream Demon’s technique, but the effect was similar.
Of course it worked. The dolls that looked exactly like Doris that she used to fight Lita employed this technique.
That’s why it was terrifying.
To give a simple example, a hack scientist from nowhere used a technique completely different from what was on the market today, but achieved the same effect as top-level research.
And it wasn’t limited to one field: Blood Magic, Corpse Ghost creation, souls—these fields that were worlds apart actually came from the same person.
Considering that the Corpse Ghost girl, an ordinary person, could suppress the Demon Ghost using this technique, it showed that research in other fields was similarly terrifyingly deep.
Seeing Lita’s expression change subtly, Cecilia knew that Lita had also realized the seriousness of the matter.
But there was something she still had to say, even if it sounded like adding insult to injury. Precisely because of that, she had to say it.
“Lita, have you noticed? All these things were discovered in the Royal Capital.”