After eating lunch, they went to the study of the Count. They sat on the sofa.

Sitting, the girl observed her surroundings. She suspected that she had returned to the past.

“May I ask what your name is, young lady?” asked the butler, who was pouring tea for the Count and her.

“My name?” 

The girl was not able to answer. She doesn’t have a name. She doesn’t even know who she was and why she was in a coffin.

The Count guessed that the girl didn't know her name. “You don’t remember?”

Looking back at the Count, the girl nodded.

“I don’t know my name. I don’t know why I was in the coffin. I just woke up from the coffin, so I don’t have any memory.”

The girl talked about it like she was not the topic of the conversation. Her tone was flat, as though she was empty. Her expression was cold and indifferent.

Hearing her talk like that, Reever pitied her. 

“Were you really in the coffin?” Morgan, who was standing behind the Count, asked for the nth time.

The girl did not answer his question but instead said, “I don’t know my name, but you can call me Nyx.”

Nyx. It was a word that she read in the book. She liked it, so she decided to name herself Nyx.

“Nyx? What an odd name,” Reever softly said.

Count Brundeile smiled. “Is it based on the name of  Nyx, the goddess of the night?”

Reever was stunned. “Huh? You can’t—”

The Count held a hand and stopped what Reever was going to say. He gave him a look as if saying, Shut up.

Reever silently followed his order and went to stand behind the Count’s back.

Morgan and Reever look at each other, their eyes talking.

“Why did you not tell the girl?” Morgan asked with his eyes squinting and blinking.

“The Count stopped me. Why don’t you do it?” Reever answered in the same manner.

“I’m scared of the Lord!” Morgan answered back.

“Me, too.” Reever stopped looking at Morgan and just stayed quiet.

Not noticing the two’s unusual conversation with their eyes, the Count and Nyx stared at each other. 

Nyx opened her mouth first. “What did he mean by that?”

The Count smiled as if he didn’t hear her question. “ How did you think of naming yourself as Nyx?”

Not minding his dismissal of her question, she answered him in her usual indifferent tone. 

“ I read it in a book. I liked its meaning, so I named myself Nyx.” 

“Book? What book?” 

The Count was confused because if she was sleeping in a coffin, she should not have read any book unless she can.

“The books in the repository for the unknown. It was entitled ‘Greek Mythology.’”

His guess was right on. But it was still shocking. 

“What?!” Morgan and Reever gasped, their eyes widening in disbelief.

Hearing the rise in Morgan and Reever’s voice pitch and the Count’s dazed look, she speculated that they couldn’t read those books. 

It was understandable because the books were among those in the repository for the unknown. 

It was unknown to them. It was a mystery. 

But if those books were here, then her suspicion of returning to the past is wrong. She has not returned to the past. The past has returned.

They are back at the beginning. But how?

It would be impossible unless something happened in the world so terrible that God sent a flood to destroy the world, and humanity started in the beginning again.

What the hell am I thinking? A god sending a flood? It was written in the book entitled ‘Bible,’ but that is impossible. 

“Can you read those books?” The Count asked, excited.

Leaning lazily at the back of the chair, Nyx slowly nodded.

“Then, may I ask what you have read in those books?”

“I can tell you, but in exchange, I want to stay here temporarily.”

She doesn’t have a place to stay. And she only has a gun to protect herself. She needs to stay here in this castle temporarily.

The Count, delighted, agreed immediately. “Of course you can. Stay as long as you want.”

“But, my Lord, we can’t be sure if she’s telling the truth or just lying to have a chance to stay here,” interjected Morgan.

“It’s okay. Even if the little girl can’t read it, I’ll still let her stay here. She doesn’t have a place to go, after all. Am I right?”

Nyx was glad that speaking with the Count was easy. Now, she won’t have to worry about where to stay. Not that she cares. 

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Count Klein Brundeile,” answered Nyx with little emotion.

*Knock *Knock *Knock

“Come in,” said the Count.

Hearing the response, Leila came in.

Nyx remembered the maidservant. She was the girl who suddenly opened the door to the repository for the unknown and the person who called the Count, Reever the butler, and Morgan.

She also remembered that she was the person who called her a ghost.

Leila was feeling nervous because this is the first time the Count has ever called her. And, she is also embarrassed because of the actions she made earlier.

“W-what can I do for you, my Lord?” she asked clumsily.

“See to the needs of the young lady and guide her to her room,” ordered the Count.

“Yes, my Lord.”

***

Seeing that the young girl, Nyx, was gone, Reever opened his mouth. “My Lord, why did you let your emotions get the better of you?”

“Right. My Lord, she may have an ulterior motive in coming here to the castle. Maybe she is a spy. Maybe she knew that we were coming into the underground ruin and she arrived earlier than us and went inside the coffin to get inside the castle. Or maybe—”

Reever cut what Morgan was saying and exclaimed, “We can’t be sure that she can read the books, my Lord.”

The Count looked at his two aides. He lightly laughed and just replied, “I know. I got my emotions to get the better of me for a reason. I want her to stay here.”

“Huh?!” Reever and Morgan were so shocked; they couldn't even utter any response. 

Finally, Reever asked, “M-my Lord, d-don’t tell me you l-like her?” 

Before Reever could continue, Morgan interjected. “No! My Lord, surely that’s not it, right?”

Count Brundeile was baffled by their reaction.

He never thought their imaginations were so wild that it seems it was out of this world.

“What are you two thinking? Are you going to wake my wife up from her tomb?”

“Ahem. Ahem. That’s not what we meant, my Lord,” says Reever.

“W-we just thought that you…” Morgan was thinking hard about what reasons he can say.

Count Brundeile sighed from the two’s idiocy. “I want her to stay to observe her more. And, in case she really can read those books, we can’t let her leave the manor. We need to acquire all the information we can get from her. She is, after all, the only chance we've got to know the contents those books have, especially on how to utilise those relics and artefacts from a bygone era is.”

Zirace

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