“I really should have asked which buildings are which… A map of the fort would be nice to have.”

Honestly, I should have asked them which buildings are which when I listened to their reports earlier. Alas, I hadn’t. So, yeah…

I’ll have to ask the men later which one is the residential building. But first I have to find them.

The main building was large. Probably as expected. According to what they told me earlier, they had already completed the search up to the second floor. In other words, I’d likely find them on the third floor.

With my destination decided, I approached the main building and entered through the large double door. The mercenaries had brought the corpses of the bandits away, leaving behind only dried up patches of blood, broken bottles and wooden splinters. And unfortunately, an unpleasant smell kept lingering as well.

Well, it won’t kill me… But maybe airing the hall would help.

Even though the door was half-collapsed, the horrid smell hadn’t disappeared yet. At least it wasn’t as bad anymore as it was when we arrived.

“The stairs are… Stairs are… Ah, there.”

Once I spotted the stairs in the back of the hall, I promptly made my way upstairs. A thick layer of dust had settled on them, only disturbed by the footprints from the search party. On the first floor, the footprints spread out into the first floor and the stairs leading up to the second floor. The same could be seen on the second floor. Only on the third floor did the footprints not lead further up.

Well, I would have been surprised if they had already finished up the third floor as well.

I followed the footprints for a short while, passing plenty of rooms and corridors along the way. Most of the doors were damaged or straight-up fell out of their hinges, allowing me a few peeks inside. Though, quite a lot of them were notoriously empty while the few that weren’t entirely devoid of furniture were hard to place. Maybe some office rooms or something similar?

“Oh, Miss Yumi, ma’am!”
“Nn?”

A voice called out to me from behind. Turning around, I found a mercenary coming out of a room and quickly saluting me. His appearance was so sudden I was stumped at how to respond for a moment.

“Ohh… Err… How’s the search going?”
“It’s going well, ma’am! We have just finished the first look through the third floor.”
“Oh? Did you find anything of interest?”
“There are several rooms we believe to might have been studies. There is also a large hall that might have served as a library of sorts.”
“A… library?”

A library in a fort? That was certainly not what I expected to find here. Of all things, a library?

“Could you show me that library?”
“Certainly, ma’am.”

I followed the mercenary through the corridors, leading me to a single large entrance with its door missing. Through the entrance, I could spy several bookshelves and piles of books on the ground. It seemed some of the shelves had collapsed and thrown their contents throughout the room.

“Jorth!” called out the mercenary guiding me.
“Huh? You already back? You just le— Miss Yumi!”

A lanky man appeared from behind the shelves, saluting me the moment he spotted me.

“Miss Yumi, ma’am! How may we help you?”
“… At… ease? Err, I wanted to take a look at this library you found.”

I still couldn’t get used to all the salutes and the formal behaviour. But that was neither here nor there. The lanky mercenary called Jorth relaxed when I told him to ease up, that was good enough for me.

“Well, the library is as you can see, ma’am. The shelves haven’t taken well to time but no books were found damaged. That said, we have no idea what these books even are…”
“You don’t?”
“Yes, ma’am. I can read but the contents are beyond me.”

Were these maybe some highly technical books or so? Maybe some researchers made use of this library.

Thinking so, I picked up a nearby book and opened it, skimming through the pages and stopping on a random one. I still needed some practice with reading so I’d have to read slowly.

“Nn? What’s this? ‘And the brimstone spectre watcheth the firmament’s glimmer. Pray, oh pray, as the flower of fire and flame bloometh in our most precious. Repent, oh repent, as the neverending dream cometh to a close.’ Err… What?”

What the heck was I reading here? This most definitely wasn’t some kind of technical book. I peeked towards the other two, only to find the lanky man shrugging his shoulders and the other shaking his head.

“They’re all like this, Miss Yumi, ma’am. Tried reading a few pages of one and I can say I got no clue what a single sentence of that even meant. Can’t even read half the words.”
“Nn…”

I couldn’t even blame him for that. Reading a little further, I found several words where I didn’t know the meaning either, while others were slightly different from the words I knew. Overall quite difficult to make out any sense of this.

“And you say that all the books are like this?”
“At least, all I took a look at. Which are plenty.”

He gestured to the stack of the books next to me, where I had taken the first book from. So, this stack was here cause he had already taken a look at these?

“I see. Well… Let’s take a look at another one.”

This time, however, I picked a book from the nearby shelf.

“Let’s see. ‘Ah, dear Ser Kalas, on this day shall we be joined forevermore, my purity yours to—’ Okay, what the hell is up with this?”

These weren’t just some flowery words anymore. They were a little too… direct, for that.

Never did I expect to stumble upon an erotic novel in this place.

Not to mention that I was surprised such a thing even existed in the first place. Admittedly, I only read a single sentence out of the book but chances were rather high that the remainder of the book wasn’t much better. Actually, what was the title anyway?

‘The Holy Knight Kalas and His Thousand Brides’

Now then, the title wasn’t very promising, either. Maybe it was good I didn’t read more than a single sentence.

“Oh well… I guess this library was more for… entertainment.”
“That might be… likely, ma’am.”

The lanky mercenary glanced away from me. Yeah, he picked up on what that book had been… Hard not to.

Next time, I shouldn’t read out loud…

For everyone’s sake.

“Err, I’ll leave you to this place then. Good luck.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”

I quickly made my exit from the library. There was little point in staying there when I could hardly read half the books and the remainder were erotic novels. Not like the lanky mercenary would fare any better than I would.

Nn, Ria or someone probably would have to take a look later, wouldn’t they? Speaking of which… What would happen if Ria picked up those books?

The image of Ria reading out loud the lines from earlier came to mind. Honestly, it was… pretty uninteresting. I couldn’t imagine her getting riled up about that. Maybe someone else would? But I didn’t want to let Karen read those. And Lily and Rina were no good either. Their reaction might be interesting but the aftermath wouldn’t be pretty. For me, that is.

Anyway, where to next… the studies? Is the other mercenary still around?

Turning around, I saw the mercenary who guided me here. Seemed that he followed me.

“Nn, show me to the studies next.”
“Yes, ma’am!”

After a salute, he guided me through the corridors once more. He seemed quite happy about leading me. Well, it was probably easier and more interesting than digging through the dusty rooms.

“These are the studies, ma’am!”
“Nn, thank you.”

A whole slew of studies, one next to another. A whole corridor of studies. Rather than that, it felt more like I was looking at office rooms. Each one seemed to have a single desk with a chair, several shelves lining the walls and some miscellaneous other stuff.

“Well, this seems more promising, doesn’t it?”

Several mercenaries were in the rooms, scouring every corner. Stacks of papers as well as some books were placed on the desks in each room. If these were studies—office rooms, really—then chances were high that the documents were a little more interesting. Then again, most anything was fine with me as long as they weren’t like the ones from the library.

“Ah, Miss Yumi! You have come!”
“Nn. How is the search going?”

One of the mercenaries approached me with a salute. It took me a moment to remember, but he was the one who gave me the report earlier. If I had to guess, he was their squad leader.

“It’s going well, ma’am! Most of the studies haven’t been emptied or looted and are in relatively good condition. We are currently gathering everything of interest.”
“Oh? Could you show them to me?”
“Of course, ma’am. This way.”

That was good news. I was a little surprised when he mentioned that these were in good condition but when I thought about it, bandits and the like probably weren’t interested in some century-old documents, huh…

“Here they are.”
“Nn, thanks.”

A whole pile of documents and books, stacked up so high that I feared they might topple over any second now. Mostly the books, of course.

“Let’s see.”

I took a stack of the documents and skimmed over them. To my relief, this wasn’t full of flowery words or erotic descriptions.

“... It’s a complaint from the town mayor that the drunk soldiers are causing problems by hitting on young girls.”

Was this really any better? Was it? I wasn’t so sure anymore…

“Well, it’s been two centuries since this complaint was written. The people involved aren’t even alive anymore…”
“Maybe they were long-lived ones, ma’am.”
“... Right, that could be.”

But even if they were still alive, I couldn’t imagine them remembering an incident from over two hundred years ago… Not like we’d have a way of finding them either. And not like we would, either. No point in doing so.

“Okay, next one is… Another complaint? This one… and this one… as well as this one. That’S a lot of complaints.”
“That stacks from… Hey, where’s this stack from?!”
“The study over there, sir!”

A mercenary pointed to a study on the other end of the corridor. That knowledge wasn’t going to help me either…

“You sorted them by study?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Huh…”

Then that one probably handled all the complaints.

My condolences, former long-deceased office worker. Or would it be official?

After a quick thought dedicated to the poor sod who had to deal with that, I reached out to a different stack.

“This one is… Oh, an inventory list. Two and a half dozen barrels of bright ale. Three wagons of monster stones. A dozen of crates of Black Cucus. Black Cucus?”
“I think that’s an Earth Cucus, ma’Am.”
“Oh, that makes…”

No sense. Earth Cucus were red…

“Whatever. I guess monster crystals refer to mana crystals… Mh, but it doesn’t say where these were stored, does it? Oh, wait, there. Third storage.”

And which ones were that?

“... Let’s take a look at another stack.”

Third time’s the charm. Or something like that.

“Nn… Nn? It’s a report on wall repairs…”

The next one was about repairs as well…

“... Well, they might be useful, I guess? Maybe?”

Honestly, I had no idea if they were. Someone would have to sieve through all of the documents and figure out what is useful and what isn’t. Though I had the subtle feeling I’d belong to the group having to do that… At least they were halfway sorted by study already. That should make things easier whenever it’d come to that.

“Leader, sir! We found something!”
“Oh? Miss Yumi, shall we take a look?”
“Nn.”

I put down the document and followed him to where the voice had come from. A room at the very end of the corridor. The door had been broken down, most likely by the mercenaries. The inside didn’t look like a study either, suggesting this was probably a different, maybe more important place.

“Sir, take a look at this.”
“What’s this?”

The mercenary handed a small box to his leader. I tried to take a look but… They were working at a slightly different height than me. Seeing my plight, the leader lowered the box and let me take a look as well.

“Nn? Are these plants? In a box?”
“That would seem to be the case, ma’am. Maybe this was a medical facility?”
“That might be.”

If these plants were used as herbs.

But wouldn’t a bunch of plants rot away of left alone like this? I mean, it’s been two hundred years or even longer?

That aside, there were other things in the box as well. Small tools of unknown purpose, tiny bottles with weird liquids, some of which had leaked into the box and some other things.

“There’s even a straw doll in there. What do you even need a straw doll for?”
“They’re popular as toys, Miss Yumi.”
“A toy, you say?”

In a box filled with plants and questionable liquids?

“Did you find anything else,” the leader asked his subordinate.
“Yes, sir. There were a few documents and a book with a lock.”
“Nn? A book with a lock?”
“Yes, ma’am.”

The mercenary pointed to the table behind him. A giant, ornate book, the length of my entire arm, was placed on it, with a thick metal lock keeping it closed.

“Didn’t know people would actually go out of their way to lock a book…”
“The lock is old, ma’am. Should we break it?”
“Nn… Let’s first take a look at the other things.”

Time for another round of documents. Alas, this proved to be different.

“Huh? ‘The seventeenth of the second summer month. Progress is slow but steady. The people of Auria have yet to find out about us but it is only a matter of time. We have to be more careful with acquiring goods. Our success is imminent. Failure means death.’”

I paused. This document. This wasn’t written by the soldiers of this fort, was it? After all, the people of Auria knew about their existence back then. But then, who was it? The bandits? Or maybe…

Are these the belongings of the Worshippers?!

There were no other past residents in this place according to my knowledge. But then, why were these things here and not down in the basement?

“... These things might belong to the Worshippers.”
“The Worshippers?!”
“Nn.”
“... Should we call for Miss Ria?”
“Nn. Do that. And inform the captain about it as well.”
“Understood. We’ll do so immediately.”

The leader saluted and immediately went off to send some of his men back down.

“But I wonder what this stuff is about…”

If I had to guess, maybe these were logs for that ritual they conducted? That seemed most likely to me.

“Nn… Maybe that book has more?”

I glanced towards the locked book. The mercenary said he could break open the log… but if this was a book from the Worshippers, then maybe it was booby-trapped or something like that. I wouldn’t put it past them.

“Where exactly did you find that book?”
“Over on that shelf there, ma’am.”
“Did you notice anything when you took it?”
“No, ma’am?”

Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with it? But it could be magic, too. I decided to take a look at the mana within the book but…

Looks normal to me…

Nothing noteworthy at all about it, even. Then, if it wasn’t trapped with magic, maybe it was something mechanical?

I grabbed the book, trying to lift it but…

“Woah! Heavy!”
“Ma’am, be careful!”

The mercenary quickly took the book from me before I could stumble. So much to that…

“Thank you…”
“No problem, ma’am! Did you want to do something with the book?”
“Well… Could you shake it?”
“Shake… it?”
“Nn. If there’s a trap, maybe we can hear something.”
“Oh, you want to check for traps?”

I nodded when the mercenary understood my intentions.

“Leave it to me, ma’am.”

He lifted the giant book, shaking it gently while listening with an ear on it. After a few moments, he put the book down and instead took his knife with its scabbard and knocked on the book with it. Afterwards, he drew the knife and poked it between the pages.

“Looks safe to me, ma’am. Can’t say whether there is a magical trap, though.”
“Nn. Thank you. I can’t sense anything amiss from its mana so it probably isn’t trapped at all.”
“Shall I break the lock?”
“... Nn. Do it.”

I took a few steps back and let him do his work. Though, first, he left the room, borrowing some tools. He came back with a pair of metal pliers.

“Please stand behind me, ma’am.”
“Nn. I am.”
“I’ll open it now.”

The pliers bit down on the lock, distorting it. The sound of metal being squashed entered my ears and with a final snap, the lock broke apart.

“Ohhh.”
“Please stand back for a moment, ma’am. I’ll open the book now.”
“Oh, okay.”

I quickly returned behind him, understanding his intentions. He grabbed the book and… opened it. Without anything happening.

“... Seems to be safe, ma’am. Here you go.”
“Nn, thank you. Good work.”
“Yes, ma’am!”

He saluted, a big grin on his face. I could only smile wryly in return. I truly was thankful for his consideration but it also made me feel a little bad, Standing behind him as he was facing a potentially dangerous item.

But that’s basically what I’ll have to do in the future, too. Hoisting that banner is something I can only do when they protect me…

Nonetheless, I felt a little bad about it. As well as thankful.

“Now, let’s take a look….”

I turned my attention back to the book in front of me. With a book as big and heavy as this one was, there was no way for me to lift it, so I kept it on the table and opened the front cover.

“Nn? ‘Book of the Grand Witch’? Well, that sure is straightforward…”

Not the most creative title. But at least it was decorated with a very beautiful flower. The book seemed handwritten, so I didn't really want to imagine just how much effort had been put into that. A name was written in the corner too. Maybe the owner of this book. Or the author?

“A… Adeptus-Yumaria… That’s… probably not how I am supposed to read this. Err… Yumaria is the name, I guess? The other is… a title? Or something?”

What even was an Adeptus, though? Either way, it had something to do with the Worshippers, no doubt. No other people would decide on a name like that. Well, except for me?

But, let’s take a look at this book first…

I flipped the first page and found the table of contents for the book. Which was… Err…

Introduction to the Devotees of the Grand Witch, an organisation dedicated to the worship of the Grand Witch Yumias. First Chapter: The Devotees of the Grand Witch and our goals. Second Chapter: A Neophyte’s duty…

This was surprisingly… straightforward. And decorated with flowers, too. Actually, it was quite pretty. Whoever wrote this book put in a lot of effort.

Let’s see… the first chapter… Oh? It explains the structure of their organisation?

This… could this be a rather incredible find? The text seemed to be giving details on their beliefs, their ranks within the organisation and much more. And this was just the first chapter. Incidentally, the ‘Adeptus’ was indeed a rank within the organisation.

The Adeptus Exemptus: A devotee that has reached the mortal and magical limits is granted a new name. They shall honour the witch by taking this name as their own, reflecting the new life given to them by the witch.

That rank was, unsurprisingly, pretty high among the Worshippers. However, when I checked the table of contents, there was no chapter dedicated to them. Nor any other of higher ranks.

“The other chapters are… Nn… explanations of the first few ranks? After that… Oh, is this magic?”

Now, this was interesting. The book was covering some basics of the magic the Worshippers were using.

Maybe I can find something useful here.

At that moment, a commotion could be heard from behind me. I turned around, looking towards the corridor and listening to the mercenaries, as they hurriedly greeted someone. Seconds later, the newcomer arrived at the door, wearing her usual lethargic expression.

“Ria, you’ve come.”
“Mm… I did… I was told… there is something… interesting here…”
“Nn, there is. We found some stuff from the Worshippers. Among other things, this book.”
“A… book?”

Ria tilted her head for a short moment, before moving swiftly over to me, belying her sleepy demeanour.

“What… is this?”
“I’m not quite sure… It seems to be something like a… guidebook for them?”
“A guidebook…”

I stepped aside to let Ria take a proper look at the book. First, she checked the front cover, then the first page, reading aloud the title of the book. Finally, she moved on to the table of contents, studying the words written there.

“A book… of the Worshippers… Mm… We found… something rare…”

She read through the first chapter pages, furrowing her brows sometimes in between.

“There’s also a chapter that seems to handle their magic.”
“Their magic?”

That got a reaction out of her for sure, as she immediately checked the table of contents again and then flipped to the appropriate page in the book.

“Magic… Mmm… This is…”
“... Nn?”
“... I don’t know.”
“... You don’t know?”

Ria nodded before going on to explain it to me.

“First… the book explains… the general basics… of magic… things you can… learn in the… Academy… or from… teachers… After that… it explains… general spellcraft… and some other things… but… there are no… actual spells… written here…”
“Oh.”
“But maybe… the methods… are… I’ll have to… read it… first.”
“Nn…”

The actual spells were probably of little use to me anyway, seeing how I’d have trouble replicating them like that. But the methods might be interesting.

“Still… this is… very interesting… Good job… Yumi…”
“Nn? I didn’t really do anything, the men here found it, after all.”
“Is that… so?”
“Nn.”
“Mmm…”

Ria stared at me for a few seconds, then smiled. I had no idea what went through her head that made her smile but I sure hoped it was something good.

That said, Ria had already returned her attention to the book again…

“Ohhh?”
“Nn? Did you find something?”
“There are… some of… their ceremonies… described… including… their rituals…”
“And… that means?”
“Some of them… might be… of magical… nature…”
“... You mean, like ritual spells?”
“Correct…”

Ritual spells were those large-scale spells that couldn’t be cast by a regular magician. As such, they were probably rather impressive. Probably. As long as they didn’t cause the magicians to get killed by it. Like, err, the owner of this book?

“Mmm… Ohh? There are… stories about… the witch…”
“... There are?”
“Mm… Seems… like it… They don’t… look like… they are… related to… the Tale of… the Witch…”
“Ahhh… the Tale of the Witch was that story that’s… quite famous?”
“That’s right… Pretty much… everyone knows… of it…”

Everyone except me. I still hadn’t gotten around to having Karen tell me that tale, after all.

“But if they aren’t related to that tale, where did they get those stories from?”
“... Who knows?”

I didn’t, at least.

“Maybe from… someone long-lived… like the Elder… There are… probably many… who have lived… through those… times… As long as… you look… for them… you can… probably find… a few…”

A few, huh… For something that was hundreds if not thousands of years ago…

“Mmm… Yumi…”
“Yes?”
“Can I… take this… book… with me?”
“Uhh… I don’t mind? But can I take a look at it later, too?”

After all, I might find something useful for me.

“Mmm… Of course.”
“Then, I guess take it with you?”
“That’s great… Thank you…”
“Nn, no problem.”

With the new temporary owner of the book decided, Ria turned around to the nearby mercenary who had silently watched over us. She stared straight at him, silently, causing him to stiffen up.

“Uhh… Miss Ria… May I be of help?”
“Mmm… Carry…”
“What?”
“The book…”
“You want me to carry the book?”
“Mmm..”

The mercenary was a little bewildered but quickly composed himself and turned to me, asking for permission to help Ria, which I promptly gave him. It wouldn’t take too long anyway to bring that book back, right?

Well, even if not, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue…

I watched as the mercenary cautiously closed the book and lifted it, the broken lock rattling with every move. The two quickly left for their destination and I was left alone.

Hopefully, that book will help us out a little… I wonder what the captain’s going to say. Anyway, I should probably check up on the other group now. But first, I have to ask someone where to go…

Good thing, there were plenty of mercenaries to choose from. Asking the first one in the corridor quickly got me the answer I was looking for. The residential building was pretty much right behind the main building.

Time to take a look over there.