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Chapter 99. If Only We Could Decode It...

"This is such a tedious task..."

"Ivy, quit complaining and keep working."

"Hey, you're the one doing the least here."

Well... this type of meticulous work really isn’t for me. If someone asked me what is for me, I'd probably struggle to answer... but I do know that while I enjoy reading books, organizing them isn't exactly my strong suit.

"Besides, we don’t even know if there’s an answer at the end of this... all this effort might just be for nothing."

"If you think like that, you’ll never get anything done. You won’t know until you try."

I guess that’s true... but still, I’d appreciate it if you could understand how I feel about not wanting to make an effort unless it’s guaranteed to pay off. Putting in endless effort with no visible results is like being a monk. Sorry, but I don't believe in God, and I certainly don’t want to accumulate virtue through suffering. Spare me from Sisyphus’ toil.

In the end, I arranged a ton of books based mostly on vague hunches... but there doesn’t seem to be anything covering the transition to modern script. In the process, I skimmed through a lot of books written in ancient characters, ranging from seemingly pointless stuff to books that might actually be important, like those about ancient dynasties. Honestly, there’s a bit of everything.

"Imagine if we decoded this and uncovered something that shook the foundations of history... it’s a little exciting, isn’t it?"

"...True."

"Hey, you two script maniacs, can you focus a little more?"

Ugh.

"Ivy, you have no sense of romance... probably because you spend all your time doing spy stuff."

"Sorry about that. After all, I’m just a lowly government spy."

"No way!"

She's really a spy for the government?

"I thought this was common knowledge by now... you seriously didn’t know? I was investigating you from the start... under the orders of Frodil, the Minister of Interior."

"Oh."

I always wondered how Frodil got my information. Turns out it was an inside job. But wait a minute... does that mean she was passing my info to Frodil while also leaking Frodil’s info to me?

"...I decided to trust you. That’s why I ended up betraying Frodil-sama... though I made sure I could survive no matter who won."

"Wow! That’s seriously impressive."

"This really isn’t something to brush off so casually... Ivy’s betrayal is why we had to go through so much trouble, right?"

"That’s not true."

The reason we struggled so much, to the point of resorting to foreign interference, was simply because Frodil’s plan was nearly flawless. If he hadn’t been so impatient... even I might’ve given up and gone along with it. So no, it wasn’t Ivy’s fault we struggled. She was on our side... even though she used to be on Frodil’s.

"Hm? So, you’re not a spy anymore?"

In novels and movies, spies are often portrayed as never being able to quit once they’ve started... I wonder if Ivy managed to retire peacefully.

"No way. If you’re born a spy, your whole life is dedicated to the shadows. Try to run, and you’ll be killed immediately."

"Oh, I see."

So Ivy is still a spy for the government.

"That being said... since Frodil-sama, who was in charge of the country's intelligence, is dead, everything is pretty much paralyzed for now. And... even if my new superior orders me to eliminate you, Theodore, I’ll just betray them and assassinate them instead."

"Why?"

A spy’s orders are supposed to be absolute. I don’t see why she’d defy her country’s leaders just to protect a student like me.

"...What if I followed that order and seriously tried to kill you? What would you do?"

"I’d kill you as painlessly as possible."

"Exactly."

Hmm... so Ivy would betray her superior because she doesn’t want to fight me.

"I know about it, you know? The time you took out all those assassins sent after Lady Elissa while carrying her. I’m not arrogant enough to think I could win against someone like that."

"For a spy, you sure prioritize your own life."

"Yes. So don’t worry, Eriksila, you can trust me."

"How can I possibly trust you after that conversation?"

You should give her a break.

"Oh, if you’re a spy, maybe you can read ancient scripts?"

"Of course not. What do you take spies for?"

"Sorry."

Her sharp gaze pierced me... how sad.

We really can’t decode these ancient characters... unless we had something like the Rosetta Stone, with both readable and ancient texts written side by side. I guess the only option is to head to the Western nations.

"Hey, what’s going on?"

"Oh, Jeremiah... I’m stuck trying to decode this ancient script."

"Decoding ancient script... You’ve been talking about that for a while now. You need it for the End Dragon, right?"

"Yeah, exactly."

Since Jeremiah was born into a duke’s family, I thought he might have some useful books, but he didn’t know anything when I asked before. The path we’re walking down leads to the training grounds. It seems we’re heading to the same place.

"Hyah! Hah!"

"Hahaha!"

Before we even entered the training grounds, we could hear explosive sounds... but I don’t think anything is actually blowing up. Peeking inside, I saw Ash and Nina, sparring intensely with swords.

"They’ve been at it for a while."

"I guess Ash is really bothered by not being able to use Grimoire magic."

Even if they realize that reckless training won’t help, they probably can’t stop. If those two manage to use a Grimoire... I wonder what kind of abilities they’ll get.

"Theodore."

After watching them for a bit, Ash noticed me and sheathed his sword, walking over.

"Jeremiah’s here too. What’s up?"

"Just checking in on your progress."

"Looks like you’re working hard."

"Yeah... we just moved up a rank, but there’s still so much more I can do."

That determination... I need to learn from it.

"Now that I think about it, I came across something in the ancient texts that seemed to be about Grimoires. Maybe... we’d find more if we went to the Western nations?"

No, maybe I’m overthinking it.