Lady Gerd, worried that Shade had never heard of the organization, explained further:
"It is said that traces of the Guiding Light Hermitage have existed in the Material World since the Third Epoch, though their origins must be even older. Yet after all these years, no one has ever seen the end of the world arrive. Still, as long as you can offer suitable stakes and prove yourself trustworthy, they will be quite willing to conduct all manner of transactions with you."
Shade therefore planned to seek help from Mr. Edmund in Coldwater Port. Come to think of it, he had not visited that old folklorist since the Year-End Festival. Of course, Old John in Tobesk was also a member of the Hermit Order, but Shade felt that when it came to this sort of hidden knowledge, Mr. Edmund was more of an expert.
The first clue Shade had encountered about this organization was the symbol he found on a potion bottle in the hidden space beneath his own basement; the first time he truly learned about it was from Miss Feliana and Blaney in the Thousand Tree Forest.
In the blink of an eye, nearly two years had passed. The Guiding Light Hermitage had proven to be right—they truly had inherited knowledge from an age when the apocalypse was imminent.
While resting before the fireplace, Shade also asked these Witches living in the early Fifth Epoch about the Fourth Epoch. It had been an era of darkness and chaos. Even after the bitter years of Evil Spirit Demons running rampant in the Third Epoch had ended, large numbers of dark races and man-eating monsters still threatened intelligent life.
At the same time, the various races that had survived from the Third Epoch had acquired a great deal of dark