Diana's heart lurched. Oh no, I've been found out!
Ivan swayed on her shoulder, his heart lurching in alarm as well. What? She didn't borrow it? She took it home without checking it out?
"As my Punishment Knight and protector of the faith, how could you stoop to stealing?"
His tentacles clenched into fists, and he looked utterly heartbroken. He had completely forgotten that the first time he met Diana, she had been planning a bank robbery.
Under the administrator's gentle gaze, Diana put on an innocent, sweet smile.
Her big eyes were full of innocence. She fluttered her delicate eyelashes and said in a very obedient voice:
"Is there? Grandpa Administrator, are you sure you haven't remembered wrong?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, even she felt her gaze wavering. Looking at the administrator's smiling, wrinkled face, she discreetly clenched the hem of her skirt.
The administrator looked at her and smiled. His wrinkled face was full of kindness.
"Well, perhaps I'm getting old and mistook someone else for you."
"Maybe that old book accidentally fell into a crack in the floor. And, quite by coincidence, it was on a Sunday afternoon, when you were the only one who came to the school archives."
Before Diana could catch the meaning behind his words, the administrator continued:
"Anyway, hardly anyone can read those old books. Usually only students studying ancient languages borrow them. Next time, just sign it out with me, and remember to bring it back."
Diana nodded obediently, her heart easing with relief. Even her fingertips felt lighter. "Thank you. I definitely will!"
The administrator waved a hand and lowered his head to sort through the checkout cards again, muttering, "Young people, you know. It's a good thing to be interested in old books..."
With a light step, Diana walked over to a bookshelf in the corner and crouched down.
The shelves were packed with yellowing books. Starting from the bottom, she lightly brushed her fingers over the dusty spines, not caring that her skirt dragged along the floor and picked up pale gray smudges.
The great Lord of All Spirits wants me to look for books like that old one, Diana silently told herself.
Hmm... All the old books in the school archives should be gathered on this shelf.
She flipped through the books, translating their titles into Rheinish in her mind.
Let's see... A Treatise on Grain Milling... A Collection of Failed Leather-Dyeing Experiments... An Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs...
Ivan had been staring at the symbols on the spines in confusion. He could barely make out the meaning of a few characters and had been guessing at what kind of mysterious texts they might be.
But when he heard Diana's mental translations, his brow furrowed. One of his tentacles swayed unconsciously as he complained inwardly:
Ugh, what kind of nonsense are these books? How did Diana find an ancient text like the Book of Rituals in this pile in the first place?
His gaze swept over the shelves. The strange symbols, whose meanings he couldn't decipher, made him feel inexplicably irritable.
He knew these books might contain clues, but faced with shelves full of irrelevant texts, even he couldn't help feeling discouraged.
Suddenly, in a corner of the very top shelf, he spotted an unremarkable old book with a gray cover. He could make out two symbols on its spine.
One of them was the character for "god" that the professor had explained in class just moments ago.
...Era...God...
A glimmer appeared in Ivan's eyes. His spiritual intuition told him that there was something unusual about the book.
"Diana, look at the top shelf. The fourth book from the right, the gray one."
Diana was absorbed in searching through the books, and the voice startled her.
It's the voice of the Lord of All Spirits! Is he watching me? She instinctively wanted to scream, but managed to stop herself in time.
"Great Lord, can you see what I'm doing?" Diana lowered her voice, her little mouth moving ever so slightly, unable to hide her excitement.
"Of course. The sight of every believer is connected to my mind." What he said was true, but Ivan couldn't help feeling that something about it was awkward.
Tsk, why does it sound like I've been spying on her this whole time?
He hurriedly added, "Well, just now, I sensed an unusual presence in your faith."
"So I turned my gaze toward you to see what was threatening my knight."
"Now I've found the source of the anomaly. It's in that book."
Diana didn't give it much thought. Excited that the Lord was paying attention to her, she nearly fumbled as she put the book away.
She brought over a ladder and climbed to the top shelf in just a few quick steps.
Ivan saw the girl gradually appear above him and hurriedly rose higher as well.
"Is this the one, great Lord?" Diana's voice was still very soft, like a feather brushing past.
"Yes, Diana. You can speak to me directly with your thoughts. It's a privilege granted to my believers."
Ivan didn't tell her that he could hear her thoughts. If he did, the lively girl would be so embarrassed she wouldn't know where to hide, unable to control the thoughts in her mind.
Diana nodded slightly and pulled the gray-covered book from the top shelf.
Myth of the Era? A book of myths about the Old Era?
She silently read the title to herself.
Ivan was a little surprised. He had thought the book that stirred his Spirituality would record some mysterious phenomenon or supernatural power.
A myth from the Old Era... Maybe its contents will be more interesting.
After learning about the gods of this world, his attitude toward myths had changed completely.
Perhaps some forgotten book of myths concealed answers about the Old Gods, about the Lord of All Spirits, or even about the world itself.
Diana brushed the dust off the cover and turned to the title page.
A line of small text was written on the blank, yellowed page. Diana's eyes lit up slightly as she silently read its meaning.
"...They came from an age lost to the distant past."
"...Perhaps they perished long ago as human society developed."
"...At that time, perhaps human consciousness did not yet exist in the form of a brain."
"...We could not understand them, and could only capture a trace of their lingering memories in poems and legends."
"...We called them monsters, mythical creatures, ancient rulers."
"...Or perhaps we should call them... gods."
Ivan stared intently at the final symbol, the one that represented "god."
Its curved arc and two symmetrical, twisting lines seemed to have been traced in silver thread, shining white in the silent school archives.
He could feel that the symbol seemed to bear some kind of imprint, emanating an ancient aura.
Diana noticed nothing. She only thought the passage was a little strange, making her feel inexplicably uneasy but even more excited.
Why is this myth from the Old Era so strange? It's almost as bizarre as the Book of Rituals!
She eagerly flipped to the next page, but just like the contents of the Book of Rituals, the pages were stuck together by something unknown and would not come apart.
Diana rubbed the edges of the pages with her slender, faintly pink fingertips. Even her body, strengthened by her Punishment Knight abilities, could only wrinkle the pages slightly. She couldn't even tear one off.
With no other choice, she gave up and skipped most of the stuck pages, stopping at the first intact heading.
Echoes of the Deep Void
"When the stars reach the third intersection of the line connecting Orion's Belt and Pluto."
"The vortexes sleeping in the folds of subspace will awaken."
"They are neither beings of flesh nor aggregates of energy, but a form of existence without shape. The Old Gods called them '■■'"
Before you continue