"I want to take a bath. Do you have somewhere I can wash?"
At that, Chrollo pointed to a room farther inside.
"There's a bathroom in the bedroom."
Then he picked up his book and went back to reading.
Cordis put away the broom he was holding, then went into the bedroom.
The moment he entered, Chrollo's distinctive cool, crisp scent washed over him.
Even the scent on Chrollo's skin was gentle, like flowers, though Cordis had no idea what kind.
The room was ordinary and, naturally, very clean.
The bedside table was piled with obscure, difficult books and stacks of research notes.
Cordis looked around, and once he was sure Chrollo wouldn't come in, curiosity drove him to leaf through the notes and books.
Most of the books were written in an ancient script.
It was difficult to understand, and just as difficult to learn.
There were three or four books like that on Chrollo's bedside table.
Most of the notes he flipped through contained explanations of the ancient text and its various grammatical rules.
The densely packed notes made it clear that Chrollo had put considerable effort into studying it.
A slip of paper was tucked between the pages of the notebook, too.
A long passage was written on it, in language clearly even harder to understand than the text in the books.
Cordis couldn't help taking an interest.
He picked up a book and began studying it alongside Chrollo's notes.
And Cordis's habit of calling himself a genius wasn't entirely baseless.
Even faced with those oddly shaped characters, he could grasp most of the writing in the book just by following the explanations in Chrollo's notes.
The book was mainly about an ancient people called the Tass.
Everything in it concerned the Tass people's affairs and customs.