"Ancient history?"
Morvan took the manuscript and ran his fingers over the uneven, slightly soft texture of its cover. Instead of opening it immediately, he looked at Charlotte and asked:
"This doesn't look like a normal printed book. Where did you get it?"
Here it comes. Historians always have to get to the bottom of everything... Charlotte had expected the question. Stretching in her chair, she considered her words before asking in return:
"Mr. Morvan, you must know that Suhit City-or rather, every major city-has underground Beyonder gatherings beyond the authorities' reach?"
The veteran lawyer, whose temples were already frosted with white and who looked entirely unconnected to the world of mysticism, nodded.
"I've never attended one, but I know such gatherings must exist. After all, unaffiliated Beyonders far outnumber official ones. Most are low Sequence and lack a reliable body of inherited knowledge, but that is precisely why they have such a great need for Beyonder ingredients and mystical knowledge. Official Beyonders have neither the resources nor the ability to prohibit every exchange, so gatherings like these are inevitable."
"I obtained this material in a trade at a Beyonder gathering."
Charlotte smoothly supplied her explanation, judging from Morvan's tone that he probably wasn't one of the "low-Sequence Beyonders" he had mentioned.
"Heh, then the gathering you attended must have been a fairly high-level one."
After offering that assessment with a smile, Morvan asked no further questions. He opened the manuscript and began reading from the first page.
Seeing that she had finally gotten away with it, Charlotte moved her chair to the side of the desk. Watching Morvan's reactions, she continued explaining, "The person at the gathering said this was a copy of secret Fourth Epoch history unknown to modern historians. The original most likely came from the Southern