Edward: "???"
Wait.
Why wasn't this going as he had expected? Shouldn't the two Liliths have gotten along well? Why did this Sanguine Duke make it sound as though his Lilith had been an enemy of the Sanguine rather than a friend, and had even caused enormous losses?
His expression grew a little more solemn. "What... losses?"
The things coiled around the coffin writhed wildly as though provoked, before Duke Olmer's calm voice emerged. "Nothing much. She merely impersonated Progenitor Lilith for several hundred years, had the entire Sanguine race serve her for several hundred years, and took countless treasures from us."
"..."
Marquis Punk wore a look of anguish beside him. I don't want to know any of this!
At that moment, he finally understood why the messages Progenitor Lilith had supposedly delivered during that period had been incomprehensible-it wasn't that they couldn't understand them. They had understood and obeyed, only to discover that she was an impostor, so they had concealed it from later generations to save face, deliberately claiming the messages had been incomprehensible!
Edward figured it out as well. His face darkened, but he held himself back and asked, "Your Excellency, could you tell me exactly when in the Fourth Epoch this happened?"
"Of course, but... come with me first."
Suddenly, the plants coiled around the coffin grew wildly at tremendous speed, reaching toward Edward. Although they looked like nothing more than plants casually snapped off somewhere, they gave Edward an intense sense of danger. Without the slightest hesitation, he ended the summoning and vanished instantly from the Little Library.
"Hmm?"
Duke Olmer's voice sounded somewhat surprised from within the coffin. "I had already sealed off the space here. How did he escape?"
"Punk."
"Here!" Marquis Punk answered hurriedly, then quickly added, "I didn't hear anything