After that, we continued to interrogate Lemn in order to figure out what sort of person the first king was, but we found out pretty much nothing. Could you be a little more interested in individuals, Lemn?
We were at an impasse, but the first king of Valschein was still our only way out of this. Since there was nothing else we could do, we headed to the Royal Capital to research him as much as we could.
With Patrick supporting my immobile left side, we traveled for half a day by carriage and headed to the Royal Capital. Ryuu stayed home, but Eleanora tagged along for some reason.
Upon arriving at the Royal Capital, we immediately headed to the Royal Palace, where we were able to meet with Ronald right away. We were brought to a room that had been cleared of others, and right away Eleanora was struggling with how to address Ronald.
“Broth— No, my mistake. Headmas— No, that’s wrong too... Who are you?”
“You don’t have to keep it a secret,” Ronald said.
“My dear brother!”
“Yes, yes. It’s been a while, Eleanora.”
Ronald was Eleanora’s older brother, as well as the former headmaster of the Royal Academy and the current king’s right hand... He was a complex man. He also knew of the truth behind the Demon Lord’s sealing, so he would be very helpful in researching the unembellished facts regarding the first king.
After some quick greetings, I immediately jumped into the main topic. “I’m currently researching the first king. Could I take a look at the documents in the royal family’s archives?”
“Sure. I’ll take you there, so have a look at whatever you’d like.”
Wow. That only took one round of conversation to be settled.
I preferred stories with quick developments, but this felt a bit excessive. Surely the precious documents regarding the royal family’s ancestors were filled with things that couldn’t be shown to the public. I fell silent, expecting there to be some sort of catch, and Ronald spoke up right away.
“You can trust me. This is related to your left leg, and by the looks of it, your arm as well, right? I wouldn’t allow it if it was just out of curiosity, but if you’re in some sort of trouble, I’d like to help.”
“Thank you very much. I’ll be sure to return the favor by—”
“No, no. It’s fine. I can’t accept a favor from someone who isn’t feeling well and seems to be struggling.”
I’d wanted to specify how I was going to return the favor, but he was a tenacious man. I guess this means I owe him one. I was going to have to provide an adequate favor in the future, whenever Ronald or His Majesty needed it. Ugh, I would’ve preferred he just charged me an exorbitant amount to look at the documents.
Despite my dissatisfaction, I had no choice but to agree.
“Understood. I’ll return the favor one day.”
“I might reach out to you if we’re ever in a little trouble, but you can help us out when it’s convenient for you.”
I guess it’s a small price to pay to look at texts that have never left the premises. Ronald won’t ask for anything ridiculous either. He already knows I would say no if he asked me to help the kingdom take over the world. He’ll definitely ask for a favor that toes the line of something I won’t want but will agree to do.
It wasn’t a terrible deal. In fact, I was much more unreasonable in this situation for suddenly asking to see the royal family’s secrets without any explanation of my situation. Even if I did tell him the whole story about how my left side had died and so on, he probably wouldn’t believe me. I’d pretty much given up on explaining the situation, but that wasn’t the case for Eleanora.
“Yumiella’s left side has gone to the Kingdom of Twilight! She heard from the god of darkness that a king from long ago is trying to come back to life. That’s why we came here!”
Ronald just smiled and nodded along to his sister’s words. Though her explanation was filled with fantastical elements, he didn’t react in any unusual way. “Eleanora spills everything,” he said in a gentle tone. “The best thing to do is convince her that lies are the truth.”
“I’m not lying!” Eleanora objected.
Ronald trusted that his sister wasn’t a liar, but at the same time, he knew that she would take lies seriously. It was actually more convenient for us if he thought Eleanora was lying, so I ignored Eleanora’s fuming.
“I sure am glad, though. I was worried whatever you came for was related to that recent incident.”
“I’m sorry for the confusion.”
The recent incident Ronald was referring to was probably all the commotion regarding the Lord of National Affairs. It was just a week ago that I had caused trouble at the court conference, so I was a little embarrassed to come to the Royal Palace.
The documents were in the palace basement. With Patrick supporting me, I dragged my paralyzed left side as I walked. If I hopped on my right leg, I could move on my own, but I restrained myself since I was in the Royal Palace.
I have a good sense of judgment, so I abstain from bizarre actions when in a serious place. Forget about that Lord of Leveling stuff.
We arrived at the archives in the palace basement. It was bright thanks to a magical instrument lighting the area, but the air around us had that chilliness unique to basements.
“To that room, please,” Ronald said, which prompted the keeper to head to a door down the hall and take out one of the keys dangling from his neck. He then used that key to open the door before returning to his post.
Oh, so this is as far as he goes. I was going to ask him where the documents I’m looking for are. I watched the keeper walk away.
“He has the keys, but he can’t go inside,” Ronald explained. “The records surrounding the foundation of this kingdom are just that confidential.”
“What? Is it okay for me to look at them? I won’t be ‘disappeared’?”
“You already know things that would get a regular person ‘disappeared.’”
We knew about the truth behind the Demon Lord and that the former Duke of Hillrose was still alive. We knew enough that it wouldn’t be strange for the kingdom to suddenly decide that we knew too much and get rid of us.
If they had a way to get rid of me, they probably would’ve done it already, I thought as I entered the secret room.
“It’s small,” I said.
The room really was small. It was a space of about eleven square meters, and three walls were covered in bookshelves, which made the space more like eight square meters. This is it? This is all the confidential information?
The shelves were filled with books that had clean spines. Each book was ‘clean’ in every sense—there were no stains, no patterns, not even text... Seeing a shelf full of books with blank spines felt very unsettling, and I stood there, mesmerized.
“Do you know why they’re like this?” Ronald asked.
“Is it so that it’s hard to find specific documents and intruders can’t find what they’re looking for? They’d have no choice but to search each and every book.”
“That’s what you’d think, right? An intruder would be so focused on the shelves, in a hurry to check the books...to the point that they wouldn’t realize there’s a trap door beneath their feet.”
Beneath their feet? I looked down at the floor in the area I was standing, and... Wait. There’s a hole in the stone flooring.
Ronald pulled out a key and stuck it in the hole, then turned it, but nothing happened. Huh? Isn’t there supposed to be a hidden room under this one? Suddenly, Patrick started stomping on the ground.
“It makes a dull sound,” Patrick said. “There’s a room under here?”
“Yeah, it makes you wonder. If an intruder were to find this keyhole, they might think the secrets are hidden underneath and try to dig a hole in the floor.” Ronald laughed, seeing that we were thinking like this imaginary intruder.
The room first draws your attention to the bookshelves, then to the floor. Where’s the stuff really hidden? I looked up, expecting the next misdirection to be on the ceiling, which made Ronald chuckle teasingly.
“The key in the floor is connected to here,” he said, pulling on one of the bookshelves in the back with both hands, but...it didn’t move.
I thought the bookshelf was actually going to be a secret door, but it wasn’t such a simple gimmick after all.
Ronald struggled with the bookshelf as he explained the full truth behind the hidden room. “Behind this—urgh!—this door...mmph! Sorry, can someone help me...?”
It turned out that he just wasn’t strong enough.
The left half of my body wasn’t working, and Patrick was busy supporting me, so neither of us could rush to help him. Eleanora was the first to volunteer her help. It was as helpful as if the mouse was the next one to help the grandpa in “The Gigantic Turnip.”
“Leave it to me!” Eleanora declared.
“I’ll say ‘go,’ then we’ll—”
“Okay! Ragh!”
“Wait, wait. That ‘go’ was just me explaining the signal.”
“Ragh!”
“I give up. Hnngh!”
The meager siblings attempted to move the bookshelf with a lack of teamwork that seemed unusual from siblings. The heavy bookshelf made a deep sound as it began moving. Once it started moving, the rest was easy, and the Hillrose siblings were able to fully open the secret door attached to the bookshelf.