The Elven Duke Reluctantly Marries The Cursed Lady - Chapter 13
After finishing work that day, Hydrangea headed to the Forbidden Archive after dismissing Quince, his adjutant.
The Forbidden Archive was protected by a strong spell that nullified Transfer Magic. This was a spell that the first generational head of the Duke Laudense House had cast and is in effect up to this day. The sealing technique was so well made that no one, no matter how well versed with magic they were, could break it.
Second-class mages had to seek permission from Hydrangea to access the archive.
But Hydrangea, who was the current head of the Duke Laudense House, could enter anytime he wished.
When he touched the doorknob, the seal was released with a crackling sound.
Upon setting foot inside the Forbidden Archive, lights powered by magic turned on, and a purple light wondrously illuminated the dark room.
The Forbidden Archive is a vaulted room with books covering the entire wall. The collection consisted of approximately 3000 tomes, and most of them were manuscripts of the First’s magic books.
After the death of his wife, the First took comfort in the creation of the magic books stored inside the Forbidden Archive.
Stone gargoyles were installed by the entrance of the room. If someone took out a book from the Forbidden Archive, they would be chased until they were petrified and dead.
The moment Hydrangea passed by them, the gargoyles’ eyes moved.
[Yo, Seventh.]
[It’s been a while, Seventh.]
The gargoyles’ petrification was temporarily undone once it was hit with a surge of mana from Hydrangea. Generally, this was how he talked to them.
“Has it been peaceful lately?”
[It’s so peaceful that we have nothing to do.]
[Yeah, nobody comes over nowadays]
The gargoyles proudly talked about the book thief that had recently entered the Forbidden Archive, but he had no time to leisurely listen to them so he had to cut them off early.
“Anyway, do you remember a man who went in here 10 years ago?”
[10 years ago… aah, you mean that hopeless mage?]
[I remember him because he reeked of blood despite his looks.]
Looks like that incident about Syran von Northpole that came up on the investigation was true.
“Do you remember which books that man read?”
[Nope.]
[We’re only interested in people who steal books.]
“I see.”
When Hydrangea left, the gargoyles returned to being mute stone statues.
Looks like I have to search for it myself.
As he concentrated mana into his eyes, Hydrangea began to see things that he could not see before.
Signs of a mage’s movements were preserved as a single line even after the passage of time.
Colored threads of various shades floated in the air. Among them, the thick, shiny golden thread contained the First’s mana. Even after hundreds of years, it still had the strongest presence.
And so, Hydrangea began to search for Syran’s mana. It was a pure green which was a very uncommon color, so he found it right away.
Syran seemed to wander the Forbidden Archive for a while, but the thread stretched out in a straight line as he found the shelf with the book he was looking for.
The shelf Syran was searching for was the shelf related to curses. It was obvious which book he touched because traces of his mana were left on it.
There were several books whose titles seem to have been perused, but only one of them was pulled out from the shelf.
“A Complete Collection of Curse Breaking…”
The book contained different spells to break every possible curse. However, most of them were high-level spells, so one could not just use them even if they knew how to do it.
Hydrangea tried to search for one related to cat curses, but he could not find it because it was a special curse. In the first place, a curse which turns the cursed into a cat after being touched by the opposite gender was unheard of.
To find out the composition of the spell, the next one he pulled out was “The Complete Book of Curses”.
There was a well-known curse which turned the cursed person into a cat. All one had to do was drop some wolfsbane poison and the blood of a domestic animal into a rock that weighed the same as a cat on the night of a new moon and whisper the name of the person they want to curse all night long in a place where no one could find them.
However, no matter how much he searched, there was no cat curse which involved the opposite gender.
Just who would put such a curse on her? And why would they curse an innocent, 10 year old girl?
And so, another problem emerged.
Hydrangea clicked his tongue as the crease between his eyebrows loosened.
Was Syran thinking the same thing? After reading “The Collection of Curse Breaking”, he had also left a mark on the next book he pulled out which was “The Complete Book of Curses”.
It seems he needed information from the Forbidden Archives to break the curse placed on his daughter.
But why was he unable to tell Hydrangea about it?
Certainly, having one’s daughter turn into a cat is a huge scandal for a noblewoman.
But the thing that struck him the most was that Syran still hid it from Hydrangea whom he had to ask for permission to enter the Forbidden Archive.
There must have been a tremendous amount of trial and error to break the curse.
Perhaps the incident involving the corrupt merchant Tritoma Celsia had something to do with it. It’s hard to believe that the two are unrelated.
The only information that remained in the Magic Division about Syran described him as a quiet and serious mage. Until then, it seems he had never caused any major incident.
Something must have happened that drove him insane.
I must look into Tritoma who was the victim in that incident.
Hydrangea directly went home by Transfer Magic after exiting the Forbidden Archive.
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[Looks like you got yourself into a whole lot of trouble.]
Pomeranian looked disappointed as he shook his head in exasperation.
Certainly, there was a lack of research before the marriage was planned.
[In the first place, those background checks should have been done before you even proposed.]
Hydrangea turned red when it was pointed out.
Pomeranian’s argument had hit home so much that he was at a loss for words.
