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Exiting out of the guest room, Shinto now enters the hallways of the castle.

...

The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Hallways [ Night ].

"...the library should be on the second floor, right?" Quietly closing the door from behind him, Shinto's attention soon averted over to the empty halls of the castle. With a glance, he nodded his head as he began walking through the hallway. "Hmm... I hope he doesn't go anywhere else."

For Shinto to head to the library wasn't for the reason of returning the book that Reru had given to him. He had full rights to keep it. Instead, his main goal was to find out the certain reason for the cause of this situation.

He had an inky feeling on the main grounds of theory for the reason. However, he wanted to confirm it for himself.

...

The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Second Floor Hallway [ Night ].

With steady steps making their way through the dim halls, Shinto had finally arrived in front of the library's door. In the next moment, moving his hand forward—he soon knocked on the door.

"Renryth, are you in?" he asked. "There's something I'd like to ask you in private."

After tapping on the door twice, Shinto's hand stopped in motion as he waited for the old man's reply. Though, after a few seconds of calling out to him—there was no answer.

"Renryth?" Wanting to knock on the door once again, he called out to him. "..." Though, despite doing it once more, there was no reply. "...is he not in?" he inwardly sighed. "Of course... It's in the middle of the night and Renryth probably went back to his quarters or something. Why did I think he'd be here?"

From what Shinto had heard from the slimes when they had first arrived at the library, the area was basically the old man's living quarters as he had spent most of his time in close proximity to books. Thus, he had assumed that the library was where he would go after the conversation.

"..." with a sigh, Shinto shook his head in slight disappointment as he turned his head away from the door and, with one step forward—he was about to begin heading back to the guest room. "I'll just try to find time tomorrow to ask then..." 

As Shinto continued to take a few steps away from the library, the doors of the room slightly opened from behind him. In the next moment, a figure of a man soon appeared out of the room.

"...Shinto?" The old man—Renryth, called out to the young man who was walking away from the door. "Is there something you need?"

"Ah?" Abruptly turning around at his voice, Shinto blinked in a dumbfounded manner. "Sorry, did I disturb you?"

"No. I was just a bit far away to answer," Renryth replied. "Is there something you need here?"

"...well," seeing that Renryth had not slept yet, Shinto nodded his head as he changed his course of direction over to the library's door. "—There's something I'd like to ask you. Something related to that of Lier... But not really?"

"...if it's additional information on the entire story, I have nothing left to say," Renryth shook his head as he slowly closed the door. "If you want to know the rest of the history with the slimes, it's best you ask either Reru or Rustly like I said. So..."

"Wait, it's not that," Shinto hurriedly refuted as his hands blocked the door from closing. "It's not about the history of the slimes or about the rest of the story that you've kept hidden. It's... Well, about Lier herself and... Her apprentice. Do you happen to know about him?"

"Her apprentice?" Renryth sighed tiredly as he soon opened the door wider as if showing a gesture for Shinto to enter into the library. "Let's talk inside shall we?"

...

The Catacombs, Slera's Castle—Second Floor, Library [ Night ].

Upon entering the room, Shinto was instantly greeted by a far messier sight of scattered papers and books all around the library. At a glance, he noted that nearly all the books were stacked upon each other unlike his previous visit here—where everything was neatly sorted into shelves.

"...ah, this is?" he was shocked at the sight. Something that was so clean a few days ago became a hot mess at the return of Renryth.

"Ahem. Don't mind the mess here, it's been hectic for the past few days," Renryth cleared his throat as he walked over towards a study desk by the side of the room. Soon after, he sat by an empty chair. "Have a seat. Would you like some of the tea Madam Ru made for me? It's quite good for health."

"N-No... It's fine," Shinto calmly rejected as he headed towards an empty seat.

"Hmm, right. You came here for the reason of her apprentice," nodding his head, Renryth moved his hands over to an opened book that seemed to have contained research notes and began to look through it. "What do you want to know about him? Or well... Not that I would be a good fit to explain as compared to the person before me whose his companion."

"Ah, so you knew that I was his companion?" Shinto tilted his head.contemporary romance

"Of course. It was the main reason why I had given Frey the key," Renryth answered. "Although it did take me a while to actually recognize that you were one of his companions. I had expected that you were a swordsman but... Never would I have known you'd be a priest, and in such a state like this too."

"Cough... Things happened," Shinto answered helplessly. "I was a swordsman, but... Certain events led to others and I ended up like this. As for my appearance... Let's not talk about that."

"To hide your embarrassment I see?" Renryth chuckled. "In any case... What do you actually want to know? How I know of you or... What I was hoping to achieve by bringing you and your companions here?"

"Well... Yes," he nodded his head. "I wanted to know the reasons for both."

"..." Closing the book in front of him, Renryth's eyes turned towards Shinto's. "I knew of you due to a short meeting back when you visited the village which is now abandoned. Though... I doubt you'd have remembered since, at that time, you, the priest and Lier's apprentice were all heading back to your base."

"Ah... You mean, that abandoned village?" Shinto had not recognized the village all that much. It was because he did not know the exact location that he was in at that time. To add to that, since it was a long time ago—he knew nought of the current state of the village. It was the same for Hikari. "...I see."

"Sigh... Yes, the old village of Crowanski," uttering out with a solemn voice, Renryth took a sip from the tea made by Madam Ru. "Due to an incident, we were forced to move. For the remaining survivors? It was only us three. Well... Now only one."

"..." Shinto kept quiet.

Putting down his cup, Renryth soon shook his head. "But in any case, that is not the point of the conversation, now is it?" Taking a deep breath, he continued. "Moving to a week ago to when I first saw you in the marketplace in Parm, my initial thought was in disbelief to see you here. However... Knowing your history with her apprentice, I didn't want to lose the opportunity and decided to seek you out for help."

"But... You approached Frey instead, right?" Shinto tilted his head. "Why's that?"

"Well... I kind of lost you in the crowd when I was looking for you," he sighed. "Though I thankfully did manage to find Frey. And, seeing as how she was with you, I assumed that you were her companion."

"...I see. So that's why you approached her instead of me," nodding his head as he finally understood how Frey had gotten an S-Ranked quest in Parm. It was merely a because of coincidence and due to Shinto's relation to Kaisus, it led to this string of events. "Though... Why an escort mission of all things?"

"...cough. There was a sudden situation by the time I met up with Frey," he sighed helplessly. "I accidentally pissed off some nobles and I ended up getting chased. In a frenzy, I asked Frey for help and gave her the keys right after. Though... I couldn't really explain anything by the time I escaped back into the caverns."

"Ah... No wonder," Shinto chuckled. "I heard from Frey she was struggling against those foes. But she barely managed to do it."

"...with my help of course," Renryth muttered out as he soon shook his head. "Ahem. But in any case, I wasn't really expecting for you and your companion's overall power to be... This weak. I had expected it to be on par with Lier's apprentice or that priest? Though, compared to that aura you gave back then, now's a much more different one."

"A-As I said, things happened," Shinto inwardly sighed. "Though... Were you disappointed? Disappointed that Kaisus or Hikari wearn't with me?"

"Honestly speaking, I thought you would've been with them," he stated. "That way... I'd be killing three birds with one stone by having you guys help us, have the priest learn the arts of Etheral and... Informing Lier's apprentice of her passing."

"..." with a solemn smile, Shinto sighed. "...you know, Kaisus had been asking a lot about Lier in the recent months."

"...sigh. There's really nothing I can do," he shook his head helplessly. "Maybe you could inform him for me? After all, you two are companions. If it's not too troublesome for you, of course."

"...I'll see what I can do," Shinto nodded his head. "If anything, I'd think it would be better if you were the one to tell him personally. Not me," he stated.

"I'm sorry, Shinto," he averted his gaze away from the young man. "After all this time, I just can't face what's left of Lier's legacy."

"...I see. Then, I'll pass on the message when I see him, I guess," Shinto said. "Though it might take a while since I'd rather tell him face-to-face."

"It's fine, you can take your time," he closed his eyes sheepishly. "But... Thank you. Because of you, a burden from my heart can finally be lifted."

"...you're welcome," he smiled gently as he soon stood up from his seat. "Now then, I'll be taking my leave. I don't want to overstay my welcome," he slightly bowed. "Thank you for explaining everything to me."

"It's no problem," Renryth returned the gesture. "Please get some rest for tomorrow. It's been an exhausting day for all of us."

"...right," nodding his head, Shinto began walking towards the entrance of the library and, just as he was about to leave the premises, his head turned towards Renryth for one final look, noting that he was back to his work in almost an instant. "...back then, it was fun, huh?" with a slight chuckle, his gaze returned to the front of him as he soon made his way back to the guest room.

done.co