A month had passed since the initiation of the Saint Summoning Revival Plan. During this month, everyone had united and poured over books, reading from cover to cover, but… there was no new information, and the magic circle was still nowhere near completion.
At this point, Martina decided to change her approach, now focusing on reading technical books related to magic circles.
If the magic circle could be developed a thousand years ago, it should be possible to develop it in the present as well. With this simplistic thought, Martina began her serious study of the magic circle, but this new strategy turned out to be quite difficult.
First and foremost, since the technique had been abandoned, there were very few books containing accurate information. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that the magic circle information from a thousand years ago would be the same as what remained in the present.
“Martina, there was a book about the accumulation of miasma, but it had no important information, so you put it on the shelf, right? It was about wild herbs. Do you remember what the title was?”
The person who spoke to Martina, who had been reading a book on the history of magic circles, was Laforet, with a furrowed brow.
“Wild herbs… I think it was a book called ‘Delicious Ways to Eat Wild Herbs.’ In the section about wild herb collecting, I believe it mentioned the black mist produced by monsters,” Martina replied.
“That’s it! Thank you, you’ve helped a lot.”
With a brightened expression from getting the answer she couldn’t remember, Laforet made a note of it, and Martina tilted her head in confusion.
“Was there something significant in that book?”
“No, just now I was reading a book that listed plants that grow around miasma accumulations. It might not be useful, but I thought I’d gather some information about plants as well.”
“Indeed… sometimes even small details can become breakthroughs. ‘Delicious Ways to Eat Wild Herbs’ has been moved from the library to the open shelves. If you ask Sophian, he should know where it is. By the way, the sections about the miasma accumulation are on pages seventy-six and one-hundred eleven.”
Laforet, who had made a note of Martina’s information, left the library filled with books piled up everywhere and headed toward the open shelves, which were freely accessible to the palace staff.
As Laforet searched for Sophian, the door connecting the palace library to the hallway suddenly slammed open with a loud bang.
The one who rushed in, flustered, was Roland, who had been coordinating with various places for the current plan.
“Roland, what’s wrong?”
While Laforet and Roland were not yet close, their relationship had grown considerably, and they could converse naturally now.
“Lady Laforet!”
Their conversations were more like those of colleagues than those of grandfather and granddaughter.
“I just received an urgent message from His Majesty! There’s something I need to inform everyone about right away!”
“Understood. Get to the library quickly. I’ll go to call Sophian.”
“Thank you!”
Everyone quickly gathered in the library, where Roland held a letter from the king and began reading its contents aloud.
“The matter about seeking information from other countries… it seems two neighboring nations have responded in quick succession. According to them… a black mist, like the one created by monsters, is appearing in their lands as well!”
Roland’s words, delivered in one breath, shocked everyone, and a heavy silence filled the library. It was broken by Sophian, who had a rare, serious expression on his face.
“What this information suggests is that miasma accumulations may be happening all around the world. In other words… we might be on the brink of the Dark Ages.”
Sophian’s words echoed through the quiet library, and everyone felt a cold shiver down their spine.
The Dark Ages were the time when humanity nearly faced extinction. And the only reason that era ended was because someone had managed to create the Saint Summoning magic circle.
Thus, it could be said that the fate of humanity now rested on the shoulders of those gathered here.
“This is a huge responsibility…” Martina muttered softly, and everyone nodded in agreement.
“How much time do we have? It’s been a month, and there’s still no progress.”
“This is not a plan that can progress only within our country,” Laforet interjected.
Sophian, taking over Laforet’s words, lifted his head and made a declaration. The determined expression on his face carried the dignity of royalty.
“Does that mean we will involve other nations in this plan?”
“Exactly. Since other countries are also facing the threat of miasma accumulations, we should all work together toward the same goal. Some nations might have more valuable texts than we do, and there might even be a country where information about the magic circle still exists.”
At those words, a slight light returned to the previously dark and heavy atmosphere in the library.
“That is indeed a very real possibility. We don’t even know where the Saint Summoning was performed in the past. Our own nation’s records do not contain this information. From a historical research perspective, it’s like we are searching for a far-off country’s history.”
Laforet, the foremost expert in historical research, supported this idea, and as a result, the Saint Summoning Revival Plan, which had started a month ago, underwent a major shift in its form.
