Elf Koushaku wa Noroware Reijo wa Iyaiya Metoru

After he finished his work that day, Hydrangea sent his aide, Quince, downstairs and went to the forbidden books room.

In the forbidden books room, there was a strong magic to nullify transfer magic. This magic was cast by the first head of Duke Laudense family, and still remains even now
The sealing magic was so strong that no one, no matter how well someone was versed in magic, no one could break it.
Even the Second-rank wizard, who is allowed to browse the room, needs permission from the hydrangea to enter.

However, Hydrangea, as the current head of Duke Laudense family was allowed to enter anytime.
When he touched the door knob, the sealing magic was removed with a crackling sound.

When he took a step into the forbidden books room, a magic light turns on. The purple light illuminated the dark room magically.

The forbidden books room is a vaulted room, with books covering the entire wall. There are about 3,000 books.
Most of them are manuscripts of spell books written by the first head.
After the death of his wife, the first head took comfort in the creation of the spell books stored in this forbidden books room.
Stone statues of gargoyles were placed at the doorway. If anyone tried to take a book out of the forbidden books room, the gargoyles would chase the person until they were petrified and dead.

The moment he passed by the gargoyles, their eyes moved.

“Hey, Seventh”
“It’s been a while, Seventh”

The petrification of the gargoyles, which had received a wave of Hydrangea’s magic power, was slightly broken.
This is how they usually talk at each other.

“Have it been peaceful until now?”
“It’s so peaceful that I’m bored”
“No one ever comes”

The gargoyles proudly began to talk about the forbidden books thief that had happened up until now, but he didn’t have time to listen to them. he was too busy to listen to them.

“More importantly, do you remember a man who came here ten years ago?”
“Ten years ago…… Ah, it was the timid wizard”
“I remember him because he smelled of blood despite his looks”

It seems that Silane von Northpole’s injury due to accident that was written in the investigation was real.

“Do you remember which book that man was reading?”
“No”
“We’re only interested in people who steal the books”
“I see”

As soon as Hydrangea leaves, the gargoyles turned into statues.
It seems he needs to search it himself.

First, when he gathers magic power in his eyes, he can see things that he could not see before.
The marks of the wizard’s movement remain as a line, even after the passage of time.
Threads of various colors floated in the air. Among them, the thick shiny golden thread was the magic power of the first head. Even after hundreds of years, it still made the strongest claim,

He searched Silane’s magic power among them.  It was a pure green color. He found it quickly because it’s a rare color.
For a while, he seemed to wander around the forbidden books room aimlessly, but probably because he found the shelf with the book he wanted, Silane’s thread was stretched out in a straight line.

What Silane looking for was─ the shelf related to curses.
It was obvious at a glance which book he had touched, because he left a mark.
There were traces of several books he had read, but he pulled out one of them.

“The Complete Book of Resolving Curses”

It contains magic to break all kinds of curses. All of them are high-level magic, so you can’t use them just because you know how.
He tried looking for the cat curse, but could not find it, as it seems to be a special curse.

In the first place, he had never heard of a curse that turns someone into a cat when touched by the opposite sex.
To find out what kind of magic it consists of, he read “The Complete Book of Curses”.

The curse that turns the cursed target into a cat is well-known. All you have to do is to drop a stone the same weight as a cat, blood of domestic animals, and aconite poison on the night of the new moon, then whisper the name of the person you want to curse all night long so that no one will find it.

But no matter how he searched, he could not find a cat curse involving the opposite sex.
Who in the world could have put the curse on her? And why cursed an innocent 10-year-old girl?

Here, a new problem emerges.

He clicked my tongue while unraveling the wrinkles between his eyebrows.
Was Silane thinking the same thing? After reading The Complete Book of Resolving Curse, he also left a trace after reading The Complete Book of Curses.

It seems he needed the information in the forbidden books in order to lift his daughter’s curse.
But, why did he did not tell that to Hydrangea?
Certainly, having his daughter transformed into a cat means a big scandal for a noble daughter.
What bothers him was, he even tried to hide it from Hydrangea who he needed permission for entering the forbidden books room.

There must have been ridiculous amounts of exchange regarding the curse.
Maybe, there is a possibility that the incident with the vile merchant Tritoma Celsia may had something to do with it. It was hard to believe that he was unrelated.

The only information about Silane that remained in the Magic Division was that he was a quiet and serious wizard. Until then, he had never caused any major incidents.

Something must have happened that drove him insane.
Next, he had to investigate Tritoma Celsia, the victim of that incident.
Just like that, he went home from the forbidden books room to his home using transfer magic.

◇◇◇

“I’ve been caught up in a terrible thing”

Pomeranian shook its head in dismay.
The marriage this time was certainly not well investigated.

“In the first place, such investigation should be done before proposing a marriage”

At that point, Hydrangea’s face turned red.
Pomeranian’s words were so correct that he was speechless.