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Chapter : 28
“Please, have a seat. I never thought I’d invite a guest here, but it seems nothing goes as planned.”
Cedric muttered as he pointed to the single chair in the room.
“I won’t refuse.”
She quickly dragged the small chair over and sat down. At the same time, she took a quick glance at the miscellaneous items on the table: a fountain pen, an inkpot, some sheets of paper, and a framed picture…
“All right, that’s enough sightseeing.”
Thud.
Before she could even see what the picture was, Cedric flipped the frame onto the table. He leaned against the desk and looked down at her.
“Well, I can’t just leave my guest in the dining room forever.”
Noah, who must have been restless in this unfamiliar mansion, flashed through her mind.
“Now tell me, Cedric. What exactly is ‘Idmon,’ and what do you know about the curse that links wounds?”
He blinked slowly, as if hesitant to speak.
“Once you hear it, there might be no going back. Are you sure you want to proceed?”
“‘Going back’? Cedric, we’re already beyond that point. At this stage…”
Lauren snorted. It was far too late. She had no intention of waiting idly for Cedric to solve things for her.
Their eyes met. The same striking gaze as before. Cedric suddenly burst out laughing.
“…What is it?”
“Nothing. It’s just… that expression reminded me of something. The moment you proposed to me.”
“Proposal? Let’s just talk first.”
An unpredictable woman. Cedric chose his words slowly.
“It was just after I turned twenty. The previous Count Collins passed away early, so I had to handle the estate’s affairs from a very young age.”
Estate? To Lauren, it felt like a story from another country. The Bailey family, her own, was a minor noble family with just one building in the capital.
“You may remember him. The one who was called a ‘genius sent from the heavens.’”
“Oh, yes. I remember him too.”
Upon hearing Cedric, images of newspaper articles flashed through her mind. Anyone living in this country would know of him.
Over twenty years ago, he appeared out of nowhere, completely transforming magical engineering in this country, and then disappeared without a trace.
A genius magical engineer whose name was even unknown.
It had happened when she was very young, yet the memory was still vivid.
“The magical stone mines owned by the Collins family were considered the least valuable asset of the estate—until everything was completely overturned.”
“And then?”
“That’s where it began. The mines.”
It was hard to grasp it all at once. Even as Cedric spoke, Lauren’s mind wandered through various conjectures and dismissed them.
“Where are the mines now?”
“They’re with Idmon… Let’s skip the unimportant details. The story might get long otherwise.”
Cedric rummaged through a drawer and pulled out an old book and a thick notebook, placing the notebook in front of Lauren.
“I had an odd feeling when reviewing the old ledgers. There were no records of the mines being handed over or the mining rights being sold. They weren’t the type to handle matters that way… So I had a trustworthy person start investigating.”
As she opened the notebook, the first page contained a small portrait. An older woman with a kindly smile. Beneath it, in Cedric’s handwriting, was written: “Beth.”
He flipped to the next page. The first word that caught her eye was: Deceased.
“She died. Sudden death, cause unknown.”
“…She died?”
“Next, I sought help from the authorities. I thought it unlikely she died so suddenly.”
The third page had another portrait: a young man in a sharply pressed uniform, named Leo.
As Lauren turned the pages, the verdict was the same… deceased.
“They said it was a fire. The arsonist was never caught, and the case was closed as an accident.”
“You’re saying this entire notebook…”
“You’re correct. Such incidents kept repeating. Until one day, I received this letter.”
He pulled out a piece of paper tucked between the pages. It was so worn from being folded and unfolded that the creases were ragged.
[It is advised to stop.]
Instead of a signature, a spider with two heads was drawn.
“At the time, I never imagined I would see this spider mark so many times.”
Cedric twisted the corner of his mouth into a wry smile and closed the notebook. Then he picked up the old book, dusted it off, and handed it to Lauren.
On the faded cover, in an ornate script, was written: A New Paradigm of Magical Engineering. The book was thin, despite its grand title.
Lauren had heard the title before. She hadn’t read it, but she knew it was the final work left by the “nameless genius.”
She flipped through it. The pages were filled with complex formulas, handwritten and remarkably uneven.
Every “I” in the sentences was slanted horizontally—a peculiar habit of the author.
“I heard there aren’t many copies… And it’s in the author’s own handwriting?”
“It was difficult to obtain.”
This book should not be sitting in a drawer—it belonged in a museum display case.
As she turned the pages, Lauren tried to guess why he was showing her this. It must be related to Idmon.
“If you look at the very last page, you’ll understand.”
Reading her thoughts, Cedric said casually. She followed his instruction and turned to the final page.
In the margin at the bottom was a small symbol, like a scribbled doodle.
At first glance, it looked like three circles. But Lauren knew what it meant. Beneath it was clearly written: Idmon.
The I was slanted horizontally, confirming the author had written it. Her eyes widened.
“…Idmon?”
Cedric nodded. A spider with two heads was not a common illustration.
She traced the spider-marked page with her fingers, her expression grave.
“So the author of this book is the creator of Idmon?”
“I can’t say for sure if they were the creator, but they were certainly connected. Probably a key figure. What happened afterward, I don’t know.”
“…If someone like that is involved with Idmon, it makes sense that so many murders remain unsolved.”
This was someone regarded as a genius. How easy it must have been to kill ordinary people and erase the evidence.
She recalled the victims’ portraits in the notebook. If one person was depicted per sheet, how many must have died? Goosebumps ran down her neck.
“You and I could end up decorating the last page of this notebook, Lauren.”
Now Cedric’s warnings felt real.
She bit her lip softly, imagining their corpses lying side by side, both marked with scars.
“Were there victims like us? People whose wounds were linked, dying in the same form?”
“…There were.”
A brief answer, spoken with a face that looked utterly exhausted.
“So we must be careful. If you don’t want to die.”
He returned to a smiling expression, but his exhausted look lingered like a ghost in her mind.
Tightly closed lips and green eyes devoid of light. At that moment, he seemed like he could vanish entirely. Lauren remained silent.
“Does it seem cult-like to you?”
“No. It doesn’t sound like a cult story.”
“At first, I thought it was a criminal group that would use any means to achieve its goals. But after years of investigation, I realized they were obsessed with collecting magical stones.”
Lauren fiddled with her ring. Just having a magical stone set in it made its value dozens of times greater than an ordinary gemstone ring.
“They’re expensive and compact. Definitely better than hoarding gold bars.”
“Lauren, the magical stones in Idmon’s grasp are never sold again. At least, not for simple reasons like money.”
His voice was filled with firm conviction. She even felt a strange heat from it.
