"Sir Knight, I'm warning you again, he's really not a pleasant fellow to et."
"It's fine. I'll handle it."
"Miss, I truly tell you again, he's not a pleasant person to et! He's extrely rude!"
"I-I'll be fine."
At their consistent responses, Max made an expression that suggested he was truly at his wit's end.
Whatever was happening at the ducal family, if they were looking for soone like this, it must be no small matter.
Max guided the two to a cheap, shabby inn.
"This is an inn where the rcenary band frequently stays. Though it looks like this on the outside, the owner is quick, and the inside is clean. Moreover, the price is cheap, making it optimal for group guests like us."
The two followed Max through a narrow, crowded dining area and up to the upper floor.
The floor creaked, and on the mud-built walls were doors with brass doorknobs that had been so repeatedly touched they'd worn bright.
At the innermost, isolated room, Max again repeatedly requested to the two.
"Are you sure? He's really not soone I should be showing to a knight and a lady like yourselves."
"It doesn't matter. Could you announce us?"
With an expression that clearly said 'this doesn't seem right at all,' Max eventually knocked on the door.
"Werner! If you have ti, co out for a mont. You have visitors!"
No answer ca back.
Leandros sensed the presence of a living person beyond the door, but almost no sound was heard.
Max exhaled deeply.
"Since he's not cursing, it seems he's in a good mood today. It should be fine to go in, but really, I'm not sure if I should show such a disgrace of the rcenary band to a knight and a lady."
"W-we said it's f-fine."
"If anything happens, please co out imdiately. If he was rude, please let know. I'll make sure to beat him up!"
Alia gave a gentle smile, and Leandros pushed the doorknob without hesitation.
And the two were left speechless.
After a while, Alia finally sputtered.
"It l-looks like ten r-robbers broke in..."
The room was like after a storm had swept through.
The bed sheets were stained with unknown substances, and the blanket was nowhere to be seen.
So unidentifiable piece of at hung from the ceiling, giving off the sll of rotten eggs,
And the floor was ssily covered with dried-up herbs and unknown black powder.
Moreover, as if there had been an explosion, the walls were covered with black soot.
In short, it was an environnt dirtier than a sewer rat.
While the two were staring blankly at the room, a rustling sound ca from one side.
It was coming from the wall behind the door.
"Oh geez, what the... I'm pretty sure I've told you until my tongue wore out to knock when you co. Don't you have ears? Hm? Should I get rid of them for you now?"
As a yellowish blanket slid down, there was a man sitting against the wall.
His dark green hair, which reached his shoulders, was disheveled from not being combed in a long ti,
And his cracked glasses were askew on his ears.
What stood out was a dirty white apron that seed too filthy for a physician,
Wrinkled pants, and hands stained with soot that hadn't been washed.
The man called Werner yawned widely, smacked his lips, turned his head, and imdiately frowned upon seeing the strangers.
"Who're you?"
"...Before that, let ask. Are you truly the physician belonging to the rcenary band?"
"I am. But why are you so rudely not introducing yourself?"
"Y-you ill-mannered bastard! Do you know who this person is to speak with such obscene words!"
From behind Leandros, Max was enraged.
Jonas was silently pulling at his father, trying to calm him down.
The physician, who showed not a trace of politeness, sluggishly stood up and stretched wide.
"Well, does it make sense that only I don't know the na? I asked sothing obvious, so why the fuss?"
"I'm Leandros. This is Alia. We belong to the Hartmann ducal family."
"Ducal family?"
The man, who had been pushing up his glasses and rubbing his eyes, thought for a mont and then let out an "Oh" of admiration.
"That duke who was annihilated but then was successfully resurrected thanks to His Highness the Crown Prince's rcy? Wow, they do say the rich can eat for three generations even after going bankrupt, and it seems true."
"This ill-mannered bastard!"
"Oh my, so noisy. My eardrums might fall off."
The man slamd the door right in the face of Max, who was jumping up and down in rage.
With only the three of them left in the room, he casually sat in a chair and began to polish his glasses with his dirty clothes.
"So, why have the subordinates of a noble lord co looking for ? Just so you know, I'm tired from not sleeping. Let's just state our business and part ways."
"W-we've heard that y-you don't even b-blink at most things."
"That's correct. Can't be a coward while doing physician's work. But did you co to ask about that?"
"W-we want to r-request a job. We were r-recomnded by M-Max..."
"I refuse."
"W-what?"
Alia looked at the man who was sitting crookedly.
He rejected them right away without even properly listening, less than a second after she began speaking?
"If y-you could at least t-tell us the reason."
"First, I dislike nobles. Second, I'm busy treating the rcenary band mbers and doing my research. Lastly, I don't like you two who barged in so suddenly. That's all. No more questions? Go, shoo."
"W-we can give you w-whatever compensation y-you want."
"I don't need such things. How annoying. Worse than sumr flies."
Alia felt dizzy.
She had never seen such a rude person in her life.
Rather than having her life threatened, how could soone be so blatantly offensive?
As Alia fell silent in bewildernt, Leandros chid in.
"You seem to have a great interest in wounds and the human body."
"Isn't that natural for a physician? Ah, of course, other physicians don't do this sort of thing."
The man pointed to the at hanging from the ceiling.
There were about five or six pieces of at, each decomposing separately.
"Things like how many days it's been since death, what kinds of insects and worms gather, that sort of thing. These days, most think just checking the pulse and pronouncing death is enough. If soone's head isn't empty, they should understand so forensic thinking."
"Indeed, you seem to have a deep interest in what we're about to request."
"Interest? Can you guarantee that?"
"Listening doesn't cost anything. I think it won't be a loss."
The physician's sharp eyes and Leandros's indifferent gaze confronted each other tensely.
After a brief mont, the physician arrogantly lifted his chin.
"Go ahead."
"Recently, His Grace the Duke was injured. It was such a severe injury that we weren't even sure if he could properly recover, and there was no proper physician around."
"And then?"
"So we... froze him using an artifact."
"What?"
The reaction was imdiate.
The physician leaned forward from his backrest, imdiately showing interest.
"How did you do that? Can an artifact be used for such a purpose? More importantly, was there a reason for such a choice?"
"He was bleeding heavily and losing consciousness. Literally, because he was on the verge of crossing death's threshold, we had no other choice."
"That would be different from a general state of suspended animation. Patients in a state of suspended animation or coma usually have their autonomic nervous system functioning normally. But freezing... Does his heart not even beat?"
"It seems so."
"This is the first ti I've encountered such a case. Interesting."
Alia suppressed the urge to hit the man.
This wasn't an interesting situation for Alia and Leandros at all.
While Alia took small deep breaths to calm her anger, Leandros continued his explanation impassively.
"The frozen state can be released at any ti. But the mont the thawing process begins. In other words, from when his heart starts beating again, the wounds need to be treated swiftly."
"That's not particularly concerning, but why did you co looking for ?"
"Everyone thought His Grace was a corpse."
"You showed him to others? You don't seem to be in your right mind either."
The man truly sounded like he was dying of amusent.
He jumped up and extended his hand.
"Let's formally introduce ourselves. My na is Werner. Let's go see His Grace imdiately. Ti is golden!"
After grabbing Leandros's hand and shaking it vigorously, he cramd dusty bottles, bundles of herbs, and bandages haphazardly into his grimy bag.
As Werner was about to leave while humming, Alia stepped in front of him.
"What? Move aside, didn't you hear say ti is golden? Let see this precious Duke."
"B-before that."
Alia took a deep breath and shouted loudly.
"Wash your filthy body right now!"
"What?"
"Y-you're dirty! Filthy! You s-sll! It's u-unthinkable to see a p-patient in such a h-horrible state!"
Good heavens.
Werner, stunned by this unexpected criticism, gaped as he glared at Alia who was blocking his way.
Leandros almost let out a 'heh' of laughter.
* * *
Naturally, there were no facilities like elevators or escalators in the tower.
So he had to use the stairs, much against his wishes.
Behind him, the snowman followed with light, floating steps, while he was becoming increasingly exhausted climbing the endless stairs.
"Where in this tower is the grimoire?"
"This tower is about 175 floors. I'd guess it's around the 96th floor."
"This is insane... Even the Signiel Hotel's top floor is only the 101st."
"Signiel? What's that? You're speaking words only you know, worshipper."
"Seeing you say that with Leandros's face just makes my insides churn even more."
Why did he feel that climbing Barad-dûr from The Lord of the Rings would be easier than climbing this?
What's more, there were no signs indicating which floor it was, so he had to rely entirely on the snowman's guidance.
He had lost count around the 57th floor.
Fortunately, the physical burden in Dreamland was much less.
If this had been reality, he would have been hanging onto the railing with sweat-soaked, trembling legs around the 30th floor.
When the clouds visible through the windows densely pierced into the walls were suddenly level with his shoulder,
The snowman following behind muttered.
"We seem to be nearly there. Worshipper, climb just three more floors and enter inside."
Finally!
After climbing three more floors as the snowman instructed, a space different from what he had seen so far appeared.
Most of the other floors had been wide open, filled with altars decorated with flowers and ivory, and furniture of unknown purpose.
But this floor had about half of the round floor blocked by walls.
The wall was also made of ivory, and in the middle was a bronze door just big enough for one person to pass through.
It was clearly extraordinary at first glance.
As he pushed open the door, crossing the silent hall, it opened smoothly without even a creaking sound.
The room was small and round.
Light sources burning red without fuel on the walls made it as bright as day.
A large reading stand in the center of the room.
And a book with a red cover placed on it.
All this structure was familiar to his eyes.
"This is..."
The secret room in the Duchess's study.
The book on the reading stand, this structure, everything was similar.
He approached as if entranced and placed his hand on the red book.
There was no marking on the red cover decorated with gold.
But he could tell that this book and the one the Duchess had in the real world were the sa.
He didn't know why he felt that way.
He just had that certainty.
"Is this the Pnakotic?"
"They say there are various copies of the grimoire in the real world. Grimoires recompiled in human language are called 'Pnakotic copies.' But as far as I know, there are no Pnakotic copies on this planet. So this is the original of all copies, and essentially the only grimoire on this planet."
"Wait, does it need to be translated into human language? Then isn't it useless to ?"
It wasn't as if he knew any alien language.
While he was examining the book in various ways, the snowman circled around the room and stood opposite him with the reading stand between them.
"Do you think a re human and a worshipper blessed by the great are the sa? You're underestimating , worshipper."
"But."
"Worshipper, worship with a reverent heart. The Lord of the Extre Realm, the infinitely burning cold fla, bestows a blessing upon his only worshipper right here, right now."
A hand approached his face.
Beyond the hand that gripped his face, white eyes were smiling.
Simultaneously, the red book opened by itself and its pages began to turn roughly.
Unknown languages from the snowman's mouth, clear lodies that couldn't be heard, penetrated his mind.
Characters he had never seen before surged into the air, writhing violently like living organisms.
The room slowly tilted, but his feet neither slipped nor fell from the floor.
The wildly swirling letters imprinted themselves white in his eyes.
At that mont, the world completely flipped over,
And a new horizon opened, not the universe he had known.
Everything that a human mind couldn't perceive.
The flow of blood in his body,
The heart and organs still pulsating alive even at this mont,
The muscles, mucous mbranes, and each individual cell that composed them,
The atoms that made up the cells and sothing even smaller moving within the atoms, all could be sensed.
At the sa ti, an even more distant universe witnessed him.
Beyond this planet, things sleeping in places far beyond human imagination, beyond celestial bodies.
As if forcibly opening closed eyes, the sensations these languages gave ca crashing in.
His entire body overloaded, and his whole body creaked.
Complete overclock.
His brain tissue burned, his brain lted and flowed.
This was the end of humans who explored the unknown.
The conclusion reached by wizards who tried to understand an incomprehensible world.
His completely overwheld body began to lt.
The snowman looked at him and smiled brightly.
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