I stood beneath the relatively narrow shelf labeled Unique Talent Records III.
This was the first Talent-related thing I had found in this part of the archive, so my entire reason for requesting this visit pretty much hinged on it. I would love to say that I had high hopes for it, but in my mind, I was just about ready to pack up the losses and head back to my dorm.
Most of the things stored here weren’t even labeled. So weren’t books at all, just scrolls lying around or loose stacks of paper bundled together like soone dropped it in and forgot about it halfway through filling it.
My confidence was slipping away with each second.
I reached for the closest scroll and carefully loosened the thread holding it together before unrolling it before . My eyes skimd across the contents, reading its text, analyzing the diagrams, all that.
When I found nothing of interest, I would imdiately move on to the next, but every ti I finished with sothing, I made sure to be extra careful when putting it back.
I doubted the royal archives had so sort of fingerprint detection spell, but if anyone noticed the scrolls or books were even slightly out of place, I’d probably have so explaining to do.
So every ti I returned sothing, I paused for a second, adjusted the angle, tied the string another way, all to match the image of the shelf I had morized before ransacking it.
A few minutes passed like that as I went through books after papers after scrolls.
Most of them contained diagrams of Talent Symbols, so of them crudely drawn, others copied with surprising precision. Alongside many of them were notes written in varying quality of handwriting, mostly in the “rough” range. Probably from scholars analyzing Talent symbols.
I did find a few noteworthy ones, mostly on records with symbols that had the notes Unique or Unrecognizable beside them. This was the Unique Talent Records section of the archive, after all… or at least one part of it.
The notes and analysis the scholars wrote on these records gave so insight on how Talent recognition works.
Through arguing.
No, seriously. In over half of these records, I had read way, waaaay, too many back-and-forth notes between scholars debating what a symbol ant, which one they should correlate the most to, and if the symbol really was a unique symbol or if soone was drunk when analyzing it the first ti.
When I looked at those symbols myself, though… I could still get the general aning behind them. It was all vibes, really. Another hint that Carine’s eyes weren’t normal.
I frowned slightly and moved on to the next record.
The thing was, most of the docunts here were old. Like, old, old.
So of the ink had faded to the point where entire sentences were missing, but I could still read them just fine if I held it up to any light source. In a few cases, though, the paper was missing half of its body.
Even with my eyes, as aweso or freaky as they were, I couldn’t read so of these docunts.
It didn’t look like proper preservation had been done here in quite so ti, or perhaps they had more updated copies sowhere else? Either way, this was a hindrance I couldn’t really do anything about for now.
Another thing started bothering after a while.
Most of the nas written in these records didn’t sound like they were from Setus. By that, I an their family nas didn’t end with so variation of “-eid.”
These are Talent records of foreigners, aren’t they?
With each discovery, the less reliable this shelf seed to be.
Scroll after scroll.
Book after book.
Each one carefully opened, skimd, and then ticulously returned to its exact original position.
I would at tis take a step back and admire my efforts. If soone, even , would take a look at this shelf, they wouldn’t even notice anything was moved, aside from missing dust here and there, but no one would look that closely, would they?
…They wouldn’t, would they?
After tying and placing another bundle of papers back into its slot, I paused and glanced toward the railings again.
The prince was still sitting where I’d last seen him, in the exact sa position as before, a book covering his face. Though this ti, I could hear the slight sound of snoring, a really forced one.
It was either that he had a bad snoring habit, or he was selling it too much. With him, it could go either way.
…Alright then.
I turned back to the shelf and began my silent hunt again.
Records after records passed through my eyes. So contained nothing but incomplete diagrams. Others were filled with long-winded debates between scholars who clearly wanted to join a debate club. A few were eaten away by ti entirely.
Still, I kept going.
Then I found one that imdiately felt… different.
It was near the bottom of a stack of paper records, wedged hard between the others. The paper didn’t have the color of aging as most of the others did, but being stored like this had definitely caused so damage, enough to feel like it might turn to dust if I fold it even slightly.
Like many of the other records, there wasn’t much to read… Literally.
But once my eyes hit the surviving contents, I connected the dots… and I froze.
It was a record. A short, single-paged one.
There was one.
One person recorded to have been born with only two Talent Symbols.
The diagram had been drawn on a section of the paper that ti had already claid by the passage of ti, and the ruthless sandwiching of papers. But pieces and corners of them were still visible, and one of them… looked familiar.
It had the sa shape, the sa curves, the sa cut-off at the edge…
My mysterious Talent Symbols…
I stared at that surviving corner of the page for a mont longer.
My eyes quickly scanned the paper for any trace of the person this record belonged to. But all I found were notes, sothing along the lines of:
“Our request to ask for permission to research was denied.”
“Must seize fervent requests imdiately.”
It didn’t reveal much about the identity. Then, I carefully held the paper to the light, hoping there was so remnants of the ink that would reveal more, at least a na I could follow. Unfortunately, there was no na to be read.
However, sothing else popped up. Numbers, or more specifically, a date of the record.
It was dated roughly twenty-two years ago.
I stood there in silence.
I wasn’t alone in this world.
Soone out there, in Setus or not, had the sa Talent Symbol as mine.
Were they a transmigrator too?
Were they stuck in two bodies like ?
Maybe even three?
I didn’t know anything at all, but knowing that soone with a similar Talent to the both of was out there, it made feel… less alone.
A large yawn suddenly echoed from the lower floor.
The sound carried easily through the open space of the archive.
I froze for half a second before slowly turning my head toward the railing.
Oh, right. The prince.
That was probably his way of signaling that my free roam was over.
Assuming I wasn’t reading too deeply into it, that is.
I clicked my tongue and took the hint.
I safely and securely returned the fragile paper to its original place, sandwiching it once more with the others. I nudged every single paper and book until absolutely everything looked exactly the sa as before I ca here.
I gave the shelf one final glance before I finally turned on my heels and quietly began making my way back.
Though I hadn’t found any real answers, I had found sothing else. A clue.
Whoever that person was, they existed. The record stated that their Talent had been examined twenty-two years ago. That alone narrowed things down.
If the person had been nobility, then their Talent evaluation would have likely taken place when they were a child. One to four years old, give or take. Add twenty-two years to that, and that ant the person would now be sowhere around twenty-three to twenty-six years old.
The record was found on a shelf full of foreign nas, so it was probably safe to assu that, whoever this person was, they weren’t from Setus at all.
And frankly…
One face ca to mind.
I descended the steps as silently as I had climbed them. Before long, I managed to reach the ground floor again. I walked past the rows of shelves where old family history continued to lie unread, until the reading area ca into view.
Almost on cue, the Third Prince shifted in his chair. The book that had been resting on his face slid down slightly as he stretched and let out a quiet groan, rubbing his eyes like soone who had just “woken up,”
“Oh, hey, Carine,” he said lazily, his voice still drowsy. “Found what you’re looking for?”
I gave a small nod. “Yes. It’s been a fruitful visit.”
“Glad to hear it…” he said faintly before forcing another yawn. Then, one of his eyes cracked open just a little. “You… made sure to put things back to where they belong, yes?”
The way he asked that…
I nodded again. “Down to the angles.”
For a brief mont, he continued staring at , his expression still half-drowsy. Then, the act faded. His sleepy face slowly gave way to his usual smirk as he stretched his arms overhead and stood up from the chair.
“Well then,” he said lightly, brushing off his sleeves, “now that you’re satisfied, let’s head back!”
He didn’t even wait for my response before turning toward the exit.
I followed a mont later, matching his pace as we walked past the reading tables and toward the heavy doors leading out.
Honestly…
The whole situation felt a little strange the more I thought about it.
He had put in the effort to take this deep into the Royal Archives. The knight who had escorted us earlier had been casually dismissed the mont we entered. And when I wandered off to the upper floors, he just went to “sleep.”
Either he was incredibly careless, or he was deliberately pretending not to notice. Neither explanation made any sense, really. But the end result was the sa.
He had “allowed” to search to my heart’s content without interference, which ant that, in a roundabout way, he had helped . Even though he didn’t know the full story behind why I needed access to those records.
I glanced briefly at the back of his swaying blonde hair as he walked a few steps ahead of .
Maybe I had been a little too harsh on him.
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I thought.
We were almost at the door when he slowed down slightly. “Now that my side of the deal is done,” he began casually, glancing over his shoulder, “what say we make another deal—”
“—No, thank you.”
Okay. Judging soone too quickly is a sin. Noted.
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