Casting magic to restrain Sophia and the others, Lucian thoroughly checked once more before picking up the notebooks to examine them.
The notebooks were heavily incomplete, the handwriting messy, but one could still vaguely discern the stylistic changes in the writer's hand as they aged:
"…After exploring the ancient ruins in the deepest depths of Hell, Teacher and Solano and the others all had an indescribable strangeness about them. But who cares about them? They never thought highly of me—an astrologer's apprentice who couldn't even construct a Master Fate Star, what value does such a person have? If my father hadn't died saving Teacher, he wouldn't have bothered with me at all. Hmph, how could they possibly know the true meaning of my Master Fate Star?"
"…They're no longer human—they're devils! Perhaps when they returned from the ancient ruins, they were already possessed by devils… I need to be careful, I can't be careless, I can't let them discover that I know their secret…"
"…I can confirm that the devils possessing them are ones never recorded in any text. They seem to enjoy toying with people's hearts, causing personality distortions and the accumulation of negative emotions… I can't let this continue. I need to find an excuse to leave…"
"…That was close. If not for the uniqueness of my Master Fate Star, they would have caught me already…"
"…I finally know what kind of devils they are—Pride, Envy, Greed, Loathing, Pain, Indulgence, and Hypocrisy. They're different from all other devils…"
"…Solano actually came to kill me. Doesn't he know I've already advanced to the Seventh Circle? He's practically delivering experimental materials to my doorstep. I need to see what exactly the devil of 'Greed' is…"
"…There's no method capable of restraining a devil's projection—how am I supposed to research it? Perhaps I should travel abroad, explore the deepest reaches of Hell, and hope to find some useful information…"
"…I can't make any headway at all. Let me try whether it's possible to fuse with ordinary devil bloodlines…"
"…The experimental results exceeded all expectations. Fusing with the projection of the devil of Greed actually enabled the soul to manifest innate abilities, and greatly strengthened both soul and body, consolidating the World of Cognition. Perhaps this could accelerate my advancement…"
"…Since suppressed negative emotions reaching a critical threshold can forge a mysterious connection with the Seven Great Devils, why not create one artificially? I need to design a special palace and ritual…"
"…What is this?"
"…So I was wrong from the very beginning…"
"…I believe I have discovered the secret of those seven devils—Greed and the others. I believe I have found the truth of the world…"
Large sections were missing in between, with almost no important records remaining. These notebooks didn't seem to have been intentionally left behind here—rather, it looked as though someone had fought over them, causing pages to fall out. The victor, seeing they weren't important and pressed for time, had hastily departed. They were later collected by an ancestor of the Plantagenet family and rebound in order.
"Greed, Loathing, Pain—what exactly are their secrets? How could they involve the truth of the world?" In Lucian's mind, the notes automatically took shape within his Soul Library. But this enormous mystery, due to the incompleteness of the notebooks, received not the slightest explanation. It piqued Lucian's curiosity without satisfying it, leaving him deeply frustrated.
Calming his emotions, he carefully searched the chamber once more but found no other records of value. So Lucian, drawing upon his Soul Library, forcibly committed the arrangement of the Magic Circle in the main hall and the structure of the altar to memory.
This was a treasure second only to the "Arcane Scepter." According to the records of the Sun King Thanos, when combined, they could extract the projections of mysterious devils, restrain them, and fuse with them.
Because the seven devils like Greed were far too mysterious and bizarre, Lucian had absolutely no interest in the ritual of fusing with devil projections to consolidate his soul. If doing so allowed Greed, Pride, and the others to infiltrate his own "mind," the losses would far outweigh the gains. However, extracting and restraining them would be an excellent way to deal with these elusive and nearly unkillable creatures. Moreover, studying such mysterious unknown beings was a fanaticism shared by every Archanist—not to mention that they involved the truth of the world.
Once all of this was done, Lucian put Ralph and Claire into slumber, layered them with alert wards, and then roused Sophia. "I still have some things for you to do. Come with me—be my experimental 'assistant.'"
"Yes." Sophia replied with apparent respect, though she was grinding her teeth in hatred. Experimental "assistant"? Hmph—he was definitely going to make her do something dangerous again, or help him explore unknown territories. How despicable!
But hatred or not, her life was entirely in Lucian's hands. She could only suppress her emotions and obediently follow him out of the chamber, stopping before the oil portrait of the first Plantagenet Duke.
"There's—there's another hidden chamber? How many secrets does this palace hold?" Sophia watched in shock as Lucian opened the entrance.
Then a wave of intense fear surged within her. "Now that I know this secret, will he silence me permanently?"
"If you stand still, then you'll never move again." Lucian looked at Sophia with a smile, his expression so innocent it seemed harmless to man or beast.
In Sophia's eyes, that face with its gentle, faint smile was nothing less than a demon from the abyss—even more vicious than the devils of Greed and Pain she had just seen. She wished she could blast it flat with a Fireball.
But that was nothing more than a pleasant fantasy in her mind. In reality, she swallowed her indignation and said, "I'll go in right away, sir mage."
If she didn't go in, she would die immediately. Going in at least left a sliver of hope! Perhaps there were no secrets inside, and she wouldn't need to be killed to keep them.