Anastasia couldn't help herself, she had to see the Taygeta library with her own eyes. For all the pain and suffering the siege of Priestella brought, she was glad to be able to visit the house of the dead. She knew that reading any of those books was strictly forbidden, but even just seeing them was a golden opportunity.

Julius did not share her enthusiasm, he followed her in the library out of duty but she knew it brought back bad memories for him. Even though she couldn't remember the place Julius had in her life, she knew he was a good man. Ans she knew he deserved better than to be dragged around in a place that greatly distressed him, but visiting 'The Sage's' forbidden library was an offer too good to refuse. She would have gladly gone alone, but Julius insisted on coming with her. A knight is a knight, she supposed.

Anastasia didn't know if she wanted to see a name she would recognize. On one hand, holding a lifetime of a loved one's memories in her tiny hands would be a unique experience, on the other, she didn't know if she could resist the temptation. Maybe Julius wasn't so insistent on accompanying her to protect her from an unknown danger, but rather to protect her from her own curiosity. She knew almost nothing about this man, however, he seemed to know almost everything about her. It was pretty unsettling.

"Tell me, sir Julius. Can I ask ya a question?" Anastasia asked as she kept looking at the books on a nearby bookshelf.

"Ask me anything you wish, Lady Anastasia. I will answer to the best of my abilities." Julius winced at the 'sir', he knew why she said it but it hurt nonetheless.

"I've been told ya read one of these books, is it true?"

"Indeed, the danger of reading them was still unknown to us at the time." he closed his eyes, fearing what she would ask next.

"How did it feel? Readin' somebody's else memories?" Anastasia hoped she didn't ask too much of him.

"If I must be honest, it didn't feel like I was reading at all." this was the question he was fearing, his lady was pulling no punches. "It was as if I was living his life. I saw what he saw, heard what he heard, and felt what he felt. The only thing that escaped me was his train of thought, maybe because I could still somewhat think for myself." he couldn't know exactly what Balroy Temegrif thought, but he knew what he felt and this was terrible enough. "His raw emotions were disclosed to me, however. And I will never forget the rage we felt together… Nor the euphoria."

The idea of living his entire life with Temegrif's shadow looming over him terrified Julius. Not because the man scarred him, but out of fear that their emotions would be forever intertwined. Ever since they shared a soul and a body, Julius could feel an alien feeling rise in him every time he drew his sword and fought an enemy. A strange manic glee came to him when he struck true, a cruel ecstasy he never felt before. It truly disturbed him, the idea to be forever tainted by somebody else's essence. Especially if it allowed the birth of the most perverse feelings inside him.

"Do ya regret readin' it?" the question was more rhetorical than anything else, the sorrow was obvious on his face.

"Very much so…" Julius gave her a thin smile. "I understand your curiosity, I too, still want to read some of them, even though I am aware of their perils. But please trust me when I say they bring nothing but pain and regrets."

She believed him, but the sirens of temptation were absurdly powerful. It was as if they were made to trick people into reading them. They told her 'The Sage' was at best beyond understanding and at worst a man of boundless cruelty. So him making the book as enticing as possible was not too farfetched.

Anastasia couldn't tell if she wanted to meet him or not. Truth be told, a meeting with 'The Sage' would be the greatest opportunity of her life. If he was willing to share a fraction of his wisdom with her, becoming The King would become a guarantee. He was the owner of this forbidden library, who knew what other kinds of knowledge he possessed. But if he really was as cold-blooded as described, he could take offense to her having the audacity to ask him anything. Having 'The Sage' as an enemy sounded dangerous... he managed to stand on equal footing with 'The Divine Dragon' and 'The Great Hero' after all.

Putting fantasies aside, she should enjoy the fact that she was walking down the library of the dead. But her greedy nature kept her from being satisfied by just looking. She was truly helpless.

Scanning the shelves, she found a collection of books even more intriguing than the rest. Each book was named after the person they kept the memory of. A book, a name, a life. But this collection had no name on their edges, only a set of three elaborate symbols. The same on every single one of them. There were almost fifty of them, all neatly lined-up on two shelves.

Anastasia took one of them to examine it. She had no intention to read it and Julius wouldn't allow it anyway. The book was identical to every other book in the library, except for the alien symbols. The cover, the leather, the width, the weight, they were just nameless books.

"My Lady, I advise you against reading or even touching those books." Julius took the book out of her hands. It was extremely impolite, but he couldn't risk her reading it by accident.

"This is ok, I wasn't going to. I just noticed that it had symbols instead of names on the edge, it's really intriguing." she pointed at the shelves. "And there are at least forty of them."

"Curious, indeed." Julius traced the symbols with his finger. "I never took note of any books like this one." he didn't know why but they were not unfamiliar to him.

Saying that Anastasia found something troubling was an understatement. Several copies of the same book, all of them displaying a strangely familiar motif. Julius was absolutely certain he saw this particular set of strokes and squares somewhere, he even remembered thinking that one of them looked like a broken cupboard.

"Do ya think it's also a book of the dead?" Anastasia stood next to Julius without daring to touch the book. "A majority of the population is illiterate, maybe some o' them use symbols instead of glyphs to write their names?"

"Mm. In that case, the set of symbols should differ on every book."

"Maybe it's just forty homonyms?" It was a stretch, she knew it.

"I've seen multiple books with the same names before, but they were always scattered all over the library. Having them all next to each other is extremely suspicious."

"Ye, I thought so too." she bit her lips, she would never forgive herself if they never discovered the secret behind those books. "Maybe that's what happens when you die without a name."

"As in unbaptized children?"

"Yes! If the book has no name to put on the edge, then it will choose to put those symbols instead!" did they just resolve the mystery?

"I highly doubt it." Julius shook his head in dissatisfaction.

"Why!?" and the mystery went on.

"I'm afraid there are way more than forty unbaptized children in the world. Lugnica alone has a population of fifty million, there are thousands of children thrown away by their parents and left to die alone."

Anastasia had no objection, only having around forty nameless people in the history of humanity was extremely unlikely. There were two mysteries: why the strange symbols and why were they all grouped together. The thirst for an answer was unbearable to Anastasia and she was sure Echidna was feeling the same. The worst was that opening the book could solve everything, and the only thing keeping them from doing so was their own apprehensiveness.

"Just lookin' at them will drive me mad!" Anastasia clapped her face to return to her senses. "Maybe we should ask the rest for their opinions."

"Yes, no good would come from keeping our finding a secret." maybe they could tell where Julius saw those symbols. He would feel instantly better if they could.

"Then, I'm goin' to find them! You stay here to watch over the books!"

"Please, Lady Anastasia, I do not think that-" letting his lady wander in this terrible place was horrendous to him.

"Shhhh! No objection! We can't risk not finding our way back to them!" she put her hand on his torso to keep him from following her. "Ya worry too much, sir Julius. I am not made of sugar."

"Yes, you are way more precious to me than sugar, my lady." Julius knew he had no chance to convince her, but he would try anyway.

"Don't try to sweet-talk me. You stay here! I'll Marco-Polo ya if I lose myself."

"Marco-Polo?" he had no clue what she meant by 'Marco-Polo'.

"I will shout Marco and you will answer Polo, easy enough don't ya think? Subaru taught me this little trick."

"Then I will not fail to answer your call, my lady." he slightly bowed to her as she took off.

Julius trusted his lady not to look at any books in his absence, but he couldn't help but worry nonetheless. This collection of books was bad news, he was sure of it, even his little maidens were extremely wary of them. Every book in this library asked to be open, but those ones were diabolical in their temptation. Unfortunately, he had the same mindset as his mistress: mysteries were made to be solved, and this one was begging him to figure it out.

He absentmindedly played with his hair as he tried to fight off the urge to take a peak. Keeping his composure in his lady presence was easy, but now that there was no one to witness his weakness, he could feel his resolve waver. The fact that he vaguely remembered seeing those symbols somewhere was driving him mad. Had it been any other symbols, he would have been fine, but it had to be those ones.

This little broken cupboard was taunting him.

"This is madness." he whispered to himself.

Julius let out a sour laugh, he was losing a battle of will against a book. He tried to remind himself of how much he regretted having read Temegrif's book, but he only thought about how it didn't kill him or even harm him. He then focused on the unanimous decision of not reading any of them, but he didn't make any promises, it was not as if he would break an oath. He wondered what would be worse: regretting not reading it or feeling guilty about reading it?

"Urg. Get yourself together, Julius. You are supposed to be better than that." he smacked the book on his forehead, hoping it would bring some senses to his failing brain. It didn't.

He started to pace around that section of the library, hoping moving would dissipate the urge to open the book. It didn't either.

"Dear God, what is taking them so long?" Julius ground his teeth. "Enough is enough!"

Julius slammed the book back on the shelf and sat on the floor, putting his hands over his eyes. Away from the eyes, away from the heart, maybe he just needed to get away from it to break its spell on him. Unfortunately for him, in his haste to get rid of the book, he failed to put it back correctly on the shelf. He had been sitting for less than a second when the book fell on his head before bouncing to the floor.

"This has to be a cruel joke." Julius wanted to scream but he kept his mouth shut.

He stayed still for what seemed to be an eternity, not daring to uncover his eyes in fear he would give in to the temptation. For all he knew, the book was open in front of him, and if it was the case… then God helps him.

No god heard his plea, for he had already counted to one thousand and nobody came to save him from his self-inflicted agony. He had to save himself, then. Still closing his eyes, he started to feel the floor around him with his hand. He quickly found the book laying in front of him.

It was open. He only needed to open his eyes to see its content and his eyelids never felt so fidgety. He knew opening just one eye would suffice.

"I am sorry. May none of my friends suffer from my weakness."

He took a deep breath before surrendering himself to the temptation

Anastasia had greatly underestimated the size of this library, she was sure she could die of thirst here and nobody would find her body for days. She thought about the poor Julius she left alone with the book collection from hell. She hoped he would be able to ignore the sirens of temptation because she knew she couldn't. If it wasn't for him, she would have read the whole collection. There was no need to deny it, she knew who she was. She was careful and took calculated risks, but the reward was too much to ignore.

"'The Sage's' most mysterious knowledge. I have to admit, I can't blame you for being intrigued." Echidna reassured her friend, her curiosity was normal and healthy.

"I know ya can't. But Julius won't let it slide."

"Beware, Ana. He was drawn to the books too."

"Guess ya can't be my knight without being a bit like me." Anastasia laughed softly. She hoped leaving her knight alone wasn't a mistake.

It took her more than half an hour to find some of her companions in misfortune. She was quite happy to hear Emilia's voice not too far away and ran toward her in fear of losing her trail. Emilia and Beatrice were sitting at a table in the middle of the library, chatting about the potency of 'The Divine Dragon's' blood.

"Hey, hey, hey! May I interrupt you?" Anastasia stood next to the table.

"If it's an urgent matter, I suppose. Interrupting Betty when she is talking is rude, you better have a good reason." Beatrice was too tired by the recent events to fake politeness.

"Cooome on, Beatrice!" Emilia pouted. "Don't be mean!" she turned to face Anastasia. "I'm all ears!" she smiled.

"It's about the books."

"Ah." Emilia dropped her smile, she hated those books. "Still, I'm listening."

"Betty knew you brought bad news. Nothing good can come from these books."

"Julius and I found a few shelves full of the same book over and over again." she spun her hand as she talked. "And they're all nameless, they have the same set of symbols on them instead."

"That's curious, I never saw anything like that before." Emilia put her hand under her chin. "And you, Beatrice? Does your 'librarian sense' tingle?"

"Betty doesn't have a 'librarian sense', in fact. Stop parroting Subaru's nonsense."

"Buuut does it tingle?" Emilia doubled down.

"It doesn't ring a bell to Betty, I suppose. She never saw the same book twice. Even homonyms are not stored on the same shelves."

Beatrice tried to jog her memory, it was true that she had a special bond with libraries due to her duty as the ex-guardian of the forbidden library. But she didn't have any 'librarian sense' and she didn't have the time to visit every nook of this library. But still, this mysterious collection was a bad omen, she would bet her life on it.

"I think ya should see them for yourself. Maybe ya will recognize the symbols, Julius seemed to find them familiar."

"I don't think I will be better versed than Julius about runes and ancient symbols. He seems veeeery knowledgeable."

"Even Betty is impressed by his grasp on myths and legends. But Betty is sure she is better than him."

"If ya think so, then we should get going!" Anastasia slammed her hands on the table to get them to hurry.

"Don't pester Betty, I suppose." Betty sneered at Anastasia.

"You're so cute, Beatrice!" Emilia took the small girl in her arms.

Still trapped in Emilia's embrace, Beatrice saw a small green spirit rush toward them. She recognized her as one of Julius' contracted spirits. They usually tried to imitate their master's usual level-headed nature but this spirit seemed in great distress.

"Oh, isn't it Aro?" Emilia tried very hard to learn Julius' spirits' names, they deserved recognition too! "What are you doing so far away from Julius?"

Aro started to turn around Emilia restlessly, desperate to get her attention. Her sisters and she were scattered all over the library, trying to find someone to help their master. She was panicking, Julius was unwell and none of them knew why!

"She is saying that Julius is in trouble, in fact!" Beatrice could hear Aro's terrified voice begging for help.

"We have to help him, then!" Emilia stood up. "Aro, can you show us where he is?"

Without a word, Aro led the way back to her master. Emilia took Beatrice with her, carrying her so she could follow with their pace. Anastasia ran after them, but they quickly distanced her. Her frail body was outmatched in every way by the athletic Emilia. Still, she ran as fast as she could, she could not give up on helping Julius. She shouldn't have left him alone with this dreadful book collection.

Aro knew the shortest way to reunite with her master and it only took her a few minutes to find him. Emilia was not far behind and could see him lying on the ground in the distance. Her heart started to beat faster and faster, she thought this madness was over, why did misery keep following them?

"Betty can't see his face, but he is shaking!" he looked in so much pain, she could hear his raging breath from where she was.

As soon as they reached him, Emilia put Beatrice on the floor and started to channel her healing magic. She focused on the ambient mana and begged the micro-spirit around her to lend her their power. She touched his forehead, putting his hair back behind his ear to have a good look at his face. When she found him lying on the ground, she thought he was unconscious but his eyes were opened.

"Betty is trying her best, but she doesn't know what is wrong with him." she hovered her small hand over his shaking body. "He is in perfect health!"

"How can ya say that! Look at him!" Anastasia shouted in desperation, she berated Beatrice but she herself didn't have the strength to look at him.

"Betty knows bu-" Beatrice paused "CLOSE YOUR EYES!" she saw one of the books opened next to Julius. Closing her eyes herself, she used her hands to find the book and close it without looking at it.

Emilia didn't close her eyes, she was too focused on Julius to even hear Beatrice's and Anastasia's conversation. She couldn't look away from his grey face or the tremor of his gloved hands. She started to cry as she watched Julius' eyes dart all over the place. They moved as if he was looking at a landscape zooming by his eyes. They went left and right, again and again, only to switch up to up and down after a few seconds.

She tried to catch his attention, but he just wouldn't maintain eye contact, even his body was limp when she tried to shake him. He was totally still saved from his uncontrollable shaking mixed with a few bout erratic twitching. His breathing was so ineffective his chest barely raised up between each breath. Not knowing what to do, Emilia put Julius' head on her lap, hoping her presence would soothe him.

"Betty doesn't understand. Julius is better than that, why did he read one of those books!" Beatrice was beyond mad, this place was going to be the death of them. Even the most level-headed of them still fell victim to its evil.

"I shouldn't have left him alone." Anastasia was eaten by guilt. It was her fault, she should have let him follow her. Those books weren't worth it.

"Which book?" Emilia was just beginning to pull herself together.

"This satanic tool, I suppose." Beatrice pointed at it but didn't dare to touch it.

"It's one from the strange collection." Anastasia didn't touch it either.

"Let me see it." If Julius could read it, it must mean he knew who it belonged to.

"Don't, in fact!" Beatrice tried to kick the book away but Emilia already took it.

Emilia took a good look at the edge, letting the symbols engrave themselves in her retina. She saw those strokes before, no, she drew them. She remembered tracing them on her forearm with her finger over and over again. It was a few months ago, even before the siege of Priestella. She was writing a letter to a lesser lord when Subaru barged into her study room. She couldn't say what he wanted to tell her anymore, but he ended up staying to chat with her. He started to monologue on her beauty again, and she laughed at his endearing nonsense.

'Emilia, you truly are E.M.T!'

Subaru would tell her that often, but this time he dipped a finger in her inkpot and wrote it on his forearm.

'That way, everybody will know I belong to my beautiful angel!'

He made her laugh, as always, but this time she wanted to play along with him. So she dipped her finger in ink and started to write the glyphs for his name on her own arm.

'I want people to know I belong to you tooooo.' she smiled, the idea was lovely.

'Bzzzzz. Cut!' he crossed his forearm to accentuate his words.

'Whyyyy? I really really want to write your name too!' she thought it would make him happy.

'I know and it's the greatest honor of my life.' he took more ink. 'But if you want to show your love for Natsuki Subaru, you have to write his name the way he, himself, writes it.'

'I guess?' he lost her.

'This is the name his parents gave him at birth. Behold Natsuki Subaru's true name!'

He took her arm gently and started to trace what seemed like a meaningless set of strokes. Yet it made all the sense in the world to him and he drew it with care and in minute details. After waiting for the ink to dry, Emilia let her finger run over the strokes.

'Do you like it? The first two are my last name and the last one is my first name. And if you read them together, they spell my name…'

Still kneeling in the library, Emilia looked at her blank forearm. She remembered the meaning of the symbols now. They meant…

"Natsuki Subaru."