“A black and thick book.

The outer cover was covered with a thick layer of hazy dust.

At a glance, it was an extraordinary book.

Owen illuminated the book with a torch and said, “As promised, I found a book related to black magic.”

“Wow, really?”

Atia’s eyes sparkled.

“I went to great lengths, even involving the palace.”

At that moment, Atia realized that Owen was lying.

Originally, this suspicious-looking book must have been here. Otherwise, Hari would not have said there was a powerful force in the underground of the palace.

‘He’s trying to act like he discovered it. If he says it was already here, it becomes a fact that he used black magic.’

Owen looked at Atia and said, “To decipher this, we need someone proficient in ancient language translation, so it will take some time. But I’ll do my best to help you use the remaining time wisely. After all, you helped me.”

“Ancient language translation?”

Atia raised an eyebrow.

“May I take a look?”

“Sure.”

Owen nodded in agreement.

As Atia was about to carefully open the book.

“Wait. Let me open it instead.”

Cascus stopped Atia’s hand and said, “We don’t know what might happen.”

Owen looked at him with an annoyed expression.

Cascus opened the old and thick book.

From the first page, there were unfamiliar characters densely written.

“Ancient language…”

Cascus muttered.

The book, filled only with text without a single picture, was dizzying to look at.

Who could interpret something like this?

It was content that an ordinary person could not understand at all.

However, as Atia looked into the book, her eyes widened.

“Huh?”

She stretched her neck forward and stared directly at the writing in the book.

‘When the effect takes place, a pattern of a black snake appears, and after a week, red spots appear, and then…’

Why is it translatable if it’s in an ancient language?

Atia closed her eyes and opened them again, thinking that what she was seeing might be an illusion.

“Go, turn to another page.”

Cascus turned to another page.

Atia once again examined that page that seemed to be pierced through.

‘Pour a viscous liquid made by mixing blue and red liquids… and leave it like that for thirty minutes after turning three and a half turns. Then…’

Atia suddenly realized that she could interpret the contents of the book.

“Huh, Korean…? Han…gu?”

“?”

“Ah!”

Atia screamed.

In surprise, Owen and Cascus both looked at her.

“I, I… I think I can read this…”

Trembling, Atia swallowed her saliva.

Cascus and Owen simultaneously opened their mouths.

“You can read this?”

“What? You can read it?”

Feeling overwhelmed, Atia nodded her head.

“This… is it ancient language? Not Korean?”

“Korean? What’s that?”
Owen shrugged with a face that clearly indicated he had no idea.

Seeing Atia’s pale complexion, Cascus wrapped her in his arms and said, “Are you okay? Can you really read this?”

“Yes… Doesn’t Duke and the Crown Prince read it?”

Cascus and Owen looked at the book, but to them, the characters reflected were incomprehensible.

“I have no idea.”

“Madam, your joke has gone too far.”

It seemed that Atia was the only one who could read it, as expected.

“Haha…”

Oh, to them, Korean seems to become an ancient language.

Atia chuckled and turned to another page.

Similarly, it was also in Korean.

Page after page, it was the same.

Atia carefully examined the table of contents.

If this was really a black magic book, as Owen said, there might be a way to cure her illness.

Owen looked at Atia carefully examining the table of contents with suspicion.

“Even throughout the empire, there are not many who can read ancient languages. Unless they have special abilities or have not learned separately. Even if you find someone, there is no one who can interpret it perfectly. They can only interpret it here and there.”

“I found it!”

Excitedly flipping through the table of contents, Atia raised her head with an excited expression.

Atia’s finger pointed somewhere on the table of contents.

However, Owen and Cascus had no idea what she was pointing at.

“I found it! A way to undo my black magic!”

Staying at the palace, Cascus collected information related to black magic. As a result, he was convinced that what afflicted Atia’s body was black magic. The unexplained symptoms of hemorrhage, dizziness, and all the problems Atia was experiencing indicated black magic.

Atia, who finally found the key to solving it, felt her heart pounding with excitement.

Originally, Atia had planned to ask for the Berserk Mantle as a reward for the hunting competition.

However, unexpectedly, Owen followed her, and Atia judged that it would be better to resolve the situation before her condition worsened.

Moreover, if she asked for the reward storage from Owen, who already found them suspicious, it would undoubtedly be a headache.

To gain Owen’s trust and in exchange, unlocking black magic—this was the plan. Even if the opponent might be an enemy today, if she provided what they needed, they could become allies.