"That long, huh?" Adrian sighed again, the number solidifying his dread. Five days of this.

"There is no reason to feel undue dismay," Ignatius interjected from his corner, his voice as precise and dry as the rustle of parchment. But his usual antique voice peaked Adrian's attention all of a sudden.

"The estimate my young master gave was predicated on the assumption we would be taking the long, safer path."

Adrian perked up, a spark of hope pushing through his boredom. "So you're saying...?"

"Yes," Ignatius nodded once, he secretly found it comical that both his young master and guest where both not fond of carriage life.

"Since we are, against conventional wisdom, taking the shorter route, the travel time should be significantly reduced. I would anticipate no more than two, perhaps three days if we maintain a good pace and encounter no... impediments."

' Thank God...' Adrian thought, slumping back into his seat with genuine relief this time. ' Two days. I can handle two days.' he said to himself, The specter of weeks on the road vanishing in his head.

' This means I won't have to worry so much about keeping myself preoccupied.' he thought.

But even a two-day journey in a rattling box promised stretches of deep boredom. While in thoughts, an idea suddenly struck him. He leaned forward and reached beneath his seat, pulling out his worn leather satchel.

He rummaged inside, his fingers brushing past a few little objects he left in there, before closing around a familiar, soft-covered book. He pulled out the jotter Mr. Miller had given him the next moment.

' Hahaha, thank God I brought it with me.' Adrian felt happy at the sight of the jotter.'

' Even if I do get bored' he thought, a small smile touching his lips as he held the small journal.

' So long as I have this, I should be able to keep myself company.'

He opened it, the familiar, unfamiliar handwriting of the doctor greeting him.

' I've already gotten a hang of the bonding spell the doctor left for me in here...' he mused, skimming past entries on herb properties and basic diagnoses as well as more supernatural creature information.

' I just need to process all the information in it. Who knew this trip would actually have a use.'

' The more I learn about other supernaturals, the better I can be prepared for when I encounter another.'

' Maybe this time... they won't force me into marrying them.' Adrian sighed helplessly. The thought wasn't fearful, he wasn't the type to shy away from a creature because of there appearance.

He simply believed that with this book, he could better help other supernaturals if a situation came up and might even help him in avoiding danger as well.

He glanced down and began reading, the foreign knowledge filling his mind with a sense of purpose and anticipation. Though the book looked small, for some reason, it's contents were far beyond that, which was strange but Adrian didn't pay it much mind.

He flipped carefully through the pages, his eyes scanning the notes on a strange creatures biology, the feeding patterns of another and the social structures of another supernatural species, Then, his fingers paused.

He felt a strange resistance, a thickness between two pages near the middle of the book. He pressed the paper between his fingers.

' It's a bit thicker than usual? Maybe a production error?' he wondered but the thought didn't last in his head for long before Adrian brushed it off. ' No, that's not it, it kinda feels a bit... Sticky?'

"Huh?" he muttered in surprise.

"Is something the matter?" Leo asked, his curiosity piqued by the strange, focused expression on Adrian's face and the odd little book.

"O-oh, it's nothing," Adrian said, offering a distracted smile before looking back down. He carefully pried at the edge of the stuck pages.

' Who'd think a meticulous man like the doctor would fall victim to imperfect hygiene?' he thought with a soft, incredulous chuckle.

A dollop of some old, hardened substance, maybe dried honey, perhaps, or spilled syrup, had acted like glue, sealing several pages together so perfectly he'd missed them during his earlier, more frantic readings.

Gently working them apart, he revealed the hidden pages. His eyes widened, and his face, which had been covered in travel-weariness, lit up like a watchtower beacon. Before this moment, he had believed the doctor had intentionally left only the one, terrifyingly useful bonding spell within the journal's pages. But seeing the densely packed script and intricate diagrams that now lay before his eyes, he realized just how wrong he had been.

The discovered pages were a treasure trove. They weren't filled with medical notes or monster descriptions. They were filled with spells. Not just the bonding ritual, but several others, each neatly labeled and accompanied by notes on components, incantation methods, and potential effects.

There was a simple spell for purifying matter, another for obscuring one's scent from beasts, a more complex looking spell for reinforcing things, whether a door or window or practically anything, against supernatural force.

His heart hammered against his ribs. This wasn't your average bestiary, a medical text or magical manual. This was an encyclopedia on basically all things magical. Mr. Miller hadn't just given him a book of knowledge, he'd given him something most would practically kill for.

The endless, grey road outside suddenly seemed a lot less daunting, and the journal in his hands felt infinitely heavier with hidden treasures Adrian couldn't even begin to fathom.

A soft, almost manic chuckle escaped Adrian's lips as he hunched over the journal in the fading carriage light. "Hehehehe... looks like I won't be bored for a long, long time," he muttered to himself,whispering in a pure focused delight.

Since there was no time to loose, his eyes continued to feast on the contents of the book, his mind working like a dry sponge, eagerly soaking up and memorizing every symbol, every line of instruction, every cautionary note scribbled in the doctor's handwriting.

To the current him, The world outside, the endless trees, the growing dusk, the very presence of Leo and Ignatius, faded into a distant blur. The only reality he accepted, was the knowledge unfolding on the page before him.

His absorption was so complete that he didn't notice the subtle shift in the carriage's other occupant.

Ignatius, who had been sitting in silence, found his attention gradually pulled from the window. At first, it was simple curiosity. He wondered what could possibly captivate the young man who'd saved his young master so utterly after hours on the road?

' Perhaps he brought along a lurid romance? Or maybe a book of fables?' he wondered, giving the book a closer loo, yet it's appearance didn't look like any such books he remembered.

Just when his thoughts were threatening to wander, the carriage jostled and the book tilted slightly, Ignatius's sharp, trained eyes caught a glimpse of the open page from his peripheral vision.

Not the words, but the shapes. The shapes of complex runic patterns, just like the ones the doctor had weaved when saving Grey's life, at first, he didn't recognize any of them, until his eyes settled even more over the books contents.

His pupils dilated. A cold, thrilling shock ran down his rigid spine.

' This... Are those what I think they are? Or are my eyes deceiving me?' he thought, his mind struggling to accept what layed before his eyes at that moment.

Recalling his position and the fact that gazing at the young man's possession without his consent was wrong, He forced himself not to stare, but his gaze kept flicking back even then, he just couldn't help it, what he'd just seen had even caused him to contemplate on his own etiquette.

He gradually began stealing fragmented glimpses, yet the more he saw, the more astonished he became.

' Good lord! How on earth can one little piece of parchment contain so many spells?!'

' Wait a minute, those aren't spells..' he said to himself when he saw different varieties of content within the book as well. ' Don't tell me that this isn't a spell book but a guide book....' Ignatius mind paused for a moment there.

As the butler of the Morningstar household, he'd had several opportunities to come across such things, and yet the contents of the book before his eyes were so systematic and detailed, that it looked more like a genuine magical manual than some ordinary guide book.

' Judging from the structure and the depth of the annotations, it must have been written by an extremely skilled practitioner. A scholar, or perhaps even a an extremely skilled veteran hunter.'

' Just who could have gathered this much coherent, practical information regarding those fiendish monsters? Not only that but it also contains an extensive knowledge on alchemy and magic.'

His thoughts then leaped to the young man holding the book. ' N-no, that's not the important question right now. I find it hard to believe that this provincial young man could actually be personall

y related to such a person... unless...'

A theory he found dazzling and alarming, formed in Ignatius's mind.

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