The Black Iron Glory
Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Claude did not expect that when he returned home at nine p.m., two trains were still parked outside the red brick house. It seems that some of the guests are still not leaving.

"It's impossible .. Why are they still here even though it's too late?" When he entered, there was no one in the dining room. His mother was busy wiping the floor and the air inside smelled of alcohol and vomited.

At a time when there were no air fresheners, the best his mother could do was leave the windows open for ventilation in the hope that the night breeze could bring in more fresh air.

Seeing Claude enter, his mother stood up straight and asked, "Why did you come back so late? Have you eaten?"

"I've been," Claude said with a nod, "I'm at Eyke's. He said that dad had dinner so I didn't come back early."

After she put down her bag, she took the mop from her mother. "Mom, let me do it. Are there any guests here?"

"Yes," he said as he pointed up, "They're in the study. Your father seemed to be discussing something about investing with them. The fight had become very hot. You don't have to mop that side, I've done it. "

"Oh, and where's Anna and Little Blowk?"

"Little Blowk was asleep earlier, so I had Anna take him to the second floor to sleep. There were many guests today and Little Blowk was really excited and caused a lot of commotion throughout the night. He finally calmed down. "

Mrs Ferd sat on the chair. It seemed that night had made him very tired.

"Claude, do you want something else to eat? Tonight's chef is Pjard and he's making a lot of delicious food. I left something for you in the kitchen. If you want, I'll take him."

"It's okay, mom. I have a lot of things now. When will my meeting with them end?"

"What's going on? Do you have something you want to talk to her about?"

"Not that. I just wanted to borrow the old Hez dictionary from his study. We're gonna need it for class tomorrow."

"Wait a minute. They should be finished anytime now. Why don't you go upstairs first and pick it up when your dad sees the other guests leaving?"

"alright. I'm done mopping, so I'm going up now."

After returning to his attic, he forced himself to hold back his excitement as he turned on his oil lamp and closed the door. Claude jumped into his bag.

The pirate statues and hairpins he planned to give to his brothers could wait until tomorrow morning, so he set them aside for now. Claude took out a magical cookbook from his bag as he shivered in excitement. He opened it and focused on the yellowish courtyard under the light of the oil lamp. Soon, the pages of the book changed once again and an ancient blue Hez script appeared in the pages that were now ivory white.

Now, Claude felt the urge of bringing a knife into the study to drive away the guests before grabbing the dictionary. As long as he had a dictionary, solving that mysterious text would be much easier. Even if he will be faced with grammatical errors, he can get a rough meaning out of the text by piecing together the individual meanings of the words themselves.

However, he endured his frustration and patiently waited for the guests to leave. He had already been patient for half a day, so he did not mind extending it in the slightest. Although it felt like thousands of ants were crawling around her heart, she had to be patient enough to wait.

Maybe he can do something while he's waiting. Suddenly Claude remembered that he had only seen one page with blue Hez words and wondered if the other pages were similar. Well, I guess the only way to find out is to check.

The cookbook had 17 pages in total and each page had a recipe. He gradually opened the ten pages and discovered that they also had bluish text.

Claude was getting excited. It was obvious that the recipes were there just to disguise the book. The actual content contained in this book is the blue stripes of the text. If only one page of the book contained that blue text, then it would only be part of the puzzle. It would be something more akin to a treasure map hidden in a book he had read in several other fantasy novels.

But the cookbook had a total of seventeen pages and he was already on the tenth page. Each page will change as he focuses and reveals the hidden blue text. It meant that it was a magic book disguised as a mere cookbook.

So in the eyes of Eyke, Boa, Wero and the new store owner, Wakri, the, this is just a cookbook and the only value they see is that it's some kind of antique that's worth money based on age and construction materials. . .

Were it not for a lucky coincidence due to poor lighting, I would not have focused on reading it and discovering the secrets of this recipe book. I would probably put the book back on the shelf and lose the chance to check it out. . .

Claude excitedly opened the eleventh page and shook the rampant thoughts in his mind. He concentrated once again and prepared himself to check if the remaining seven pages also had a dark blue Hez script hidden under his plain recipe.

He panicked and tried to stand up, only to find that all of his limbs had lost their strength. He could not move in the slightest as if he could no longer control his body. He could hear nothing and felt nothing but a deadly silence around him. He could not even control his breathing. No matter how wide he opened his mouth, he still felt himself choking and getting more panicked.

What the hell is going on?! In a short moment, countless panicked thoughts flashed through his mind. Is this a magical crime? Or did the recipe book carry some kind of curse? Am I cursed? Am I going to die? Am I blind or deaf? Can I still make a sound?

Quiet . I need to calm down. Despite that, the terror in his mind only grew.

After what felt like a long period of time to him, Claude began to hear a soft thumping sound.

It was his heartbeat. Claude could feel his heart racing and it was almost like he could see blood being transported through his veins into his heart. Slowly, his sense of hearing returned and he could begin to hear his father talking to the guests in the study on the first floor again.

He gradually began to see a blurry light in front of him. It was an oil lamp on his desk. Although he could not yet see the contours clearly, he could feel the heat coming from the light source in front of him.

Feeling also returned to his limbs and he found himself once again able to move. Claude closed his eyes tightly before opening them, repeating the process several times.

He could finally see clearly again. Claude stood up, moved his limbs, and felt that there was nothing wrong with him apart from a slight throbbing pain in both of his temples. He then realized that only a few minutes had passed, based on the hourglass on his desk.

But what happened to the loss of control of my body just now? Was it really because of the magical recipe book?

Claude stepped in front of the table and tried to focus on the cookbook again.

However, even before his pages started to change, he felt his eyes turn dark again. But this time, he did not feel that he had fallen into complete darkness and could still feel the light from the lamp. His body was still able to move, but the throbbing in his temple started to feel even more painful.

Ah, so. . . Claude jumped onto his bed and realized that when he panicked, he only suffered from mental strength completely. He had been using his focus to read magic recipe books for almost half an hour now. Just like the game characters in the game, his mental strength was also limited. No wonder he felt strange when he finished his shop.

He looked up and turned off the lights and planned to rest first. It seems that I have to be more careful when analyzing the cookbook, lest I accidentally cross the line again.

As Claude continued to think, silver moonlight shone through the windows onto his table and bed, covering half of his body with silver light.

Ah, the moon is really beautiful. Wait . . Claude thought in shock, Why do I feel such a lightening, tingling sensation? When the moonlight shone on my head, I felt like a cold, watery sensation covered my skin. It's like raindrops falling onto dry, broken ground. Even the throbbing in my temple doesn't hurt anymore.

I certainly didn't imagine this! Does the moonlight have the effect of healing my wounded consciousness? Or does it help with the recovery rate for mental strength?

He looked at the circle, the silver moon hanging in the sky and thought that since it was the magical world he was in, he should remain calm about unreasonable things instead of panicking.

Can't I confirm if that's the case by trying it out?

Claude got up from the bed, took off his linen socks and walked out through the window of the small attic and stood on the roof.

Hmm, I have to go there a little more. That way, I will not be hindered by windows or loft shadows. Nothing would block the moonlight from hitting me from the clouds.

Claude was lying between the two attic protrusions on the roof. The roof is lined with wood tiles and the angled angle is not too steep, so lying on it feels a bit fun. He just had to be a little careful not to fall asleep and roll around on the roof.

He could confirm that moonlight was indeed a great way to ease his drained mental state. Claude lay on the roof for about half an hour and felt his mind slightly clear. His temples were also no longer throbbing in pain.

Bathing in the silver moonlight, his emotions began to calm down. There was a comfortable vibe around him that made him feel rather lazy and unwilling to return to his attic. His hearing is also fully recovered. Despite that extent, he could still hear the conversation coming from the study room on the first floor. Although he could not understand exactly what was being said, his father seemed to be seeing the guests leave now.

Why did I hear Arbeit talking to a woman? Did you invite a woman to dinner? That doesn't sound right, especially when it's too late in research.

No, the voice came from there. . . Claude got up and looked at the attic on his left. He remembered that it had been rented out as well. The tenant is a young woman about 26 or 27 years old. Claude's mother had been gossiping about how the woman, Miss Christina, if she remembered correctly, was some sort of woman who had a loose moral.

However, her father also heard that Christina served as a finance department staff at several companies in the city. Which, Claude doesn't remember. However, he was convinced that he had rented the place because he was recommended there by company executives. Even though she had a decent job, her mother gossiped about her behind her back.

But it's not important. The real question was why her older brother, Arbeit, who never seemed to fit her, was in the attic that Christina had rented.