Chapter 136: Scathach's "Old Six" Disciples
Scáthach's disciples were quite clever.
Or at least, the disciples who wrote these things were clever. They usually gathered to write these things, and in the end, fearing that Scáthach might discover them, they didn't leave them in Hibernia, nor even in Britain or Pictavia—they left them all in Rome!
As a result, these chaotic tales were only passed down orally in Britain by the likes of Merlin, while in Rome, there were quite a few records documenting terrifying legends about Scáthach.
Things like "eating two children in one meal," "being capricious," "going mad if you understand her"... The speculations about Scáthach's true nature were endless and varied. If you summarized all these, you might even have the prototype of a Cthulhu Mythos!
Things like "Scáthach the Lurker," "Scáthach the Blind Idiot," and so on.
However, because these things were old, what survived in Rome were generally single pages. Occasionally, a few pages could be found, but there were no complete volumes.
As for the volume in Lucius's hands, it was actually thanks to one person.
Namely, a rather accomplished scholar in Rome today—Marcus Livius Cicero.
At the same time, Marcus was also the former head of the Roman Imperial Magecraft Corps.
He might also be the most powerful Magus in Rome today, not counting Manaka Sajyou.
The volume in Lucius's hands was a composite he created by using a special Magecraft to bind together an ancient object found in an old ruin—now only its cover remained—and many pages he collected from all over Rome!
To ensure coherence, he even specially organized the order and divided it into three major sections.
Section One: The Terrifying Queen of the Dead City
Section Two: The Old Ones
Section Three: The Crawling and Lurking Chaos
If Noah hadn't read the content before seeing these three section titles, he would have thought the author was Lovecraft!
What Cthulhu Mythos...
And it was this reclusive former head of the Imperial Magecraft Corps, Marcus, whom Lucius brought Noah and Scáthach to visit.
As for Vivian, Noah left her at the base. After all, those intelligence agents were also from Britain. If Noah started causing trouble here or if they were exposed over there, Noah arranged for Vivian to safely bring those people back to Britain.
As for their side, even if something really went wrong, having him and Scáthach there was more than enough.
"Marcus, I've come to see you!"
Lucius arrived at Marcus's courtyard, located in the most remote part of Rome, and broke the originally quiet atmosphere as soon as she entered.
She seemed to have been here before, as she pushed open the door to the house with ease and immediately spotted Marcus reading.
"You've come again."
Seeing Lucius, Marcus smiled kindly.
It wasn't the first time Lucius had run away from the palace and hidden here. He knew Lucius's past well, so whenever she came to him, he would cover for her.
For an old man to have such a mindset made Lucius's relationship with him quite good.
"Yes, Marcus. The main reason I came this time is because I remember you mentioned something about the author of this journal before, but I forgot. Who exactly wrote this journal?"
Marcus glanced at the journal Lucius had brought out, then looked at Noah and Scáthach following behind Lucius.
The twilight in his eyes gradually brightened.
"Truly extraordinary guests..."
He didn't know Noah and Scáthach, nor could he see through their disguises. Yet, even so, he immediately sensed the completely different aura emanating from the two before him compared to ordinary people.
Moreover, he understood.
Lucius wouldn't be interested in who the author of the journal was, so the ones truly wanting to know the answer must be these two.
"Marcus, this is Noah, and this is Lyra. It's Lyra who wants to know who wrote this journal."
Lyra was Scáthach's alias.
This Queen of the Land of Shadows directly took the alias Lyra... Although Noah thought the name was too simple and didn't sound like a normal name, Scáthach insisted it was fine.
"Mr. Noah and Miss Lyra."
Marcus took the journal from Lucius's hands.
"To be honest, I don't know who the author of this journal is either. After all, so many years have passed. If we were to analyze it, we could probably come up with several names."
As he spoke, Marcus looked somewhat helplessly at Lucius.
"When I told you before, I clearly said there might be three or more creators of this journal, but it couldn't be confirmed. Although I thought you might not remember the names, I never expected you to forget even the part where I said it couldn't be determined..."
Hearing Marcus's words, Lucius put her hands on her hips and chuckled foolishly...
As if Marcus had just praised her.
Meanwhile, Scáthach walked up to Marcus.
"It's fine if it can't be confirmed. Narrowing it down to a range is also acceptable."
Hearing Scáthach say this, Marcus was taken aback for a moment, then smiled.
"It's been a long time since I've seen a scholar as young as you, yet so passionate about knowledge hidden in the past. In that case, I'll share a little."
Marcus completely regarded Scáthach as a scholar, so he gently stroked the book cover he had found in the ruins with one hand and slowly began to speak.
"Although I can't determine exactly who it was, in the ruins where I discovered this book cover, I saw a hero on the wall whose identity couldn't be confirmed—a spearman wearing light armor with short hair. And while searching for these pages, I often heard references to something—the 'Blue Spearman.'"
"Most likely, it should be this Blue Spearman."
Hearing Marcus's words, Scáthach didn't show it outwardly this time, but a surge of killing intent toward a certain individual rose in her heart.
She had many disciples, but the Blue Spearman... there was only that guy!
Before this, although Scáthach had considered many suspects, the one person she never expected was him.
While he was referred to as a sage in some places, in reality, he was someone who truly enjoyed battle and disliked writing such messy things.
He rarely wrote anything.
Though he had spoken similar words, they were merely spoken aloud... Who would have thought it was all a disguise? Hah, very well!
The next time we meet, I'll show you what a true monster really looks like!
Marcus first mentioned the blue spearman, then went on to describe the characteristics of several others, and Scáthach quietly committed them all to memory!
Finally, after Marcus had his fill of speaking, he suddenly addressed Scáthach, Lucius, and Noah, though his invitation was primarily directed at Noah and Scáthach.
"By the way, since you're so interested in this kind of history, would you like to participate in an interesting plan?
It's a plan I call 'Heroic Spirit Summoning,' which involves summoning these historical figures to our present time!"