'It feels like it has been too long.' Tris sighed inwardly as he looked at the familiar scenery of his village.
He had only left here for a few weeks. But now, it felt as if many years had passed without returning.
After finishing with Zyron and his followers, settling the grudge, Tris first spent time repairing the damaged threads.
He returned to the village immediately after completing that.
No one knew of his return because Tris did not enter through the main gate.
After killing Zyron, Tris also obtained the item he held that controlled the village barrier.
Thanks to that, he could secretly open a part of the barrier and slip into the village.
Back at his old house, the scenery had not changed.
The house was still quite clean and not covered in dust. Surely Maren had occasionally passed by to clean it.
Checking his father's room, as Tris had guessed, Tris found nothing important.
Apart from furniture and personal items like clothes, pens, books, and daily necessities, all valuable things had been stored in Arven's spatial ring.
Of course, this was normal practice for Tris and other mages who owned spatial rings.
Since his father's ring had already been taken back after his death, the house now held nothing else for Tris to care about.
Leaving the house, Tris went to Zyron's residence.
With the master key in hand, he easily and quietly entered the manor without anyone noticing.
Inside, apart from servants, there were no other family members of Zyron.
Tris knew he had a second son, but he had long been absent.
Using magic to check every corner, Tris quickly found Zyron's private room.
He carefully searched everything, but just like his father's room, nothing special was found.
However, there was something suspicious on the bookshelf.
Using magic to examine carefully, Tris discovered a secret passage hidden behind it.
After carefully dismantling it to avoid unnecessary damage, the bookshelf was finally moved aside, revealing a hidden chamber.
'Jackpot!' Tris was pleased with his discovery.
'Let's see what you've hidden here.'
Carefully guarding against traps, Tris slowly entered the chamber.
The first impression was that inside it was lit by countless eerie candles.
Sensing magic from them, worried about danger, Tris observed and analyzed them first.
He quickly realized their purpose.
'So this is the method he used to investigate. Such strange magic!'
Of course, Tris would not leave a candle with his name there for others to exploit, so he quickly dealt with it.
By placing it into his spatial ring, the candle immediately stopped glowing and could not be used again.
This was likely why Zyron had to keep them in this chamber instead of carrying them.
After resolving the candles, Tris continued to the large stone table at the end of the chamber.
It looked like an altar with a statue upon it.
By itself, it was not special. But with the symbol painted on the wall behind, it became something else entirely.
Even someone without knowledge could feel unease looking at it.
'Heretical god!'
With his knowledge and experience, Tris quickly understood what it represented.
After staring for a while, he reluctantly turned his eyes away from the symbol.
He began checking the books and notes near the stone table.
Reading them, Tris quickly understood Zyron's intent.
'So he was researching forbidden magic and the power of a heretical god.'
Magic had countless types.
Among them were many forbidden by both church and law, called forbidden magic.
Most notorious were those using humans as sacrifices.
Anyone caught using such magic would be hunted by both the church and the government.
And Zyron was not only researching forbidden magic but also involved with a heretical god, making it even more serious.
'Luckily, I dealt with him quickly. If he had time, who knows what forbidden magic he might have used when cornered.'
Tris felt relieved that he had set a trap that even Zyron could not escape.
Reading further, Tris found valuable knowledge.
Ignoring the forbidden parts, much of it was worth studying.
He quickly selected and kept what was useful, burning the rest.
But during this, one thing made Tris hesitate.
It was a parchment with something like a few lines of poetry:
Sovereign enthroned in the endless white,
The artisan who spins the loom of life,
The black moon delivers eternal slumber.
Honestly, upon seeing this, Tris wanted to turn away and ignore it.
If he was not mistaken, the parchment recorded the Honorific Name of a heretical god.
And the black eye painted on the wall was the Sacred Emblem of that god.
Moreover, Tris was quite sure that if Zyron's words were not lies, this was the very god who had descended upon the village eight years ago.
The Honorific Name of each god usually had three parts:
The first described the domain they ruled, such as the ocean, sky, forest…
The second described their power or strength.
The last described what they bestowed.
Tris had learned this from a church book praising the god of light, Solvaris.
Based on that, he could partly analyze the heretical god's epithet.
The domain was hard to guess, but the parts about power and bestowal made him uneasy.
"Spins the loom of life, eternal slumber"—those words somehow reminded him of the strange dreams he had experienced.
Seeing the connection, Tris felt both curious and fearful.
He knew the saying: "Curiosity killed the cat."
It left him with complicated feelings about the parchment.
Finally, Tris sighed and stored it in his ring.
He knew it was too late to avoid involvement—he had already memorized it.
Worrying further would be useless.
Thinking about it, Tris felt even more glad he had killed Zyron quickly.
If given the chance, Zyron might not only use forbidden magic but even call upon the heretical god.
That was another use of an Honorific Name: it could guide invocation and communication with a god.
"Sign…"
Tris exhaled, his breath carrying both relief and worry.