Chapter 173: Found Out
Simon’s first instinct was to cast a spell and murder all three of them, but he held back. That wasn’t because he thought he could learn something or even because it would screw up the future. It was because everything in their body language told him they didn’t consider him to be the least threat to them.
That made sense. While Simon was still a little softer than he would have liked because he’d spent more time reading than fighting in this life, he’d still lost a ton of weight. As a result, he must have looked like a scrawny scribe or courtier to these men. He didn’t even carry more than a knife these days, further reinforcing the image.
“Is there a problem?” he asked with more indignation than might have been appropriate for the situation.
He quickly caught himself and continued. This time, he tried to add a touch of fear to his surprise, “I mean… what are you doing in my room. This is—”
“This is a long time coming,” the seated man said. “You’ve been flitting around the court for a while with a little storm cloud over your head. That’s not so much for the circles you run in, but it’s long past time we do something about it.”
“Circles? Stormcloud?” Simon asked, only partially pretending to be lost by the strange turns in conversation. “Will someone tell me what this is about?”
One of the standing men had moved behind him and, very gently but firmly, guided Simon to the nearest chair at his small table before pushing him down into it. He didn’t resist, even though it was a terrible tactical position to be in, but only because he didn’t want to arouse their suspicions.
“Oh, with the works you’ve been reading in the library, I don’t think I need to spell that out. Not for you. You may not know exactly who we are, but after reading…” the man pulled out a list, “The Histories of Sanit Modraine, the Chronicles of Ionia’s first Kings, At the Crossroads, Travelers Tales of Darkness, The Wars Against Witchcraft… you get the idea. This is not a normal list of scrolls and tomes. It goes on at length.”
“I-I was searching for all the monsters of the region so that I might present my Lord with—”