Sakura quickly announced that she was going to get down to business today and handed Mark the material she had bundled in her hand.

'...... yourself?'
He's a field officer.
Well, ...... that's true too. ''Okay, then, Lord Commander, I'll let myself serve as the interim report.''

　Mark breathed lightly and then began to read out the material.

　-- According to Mark, the author of the memoir was unable to stay in the east for some reason, and it is believed that he escaped to the west to prevent collateral damage to his relatives and to find a solution.

　What exactly the reason was, we don't know, but we can assume that it was some kind of curse.

　According to the description in the diary, I lose consciousness at irregular intervals and act like a sleepwalker.

　If that's all there is to it, there's nothing wrong with it.
　But in my case, the behavior was too bloody.

　Sometimes, he built up a pile of corpses against the bandits, and other times, he was breeding demons.
　Sometimes he burned down the forest where the demons were breeding without a trace.
　The other time he destroyed the two lords' forces in an ongoing skirmish.

　The reason for the loss of the first diary is also said to be because it was burned when the forest was burned to the ground.

　I'm sure that the author had an idea about the identity of the ...... curse and presumed "something" that was responsible for it.

　However, he could not find a clue about the "something" in his memoirs.

I suppose there was a reason it was ......, which I don't have to explain because it was myself, but I think it was even more frightening to even write it down as ...... characters.

　-- in fact, the memoir was full of fear here and there.

　Most of the content was a genuine diary of his unfamiliar wandering life in the west, but from time to time, as if he remembered, he wrote of his fear of "something" in his terribly shaky handwriting.

　He wondered if he might eventually, unbeknownst to him, lead to the slaughter of innocent people.
　In his memoir, he repeatedly wrote of his fears.

　Not only that, he also expressed regret for violating the sacred territory and apologized to his wife and children for leaving them in their homeland, and it was clear to everyone that he was mentally overwhelmed.

However, this is only found in the first half of the memoir, and from the second half it is not so common. It was just before and after the author was hired by the old man, who called himself 'Lord'.

　From a side note, Sakura pronounced 'Aruji' in the imperial language as if to add a supplement, and then added an expression that translated into the official language of Westland.

'The old man's name was apparently pronounced similarly to 'Aruji', and it was written as a sort of nickname multiplied by the fact that he was also his employer.
"'Aruji'?　'Aruji' ...... 'Alge' ...... 'Algie' ...... 'Algee' ...... Ah!

　The answer to the riddling game of association suddenly came to mind, and I involuntarily slammed my fist into my palm.

Algernon!　The contraction is definitely Algie!　Besides, the Duke's brother's name is Algernon, too!
'That's what Mark-dono guessed, too. Pronetically, it's a unique idea for an Eastern man.
Let's go back to ....... That's not really the point.

　--Anyway, the description of the author's fears expressed by the author diminished in the period of his encounter with someone who seemed to be the Duke of Kingswell's brother.

　As usual, the cause of this is unknown, but this time it was not because it was a diary, and apparently he didn't know better.

　The duke's brother did not teach the author himself the principle, but suppressed the 'curse' by some means so that he would not feel uneasy, at least as long as he was working with him.

　So I followed him and we are going to challenge the Thousand Year Corridor of the Abyss together.

'That's all we've learned about the identity of the author of the memoir. Do you have any questions so far?
No, I'm fine. Just go ahead.
'I'm awed. But... ......

　Mark's brow twisted in deep distress as he flipped through the documents.

'It's terribly hard to translate from here on out, and I'm having difficulty. What can I say, there seems to be a lot of jargon, or rather proprietary words.

　After listening to the specifics, it was clear that there were indeed many words used in the part describing the search for the labyrinth that were unfamiliar to him.

　They were all words I had never heard in my fifteen years as an adventurer, yet I had a rough idea of what they were.

''...... Well, that's an expression that the Duke's brother had come up with and used on his own. He wasn't an adventurer or a researcher, but he studied the 'Thousand Year Corridor of the Abyss' on his own and on his own, so it's quite out of step with the general adventurer's terminology.
The author is not familiar with general knowledge and seems to have written down what he was told as he heard it. There were explanatory notes for some of the words, but for the most part the memoirs are difficult to decipher on their own.

　What a troubling situation.

　The closest thing to an important figure, the duke's brother (Algernon), made the text difficult to understand from someone who wasn't.

'Nevertheless, there were a few things that turned up. First of all, in addition to the date and time given in the memoir, the person who appears to be Mr. Algernon is already old and, given the description of world affairs scattered throughout the memoir, it is safe to assume that it was written during the last few years.

　The fact that he does not simply declare it because of the date shows that he has given it a very careful consideration.

"The most important part of the text on the last page of the memoir is the part where ...... 'the Lord' acquired 'the art of opening the gate' and 'opened the way to the further abyss'.
...... further abysses.
'I can't say for sure. It's possible that I'm simply exaggerating a bit to say that I'm more developed in my abilities. The writing in this memoir has a sense of over embellishment throughout. But ......
''We can't rule out the possibility that the Duke's brother, Algernon, had reached the 'Demon King's Castle Realm' through the 'Thousand Year Corridor of the Abyss': ......''

　If that's true, it's a very big deal.
　Many assumptions might be overturned.

You said the ...... mark. You said that content was the last page. Do you know why it's not on the next page?
No, I haven't a clue. But there were still plenty of pages left in the memoir, so it's unlikely they're just moving on to the third book.
Well: ......

　So, I should think that something happened to the writer of the memoir.

　He may have been lost, leaving only his belongings behind, and his memoirs may have ended up in the hands of the Duke's brother.

　He may have lost his life in the search and treasured the memoir as a relic.

　Or, by a 'curse' that should have been suppressed--

　As I let my thoughts wander to that point, the sound of a metal door knocker tapping on the front door echoed through the air.