179 The Whale Covering the World

The air vibrated with the Foreseer’s roar. Ian unfolded his grimoire while staring past the hair whipped aside by the shockwave at Lyriye’s distorted expression.

He had roughly figured out Lyriye's goal.

She was effectively a being bound to the museum. More precisely, she was a slave who had to serve the owner of the grimoire [The Drowning of R'lyeh] for life. For her to get out of here, The Drowning of R'lyeh also had to leave the museum.

But the girl who owned the grimoire had no intention of leaving the workshop, so naturally Lyriye had no choice but to remain bound here as well.

So she ordered Ian to take the grimoire away. Since she herself couldn’t bring herself to hurt the girl, she meant to have someone else kill her and escape the museum with the grimoire.

It was a cunning scheme, if a rather wicked one.

A normal mage would probably have accepted her offer and become the grimoire’s new owner. A foreign god’s grimoire was, by nature, designed to seduce mages, so no matter how cold they were, they likely wouldn’t have been able to withstand Lyriye’s temptation.

But her opponent was the wrong one.

Ian, who could perfectly defend against even a foreign god’s mental attacks, wasn’t about to be bewitched by a mere eerie voice. If Lyriye truly wanted to escape, she should have picked a different mage to abduct.

Still, regretting it now would be too late. It wasn’t something Ian needed to think about. Lyriye’s circumstances were none of his business...