Looking at the two cups of black tea brought to the counter by the clerk, Dorothy pursed her lips and then spoke.
"Thank you for being so considerate, but I don’t think tea is necessary. My brother and I just ate and drank our fill, so we can’t really have anything more for now. Right, Gregor?"
As she spoke, Dorothy glanced at Gregor beside her. Gregor, who was casually flipping through an old magazine, snapped out of it upon hearing her and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, that juice from the restaurant earlier was pretty good. I accidentally drank a bit too much. I don’t feel like having anything else right now."
Hearing the siblings’ response, the clerk behind the counter looked a bit troubled. He glanced at Clifford, who was browsing bookshelves in the distance.
"Boss... this..."
"Haha... If the guests don’t want tea, that’s fine. Take it back. We can enjoy it ourselves later," Clifford said with a smile from where he was looking for books. Hearing this, the clerk nodded and took the tea away.
Clifford continued searching through the books, but in a corner where he couldn’t be seen, his expression suddenly turned icy.
"Damn it... They didn’t drink it... And that man turned out to be Gregor? That means using force won’t work. I can’t let such a good opportunity slip away..."
Thinking this, Clifford shot a glance at Dorothy out of the corner of his eye, then looked at an old book in his hand. A decision quickly formed in his mind.Clifford then adopted a surprised expression and spoke.
"Oh dear... It seems a few of these books aren’t available down here. My apologies, I’ll need to check upstairs. Please wait a moment, dear guests. I’ll be right back."
"Sure, we’ll wait here," Dorothy replied with a nod. Clifford immediately returned to the counter and went upstairs, quickly reaching the third floor.
There, he approached a wall and turned a candlestick mechanism. A cabinet silently swiveled open, revealing a dimly lit secret chamber. Clifford entered, taking a thick, red-covered book from a desk.
"If you won’t drink the drugged tea, you’ll at least read the books, won’t you, studious girl? Feel the temptation of the ‘Chalice’..."
As he thought this, Clifford opened the book and tore out the first few pages, tucking them into another book he held.
After closing the secret chamber, Clifford grabbed a few more books from the shelves before heading downstairs. When he saw the siblings again, he smiled.
"Haha... Sorry to keep you waiting. Here are all the books you requested, young lady." With a cheerful smile, Clifford placed the stack of books on the counter.
Dorothy carefully checked the titles one by one and then asked with slight confusion.
"These are indeed the books I asked for, but why are a few missing?"
"Ah, my apologies. Many of these books are quite rare, so they are only available for rental, not for sale. Also, there’s a limit to how many can be rented at once. Please return these once you’ve read them, and you can rent more then," Clifford explained. Hearing this, Dorothy nodded in understanding.
"That’s reasonable. Rare books aren’t something you can just buy outright. Well then... Gregor, could you handle the payment?"
"Sure, so it’s settled, huh? My turn then."
Gregor pulled out his wallet and paid. Naturally, since Dorothy didn’t have the means to pay, the responsibility fell to Gregor as her guardian.
Afterward, Dorothy packed the books into her bag, and she and Gregor left the bookstore together. Watching their retreating figures, Clifford smirked meaningfully.
...
Sitting in the carriage on their way back, Dorothy touched the books in her bag and then asked Gregor.
"Gregor, what do you think of that bookstore?"
Hearing her question, Gregor pondered for a moment before responding.
"The atmosphere felt a bit strange. But then again, most of the shops on White Pearl Street are like that—like everyone’s hiding some kind of secret. It’s normal there. Also, that owner... Hmm, he seemed a bit overly enthusiastic. Dorothy, are you sure the books he gave you are genuine? No counterfeits, right?"
As Gregor speculated aloud, Dorothy nodded and replied.
"Don’t worry. They’re all the books I was looking for."
"Alright then, that’s good..."
...
Once back at Southern Sunflower Street, Gregor went to take a bath while Dorothy carried her bag straight to her room. She locked the door, sat at her desk, and began pulling out the rented books, flipping through them quickly.
Finally, as she reached the third volume of “The Gospel of Radiance,” Dorothy found several hidden pages tucked inside. She carefully pulled them out and examined them, a faint smile appearing on her lips.
"Just as I thought... You’ve delivered the mystical knowledge to me..."
Indeed, the pages in Dorothy’s hands were fragments of the ‘Chalice’ mystic book.
Upon discovering that the Crimson Eucharist’s stronghold on White Pearl Street was a bookstore, Dorothy had begun to devise a plan to deal with it.
She knew their aim was to corrupt her as a means to corrupt Gregor. According to Aldrich, the ‘Chalice’ cult had two main methods of corruption: drugging or using cognitive poison to tempt the victim. Seeing the bookstore, Dorothy had immediately turned her attention to the latter.
It was impossible for such a stronghold not to house mystic books.
Since they aimed to corrupt her, they wouldn’t miss the chance to do so when she showed up to buy books. They would either drug her or tempt her with the cognitive poison.
Dorothy’s plan was to eliminate the possibility of drugging, forcing them to resort to the latter.
This was why she insisted Gregor accompany her to the bookstore.
If Dorothy had gone alone, the cultists might have used force, drugging her outright. Even if she escaped, it would expose her Beyonder nature.
But with Gregor by her side, the cultists, wary of him, wouldn’t use force. If neither sibling consumed anything offered, drugging would be ineffective.
Dorothy, aware of this, suggested they eat their fill at a restaurant before visiting the bookstore. As a result, neither she nor Gregor touched anything provided by the Crimson Eucharist.
When drugging failed, the only remaining option was the cognitive poison—embedding mystical knowledge within the rented books to subtly corrupt Dorothy during her reading.
And that was exactly what Dorothy had wanted.