“Eh? Where is the rest of the record?" Out of nowhere, Alex shouted in frustration.

  Hearing that disturbance noise, the old man went out to check on Alex.

  “What happened, Alex?”

  Having the old man pop out behind him, he looked up at his old man with a flustered look.

  “Ah, er, I mean this record. It suddenly ends here.”

  Then, he handed the record he had read to the old man.

  Then, the old man examined the record in great detail.

  Then, after a while, the old man gave it back to Alex.

  “It does not appear to be damaged.”

  Then, the old man came to sit in front of Alex.

  Then he slowly instructed Alex to flip to the back of the book.

  “Alex, could you turn it to its back?”

  “Ah, yes, master.”

  Then the old man pointed out the string binding the record.

  “Looking at the string, it is digging deep into the paper.”

  “Ah, yes.” Alex also tried to look closely at the string. With his master pointing it out, he also noticed it.

  Then the old man took out a notebook and began writing something.

  After he finished writing, he said.

  “With this, we can eliminate the possibility that someone removed the rest of the record.” As he said that, the old man crossed out something on my notebook he had just taken out.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Eh? Do you mean that this is all the record from the Holy Emperor?” Hearing his master conclude like that, Alex could only express his dissatisfaction.

  Upon hearing his student’s complaint, the old man did not respond; instead, he wrote another line in his notebook.

  “No way. Are you sure?” Seeing his master's laid-back behavior, Alex shouted out.

  Receiving his student’s rude response, the old man closed his notebook.

  Then he leaned forward and took the book out of Alex's hand.

  After he placed the book on the table, he began to flip through each page carefully as he gave an explanation.

  “Alex, have you noticed it? After recording his encounter with the saintess candidate Aria, his writing became smaller and smaller. And each page was filled to the brim. There was no more space in between. Unlike before, it felt like he was rationing it.”

  That was a keen observation born from many experiences.

  Upon noticing it, Alex asked the old man as if trying to confirm something.

  “Master, you don’t mean—?”

  “Well, it is only my speculation. He may run out of paper.” With this, the old man chuckles.

  Then he added, “He might have come back to binding it later. Have you seen the cover? That sentence of the first part was later written as if he had just come back from many years of neglecting this record.”

  “Master, does it mean Saintess Aria was the one who brought him that writing utensil? And after that, when she decided not to visit him anymore, she also stopped bringing him the writing utensil. That was the moment that Alex realized it.

  Then the old man closed his eyes as he replied. “Not only that, she prepares everything for him.”

  “Hmm, I see.” Moving his hand to his chin, Alex gave his understanding to his master.

  Then the old man opened his eyes and wrote down something on his note before speaking to Alex again.

  “Well, another possibility remains.”

  “What is it, master?”

  “He may be so focused on his training that he no longer bothers with his diary again.” With that, the old man let out a smile.

  And Alex was not convinced by this possibility, as he questioned his master out loud.

  “Is it possible?”

  Hearing his student trying to deny his hypothesis, the old man closed his notebook.

  Then, he gently placed it on the table.

  Staring sternly at Alex, the old man spoke harshly to him.

  “Alex, did I tell you? As a researcher, you should not lightly dismiss any possibility just because you feel like it does not make sense. You must have a mindset of opening for all possibilities.”

  Facing his master’s reprimand head-on, Alex could only sheepishly admit his mistake. “Sorry, master.”

  Seeing his student like that, the old man leaned back.

  As he let out a sigh, he looked around the room.

  Then he said.

  “The rest of his record may lie in another book. But not this book.”