128 Sensitive Information

"The World War?" asked Luuk curiously.

He had never heard anything in detail about it before. He only knew there was a war that swept the whole Western Continent and left some impact on the Central Continent as well.

"Most of the information related to the war has been erased for some reason. We only know about the existence but nothing else," added Valentine.

For a ghost of a man who had lived more than a hundred years ago, his knowledge of the war should be better than that of modern people. The ghost of the man scratched the side of his head.

"The World War... I seem to remember a war happening but I can't recall anything concrete..." said the man.

The two men were stupefied. If even someone from that era couldn't remember it, there must be something that needed to be hidden.

"Can you try again? For instance, which country exactly started the war?"

"..."

The man's expression showed visible confusion and the looked to be thinking hard.

"This is really strange. I should have lived not too long after the war ended. Why can't I remember anything? I don't even remember if the Republic participated in the war or not..."

Luuk looked at Valentine with an expression of suspicion.

"This is definitely the work of a Contractbound or a Deity directly," he said quietly.

The ghost of the man heard what he was saying and his expression showed understanding.

"You two don't have to whisper like that. I know about Contractbounds," said the man with the old navy uniform.

Valentine and Luuk raised their eyebrows.

"How did you get to know about them?" asked Luuk directly.

The man looked unsure about the question.

"It was common knowledge back in my day. Is it not anymore?"

The more the man spoke, the more the two of them realized that their knowledge was limited. There sure was a gap between what modern people knew and what people in the past did.

"It is not. So did people just accept their existence like that?" asked Luuk in curiosity.

"Yes. Some of them were very helpful to us, although most of them were crazy and they committed numerous heinous crimes," said the man with a heavy tone, and then added, "but the Police were always ready to put a stop on their crimes,"

"That's interesting. A hundred years is not that long. How did they manage to conceal the existence of Contractbounds from the public in that short time?" asked Valentine with his arms crossed.

The man in Koninklijke Marine uniform shrugged. It seemed that although he knew about Contractbounds, he didn't know the detail still.

"So how was life back then?"

"Tell us more," requested Valentine.

"In the marine, we had our own Contractbound division full of people with supernatural powers. They were busy defending our trade routes from an invading nation or even pirates. I hope life is better now,"

"We only hear occasional news about pirates, but never another nation attacking. I think it's relatively peaceful nowadays. Or they are just better at hiding information," replied Valentine.

"Anyway, I am so sorry but I have to get going now," said the ghost of the man suddenly.

Luuk wrinkled his nose at the man.

"You're a ghost. Where do you have to be?"

"I want to see my great-great-grandchildren. They are usually watching the parade at around this time," said the man casually.

"How are you able to tell the time?" asked Valentine curiously.

That's true. This ghost isn't wearing any watches, and if he is, a ghost watch shouldn't work, right?

Luuk observed the ghost closely to see his actions. The man wasn't even looking around or at anything in particular. He was only looking straight at his conversation partner.

"When you're a ghost, you'll understand," said the man, and then added with a heavy tone, "But Contractbounds cannot become ghosts..."

His statement raised more questions in the two men.

"Why?" asked Valentine and Luuk simultaneously.

"I don't know. I only know that," replied the man. The speed at which he spoke became faster; he seemed to be in a hurry.

"I'll talk to you again maybe next year. Good day, gentlemen," he said and bid them goodbye.

The man in the outdated uniform ran quickly towards the end of the alley and turned left before disappearing from their sight. Valentine and Luuk stayed there longer and thought about what the man was saying.

"Why do you think we can't turn into ghosts after we die?" asked Luuk seriously.

"This is also the first time I've heard of it. It must have something to do with our contracts, but I cannot say anything for sure yet," replied Valentine, and then looked over his shoulder and muttered, "G, you're better at coming up with theories, so do this one for me, will you?"

"So your spiritual intuition led us here but we haven't even answered our initial question," said Luuk again.

Valentine shrugged.

"I can only feel that there will be a secret. I cannot know what it is," he explained shortly.

"Let's just get out of here," he said commandingly.

The two men walked out of the alley back to the crowded street. They then walked over to the stall that sold Tompouce. It was still crowded with people waiting to get their turn to buy the sweet dessert. Because he didn't want to wait too long, Valentine let out some of his supernatural aura to intimidate the people there.

The people around the stall suddenly felt a chill running down their spine and turned around to look. There, they saw a majestic robed figure with a rotten skull as the head. The eyes in the skull's sockets were glowing yellow and he was emitting a threatening aura that weighed heavily on them. The robed man walked imposingly towards the stall and people made way for him out of fear.

"Give me one Tompouce, and one more for this man," Valentine said coldly to the stall owner.

The man behind the stall nodded frightenedly and opened the icebox to get a beautiful pastry with cream filling and orange icing. He then put it in a box and handed it to Valentine and repeated the action and gave the box to Luuk, who was standing next to Valentine.

"How much?" asked Valentine.

"N-no need," said the man with trembling voice. He just wanted the scary person to go away quickly.

Valentine looked at the banner where the price was displayed and gave his box of pastry to Luuk to free up his right hand. He then fished out his wallet from one of the pockets and took out fourteen pennings to pay for two portions of Tompouce. He did all of that skillfully all the while he was holding his briefcase with his left hand.

"T-thank you," said the man as he received the money without daring to look at his customers in the eyes.

Valentine walked away from the stall and stopped his supernatural aura from leaking further. Once he was gone, the people began flocking the stall again waiting to get their own sweet pastry dessert.

"Give me mine," he said to Luuk.

Luuk gave one of the small boxes to Valentine and then opened his. Luuk didn't even bring up the fact that he hadn't paid him back for it. Valentine held the briefcase between his legs and then used both hands to open the box. After that, he began enjoying the cold pastry.

The Tompouce entered his mouth and the orange-flavored cream topping welcomed him. The crunchy outer layers of pastry made contact with his teeth and gave it a nice bite. The softer inner layer of the pastry slowly disintegrated together with the cold and smooth cream filling with fresh citrusy flavor and a vanilla aftertaste.

Valentine and Luuk finished their snack quickly and then discarded the box in the closest trash bin, which was already almost full with boxes of other kinds of food and drink bottles. They then continued their way.

"Are we going to the bazaar now or are we still pursuing information?" asked Luuk.

Valentine stopped for a second and concentrated. He closed his eyes and tried to feel his spirituality and see if something was nagging on it. It didn't take him long to finish what he was doing and then turned to Luuk.

"There is somewhere else we need to check,"

Luuk followed Valentine and the two men kept walking in the big avenue towards the center where a square was located. Across from the square, there was a café that was flocked with people who wanted to watch the parade in comfort. However, only those sitting on the second floor could actually see anything because of the wall of people blocking their view.

Valentine crossed the square and stopped in front of a building with a classic architectural style. There were humongous marble pillars supporting the three-story building, making it look haughty.

"The library?" asked Luuk.

"Yes. My intuition told me there is something in there. Let's go," said Valentine with his deep, cold voice.

The two men entered the library and showed their identity cards to the security. They were also asked to remove their masks while in the library. It was part of the rule in the Republic to always show face in public except when sick. The Dodenherdenking was an exception, but when inside government buildings, the rule still applied.

Valentine took off his mask with ease, revealing his sharp features and chiseled jawlines. Luuk, on the other hand, took longer to take off the bandages covering his head. He stuffed the used bandage inside his huge backpack for later use and the two of them went inside the library with towering bookshelves.

The unmasked Valentine still looked exalted in his two layers of robes. He walked towards the corner of the first floor of the library, following his spiritual intuition. They then stopped in front of a massive bookshelf with countless books on it.

"What are we looking for here?" asked Luuk curiously.

No matter how he looked at it, the bookshelf looked ordinary. There was no one around either, so they couldn't be looking for a ghost there. The bookshelf was placed in the corner and the wall next to it had nothing special on it either.

Valentine stood there solemnly and then began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets!"

The part of the bookshelf touching the corner wall began to move very slowly, little by little revealing a small gap where one person could squeeze through. The bookshelf itself became smaller and the books on it got squeezed. Luuk became worried that the books would get ruined and people would notice, but when he touched one of the compressed books, it still had its normal size despite looking flattened.

"What is this..." he asked in confusion.

Valentine also did the same as Luuk and he came to a conclusion.

"This gap might be illusory but real enough. I guess. Let's just get through,"

Valentine hugged the wall and started walking through the gap that wasn't that long. He came to a small chamber that was only enough for three adults to be there at the same time not long after. Luuk came closer behind him and the two of them stood very close to each other because of the lack of space.

Inside the cramped chamber, there was a piece of paper nailed to the wall that looked very old.

"Congratulations on finding this place. It means you are in contract with both Secrets and Uncovering. This place can only be opened once a day for five minutes maximum, so make sure you get out before it is closed again. Enjoy my collection, but you cannot take any books out of this place."

Luuk read the messy handwriting out loud while Valentine was looking around. There were several ancient-looking books placed on the shelves that were carved out from the stone wall, but there was no lighting. Since the room was intended for Shrouded Denuders, no lights were necessary there since they had night vision. He then noticed something out of place.

"Someone was here before," concluded Valentine.

"How did you know?" asked Luuk. He also began looking around.

"The dust here is thinner than the other parts. There must have been a book or books there and someone managed to take them out. Or destroy them right here," he explained.

Luuk looked at the spot that Valentine was showing and noticed that the man was right. On the books and the empty part of the shelf, the dust was very thick, but there was a spot at the other end where the dust was slightly thinner. He wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't paid attention.

"Then I'm guessing whatever is left here is not crucial secrets that need to be hidden," said Luuk.

Valentine nodded and then picked up one of the books following his intuition.

"The history of Dodenherdenking. Isn't this exactly what we are looking for?"