As for what else can be done, all that remains is to try to pick up and refine what can still be used from the past, and turn it into a small cog in the wheel of history that can still function now.
After examining the books and notes, there wasn't much to note. Neither astrology nor illusion studies are academic fields I usually pay much attention to. Asking me to check those terms whose meanings are far removed from common sense is a bit too much for me. I simply flipped through them casually, made sure there were no hidden spells, and then fast-forwarded to the next item.
There wasn't much to see in the bedding and clothing. It simply showed that Professor Adrian was generally fond of dressing up and had a disciplined lifestyle. However, he maintained a reasonable level of refinement, neither overly extravagant nor overly demanding of himself.
Of course, there was no hidden compartment under the bed—after all, it was a handmade wooden bed, and there was enough room for more than one person to fit under the bed board, which was about one and a half times the width of a person. There was not much dust left on the edges and corners, which meant it was cleaned regularly.
The cat didn't seem to want to do this kind of inspection—of course, I didn't expect it to do anything anyway, I just needed to use its keen hearing to give an early warning—after jumping down from my lap, the cat stayed in the middle of the room licking its fur, occasionally wagging its tail when I looked over, and then went back to playing and frolicking on its own.
The lab tables and desks piled with equipment caught my attention a few times.
The crystal ball was covered with velvet, its surface shimmering with a deep blue hue, resembling a classical tool for observing the stars. However, compared to the sextant and astrolabe beside it, which had already developed a patina, this crystal ball was probably not used very often.
"Phew, it's a locked drawer."
Alice, grinning mischievously, pulled me over and pointed to what it had found under the desk: "Master, Master, quickly snap this open and take a look!"
It's not really appropriate to casually browse through other people's things—that's what I wanted to say to refuse, but then I thought about it again. I'm here to deduce and confirm my guesses from some details, so refusing would be too pretentious. Therefore, I didn't refuse and readily opened it.
The contents of the drawer were unexpected.
A stack of photographs, and a notebook.
Somewhat puzzled, he took it out, flipped through it and examined it for a few moments, and confirmed that it seemed to be a collection of photos documenting Adrian's childhood and his past diaries.
Calling it a diary might be a bit of a misnomer; a more accurate description would be random musings written down whenever the thought came to mind. The earliest entries date back to my teenage years, filled with complaints about schoolwork and longing for others. The latest entries are probably from three to six months ago, but unfortunately, they are quite vague, mostly expressing helplessness about a bleak future, and are not very useful.
"But isn't this a great way to understand the target's psychology?"
Alice was engrossed in flipping through the pages, and only after I told her that she should be able to find similar books in the library did she reluctantly put them down and close the drawer again.
“Nothing is amiss. We only have one place left to check.”
I looked up at the ceiling. The spiral staircase hugged the corner of the wall, extending upwards into a narrow path, leaving most of the space to a single ray of light that had leaked down from the ceiling.
"Master, I don't think there's anything there."
Alice's three-lobed lips trembled, and her ruby eyes narrowed with a smile: "In fact, there's another anomaly in the whole room that you seem to have missed all along?"
I gestured to it with my eyes to stop talking nonsense, but Alice just twitched her three-lobed mouth and then pointed her paw at the ground.
The cat, which had been crouching in place, looked up at me, meowed softly, shook its fur lightly, and then trotted over to me, rubbing against my ankles several times.
What's wrong with the carpet?
I asked, puzzled, and slightly expanded my senses to explore downwards, but found nothing.
The rascal sighed, shook its head, and slowly curled up as if feeling tired: "Honestly, even if we were a little more aggressive at a time like this, it wouldn't have caused any problems, would it?"
Fleece flew everywhere.
Before I could even utter my rebuke, everything before me changed in some kind of distorted, distorted way.
The illusion cast on the whole structure ceased to be active due to the movement of the core node. After a few breaths, the place transformed from a dark and cramped personal room into a bright and spacious experimental workshop. The staircase, which had been mostly recessed into the wall and spiraled upwards, was expanded so that two people could walk side by side without feeling crowded or awkward, and there was no need to squeeze past each other.
"I started to have doubts as soon as I entered. It looks like a star tower with a considerable area from the outside, so why is the inside a small room that can only accommodate a dozen or so people walking side by side?"
It picked up the carpet in its hand, and then picked up a piece of clear crystal from somewhere, examining it closely: "I tried to touch the books, move the bed and chairs, mess up the utensils, and even made the master open the locked drawer... Even though none of this triggered any spells, the master could still feel it, right? The magic around here is too active, and there's even an extra barrier set up."
“You said before that this setup is more conducive to the study of astrology.”
While I was bickering with it, my hands didn't stop moving as I quickly checked the situation of the newly appeared space.
Just like the expansion of the previous room, the newly appeared space was filled with countless materials and records. A large number of crystals and star rocks were sealed in boxes, and there was even a map drawn on the wall not far away. A few cities were highlighted with red circles, and some incomprehensible symbols were written next to them.
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