Chapter 96 - Snowsilver Swordsman (part three)

Beneath the red leather book, an emblem embossing the red crested ibis had also fallen.

Speaking of red crested ibis in Lindis, it is the symbol of King’s Scholar.

The owner is probably the black-hooded swordsman from before.

That means he is a scholarship student at the magic academy.

If that’s the case, no wonder his ability was that good.

But, even if he’s a scholarship student, there are about 150 people counting all grades.

If I narrow it down to the male students in junior year, there are about 40 people.

Since I don’t know his face, it will be difficult to find him.

“Let’s look him up at Harold’s place later.”

Harold has investigated all of the students on one occasion.

If I check the material, I may be able to find the owner of this book.

“Erica!”

Hearing someone call my name, I turned around.

Palug and Tirnanog were beckoning me from the back street.

Hurrying up, I regrouped with the two of them with the items I found in hand.

“Thank you for your hard work. I’m glad that you didn’t get hurt.”

『As expected, Erica. To take down two golems in such a short time.』

“Well, actually, I didn’t take down the second golem alone, but……”

“Oh my, is that so?”

They had curious expression on their faces.

Apparently, they came running after that swordsman disappeared.

“I’ll tell you the details later. What about the citizens?”

『Umu. Do not worry. No one died or got seriously injured. Although some of the horses have bone fractures.』

“Some humans also got bruises and sprains, but I gave them first aid and brought them to the church.”

『It seems that the city guards were investigating it as a unit. Won’t people come over here soon?』

Oops, that won’t do.

If the guards find us at this place, we will have trouble making up excuses.

“Let’s go to the street three intersections away from here. That place is outside of the evacuation route, so we should be able to pick up a horse-carriage.”

“Understood.”

Then we returned to the dormitory to escape from the bustling city.

☆

The dormitory’s servant brought the meals into my room, and I shared it with the phantom beasts.

Uh, it seems that the suspicion of eating too much might happen here as well.

While eating the roasted lamb and baked potatoes, we held the regular meeting.

“Well then, let’s review the settled matter. First of all, I’d like to ask Palug.”

“The matter about vampires, huh?”

Three years ago, the contaminated altars were completely cleansed by Palug’s flame.

Since then, the vampire-related affairs have been completely hidden.

Those wary and cunning people might have noticed the angel’s activities.

But half a year ago, the vampires who were supposed to be silent began to make a movement again.

Unlike the last time when they aimed for the altars on the outer periphery of the ley lines, these attacks were concentrated on churches and monasteries in the vicinity of Lindis, which is the heart of the ley lines.

Moreover, it seems that they took a pretty violent and bloody approach.

Murder of the church officials. The massacre of a whole village.

This became very apparent thanks to Palug keeping an eye on their movement, and it’s extremely dangerous for ordinary people.

“I’m sorry, Erica. I can’t be by your side at such a time……I will get in touch and return as often as possible, so please stay alive, alright? You absolutely must survive, okay?”

“Yes, take care of yourself, Palug.”

Certainly it would be encouraging if Palug stays with me.

However, it is more important to reduce the number of the vampires’ victims who are, even now, still increasing.

I also don’t want my country to be in a panic due to zombies.

『I will be Beatrice Glaw’s guardian, huh?』

“Yes.”

『……Is this really okay, Erica?』

Beatrice Glaw.

A beautiful girl with braided long black hair and glasses.

She was a roommate of the main character Chloe and a side character who would become her best friend.

It was said that the girl game 『Liber Monstrorum』 had two timings.

The first one was Erica Aurelia.

The second one was Beatrice Glaw.

Erica, in other words me, was an existence to signify the beginning of the bizarre incidents.

Erica, who did hate crime thoroughly by harassment, was basically an inconsequential character for most players.

Rather, there was an impression that her tragic deaths were rightfully deserved.

Haha, how painful……

Well, even I felt relief when she died as I was playing it.

Beatrice died at the timing when the bizarre incident got worse.

She was a plain, good-natured person who symbolized everyday life for Chloe.

And yet, she had a tragic death in a similar situation like Erica.

With the death of Beatrice, the incident became a pressing thing.

It was said that her death was the turning point towards the bad end route.

However, it can’t be said that we are already out of the rails from the original game.

I don’t know whether ‘routes’ and ‘bad ends’ like in the game actually exist.

To begin with, Beatrice basically has no relation to me.

However—

“Please, Tir.”

『Good grief, even when your life is in danger, you are still a good-natured person. But it can’t be helped. Since that’s just how you are.』

I can’t forsake her after all.

Because I know that dangerous situations will come to Beatrice.

There may even be situations where she might die before me.

She would be the same as me if I didn’t know anything.

We have no relation with each other, but I can’t think of it as somebody else’s problem.

『Leave it to me. I’ll protect her as much as you do.』

“Thank you, Tir.”

Tirnanog answered, knowing how I feel.

When I thanked him, he quietly drank his tea without responding.

From his difficult-to-understand expression, he seemed to be satisfied even though I was amazed.

“Well, let’s perform each of our tasks like this.”

『Umu, at least let me regroup with you at night.』

“I will return once every three or four days.”

While I am still cautious, I intend to make an effort in my schoolwork and perform my role as a student.

If possible, I also want to enjoy my school life.

Due to the fact that we had been taking measures against the death flags over the last few years, I longed for an ordinary life……

Furthermore, since I experienced being a working adult once, somehow nostalgic feelings for school became stronger.

I had a lot of painful memories during my school days in my previous life.

At the very least I want to live a normal and uneventful school life in this world.

“Now then, I think the mobilization schedule is like this.”

『Hm? Aren’t you forgetting something, Erica?』

“Didn’t you say that you wanted to examine the book you picked up at noon?”

Aah, that’s right.

I cleaned up the empty dish and took out the black-hooded swordsman’s lost items from my leather bag.

A book with red leather cover.

The emblem of red crested ibis.

I plan to hand them over to Harold to identify the owner after the entrance ceremony tomorrow.

“Right, I wonder if Harold will help me out if I ask him to investigate that person a little bit.”

For example, he would be easier to identify if he owns something like ex libris.

I noticed that this wouldn’t be a problem if I just read the content of the book.

(Ah, but I may be cursed if I open this book unskillfully.)

I remembered that there was a famous novel like that in my previous life.

Furthermore, she was the younger sister of the main character, not a stranger like me.

I started Glam Sight with a wand before opening the book.

It didn’t seem to have some spell on it in particular.

Looking at me being wary, the two phantom beasts also leaned over and sniffed the book.

“It doesn’t smell like it’s being possessed or anything~”

『Even if strange things appear from inside, we are here. Do not worry.』

I nodded, opened the book, and checked the inside cover.

In the ex libris, the words “Association of Mysterious Story Collectors” were stated.

And the title was “Mysterious Diary”.

I see, so this is a personal diary, huh?

It has a fancy binding, but it doesn’t seem to be a magical book.

When I tried to close it, a slip of paper fell apart from the page.

“Whoops……”

I caught the parchment that was about to fall off of the table.

I didn’t mean to read it, but I happened to see the words written there.

「Ghost of the Fallen Boy」 「Infinite Corridor」 「Man-Eating Mirror」 「Staircase to the World of Death」

Is this the table of contents?

There are titles that seem like ghost stories or mysterious stories.

As the name “Mysterious Diary” suggests, I wonder if it’s to write down the account of his personal experience about such events.

Apparently, there seems to be someone with similar hobbies like Eduart-oniisama in the academy.

『There is something written in the back, Erica.』

“Eh, is that so?”

Pointed out by Tirnanog, I turned the memo over.

Something was written there in some sort of characters I had never seen before.

“Since it’s not a modern character, are these ancient letters?”

“It’s not the ancient character of Karkinos. I don’t know this one.”

『It’s also different from the ancient characters of Aurelia.』

Tirnanog and Palug peered in.

Even though these two phantom beasts didn’t know, they could narrow it down to a certain extent.

“The shape of the characters somewhat resemble the characters of modern Lucanrant. It’s an ancient character of the North.”

Somehow this bothers me.

Certainly, I should have brought a northern linguistic dictionary.

If there is a character shape in common with the modern letters, we may be able to solve it from there somehow.

I decided to keep a copy of the ancient characters in my handbook just in case,

I took the writing utensil and placed a lump of star steel as a paperweight on the memo.

Incidentally, this paperweight also included fine star crystals, which made it an excellent alternative as a nearby lighting.

……or it should be, but about half of the crystals were not shining.

“Did the coating get scraped off and oxidized?”

When the paperweight was lifted, the star crystals began to emit light.

I placed it on top of the memo once again, it became dark only in a part.

“Huh……why is this happening?”

『How interesting!』

It shouldn’t be the effect of some spell.

Then, it means that the light disappeared due to something other than a spell.

For example, the magical power responsible for the star crystal emitting light getting blocked.

Thinking that far, I remembered one mineral.

It was the snowsilver ore.

If it was that mineral I saw during the day, it could shut off magical power.

If one mixes the snowsilver ore into transparent ink, this effect might also occur.

If I use the star crystals I can see the place where the snowsilver ore was painted, but this star crystal paperweight can only show the rough position.

How can I read it?

I threw another small star crystals into a mortar and crushed it.

I applied the star crystal powder I made onto the parchment with cosmetic puffs.

When it was ready, I asked the phantom beasts to shield the lights inside the room.

As I thought, blue light was emitted from the star crystal powder and the characters showed up in the dark.

“This time it looks like a modern character.”

『Headless Prince’s Morgue, wait……what?』

“Somehow, some dubious words came out, huh?”

Written in transparent ink was a message of dangerous and ominous nature.