Chapter 29
Chloe said she had returned to the academy this morning. She had originally planned to stay a few more days, but she came back urgently, fearing she might be forced to drop out if she stayed any longer.
She went straight to morning classes, where she happened to spot Kira looking for the magic orb nearby, and at that moment, she felt an uncontrollable anger.
“I arrived late for class, and my team members had already left, probably thinking I was absent. So I was moving alone when I accidentally saw Miss Kira, and I suddenly had bad thoughts. Of course, I didn’t intend to hurt her. I just wanted to see her rolling in mud and looking messy, so I sprinkled a lot of water at the bottom of the hill, placed a magic orb I had found nearby, and when Miss Kira approached, I secretly pushed her from behind. I never imagined Miss Emily, who was at a small distance, would fall too. I shouldn’t have attempted such behavior in the first place…”
“Yes, Chloe. That was really dangerous behavior. Please don’t do it again. And apologize to Miss Kira as well, not just me.”
“Yes, yes. I will. I’m really sorry for running away afterward because I was scared.”
“By the way, is Chloe’s magic invisibility magic?”
Emily asked, recalling how Chloe had suddenly appeared and disappeared behind Kira when there was no one else.
“Yes, that’s right. Invisibility is my main magic, and I can handle a little water magic too.”
“I see. So you tried to turn the bottom of that low hill into mud to make her fall and tease her, but coincidentally, there was a shelter underneath, so the ground softened. And when I stepped on it, the foundation collapsed, causing me to fall into the shelter?”
“Yes, that seems to be what happened. I’m sorry, Miss Emily. I don’t know why I did that then. At that moment, I was just so, so angry that I couldn’t control myself.”
Seeing Chloe deeply regretting and sniffling again, Emily let out a small sigh. It was undeniable that Chloe had made a mistake towards Kira.
However, Emily also felt a bit sorry for Chloe’s situation, whose reputation had hit rock bottom at the academy’s first party, which was no different from a debutante ball, and because of that, bad rumors had spread even in high society. Moreover, from the conversation she had just overheard between Chloe and her mother, it seemed her family was forcing her to drop out immediately.
“I understand how you felt, Chloe, but what you did to Kira today was really wrong. Even if it was a low hill, if she had fallen badly, Kira could have been seriously hurt.”
“Yes, you’re right. After I did it, I was so shocked and scared that I couldn’t bear it. I had all sorts of thoughts and was genuinely terrified. When I came to my senses, I was running away from there.”
“I see, you must have been scared. If it’s alright with you, how about going to apologize to Kira right now? I’ll go with you.”
“Yes, yes! I’ll do that. Thank you, Miss Emily. Thank you again for forgiving me.”
At Emily’s words, Chloe grasped her hands and shed tears again. Chloe, who had been driven to the edge, felt as if she had found a breath of fresh air and couldn’t hold back her tears.
It was after Chloe had calmed down and cried another round that she went to find Kira. Chloe faced Kira with eyes so swollen they could barely open.
Kira, thinking Emily had returned, opened the door without thinking, and was startled to see Chloe’s face, a mess of tear stains. After receiving Chloe’s apology, Kira was silent for a moment before apologizing to Chloe for ruining her dress at the banquet hall.
As the two stood hesitantly at the door, Emily, who had been watching them, suggested that they part for the day, and Chloe returned to her dormitory room.
“…It feels like a storm has just passed through, Miss Emily.”
After Chloe had apologized several times and left, Emily sat on the bed, catching her breath. Kira turned to Emily and shook her head.
“You’re right, Kira. I’m a bit overwhelmed too, with so many things happening at once.”
“Indeed. It seems like it’s been a long day. We should rest for now.”
Emily strongly agreed with Kira’s words. Although it was still midday outside, the two exhausted girls decided to draw the curtains and lie down to rest for a while.
It had been an eventful day.
* * *
Perhaps because it was the weekend, the campus library was quite empty.
Emily and Kira visited the library early the next morning to investigate the meaning of the ancient language they had seen in the shelter. Emily was browsing between bookshelves, selecting books that seemed relevant, while Kira sat at a desk with an ancient language dictionary open, diligently writing something down.
-Thud
As Emily brought three or four books and placed them on the desk where Kira was sitting, Kira looked up from her writing at the sound.
“This seems to be about all for books related to ancient magic. There’s less than I expected?”
Emily looked down at the few books on the desk, sounding disappointed after searching for a long time and finding very few books on ancient magic. Kira smiled softly and replied.
“I’ve heard that there are very few books on ancient magic in general libraries because many of them are about offensive magic. Apparently, you can read them if you join the Royal Palace Magician Reserve, where you can specifically learn offensive magic.”
“Ah… I see. That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
At Kira’s words, Emily suddenly recalled that Kira had mentioned being interested in offensive magic before. Could it be that Kira wants to become a military magician? As Emily blinked at this sudden information, Kira casually spoke and held out the paper she was holding.
“It’s not widely known information. More importantly, Miss Emily, could you take a look at this?”
“What? Oh, yes. What is this?”
“It’s the text we saw in the shelter yesterday. I tried to write down what I roughly memorized while looking at the dictionary. I think if we look at this, we’ll know what we need to search for.”
“What? You memorized all of that on the spot?”
Emily was astonished by Kira’s following words as she received the paper. It must have been mostly unfamiliar characters, not known ones, and she memorized it in one look! Isn’t this almost like photographic memory?
“It wasn’t that long a sentence.”
As Emily was too surprised, Kira became a bit shy and spoke as if it was nothing, putting her pen to her lips. However, Emily couldn’t hide her amazement at Kira’s superior intellect, which seemed more and more astonishing day by day.
“No, no… Even if it’s a short sentence, it’s ancient language, right? It couldn’t have been all familiar words. To memorize something that’s practically like a picture with just one glance! How smart must you be, Kira?”
“It was really a simple sentence, so it just stuck in my memory. Please don’t praise me so much, it’s embarrassing. Miss Emily, let’s sit down and take a look at this for now.”
Feeling uncomfortable with Emily standing in front of the desk with her mouth agape, Kira quickly pulled over the chair next to her. Emily sat down, led by Kira’s hand, still unable to erase her surprised expression.
Kira, slightly embarrassed, began to explain in detail, pointing her finger at the paper.
“From here to this sentence, grains were listed. These are the three words I found in the ancient language dictionary. Can you see? Oats, rye, barley.”
“Really? So do you think it’s a list of the types of grains stored in the shelter? Like, how much of what food is there, that sort of thing?”
“That’s likely. So I’ve skipped this sentence for now and am translating the next one. I’m trying to find the part about the magic we’re interested in first, for now.”
“That’s a good idea, Kira. Then please continue from here to here. I’ll check the next three sentences.”
“Okay, got it.”
As it was the weekend, as time passed, the few students who were there left the library, and soon there was hardly anyone passing by. The elderly librarian sitting at the entrance started dozing off due to the quietness.
In the calm, settled air, Emily and Kira, sitting in a corner window of the library, lost track of time and were busy interpreting sentences. Ancient language was more complicated to interpret than expected because all the words had similar forms.
When lunchtime came, Emily and Kira, finally raising their heads, briefly left the library to eat simple sandwiches and quickly returned to immerse themselves in the ancient language. Their appearance was so absorbed in the quest for knowledge, like any other magicians, that even the librarian who had been glancing at them soon lost interest and enjoyed a sweet afternoon nap with arms folded.
The desk where they sat gradually became covered with numerous papers scribbled with letters, and the ancient language dictionary and several books were messily opened.
How much time had passed since Emily and Kira had concentrated? The sun, already beginning to set, was casting slanted light into the library.
As the long-stretched sunset touched his face, the librarian who had been sleeping soundly suddenly woke up and got up to organize books to start closing the doors. And at that moment, Emily, who had been burying her head in the papers, suddenly raised her head.
“Kira! I think it’s this sentence!”
“Did you find it?”
At those words, Kira, who had been concentrating with her forehead resting on her hand, looked at Emily. Emily, with slightly bloodshot eyes, showed Kira the paper she had been writing on and underlined one sentence.
“…’Here I leave my mana. The monument is activated.’ And in the last sentence, there’s an expression ‘God’s mercy’. Do you think this is the right sentence?”
“Goodness, this is the sentence. Now we just need to interpret this!”
As Kira exclaimed with joy upon seeing the sentence Emily showed her, the librarian nearby cleared his throat, making his presence known. Startled, the two turned around to see the white-haired librarian quietly pointing at his wristwatch.
“…Ah, it seems it’s time for the library to close.”
“My goodness, is it that time already? It feels like we just came in after lunch. Then Kira, how about we borrow this ancient language dictionary and two related books and look at the rest in our dorm room?”
“Yes, that sounds good. Let’s quickly tidy up and go.”
The two hurriedly cleaned up the messy library desk, borrowed the books and dictionary, and left the library. On their way back to the dormitory, looking at the quite elongated summer sunset, they packed the sandwiches they had eaten for lunch together.
