Licht pretended not to hear and walked over to look down at Khalid. Over the summer, he seemed to have grown into a face even better at getting under people’s skin.

“Hi.”

“Does this look like a situation where ‘hi’ makes sense?”

“Hmm, more or less. More importantly... Rubian is at the Academy, right?”

“There’s no reason for me to answer—”

“There is.”

The prince’s pleasantly curved eyes were unbelievably irritating.

With a short sneer, Khalid tried to turn his head away, only to lock eyes with Liam, who had crouched down beside him.

Damn it.

He turned his gaze the other way, and this time made eye contact with Boyd....

“Ah, what a pain!”

Liam on one side, Boyd on the other, and right in front of him, the thoroughly unbearable Licht!

These were the real pain in the necks.

Khalid clawed at his hair with an invisible hand.

“Hurry up and answer. Why the captain of Team Zebbert isn’t making an appearance.”

Liam spoke in a stern voice.

In the end, Khalid had no choice but to explain what had happened so far to all three of them.

“Oh, so that’s what it was.”

Only then did Licht step back a little and murmur,

“Hmm. Now I can finally go back to the Imperial Palace.”

Apparently he had stopped by for a moment because he had been curious about Rubian’s whereabouts. He really was something else.

“She’s hiding who she is for a while because she needs time to adjust? Ugh, Ruby really won’t do. She’s way too timid.”

After listening quietly, Boyd shook his head.

“It looks like there’s no helping it. As her older brother, the only option is for me to stick right by her side all day, watch over her, help her, take care of her—”

“You’re jumping the gun, Boyd.”

Liam lightly rebuked him.

“This is something where we need to respect our fairy’s opinion too. If our fairy {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} adapts well here... then won’t she want to enroll at the Academy next year?”

“Ah.... Right.”

Pushing up his glasses with a strict air, Liam added,

“I think it would be best if we pretend not to know for now and just watch. She’ll be exposed on the last day anyway once Father and Mother come to observe the presentation.”

“Huh? But isn’t Father not in the capital right now? You said you got a letter at the townhouse, Liam.”

“Ah, right.”

Liam turned to Boyd.

“Come to think of it, I think there was supposed to be a short part during the presentation where you dance with your parents....”

Would Father be back by then?

Boyd added uncertainly,

“If the Duke isn’t there... then who’s Ruby going to dance with?”

At Khalid’s question, a brief silence spread through the group.

“That would obviously be....”

Me.

Obviously me.

Ugh, looks like it has to be me.

Hmm, wouldn’t I do?

Different dreams of the same thing rose in the boys’ heads.

Ahem! Liam cleared his throat loudly and said,

“Anyway, nobody bother our fairy, and if there’s anything we can do to help, let’s help quietly from behind. Understood?”

“You should worry about yourself.”

“I’m always good at that.”

And just like that, they all tacitly agreed to keep Rubian’s secret.

*****

Tap, tap.

Small footsteps echoed through the dark library.

After dinner, I pretended to go to bed, then secretly slipped out of the dormitory.

I need to check that magical lock I saw during the day one more time. And the inside of the Rare Books Archive too.

Unlike in the daytime, when everything had been brightly lit, the dark interior of the library felt utterly unfamiliar.

As I walked down the long corridor, I glanced around at my surroundings. Then, unable to take it anymore, I pressed myself close to the back of the person walking ahead of me.

“The library at night is really scary.”

At my whispered voice, Khalid glanced back at me.

He’d said he got kicked out of the infirmary during the day, and sure enough, his face looked a little pouty for some reason. Did he run into an enemy on the way here or something?

“It’s dark, so be careful.”

Even while apparently in a bad mood, his eyes still checked over me with care.

When I lifted my head, I met eyes with the squirrel sitting on top of his head. It stared at me with clear eyes, twitching its nose.

Cute....

Only then did my hunched shoulders ease a little.

But did it get a little chubbier?

Its cheeks were noticeably plumper.

I must’ve given it too many acorns....

But autumn was the season for putting on weight anyway....

Before I knew it, I had forgotten my fear and quietly fed it an emergency acorn from my pocket.

Just then, Khalid, walking ahead again, muttered under his breath,

“I have no idea where the key is.”

“Huh? The key to the Rare Books Archive?”

“Yeah. I did search the caretaker’s office, but....”

Khalid flicked a glance upward at the squirrel.

“There was so much junk in there. No way I could find it. A sleeping bag, a table, an armchair.... If I wanted to go through every single thing, it would take a month.”

“Seriously.... The caretaker’s kind of a lot. The library isn’t their house.... Why are they keeping household stuff there?”

“Exactly.”

Shaking my head, I thought there really were all kinds of strange people in the world.

“But it doesn’t matter even if there’s no key.”

Because I’m a mage!

Whooooo.

At that moment, wind blew eerily through a slightly open window. The shadows of the bare branches stretched long across the floor like a demon’s claws.

“But a library at night really, really, really is scary....”

I muttered to myself.

“Do you think there are ghosts? Spirits?”

“I heard there are the ghosts of people who studied themselves to death.”

“Huh? Really?”

A shiver ran down the back of my neck.

“Yeah. According to rumor, one in the natural sciences building studied so hard it died young.... Rubian?”

“......”

“Are you cold?”

Khalid lightly caught hold of my shoulder. Startled out of my skin, I answered,

“N-no?”

“......”

“I-I’m not scared at all. Because g-ghosts don’t exist!”

“I heard they do here.”

“They don’t!”

“They do—”

“Go home!”

I shoved Khalid’s arm out long and wrapped both arms around myself.

Things without a physical form were even scarier. And with this atmosphere on top of it, even more so!

Honestly, dark creatures that at least gave off magic would be better.

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”

Khalid let out a small laugh and held out his hand to me.

“Hm?”

I looked down at the pale hand bathed in white moonlight.

“If you’re scared, want to hold it?”

Again?

“...There’s no caretaker now, though?”

“Well. But there might be ghos—”

At that moment, the window gave a loud CLATTER!

“Eek!”

Without thinking, I grabbed Khalid’s hand. I was so startled that I instinctively tried to pull my hand back, but the grip tightening around mine wouldn’t let me.

“So you really are a scaredy-cat, Master.”

Khalid laughed low and turned around.

Tap, tap. There was some inexplicable delight in the sight of his back as he started walking again.

I pressed down hard on my pounding heart.

Why does this keep getting awkward...?

It really was strange.

The more time I spent with Khalid, the more weirdly aware of him I became, and the more awkward he felt.

...Is something wrong with me?

I bit down on my lip. Somehow, it felt like I had fallen into a maze with no exit.

“We’re here.”

Just then, Khalid stopped walking.

It was such a welcome thing to hear that I hurriedly let go of his hand and shook my head.

Later.... I’ll think about it later.

Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about something else anyway!

“I’ll take a look.”

When I reached out and stroked the lock, I felt the cold touch of metal.

In an instant, the structure of the magic circle rose in my mind. It was the kind of form that an ordinary mage would not be able to unravel easily.

Oh, this is going to take a fair amount of magic.

I looked at the hands of my wristwatch as they began to spin round and round.

When I put force into the dispelling spell, click, the lock opened.

At the same time, all the strength drained from my legs.

“Rubian!”

Startled, Khalid caught me from behind.

“Really... this kind of nasty magic... it’s been way too long....”

Feeling magic rush toward me in urgency, I endured my dizzying vision.

It was then.

“Hm?”

A soft, warm presence flowed into my limp body.

It happened just as the unlocked door creaked open.

Slowly, I straightened up and pushed lightly on the handle.

The inside of the Rare Books Archive, which had been sealed shut, revealed itself....

“Get back.”

Khalid instinctively stepped in front of me.

But I knew.

This soft, familiar presence.

“It’s magic.”

The inside of the Rare Books Archive was full of unfamiliar magic.

*****

“No way....”

Slowly, I took off my watch.

The capital of Babilon was a land where magic was thin.

So without this bracelet, I, a mage, would quickly run out of magic and become exhausted.

“There’s this much magic gathered in here.”

But here, even after taking off the bracelet, I felt perfectly fine. That was how rich the air was with magic.

“...How is that even possible?”

Khalid and I met each other’s eyes.

Slowly, we swept our gazes over the dark interior. I brought over a nearby lamp and lit it with magic.

The Rare Books Archive was wider than I had expected.

The large bookshelves were packed full of books, but the shelves themselves had been placed haphazardly and without order, making the path through them strangely inconvenient.

“Why are the shelves arranged like a maze?”

Khalid frowned.

“Isn’t there only one reason to put a maze at the entrance?”

I murmured.

“To make it harder to reach the center.”