“All right. Let’s go into my office! And as for our special curriculum going forward...”

“Huh? No, I just want to be able to read books in the Rare Books Archive.”

“Sorry to say this right after feeling destiny, but it will be difficult to open the Rare Books Archive for the time being. Luckily, I have a few hand-copied texts, so we can start with those little by little...”

“......”

“Miss Rubian?”

Rubian’s lips moved for a moment.

“Huh. This isn’t how this was supposed to go...”

“What was that?”

“Mm, nothing!”

“But... what is that beside you?”

Yuliope asked as she looked at the large basket sitting next to Rubian.

The child dragged the basket over with visible effort and set it down in front of Yuliope with a thump.

“Ah, this is lunch. I applied for it at the student dining hall and brought it!”

It was packed with shrimp sandwiches, sweet fruit, drinks, and all sorts of things.

“Then... can I look at the hand-copied texts while we eat this?”

Rubian asked. Yuliope rubbed at the heavy shadows under her eyes and nodded.

“Well, do as you like. Come in first.”

“Ah, thank you!”

*****

The moment I stepped inside, I stopped short. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“......”

The inside of the professor’s office was utter chaos. A total mess.

Things were strewn everywhere, and even the curtains over the windows were pulled tightly shut, so the whole room was dim and gloomy.

She must be so busy she even forgot to open the curtains.

Just how busy is she?

This was the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ kind of environment where it would be no surprise if a person turned into a ghost!

“Professor! It’s dark and scary in here! And it smells musty too... Can I open the curtains and crack a window?”

“A win... dow? There’s no way my office would have something like... that. It does?”

Yuliope slowly walked over to the window, pulled back the curtains, and opened it.

As the soft morning sunlight poured in, the sharp line between her brows tightened a little.

“All right, then let’s start by looking through the hand-copied texts and talking. That bookshelf over there first—”

“Professor!”

I dragged over some random chair and table and sat down.

“But I’m hungry! Want to eat this together?”

When I dragged the basket over, Yuliope lightly scratched at her chin, looking troubled.

“I’m not particularly hungry. Sit there and eat by yourself. I’ll show you the books when you’re done.”

“...I don’t like eating alone. I’m the youngest in my family, so I’m used to eating with everyone all crowded together...”

“Ah...”

“Even if I look like this, I’m actually kind of a spoi—”

“All right. I understand, so don’t start sniffling. I’ll eat with you.”

After looking at my dejected face, Yuliope sat across from me as if she had no choice.

With a reluctant expression, she picked up a huge shrimp sandwich and took a small bite. Watching her, I bit into my sandwich too.

“It’s good! Right?”

“...Yes. Well. I suppose it is.”

Even though Yuliope only picked at it, she still ate about half the sandwich.

A little later, I let out a rough breath.

“...For someone who said she was hungry, don’t you think you didn’t eat very much?”

“Limit, absolute limit, right up to my throat, full, urp...”

“Even if my office is a trash heap, vomiting is not allowed.”

Ugh. The professor ate so slowly that I ended up overeating.

As I rubbed my swollen stomach, Yuliope looked at me for a moment, then let out a small laugh.

“Come to think of it... thanks to you, I feel like I’m eating lunch for the first time in a while.”

“Why? They said you have to eat three meals a day...”

“That’s true. Actually, I think it’s been a while since I’ve had this kind of meal at all.”

With a face that looked a little lighter now, Yuliope cleared the table.

“Then I’ll show you the hand-copied texts now.”

“Okaaay!”

Swinging my legs, I watched Yuliope’s back.

On one side of her desk sat the old book I had seen earlier, placed there as carefully as if it were something precious.

Hmm...

Maybe now is about right.

When I moved my fingertips ever so slightly, a sudden strong gust blew in through the open window.

The curtains billowed wide, and the papers inside the room fluttered up through the air.

“Oh dear.”

Yuliope frowned and hurried to the window to close it.

“A sudden gust like this, what kind of autumn weather is...”

“Ahhh. That startled me.”

Quietly, I lowered the hand infused with magic.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes. I’m fi— Huh? Professor!”

I widened my eyes and stared straight ahead.

“The old book that was sitting on the desk...”

“Oh no.”

“The wind must have blown so hard that all the writing in the old book got blown away!”

I cried out loudly as I looked at the old book spread wide open. At that instant, Yuliope’s face changed as if she had just realized something.

“Did the professor’s salary get blown away with it too?”

“Excuse me, Miss Rubian? Would you mind not saying something so horrifying?”

Yuliope shuddered. She walked over to the desk and examined the old book with extremely careful hands.

She slowly turned through the inside, then gently slipped a bookmark into the page where the text still remained.

“...Sigh. So in the end, you saw it.”

Yuliope’s gaunt shoulders drooped.

“Professor?”

“That’s right. At this point, there’s no use trying to hide it anymore... The truth is, the Academy’s old books are turning blank.”

Yuliope confessed it calmly.

I sat still and listened. She rummaged through the basket, stuck a straw into a strawberry soda, and set it in front of me.

“For the past several weeks, I’ve been trying every possible way to stop this phenomenon... but I suppose I’ve reached my limit now.”

“Why is it happening?”

“Well. No matter how hard I search for the cause, I can’t figure it out.”

A bitter smile rose on her neat face.

“The only thing I can say is that the mysterious blessing that protected the Rare Books Archive seems to have vanished...”

With a face that looked as though it had aged ten years in an instant, she drank another fatigue-recovery medicine.

After a brief silence, she spoke again, her expression heavy.

“I’m sorry, Miss Rubian.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

Yuliope smiled faintly.

“I wanted to protect these old books well and pass them on intact to my students. Just as my teacher did. Just as my teacher’s teachers did.”

“......”

“I’m sorry... that I don’t think I’ll be able to pass this precious legacy on to your generation.”

Ah. So that was it.

I finally understood why Yuliope had brought a rare old book to class even in such a precarious state.

She had wanted to show it to us while even a little of its contents still remained. One more letter. One more picture.

Because it pained her that we might grow up without ever seeing the Empire’s legacy, preserved across thousands of years.

With a lonely face, Yuliope added,

“I no longer even have the right to face my dead colleagues. They gave their lives to protect these records, and yet I couldn’t even protect them...”

Her voice sank lower than ever.

I quietly looked at Yuliope Moulton.

She had hidden her heart behind things like work being hard and salary being important, but in truth, Yuliope was someone who loved this Academy and the Rare Books Archive more than anyone else.

Is that why?

The reason Yuliope dies in the original story.

Unable to bear the piled-up weight of life, she ultimately chooses to end it herself.

I can’t say for certain that this is the reason, though...

Maybe the weight of the depression growing little by little had simply reached the point where she could no longer bear it.

The purer that heart had been, the greater the despair must have been too.

“Professooor!”

Clang clang clang clang.

I grabbed a spoon and banged away on the strawberry soda bottle.

“Are you okay? Here, here, maybe you just didn’t eat enough? Want another sandwich? Or should we move somewhere else? Want to get more sunlight?”

“...Miss Rubian?”

Looking at the gloomy shadow cast over Yuliope’s face, I smiled.

“They say life doesn’t really have any meaning in the first place! The happiest way to live is just not to think about meaning at all!”

“What?”

“Mm, that’s what my grandpa said!”

I spoke with a bright little smile.

You must feel horribly guilty, since your colleagues died and now you can’t even protect the old books they protected.

But Professor Yuliope!

There’s no such thing as a problem in this world without an answer!

First, I have to stop the blanking.

The secret of my mark might be in there. And from my perspective too, I would very much rather not let any more precious materials vanish.

“All right... I’ll remember that.”

As if she found me admirable, Yuliope patted my head. Still, it was a relief that Yuliope’s condition did not seem too terrible yet.

“And... can’t the erased old books just be restored? There are tons of hand-copied texts in your office, Professor!”

She nodded.

“Yes. We are planning to hire restorers from outside. But... restoring them only means something if we stop the blanking first.”

A long sigh flowed out.

Forcing a smile, Yuliope tried to lighten the mood.

“Anyway, well. Even with things like this going on, our Academy is still a good place, so do consider enrolling next year. All right?”

“Then would Professor Yuliope teach me the ancient language?”

“Well, that...”