The hem of my light indoor dress swayed just below my knees. Was he really growing in more ways than just height? Was his intuition growing right along with him?

“I just tripped on the field today and scraped it a little...”

“Can I see?”

Khalid stepped closer out of nowhere and asked. With both brows drawn tight like that... he clearly didn’t look like he was going to let it go.

In the end, I had no choice. I crouched down and tried to lift my skirt.

At that exact moment, my arm was lightly caught and stopped.

“Come on, please.”

“Why! What now!”

“You said you hurt your knee. Sit here.”

Anyone watching would think I’d broken the thing!

And I was squatting in front of that tree for ages earlier.

Ah, was that why he noticed?

Anyway, I grumbled inwardly the entire time and sat down on the little chair Khalid pointed at. It was one of the chairs placed along the hallway for resting.

The corridor near the Rare Books Archive was terribly dark, without even a single ordinary lamp burning nearby. But the moon was so bright that seeing each other’s faces was no great challenge.

“......”

When I carefully lifted the hem of my skirt, my knee came into view, covered in patch after patch of bandages.

Khalid bent at the waist and peered at my knee like he was about to stick his nose into it. The look on his face as he checked the wound was more careful than I’d ever seen it.

“Who did this?”

“I fell while I was running...”

I mumbled something vague.

“Haa... The medicine?”

“I put some on this morning, but now that you mention it, I forgot to do it tonight.”

I’d been way too busy with the Rare Books Archive to think about that.

When I gave an awkward little laugh, Khalid sighed again and reached into his pocket.

Transparent ointment, disinfectant, and bandages appeared beneath the pale moonlight.

“...You carry all kinds of things around. It’s not like this is a battlefield anymore. How often are you getting hurt that you carry stuff like that?”

As he opened the ointment, he muttered flatly,

“You try going to the infirmary five times a day. They’ll hand you at least one tube of ointment.”

Ah. The habitual truant.

“Well, they usually just give me this kind of thing and kick me right back out.”

The bandages were peeled away with an extremely careful touch.

“I’m not like you, a kid who skips class all the ti— ngh.”

Right as I was babbling on without a care, something cold touched my knee. Startled, I flinched before I even realized it.

“Are you okay? Sorry.”

Khalid apologized with a face that looked even more startled than mine.

Hoo, hoo.

An unfamiliar breath settled over my knee. Somewhere beyond the window, autumn crickets were chirping.

“I’ll do it gently.”

“Uh, uh...”

What is this? Why does this feel weird too...!

I fell into total confusion and couldn’t do anything at all, just clenched the edge of my skirt tight.

The sound of my pounding heart drowned out the crickets.

This is awkward!

Why was he staring at my knee with such a serious look? Why was his breath this ticklish? Why? Why are his eyelashes that long?

“...Why are you squeezing your eyes shut like that?”

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I slapped a bandage on however it landed and sprang to my feet.

“If you do it that carelessly and it gets inflamed, then—”

“Khalid! I feel awkward!”

“What?”

Khalid narrowed one eye like he had no idea what I was talking about. I shook my head hard and slowly backed away.

“I don’t know! You’re just being awkward right now!”

It’s hot! Did summer suddenly come back again?!

“Why? Why is this happening?”

I muttered with a bewildered face. Khalid looked openly displeased as I kept abruptly moving farther away.

“Why are you asking me that? More importantly, come with me.”

“No! Stay back! Don’t come within one meter of me!”

“What? One meter? You misspoke. You meant one millimeter.”

“What are you even saying!”

I snapped and shouted, and in that moment, our eyes locked.

“......”

“......”

“Gaaah! This is so awkward! Why is this so awkward?!”

I whirled around and took off at full speed.

Khalid followed behind me, grumbling in utter disbelief.

“What did I even do wrong?”

“I don’t know! Stop chasing me!”

“I said let’s go together! What if there’s a ghost!”

“Right now, you’re scarier!”

“Am I the ghost now?!”

It turned into a moonlit race out of nowhere.

*****

One corner near the Rare Books Archive, after the two of them had disappeared.

Sliiide.

In the black space untouched by moonlight—

The shadow that had looked perfectly still wavered slightly, then suddenly split wide open.

“Kids really are full of energy...”

Liam Zebbert slipped out of a concealment sleeping bag and stretched briefly. In one hand, he was holding a familiar biology book.

“I came because I thought she might be wandering around alone. But to come here with that insolent brat...”

Liam hadn’t been able to focus on the discussion meeting he had waited so long for.

The thought that Rubian might come to the Rare Books Archive tonight had gotten stuck in his head.

What if she gets scared and cries all by herself?

That thought had made him leap out of his seat and sneak over here, but—

“This is definitely something I need to discuss with Father.”

Liam calmed his simmering mood and looked over the front of the Rare Books Archive.

“Honestly, she didn’t even close the door properly... If she got caught like this, just how hard would she end up sniffling? She really is an unbelievably careless little darling.”

Liam was about to lock the door, where the key was still dangling in place, when he hesitated for a moment.

Through the slightly open crack, the tightly packed books inside tugged at his curiosity.

“What is it about old books that’s supposed to be so interesting?”

...Still, if he wanted to keep talking with his youngest sister for a long, long time, it would probably be better if they had overlapping interests.

He cautiously entered the Rare Books ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) Archive, pulled out a book, and examined it. There were books with strangely many blank sections, but what caught his eye was something else entirely.

“No, this is... a drawing of an ancient magical beast?”

Ha... Hah! Hah!

Liam’s eyes flashed as he studied the illustration.

“Good. My next teacher is Yuliope Moulton.”

Just as expected—following Rubian around really did lead to nothing but good things.

But...

Liam’s hand stopped in the middle of pulling out another book.

What did that mean?

His sharp eyes fixed on empty air. His beloved sister’s small but distinct voice rang again at the edge of his hearing.

“You carry all kinds of things around. It’s not like this is a battlefield anymore. How often are you getting hurt that you carry stuff like that?”

“...A battlefield?”

What... was that supposed to mean? Was it just a figure of speech for a harsh past?

...Probably, right?

But then—

Why did it feel so unsettling?

Liam tilted his head, absently rubbing the bookshelf.

*****

Day 8 of camp!

After solving the blanking phenomenon in the Rare Books Archive, my camp life turned peaceful and easygoing.

Of course, I didn’t forget to give Yuliope a hint that the Rare Books Archive’s problem had been resolved.

The very next day after our infiltration of the archive—

As usual, I was eating my breakfast lunch basket when I casually said to her,

“Professor! I spent all night thinking about it, and since it’s a problem with the Rare Books Archive, wouldn’t the answer be somewhere inside the Rare Books Archive?”

“...Inside the Rare Books Archive?”

“Yes! Like, maybe carefully looking through the things that exist only inside the Rare Books Archive...”

“I don’t know. There wasn’t really anything unusual.”

Before leaving the Rare Books Archive, I had buried one book beneath the tree. Shallow enough that the top showed just a little.

It was a book I had made by scribbling in ancient language with magic.

And the next day, Yuliope found it in the Rare Books Archive.

“I happened to discover an old book called < How to Draw a Squirrel >. I thought Miss Rubian might find it interesting, so I brought it. I’ll read it to you.”

“Reeeally? Professor! This book is strange!”

I said it while watching Yuliope read the old book, tracing the text with her finger.

“Didn’t you say ancient language is read from top to bottom? But your finger is moving sideways right now...”

“Ah, yes. That’s because this one was written horizontally... Hm? Wait a moment.”

Yuliope stopped speaking, and her eyes lit up.

She started again, slowly tracing the vertical lines of the paragraph this time.

“...If the water of Lake Reim is poured onto the tree in the Rare Books Archive... then the strange phenomenon in the Rare Books Archive will come to a stop... Huuuh! This is!”

I swung my legs and pretended not to hear.

However, this secret must be kept forever, and if it is not, the goddess’s curse shall fall upon the Rare Books Archive once again.

All the while reciting the next line silently to myself.