“Wow! The Rare Books Archive is amazing!”

I threw both arms wide and cried out in excitement.

Honestly, I was pretty used to this place by now, so it wasn’t actually surprising at all, but...

Do your best, Rubian!

“Ahem, ahem. The shelves are a bit chaotic, aren’t they?”

Yuliope twisted open a bottle of fatigue-recovery medicine and spoke in a voice that sounded quietly pleased. It seemed my intense reaction was very much to his liking.

“Yes! It’s like a maze!”

“So be careful not to get lost. If there’s a book you want to take out and look at, make sure you tell me.”

“Okay!”

I threw myself completely into the role of an excited child who had finally gotten to visit a place she had always wanted ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) to see, and sprinted between the shelves of the Rare Books Archive.

“Wow, wow! This is so cool!”

“M-Miss Rubian? Aren’t you running a little too wildly?! If you slam into a shelf like that and my precious books come crashing down—!”

I stopped dead and looked up at the professor, who had gone pale with fear and anxiety.

“Professor... are you saying your books are more precious than I am?”

“Ahem. Of course Miss Rubian is more precious. I was worried about you.”

“Right? No matter what, they’re still inanimate objects.”

“Yes. Of course. If you fall and crash into a shelf, my delicate books would be hurt more than sturdy Miss Rubian would—no, wait, I said that backward.”

Heehee.

Grinning, I tore off running again.

“Professor, your salary is going to come crashing down! Rattle, rattle! Whoooa!”

“Noooo!”

There was no way I was actually going to crash into anything. I knew all the paths through this maze of shelves already.

If he’d just said you’re not supposed to run in a library, I would’ve walked quietly!

But when he reacted like that, how was I not supposed to tease him?

Maybe it was the magic in this place, but I was feeling a little giddy. I ran around peeking here and there for quite a while, thoroughly draining Yuliope’s soul.

But in the end, the only one who wound up tired was me, of course. Tragic.

Panting, I dropped into a chair at a desk set up off to one side of the Rare Books Archive.

“Huff, I’m exhausted. Huh? But Professor, this desk looks even more like a maze.”

After bringing me some water, Yuliope straightened a stack of papers with a few brisk taps.

“This is where I’ve been doing the restoration work. It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it?”

“I thought it was a garbage heap!”

“Hahaha. Sharp. Painfully so.”

Sitting there, I straightened the clothes I’d thrown into disorder from running around.

Retied my shoelaces.

Pinned my crooked name badge back on straight.

Yuliope watched me for a while, then opened his mouth a little awkwardly. His gaze was fixed strangely on my badge.

“By the way, Miss Rubian. It feels a little ridiculous to ask this now, but...”

“Yes?”

“Were you pretending to be a commoner because being noticed as a Zebbert made you uncomfortable?”

Really. Asking that now of all times.

Then again, he’d been so out of his mind over the archive that I could understand it.

Sometimes professors from my other classes would quietly approach me and ask the same thing. Whenever they did, I gave roughly the same answer.

“Well, yes, more or less? I don’t really like standing out...”

The fate of one who runs, I suppose.

In reality, I’d only started lying low because of that suspicious maid from the opening ceremony, and one thing had led to another until I ended up hiding my whole identity.

“And I keep thinking about when those bad men kidnapped me in Ipsen too.”

“Ah...”

Yuliope’s brow furrowed seriously.

He seemed to think the kidnapping incident had left me with something like trauma.

“That makes sense. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

He patted my head comfortingly, then went back to sorting the papers.

I swung my legs and sank into thought.

Come to think of it, that maid never showed up again, did she? Khalid didn’t say anything either...

Had she really just been a lost maid, and Khalid had overreacted?

Still, thanks to that, I’d been able to investigate the Rare Books Archive without much trouble. The only thing left now was figuring out how to deal with the mark...

Will it really work?

I thought of the stone stele standing beneath the huge sealing tree.

That was when something among the papers Yuliope was sorting caught my eye.

< Restorer Application >

That was...

“Huh? Professor, weren’t the restorers already all hired?”

I pointed at the papers as I asked, and Yuliope gave a light shrug.

“Only some of them. We’re still conducting interviews. Scholars who can read the ancient language are extremely rare, so there aren’t many applicants to begin with.”

“I seee.”

“And this isn’t something you can do by simply reading it. You have to understand the context and restore it from there... which makes hiring even more difficult.”

“Oof.”

Staff shortages here too...

I stared at one of the applications.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.

If it were me.

What would I have done?

If I were a tracker waiting for a chance to infiltrate the Academy—

I never would’ve let this opportunity pass.

I probably would have stolen the identities of the people accepted as restorers and used that to infiltrate the Academy properly...

Wait, didn’t that sound incredibly villainous just now?

Startled, I quickly shook my head.

But even after thinking it over again, that still seemed like the most plausible method.

Security at the Academy had tightened dramatically after the camp opening ceremony ended. That meant sneaking around in some flimsy maid disguise again would no longer be possible.

I heard some noble house sent in a huge number of guard knights.

Apparently that had Headmaster Odelly walking around with the biggest grin on the face.

I didn’t know which house it was, but it had to be some family with an absurd tendency to go overboard.

Still, since that meant I was safer too, it worked out pretty well for me.

If I really were a tracker, that is.

I was still deep in thought when Yuliope, having finished sorting the papers, rose to his feet.

“Well then, Miss Rubian. I have an interview, so I should be going.”

“What? Don’t tell me it’s a job interview?”

“That would be an extremely sweet and thrilling thing to hear, but no. It’s an interview for a restorer. I’m the interviewer.”

“Oh...”

A question immediately came to mind.

“But are you holding the interview outside?”

“Yes. The interview itself is actually tomorrow morning. But I thought I’d stop by home for the first time in a while, so I arranged to meet them outside while I was at it.”

“Professor! You finally get to leave work!”

“Hehehehe. I’m only going to get a change of clothes. I’ll be living here again for the foreseeable future, after all... Exciting, isn’t it? Hehehe.”

Oh dear. Professor was losing his mind.

Still, I had nothing I could really say to that, so all I could do was pat my teacher’s arm sympathetically.

*****

“Ahh, what nice weather! By any chance, got any leftover liquor? My throat’s feeling a bit dry.”

Allen shouted as he spat onto the ground.

Leon, finally losing patience, turned to Leviathan.

“Your Grace. How much longer are we going to keep dragging that bastard around with us?”

“......”

Leviathan glanced back at the ugly-looking mercenary. He tapped the horse lightly in the side, and its pace quickened a little.

“Urrgh!”

Allen, whose hands were bound as he trudged along tied to the horse, stumbled.

“Y-Your Grace! Y-you can’t run! And you can’t go any faster either!”

His thoroughly frivolous voice rang out.

“Then either shut up or sing.”

“Heh. How am I supposed to talk if I shut up? You’ve got a better sense of humor than the rumors said—”

Thwack.

A blow landed before he could finish.

Knight Yujen, no longer able to tolerate him, had smacked Allen across the back of the head.

“How dare you speak so rudely in front of His Grace? Are you insane?”

“Huh? You just hit me in the head? Surely you don’t treat juniors way younger than you like that too, right? Hm? Throwing your weight around and all that?”

What the hell was he even talking about?

Leviathan kicked the horse forward again.

“Urrgh!”

Allen staggered a second time.

“You know what I meant by sing.”

At the low voice, Allen’s mouth twisted petulantly.

“The one who hired you to watch the Magic Kingdom.”

“......”

“Tell me who it was.”

Fuck.

Allen swallowed the curse inside.

He was acting calm on the outside, but in truth, under that murderous stare, it felt like even his core was shriveling up.

Shit... of all people, why’d I have to get caught by the Duke?

He remembered the moment he had been caught.

“Please spare me!”

“You... are a mercenary. Who paid you to keep an eye on the Magic Kingdom?”

“Th-that’s something I can’t tell you.”

That was the truth.

Because of the oath magic that damned little brat Khalid had placed on him.

The side with the artificial eye throbbed.

If I run my mouth wrong about that bastard and the princess, my blood’s going to burst like fireworks!

Just imagining it was horrifying.

“So for a rat, you’re awfully committed to protecting your client’s secrets. Quite customer-oriented in useless ways.”

“Hahaha. Well, I’m a loyal guy. Solid character too, you know...”

“Congratulations. Your parents must be proud they raised you so well. Unfortunately, I didn’t grow up to be a very decent person.”

Leviathan leveled his sword at him.

“If you don’t talk, I’ll kill you.”

Allen had spent plenty of years crawling through filth. He was a seasoned mercenary who had seen all sorts of ugliness.

But in front of a man called a hero, he was still nothing more than a miserable little creature.

Muttering every curse in the world under his breath, he found himself wondering which would hurt less—getting his head cut off, or having his veins burst backward through his body.

At that moment—

For some reason, after staring at Allen for a long while, Leviathan lowered his sword.