{12}“The Outsider”

  ***

  The next morning. Rin woke up much earlier than usual. After discussing it the previous evening, they realized that the only time everyone was free was early morning before classes. Having hurriedly finished her preparations, Rin descended the spiral library stacks and opened the main entrance. There, she saw Ned and Leo waiting in front. They were standing side by side next to the reclining Baron.

  "Hello, Senior Ned? Hello, Senior Leo?"

  "Good morning, Rin."

  "You're up, Library Fairy?"

  Rin bowed to Baron who was lying behind the two.

  "Good morning, Baron."

  Baron, as usual, acknowledged her greeting by opening and closing one eye.

  "You're up early? Where are the others?"

  "They should be coming soon, right? We agreed to meet here."

  Just as Ned said, Calia and Elrunt arrived shortly after. Calia had now adapted well enough to the school that she could calmly greet Baron without any distress. And finally, Leo asked Shulmaier, who was the last to join them:

  "What about the Professor?"

  "..."

  Shulmaier shook his head.

  He had not gone back to the dormitory yesterday but had slept in the laboratory. He was supposed to speak with Professor Gernshvatz about the new club as soon as he returned in the morning.

  "The Professor didn't come."

  Leo tilted his head curiously.

  "That's strange. He doesn't usually sleep elsewhere?"

  They headed back toward the History Department building. While crossing the plaza, they discovered a very large notice posted on the bulletin board. It announced that all classes were canceled today due to an important faculty meeting.

  "Hooray!"

  "This is like a weekend!"

  Students gathered in the plaza cheered at the thought of having their weekend start a day early. An important faculty meeting likely meant a major meeting where most professors would attend. Therefore, searching for professors individually right now would be meaningless. So the group decided to change their plan.

  "Where do they hold the meeting?"

  At Calia's question, Rin shrugged. She had only lived in the library and knew very little about school affairs. Not just her, but Leo, Ned, and Shulmaier all shook their heads saying they didn't know either.

  "I think I can figure it out."

  It was Elrunt. How would a new student know?

  "It's not exact, just an estimation."

  He took out his notebook and quickly sketched a map.

  "The entire Academy grounds look like this. First, let's eliminate all the classroom buildings. Then the training grounds and research buildings too. That leaves the dormitories, dining hall, library, amphitheater, and the Administration Building. Among these, dormitories, dining hall, and library aren't suitable for meetings, so that leaves either the amphitheater or the Administration Building."

  Leo nodded.

  "Process of elimination?"

  The group first headed toward the outdoor amphitheater. This decision was based on the difficulty of searching the Administration Building first due to its size. After walking about 10 minutes through the eastern garden from the plaza, they could see the amphitheater in the distance.

  Even from a glance, there were no professors there, only students practicing for a play. They immediately turned around and headed toward the Administration Building. And they first asked about the meeting location at the reception desk.

  "I don't know."

  The receptionist firmly shook her head.

  "I've heard it changes every time."

  Changes every time? Does that mean there's no dedicated meeting room? Despite their suspicions, they couldn't extract any more information from the receptionist.

  With no other option, they decided to split up and search the Administration Building. Excluding the first floor with the reception area, they had to search from the second floor to the fourth floor at the top. Rin and Calia would take the second floor, Ned and Elrunt the third floor, and Leo and Shulmaier would go up to the top floor. After sending the others up to the third floor, Rin and Calia remained on the second floor.

  "What now?"

  At Calia's question, Rin shrugged, saying she didn't know either.

  "This is my first time here too. We'll just have to check one by one."

  Unlike the first floor with its central hall and reception desk, the second floor consisted of a long corridor with a succession of rooms. The rooms had no windows, and not knowing which one might be holding the meeting, the two decided to press their ears against each door rather than knocking.

  "It's quiet here. How about over there?"

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  "This one's quiet too."

  In the end, they checked every visible door to the end of the corridor but found nothing. As they were about to go downstairs after checking the last room, they saw the others also coming down the stairs. Judging by how they were all shaking their heads, it seemed everyone had come up empty-handed.

  According to their accounts, the third floor was as empty as the second, and the fourth floor was completely blocked off, so they just came back down. As everyone started to look mentally exhausted, Leo stepped forward to summarize the situation.

  "Damn it! Let's call it a day!"

  ***

  That night. Rin woke up to the sound of conversation coming from downstairs. Carefully opening her door and looking down, she saw no one. Given that she could still hear the conversation, it seemed someone must be outside the library.

  'Who could it be?'

  Though she was scared, she was also curious. Not wanting to be discovered, she didn't light a lamp and carefully descended along the stacks.

  *...*

  By the time she reached the second floor, she could barely make out the conversation. Rin pressed herself against a window between the bookshelves and carefully looked down.

  'Professor Temel? Who's the other person?'

  There stood Professor Temel and another person, a stranger completely covered in a cloak. Judging by how Baron was quietly lying nearby, the stranger wasn't a complete outsider.

  "...Is it true that they have been moving recently?"

  Professor Temel asked, but the cloaked figure didn't answer. They probably nodded or made some gesture.

  "After being quiet all this time, suddenly? Exactly which faction has come down?"

  Then a very low and cold male voice emerged from beneath the cloak.

  "The Kunderan Mountains."

  "So it's Renbania... what are they targeting?"

  "Still under investigation."

  Followers? Factions? Coming down from the mountains? Rin's mind became confused by this incomprehensible conversation. She wanted to hear more, but afterward, the voices of the two people grew softer, making it difficult to understand.

  As Rin concentrated more on the sound, she realized that she was eavesdropping secretly. Professor Temel wasn't some suspicious person, and she suddenly found her behavior both amusing and embarrassing.

  'Right. Instead of doing this, I should just go down and ask directly.'

  With that thought, there was no need to be careful anymore. Rin strode down the spiral stacks and opened the entrance door.

  'Huh?'

  No one was there. The two people who had been standing there just moments ago had vanished. Baron was lying in his usual place, looking at Rin with just one eye open.

  The next morning. The group gathered again in the Engineering Department meeting room. Rin told them about the strange encounter from the previous night. Each began to offer their own theories.

  "The cloaked figure is probably just another professor."

  It was Elrunt.

  "Is there any need to complicate things?"

  Leo shook his head.

  "It must be an outsider. They were wearing a cloak because it's still cold."

  Then Ned spoke up.

  "Could Professor Temel be secretly plotting something bad?"

  Both Rin and Calia objected to this.

  "Professor Temel isn't that kind of person!"

  "..."

  "Do you really not want to read? He's such a righteous person!"

  They talked for over an hour, but in the end, it was all groundless speculation. That was inevitable given how few clues they had. Shulmaier was the only one among them who hadn't spoken.

  "Evil creatures."

  That seemed too much of a stretch. Everyone thought Shulmaier was just throwing out random words. Everyone except Elrunt.

  "If it's evil creatures... perhaps you mean the First Evil-Mortal War?"

  "Mm."

  The First Evil-Mortal War refers to the great war that swept across the Northern Mixed Continent about 60 years ago.

  Everyone found it difficult to understand where Shulmaier's idea was coming from, no matter how casually he might have mentioned it. Even Leo, his close friend, seemed puzzled.

  "Hey Shulmaier. Even I need an explanation for this one."

  Shulmaier frowned, then took out his notebook and began to write. Why did he dislike speaking so much? It's not like he couldn't speak at all.

  Enduring this uncomfortable situation, the group looked at the note, where the writing was extremely brief.

  [Three heroes, killed Evil King, almost all evil creatures died.]

  During the First Evil-Mortal War, the Evil King 'Pastrofen' led an army of unknown monsters, which people called evil creatures (mamu?).

  Their power was so strong that they devastated more than half of the Northern Continent, including Renbania, in just two years. Here, 'Three Heroes' refers to three exceptional heroes who appeared in the middle of the war, one of whom is Count Merlen, who is immortalized as the statue in the fountain on campus.

  They succeeded in killing the Evil King in the fifth year of the war, which turned the tide in favor of humans. As a result, most of the Evil King's army was killed...

  "The rest are said to have fled north."

  Shulmaier's expression as he solemnly murmured was so serious that no one could respond. So because of the word 'Kunderan Mountains,' he recalled that? More importantly, if he's going to be this sparing with both speech and writing, how does he normally communicate with Leo?

  "Shulmaier is..."

  Leo scratched his head and said.

  "...a conspiracy theory enthusiast."

  Shulmaier made an X with his arms to deny it, but Leo smoothly ignored his protest.

  "A while back, he was obsessed with the theory that Baron used to be human, and now it's the First Evil-Mortal War?"

  Leo pulled out a paper from a small bookshelf in the corner and unfolded it. It was a map of the Mixed Continent.

  He placed his hand on the Northern Continent and searched around.

  "Here it is!"

  His finger pointed to a mountain range at the far eastern end—Kunderan.

  "This is Kunderan."

  Unlike the Southern Continent, which has many diverse countries mixed together, the north has maintained a three-nation system for a long time due to the mountain ranges that divide the continent. The easternmost area connected to the Kunderan Mountains is the Kingdom of Renbania, the middle is the Kingdom of Valserun, and the westernmost is the Republic of Ascalia, where Elvlin Academy is located.

  "Renbania is too far, isn't it?"

  Leo had argued earlier that the cloaked man was an outsider, but Renbania was a country at the far eastern end. Even traveling as fast as possible would require crossing two great plains and mountain ranges, and following the southern coastal route would take at least a month of travel.

  Why would Professor Temel have someone gather information about something happening so far away? No matter how long they stared at the map, no significant insights emerged. Then Elrunt, whatever he was thinking, walked to the blackboard and wrote something.

  [Who are "they"?]

  "This seems like an important question too, doesn't it?"

  Indeed. Last night, Professor Temel clearly spoke of "they." He even mentioned that they were moving in the Kunderan Mountains. The mountainous regions of the Northern Mixed Continent are so high and treacherous that they reject human presence. To move around in such places (as Rin experienced earlier this year) would require risking one's life.

  "So."

  Elrunt looked at Shulmaier in the corner.

  "Are you saying that 'they' are not humans but evil creatures?"

  Only then did Shulmaier nod with a satisfied smile. Why couldn't he just explain this from the beginning?

  "But there's another question."

  Elrunt wrote another sentence.

  [Where did Professor Temel and the cloaked man disappear to?]

  "Rin, do you remember how long it took you to come down from the second floor to the entrance?"

  "Since I was coming down to ask directly, I wasn't being careful. It probably took less than a minute."

  "That makes it even stranger. They disappeared from around the library in less than a minute?"

  That certainly doesn't make sense. While an unidentified outsider might be able to move quickly, Professor Temel is elderly and couldn't possibly move that fast.

  "Baron was there?"

  Rin nodded at Calia's question. Then Calia asked again with a serious face.

  "Then does Baron... perhaps speak?"

  "Kihik."

  "Hahahahaha."

  Starting with Ned, the meeting room suddenly erupted in laughter. Calia's face turned red with embarrassment.

  "Hey, it's possible! He seems to understand everything we say, so I thought I'd ask!"

  "Oh! Wait a minute!"

  Rin was the one who exclaimed. Everyone stopped laughing and looked at her.

  "Why didn't I think of that?"

  Rin smiled brightly at Calia.

  "You're right, Calia. We should ask Baron!"

  "...What?"

  -To be continued-