Chapter 92
#Chapter 92: Librarian Ernst (13) - Fake? Real?
After the exchange event ended, Eris's standing became quite solid.
Because her performance in the mock battle, and the process leading up to it, had been so dramatic, the already high regard people had for her tilted even further toward worship.
At first, Eris was happy too.
The somewhat awkward relationship with her mentor had become close again, giving her room to breathe; and academically, a better public evaluation could only be a good thing.
But.
'...Even so, there has to be a limit, doesn't there.'
In her private dorm room, Eris let out a deep sigh.
The reaction was too much.
Even before, she had been fairly highly regarded as the Great Mage's disciple and the top student at the training school, but now that praise had gone beyond high regard and was close to outright worship.
Even when she just sat on a bench and stared blankly into space, people gilded her with praise, saying she was a picture-perfect sight or must be pondering Rabelosia's future, and the things she'd casually said while responding to other students were trending among the student body under the ridiculous title 'Lady Eris's Book of Famous Quotes.'
Honestly, it felt insane.
'I should stay away from the training school for a while.'
There wasn't much time left until graduation.
Classes at the training school were also becoming more sparse, shifting into something close to half self-study, and instead of devoting themselves to studies day by day, the students were busy gossiping about their futures.
Or rather, the latter had probably always been the case, but the important thing was that what had once had to be done in secret could now be done openly, and none of the professors would say a word.
Especially in Eris's case, since she'd made a clear showing at the exchange event and all but secured admission to Sky Academy, if she only applied in advance, it didn't seem like she'd be refused even if she skipped the training school and studied somewhere else.
It would be nice to go study at her mentor's house, which she had refrained from visiting for a while, and it wouldn't be bad to scout around the area near Sky Academy in advance either.
Even so, no matter which possibilities she considered, one place ultimately occupied Eris's mind at the end.
A silent library untouched by human footsteps.
And in one corner of that library, a librarian calmly reading his own book, his face making it impossible to tell whether he even intended to greet visitors.
"...Come to think of it, I haven't even seen him since the exchange event."
It couldn't be helped.
Reconciling with her mentor, being summoned by some high-ranking royal official, and so on—she really had to spend a while in a whirlwind of busy days.
"Well, I'd owed them a favor one way or another, so it should be fine to help boost their sales a little in return. And while I'm at it, maybe I can casually join in that person's hobby too, hmm."
After dressing up her true feelings—'I just want to go see him' and 'I want to share the experience of reading the same book together'—Eris lay down in bed, looking forward to tomorrow.
To be exact, she tried to lie down.
-Oh my, is that really true?
-Why would I have any reason to lie?
Bolting upright.
Eris shot up as if she'd been bounced off a trampoline.
She heard a man's and a woman's voices.
Cheerful, warm voices, as though lovers were enjoying a secret rendezvous and sharing intimate talk.
That in itself was fine. Honestly, it had nothing to do with her.
The problem was that those voices were far too familiar to Eris.
Whoosh!
Eris yanked the curtain open.
Beyond the window, sealed shut with two layers of solid protection, she could see the backs of a man and a woman.
He was fairly tall, with a slightly lean build, in a light suit and curly blond hair.
The woman was hard to make out, but Eris at least remembered that she was the one who had spoken to Ernst a few times in the library.
-Ahaha, you're really funny.
-I don't believe I said anything particularly funny.
As their shadows receded, so did the voices.
Almost reflexively, Eris dashed out of her room and hurriedly looked around.
Barely managing to spot the two at the edge of her vision, Eris closed the distance and trailed them.
The woman in conversation looked very happy, and Ernst wore his usual impassive expression, but the corners of his mouth were lifted just a little.
For some reason, Eris felt a sudden surge of irritation from deep inside.
It was a smile Eris had seen before too.
But seeing it directed at herself and seeing it directed at some other woman she didn't know well were completely different sensations.
-As for Miss Eris, the thing is...
Eris's body jolted with a start.
-Really? She didn't look like that at all.
-You can't tell what people are like by appearances alone.
She couldn't make out the exact content of their conversation.
But from tone and nuance alone, a person can usually tell the general feeling.
Conspiracies behind someone's back, mockery, sneering, malicious rumors.
The slyness and irresponsibility unique to those who spread such things dripped from the two voices.
Eris shuddered with a vague sense of betrayal.
'...Wait.'
Soon, she realized something was off and stopped in her tracks.
The circumstantial evidence was clear.
If this were a story from one of the books she'd read, it was enough to make her foresee the catastrophe that would follow.
And precisely because of that, Eris regained her composure.
It was too well put together.
Too plausible.
A story just happens to drift over, it's someone she knows, and what's more, that person is bad-mouthing her behind her back?
No, even before that.
'─From inside a private dorm room with excellent soundproofing, there's no way I'd hear the voices of people walking outside! I didn't even leave the window open!'
The moment she realized that, Eris reflexively cast a spell on her own head.
『Spell to Awaken from a Faint Dream』
A spell that dispels mental attacks below a certain level and weakens even attacks above it.
Crackle!
The instant the spell struck, she felt a recoil as if a thin pane of glass had shattered.
When Eris looked ahead again, the woman who had been visiting the library with Ernst was no longer there.
Only a complete stranger Eris had never seen before, who merely had a similar build.
The two of them, faces utterly bloodless, came to an abrupt stop.
They had apparently thrown away the cheerful expressions they'd had moments ago and were staring at Eris with cold, frozen faces.
The two of them opened their mouths.
-Caught?
-Caught?
-Caught, huh.
-So we were caught.
Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught.
Eris unconsciously stepped back.
And then she noticed.
The voices weren't leaking out of their mouths.
They were coming from right by her ear.
“Ugh…?!”
A chill of revulsion and fear made Eris raise a wall of flames around herself.
Then the voice that had been beside her receded, and soon broke into cackling laughter.
When Eris confirmed the direction of the voice, she widened her eyes.
Marik Grimlun.
The opponent she'd beaten down in a duel not long ago was looking at Eris with a clownish, grinning face.
“Ah, no, no, I hate that. You're way too quick on the uptake. I wanted to make you misunderstand all sorts of things a little longer and have you howl in despair!”
“You...! What exactly is this trick!?”
“What trick? Why are you asking something so obvious? Revenge, of course.”
Marik's eyes opened wide, so round and bulging it looked as if his eyeballs might pop out.
More reminiscent of a reptile, or a dead fish, than a human, the sight made Eris recoil instinctively in disgust.
But she only retreated a single step.
Then she gritted her teeth and drew her staff, pointing it at Marik.
Courage to face fear, composure to keep her reason even in a chaotic situation.
Seeing that display that someone might call 'excellent,' a grotesque twist formed on Marik's face.
It wasn't anger.
It was discouragement, or boredom.
“As expected, this won't be any fun.”
“?”
Before Eris could even ask in return, the two who had just been far away let out bizarre shrieks and lunged at her.
There was no time to hesitate.
Instead of intercepting them with a spell, Eris turned on the spot and ran in the opposite direction.
She gritted her teeth.
'I was too careless...!'
Given Marik's personality, it wouldn't have been strange for him to try to take revenge in some way, but she'd let her guard down too much because she thought everything was going well.
To bolt out of her room and blindly follow someone just because she heard a familiar voice—that was an absurdly defenseless and foolish thing to do.
Even if she'd been momentarily bewitched by a spell, realizing it had been too late.
Still, if she were to make an excuse.
'When and how in the world did he cast that spell? And without me feeling even the slightest warning?'
Eris had solid fundamentals as a mage.
Having solid fundamentals here meant not only being good at using spells, but also being skilled at detecting and responding to spells used by others.
Yet this time, she had fallen for the illusion without sensing any premonition or sense of wrongness.
She knew Marik was talented, but had he really improved this much in such a short time?
-Don't go. Don't go. Don't go.
-Come with us. Come with us. Come with us.
Behind her, the figures of the man and woman were chasing her at terrifying speed, accompanied by bizarre voices.
It wasn't like they were whispering in her ear this time; they were actually speaking with their own mouths, but that didn't make it any less chilling.
Even while she was running at full speed with a body-strengthening spell, the distance between them scarcely widened.
Eris fell into thought.
'Should I intercept them?'
Marik wasn't in sight.
If he'd failed to catch up, then now was an opportunity to reduce the enemy numbers.
But if Marik had caught up to her and was still masking his presence, the moment she used a spell to intercept them, she might be stabbed in the back.
On the other hand, she couldn't just keep running blindly like this, since she had no idea how long this strange alley would go on.
After weighing her options, Eris hardened her resolve and turned into a side alley.
Just as she was about to unleash an attack the instant the enemy rounded the corner.
“Pardon me for a moment.”
An arm shot out of the darkness, covered Eris's mouth in an instant, and pulled her in.
Eris tried to struggle in shock, but even when she bit the hand covering her mouth, elbowed the side, or stomped on their foot, the other person didn't budge in the slightest.
And after a moment.
-Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
-I'm coming too. I'm coming too. I'm coming too.
The shadows of the man and woman brushed past Eris and ran off in the wrong direction.
Only after they had gone far enough did the person holding Eris open their mouth.
“Please don't make too much noise. It would be troublesome if we're found.”
A flat voice that didn't suit the urgent situation at all.
At that all-too-familiar tone and manner, Eris widened her eyes and then checked the face of the one holding her.
Librarian Ernst.
He was there.
“Y-you're real?”
“If I'm real, then I'm real; if I'm fake, then I'm fake. Either way, isn't that a good thing? In the end, belief is something you believe if you want to, and if you don't, you don't.”
“…What's the most impressive first line from a book you've read recently?”
“I'm screwed. That was the conclusion I reached after careful consideration. I'm screwed.”
So he really was real after all.
Eris let out a breath of relief.
“As for the current situation─”
“I know you have a lot to say, but if you trust me, please follow me. We don't have time.”
“…Where are we going?”
“To the library. I can't properly use my power anywhere else. Ah, of course, if you don't trust me, you may go elsewhere. Relying on a training school professor would be a decent option in its own way.”
His attitude made it seem like the choice was entirely Eris's.
But, conversely, that earned Eris's trust.
At the very least, compared to the crude illusion from just now, those words were too much like Ernst.
“All right. Let's go to the library.”