56 Arthar Rodil (1/2)
Turning around, barely a few meters from her position, the shiny letters were forming a word above the wooden door. ”Library”. The more she looked at her card that was visibly pointing toward it, the more Leilade was perplexed. The only one that could have done that would be the sleepy librarian, but he was not very fond of her. Otherwise, why someone like him would have convinced her to never come back, only to personally call her? Right before she passed through the door, she saw from the other end of the corridor three kids leaving a room, visibly disturbed. All their faces were very dark like they just heard a piece of terrible news.
Right at this moment, she saw the two friendly students that she previously met near the library leaving with a few books, but they didn't notice her. They were joking about the fact that they will have some maggots around their feet for the rest of the year because they will have to train the new students themselves. One was lamenting about his lack of rest that will only increase as time passed while the other was hoping that some beautiful girls will need some personal training. Because of the weird stare his companion gave him, he had to deny any allegations of being attracted by kids and only planned to make the said girl fall in love with him before waiting for her to become an adult. That didn't stop the disgusted look at all.
Following the direction that the magical arrow was showing her, she bypassed the still sleeping magician in charge of this room. Now, even the Viscount was surprised, because what was the reason for her to be here, if not because she would be trained by that lazy man. She traversed the labyrinth without any problem and finally arrived in front of the door that was locked to her. She knew that it was the one that led to deeper levels, filled with what she was looking for. All the dark secrets, the most advanced spells and devices created to this day, what was the true powers of the Dark Gods and the Heroes. Not just the regular tales that were told to the common people.
But after waiting for a few minutes, she was getting a little bit impatient. The arrow was pointing right toward the door and she already tried to use it the moment she arrived. After three tires, she gave up on the idea and guessed that the human she should meet was right behind the door. But he was visibly not pressed by the time and took his time to do whatever he wanted and not uncomfortable at making a poor and innocent child waiting for a long time.
”Remember, don't show it to anyone and absolutely don't lose it. It is only a copy, so it's not a problem if it is destroyed, but you should never lose sight of it. If something wrong happens, just destroy… oh, what are you doing here child?”
Two magicians were talking while leaving the door and one was the serious magus Arthar Rodil that she saw when she arrived. He was talking to an unknown woman that was gripping tightly a scroll but none of them expected to see Leilade standing right next to the door. At first, they were suspicious, but then, the magus smacked his head after remembering the reason.
”Damn it, you are not Istuienn? I normally called here and didn't expect her to arrive so soon. You can go Melinda and remember my instructions. As for … eh … you know what, they will explain that to you.” They were visibly embarrassed because a witness was hearing their discussion, but they were not blaming Leilade for that. The woman, Melinda, even smiled at her before leaving and soon, only Arthar and Leilade were facing each other.
It didn't take her a long time before linking everything together and guessed what probably happened. The only thing that was not planned was probably her being so quick at reaching this obscure location of the library. Just the fact that she was already close to it and knew how to not get lost was not taken into account by the magus. Looking at him in the eyes, Leilade calmly said a single name, to see if she was right.
”Alexander?” The face of the calm elder changed for a fraction of seconds but after that, he broke in a smile. It was the first time she saw him doing that since it was mainly his happy twin, Artour, that laughed during the welcome ceremony.
”Yes, it was Alexander. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that we took a bit too long to find what we were looking for. Also, you are quite quick to reach this door, most students, even older ones, still have problems while roaming in the library. Anyway, even if what I said was just to prevent Melinda to be suspicious, that is still a good thing in the end. That way, I can still promote you as my pupil while doing the same with Istuienn. Let's say that I took pity of you because I still called you in the end. Do you agree?”
From the looks of it, while they were going out of their way and even started to properly train first-year students, the small masquerade Leilade was taking part of was still maintained.Whatever was pressuring the Kingdom was still a threat to the Academy, one big enough to do something like that. Not just one, but two magus were scared enough of not being able to protect a single girl with their combined powers.
”I am fine continuing your play. The only thing that will perturb what you are aiming for is the very princess herself. She doesn't like me very much if you didn't already know that. The reason was just a simple misunderstanding, but that red fool made everything worse, and the son of Alexander wasn't any better.”