Chapter 15
“Haaah...”
Grimory trudged down the corridor, sighing deeply enough to sink the floor. A dagger in one hand and her field guide in the other, she prowled the academy’s main building.
“Hey, Grimory! Don’t I look aweso?”
Either unaware of-or ignoring-Grimory’s gloom, Acitia whipped out the sword Henrik had given her and struck pose after pose.
“Acitia, you rember what Professor Henrik said, right?”
“Of course! Don’t draw weapons in front of people. Avoid combat whenever possible. And when this job’s done, we get all the sweets we want!”
“I don’t care about sweets. First rule-where are we?”
“First-floor corridor of the main building!” Acitia answered, chin high.
And she was right. They were standing in the busiest hallway of the academy’s largest building, a constant stream of students flowing past.
Acitia had already, spectrally, broken Henrik’s first rule.
“We’re not supposed to brandish weapons where people can see,” Grimory said, lifting the leather-sheathed dagger.
“There’s no one here, so it’s fine. As long as we don’t get caught, we’re golden.”
Acitia began juggling her sword, adding flashy spins for good asure.
The corridor was crowded in theory, but most rooms were windowless practice labs; during class period nobody could see them. Still, in a place where anyone might appear at any mont, her childish antics grated on Grimory’s nerves.
“Footsteps,” Acitia murmured.
“Footsteps? I don’t hear anything.”
Acitia slid the blade ho an instant before several students erged from a classroom and climbed the stairs.
‘Seriously?’
Grimory shot her a sidelong glance. Acitia bead back, proud as a cat with feathers on its lips.
“See? Child’s play.”
“Haaah...”
Grimory pressed her temples, recalling Henrik’s briefing.
“You two will be my assistants.”
“Assistants?”
“He’s on guard against right now. So you’ll act as bait. A couple of students at your level look easy prey; he’ll attack. When he does, ring this and alert .”
Clink.
She drew the tiny bell from her pocket; its clear chi rang whenever she shook it.
“Just drop it on the floor, he said...”
She didn’t trust a gadget she’d never seen before.
“Still, using students as live bait feels wrong-”
Whack! Acitia slapped her between the shoulder blades.
“Professor knows what he’s doing! Look-he trusted with this mission. Let’s nail it together!”
“Second rule: avoid combat. Are you sure you understand that?”
“Obviously! If they look weaker than , we beat them senseless!”
“...”
The road ahead looked bleak. Grimory had no clue how to rein in the noble juggernaut beside her.
‘House Flamur produces knights galore-are they all like this?’
She followed the red fog tendrils across the polished floor. The mist trailed from the ceiling all the way to the basent stairs.
‘Where is the Professor and what’s he doing...?’
Through a window she saw knighthood students drilling in the training yard beyond.
She studied the dagger in her hand.
‘I wanted to be a scholar...’
Frail since birth, she’d always dodged anything physical.
She tugged her cap lower and inhaled.
‘I can do this. Just control my strength. Leave the heavy lifting to Acitia.’
Trailing the demon’s traces, she halted at the basent staircase.
“Huh?”
Grimory whipped her head left and right.
“What’s up?”
“The trail... it ends here.”
To her eyes, the red thread snapped just before the first step.
“Hmm... classrooms above, below is-what, again? Acitia, what’s downstairs?”
Acitia rolled her eyes in thought.
“Storage, I think. So the trace goes inside?”
“Yeah, but-”
“...!”
Acitia’s head snapped up; she stared at the basent door.
“Acitia?”
“Sothing’s there.”
Instinct told her an indescribable sothing was squirming beyond the door, watching them.
“Let’s take a look.”
“Wait-what?!”
“If we only peek, it should be okay. I’ll shield you; you get ready to call Professor.”
“Fine. The mont we confirm it’s a demon, we run back up.”
“Deal.”
Grimory’s first instinct was to dash back upstairs and tell Henrik the basent was sealed off.
Acitia, however, had other plans; she wanted proof.
‘So this is that famous Flamur gut feeling?’
Grimory watched her start down the steps and sighed.
“Hope we’re doing the right thing...”
The darkness below made her skin crawl.
Part of her wanted to sprint back to Henrik right now.
But she couldn’t let a classmate wander down here alone.
“Hah... my life sucks.”
Shoulders sagging, Grimory followed Acitia into the gloom.
* * *
The basent was pitch-black.
Side by side, candle holder raised, they inched forward.
Visibility ended at their shoes, so they clung to each other and shuffled like penguins.
“What happened to all that swagger, Acitia?”
“You’re shaking too, Grimory.”
“I-it’s cold, that’s all! March chill-flower-frost season!”
“Ha! Sa here!”
Neither coped well with darkness; even a drop of water made them jump.
“Hey... you’re sure you’re reading that trace right? You’re not just ssing with ? Not getting back at for getting us kicked out of class? We’re friends, right?”
Acitia pressed herself against Grimory’s back.
“Actually, ditching you here and leaving sounds pretty tempting.”
“Hey!”
Acitia smacked her between the shoulder blades.
“Wait, you’re heavy!”
“Please don’t leave ! I’m useless in the dark!”
“Kidding! I’m not abandoning a classmate while we hunt demons.”
Grimory exhaled.
Being with Acitia aged her a decade; the girl was a walking orphanage full of cranky thirteen-year-olds.
“I sleep with a candle lit, you know.”
“Yet you dove down here first.”
“I thought they’d be lit! How was I supposed to know every single one was out?”
When they’d entered, every candle was dead, wicks still warm, threads of smoke curling upward.
Soone snuffed them on purpose. Stay sharp.
Grimory swallowed.
Then she saw it: the severed red fog, the demon trace, resud deeper inside.
“No way...”
Acitia’s hunch had been spot-on.
Everyone joked that Flamurs possessed a “sixth sense,” but Grimory hadn’t expected bull’s-eye accuracy.
She threw an arm out to stop Acitia.
“Draw your sword and stand ready.”
“Now? You an it’s close?”
“Yes, the fog’s back. Could appear anywhere; we’d better be ready.”
“Whoa, top-ranking freshman for a reason. Okay, on it.”
Acitia pulled the blade from her belt.
Candlelight flashed along the edge, carving bright arcs through the dark.
Now they could see storage doors lining both walls.
Grimory halted at one of them.
B-3
The doors were labeled by section.
“Here?”
“Yeah, the trace ends at the threshold.”
To her eyes the demon’s trail snapped off clean, right in front of this door.
Demon’s probably hiding inside. Report upstairs first... or take a look?
Grimory gnawed a fingernail.
Acitia tapped her shoulder.
“Let’s just crack it open and peek?”
“...Surprisingly cautious. Thought you’d charge straight in.”
“I do have a brain, you know. Looks like sothing’s waiting in there.”
Grimory tilted her head.
Avoid combat if possible-Henrik’s warning echoed.
Yet she wanted results, sothing concrete.
She longed for Henrik to acknowledge her the way he did Acitia.
Soday, maybe I-
She clenched her teeth, yanked the door open.
-Bang!
Acitia darted in, sword raised, dropping into a guard stance.
Silence.
A handful of seconds, but they listened harder than they ever had in their lives.
Not a sound.
Grimory lifted her candle and swept the room-thankfully, no demon in sight.
Yet the storeroom was littered with unmistakable evidence that soone had been living here.
“What the-there’s nothing.”
Acitia flicked her sword shut and slid it over her shoulder.
“That... doesn’t make sense.”
The demon’s trail ended here.
And, given the layout, there was no other way out.
As if sleepwalking, Grimory stepped inside.
-Screeeech-Boom!
The door slamd behind her.
“Grimory...?”
“I-it just closed, that’s all! We’ll open it again-”
-Clank!
The door refused to budge.
“...”
-Clank! Clank! Clank!
Grimory threw her weight against the tal again and again; it never moved an inch.
“Move, Grimory.”
Acitia stared at the door, reason slipping.
-Whoosh-Clang!
Her blade flashed, but a magic circle flared the instant steel t door, flinging the sword back.
-Ping-Clatter!
The weapon spun from Acitia’s grip and rang against the floor.
“You trying to break the Professor’s gift?!”
“So what if it breaks? We still have to get out. Or would you rather starve together? Doesn’t look like people wander down here much.”
“...”
Grimory studied the glowing circle on the door, then snapped her fingers.
“It’s the Academy defense system.”
“Defense system?”
Acitia scooped up her sword and returned to Grimory’s side.
“I heard the underground storerooms double as bunkers if the Academy’s ever attacked. The shield forms a cube with this room at the center.”
“A barrier, huh...? So we cut through?”
“No... an average mage can’t punch through it.”
Grimory’s hand tightened around the little bell in her pocket.
Should I? If I ring it, the Professor might co... but...
He won’t be pleased.
She sighed.
Why did I even open that door?
She slid a glance at Acitia, who had already lost interest in the door and was poking around with a candlestick.
“Grimory! Over here!”
Acitia waved her over.
“Found sothing!”
Apparently, she’d dug up a new lead.
“...”
Grimory cracked a wry smile and went to join her.
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