The Secret Room (2)
The day I had promised to go to the Secret Room with Isolet arrived.
Since I had signed up for cleaning duty, I was stuck in the library for the entire stretch after lectures ended.
Rustle. Rustle.
I turned the pages with my fingers, my eyes locked on the sentences and refusing to let go. Sitting upright at the table, I quietly read my way through the book.
Surprisingly productive, this.
Cleaning duty or not, you couldn't just start scrubbing at random. When people were still using the place, anything you cleaned would just get messed up again, and someone would inevitably complain about the noise. So until closing time, I was free to bury myself in my reading. Being able to study my notes on the side was a sweet deal.
Not that I was completely idle, of course.
— Haa. This is hard.
— Once you cast a spell, recasting it costs even more mana. That's what we call cooldown, and…
— Damn it. Who already checked this out?
Noise from every corner of the library. Tiny mutterings, whispered conversations, the everyday rustle of fabric against fabric — none of it escaped my ears. My hearing was cranked to the absolute limit.
If anyone starts trouble in the library, I've got to shut it down.
Keeping the peace was a library committee member's duty. Since this was volunteer work, I intended to do it properly. That was why I had split my sight and hearing into separate tracks — and it doubled as training.
Sharpening the five senses never hurts.
The body was both asset and weapon. My sensory organs were my livelihood, so the more I honed them, the better. All in all, it was time well spent.
— Oppa. Are we really doing it here?
— Relax. This attic room is soundproofed. Nobody'll know.
— But stiiill… aahng.
Of course, interruptions like this still happened.
"Ugh."
Thud. I closed the book gently. I'd been tempted to slam it shut in irritation, but I held back. I was a library committee member — I had to set an example. Those two could stand to learn a thing or two.
Olympia's library had attic rooms. They were designed so that sound couldn't travel in or out, letting students focus entirely on their studies. The soundproofing was so thorough that you could fall asleep studying inside and no one would ever know. Some people even used them as nap rooms on purpose.
The problem was the trash who skipped the studying entirely and snuck in for romantic rendezvous instead.
Clomp. Clomp. I planted myself in front of the attic room where the conversation had come from. I was making my footsteps deliberately loud, and still the soft rustle of clothes refused to stop. Fine. Intervention it was.
Rattle!
"Wh-what the—!"
"Kyaaah!"
The pair who had been undoing buttons and about to bare skin froze solid. They stared at me with flustered faces, so I offered them a single line.
"This is a library. Please keep quiet."
"Wh-what…"
They must have felt the contempt in my gaze. The male student, who looked like a fourth-year, flared up at once.
"Who the hell are you? Talking like that to a senior way above—"
"Senior or not, don't commit indecent acts in here. Aren't you embarrassed for the underclassmen to see?"
"Y-you little…"
His face flushed red as he groped for a comeback. I said nothing and simply glared. He quietly averted his eyes.
A mage's sad little habit.
Straight-A types are weak to this kind of thing.
Scare them with someone who looked like they could throw a punch, and the kids who only ever pushed pens would fold. I'd started working out recently, and Heracle's body put the average Magic Department student to shame. In the end, the fourth-year senior grabbed his girlfriend's hand and bolted.
"Damn it. Just you wait."
"Oppa, wait for me!"
Tsk tsk.
Even his exit was pathetic. I sighed once and stepped into the attic room. I'd planned to clean later, but this place looked like it needed urgent attention.
"Huh?"
Just as I was about to start cleaning the attic, someone called out to me.
"Heracle. What are you doing here?"
"Hm?"
I stopped mopping and turned my head. There was Fenel, eyes round with surprise — and beside her, half-hiding her body, was Berry.
"…"
"I heard a commotion earlier, so I came to check… Are you cleaning?"
"I'm on the library committee. Today's my cleaning shift."
"Ohoho. To think someone would actually volunteer for cleaning duty. How surprising."
She laughed with a finger to her lips, the gesture thoroughly elegant. A duke's daughter through and through. The way Fenel spoke with that almost mature air was probably her influence. Thinking about it, it was a curious thing.
I don't remember Berry being a noble.
They were friends, yet their social standings were night and day. How had a commoner like Berry gotten close to Fenel? In Song of Sword and Magic, Berry was an extra character, so there was no way to know.
"So what brings you here? All the way to the library."
"Ah, that? Well—"
Fenel let the sentence trail off. The awkward look on her face said she didn't want to answer. Berry jumped in from the side.
"We were studying magic. Prepping for the Inter-Year Exchange Tournament."
"Berry! Why would you just say that?"
"Fenel, get a grip. You need to raise your skill level as fast as possible. You've got to grab any lifeline you can."
Step. Step.
Berry walked into the attic room. She quietly sat down next to me while I was still mopping, then whispered with a serious face.
"Can you help Fenel?"
"What?"
"Can you teach her some magic?"
…Was getting tutored by the bottom of the class the new trend these days?
She dumped her feelings without reading my expression at all.
"This Inter-Year Exchange Tournament — Fenel has to win. No, even if she can't win, she has to put on a good showing."
"Berry. You don't need to tell him all of that…"
"You know it too, Heracle. How they treat Fenel in the Magic Department. All that garbage about how Apollon is going to win anyway."
The evaluation scores for the Inter-Year Exchange Tournament hinged on how strong a performance you put on. Even if you didn't actually win, holding your own in a matchup where you were outmatched could still earn you solid marks. So if you could reverse the "existing head-to-head record," that alone opened a path to victory.
In plain terms: the matchup between the second-year top students of the Knight Department and the Magic Department currently had Apollon in a crushing lead. She wanted to overturn that this time around.
"…If Fenel's going to reverse the verdict that she can never beat Apollon, she needs help. Not just a little skill boost — something special."
"Okay, I get what you're saying, but… why come to me for that?"
"You finished the Introduction to Elementology assignment, didn't you? I don't know how you did it, but you must have had some kind of trump card… Could you share a little of that?"
So that was it.
Oh, for crying out loud.
Now I understood why Berry, who normally hounded me nonstop, was asking like this. She must have been deeply impressed by the rock-smashing display I'd put on in Introduction to Elementology.
I wasn't even thinking that hard about it.
I hadn't deliberately shown off some grand technique. If anything, I might pick up a similar skill from this upcoming hidden piece — but back then, it had been pure physical ability. Definitely not magic.
"…"
"Hmm. Heracle? Don't worry about it too much. Berry just said that because she's fretting. Berry, you shouldn't spring things on him like that either…"
Berry and I locked eyes in silence. Fenel was saying something, trying to loosen the frozen atmosphere. I considered how to answer, but this seemed like the cleanest option.
"I can't teach you magic."
"…Why not?"
"Because it's impossible."
"…!"
Berry's eyes blazed. She seemed to take it as an insult to Fenel, and her lips were just starting to move when—
"But relax. I can make sure Apollon doesn't win."
"What? How?"
"I'm going to win."
"…?"
Berry's head tilted. So did Fenel's behind her. Both women looked like they'd just heard something completely out of left field.
"…You're joking, right?"
"If it sounds like a lie, just watch."
I started moving my hands again. I splashed some water and scrubbed with the mop, and Berry spoke in fits and starts.
"How… how can you be so sure? What are you staking on that promise?"
"My life."
"…!"
"I'll win with my life on the line. So stop worrying and sleep easy."
I hadn't said it with any particular agenda. If I didn't win the Inter-Year Exchange Tournament, I'd be expelled. Expelled meant leaving the academy. Leaving the academy meant I died. Since failure already meant death, saying I'd win with my life on the line was just stating the facts.
…But neither Berry nor Fenel could easily open their mouths. That was how heavy the words were.
My life.
The weight of the price a man had put on aiming for victory. …Or perhaps the price he had put up for the sake of a girl who said she had to win.
"Heracle. That's…"
Whoosh—
Both of Fenel's cheeks flushed bright red. That kind of resolve, in this kind of situation — no matter how you heard it, it couldn't help but sound loaded with meaning. Berry pressed her fingers to her brow in spite of herself.
"…If you say it like that here, what's left for me to say?"
"I wasn't expecting anything in return."
"That's exactly the problem… Ugh, look at Fenel. She's completely smitten."
Berry shot a disapproving look at her friend standing behind her. Then she ended up staking a price of her own.
"Fine. Then I'll make a promise too. If you win, I won't stop you from getting close to Fenel."
"What are you even talking about out of nowhere?"
"Hmph. Don't bother turning it down. I'm looking the other way based on what you've done."
…No, I wasn't even hoping for a reward, so why was she off celebrating on her own? I stared at Berry with a baffled face, but she just glared back at me, looking resentful.
…What is with this girl?
Night fell.
Closing time passed and every last patron filed out. I stayed behind alone, throwing myself into the cleaning, and just as I was finishing up, I heard someone outside the door.
Click.
I opened it, and the young woman waiting beyond stepped inside.
"…Good evening, sunbae."
"Yeah."
Silver hair glowing bright against the dim darkness. Isolet looked at me and smiled softly.
"You really did the volunteer work. I'm surprised."
"You're the one who suggested it."
"That's true, of course. Honestly, though, I didn't expect you to dive in so readily…"
I stepped forward with Isolet behind me. We headed for the deepest part of the library — the shelves loaded with books that were closer to storage than anything students ever touched, a place almost no one's feet ever reached.
"Do you already know where the entrance to the Secret Room is?"
"I looked around a bit before you got here. Found it."
"Incredible. As expected of you, sunbae."
…Being praised like that was awkward. I was just following what I'd seen in the original story.
Step. Step. At last we reached our destination. The enormous bookshelf that stretched to the ceiling was packed with countless volumes, looking far too heavy to simply shove aside.
"Hmm… I heard you have to push the shelf, but it doesn't look easy."
"There's a trick to it."
I reached out and gripped the fourth shelf from the bottom. Running my hand along it, I found a round magic stone.
"This is it."
Press—
The moment I pushed it, something responded.
Rumble rumble rumble… With a massive grinding noise, a gap opened in the seamless bookshelf. It was genuinely uncanny even watching it happen. There hadn't been so much as a needle's eye of space, and now a passage was forming. Was this what magic was?
"I believed in you, sunbae."
"Yeah, yeah."
What exactly did Isolet think I was? She seemed to trust me more than her own seniors in the Knight Department.
…Rumble.
At last the bookshelf finished parting. The cliff of books that had filled our vision vanished, and what lay ahead was pitch-black darkness. You couldn't see an inch in front of your face — no sense at all of which way to go.
"How should we enter?"
"Just go inside and stand still for a moment."
The Secret Room's entry method. You stepped into that darkness and stood on the floor. Then the floor would gently sink and carry you down. Think of it as an elevator with no walls, and it made sense.
"Amazing. Did you hear that as a rumor too?"
"Mm… yeah, let's go with that."
I brushed it off and stepped inside. Pitch-black darkness that even dulled the five senses. Isolet seemed a little tense as she walked slowly after me, so I took her hand.
"Here."
"…Thank you."
The faint smile on her face looked like a painting. She really was the protagonist. Pretty, no question.
"Just stay like this."
How many minutes did Isolet and I stand on that floor? Then, with a soft hummm— of a magic stone activating, the elevator carrying the two of us began to descend.
Time to claim the hidden piece.