Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: Symbol of the Hawk (2)
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*Knock knock knock.*
Regardless of the uneasy feeling gnawing at me, I had no choice but to press forward.
Even if something was about to happen in this near future, time wouldn't stop for it, and what was meant to occur would happen anyway.
"No signs of anyone around."
Shirley paused in front of the door as if pondering, then met my eyes directly and raised her hand.
'Something feels off.'
It was exactly the face she made when Cookie was about to throw a tantrum... or so I thought.
*Crash!*
With the innocent expression she used when things weren't going her way, Shirley smashed the window.
"You, you..."
"Oh dear, why'd it have to break like that."
She then casually thrust her arm through the broken window and lifted the latch.
*Click.*
"The wind's pretty strong, huh~."
"What wind! There's no wind!"
Still wearing that utterly clueless look, Shirley hopped up and climbed through the window.
"Door-opening magic!"
She flung open the front door and struck a pose like a wandering circus magician, complete with a ta-da flourish.
"...It's the only way, I guess."
It wasn't magic, but the door was open.
And if Collette was truly in grave danger as we'd feared, what did a couple of broken windows matter?
"How's my magic, future Archmage Cadet Theodore White?"
Shirley asked in her usual playfully polite tone, and Theodore thought for a moment before replying.
"Assuming no magic is to be used, this is the most intuitive method for securing entry to a sealed space during a mission."
"Ugh, such a model student."
Theodore's earnest response to her joke only made Shirley's shoulders puff up with pride even more.
Moments later, as the three of us stepped inside Collette's house, Shirley's expression sharpened, and she quietly closed the door.
That was the signal, and the lighthearted air among us sank in an instant.
"I'll take the left with the wardrobe. Theo and senpai, you check the right with the kitchen. Keep lights to just candles—no lanterns."
"Got it."
Since Shirley hadn't sensed any presence, there were no ambushes.
Under that assumption, we kept our movements quiet but swift—not too noisy—and began searching for any last traces of Collette.
'For someone with such a tidy image, this place is surprisingly messy.'
Given her neat attire and her job as a nurse, I'd imagined Collette's room would be spotless, but the reality was far from it.
The dining table only half-cleared where it was convenient, paper wrappers collected instead of tossed in the trash, clothes draped over chairs rather than folded away, and so on.
It oddly reminded me of Shirley's room.
"Sorry, Collette."
I carefully went through her belongings one by one, meticulously checking for anything that might serve as a clue.
The wooden interior harmonized strangely with the salty island air.
It didn't feel like a house so much as being immersed in nature—more precisely, like the place itself was a tiny island.
"You take the kitchen, I'll handle the entryway and parlor."
"Okay."
The boundaries between the kitchen, entryway, and parlor weren't clearly defined, but these old mansions usually distinguished spaces with different tiles and wallpapers by function.
Theodore headed into the kitchen with its white tiles, while I went to the entryway with the red wallpaper.
All that was there was a four-person wooden table for guests, a small bookshelf, and a decorative shelf with knickknacks.
"Does Collette take the boat out often?"
I'd just bent down to check the table when Shirley, who was opening Collette's wardrobe to peek inside, called out loudly from across the room.
"Boat?"
"There's a ton of sand here. Sea sand with salt in it."
"I haven't heard any stories like that..."
"Really?"
Shirley rubbed her foot on the floor as if to demonstrate, making the crunch of sand.
Now that I listened, the kitchen area where we were had patches of sand underfoot too.
"Theodore, take a look at this. What do you think?"
At my words, Theodore, who had been checking Collette's food storage shelf, came over.
I stepped aside slightly so he could examine the floor closely.
"It's definitely not the kind of sand you'd find in a forest. As Spencer-senpai—"
"Still so formal with me."
"Shirley-senpai is right—it's beach sand."
Corrected naturally by Shirley's remark, Theodore pulled a small glass vial from his pocket and gently swept some of the sand into it.
Peeking into the slightly open pocket while he rummaged, I saw several similar vials inside.
"It's odd. There's no reason for this kind of sand between Collette's house and the academy."
Hazard Island wasn't as vast as the mainland, but the beach, the village, and the academy grounds were still a good distance apart.
Plus, most of the academy grounds were surrounded by cliffs, not sandy shallows.
She could make time to visit the sea if she wanted, but this much sand buildup suggested frequent trips, which felt off.
"Senpai, anything over there?"
Shirley emerged from the bedroom after quickly rifling through the wardrobe, bed, and desk.
She held a notepad stuffed with several white slips of paper in her gloved hands, along with a glass bottle of pills—probably planning to check them in better light.
"Yeah."
I tapped the table with my finger.
There sat a teacup, still half-full.
Shirley rushed over at my response and peered at the table with me.
"Did she step out suddenly mid-tea?"
"No other cups out, so probably."
The mess made it hard to trace movements, but as I pictured it, this teacup was the last thing Collette had used at home.
No telling the time, but she'd been sitting alone at this table sipping tea when someone called her outside.
No signs of visitors.
If there had been, there'd be two cups, or at least the opposite side of the table cleared.
"Looks like Dylan-senpai came by, they left together, and she never came back."
"That's what I think too."
As we stared at the teacup, Theodore's hand suddenly reached out and picked it up.
*Pour.*
I thought he was bagging it as evidence at first, but no—he poured the contents into the vial he'd brought.
"I'll check if it contains something similar to [Angel's Prank]."
"Oh."
Theodore seemed to think it more likely she'd been lured out than left of her own accord.
I nodded and moved to the display case I hadn't checked yet.
"Hmm..."
Then something unfamiliar caught my eye.
There was a small baked-clay angel statue and a pendant I'd never seen before.
"What's this?"
"Not a Star Cross necklace? Let me see."
Shirley lifted the necklace hanging from the angel statue.
"Not a Star Cross?"
She held it up for us all to see and brought a candle close.
"...Not a Star Cross... a bird?"
It wasn't the familiar Aegis symbol of the Star Cross.
From afar, it looked like the typical priestly pendant—a roughly made Star Cross—but up close, it was a bird with wings and legs stretched out.
"The beak shape and patterns suggest a hawk."
"A hawk-shaped pendant... not a common choice."
I examined the display case more closely where the angel and pendant had been.
Dust-covered, but beneath the statue was fine velvet cloth, and next to it an empty locket.
*Click.*
"It's got incense inside."
Angel statue, hawk-symbol pendant, incense-filled locket.
A shelf like this was usually...
"A home altar. Hasn't been used for prayer in a while, though."
I imagined Collette lighting the incense in the locket, hanging the pendant in front, and praying before the angel.
No clue who it was for, but clearly someone who used the hawk symbol.
"But it doesn't look like she just stopped using this spot—more like she quit praying altogether ages ago."
Shirley pointed to the velvet cloth under the angel.
As she said, even the laziest person keeps a home altar somewhat tidy.
Velvet collects dust easily and is a pain to maintain.
Choosing it for an altar means dusting it daily during morning prayers out of devotion...
—Saints all do penance, I thought you'd recognize it...
—If she was an Aegis Academy cadet, she'd have spotted it faster.
Then I recalled the time around the Full Moon Festival incident when I'd been hospitalized.
Collette looked to me as the executor of Aegis the god—the saint.
For such a Collette to pray to a god with a symbol other than Aegis's Star Cross?
Something didn't add up.
"We need to look into what local faith uses this symbol."
"Local faith. Understood."
Theodore nodded at my words.
Aegis's state religion was the Church of Aegis, but not every citizen worshiped only the creator god Aegis.
I didn't know Hazard Island's indigenous faith, but places like the western Ledery wine region revered Saint Johanna.
They all stemmed from the same scriptures, and with religious freedom on the surface, there were no major purges.
"Shall we head back then? We'll check this notepad back at the dorms. Too dark to see well anyway."
"Wouldn't it be better to swing by Judith on the way?"
"If she hasn't shown up by now, odds are she won't. Our paths are the same anyway—no chance of missing each other."
Shirley had a point.
And truthfully, we couldn't afford to stay away from the academy too long at a time like this.
I stood, wrapped the angel statue and pendant in the dusty velvet, and picked them up.