Chapter 88
Chapter 88
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: You Can't Stop Things from Rotting (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The next day.
I tossed and turned for a long time because I just couldn't fall asleep.
Theodore didn't seem to be sleeping either, but he lay there quietly with his eyes closed.
As for Arthur, he was always so devoid of presence that there was no way for me to tell if he was asleep or not.
In any case, none of us three had a peaceful night.
Our faces all looked pretty rotten when we gathered at the table for breakfast.
"Theodore, eat more."
"No. This is exactly the right amount for my activity level."
"Seeing you with such a small appetite just tears my heart to shreds."
"…Yes, please."
I handed Theodore another bowl of porridge made by crushing oats and barley flat, then boiling them with milk.
It was ridiculous to worry about a mage like this, but I couldn't clear the dishes with a pale, skinny guy sitting right in front of me.
"Rather than me, Arma Cruise, it looks like you're the one not eating enough."
Arthur had already filled his belly solidly with dried cod sprinkled with sea salt and eggs, and now he was dumping cocoa powder into his teacup to go with those tasteless biscuits of his.
"This is my standard portion. I don't move around as much as you two."
"That doesn't seem to be the case."
I gave Arthur a gentle smile after he poured out that unfavorable testimony about me, then just shut my mouth.
Arthur and Theodore finally gave up on nagging me and silently emptied their bowls.
'Makina Christi… are you my enemy?'
Trying to ponder with food in front of me kept ruining my appetite.
In the end, since I didn't want to skip the meal entirely, I reheated the porridge that was starting to cool and forced it down.
The two of them, who had been eating slowly to match my pace, set down their spoons almost simultaneously. I quickly cleared the bowls and we gathered in Arthur's bedroom兼 parlor.
"It looks like the storm is finally dying down."
I shook loose the boards blocking the window and peered outside.
The wind was still blowing strong enough that it wasn't ideal to leave the window open, but it wasn't at the level where stepping out would spell total disaster.
-Clunk.
Two days? Or maybe just today?
The storm was considered over once the wind's intensity stabilized and the salty smell faded.
Storms passing over the sea carried salt-laden spray, so a weakening salt scent meant the sea had relatively calmed.
I closed the window and stretched out long on the sofa I'd dragged in front of the fireplace. Theodore, as if he'd been waiting, spoke up.
"I heard Dana Wood needs to stay in the infirmary for about two days because treatment was delayed."
"She looked pretty dehydrated, but I didn't think it was that bad."
"Yeah, but she also seemed like she didn't want to come back."
"…Really?"
Was she embarrassed from puking her guts out in front of everyone, or was there another reason?
It wasn't an unnatural association to recall the talismans that had covered the wall of Dana's room upon hearing Theodore's words.
"Still, with the storm passing soon, things should stay quiet for a while."
"That's a relief."
The storm would end soon, and a harsh winter would truly set in, but just escaping the threat of starvation brought a great sense of stability.
For the time being, at least.
"…Did you hear?"
It was right then that I heard the eerie rumor from the cadets using the dormitory's first floor, after Dana Wood's hospitalization.
The dormitory's first floor had two rooms protruding from either side of the wide entrance hall, plus six more facing each other down the left and right corridors straight ahead—a total of eight rooms.
We had just returned after handling lunch in the cafeteria, which had barely returned to normal.
Just then, Theodore's shoelace came undone, so we sat for a moment at one of the long tables in the entrance hall. That's when a quiet conversation from the next table over caught my ear.
"They say Dana Wood's next target has been decided?"
"Oh, that… I think it's Donna McDowell."
Of all things, it started with a name I knew, drawing my attention unwittingly. As I kept listening, the situation veered into increasingly ominous territory.
"She hangs upside down every night and walks around on the ceiling with the bed."
"What does that even mean?"
"They say she walks around on her hands. Donna McDowell."
"…That skinny thing?"
"Yeah."
While I was eavesdropping intently on the cadets' talk, Theodore finished tying his shoelace and started pretending not to listen along with me.
Theodore had definitely said the Wooden Cross Dormitory was a place 'perfectly suited for that sort of thing overall.'
"And apparently she suddenly got super strong, flipping over bookshelves and everything. Muttering some kind of spell too."
Walking upside down on the bed at night, or suddenly displaying freakish strength and trashing the room.
These were ill omens that spurred unholy imaginations.
"Looks like Dana Wood was right after all."
"Shh, keep it down. Don't spread that around."
"Spread what? Still don't get it? There's a real devil roaming the Wooden Cross!"
Cross and devil. Words that could never coexist under normal circumstances. They were mortal enemies, where one had to vanish upon facing the other.
-Rumble!
"Eek!"
"Kyaa!"
The two, who had chosen such a stormy night for their lame ghost story, jumped in fright at the sudden thunderclap.
Only then did they have a moment to look around and belatedly notice me and Theodore at the next table. They gave an awkward greeting and hurriedly dashed into their rooms.
'A devil, not even a ghost?'
The situation was worse than I'd anticipated.
Winter semester already had an unusual number of cadets staying in the dormitory, and piling on these rough incidents had made them so sensitive that even slight triggers set them off.
'Bad rumors like this won't just fizzle out on their own…'
From the context, it wasn't just talk among themselves.
It meant a considerable number of cadets were already aware of this 'next target after Dana Wood.'
Sure enough, not long after returning to my room, Dillon came looking for me again.
"We meet often."
"This damn dorm monitor position, I'm quitting by year's end."
"Oh dear. Unfortunately, no cadets have stepped up to take over from Dillon. Looks like you'll have to serve another term. Assuming you don't graduate."
"Damn it all."
Dillon ground his teeth and scooped up the noisily yapping Cookie by the butt, carrying him inside the entrance hall.
"Did you feed the dog? He's whining like crazy."
"He's still acting like a baby and putting on the charm."
"Opposite of you."
"Me?"
I guided Dillon to the chair opposite Arthur.
It was rare for four grown men to gather in my room like this—it made for quite the spectacle.
Dillon stared silently at Theodore's back as he naturally put water on for tea, then spoke.
"You heard too, right? The devil wandering the first floor."
"Yes. I heard it quite by chance at lunchtime. Isn't it just the usual freshman ghost stories that pop up every year?"
"I thought so too, but the kids seem really spooked. Weird rumors are flying."
"I heard. Walking on the bed on her hands, displaying superhuman strength?"
"You already know everything without me saying."
Dillon took the teacup that arrived at just the right moment.
He seemed somewhat wary of Arthur and Theodore, but now that we were face-to-face, he wasn't showing it much.
"After all that fancy food, I don't get why they're acting up. The little ones freak out at just a tree shadow outside the window. And get this—they're asking for the Executor instead of their moms."
"The Executor… me?"
"Yeah. So sorry, but I need you to handle this."
"I can't do stuff like catching devils."
"The scary stuff like that, the Black Lily Class will take care of. Our job is night patrols."
"Haa…"
I nodded.
Shouldn't this academy refund my tuition?
Watching Arthur and Theodore exchange glances as they silently decided on shifts, I realized there was no stopping them from joining me on night patrol.
***
The night of the promised patrol arrived.
Theodore naturally held his outing robe in one hand and said to Arthur,
"Then I'll head out first."
"Again?"
"Cookie seems to like you more anyway."
"……"
As Theodore said, lately Cookie had taken to fawning over Arthur.
With the two of them spending more alone time these past few days, it had naturally turned out that way.
"Sorry, but mind watching him? Thunder on a night like this would be too pitiful for him alone."
"…Understood."
In a situation where the magic ban was lifted, Theodore—the acknowledged genius of black magic—was second to none in combat power on campus.
He might even beat a real devil.
Probably why Dillon so readily asked me to do night patrol.
"I'll handle the clappers. The kids need to see me patrolling to feel safe…"
"Understood."
I gripped the two wooden clappers Dillon had given me and began banging them loudly.
-Clack, clack!
"Night patrol— all clear."
The patrol method Dillon taught was to make noise with these wooden clappers and announce the status at set intervals.
The academic consensus was that true 'devils' had all been defeated and vanished in the Creation War against the Creator God Aegis.
The threats to us were mostly fallen spirits or evil entities empowered as wraiths, and while rare powerful ones could rival devils in might, that was it.
'With Aegis Academy producing 70 or 80 cadets a year…'
It seemed a tiny number numerically, but considering each was an elite of the utmost caliber, it was a terrifying force.
Gathering geniuses scattered across the nation like this was impressive in itself.
In any case, without form, they couldn't threaten us.
I silently followed behind Theodore, who walked ahead without a word, banging the clappers again.
-Clack, clack.
"Night patrol— all clear."
As we exited the entrance hall, shouting the call again loudly, presences stirred from several doors.
No—more accurately, from the entire corridor.
The dormitory felt increasingly consumed by fear.
-Clack, clack…
We patrolled the Wooden Cross Dormitory corridors and stairs as planned, then headed out to circle the garden.
Under the moonlight, Theodore's gray hair turned silver.
'The storm's over.'
A bright night sky meant clear weather.
I followed Theodore out, still shrouded in darkness.
Even though it was nothing special, Theodore turned back curiously.
"Arma Cruise?"
"……"
Had he noticed?
That the clapper sounds had been growing quieter since earlier? Or that I was actually in grave danger?