Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Is He Really Arma Cruise? (2)
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“Ugh... I ended up pulling an all-nighter.”
There’s a saying that sleep is like death.
Maybe it was the aftereffects from nearly dying two days ago, but I just couldn’t fall asleep.
My body was exhausted from the buildup of fatigue, but my mind stayed sharp through the early hours of dawn—no matter how tired I felt, unless someone knocked me out cold, sleep wouldn’t come.
‘More than anything, my eyes are the problem.’
The issue wasn’t just the lack of sleep; my body had already gone beyond normal limits. My mind was fine, but my body sure wasn’t.
My eyes felt gritty like sand was in them with no chance to rest, and the back of my neck felt heavy—heavy signs of overwork.
I’d done all that hammering and manual labor yesterday, yet here I was, unable to sleep.
I worried if I could handle the packed seasonal semester, now shortened to a week, in this condition.
“Sunbae.”
I was taking a walk through the strolling garden surrounding the dorms to shake off some fatigue when Shirley, her ponytail swinging, waved from afar as she approached.
Judging by her activity wear, she must’ve stepped out early for some exercise she hadn’t done in days.
“Oh, Shirley... You’re full of energy this early?”
“On the contrary, what’s Arma-sunbae doing out here at this hour when you’re usually not so peppy in the morning?”
“I didn’t sleep well.”
“You’ve been like that lately. If it’s really bad, why not get some aromatherapy or whatever prescribed?”
“Aroma, huh. Mom went through a phase importing and selling essential oils.”
“...The Countess really has a knack for business, doesn’t she?”
Looking back, she really did.
Mom didn’t deal in everything under the sun, but when it came to ‘trendy items from across the sea,’ her influence was absolute.
She probably sees the world differently than I do, which gives her that kind of insight.
Shirley bounced in place like she was jogging, walked with me for a bit, then vanished off to the training room, saying she was worried about muscle loss.
‘Muscle loss is what I should be worrying about.’
The all-nighter killed my appetite, and I spent the whole transition from fall to winter laid up in the hospital.
If I’d been in a major like Shirley’s that required physical activity, it definitely would’ve affected my grades.
In that case, the Wooden Cross dorm—famous for producing deadbeats like Dylan—would’ve claimed its second one: me.
If they had a system adding or deducting points per dorm, Wooden Cross would’ve been dead last thanks to us two flunking and repeating like it was nothing.
-Ding-dong, ding-dong!
Wandering aimlessly, I suddenly heard the bell signaling lunchtime.
I’d skipped breakfast without realizing and now it was already noon.
‘Not really hungry. When was the last time I ate?’
But paradoxically, the effects of wandering all morning hit me now, and I rubbed my eyes as I headed back to the dorm.
Fortunately, I managed a light nap—short as it was, even if I spent more time awake than asleep with my eyes closed, it helped my condition a bit.
I straightened my bed again and headed to the north annex where Dylan was waiting.
-Knock knock knock.
As I stared down the gaudy baby angel statue that always caught my eye for no good reason, someone inside the clubroom stirred.
“Oh, you actually came.”
The one already there when I arrived was none other than Eliya.
Was it possible Eliya hadn’t been assigned a dorm room?
The school seriously needed to look into that.
Otherwise, why was he wandering around instead of staying in his own room...
Eliya cocked an eyebrow at me, then guided me to the seat across from where he was sitting.
“You’re alone today? Dylan said he’d be here.”
“He went to drop off Isaya.”
“Isaya was there too, huh.”
“Yeah. But his condition suddenly got bad, so Dylan practically carried him here and took him back.”
I nodded instead of answering and took a seat across from where Isaya had been reading that suspicious book.
‘Damn, it’s getting to me.’
Of all places, my seat was right in front of Eliya.
My eyes naturally drifted to the title of the book he had his nose buried in.
[Miracle Scent Healing: Touching the Soul].
‘Another sketchy folk remedy book.’
Petting it might be therapeutic, but I couldn’t think of any real benefits from reading stuff like that.
Just look at Isaya—he’d suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and all Eliya could do was send him off without any scent healing or whatever.
I finally had to ask about Eliya’s reading habits, which I’d consciously ignored until now.
“...You reading that ‘cause it’s fun?”
“Would it be?”
Answering a question with a question?
Did that even make sense coming from Eliya?
Suddenly, I was the guy interested in [Miracle Scent Healing: Touching the Soul].
“It’s not like I’m actually interested or anything... Shirley just mentioned aromatherapy earlier...”
“That sunbae’s pretty unique too.”
Every word from him, whether on purpose or just his personality, felt like it was asking for a knuckle-rap.
Eliya flipped through a few more pages quickly, inserted a bookmark, and closed the book.
“There are books that get discarded if no one checks them out for a certain period. I pull them one by one in order from the shelf where they’re collected. Some are actually valuable.”
“It has meaning, then.”
“Meaning... Most are just what you’d expect. More of them deserve to be buried or burned quick.”
Hearing that, I recalled the strange books Eliya had read before.
Like [Gold and Silver Know] or [Hints of Lost Civilizations], and now this soul-touching one.
Just like he said, most deserved a quick burial or bonfire.
“So, Eliya, you must know the library’s collection pretty well?”
“I’d say I know most of it.”
To kill time until Dylan arrived, I decided to ask Eliya a few things.
“Any grimoires in the library?”
“Plenty. Grimoires and stuff like [Introduction to Necromancy] are steady sellers. Tons of new ones come in every year.”
It really hit home how people share similar tastes.
When I first enrolled, ‘necromancy board’ games for summoning ghosts to ask about your future were all the rage, making it super hard to find books on how to play.
You could only import approved books through the student council even if buying privately.
But surprisingly, the library made it easy to get all kinds of bizarre stuff, so the repository of knowledge overflowed with forbidden tomes, oddities, and low-quality junk.
“But why?”
“Oh, I spaced out after asking. It’s not anything major—found some weird magic circles in Dana Wood’s room that bugged me, and Theodor said they were inverted protective charms.”
“Just drawing a magic circle backward doesn’t make it a curse, right?”
“Right. But a few of them were in pretty dangerous states, coincidentally or not.”
“Hmm. I can think of some books that might fit that...”
Eliya scrunched his face like he was searching his memory and groaned.
Muttering titles like [In Search of Truth] or [Practical Soul Summoning].
‘Not a single one I’d ever want to read.’
My own worries deepened along with his.
While Eliya and I were groaning like that, Dylan arrived.
-Clunk!
“Oh, Arma. You really came this time.”
“That phrasing’s a bit off. I never firmly promised to visit the clubroom before.”
“Ha, you heartless guy.”
Dylan shrugged exaggeratedly on purpose and plopped down next to Eliya.
“How’s Isaya?”
“He perked up all of a sudden, said he wanted something sweet, and headed to the cafeteria. Said his blood sugar dropped.”
“How does your sugar drop when you haven’t even done anything?”
“The books you read don’t teach that, huh.”
“There’s probably a way to summon Isaya’s soul and ask.”
I didn’t even want to ask the title of that book, so I quickly wrapped up scheduling the next club activity with them and parted ways.
By then, the sun had set and night had fallen.
“I’m back.”
No one would answer even if I greeted them coming in, but I said it out of habit anyway, then took a quick wash.
‘Why did today feel so long?’
Time was the usual 24 hours, but it dragged on unusually.
‘Met Shirley, stopped by the Classical Culture Club... Next thing I know, it’s this late.’
Plus, with winter approaching and temperatures dropping, it felt freezing after my shower.
Luckily, all the running around had worn me out enough that after drying my hair and lying down, sleep came pouring in.
***
It was midnight, with the moon high in the sky.
In Shirley Spencer’s room, lit brighter than usual, four tall young men and women had gathered to discuss something.
“Here is today’s [Arma Cruise Sunbae Observation Journal].”
Shirley, her straight purple hair tied high in a ponytail, used pins to fix several sheets of paper to the wall, then read them down in order.
Almost everything matched Arma Cruise’s usual routine.
She hadn’t recorded the two hours or so after he headed to the north annex accurately, but since Dylan, who’d been with him then, hadn’t said anything, it wasn’t a big issue.
“When you go all out with a journal like this, it just gets more confusing. Honestly, my observing him probably looked more suspicious.”
Shirley tilted her head with a half-resigned expression.
Judith listened silently to Shirley’s report, tapping the table with her finger as she pondered deeply.
“You really recorded every action?”
“Yes! I followed him really diligently. Of course, not too close—just enough distance in case whatever’s possessing Arma-sunbae is sensitive.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m not saying your records were sloppy.”
Judith skimmed from the start of the log—beginning at seven a.m.—to the end, then passed the paper to Theodor beside her.
“This—”
Theodor muttered late, sounding surprised.
It’d only been two days of observation, and the first day they’d all taken shifts together, so there shouldn’t have been any gaps.
Which made it all the more problematic.
Judith spoke up with a grave expression.
“Excluding the day Arma opened his eyes, two days have passed, and in those two days... he hasn’t eaten a thing.”