#9 - A Legitimate Chance to Slip Away
"So... you're enrolling a little late, then?"
"Yes, that's right. There was some trouble with the paperwork."
The green-haired woman standing in front of me had, apparently, enrolled a bit late thanks to some administrative snag. I wasn't sure such a thing was even possible, but this school was surprisingly loose about its own rules, so I let it go. Think about it — I hadn't been bound for the School of Magic originally either. I wasn't anywhere near qualified for it; it had felt that way on enrollment day, too. And then, out of nowhere, they'd slotted me into the School of Magic? Made me take a double major on top of it? This academy really did handle its paperwork with astonishing carelessness.
"By the way... I'm sorry. For seeing your body like that, without asking."
"Ah... um... no, it's... it's fine... really..."
Honestly, I was dying of embarrassment. I'd just bared my entire naked, mid-shower body to a woman I'd never laid eyes on before.
"Where should I put my luggage?"
"Uh... oh."
The mention of luggage finally shook something loose in my head. Just as I had in the game, I'd assumed I'd have a single room, and I'd used the entire space to hide my silver plate and all my phantom thief paraphernalia. But what if this woman, tidying up her things, went rummaging through every corner? Not just my belongings — the phantom thief gear, the sealing tools, everything connected to the relics would come tumbling into the open.
"Um, so, could I... uuum..."
"The name's Line. Just Line."
"Ah, yes! Miss Line...! If it's not too much trouble, could you step outside for just a moment? Please? Five minutes is all I need!"
"Five minutes? Hm~ sure, all right."
Line gave a small smile and stepped out, and in that window I moved fast — everything came out and got swept away into hiding on my side of the bed. The phantom thief outfit was too bulky to conceal properly, so I slapped a camouflage spell over the whole thing instead.
"All done...!"
"Right, got it."
Line came back inside, and all I could manage was to receive her with a stiff, awkward smile.
"Oh, that reminds me — what's your name?"
"I'm Sheria. I don't... have a family name."
As always, I left it at that — no family name...
"Huh. Same here, actually."
"I'm... sorry?"
It turned out the same was true on Line's side — news I received with no small relief.
Talking with her, I learned that Line, unlike me, had come in through the School of Magic. But much like me, she had no family standing to speak of — she'd knocked on this academy's door all on her own, with no house behind her, and because her origins could not be verified, the extra screening had held up her enrollment by two full weeks.
An unverifiable background. In any ordinary situation that should have set off every alarm I had — so why was it? Maybe because we were in the same boat, something in me quietly warmed to her.
"Glad to have you here, Sheria. Let's get along."
"Yes, you as well... Miss Line."
"Miss Line?"
"...Line... Unnie."
"Mm. I like the sound of that."
For the record, she stood a touch shorter than me, which had lulled me into a false sense of security — she was actually two years my senior. She'd simply entered the academy late. Each department had its own standard age of entry: nineteen for my Literature Department, twenty for the School of Magic. The School of Magic produced the kingdom's very top elite, so its students had to pass through preliminary training first, which pushed their start back. Factor all that in, and Line-unnie had arrived a full year later than even the usual late case.
"Oh, right — Sheria. There's no roll call tonight, they said."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I heard it on my way up. So — mind if I turn in early? I'm a little worn out..."
Fair enough. If she'd only just enrolled today, of course she'd be exhausted.
"Of course. And — I have something I need to take care of early tomorrow morning, so I won't be here for breakfast. Is that all right?"
"And here I'd wanted a proper tour of the dorm and the school..."
"I'm sorry. It's urgent."
"Fine, I get it. Then you owe me that tour later."
"Yes, Unnie."
With that exchange, Line-unnie was soon snoring softly, and I lay there with my eyes open, thinking. This dormitory was no longer a safe place either. Which meant I needed one — a space of my own to serve as the phantom thief's hideout. Fortunately, such a place wasn't beyond my reach. One location came to mind.
Looks like I'll be going sooner than planned...
Under normal circumstances this was somewhere I'd have to sneak off to only once I started needing outside supplies — the back alleys of the Albion Kingdom. I would have to set up a hideout there.
Several hours later, in the small hours before dawn, I gathered up every piece of phantom thief equipment along with the silver plate and slipped out of the school unnoticed. It being the weekend, there was no dorm matron or guard on watch, and getting out proved easy. Safely clear of the academy, I traveled for about an hour before arriving at the kingdom's back alleys — better known as the Violette District.
The Violette District lay in the underworld of Belua, the royal capital that housed the academy. It had once been a street of dye workshops, but between a string of incidents and the simple fact that the other districts had grown better at making money, it had slid naturally into decay. People running every manner of illegal business moved into the neglected quarter, and the whole district turned into one vast back alley.
"Haaaaah..."
I hadn't planned on coming here this early, and I'd arrived far too soon — hence the sigh. Still, work was work. I took stock of the district's resident bums one by one. Some were strung out on drugs, some were drowning in drink, and some watched me pass with slimy, lecherous eyes. And right on cue—
Fweee—!
"Oh my god!?"
"Heh heh heh... white, I see..."
The man sitting in front of me had begun taunting me as he flipped my skirt up for a peek.
"Haaah..."
Still, the fact that he stopped there meant even this back alley observed a few minimal rules, I supposed. Anyway, I kept scanning the derelicts until I finally spotted what I was looking for: an old woman. The moment I reached her, I set down the money from inside my coat and laid out my request.
"I need a room. Somewhere discreet."
"......"
The old woman gave the gold I'd offered a single glance, then rose quietly to her feet and beckoned to me. Follow her, then. I trailed the old woman deeper into the Violette District, through streets tangled like a maze, until we arrived at one small house among many. There she stated, flatly:
"The money you've brought won't buy the place — rent only. Five hundred gold deposit, and two hundred a month."
Cheap and steep all at once. But haggling was out of the question — bargaining never worked on this old woman in the slightest.
"...Yes, understood."
She counted seven hundred gold out of my pouch, then handed the pouch back to me. With what remained, I had to set this newly leased hideout in order, restock my consumables — there was far too much to do. Even so, twenty-three hundred gold should see me through well enough.
"...If there's anything else you need to buy, get it from the Bern Trading Company. Got it?"
"Yes, I know."
"And don't give the owner there too many reasons to dislike you."
I nodded, parted from the old woman, and surveyed the inside of the hideout. Having worked out what the place needed — the bare minimum of furniture, sturdy locks, and the like — I went straight to the Bern Trading Company and had everything supplied. Outfitting the place alone ate up another three hundred gold, leaving me with two thousand. Of that two thousand, restocking consumables would claim about two hundred...
...I'd better scout out somewhere else to earn money, too.
My funds were quietly running thin. Then again, thanks to Gerald refusing to take my money, I'd gained an opportunity like this instead — perhaps I ought to be grateful to him. In any case, with the hideout fully sorted, only one task remained.
"...The Eye of the Northern Ford. Where on earth could it be?"
I spread out the textbook Professor Albert had given me alongside an old map and a modern one, reading through them line by line while cross-referencing locations between the maps. How much longer did I work? Morning must have melted into midday — the gnawing hunger in my stomach said as much. Even so, I couldn't stop. It felt as if just a little more grinding at the problem would crack it open.
A ford is a stretch of river — or coastline — where the water runs fast and shallow. Which meant I needed to find a river or the sea somewhere in the north, and that ballooned the search conditions beyond all reason. Should I change my approach entirely? Or keep combing through everything as I had been? I thought, and thought, and thought. What was the answer? Where was the sealing site my Master had prepared?
Comparing against the old map was the right approach in itself. Siderean was a dead language, after all — the era it had been spoken in had to be read through the maps of its own time. And so, somewhere in that back-and-forth between old map and new—
"...Is it here?"
I had found one very suspicious place. To the north of the kingdom lay a village that appeared on the old maps but was missing from the modern ones. What made it suspicious was this: the village had sat at the very source of a river. There was a river — one where a 'ford' could well exist — and yet the village at its headwaters had simply vanished? Suspicious. Deeply suspicious. Honestly, it felt like pure conjecture, but with the information and wits I had, this was as far as I could get.
"...I'll make a note of it for now."
I marked the location on the modern map I'd brought along and slipped back out of the hideout. Weekend or not, there was no reaching the place today. Even by carriage from the capital it was a full day's journey at minimum — going now was simply impossible. If I went, it would have to be when next weekend began. That was the earliest I could manage.
I slipped out of the hideout and made my way back to the academy. And—
"I've been waiting forever! Where did you go?"
"I'm sorry, Unnie..."
I gave Line-unnie, who'd been waiting for me, a tour of the school. Even as I did, my head held nothing but thoughts of that 'Eye of the Northern Ford' where the relic would one day be sealed.
Then, out of nowhere, an opportunity came to me. When Monday arrived and I walked into the Literature Department lecture hall, I heard about the academy's first event.
The Literature Department Spring Field Trip
The Literature Department Spring Field Trip. There it was — an event that would let me legally miss more than two days of academy life.