Chapter 98: Volume 4 - CH 2.4

Kazuya, his hands now off his friend’s chin, a pouting Victorique, a flustered Avril, and Ms. Cecile left the infirmary and headed toward the clock tower.

As they walked down the path, Kazuya wondered how to explain Victorique to Avril. It was actually the superior intellect of Victorique de Blois, the fairy of the library tower—her Wellspring of Wisdom, specifically—that solved the case of the Purple Book that involved Avril, who had just arrived from England back then. But Avril wasn’t aware of that. While Kazuya wondered if he should start from the beginning, Avril seemed to be preoccupied with something else and started talking about something that had been bothering her since yesterday.

“So we were playing with a planchette yesterday in the clock tower, right?” she said. “That was actually a ritual to call forth spirits to tell us about the afterlife, and we must never stop halfway. But we let go of the planchette. Then an incident happened afterward. I was thinking that maybe we summoned an evil spirit and it never left.”

“That sounds like something a farting newt would say—blegh.”

Kazuya silenced Victorique with his special move—the chin grab.

“Get off me! You’ve been incredibly bold lately!”

“As your dutiful friend, farting Victorique, I’m just teaching you manners. Ouch! Why’d you bite me?!”

Kazuya had forgotten all about the Wellspring of Wisdom. He focused solely on grabbing Victorique by the chin.

Leaving Kazuya and Victorique alone, Ms. Cecile said, “That’s just an old wives’ tale, Avril.”

“B-But…”

“We’re not supposed to tell students about things in the past, but since all sorts of mysterious incidents happen in this academy…”

Realizing that Ms. Cecile was about to share something important, Kazuya and Victorique stopped squabbling and listened.

“There’s a reason why I kicked you both out of the clock tower yesterday. It’s actually not the first time that people died in that clock tower under mysterious circumstances.”

“Did someone die like this before?” Kazuya asked.

Ms. Cecile shook her head. “Not just once.”

“What—”

“Five times.”

Kazuya, Victorique, and Avril stopped in their tracks, glanced at each other, then turned their eyes back to Ms. Cecile.

“It’s been happening since the beginning of the century. The alchemist Leviathan lived there for two years starting in 1897, so the deaths started after he was gone. Anyway, in about twenty years since the beginning of the century, five people have died suspicious deaths in that clockwork room. That’s one every four years. For some reason, they always found themselves in the workshop, not anywhere else in the tower, and like this morning, they always ended up dead with a purple bruise on the index finger of their right hand. The coroner’s findings were always the same: they died from poison injected through their fingers. They had something else in common. They were not students of the academy. They were either new teachers, visitors, trespassing travelers—in other words, outsiders.”

The four left the school building and ambled along the pathway leading to the clock tower. The summer sun was burning stronger now. The flowers in the flowerbeds and the leaves on the trees glittered brightly.

“I don’t even need to hear about the autopsy results to know. The cause of death was probably poison through his fingertips. The man was poisoned.”

“Who’s the culprit?” Avril asked.

“I don’t know. But in some of the past cases, the victim died in the clockwork room locked from the inside. This gave birth to the rumor that the clock tower is haunted by the ghost of the alchemist, who reigned over Sauville all those years ago. Of course, it’s just a rumor, but I didn’t want to let my precious students near that place. So I keep the door locked, but from time to time, someone gets curious and opens it. They pry open the locks, or kick in the door.”

Avril turned red and cast her eyes downward.

Kazuya quickly shifted the subject. “But if I recall correctly, the royal guards attacked the alchemist in the clock tower. Even after getting hit by poisoned arrows, he escaped and his body was never found.”

“That’s right. They searched the whole campus, the village, and the nearby forests, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Either he died deep in the woods, or…” Ms. Cecile chuckled. “Legends say he was really immortal, that he took off his mask and robe and fled to a faraway land.”

Up ahead, the red-haired companion of the murdered oriental man passed by. Inspector Blois had suspected him of the murder, but he insisted that he was at the inn the whole time, and unless he could be at two places at the same time, he couldn’t have committed the crime. He wore his hat low and walked with his eyes on the ground, and when he noticed Kazuya and the others, he pulled his hat even lower.

From the opposite side, a large man who looked to be in his sixties walked along, carrying carpentry tools on his broad shoulders, and passed by the red-haired man.

“Who’s the big guy?” Kazuya asked.

Ms. Cecile looked across the pathway and nodded. “Ah, he’s a carpenter. He’s been working at the academy for almost twenty years now. I asked him to do some repair work.”

“Wow, he’s been around for a while, huh?”

“Same with the gardener. I think he’s been here longer than the carpenter. Over twenty years, from what I’ve heard.”

The old carpenter turned his gaze to them. Two eyes shone darkly on his wrinkled face.

Kazuya returned the topic back to the missing masked man. “The alchemist died or disappeared only a little over twenty years ago. If the poison didn’t kill him, and he just took off his mask and robe and escaped, maybe he’s still alive. It’s possible that he didn’t flee the kingdom, and instead is hiding somewhere in the academy. Actually, he doesn’t even need to hide. No one has seen his face, after all. I think it’s more realistic than the whole ghost-killing-people theory.”

“Wrong,” Victorique, stroking her chin, interjected. “Leviathan is long dead. He’s just stubbornly hiding that fact.”

“So who’s killing people in the workshop, then? And how are they doing it? Who’s been killing intruders the past twenty years? They ignore students, and only kill suspicious outsiders. Only a living human with a will can do that.”

Victorique fell silent. Kazuya glanced at her face. She was pouting like a child.

Avril nodded in agreement with Kazuya. “I see. Kujou, you’re so smart!”

Victorique pursed her lips even tighter and kicked a pebble. “If that’s what you think,” she spat, “go ahead and search for the living alchemist. I will look for his shriveled corpse. To hell with you.”

“What?”

The group had just arrived at the clock tower.

The area around the clock tower was untouched by the light and heat of the summer sun. Creepy cobwebs that looked like burial clothes, and dead branches clawing at the air like blackened skeletons, rustled ominously in the wind.

Inspector Blois, standing in front of the tower, frowned when he saw Kazuya and his half-sister, Victorique.

“You don’t see this often,” he grumbled.

When Kazuya saw him this morning, his hair was dancing softly in the wind, but now it was back to its usual drill shape. As they got closer, Kazuya saw Inspector Blois’s head being swarmed by bees, flies, and large butterflies. His two subordinates had unlinked their hands for once, desperately fanning the insects away.

Avril poked Kazuya and whispered in his ear. “See? I told you he’s weird.”

“I know. This is not the first time.”

Inspector Blois sauntered toward the group, and put his hands on his hips and his right leg in front in a splendid pose.

“What are you doing here, Ms. Cecile, Kujou, V-Victorique, and you are…?”

“My name is Avril Bradley, an international student from England.” Avril pointed to the inspector’s head. “Weird.”

“I know that! It’s complicated, out of my control.”

“Why are bugs swarming you?”

“I didn’t have time, so I fixed my hair with sugared water. And then this happened. I’m having a bit of trouble right now.”

Kazuya and Avril exchanged glances.

Frowning, Inspector Blois started walking down the pathway, moving further and further away from the clock tower.

A gust blew in front of the clock tower, shaking the dead branches. Students returning to their dormitories stole glances as they passed by. Inspector Blois took out his pipe and ignited it in the most casual way possible. Kazuya found his behavior suspicious.

“Excuse me, Inspector,” Kazuya said, walking up to the man.

The inspector wearily turned around. “What is it?”

“You look so… relaxed. I thought you would go to the library to find out what happened, so I waited for a while, but there was no sign of you coming at all. And now you’re just standing there smoking a pipe. It doesn’t look like you’re investigating the clock tower at all.”

“I was doing just that earlier.”

“If you were, you wouldn’t have had time to fix your hair.”

“Ahem…” The inspector started fidgeting, changing poses several times, and adjusting his hair. “If this happened in the village, I would go all out,” he said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, this happened on St. Marguerite Academy’s campus. I don’t want to dig into this school’s past.”

“What do you mean by that?”

When the inspector was sure that the others were not listening, he whispered, “Listen. St. Marguerite Academy only began accepting international students such as yourself several years ago. For hundreds of years before that, the school was kept secret and off-limits to outsiders. Do you know why?”

“No…”

“A handful of Europe’s dark history lie dormant here, and they must not be awakened. The government wants to keep it that way. It is said that for centuries after the Middle Ages, St. Marguerite Academy served as a front for the secret royal armory. Once it sheltered French aristocrats fleeing the Revolution and Protestants persecuted by Catholics. Newly-developed weapons of the future were also hidden here. Characters who should’ve died lived the rest of their lives here. Do you understand? Such things must never see the light of the day. It will affect our current diplomatic relations. The academy has silently swallowed up many a horrible secrets, life, and death, with its big mouth.”

Kazuya studied Inspector Blois’ face with surprise. For once, he was actually serious.

The scorching summer sun beat down mercilessly on the two men. Inspector Blois’s drill-shaped hair gleamed. The heat had caused the sugar water to melt.

Lifting his droopy hair with both hands, Inspector Blois continued. “Of course, those things happened a long time ago. After the Great War, the culture of secrecy was abolished, and international students like you are welcomed with open arms. But make no mistake. Those distant nightmares occasionally wake up from their dark slumber and cause mischief. They become the horror stories that pervade the school, luring boys and girls living in the present day back to the unknown.”

“Oh…”

“As such, I don’t really want to investigate this case. I don’t care if it stays cold. If I don’t learn anything by the end of the day, I’m leaving.”

“But…” Kazuya refused to back down.

The carpenter from earlier crossed their vision again. He walked slowly with his heavy-looking carpentry tools slung over his shoulder.

“This isn’t the first time this happened, right?” Kazuya said eagerly. “If someone—for example, the alchemist who’s supposed to be dead or his descendant—is lurking in the clock tower and continues to kill, you can’t just ignore them. What if more people die in the future?”

The inspector did not answer.

The wind blew, shaking the dead branches and the tip of the inspector’s hair.