Chapter 105: School Life (part six)

THE RAW FINALLY UPDATED. I’m so happy! Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

TL: clover

ED: eristol, xtostos

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Today is the first holiday since my enrollment.

When I got up in the morning, there were both Tirnanog and Palug who returned last night.

The three of us had a simple breakfast with tea, boiled egg, and toast, and at the same time, we decided to start a meeting that also acts as a status report.

 

“Well, first of all, please give me your report, Tir.”

『Umu. For the moment, there is no sign of a monstro that is likely to hurt her soon.』

“That’s great.”

 

Hearing Tirnanog’s words, I stroked my chest in relief.

It is good news that it turned out the dangerous magical beasts and phantom beasts were not approaching.

If Beatrice is already being targeted because I am out of the death route, I would feel too guilty to face her.

 

『The woman named Beatrice is diligent and also has a good lifestyle. Because of her cautious personality, she will never jump into a dangerous place by herself. However, there is one thing that worries me.』

“What is it?”

『I felt a vague but frequent presence that was mixed with hostility. There seems to be someone else watching the lady besides me.』

“Do you know the identity of the observer?”

『Unfortunately, I do not know exactly who it was because they cleverly blended with the crowd. If you use demonic eye magic, you may be able to track the traces of their magical power, but well.』

“I see……tracking them down would be difficult, huh.”

『Umu. But, it was a human presence after all. It wasn’t some dangerous monstro that you are concerned about.』

 

I threw a peeled soft-boiled egg into Tirnanog’s mouth.

It seems that he’s happy with the moderate amount of salt and the right degree of boiling.

 

I thought that attaching a guard on Beatrice was just my needless anxiety, but it may have been a good precaution in hindsight.

Even if it’s trivial, I should keep track of the disturbing information.

However, all things considered, what is their reason to keep watch on Beatrice?

Is it a personal thing or do they want to pick a quarrel with her family? Is it possible for me to intervene in the first place?

Since there is not enough information, it seems I should just wait and see.

 

On the other hand, Palug seems to be the most bloodthirsty among the three of us.

She swished her tail left and right for a long time as she radiated uncontrollable anger.

 

“Those bloodsuckers seem to have resumed their contamination of the altars in full-scale. Their underlings are increasing.”

“No way……is everything going to be okay? Isn’t it hard to distinguish them?”

“If they are an inexperienced vampire, one can easily distinguish them if one gets used to it.”

 

Vampires retain the blood and soul of the people they prey on inside themselves.

By regenerating those flesh, blood and soul, vampires seem to be able to reproduce the figure and personality of another person.

 

However, it is said that it’s a different story for young and new vampires.

For example, even if they turn into a person they preyed on, they seem to be unable to reproduce the personality of that person properly.

It seems that kind of vampires can be identified by the accumulation of small details, such as a sensation gap.

 

For example, the difference in sensation of pain.

Since their sense of pain becomes diluted, they run without noticing their sprained feet.

Or lift a pot without noticing that it is boiling hot.

They will exert power that goes beyond the original’s physical ability and destroy the body.

And thus, since it gets broken, they finally notice and regenerate it.

 

It seems that we can reveal such unnatural behaviors and traces by observation.

 

“Because of that, it will be fine for now.”

『But, from that manner of speaking, you sound like you consider the eventual struggle to be unavoidable.』

“Well. After so many years, those bloodsuckers have become better at impersonating. No, rather, it may be that only vampires who succeeded in impersonating were able to continue to exist for a long time.”

 

A vampire that has passed through the years can reproduce human behavior perfectly.

Until in the end they don’t even realize that they are a vampire.

Then, at some opportunity, they will regain their consciousness as a vampire and kill again.

 

A vampire, that is mixed in among the people, had devoured a man while still assuming the shape of a human and defiled the altar.

Although half-baked vampires should not be able to hurt Palug, combined by the effect of the altars being polluted for a long time, it may be a different case now.

Because there is a possibility that she will weaken once again when the supplementation of the power of faith is cut off.

 

“The perpetrator of this incident seems to be aware of the existence of their pursuers. They are quite cleverly hidden.”

“Has the existence of angels been exposed?”

“As you’d expect, they probably haven’t noticed me yet. While making them misrecognize me, I will narrow the net bit by bit, but it looks like it will be a long-term battle.”

『Umu. Be careful, and proceed with caution.』

“Yes, I will thoroughly smoke them out, and I will definitely crush them.”

 

Palug’s voice contained a quiet anger.

From the story so far, quite a few people were preyed on by the vampires.

Since they suddenly turned bolder even though they were hiding up to a few years ago, I’m also worried about the reason.

 

“Well, I will ask for your help again today.”

『Umu.』

“Hah~ I guess I should do my best~ I wonder if I should go for a moment to recuperate my spirit……”

 

This ‘spirit recuperation’ seems to mean going to see Auguste’s figure.

Incidentally, it seems that she learned the location of the large stable which Auguste passes by frequently on the first day.

The first periodical meeting ended that way.

After the meeting was adjourned, Tirnanog went to the Central Dorm to guard Beatrice and Palug went to the large stable.

 

☆

 

After sending off the phantom beasts, I also started my holiday plan.

In the morning, I have an advance arrangement to receive magic tools from Harold.

Since I have free time from the afternoon, I plan to explore the Phantom Beast Museum this time.

I finished dressing up easily and headed to the alchemy workshop building in the academy.

 

Harold, who receives the same lessons as the upper grades, has a private workshop dedicated for him on the first floor of the workshop building.

When I peeked inside through the gap of the door that opens a little bit, various things were piled up randomly.

They have been allocated there for a week and were left in a state of neglect.

 

It appears that there is a previous guest.

Blond hair like wheat straw, a man in his prime year who is rather overweight but seems to have a fit body.

It’s the teacher in charge of Golem Engineering, Otfried Schlammberg.

He and Harold were talking about something while looking into a bunch of documents at hand.

 

“That’s why the list of stones needed for restoration will look something like this. I think if you place an order in this format, the stone dealer will be able to accept it more smoothly.”

“Ooh, as expected from you, Harold-kun. Being able to do this so quickly, you saved me some trouble. Hmhm, I will order it immediately.”

 

Oops, it seems that it is just about to end.

My eyes met with Schlammberg’s who came out after finishing his business, I greeted him lightly.

He smiled and started talking to me jovially.

 

“Good morning, Erica-kun. Well, your previous report on Advanced Golem Engineering was wonderful.”

“It’s my honor to be praised by you.”

“This year’s freshmen are really full of unique and youthful ideas. When you are in the upper grade, why don’t you try majoring in Golem Engineering? I will be waiting.”

 

Schlammberg said what he had to say quickly and left without waiting for my answer.

Harold seems to have noticed me, he urged me to enter the workshop with a gesture.

 

“Morning, Harold.”

“Yeah, good morning. My bad, I kept you waiting.”

“No, it was just in time.”

“Haha, I guess that is good then.”

 

A long table with alchemy tools lined up, cabinets filled with things, lots of stacked boxes, a case of tightly packed bottles of potions.

And, a sofa with familiar design.

His workshop has the same configuration as his Wunderkammer in Knot Reed.

I sat on the sofa while Harold sat on the chair in front of me as usual and broached the main subject.

 

“I heard that the prototype of the second lens has been made.”

“Sorry that it took me a long time. I actually wanted to finish it before the entry to academy.”

“No, it’s fine. I thought that it would take longer than this.”

 

Harold took out a bottle from his apron pocket.

Within the liquid medicine, a light purple lens which is nearly transparent was floating ceaselessly.

 

“Perhaps this might be my best masterpiece in recent years. It’s the culmination of the demonic eye lenses I studied six years ago.”

“What is it called?”

“How about Eyes of Overworld?”

 

Somehow an exaggerated name came out.

But, considering the effect put in, it is not an exaggeration at all.

Because this is a demonic eye magic that was inspired from Auguste’s visual extension.

 

A brief explanation was written on the label of the bottle.

With amethyst as the base, it seems that the lens is coated by ingredients extracted from several phantom beasts.

Three times per lens, the effect lasts for only 30 seconds with each activation.

Since it is a prototype, it seems that the number of times and the effect time are set to be less than that.

The target of the effect is the surrounding topography and living things.

It is also effective for things that don’t have thought or soul, but it is ineffective in places where the magical power is blocked.

 

“Can I try it?”

“Aa, go ahead.”

 

I washed my hands and carefully swapped the lenses.

From my Glam Sight lens to the Eyes of Overworld lens.

 

When I activated the lens as usual, I got a slight dizziness just for a moment.

After a slight time-lag, the usual sight was kept intact, and at the same time, another totally different sight became visible.

It was a colorless, monochrome world.

 

My eyes were looking down from the sky around the alchemy workshop building center.

Only the outline of the building can be seen, and lights in the shape of people are moving in it.

Inside the workshop building, not only people, but several sets of the flickering flames of emet characters are moving.

I’m pretty sure they are golems.

Outside the workshop building, I can see strong lights in the shape of small dragons and faint lights in the form of small birds.

 

“How is it? Can you see it?”

“It seems to be successful.”

“How much is the visibility range?”

“I guess it’s within the range of about 500 meters square around the sky just above this point.”

“Ah, it’s wider than I thought, huh.”

 

Harold nodded while taking a note.

 

“Buildings appear to be seen through. It’s quite different from Auguste-sama’s ability, but it seems to be useful as it is.”

“Since I wasn’t able to borrow the eyes of other creatures, I tried using other means.”

“This, how was this implemented?”

“Well, how do I explain this……how far have you gotten in your magic lesson, Erica? Elementary?”

 

When I nodded, Harold began to explain.

The observation point was set to be the sky using the magic hierarchy.

To make obtaining information process convenient, it seems to be made so that it will penetrate matters.

Harold explained in detail, but it was still too difficult for me and I couldn’t understand half of it.

 

“Do you see human beings and other living things?”

“I can see not only living things but also golems.”

 

I focused my consciousness on the alchemy workshop building.

If I concentrate it looks pretty detailed, but it isn’t clear enough for me to be able to distinguish between people.

But, being able to know their position is enough for me.

If it is a phantom beast or a magical beast, as long as I can see the approximate size and shape, I can guess its identity.

 

Oh, I can see the characters of emet that got stuck in the wall.

It’s inside the fireplace of the room on the third floor, which I’m pretty sure is used as a nap room.

I don’t think there is a golem in a place like that.

 

“Ah……it seems there was a gap in position information for a moment.”

“Huh? Is that a mistake in the arithmetic processing? I will improve it a bit more.”

 

I continued the experiment while telling Harold some points I noticed.

Focus on one point and watch from far away.

 

As I did it, I suddenly felt light-headed.

I felt lethargic as if I got attacked by anemia and vertigo at the same time.

 

“……ukh!?”

 

I held down my temple as I staggered.

Harold immediately supported my shoulders and had me sit down on the sofa.

 

“Sorry. It hasn’t even passed thirty seconds yet.”

“No, I think it’s my mistake. Maybe the filtering is inadequate so there are too many pieces of information to obtain. I’ll fix it.”

 

I removed the lens, closed my eyelids, and massaged around my eyes.

After a while, a towel with moderate warmth was put on my forehead.

 

“So, how about it? If you want me to add multilateral observations from multiple perspectives like His Highness Auguste, it seems it will be difficult to implement.”

“It’s fine. It’s enough if I can see it like this.”

 

The bird’s eye view isn’t as wide as sharing consciousness with a dragon, but it has a perspective function instead.

Furthermore, it is possible to fully grasp the existence in the surroundings including golems, which have no spirit, and other things.

The burden will become heavier if it has even more function than this, so it would be better not to add too much.

 

Frankly speaking, it’s quite nice.

It would be useful when something happens.

 

Something like being chased by a gigantic creature in the underground labyrinth.

Or when searching for a prince or an angel hiding in the underground altar.

 

I would’ve wanted this demonic eye lens, preferably six years ago.

 

“You seem tired. Should we end it here today?”

“No, let’s resume after a short break. Because I have no plans until noon.”

“If you can’t continue, don’t force yourself. I also have something I would like to consult with you.”

 

Afterwards, we exchanged ideas about magic tools other than the lenses.

Requesting wands with spells I would like him to prepare, charging the boots with spells, etc.

 

Other than that, we talked about the wand which is still waiting for the material that will be the finishing touch.

I got a lot of money during last autumn, so I finally ordered the core material for the wand of Urd Sight, but I had to wait for a year due to the small supply.

Because of that, I still haven’t been able to enter the production and charging process involving Harold.

 

“Do you think you will be able to finish it by All Souls Day?”

“The material will probably arrive at the end of the month, even if I start right away, I will just barely finish it in time.”

 

Harold calculated it as he counted his fingers.

Even so, he charges much more quickly than ordinary wand creators.

If the wand of Urd Sight can be acquired before the ‘All Souls Day’s Spirited Away Case’, it will greatly affect my survival rate.

 

Before I knew it, it was already around noon, so I decided to share the lunch I made at the dorm with Harold.

Ham and cucumber pickles sandwiched between rye bread, cheese, and roasted apple.

 

In this way, I feel that I have spent my morning meaningfully.

After receiving some prototypes, I headed for the Phantom Beast Museum.

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I love, love, love Harold-Erica interactions!

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