“Long time no see. Where have you been?”
“That’s none of your business, meow.”
Kiki said as she licked her paws while sitting on the table. It looked like she had accidentally found me while wandering around, so asking her might lead me to find what I was looking for quickly.
“Hey, Kiki. Do you have any books with information about ‘outsiders’?”
“How interesting, meow. It’s not allowed for humans to pronounce !@#*! perfectly, you know.”
As expected from the former archmage’s familiar, Kiki immediately understood what I meant. But the answer she returned was negative.
“Not here, meow.”
“You’re telling me there’s not even one book on outsiders among all these books?”
“That’s because it hasn’t been allowed to be written, meow.”
“Who decides that?”
“Who else could it be, meow.”
Kiki answered in a mocking tone, then started licking herself as if she had lost interest. No matter how smart she was, it seemed she was still just a cat. After a moment of thought, I pulled out some jerky from my pocket.
It was the jerky I intended to snack on while searching for the book.
Kiki, who had been licking herself, paused for a moment when I offered the jerky, then snatched it away and started chewing. Though it was a pretty cute sight, it was hard to see it as purely adorable considering her earlier cocky attitude.
“Since I’ve made an offering, I’ll give you a hint, meow. Though it might not help…”
“A hint, huh.”
What kind of hint would she give? If this familiar could give hints, it meant she must have some knowledge about outsiders. Was she holding back because I hadn’t offered anything, or was it due to ‘censorship’?
“There’s something you’d want at the Quartz mansion, meow.”
“…I don’t even know where that mansion is.”
“Neither do I, meow.”
Then it was the same as not telling me at all. I glared at her, but Kiki just kept chewing on the jerky, indifferent to my stare.
“Is there any other information?”
“If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you, meow. You’ll find out somehow when the time comes, so solve what’s pressing first, meow.”
“What’s pressing?”
“!@*#!&#( has flowed into the academy, so shouldn’t you take care of that first, meow?”
“I suspected as much, but it really has come.”
Those must be the ones we can confront, right? Based on Principal Merlin’s reaction, it seemed like he couldn’t even recognize them without certain conditions.
Unless I figured out what those ‘certain conditions’ were, eliminating whatever Kiki was talking about—something with strange mana—would likely be a challenging endeavor.
So, it would be crucial to determine the definitive recognition conditions, ensure safe recognition, and then engage in combat. But how could I check that?
“What are the conditions to recognize those?”
“Don’t you have any more jerky, meow?”
I took out all the jerky I had kept in my pocket and placed it in front of Kiki. Kiki sniffed it with a satisfied look and then expertly began to tear into the jerky.
“This jerky isn’t bad at all, meow.”
“It’s quite an expensive item.”
“Next time, you should bring even more. If you’re going to use a library like this, you need to pay a toll, meow?”
“Is this your archive?”
“It’s natural for a familiar to inherit what belongs to its owner when they die, meow?”
Is that how it works? I had no counter-arguments, so I simply nodded along. After all, if I wanted to get information, I would need to maintain continued contact with Kiki.
“When you come back, make sure to bring plenty of jerky.”
“That’s a satisfying answer, meow. The response to the earlier question just needs to be from a being that possesses power and isn’t human, meow.”
“A being with power that isn’t human?”
“Exactly, meow. If you look around, there are quite a few.”
What an ambiguous condition.
At a glance, it seemed like it included all beings with power that aren’t human, but the scope of that category was really vague.
After all, this world had various races living openly.
With elves, beastmen, dwarves, fairies, and spirits actually existing, it wasn’t clear just how far the category of ‘human’ extended.
Just because they were a different race didn’t mean they could all be sensed.
For example, it seemed like Shuri didn’t feel anything odd about Bella, unlike Elisa.
Ugh, this is dizzying.
It feels like the things I have to think about have doubled.
“I’ll at least say thanks. I’ll take my leave now, so see you next time.”
“Got it, meow. Bring more jerky next time, meow.”
I left Kiki behind and exited the secret archive.
——————–
“Elisa? Elisa?”
“…I-I’m sorry.”
“Is something on your mind?”
Elisa relaxed her tense shoulders and replied to Martina’s worried voice, who was looking at her with concern.
“B-Bella…”
“Did Bella do something?”
Martina and the other female students’ faces grew serious. This was due to Bella’s generally bad reputation.
“W-Well, not really…”
“Then, is there something up?”
“It’s just on my mind…”
“Elisa is so kind. Even after hearing something harsh, you still worry…”
“Elisa is truly sweet!”
“Oh my, really…”
Elisa’s cheeks flushed from the sudden avalanche of compliments, and she covered her face with her hands. The other female students surrounded her, gasping in excitement.
“Ah~ If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be able to hold back and would confess!”
“There’s no need to worry about gender, right? Among our upperclassmen, some female students…”—
“Still, interacting with the same gender is a bit…”
‘W-What are they even talking about…?’
“Speaking of which, what about Sir Quartz? I heard Shuri summoned him separately yesterday…”
“Th-That, th-that, um…”
Elisa fidgeted with her fingers, hesitating. It was a subject she couldn’t speak about honestly, plus she wasn’t good with words. So it took her a while before she was finally able to speak.
“I-I couldn’t confess…”
“Oh no, that’s a shame. I thought it was a pretty good timing…”
“B-But if Johan helps me, he said he’ll grant a wish…”
At her answer, the female students leaned in unison. Elisa flinched and tried to step back, but one of the female students was already standing right behind her.
“Really?!”
“Elisa, this is your chance! You have to seize it firmly this time!”
“That’s right! If you let this chance slip, you won’t get another opportunity in your lifetime!”
“B-But…”
“If there’s anything we can do to help, we’ll do it with all our might!”
“Leave anything to us!”
“Hehe, what should our team name be?”
The female students chattered excitedly, throwing out opinions. The flood of fast-talking words made Elisa dizzy and overwhelmed. Eventually, Martina stepped in to mediate the situation.
“Everyone, while it’s true that this is an exciting and heart-pounding story, maybe we should calm down a bit? Elisa looks startled.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Elisa…”
“We just got so excited about the possibility of a new couple among us…”
“Oh, it’s nothing…”
Elisa waved her hands dismissively, accepting the female students’ apologies. With that, the female students smiled at her and continued their previously interrupted conversation.
“Elisa, could you please tell us what kind of request Sir Quartz made? If it’s not a secret, that is.”
“Oh…well, the request itself isn’t a hard one…”
“Really?”
‘C-Can I really say this…’
The request itself wasn’t difficult. All she had to do was quietly monitor Bella.
But she couldn’t decide whether it was okay to say that or if she should keep it to herself, so she was fidgeting.
“If it’s too hard to say, you don’t have to.”
“Yeah! It could be tough to say!”
“I hope everything goes well!”
“Th-Thanks…”
As the beautiful girl with purple hair gave a shy smile, the other female students unknowingly sparkled their eyes.
“How did we only find out about such a pretty girl now that we’re approaching the end of our first year?”
“Isn’t that because of love?”
‘W-Why is the conversation going in that direction…?’
“That’s right. When you have someone you like, you start to think about how to look prettier, right?”
“Speaking of which, how are things going with Boris?”
“Oh ho, just look at this.”
One female student pulled out a ticket from her pocket and waved it. It was the entrance ticket to the circus that periodically visited Kalon City.
“We’re going to the circus together this weekend!”
“Congratulations! But is that okay? We have our magic combat lecture duel next Monday, right?”
“Th-That should be fine…”
May smiled awkwardly.
“Magic combat practice…”
“Come to think of it, they said we’d find out who our opponents are today, right?”
“I hope it’s an easy opponent…”
As the topic naturally shifted to magic combat practice, Elisa unconsciously turned her gaze to Bella, who was sitting in the corner of the classroom, staring out the window.
‘I-I hope I don’t have to face Bella…’
With that thought in mind, Elisa quickly turned her head before Bella could notice her gaze.
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