Whispers Hidden in the Night (1)

Fatenai had recently encountered some things she couldn't quite understand.

She couldn't summon a new summoner.

The Month of Trekking had passed, and the Birth Month had arrived. A month had already gone by, so Merlin should have disappeared by now. Yet she still couldn't summon a new summoner. She tried summoning the pattern in her hand as usual, but received no response.

In the world she had once lived in, people could see their status displayed in midair in games known as "immersive." But Fatenai couldn't do that here.

Something seemed to have changed, ever so quietly.

Unable to summon a new servant, Fatenai didn't give it much thought. There was no pressing need to summon someone new at the moment. As time passed, she continued with the tasks she had planned for that morning, just as she always did.

"Good morning, Fatenai." There was a lounge on every floor of the teaching building, and food was provided there. Fatenai only had to go downstairs. As she carried her chosen breakfast on a tray to a table, someone greeted her.

She didn't know how these mages passed messages around, but word had spread about her name and her role as Lyteta's assistant. All the mages knew why she was there, and this was the first time anyone had greeted her.

Fatenai followed the voice. There weren't many people around, so she quickly spotted a short-haired girl. She prodded the mashed potatoes on her plate with a fork, then looked up at Fatenai with an amused smile.

At first glance, she looked like a cat.

"Hello," Fatenai replied politely.

"Want to eat together? I'm Chris, Chris Aberge." Chris spoke warmly. "I heard you used to be a forest hunter."

Holding her tray, Fatenai declined. "I still have things to do for the professor, so I'm afraid I can't stay. Thank you for your kindness."

With that, Fatenai walked toward a seat.

Paying no heed to Chris, Fatenai calmly ate her breakfast. She finished it elegantly and quickly, then slowly stood up. The whole process had taken only a few minutes.

"You've been with Lyteta for so long. Be careful you don't catch anything nasty..." Chris had a way of appearing out of nowhere. She quietly materialized behind Fatenai without making a sound, then whispered in her ear, "And when there aren't many students around, strange things always happen in the teaching building..."

"Thank you for the warning." Fatenai's movements faltered slightly as Chris spoke, then continued smoothly as before. She walked away without even glancing at her.

Chris turned to watch Fatenai walk off, the light in her eyes flickering.

"Chris, don't say things that have nothing to do with you." Another voice rang out. The mages were always quiet in the lounge, so even though the voice was soft, it came through clearly.

"Shouldn't you be pestering Shirey right now? Why come to me... Unless you think..." Chris's voice grew a little distant.

"Don't think no one knows what you're thinking, Chris." Fatenai recognized Shirey's voice.

Shirey, the usually cold mage girl. Fatenai didn't know much about her, but instinctively, she didn't want to get too involved with her. It seemed many people felt the same way, and as a result, Shirey had almost no friends.

There were apparently exceptions.

Fatenai had no time to ponder what the girls were thinking. After returning her tray, she went back to Lyteta's laboratory, took a look at the daily checklist Lyteta had pinned to the wall, then turned and left. Lyteta had shown her nothing but her back the entire time.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"I have something to take care of, so I'm leaving early. Once you've tidied up, you can rest. You can use everything except the cabinet over there." That afternoon, however, Lyteta left the laboratory early.

Fatenai nodded and continued reading.

Time ticked by, and Fatenai remained absorbed in the book in her hands. They were introductory books on magic, and they were tedious. Unlike the Divine Court, which attributed the very origin of magic to a goddess named Allentia, these mages used many theories Fatenai had never heard of to argue that magic came from nature.

Rather than arguments about nature's origins, it was more like wishful thinking of their own. A strange thought slowly surfaced in Fatenai's mind.

Click.

Fatenai froze. The lamp mounted on the laboratory ceiling suddenly went out.

Darkness swallowed the laboratory.

Fatenai said nothing. She stood in the room and waited.

Suddenly, the light came on again.

As though it had malfunctioned for a moment, it had returned to normal the very next instant. What had happened? The answer was probably that nothing had happened at all.

Fatenai's eyes swept across the room. She couldn't seem to find anything unusual. In the end, she lost the desire to keep reading, closed the book, and tidied the room as usual. Then she went upstairs to practice her swordsmanship, headed downstairs early, and went to the washroom to brush her teeth.

According to the map Shirey had given her, this floor of the teaching building had a few fewer rooms because there was a sizable open space right in the middle. A skylight opened above it, and she had to cross the open space to get to the washroom.

The teaching building had three staircases: spiral staircases at either end, and a typical scissor staircase in the middle. The open space, however, was a round little hall. The scissor staircase's exit changed periodically, by magic—or, more precisely, by an alchemical device.

There was a spiral staircase beside Alfie's Corner, and Fatenai rarely used the staircase in the middle.

She walked forward slowly, the dim light making everything around her hard to see clearly.

Fatenai continued through the little hall, and the sound of water reached her ears—not the sound of running water, but droplets falling one by one.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

She didn't like that sound very much. Fatenai silently entered the corridor across from her, then headed down another corridor toward the washroom.

But there was no sign of a leak in the washroom sink.

Fatenai finished what she needed to do, then walked outside, ready to return to the attic.

But she saw something "abnormal." Fatenai's eyesight was a little better than other people's. Standing outside the washroom at the end of the corridor, she could see all the way to the far end.

It looked like someone was lying on the floor.

Fatenai narrowed her eyes and slowly walked over.

It was a corpse.