Dreadful Things Occur on the Staircase’s Thirteenth Step – Part 02

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Translator: Kell


“My dream is to be a great adventurer like my grandpa. Right now I want a pilot license, a motorcycle, but I also want a dress…”

While Kazuya was picturing Avril screaming as she was blown away together with the balloon, her expression turned serious. She seemed to be a different person from the bright, pretty schoolgirl she was seconds ago. A sinister shadow crept across her face.

“I actually came to this academy in search of something,” she said in a low voice. “Something very important.”

“What is that?”

“It’s… a secret!”

“Hmm…?”

The whole time he was talking with Avril, Kazuya was studying her fingers.

The fingertips on her right hand were wrapped in bandages.

A few days ago, there was a murder nearby. Kazuya was accused of being the killer, but thanks to the little detective—Victorique—the real culprit was arrested.

But there was one thing that kept bugging him.

The real culprit’s features. According to Victorique, she was a pretty blonde girl with injured fingers. Soon after, a girl with the matching description was arrested, and she herself confessed to the murder.

But Avril, who transferred to the academy soon after, was also a pretty blonde girl with injured fingers.

Was it just mere coincidence? Or was she the real culprit all along?

“What happened to your hand?” Kazuya asked, staring at her fingers.

Avril’s smile suddenly vanished. “N-Nothing serious.”

“I see.”

Avril stayed silent.

Kazuya studied Avril’s hard expression suspiciously. The shadowy, sinister look remained on her face, making her seem like a completely different person.

Something’s off with this girl, I think…

At that moment, Ms. Cecile, hurrying out of the school building, spotted them and waved.

Ms. Cecile was Kazuya’s, Avril’s, and Victorique’s homeroom teacher. A petite young woman, she had shoulder-length brunette hair and wore large round glasses. Her baby face afforded her a lovely air.

“Perfect timing,” the teacher said cheerfully. “Can I ask you two for help after school?”

Avril agreed with a smile. Kazuya observed her face as she happily told the teacher how she liked the academy. He wondered if he was just imagining things earlier. He felt ashamed for filling his own head with sinister thoughts.

The teacher wanted them to accompany her to a funeral. An old man who had been working as a janitor in the academy for a long time had passed away due to an illness, and a simple funeral service would be held after school in the public cemetery located within the campus.


And so after school, Kazuya and Avril followed Ms. Cecile to the public cemetery situated at the opposite direction of the library.

St. Marguerite Academy was built lavishly on a large tract of land at the foot of a mountain range, utilizing the spacious gentle slopes. Separating it from the outside were tall hedges, beautifully trimmed by the gardener each season in designs resembling animals or castles.

And in the center of the campus stood the large, majestic, U-shaped school building. The spacious grounds, resembling a French-style garden, housed student dormitories, a cafeteria, a large library, and a church, all connected by beautiful garden paths flanked by flowerbeds, lawns, ponds, fountains.

Kazuya had passed by the church before, but it was Avril’s first time to see it. She squealed with delight at the towering old Gothic church and the dilapidated crypt.

“So lovely!”

Kazuya didn’t think so. He did not like the dark atmosphere near the church.

The crypt in question was in the middle of the cemetery. An iron door stood under a large cross. Inside was a labyrinthine, dark, spacious room where bodies were laid to rest on bunks.

Avril said it reminded her of the location of Romeo and Juliet’s final scene, where the two died from poison. Kazuya agreed with her.

“It’s been a long time since this place was last used,” Ms. Cecile said. “We haven’t opened it since one of our students died eight years ago. Fortunately, no one from the school has died since then.”

The brawny morticians tried to open the iron door with the key that Ms. Cecile handed them.

The rusty key wouldn’t turn that easily.

A gust blew, ruffling Avril’s and Ms. Cecile’s hairs.

Finally, the door was unlocked, but it wouldn’t budge.

A mortician turned and asked Kazuya to help. He joined them in pulling the door.

With a creak, the door finally moved.

It smelled of rust.

And when the door was fully open, with Kazuya standing before it, something fell toward him.

A corpse.


“That’s the Reaper for you, all right,” Victorique said wearily after Kazuya finished recounting his story.

“Now, listen here!”

“This candy is hard. I don’t want it anymore.”

Kazuya sighed as he reluctantly chomped on a piece of kaminari-otoshi that Victorique tossed aside.

“Come on, let me finish,” he said. “So anyway…”

What fell on Kazuya was the decayed corpse of a man.

Its eye sockets were hollow, its cheeks dry, and its face was frozen in agony.

The corpse was wearing a strange outfit—a formal attire, like a medieval knight, with a primrose adorning its chest.

The corpse rattled as it fell on top of Kazuya, then rolled to the ground in several pieces—head, torso, hands. The dried primrose turned to dust and scattered in the wind.

Ms. Cecile fainted. The morticians shouted.

And then…

“Avril did something weird,” Kazuya whispered. “Though I think I was the only one who saw.”

Avril did not so much as yelp. When Kazuya glanced back at Ms. Cecile, he saw Avril pass through his field of vision with the graceful motion of a wild animal. Astonished, Kazuya followed her with his gaze.

Avril jumped over the corpse’s body parts and landed inside the crypt. She then crouched down and picked something up off the floor.

“What was it?” Victorique asked.

“A book,” Kazuya answered. “A thin book with a purple cover.”

“Hmm…”

“She quickly hid it in her bag. I heard her mumble: ‘why is this here?’”

“…Strange.”

“Yeah. Maybe that book was what she was looking for. But why was it in that place? What is that book?”

Victorique yawned. “Who knows?”

“P-Please take this seriously. You agreed that she was acting strange. Besides, you said the culprit from the other day was supposed to be a beautiful blonde girl with an injured finger. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Avril fits the description.”

“They already arrested the culprit,” Victorique groaned.

“Yeah… But I think Avril is actually the Springtime Reaper.”

Victorique ignored him. She retrieved the bag of kaminari-otoshi and munched on one; she seemed to like it despite her complaints.

“Anyway,” she went on, “the fact that the corpse fell as soon as the door was opened means the man was alive when the door was locked. Someone locked him alive in the dark crypt, and while calling for help, he ran out of strength and died while standing.”

Kazuya’s breath seized. It made sense.

“I see,” he said. “I thought for sure it was a very old corpse because of its outfit, but what you’re saying is he was locked inside when the crypt was last used eight years ago.”

That meant it wasn’t that long ago that he died.

Remembering the anguished face of the corpse, Kazuya fell silent.

“That means a murder happened in that place eight years ago. A purple book left at the scene. An English exchange student taking it. What in the world is that book?”

Suddenly the hydraulic elevator, reserved for faculty and staff, started climbing up, rattling as it shook the trees in the conservatory. The steel cage stopped with a loud clang.

The iron bars creaked open.

A fop was standing there, posing with his arms crossed, and leaning against the door.

A three-piece suit and shiny ascot tie. Silver cufflinks. And an odd, drill-shaped hairdo that ruined his entire outfit.

Inspector Grevil de Blois. An extremely annoying nobleman who was doing police work for his amusement. He tried to arrest Kazuya for the murder that happened a few days ago.

Victorique gave him a brief glance, before quickly looking away. She shoved her face into her book, picked up her pipe, and took a deep puff.

Inspector Blois, too, shot her a quick glance, without a word of greeting. Instead he turned to Kazuya.

“Hey there, Kujou!” he called cordially.

“…May I help you?” Kazuya slowly backed away.

The inspector flashed a creepy grin. “You were saved from being labelled a murderer thanks to my brilliant mind.”

“Pretty sure it was the other way around.”

“If you wish to return the favor, you may. So anyway, about the Knight Mummy Case this morning…”

Apparently the inspector came to the academy and immediately took charge of the case. Kazuya peered down the labyrinthine stairs and saw his two men who were present the other day standing near the entrance to the library. They were still holding hands, looking up anxiously.

Now that he thought about it, the inspector came here the other day as well. At first, he thought Kazuya was the culprit and was eager to arrest him, but when he heard the deduction formulated by Victorique’s Wellspring of Wisdom and learned who the real culprit was, he not only arrested them, but also took all the credit for himself.

The man didn’t look bright, yet he was lauded as a great inspector. Perhaps…

Victorique and this mysterious inspector seemed to have known each other from the beginning, but they didn’t get along for some reason. The other day, not only were they not talking to each other, their gazes didn’t even meet once. Kazuya, caught in the middle, had no idea what to do.

Kazuya glanced at Victorique. Her expression was even colder than usual, like ice.

Victorique removed the pipe from her mouth. “Why don’t you listen to what he has to say, Kujou? I just happen to be here, reading. I’m not the one listening to Grevil.” Inspector Blois gave a start. “But I might overhear your conversation and offer my thoughts, not to Grevil, but you, Kujou.”

“Oh, okay… Uh…” Kazuya’s eyes darted between them. They were both looking the other way.

What’s going on here?!

“In that case, Kujou,” Inspector Blois said, “you and I just happen to have a conversation here. Now let’s talk.”

“Okay…”

Fixing his attention solely on Kazuya, Inspector Blois started talking. Kazuya glanced at Victorique. While her face was in her book, her tiny ears were perked up, listening silently.


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