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A Golden Fairy Lives At the Top of the Library – Part 03

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Translator: Kell

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After rolling down the wooden staircase, Ciaran the Second was arrested by Inspector Blois and taken to the village police station by the pair of hand-holding detectives.

Relieved, Kazuya slowly climbed the winding stairs, one step at a time. Finally, he reached the conservatory at the top.

He raised his head.

Victorique was sitting on the floor, turning the pages of a book in the usual manner that Kazuya had become accustomed to seeing over the past few days. She was smoking a pipe, surrounded by a circle of books.

When she noticed Kazuya coming up, she didn’t even spare him a glance. She simply removed the pipe from her mouth.

“You’re late,” she said.

Her face looked the same as when they first met, imperious and expressionless, characteristic of this kingdom’s aristocracy. Kazuya found it grating.

But he didn’t let that bother him today.

He sat down next to Victorique. “What’s going on? So you’re the only one who knows everything as usual?”

“Of course. With my Wellspring of Wisdom.” Victorique sighed wearily. “It toys with the fragments of the chaos of this world to stave off my boredom, reconstructing the pieces. And thus I am once more at a loss. For the long, maddening boredom has returned.”

“Please tell me before you get bored.”

“You want me to verbalize it?” Victorique yawned loudly. “It’s too cumbersome.”

When she saw Kazuya waiting impatiently, Victorique groaned faintly. Reluctantly, she opened her mouth.

“Very well. I’ll explain it to you in a way that a simpleton can understand.”

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Warm sunlight poured in on the conservatory, shining on the two of them. A spring breeze blowing in through the skylight gently ruffled their hair.

Victorique held out a card. It was a postcard from Sir Bradley to his granddaughter Avril, which was inserted in the purple book. It was not postmarked.

“Penny Black is the name of a stamp,” Victorique began. “It’s the oldest stamp in the world. That alone makes it worth a fortune, but there are a few that are even more valuable because of a printing error. That’s what’s on this postcard.”

“Oh…”

Kazuya took the postcard and studied the stamp.

“It’s a treasure that a collector would give up a fortune to have. But this legacy of Sir Bradley, left to his granddaughter, was stolen by the first Ciaran and brought to the academy in a purple book. Then subsequently laid to rest with him in the crypt.”

“I see. But how did you know that the girl I saw in that storehouse was the real Avril, held captive by Ciaran?”

“I believe Ciaran the Second used her to infiltrate the academy. She locked her up and impersonated her to find the treasure. And the reason she was hidden in the storehouse is the same reason the purple book was hidden in the library.”

Victorique puffed on her pipe. “Ciaran the Second hid the purple book on the thirteenth step of the library to exploit the horror stories rampant in this academy. Something sinister happens on the thirteenth step of the staircase. That’s why she hid the book there, because students avoid the thirteenth step.”

“Ahuh…”

“She hid the real Avril in the storehouse because there was a horror story about the ghost of Millie Marl haunting the place. She failed to consider an eccentric man like you passing by.”

Kazuya nodded admiringly. Victorique was silent for a while, smoking her pipe. Suddenly she looked at Kazuya.

“Wh-What is it?” he asked.

“A bonus. I will verbalize one more thing for you.” Her green eyes flickered mysteriously. “It’s about the story that’s given you so much trouble at school: the Springtime Reaper Brings Death to the Academy. The Reaper was, in fact, Maxim. Maxim, the first Ciaran, returned to the academy every spring. Of course, he did so to hide his stolen goods, but he must have been a creepy man. Every time he returned, there might have been deaths, including Millie Marl. The ominous impression of the Springtime Reaper was created by the first Ciaran. Most likely.”

Kazuya stared at Victorique’s cold face in amazement. It felt like watching a strange magic spell—fragments of chaos drifting in the air falling to the ground through a single glare from Victorique and reconstructed in the blink of an eye.

“You’re amazing,” he breathed.

Victorique’s expression changed faintly. She looked elated, but the slight change disappeared, overshadowed by the weariness, despair, and strange darkness on her face.

“By the way,” Kazuya finally said after a long silence.

Victorique frowned.

“You were here all along.”

Victorique lifted her head and eyed him suspiciously. “You’re still on that? Of course I was here.”

“B-But Ciaran the Second said she came to the conservatory twice and you weren’t here. She said it was dark and deserted.”

Victorique remained quiet for a while, puffing on her pipe. A wisp of white smoke rose straight up to the skylight.

A refreshing spring breeze blew past.

“Because she was a stranger,” Victorique murmured.

“What?”

“A stranger came, so I hid.”

“Hid? Where?”

Victorique tiredly lifted her head up from the book and pointed to a small chest nearby.

Kazuya stared at the chest for a while, puzzled. It was an oblong box, not large enough to hold a single person. But if they were as small as Victorique, they might fit inside by curling up.

Kazuya reached for the lid and opened it. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

Inside the chest was a lamp, some snacks, and books. The lid was designed so that it could be locked from the inside.

“You were inside this thing?” he asked.

“…”

“Do you always hide here when strangers come around?”

“…”

Victorique gave no reply.

Maybe she’s extremely shy?

Wait a minute…

“I was a stranger too the first time I came up here,” Kazuya said.

“…Yes.”

“But you were sitting here reading a book without a care in the world. And you talked to me, remember? You said: ‘“Being late wasn’t enough, and now you’re skipping classes?’”

“…”

“Why didn’t you hide?”

Victorique said nothing.

Kazuya waited for a while, before giving up. “Eh, whatever.”

He sighed, then glanced at Victorique.

Huh?

Victorique’s face, always cold and expressionless, was red around the ear.

Hmm?

“What’s wrong with your ear?” Kazuya asked, puzzled.

“My ear?”

“It’s red.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is.”

“It’s not.”

“But…”

“If I say it’s not red, then it’s not red!”

Victorique hit Kazuya on the side of the head with the book’s edge.

Clueless, Kazuya decided to keep his mouth shut.

A spring breeze whistled past the two.

Victorique’s golden hair swayed softly.

Maybe… Kazuya mused. I brought her rare snacks so I could ask for her help…

The wind blew.

But maybe she was the one who chose me.

The sun was setting.

I’m sure you called me. So we could become friends.

Kazuya, for some reason, felt greatly honored.

---

As Kazuya exited the library and started down the white gravel path, someone called for him from the distance.

“Kujou!”

It was Inspector Blois’s voice. He looked up and saw the inspector standing there, striking a pose.

“Though I’ve already solved the case, we still have a lot of work to do. Apparently Ciaran the master thief hid his treasures all over the academy.”

“I see…” Kazuya frowned when he noticed what Inspector Blois was holding under his arm. “Uh, why do you have that doll?”

“Oh, this?” Inspector Blois was holding the doll with great care. “Amazing, isn’t it?” he said proudly. “It’s the work of the genius doll maker Grafen Stein.”

“Oh…”

“This one doll is enough to build a whole mansion.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve been looking for it for a while. I’m so glad I found it.”

Kazuya remembered that Inspector Blois was searching for something. “That thing’s yours?!” he said, appalled. “You got me so confused! Because of that doll, I… almost had a breakdown.”

The inspector looked baffled. Suddenly a crack appeared on the porcelain doll’s neck. The inspector screamed. “Nooo! The neck’s falling off!”

“It got a little roughed up earlier.”

“B-By you?”

“No. Ciaran dropped it.”

“That abominable thief…”

Kazuya walked away, leaving the trembling inspector behind.

---

“Avril? Oh, there you are.”

Kazuya timidly entered the infirmary.

Ms. Cecile and an old doctor from the village turned simultaneously. In bed was the real Avril, whom they had found in the storehouse earlier, munching on something. She seemed hungry.

When she heard his voice, she lifted her head and smiled brightly.

“Kujou? I got your name from Ms. Cecile. Thank you for helping me earlier.”

“It’s no big deal.”

Avril’s smile was so carefree and brimming with life that it captivated Kazuya a little.

“When I was on the train to Sauville, I got into a conversation with a woman in the same compartment, and I told her a lot about myself,” she said, munching on her food. “I told her my name, how old I was, and that I was going to study at St. Marguerite Academy. I also talked about my grandfather.”

“I see. And that woman…”

“Yeah! I mentioned the stolen item as well. I told her about the legacy that I was supposed to inherit from my grandfather, the adventurer Sir Bradley, but that was stolen a long time ago by the master thief Ciaran. I came here to study because I heard about a rumor that he hid the item somewhere here in the academy.”

Avril puffed her cheeks out in frustration. “That woman was Ciaran the Second. She’d been searching for the treasures that the First hid. She came to the academy with me and locked me in the storehouse. She then pretended to be me and infiltrated the academy.”

Suddenly her spirits lifted. “I bit the fingers on her right hand,” she said boldly. “But it made her angrier, and she rolled me around.”

Kazuya recalled Ciaran’s finger injury.

So that was because of her bite. She’s awfully brave.

Avril regarded Kazuya with a bright smile. “I was so scared. When you came to rescue me, I thought you looked like a black-haired prince!” She laughed.

Ms. Cecile laughed as well. “Kujou? A prince?”

“You’re laughing too much, Teach,” Kazuya grumbled.

Ms. Cecile swallowed her laughter.

“Pfft!”

Then started laughing again.

A little annoyed, Kazuya handed Avril the postcard with the Penny Black that he had received from Victorique.

Avril looked stunned for a moment, then she threw the sandwich she was eating. Ms. Cecile yelped as she caught it in the air.

With tears in her eyes, Avril took the postcard graciously.

“Grandpa!”

“I’m glad it’s back in your hands.”

“M-Me too…”

The postcard also contained a message from adventurer Sir Bradley to his granddaughter.

You can have this. I hope you grow up to be a fantastic adventurer. You can use it to pay for your adventures. Grandpa is going to ride a balloon across the Atlantic. I’ll see you when I get back!

Sobbing, Avril gave Kazuya a smile that shone brightly despite the tears.

“Thank you, Kujou.”

“It’s nothing…”

“I just arrived here, so I don’t know much yet. Can you show me around?”

“S-Sure.”

“I hope you’ll be my friend.”

“O-Okay…”

Kazuya didn’t mind being asked by a pretty girl to be her friend, but he felt a little worried. He was, after all, known as the Springtime Reaper, no thanks to the horror stories prevalent in the academy. He could scare Avril away.

No, wait. Avril’s an international student, so she might not be interested in horror stories.

Kazuya pulled himself together. “By the way, do you like horror stories?”

“I love them!” she replied immediately.

“I-I see.” Kazuya’s head dropped.

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Sauville, an affluent small country in Western Europe. At St. Marguerite Academy, a prestigious school nestled in the mountains, Kazuya Kujou, an international student from a country in the Orient, meets Victorique, an odd, beautiful girl holed up in the library tower, challenging the chaos of the world.

And now Avril Bradley, the granddaughter of an adventurer, arrives.

Later they would be caught up in a sinister phenomenon involving a mysterious treasure left by the great thief Ciaran and a cursed countess, sending them scrambling through the academy.

But that is a story for another day.

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