[V9C1] The Beauty of That Which Has No Blood
Translated by Jodas 9: Battle for the Tower“Young Master Julius, are you going to leave me behind again!?”
“Kuku… It can’t be helped. If I brought you along, I’d get caught by anti-spirit barriers.”
That night, Julius removed the ring holding Agniol, his contracted spirit, and placed it in a locked drawer.
His roommate, Finn, had just fallen asleep a few minutes earlier. Finn usually went to bed early, but tonight he uncharacteristically he asked to keep the lamp lit and, beside Julius as he wrote on his desk, was reading a book.
Not long ago, Finn could hardly read at all, but now he’d reached the point where he could read books by himself. Julius quietly took pride in seeing his growth.
He was probably the same as his father Samuel. Just as they both enjoyed testing people, they also enjoyed teaching them.
Once he was sure Finn had finished reading for the night and fell asleep, Julius left the room by himself.
(…What a peaceful place.)
Since Julius was a street urchin in the past, he knew. In places where the rule of law didn’t hold up, nobody would ever consider going outside at night. The danger posed by humans lurking in the darkness was not much different from the threat of Monsters.
With its campus encircled by high walls and members of the protection Office patrolling the perimeter, the Wedge Tower was a much safer place than the town Julius knew.
After slipping out of the dormitory, Julius headed for the garden. His target: the garden manager’s cabin.
The old man who usually spent the night in said manager’s cabin, while he might have looked like an ordinary gardener, was in fact the man responsible for the upkeep of the Wedge Tower: Maintenance Office Director Kruger.
It sounded like that Kruger had been suffering from worsening hip pain as the result of his chronic illnesses. And since he threw out his hip today, he’d apparently been spending the night in the Medical Office.
Therefore, tonight was the perfect chance for him to investigate the cabin.
His collaborator who leaked this information to him, Sombart handed him a duplicate key he’d made in secret and whispered to him:
“When you sneak in, keep an eye out for Mr. Armster, you got it?”
Armster. He was the oldest of the Apprentice Mages’ Instructors, a loser of a middle-aged man who always trembled nervously no matter where he was.
In addition to all of that, however, he had a talent for imbuement magic and apparently knew how to make some unique and rather specialized magical devices.
Why did he need to be cautious of that Armster? Julius had his doubts, but Sombart shared an interesting rumor with him.
“*As it turns out, I’ve heard that the higher ups are considering having Mr. Armster stand in as acting Maintenance Office Director.”
Acting Director— Meaning, should anything happen to Kruger, the current Director, he would automatically be promoted to Director. Basically, Armster was guaranteed to become the next Director of the Maintenance Office.
And the higher up in question who proposed this arrangement was the Spiremaster Abel of the First Spire: White Smoke.
Headmaster Möbius, Assistant Headmaster Miriam, and White Smoke Spiremaster Abel — Julius believed these three had to have a connection. It would be safe to assume, then, that Armster was also on their side.
(The three students of Armster’s class are Finn, Rukiye, and Gerald… I think the chances are slim that these three have come under Armster’s command… No, wait.)
Julius laughed bitterly at his own naïvité.
(I just want to think they don’t have anything to do with it, don’t I?)
If he wasn’t worried about staying quiet, he would have laughed ‘Ku, ku, ku’ and remarked ‘I’ve gone soft myself.’
He didn’t want his fellow Apprentices to be involved with the Wedge Tower’s secrets or the reasons behind Samuel’s exile. Julius truly hoped they weren’t.
Julius approached the cabin. He could see a faint light glowing from the other side of the cabin’s curtains. Upon seeing the silhouette beside that light, Julius had a clear idea of who it was.
A thin body and a fuzzy head — That was definitely Armster.
Julius approached the window and pressed his ear against it. Faintly, he could hear Armster’s voice from inside.
“… Ah, I could never compare… More… More…”
Armster was a man who was always on pins and needles, letting out a nervous voice at all times.
Yet the muttering he heard now felt like the intoxicating admiration expressed by a painter upon witnessing a true masterpiece.
(He’d never compare? What is he comparing with what when he says that?)
Alongside the muttering, he could hear the faint sounds of tools clinking.
(It seems like Mr. Armster was tasked with watching this cabin since he’s the potential Acting Maintenance Office Director… Meaning, there’s something in there that’s worthy of having someone watch over it at all times, huh?)
When sharing information with Sevil and company, the discussion had turned to the possibility that there might be an entrance to something underground somewhere in the garden, so Julius had been pondering it ever since.
Weren’t the odds pretty low that they would leave such a critical entrance exposed?
With that in mind, the most suspicious spot would be this cabin right here.
Julius anxiously waited, praying that Armster would just go to bed already, when he heard the sound of something hard falling over inside the cabin.
“Ah, the oil… Aw, I’m so sorry dear, I’ll get you a pretty new change of clothes.”
For a second, he froze. ‘What’s going on, who is he talking to!?’ … Soon enough, he realized the answer, and once again froze in shock.
The light inside the room went out and he heard the door opening. Armster had left the cabin. Most likely, he was on his way to get that ‘change of clothes’ he’d mentioned.
This was his chance. Once Julius confirmed that Armster’s form had disappeared from view, he took out the duplicate key and snuck into the cabin. Of course, he didn’t forget to lock the door again behind himself.
Obviously, the inside of the cabin was pitch-black. He couldn’t see anything. While it was convenient to use Agniol’s ring to light his way at times like this, he’d left her behind so it couldn’t be helped.
Julius whispered a shortened incantation, igniting a small flame at the tip of his finger. With that flame, made as tiny as he could muster so as to not attract attention from outside, he scanned across the room, starting on his right side.
It was a tidy little cabin with only the minimum one would need to stay the night inside. Since most of the actual gardening tools were stored in sheds outside, so there wasn’t anything of the sort inside this room.
(Oh right, when Rose tends his garden, he did say that he borrows tools from the sheds outside…)
Which meant that, even if someone came to borrow gardening tools, they would have no reason to enter this cabin.
(What reason is there for the Maintenance Office Director to stay the night in a little cabin like this anyway? There’s a perfectly good dormitory right over there.)
Casting a light over the worktable in the corner of the room, Julius’s face soured.
A number of dolls were lined up on the worktable. All the dolls were high-quality porcelain dolls in the shape of young girls. A bunch of tiny knives and files that he suspected were used in making these dolls laid scattered across the table.
Armster, Instructor of the Guidance Office, was one of only a small handful of artisans in this country who could make doll-type magical devices.
Those things, known as Magical Dolls, were said to move freely around by imbuing mana into them.
A doll of a girl with curly blonde hair, had an elegant flower ornament in its hair. It wore an extravagant dress sprinkled with gemstones and smiled adorably.
A doll of a girl with fluffy chestnut hair wore a hat and held a bouquet of artificial flowers close to its chest. Those flowers were made of metal fabricated with such minute detail that he almost thought they were real.
A doll of a girl with straight silver hair wore a plain but beautiful dress, with a fine lace veil draped over its head.
While the dolls themselves were fabulously made, the clothes and accessories put on them were all of the finest quality. Since Julius had been trained by Samuel, he was experienced in appraising these sorts of luxuries.
While it was hard for him to perform a full appraisal relying just on the light of his weak little flame, he had no doubt that these things could fetch a very high price.
(…But they’re all very distinctive dolls.)
When looking at a well-made doll, one would often remark ‘It looks so lifelike,’ or ‘it looks like a real girl.’
But the dolls here were beautiful because they were dolls. Perhaps he could say that they emphasized the beauty of the artificial.
He could feel the almost fanatic devotion and talent of a maker who, without chasing after the lifelike appearance of a human with blood in their veins, sought the beauty of a masterpiece of art.
(…I wonder if the person who made these doesn’t like people all that much.)
He reevaluated his opinion on Armster.
Suddenly, Julius noticed the presence of just one doll that was only half-complete.
It was a doll with pale white skin and straight black hair, or at least its head. To the side, there were design drawings, detailing the completed form of a black-haired girl in a white dress.
(I see, so that’s what he was trying to make.)
For now, it was probably safe to leave the dolls alone.
Focusing his attention on the floor, he noticed a handle on the ground in the back of the room. Lifting it up, it revealed a staircase leading downwards.
(The air isn’t stale. I can feel a light breeze… Is it connected to the outside somewhere?)
While Julius hesitated ever so slightly, he quickly threw open the trap door, slinked down the staircase, then returned the door to its original position once inside.