[V9C3] The Disappeared Julius, A Classical Mage’s Intuition
Translated by Jodas 9: Battle for the Tower“Under suspicions of treason, Julius Löwenich has been held in temporary confinement.”
During their morning group lessons, Guidance Office Director Hegelich delivered the announcement to the Apprentice Mages in a stiff voice.
Finn’s face went pale.
When he woke up in the morning, Julius was nowhere to be seen. That much wasn’t unusual. Julius often walked around outside in the mornings and evenings. But it was strange not to see him during breakfast time.
Finn stood halfway up out of his seat.
“W– Why!? …What do you mean treason? What did Julius do!?”
Hegelich maintained his stern face and said nothing in response. It was a safe bet that, no matter how much they asked, he wouldn’t tell them anything.
There were only five students left in the classroom. Three boys: Finn, Gerald, and Rose; and two girls: Sophie and Roswitha.
Tia, Sevil, Rukiye, Wren, and Oliver were all out on missions, while Ella was on her way to the Medical Office so they could examine her recovery progress following her hand surgery.
Now that Julius had been jailed, the class had dwindled to less than half of their usual members.
As Finn trembled, Roswitha raised her hand.
“Director Hegelich. Does that mean Julius snuck into somewhere he shouldn’t have? Or did he commit violence against anyone?”
While Roswitha and Julius normally seemed to despise each other, her question was calm and collected. She was calmly trying to assess the situation.
“…All I will say is that he tried to infiltrate a forbidden area.”
When Hegelich said that with a bitter expression, Rose immediately spoke his mind.
“But couldn’t he have just accidentally wandered in or something? The Wedge Tower is a big place, so I think that kind of thing’s totally possible!”
Everyone in the room must have understood that Julius, of all people, wouldn’t do something like that on accident. Rose probably did as well. Regardless, he tried his best to alleviate the suspicions against Julius.
“…That possibility is under investigation, you. In addition, we’ve received one more important piece of news.”
An ‘important piece of news.’ Those words caused the air in the classroom to grow even more tense.
Hegelich spoke in a low voice.
“It appears the King of Darwock has passed.”
All of the Apprentice Mages gasped at once. Of course they did.
Just a while ago, Monsters had appeared at the Darwock Royal Palace. To take back the Palace, Headmaster Möbius and others headed out on an expedition. Several Apprentices, including Tia, had followed along with him.
Also, in concern for the possibility that Monsters had been leaving the Crystal Territory, Oliver had been sent out to the Lange Hamlet to perform messenger duties.
“We have received conflicting reports with regard to this matter. For now, the Investigation Office is collecting as much information as they can, so I would like you to refrain from carelessly panicking or spreading baseless speculation.”
Silencing the now-restless Apprentices, Hegelich turned his attention towards Sophie. This morning’s group lesson will be self study. Also, Sophie Schwarzenberg, Director Linke of the Library Office is calling for you. Once I’m done talking, I want you to head over there immediately.”
Obviously, even though they were told to ‘self study,’ none of them could just sit down and do that in this situation.
Only four remained in the room: Finn, Rose, Gerald, and Roswitha. Aside from Finn, the other three picked up their chairs and formed a tight circle around Finn.
They all wanted to comfort Finn, who was worried for Julius.
The first to speak up was Roswitha, in her pointy hat.
“What do you think happened?”
“Julius… When I woke up, he wasn’t there. I just thought he was going on a walk like always…”
As Finn stumbled over his words, Rose cut in.
“By the way, I wonder what happened to Agniol? If Julius was captured, wouldn’t she go on a rampage?”
Certainly, Rose had a good point. Agniol was a very powerful flame spirit. If anything happened to Julius, she should raise a huge ruckus. But Finn hadn’t heard of any such commotion.
Then, Finn realized.
“Julius sometimes takes off Agniol’s ring. When he does, he puts in a locked drawer in his desk…”
Maybe, Agniol’s ring might still be in their room.
If he asked Agniol about what happened, maybe they could figure something out… As Finn started to feel some hope, Gerald spoke up with a grimace.
“Um… Do you remember passing me on your way out from the dorms this morning when I came back from my morning practice?”
“Yeah, I remember. We passed each other at the front door.”
“…I saw some adults bringing a desk out of the dorms. At the time, I thought they were just getting rid of old furniture, but… Could that have been Julius’ desk?”
Finn gasped, then dashed out of the classroom. He could hear voices behind him, calling for him to stop, but he ignored them, dragging his lame leg behind him as he ran as fast as he could. How could he care about a little pain in his legs now?
(Julius… Julius!)
As he made it outside, he tripped over his own legs, but he immediately stood right back up and continued running. He ran through the halls of the dorm and threw open the door to his room.
“……No… way…”
Julius’ desk wasn’t the only thing that had disappeared from Finn and Julius’ room. On top of that, all of Julius’ personal belongings left in the room were stealthily whisked away.
His high-quality robe, his staff, the books that Julius read over and over, even the writing utensils that Finn often borrowed were all gone.
“…Finn.”
He heard a voice from behind. It was Rose. He must have followed after him.
Finn grabbed on to Rose’s pants.
“Rose, what do I do? Julius is… Julius is…”
He’d heard somewhere that Julius’ father had some kind of grudge against the Wedge Tower. Being Julius’ roommate, Finn had also picked up that Julius was running around the Wedge Tower, searching for something.
(But, I never thought it would come to this.)
He didn’t know what he should do. But he knew that he didn’t want Julius to stay trapped.
Rose checked to make sure nobody was in the hallway, then hunched over his huge body before whispering to him.
“Finn, let’s go save Julius.”
Finn lifted his face with a start at Rose’s words. Rose met his eyes and nodded slightly.
“First, let’s try and see what Julius has to say. Did he really do anything bad enough to warrant being arrested, or was he falsely accused? If the accusations are false, then we can go do things like gather evidence to prove Julius’ innocence… I think there’s a lot of things we can still do.”
Was there anything that even he could do to help?… No, he would look no matter what. He would find something that he could do.
Then, they would save him. They would save the first friend he made at the Wedge Tower.
Finn dashed out of the classroom, and Rose got up to follow him.
Only two people, Gerald and Roswitha, were left in the classroom now.
Gerald hesitated, wondering if he should go after Finn like Rose did. He was a little more studious, so that must have given him pause before running out of the classroom.
Roswitha turned to the anxious Gerald and whispered to him in a low voice.
“I don’t want to say this in front of Finn, but it is true that Julius was secretly sniffing around the Wedge Tower.”
“……”
Gerald wordlessly looked at Roswitha. Beneath his long bangs, his eyes looked like he had something to say.
While Gerald wasn’t particularly close to Julius, he often helped out at the Maintenance Office alongside Finn. Therefore, he was probably quite sympathetic to Finn’s feelings.
Roswitha fidgeted with the brim of her pointy hat to hide her awkwardness.
“All I’m saying is I’m not surprised he got arrested. That said…”
“That said?”
“The timing of it smells fishy.”
At the moment, Headmaster Möbius, whom Roswitha admired, was out of town. She had a feeling that the higher ups of the Tower decided to take advantage of his absence to take Julius out of the picture.
After all, the fact that Sophie had just been called over to the Library Office was a big hint.
“I’m a member of the famous Ohlendorf Family of Classical mages. That’s why… I know the role that the old families have to play at times like this.”
Roswitha whipped out a small stick and began to chant.
“Thy irrational devotion, the rain that dwells within thee, O thou fish who has lost thine eyes, swim forth.”
The stick became enveloped by water, taking the form of a fish. This was her reconnaissance magecraft. Roswitha could share her vision with this fish. However, she couldn’t overhear voices.
Roswitha opened the window, then sent the fish outside.
“Gerald, keep watch to make sure nobody enters the classroom.”
“…Got it.”
Roswitha took care to ensure the fish of water attracted as little attention as possible as she sent it flying towards the Third Spire: Water Bubble. She wouldn’t enter the Spire itself. Since she couldn’t pick up on what people were saying anyway, it was enough that she could see what was going on from outside the window.
(…Plus, these kinds of discussions would take place inside a locked room anyway.)
As expected, in a small room tucked away in the back of the Library Office, she spotted the forms of Library Office Director Linke and Sophie. Also present was a woman in a nun’s habit— Assistant Headmaster Miriam.
Roswitha didn’t have a talent for reading people’s lips to figure out what they were saying. Nevertheless, by focusing on the ways Sophie’s expressions were changing, Roswitha could tell where the discussion was going.
Awaiting Sophie when she arrived at the Library Office were two people: Assistant Headmaster Miriam and Library Office Director Linke. Setting Linke aside, why was Miriam here?
That had to mean they were about to discuss something important enough to warrant her presence.
When she had been called to this room, Sophie had made an assumption. She thought that they were going to ask her to do something relating to the Ancient Magical Artifact she’d been training to use lately.
Finally, the time had come for her to use it for real. That would be a great honor, but she couldn’t help herself from feeling more worried about Julius than she was proud.
(Julius has been captured and all, so I don’t think it’s really the right time for me to start doing a new job…)
Her classmate was imprisoned at the moment. She couldn’t bring herself to feel joy that she was getting a new responsibility.
She wanted to head right back to the classroom as soon as she could and talk about it with her fellow Apprentices. She wanted to say things like ‘I’m sure it was just a mistake that they arrested Julius, right~?’ to make herself feel better.
Yet as such thoughts ran through Sophie’s head, Assistant Headmaster Miriam opened her mouth.
“Sophie Schwarzenberg, I order you to use your power to place a curse on Julius Löwenich.”