91 – Shadows (14)
Different from when she left, Cecile appeared in front of the candy with a slightly more dignified appearance.
He was leaning against the wall and reading a book Cecil had chosen. I didn’t notice when she came to see if she was immersed in her reading.
“Hmmm.”
Cecile cleared her throat and only then did he turn his head.
“Follow me for now. This is not a good place to talk.”
She headed to the desk in the reading room where she had been seated first.
On the way, Cecil spoke to her.
“You are very strong too. You don’t take off your mask even after coming here.”
“Now I feel comfortable because it feels like my body. Would you like one?”
I know you won’t give it to me, but the words were liquidated.
“Okay. Why are you using that to cover up your pretty face?”
He handed me something from his hand behind his back.
That was a book. It was clearly intended to make fun of Cecile.
She took the book and slapped Candyyi on the shoulder so that it didn’t hurt.
“Hey Candy, be honest. You take off your mask on campus.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I was in the library all night. If he had come wearing a mask, he would have been caught at least once. That means you took off your mask when you entered.”
“I came in through the window.”
I felt like I was strangely persuaded by spitting out nonsense in a dry tone.
“There is no lie I can’t do. Anyway, during the day, he pretends to be a normal student. Right?”
“Similar.”
“You will also do club activities? Where did you go?”
“Um… Art department?”
“I must have entered that closed art department. They say they don’t accept sly men who like candy.”
“….”
“Since I don’t like attention, there is a high probability that I went to the non-mainstream side…. I mean it doesn’t look very good. All the good kids pay for their faces. I know that? Handsome and pretty kids can’t stand having their faces covered.”
“….”
It was kind of floating. Each of his reactions could be a clue to infer his identity. When Candyi remained unresponsive, she threw her consolation half-jokingly.
“It’s okay, candy. What’s wrong with not being handsome? It’s okay if you act well as a man.”
From noble mtl dot com
After her small talk, Cecil tapped the table in her reading room where she was studying with her hand.
“Sit down for now.”
As Cecile sat down on the chair, he took a seat across from him as well.
She leaned forward slightly and put her hands on her chin.
“So, why did you suddenly come to me wearing a mask after hiding so tightly?”
If she hadn’t been wearing a mask, you wouldn’t have recognized her, but it’s safe to say that the fact that she dared to wear a mask was exactly what Cecil was looking for.
He stared at Cecil for a moment, then took a piece of paper out of his pocket and pushed it forward.
“Can you interpret this?”
“What is it? Let’s see.”
Cecil checked her note.
It was written briefly in three different languages.
“Um…. The first is Sancrotis in the eastern part of the Empire. The next is the Burgundian language of the northern part of the continent, and the rest is the language of the Bonbaron region. Can you explain?”
He nodded.
“The human body depends on what you eat. What I eat is myself. It seems so obvious, but few people really understand it.”
“The development of cultivation science is a disaster for alchemy. Thanks to cultivation, the mainstream alchemical schools lost the concept of locality.”
“The study on the opposite side of magic is probably alchemy.”
Candy was silent for a moment.
Cecile told him in a simple way.
“How is it, pretty good?”
“Yes.”
Cecil then stretched out his hand.
“Give me money.”
He took a petal candy from her pocket and placed it in her hand. Even without saying it, I knew very well what currency was used in this relationship.
But I wasn’t satisfied with that.
“Since there are three, you have to multiply by three.”
“….”
He pondered and reluctantly added two more.
Cecile opened a piece of candy and immediately put it in her mouth before continuing.
“And if you look at the sentence alone, this is quite radical. Are you studying alchemy? Three won’t be the end. What do you need?”
Seeing that it was about alchemy, a suspicion flashed through my head that I might be preparing for a joint class that will be held soon.
“I need someone to help with the interpretation.”
“… Can’t you just show me your expertise? That would be much more convenient.”
“No.”
“Is it because it has to do with alchemy recipes? If so, I understand to some extent. But what exactly does assisting mean?”
“You are involved only in the blocked part.”
“If that’s the case….”
Cecile pondered for a moment. Helping is not a problem. With her ability, a few paragraphs would suffice for a cup of tea.
The only question was what kind of benefit she would get from doing so.
“Okay. I will help you.”
“What are the conditions for help?”
“Um…. Not yet. Why don’t you put it on debt?”
Since Cecil had already formed a group of four, she couldn’t recruit him for the joint class. Even if she called for him if a spot became available, she was certain she wouldn’t come.
But even if he didn’t need anything right away, he was a man worth putting off his debts.
Cecile continued.
“If you add this to the frost wind bomb during the entrance exam, you owe twice. Know?”
“Yes.”
The corners of Cecile’s mouth went up.
“Okay. For now….”
She pulled her black wooden box out of her bag as if she had just remembered something. She opened the lid, turned her inside out and brushed it off, spilling out dozens of her stitches. Each stitch has a different color and engraving, so Candy looked at it with interest.
Cecil pondered for a while before grabbing her red stitch and handing it to him.
“Come on. Take this Use it when you contact me personally in the future. Don’t come all of a sudden.”
He said while staring at the stitch.
“Are there any special features?”
“No. All functions are the same. You are just pretty.”
And handed over an additional piece of parchment the size of a palm with a magic circle on it.
“Take this too. It’s an identification magic circle. My Stitch must have it in order to be recognized as the owner.”
The magic circle had one more minor function, but he didn’t mention it.
Cecil hid her true feelings and quietly waited for him to accept it without much doubt.
Candy glanced at it and immediately put it in her inner pocket and said.
“Thank you.”
“Yes. Contact me often.”
***
Silverine should receive my letter this evening or tomorrow. I made a promise for Silverin, who might be saddened by the lack of a letter.
And for that promise, I had to faithfully attend classes in the art department.
Unfortunately, the class in the art department was canceled due to Professor Georgia’s schedule.
I stayed there for a while because the Greenhouse of the Ministry of Pensions was open for students of the Art Department.
I grabbed my easel and practiced sketching with charcoal in her corner. In the greenhouse, several students, including Xenia and Favela, came in one by one and settled down to paint.
After a simple sketch practice, I headed for the labyrinth.
And with Professor Ella’s permission, he settled down in the alchemy brewing room of the Filion Magic Research Institute. It was the only place where I could study recipes without worrying about the opinions of others.
With three language dictionaries, a textbook on Bonbaron, and an introductory book on alchemy, I started interpreting the recipe.
According to Cecil’s advice, Sancrotis in the eastern part of the empire and Burgru in the northern part of the continent had similar grammar to the official language, so there would be no big problem in finding the meaning if the words were properly substituted. Bon Baron was interpreted based on Cecil’s textbook, and she decided to help interpret difficult ones.
When it was time to cool down, he went out of the labyrinth and sent stitches to Cecil. Then, less than twenty minutes later, a reply came right away. Cecil wrote down all the interpretations I requested and always left her daily life story at the end.
[ Do you eat? I just ate Sancrotis-style apple pie and butter cookies. Envy ]
Thanks to her help, the work went smoothly.
The second recipe had a small proportion of combination research, and was mainly composed of Zverev’s journey to find the factor of ‘Tebris’, an unknown ingredient.
In addition to that, research to understand the traditions of alchemy and unique combination principles of other peoples was briefly added.
In that essay, Zverev’s philosophy on alchemy was fused, and as Cecil had mentioned, these were radical arguments.
From the perspective of other alchemists, they would treat it as the deviation of someone who was pushed out of the mainstream school, but I couldn’t ignore them.
Because I knew very well that it was not a far-fetched claim to attract the attention of the academic community.
The manufacturing process of the Griffin Potion itself was completely different from the mainstream alchemy manufacturing formula, but I personally felt that the function worked normally.
To acquire Zverev’s recipe, it was also important to learn his theoretical basis and philosophy.
As the interpretation progressed, Zverev went up to Sancrotis in the eastern part of the empire and then through the Bongbarun region to the north.
And finally, a clue to the problem of the ‘black spirit’ began to be caught in the records of the north.