“Ms. Nainiae, the scream just now…”
“Yes, I heard it too.”
Reitri had his face turned pale just like Horai. Wondering what was happening, he looked at Nainiae.
‘This atmosphere feels like something is wrong.’
After hearing a scream of an unidentified man, the area had fallen silent. It was scary quiet.
This was a library, so it was natural to be quiet. However, the scream that was heard a moment ago was not becoming of the place.
‘What should I do? Should I go to the place of the scream’s origin, or stay here?’
With her eye narrowed, Nainiae started to think hard about what to do.
“This sensation is somehow…”
After agonizing over it, Nainiae decided to wait on making a choice. She turned around toward Reitri and Horai and said,
“For now, I think it would be best if both of you stayed close to me.”
It appeared that they were not the only ones who have heard the scream. One by one, other people in the library were starting to murmur ‘what was that sound just now?’
“… Kiaaak!”
Again, as if she was struck by something inside the library, a loud scream of a woman, just as loud as the man from earlier, could be heard.
“U… Uncle?”
“Horai… It’s all right. It will be all right.”
The two were choking in fear from hearing the second scream.
Having realized that Basilisk and the mercenaries are not around, Nainiae carefully allocated mana inside her body and looked around the surrounding.
‘Where is Young Master?’
Nainiae, thinking about Riley, narrowed her eyes.
‘Let’s meet up at the center area. The one that arrives first should find the places to sit.’
Remembering the promise made before going their separate ways to find books, Nainiae turned her body.
“For now, let’s go to the center area.”
“I’m guessing it is because of Young Master Riley?”
Reitri asked as if he figured out Nainaie’s reason.
Nainiae nodded and lead the way.
“Mr. Reitri, I could get lost, so please direct me to the place.”
“Ah, yes! Please take a right here!”
The Rainfield’s library was pretty wide. Although it was only five stories tall, each floor was a very wide square shaped area. The area size rivaled that of the Solia Castle’s arena.
“Please take a left on the next bookshelf, and you will be able to see the center area. There is a store that sells sandwich and drinks, and there are lots of benches…”
Nainiae was in the front while following Reitri’s direction. After turning at the last bookshelf, she suddenly stopped with a vacant look on her face.
“…”
“Ms. Nainiae?”
Reitri and Horai turned at the bookshelf and got to where Nainiae was. Also having witnessed what Nainiae was looking at, Reitri and Horai, shocked from the sight, held their breath.
“… W… What is this?”
It was a cruel and horrible sight.
In front of them, there were corpses of people who died in horrible pain. The dead bodies lying on the ground had their mouths wide open.
“Ugh?! Uuuuwheck!!!!”
Because of the horrible scene, Horai, who was still young, could not hold it anymore and started to throw up.
Meanwhile, Reitri opened and closed his mouth like a fish with a pale face.
“Who could have done this?”
With a blank look on her face, Nainiae took a step forward, strained her eye and looked at each corpse.
‘… Magic?’
One corpse had the neck sliced by a sharp wind. Another had been pierced by icicle. Another was burned to crisp by flame. There was another who was killed by lightning bolt. The dead body was still twitching.
‘Someone used magic?’
Nainiae became certain that it was a mage that killed all these people. She opened her eye wide and looked around.
‘Who?!’
Her heart was pounding from seeing such a cruel sight. She barely managed to calm herself down. She spun her brain as she looked around.
‘There weren’t any sounds of explosions. It means the perpetrator did it while using silence magic. If that was the case, why weren’t the screams silenced too?’
There was the scream by a man, and then by a woman.
Despite that, there weren’t any sounds of magic being used. Nainiae couldn’t understand how it came to be.
“Kuhum. Kuhur…”
Horai stopped throwing up. It seemed he was in state of panic. Shaking, Horai got into Reitri’s arms.
‘Stay calm, Nainiae.’
Looking at Horai shaking in fear, Nainiae shook her head and calmed herself down. She thought about the screams once again.
‘Now that I think about it… the screams didn’t come from the center area.’
The screams of unidentified man and woman came from the direction of the library’s entrance, not the center area.
‘One more thing… When Young Master and I entered the library, the atmosphere was not like this. It means all these happened in a very short duration of time.’
Nainiae deduced that the unidentified mage, who killed and left behind dead bodies in the main area, must be still nearby, and the mage must be quite skilled. Nainiae unmasked and put the mask away into the dimensional storage.
“Mr. Reitri.”
It appeared Reitri was also in the state of panic. He was breaking cold sweat like rain. Having heard Nainiae, he flinched his shoulders and responded,
“… Yes?!”
“I know you are frightened to see my unsightly face, but…”
Nainiae, who removed her mask and revealed the scars on the right side of her face, thought Reitri must be frightened from seeing it. She apologized and said,
“Can you please think about Young Master Riley right now?”
“No. Something like that… Young Master Riley?”
Reitri started his response with explaining that he was frightened but not because of her face. Having heard Nainiae’s question, Reitri tilted his head side to side, wondering why.
“He said he will meet me at the center area, but he is not here… I think he got involved in a bothersome matter. I think I’ll have to go find him myself.”
“I understand, but why are you asking me all of sudden to do that?”
‘Why is she asking me to think about Young Master Riley?’
When Reitri asked Nainiae why, Nainiae cringed and said,
“Cut your useless chatter. Hurry up.”
“Ah, yes.”
Reitri nodded as if he understood. He thought about Riley, a young master who is always somehow very relaxed.
‘Above? Second floor?’
Using her right eye, which had the tracking ability, Nainiae immediately determined where Riley was. She lifted her head up toward the second floor.
“We will need to go to the second floor. Where is the staircase for going …”
Nainiae was asking how to get to the second floor. However, she looked at Horai, who was vacantly staring at dead bodies, and furrowed her brows.
“Mage sis… These… people… You didn’t do it, right?”
Wondering why he is asking such a question out of the blue, Nainiae, who furrowed her brows, directed her gaze toward where Horai was looking at.
‘Now that I see it…’
She couldn’t confirm it on people who were killed using wind, fire or lightning, but she could confirm it on the one who was killed by a icicle.
‘… Black color.’
The icicle on the dead body was black colored.
The color had a different feel from Nainiae’s black color… However, this was most certainly not a good sign at the moment.
“Uh…. Ug…uuuuuu….”
Only a moment after Nainiae started to stare at the dead bodies, creepy moans could be heard from among the dead bodies.
“Uu… kuuuuuu.”
There, a ‘corpse’ with loose head had its eyes saturated in black. It was struggling and getting up.
“W… What’s that?’
“Uncle… That… That man’s eyes… It’s the same as what we saw last time.”
Horai murmured as he shook.
Having confirmed the eyes of the corpse that struggled before getting up, Nainiae narrowed her eyes.
“Uuuuurrrr…”
“Kuuuuurrrrr…”
Not just the one killed by the wind magic, but other corpses all started to stumble and get up.
“… Oh my god…”
Watching the dead starting to rise, Reitri, panicking, quickly covered Horai’s eyes as he mumbled.
The dead bodies all had similar feels to the ogre with dark eyes that had its head chopped off by Riley last time.
‘What is this? It doesn’t seem like they are being animated by mana?’
Nainiae used things like search magic and examined the dead bodies. Not able to figure it out, she furrowed her brows.
The corpses, who got up after struggling to do so, made phlegm filled noises and looked toward Nainiae.
“Kuuuurrr….”
Judging from the way they were all looking at the same direction, it seemed that they responded to living beings.
“Considering the situation, I’ll give up moving on foot.”
“Pardon?”
Hearing Nainiae mumbling in a cold tone, Reitri asked with a blank look.
“We will get to the second floor by flying.”
Having her raincoat waving in the air, Nainiae swung her right arm. The three people’s bodies started to float up in the air.
“Uh? Uhuh?”
“We are floating?!”
“Calm down. I merely used flight magic.”
Horai and Reitri panicked from flight magic being cast on them all of sudden. They kicked their legs around in the air, not knowing what to do. It seemed the dead bodies were reacting to their movements. Drooling, the corpses started to walk toward them.
“Kuuuaaa!”
“Guuuurrrr!”
“… Tsk.”
Looking disgusted, Nainiae clicked her tongue. Nainiae also used wind magic.
“Kek!”
“Kuuurrrk!”
Using fast wind magic, Nainiae sliced off the corpses’ heads. She also lifted off from the ground and narrowed her eyes.
‘They were killed twice, but they are still moving?’
After having Reitri and Horai on the air, Nainiae checked the corpses that had their heads cut off. Noticing that they were moving again, she started preparing the next magic.
‘If chopping off their heads is not the answer…’
She raised her right hand and generated a large ice spear.
‘… Heart!’
Wheec!
Nainiae strained her eyes and swung her arm. The black ice spear, which was exuding cold energy, pierced through the heart of a corpse and got stuck on the ground.
‘Did that work?’
The dead body fell to silence for a moment. However, betraying Nainiae’s hope, it started to move again.
“Guuuurrr.”
‘… Tsk.’
The dead body, which was stuck to the icicle on the ground, was not able to get up. However, it was struggling to break free.
‘Piercing the heart won’t do either?’
Despite wind, ice, losing the head, having the heart pierced, the dead body was still moving.
‘Fire… is fire the weakness?’
Incinerating the dead body completely. It seemed that was the solution.
The dead ogre from the last time was disposed of by that method. Nainiae deduced that it would work. However, she was not able to do it.
‘That’s why the mage chose this place…’
It was a library.
If just one book caught on fire, it would have spread to tends, hundreds and thousands of books. It could lead to a large disaster.
‘First, we need to meet up with Young Master.’
For now, Nainiae could not think of another way to handle the corpses. Leaving behind the animated corpses on the first floor, she joined Reitri and Horai who were already at second floor.
“Could it be… that the dark mage is in the library?”
Reitri, who was looking at the horrible sight on the first floor, asked Nainiae when she arrived at the second floor.
“Traces of magic, animated corpses with black eyes… It feels just like the ogre that we encountered last time. I think… it probably is.”
Nainiae, who looked around while standing in the corridor, confirmed that the dead bodies are not yet at the second floor. She walked toward the stairs.
‘Should I make a wall?’
Nainiae thought about the possibility of survivors in the first floor trying to seek refuge on the second floor through the stairs. She shook her head and created a wall.
‘If they were going to run, escaping to the outside through the window would be faster for the survivors. I don’t know where the dark mage is. If I want to stop the dark mage from coming to the second floor, this would be the best course of action.’
After creating a wall, Nainiae joined Reitri and Horai again. Using her right eye, she confirmed Riley’s location again.
“This way…”
They had been running through the corridor for a long while. Eventually, Nainiae found Riley who was thinking hard with his arms crossed in front of a bookshelf. Nainiae shouted,
“Young Master!”
“Um?”
Perhaps it was fortunate… It seemed he didn’t run into any dead bodies. He was in front of the shelf and taking his time to pick out books. Riley turned his head and looked at Nainiae.
“Did you pick the books already? We were supposed to meet at the center area.”
“Y… Young Master, the thing is…”
“Ah? Are the books that you want not at the first floor?”
“Ugh… Ugh…”
Nainiae’s face was full of sweats from having ran this far. Nainiae stopped talking for a moment to calm her breathing.
“… What is it?”
Riley moved his gaze and found Reitri and Horai who were standing behind Nainiae. Wondering what this was about, Riley tilted his head side to side