When I came to, the first thing that entered my eyes was a golden iris.
A vertically slit pupil, characteristic of beastfolk.
The moment that pupil met mine, it dilated wide.
“...Thankfully, you're alive.”
“...Hwaryeong? You're not a fake, are you?”
“Seeing you spew nonsense the moment you wake up, it seems your mind wasn't stolen as Isil feared. That's a relief.”
*Tup.*
At my question, Hwaryeong nodded her head slightly as if relieved, then lifted my body with one hand.
*Swoosh.*
Drawn up by her strength as she raised my body lightly, I was able to stand on two legs, strengthless.
*Tremble, tremble.*
“...Wow, there's no strength in my legs at all.”
“It's only natural. It's been half a day since you lost consciousness.”
“Huh? Then that means...”
“Yes, congratulations. Not only were you late to the entrance ceremony, but you skipped the first class entirely. Classes have already ended, and it's time for a late dinner. Isil and I have been taking turns watching over you.”
“...Damn.”
At her words, I made a dismayed expression and obediently let her guide me to sit on the bed.
*Plop.*
As my body was set down on the resilient bed, I let out a sigh and began to complain.
“Whew! I'm completely marked now. Then that means I couldn't even do the most important first greeting, right? Our Mysticism Department kids are so heartless, won't I be treated like a complete nonentity even if I go out tomorrow?”
“You don't need to worry about that, apparently.”
“Huh?”
“I heard from Isil that the students in your Mysticism Department didn't exchange first greetings with each other.”
“Huh? D-don't tell me. To wait for me—”
“She said they simply didn't ask anything about each other. She said the atmosphere was like frost.”
“Eh?”
“Hoo, it seems the Mysticism Department is full of nothing but oddballs. Well, Isil is no slouch either in that regard, since she's a witch's child.”
“...”
Hearing the words she tossed out so nonchalantly, I momentarily stopped my complaining and raised my head.
And then, I met eyes with Hwaryeong, who had been quietly looking down at me.
“...Did you hear that from Isil?”
“Yes. To explain this matter, I had to bring up the origin of the incident, so she spoke first. Judging by your reaction, it seems you heard that story from Isil before I did.”
“Yeah.”
“Hoo, I wonder what kind of reaction you showed that Isil asked me with such eyes. Calling you a sinful man, *tch*.”
“Huh?”
I looked up at Hwaryeong, questioning her reaction that didn't seem to fit the context, but she simply turned her head slightly as if annoyed by my reaction and changed the subject.
“But Jin Prah, it seems Isil isn't the only one hiding something.”
“Ah... you think so?”
“Well, if you really don't want to tell your secret, then don't. However, if you choose to do so, don't expect any more help from me. I have no intention of helping an ungrateful, insolent wretch.”
“...Wow, the devil put on a good act?”
“Hmm?”
“No, no, I'll talk. Though it's not that special a secret.”
“Mm, good.”
Pleased by my answer without hesitation, Hwaryeong made a sound like a cat purring and sat on the table in my room, facing me.
“What do you want to know?”
“Good. When I first came in, Isil was explaining tearfully and incoherently, so there were parts I couldn't understand. I'll ask about those first.”
*Tap!*
Hwaryeong crossed her arms and legs like a detective interrogating a criminal and questioned me.
“First, why did you lose consciousness?”
“I got dragged away by a demon's trick.”
“A demon?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded and pointed to where the pure-white grimoire had been.
“This book was actually made from a demon—what? Where did it go?”
I looked at the empty space where the grimoire had clearly been before I lost consciousness and panicked.
“...If you're looking for that thick white book, Isil already took it to the professor.”
“Ah...”
“Since shaking you wouldn't wake you up, she took it with a clutching-at-straws mindset, hoping a mage might know something.”
“...Still, if it's Professor Ran, she won't burn the grimoire. I don't want to lose the slave I worked so hard to acquire so futilely.”
“Slave?”
“Yeah, to sum it up: the moment I opened the grimoire, only my spirit got dragged to a demon, and in the space created by that demon, this and that happened, and I subjugated the demon. So to speak.”
“...”
At my explanation, Hwaryeong looked at me with a gaze that felt like she was staring at an extremely pitiful person.
Why?
“Uh... was my explanation lacking?”
“You're terribly bad at explaining. Cutting all context from beginning to end, suddenly saying you subjugated a demon—are you telling me to believe such absurd nonsense right now?”
“But it's the truth.”
“Truth or not, explain it so I can understand. We have plenty of time anyway.”
“Ahem! Then from the beginning.”
I told Hwaryeong the tale of my adventures from when I left my family until I arrived at Academia.
The story of meeting Abiyan, and the story of him giving me the grimoire, all of it.
“—so the book Isil took is the one that high-ranking demon gave me.”
“...I see. I thought it wasn't an ordinary book, but you're saying it's a gift from a demon.”
“Oh, so the beastfolk know about a demon's gift too.”
“...It's not because I'm beastfolk, but information my family investigated separately. To put down roots in the Empire, you have to know about demons to some extent.”
“Oh, really?”
Hwaryeong nodded without saying much, affirming to me.
And then skillfully moved past this topic with a “that aside.”
“That aside, then does that mean the white grimoire you received caused something to happen and your spirit got sucked in?”
“Yeah, the demon I met was originally a low-ranking demon that hadn't even reached a hundred years old, but one day it met a high-ranking demon and was sealed... in the form of a book, did I hear? What?”
Suddenly, a certain scene flashed in my mind, and unwittingly I stopped speaking and bowed my head.
The words I just spoke—were those words I heard from the demon?
No, but for words heard from someone else, a strangely vivid memory had just surfaced in my mind—
“Hmm, so that's how grimoires are made. The ecology of demons isn't so different from ours.”
“...Huh? Really?”
“Yes, such things often exist among the beastfolk too. When building fortress walls or temples, burying people under pillars as human sacrifices, or putting special beastfolk into molten metal as materials for legendary swords or demon swords.”
“Urk.”
“There's no need to frown like that. It's barbaric practice that is no longer done.”
“...Does that actually work?”
“Well, I've seen a few legendary swords passed down only in legends, but I don't know if they were truly worth creating through human sacrifice. But they were certainly sharper and superior to ordinary steel swords. Above all, they possessed special abilities.”
'Though they mostly came with flaws and were blood-scented abilities suited for slaughter,' she finished saying and returned to the main subject.
“Anyway, that grimoire you possessed was an item made from that low-ranking demon?”
“Yeah, so until the seal broke, it was simply a book containing knowledge. But then the seal suddenly broke and my spirit got sucked into the demon.”
“Then only one question remains: why did that seal suddenly break?”
“Why the seal broke?”
“Yes. My knowledge of grimoires is shallow, but I know this: ordinary grimoires are books with merely knowledge written in them, as you just said. However, they're called grimoires because you can't know their contents through ordinary means.”
“Uh... right?”
“It's not like the grimoire you possess is the only one; I know quite a few people have them. Yet I haven't heard rumors of anyone getting sucked into a grimoire like you. And this was information my family dug up quite persistently.”
“Hmm...”
“Was there any special action taken before the grimoire's seal broke?”
“No, nothing particularly special... ah.”
Come to think of it, Isil had said there was still demonic energy remaining in the grimoire and sucked it out with a glass bottle, hadn't she?
Could that be why the seal broke?
But was a seal set by Abiyan, a high-ranking demon, such a shoddy one that it would break from a simple measure like that?
Or did it simply break at an unfortunate timing?
I didn't know.
“...I have a guess, but I'm not sure. I can't give a definite answer right now as to what caused the seal to break.”
“Mm, if you've judged it so, then so be it. Understood.”
*Sprang.*
Having listened to everything, Hwaryeong rose from the table and looked at me.
“Then get some rest. I must go tell Isil that you've woken up and return.”
“Ah, you're going back?”
“Yes, though it's already a bit late now, I must let her know you're safe.”
“Yeah, thank you for watching over me all this time, Hwaryeong.”
At my words of gratitude, Hwaryeong looked at me for a moment, then slipped out of the room like the wind.
She left without a sound. A clean exit.