II
The Central District of Fis
The bell tower, the symbol of the city of Fis, rang out to announce midday. Masses of people filled the streets, walking this way and that over the evenly laid cobblestones. Two women stood at the edge of one such street. All the young men passing by who noticed them stopped dead in their tracks to stare at them.
“It’s just, I dunno. I didn’t think it’d be so shabby,” said Olivia, staring glumly at the Royal Library. It was a white brick building, constructed in the Glochian style that had been popular in the sixth century of Tempus Fugit.
“Major, please just say ‘it has character,’ if you must,” Claudia sighed. “The Royal Library, as I told you, is the embodiment of the history of Fernest. Besides, it has undergone a number of renovations over the years, the last of which was, as it happens, in the year—”
“Don’t start. Can we go in already?” Olivia said. Claudia tried to seize the opportunity to show off her knowledge, but apparently Olivia wasn’t remotely interested. She seized Claudia’s arm and dragged her over to a small, cylindrical guardhouse next to the main gates.
“Excuse me,” Olivia called out. There was no door on the guardhouse, so they looked inside. There they found three civilian men, as well as two more who were sturdily built—probably guards. They all turned to look at Claudia.
“So... We want to go into the library. Is that okay?” Olivia said, throwing out her chest to ensure they all saw the knight’s insignia there.
One extremely nervous-looking man pushed his black-rimmed spectacles up his nose and said, “You seem rather young to be a knight. May I ask your name?”
“Valedstorm,” Olivia replied cheerfully. The man furrowed his eyebrows at her.
“I’ve never heard of the Valedstorms before...” he said. “What is your rank?”
“Rank? I’m a major.”
“That is your military rank. I am asking for your noble rank.”
“Noble rank? What’s that?” Olivia asked, looking at Claudia in confusion.
In Fernest, the five ranks of nobility were, from highest to lowest: duke, marquess, count, viscount, and baron. There was additionally a system of conferment known as the seven Orders of the Astra. Unlike noble rank, which continued down the family lines, these orders lasted only as long as the recipient lived. The highest was the black and purple astra, followed by the red and purple astra, the green and purple astra, the white and purple astra, then the black, red, and green astras respectively. These gave rise to further hierarchies even between those who possessed the same noble title, dictated by who possessed an order of the astra and its color, if applicable.
Claudia was certain all this had been explained to Olivia when she was made a knight, but apparently none of it had stuck. Keeping her exasperation to herself, Claudia informed the man that Olivia was a baroness, at which his expression immediately darkened.
“As I am sure you are aware,” he said, “a recommendation from a person of appropriate rank is required in order to enter the library. Have you submitted your application?”
“Yep, pretty sure that’s all done,” Olivia replied.
The man looked disbelievingly at her. “Are you sure?” he said. Most likely, it was Olivia’s age that inspired this reaction. Not only did he clearly not believe for a second that Olivia was related to the tightly knit upper echelons of the nobility, he even seemed to be looking down on her.
Claudia drew out a tidily folded sheet of paper. “This should clear things up,” she announced as she unfolded it for him to read. Neinhardt had given her this official note of permission just in case, but already she found it useful. He must have known something like this might happen.
“Eh?” said the man, leaning forward to scrutinize the document. “A letter of recommendation?” A moment later, he made a ridiculous squawking sound. “M-My most s-sincere apologies!” he exclaimed. “We were of course informed of your visit! Th-This way, please!” He snapped at his companions to get the gate open while bowing as deeply as he could to Olivia and Claudia.
He sure is singing a different tune now, as they say, Claudia thought. Shaking her head, she followed after Olivia, who was happily making her way through the open gates.
“Oh, wow! No way! No way! Claudia, look how many books there are!” Olivia beamed like a child as she gazed around in excitement. The interior of the library was entirely different from the heavy design of the exterior. It was constructed all from wood, two stories high with a soaring ceiling that made the space feel airy and open. A concourse ran down the center of the library with towering bookshelves stretching away at even intervals on either side. Statues were placed along the concourse, adding to the grandeur of it all. At one end, there was a circular counter where several librarians rushed around attending to visitor requests.
“It’ll be no small task to find what we’re after amongst all these. Shall we ask a librarian first?” Claudia suggested. Olivia nodded twice. They waited until they spotted a free librarian, approaching her where she stood reshelving books.
“Excuse me,” Claudia began, “I was wondering if you could tell us something.” The woman looked up with a small noise of surprise.
“Goodness, what a prodigiously pretty soldier. What can I help you with?” The librarian introduced herself as Claryss. As she spoke, her eyes ran all over Claudia, appraising every inch of her. The woman had red-rimmed glasses, freckles, and bangs trimmed in a perfectly straight line across her forehead.
“We want to know why a certain noble house died out.”
“Why they died out? But you didn’t need to come all the way to the Royal Library for that,” Claryss replied, adjusting her glasses. “Surely the Roll of the Nobility would have such information?”
“It wasn’t noted in the Roll, hence why I’m asking you.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Yes.” Deciding it would be easier to show her than to explain, Claudia pulled the book in question from her bag. She had bookmarked the Valedstorm entry in advance, and so immediately opened it to the relevant page.
“This is the one,” she said, holding it out. Claryss looked dubiously at the page.
“Hrmmm...” Claryss said, her eyes running dubiously down the page. “The House of Valedstorm... Line died out over one hundred and fifty years ago...” She reached the crest and she gasped. “Black scythes crossed over a skull? What a prodigiously unsettling crest...” Regaining her composure, she went on. “You’re quite right, the reason isn’t noted here.” She pushed her glasses up her nose several times, muttering to herself. Claudia thought of the official at the guardhouse doing the same thing and wondered if it was a habit shared by all office workers.
“The House of Valedstorm is the only one where the reason the line ended isn’t recorded. Do you know why that could be?” Claudia asked. She had gone back and checked and found that every other failed noble line had the reason for its extinction clearly noted. Though her desire to get to the bottom of the matter couldn’t match Olivia’s, that much had piqued her curiosity.
“With only this to go on, I can’t really say anything for sure...”
“You don’t think you can help?”
“Well...” Claryss looked thoughtful. “The one thing I can say is that it wasn’t a simple mistake.”
“What does that mean?”
“Simply put, the information has been deliberately omitted,” Claryss said matter-of-factly as she clapped the heavy book shut.
“Deliberately omitted...” Claudia repeated, looking down at the Record of Noble Houses that Claryss handed back to her.
“People in power will hide away information that is inconvenient for them, or manipulate it to suit their own ends. It’s hardly uncommon. The only thing is, in this case, it’s only the reason for the line dying out that isn’t noted. Everything else is properly documented.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means that the omission isn’t regarded as significant. At least by the kingdom in the present day.” There was a brief silence, broken when, all of a sudden, Olivia happened to pop out behind Claudia. Claryss let out a tiny scream.
“Hey, what’s the best way to investigate?” She asked.
“Is this young lady with you?” Claryss stammered.
“If anything, I’m with her,” Claudia replied. Claryss gave Olivia the same appraising look over she’d applied to Claudia earlier.
“I see...” she said. “You’re awfully beautiful as well, aren’t you... Now, where was I...” She returned to Claudia’s original question. “I have to say, this is a very unusual crest. No one would usually use imagery related to death in a crest.”
“Really?” Olivia said, surprised. “I think it’s cool.”
“Well, think about it. It’s highly inauspicious. Risking the demise of your house because of an unlucky crest is no laughing matter. That they went ahead and used this design anyway is positively fascinating.”
Olivia was quiet for a moment, then tugged on Claudia’s sleeve. “Claudiaaa,” she said, looking uncharacteristically troubled. Claudia suspected she was worried that listening to Claryss, who was now ignoring Olivia completely to continue her spiel, wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Claudia had to agree.
She cleared her throat. “So do you have an answer then? Or not?”
“Huh?” Claryss said, pausing. “Well, we won’t know for sure without researching it. But there are around forty thousand volumes stored in the Royal Library. They are organized by topic to a degree, but even so, it’s a formidable task for amateurs.” Forty thousand volumes? Claudia felt faint. She knew they were looking for information from over a hundred fifty years ago, and thought she had come mentally prepared for what that might entail. But this was a far greater task than she had anticipated. With forty thousand volumes to get through, they could search through to the following winter and still not arrive at an answer.
“I’m sorry, but we only have five days here in Fis. Is there nothing you can do for us?”
“Only five days...?” Claryss echoed, astounded. Claudia couldn’t blame her. “That is a prodigiously steep request...”
“I do appreciate how unreasonable this is for us to ask of you,” Claudia said apologetically.
Claryss sighed, then said, “I’ll see what I can do. You’ve got me interested too. I’ll help you with the research.”
“That’s incredibly kind of you...” Claudia’s eyes slid over to where a number of other librarians who’d been listening in on their conversation stood rolling their eyes. “But are you really sure that’s all right?”
“I don’t mind at all—it’s all part of my job,” Claryss said, her tone oblivious so that Claudia couldn’t tell if she was aware of the other librarians’ gazes or not. “However, even with me to help you, that’s still only the three of us. If we could find just one more person...”
“One more person, you say?” Claudia said, the face of a certain young man already appearing before her eyes.
The following day after Claudia and Olivia’s visit to the Royal Library, a young man with blond hair and blue eyes stood nervously before the library gates with all the self-assuredness of a wet dishrag.
While the librarians set about with great enthusiasm getting the gates open, Warrant Officer Ashton Senefelder turned to Claudia and said, “Lieutenant, are you...are you sure they agreed to let me into the library?” His eyes flicked nervously to the guards. “I don’t want to think about what trouble I’ll be in if it turns out there was some mistake...”
“Stop worrying. I told you, Brigadier General Neinhardt’s given you permission. If he hadn’t, those guards would have thrown you out already. Now are you satisfied, or do I have to answer the same question another hundred times?”
After leaving the Royal Library the previous day, Claudia had gone to see Neinhardt again. When Claudia explained the situation, he had made a special exception to grant Ashton permission to enter the library. Ashton had been beside himself with excitement when Claudia got back to their lodgings and told him about it. From that point on, however, he grew steadily more uneasy. At dinner that night, he kept asking her if she was sure there hadn’t been some mix-up, to the extent that she wasn’t even able to enjoy the inn’s first-rate cooking.
“But I’m...I’m a commoner!” Ashton protested. The fact was that the gates were already open before him, but he didn’t budge. He was giving her a look that implied he didn’t think she was listening to anything he said. Beside him, Olivia bounced up and down, impatient to get inside the library.
“You don’t need to remind me of that,” Claudia said. “It just goes to show how impressive your achievements in the battle with the Crimson Knights were.” Ashton’s own achievements tended to be overlooked when compared to Olivia’s spectacular feats, but his reputation as a tactician was growing all the same. Claudia didn’t think there was anyone else alive who could have done what he did, rendering thirty thousand of their enemy’s soldiers useless. No doubt Neinhardt had been thinking something similar when he made the exception in granting Ashton permission to enter the Royal Library (thereby robbing Claudia of another chance to wring his neck).
“But I mean, I don’t think the two are really related...” Ashton mumbled, still looking indecisive. Claudia narrowed her eyes at him. It had been a while since she’d given him a lecture, but that seemed to be what was in order here.
“They are entirely related, as should be obvious by the fact that you got permission to enter in the first place, for crying out loud,” she exclaimed. “That humility of yours is getting to be as much a flaw as a virtue. You have to start giving yourself credit where it’s due, or people inclined to do so are going to start thinking it’s all false modesty.” With this, she raised a hand and swung it down hard to whack him on the backside. There was a satisfying SLAP and a pitiful yelp from Ashton.
Olivia giggled. “She really spanked you, huh?” she said, patting her own backside. “Your butt might turn bright red, like a monkey’s. Or maybe it’ll split in half!”
“It’s always been split in half!” Ashton retorted loudly, rubbing where Claudia had hit him.
Claudia smirked. “Come on, then. We’re on a time limit, after all.”
“I’m sorry,” Ashton said sheepishly. “I’m not sure why, but I feel much better. I’m fine now.” He gave her a small bow, then marched forward with Olivia at his heels, still teasing him. Claudia watched him and heaved a deep sigh.
He really is hopeless. I wonder if this is what having a little brother would feel like... No, any little brother of mine would be made of much sterner stuff. She walked past the saluting guards toward the library entrance.
Thanks in part to the early morning, the library was totally deserted. Sunlight spilled through the skylight windows, making the particles of dust hanging in the air sparkle.
Wow... Ashton was awed by the sight. So this is the Royal Library. I’ve dreamed of this moment. He took a quick glance at the nearest shelf and immediately saw there were a great number of rare books there. Experiencing a flood of emotions, he gazed around the space, then noticed several librarians arranging books and cleaning the shelves. His eyes were drawn automatically to a small woman brushing off the books with a duster.
Hold on, he thought, I’ve seen her somewhere before... He was trying to place the woman in his memory when Claudia walked right up to her.
“Good morning,” she said, “Sorry to impose on you again.”
“Good morning to you too,” the woman replied. “You are prodigiously early today.”
“Well, we’re short on time.”
“Indeed. Shall we begin, then?” Claryss glanced behind Claudia and said, “Over there must be the person you mentioned yesterday who will be assisting—oh! I don’t believe it!” No sooner had she laid eyes on Ashton than she made a beeline toward him, pushing her red glasses up her nose as she approached.
Ashton made a choking noise. “Claryss! You...You work at the Royal Library now, do you?”
“I do,” she replied. “I haven’t seen your face around here in a long time, Ashton Senefelder. It must be, what, two years?” She looked him over with a disconcerting glint in her eyes, and Ashton had the sensation that his entire body was being probed. He gulped down the saliva that suddenly filled his mouth.
“It’s...It’s been that long, has it?” he asked.
“I have to say, Ashton Senefelder, I didn’t think I’d see you in uniform,” she said, flicking the badge at his collar and giving him a beguiling smile. “I always thought it was a forgone conclusion that you’d go into research.”
“I mean, I didn’t exactly sign up because I wanted to,” he said. Then, realizing his slip, he shot a terrified glance at Claudia, afraid another lecture was incoming.
“What? Oh, don’t worry about that,” Claudia said, grimacing slightly. “If anything, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for allowing things to slip to the point where we have to conscript people like you in the first place.” Ashton, realizing he was safe, sighed with relief.
“So you two know each other then?” Claudia went on.
“Um, yes. I suppose you could say that. We were at the same school,” Ashton explained. Ashton had been enrolled at the Royal Lion Academy, a school known for turning out skilled politicians and researchers every year. Claryss had been two years ahead of him. Back then, her attentions had been an ongoing source of anxiety for Ashton.
“Ashton Senefelder, that is a prodigiously indifferent way to put it,” Claryss said, then added, her voice dripping with significance, “After all the things we did together back at the academy, at all hours of the day and night!”
She leaned in against his chest, and Ashton smelt her sweet, feminine scent.
“Oh, really?” Claudia said with something like contempt in her tone.
“What, no! It’s not like that!” Ashton protested. “Claryss, would you please stop giving people the wrong idea? All you did was lock me in a room and force me to help you write your thesis!” He quickly backed away from Claryss, shooting a look at Olivia as he did so, but Olivia only smiled at the pair of them, apparently unconcerned.
“Oh, Ashton Senefelder,” Claryss said, laughing, “you’re as fun to tease as ever. Anyway, having you here will raise our efficiency through the roof.” She pushed her glasses up her nose again, then strode off through the shelves, leaving the others to hurry after her.
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